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THE GENESEE FARMER. 203 ^ ^' 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF NUTRITION. 



Plants derive all the elements that enter into their composition either fi-om the soil or 

 the atmosphere, — they take them up in solution in an elementary or simple form, and 

 convert them into compound substances ; and it is these compound substances that form 

 the food of animals — the simple elements of them, though given in exactly the same 

 proportion as found in plants, would not only be non-nutritious, hut j^oisonous. Nothing 

 but what possesses organization can sustain animal life. 



The organic or nutritious matter of all plants consists of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, 

 and carbon ; these four elements compose about 95 per cent, of all animals and plants. 

 The most nutritious food and the most virulent poison are alike composed of these 

 elements, varj'iug only in proportions. 



Chemists divide the compounds of plants and animals into two great classes — the 

 nitrogenous^ or substances containing nitrogen combined with the other three elements ; 

 and the non-nitrogenous, or substances composed only of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon. 



Everything possessing life or organization, contains nitroc/en. The flesh, brains, 

 muscles, tissues, &c., of the animal organism, are all nitrogenous ; while the fat is non- 

 nitrogenous. The gluten of wheat is nitrogenous, and identical in composition with the 

 pure flesh of tlie animal. Starch is non-nitrogenous, and corresponds with fat. There 

 is in all plants a nitrogenous compound almost identical in composition with the gluten 

 of wheat, the albumen of an eg^, the casein of cheese, <fec., the composition of which, as 

 we have said, is precisely similar to that of the fibrine, <fec., of the animal. Now, these 

 nitrogenous substances are the real sources of nutrition ; they are similar in composition 

 to the white and yolk of an egg, which we have only to expose to a certain temperature 

 for three weeks, when, under the influence of its principle of vitality, we obtain bones, 

 sinews, muscles, claws, beak, eyes, feathers, nerves, lungs, liver, intestines, and the vari- 

 ous other parts of the animal economy. All these products come from these apparently 

 simple substances merely by the action of the principle of vitality. In like manner, 

 when these vegetable or animal substances get into the animal system, and are operated 

 upon by the vital functions, they are dissolved and distributed through the various parts, 

 to form the different bodily organs required by the necessity of the animal ; and it is 

 impossible to imagine that these materials agreeing in their composition with the flesh, 

 &c., of the animal, can be changed at all in composition when taken into the system — 

 that they can, when there, receive any addition either of carbon or nitrogen. We have 

 no doubt whatever, that vegetables produce the flesh of animals, and that the animals 

 dissolve the already prepared matters, and under the action of vitality give them a 

 difterent mechanical form, and put them on the muscles of the body. There is no reason 

 to believe that the stomach of the animal acts upon these matters in any other way than 

 by solution, the vital force afterwards putting each particle in its proper place in the 

 system. 



The non-nitrogenous elements, or tne starch, fat, oil, gum, sugar, etc., are also neces- 

 sary as food for animals — not to build up or repair the difi'erent parts of the organism, 

 but to keep up animal heat, and to enable the animal to lay on fat. They are often 

 very properly termed the respiratory or fat-forming principles, and many persons have 

 supposed that the relative value of certain foods for fatting purposes was in direct pro- 

 portion to the amount of these heat-producing, fat-forming substances. This, however, 

 is not correct ; or at least is not borne out by any of the numerous experiments that 

 have been made in reference to this point. The fact is, that the non-nitrogenous sub- 

 stances are much more plentiful in all our cultivated grains and grasses, than the nitro- 

 genous : and it would appear that however liberally an animal may be supplied with 

 non-nitrogenous substances, yet if there is not a corresponding supply of nitrogenous 



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