202 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Sept. 



Dietetics. 



The philosophy of Eating is a much neglected, 

 but very useful and interesting study. The 

 legitimate purpose of taking food into the stom- 

 ach is to supply the brain, spinal tnarrow, nerves, 

 muscles, bones, lungs, liver, and other organs, 

 with aliment appropriate to each tissue ; and 

 furnish suitable fuel to be consumed in the sys- 

 tem and keep u[) a uniform temperature of the 

 body at about ninety-eight degrees. A large 

 portion of the diseases which now so painfully 

 afflict civilized communities, might be prevented 

 by never eating nor drinking too mucli of any 

 thing, and always giving to the circulating blood 

 its appropriate elements in due proportion, to re- 

 pair the constant waste of every part of the body. 

 Animal life can only be maintained by the con- 

 sumption of organized matter, which owes its or- 

 ganism to vegetable vitality. If there were no 

 plants on the earth there could be no animal>. 

 The former alone are endowed with the power 

 of organizing crude minerals, like salts, water, 

 and air into food for animals. Tlie light and 

 heat given out in burning 100 lbs. of corn, or 

 other organized matter, were imbibed from the 

 light and heat of the Sun, at the time the corn or 

 other plants grew. No vegetable or animal sub- 

 stance, whether consumed in the furnace of an 

 iron locomotive, or in a locomotive , man, can 

 emit a particle more of heat than was taken up 

 and rendered latent at the time carbon, nitrogen/ 

 and the elements of water were organized in the 

 de^'elopement of the germ of some plant. In 

 selecting the flesh of herbiverous animals, and 

 the seeds, fruits, and tubers of plants, for human 

 food, there is room for the exercise of much wis- 

 dom in choosing organized matter best adapted 

 lo meet the peculiar wants of the brain and 

 nerves, the muscles and bones, as well as the 

 breathing process, which often suffers sadly from 

 sfimie defect in the fuel that should keep the hu- 

 man locomotive in a sound condition and healthy 

 motion. Our daily food should be carefully se- 

 lected and prepared, with reference to the daily 

 wants of each organ and tissue in the system. — 

 It should never contain too much or too little 

 starch, sugar, butter, or fat, nor too much or too 

 5ittle gluten, albumen, casein, or other substance 

 that abounds in nitrogen, sulphur, and phospho- 

 rus. Appetite, the senses of taste and smell, and 

 instinct are worth something as guides in select- 

 ing suitable nourishment. But these advantages 

 do not supersede the necessity of cultivated rea- 

 son, of science, in directing aright the nutrition 

 of the human larain and nerves, which are at 

 once the highest expression of organized matter, 

 and the organs of feeling, thought, and con- 

 science, the most liable to derangement. Weak- 

 ness of brain and feebleness of intellect, as well 

 as defective digestion, imperfact respiration, and 

 muscular lassitude, pften arise from the use of 



improper food. Judicious exercise, or suitable 

 manual labor, can do much toward imparting 

 both health and strength to the physical man. 

 But neither bodily nor mental toil can transform 

 food which is constitutionally defective, into that 

 which contains all the nutritive elements in due 

 proportion. Physical labor is good for the great 

 purpose that God designed it. It can not, how- 

 ever, perform the function of enlightened reason. 

 For the investigation of ti»e laws of health, and 

 its preservation, that each bone, muscle, nerve, 

 and tissue may have just what it needs, man's 

 intellectual powers must be called into active 

 exercise. 



Grind a bushel of wheat, and use for making 

 bread only the very white, superfine flour, and 

 you get little beside the starch in the grain, losing 

 most of the muscle and brain forming elements 

 in the "middlings." It is in the latter that the 

 chemist finds most of the gluten, bone earth, sul- 

 phates, and chlorides. As the stomachs of all 

 the higher order of animals contain hydrochloric 

 acid in some form, (one of the elements of com- 

 mon salt,) the separation of this in bolting makes 

 the bread of superfine flour likely to weaken di- 

 gestion and induce costiveness. A little salt 

 may remedy this defect ; but what will give to 

 the blood the bone earth, and organized sulpliur, 

 phosphorus, and nitrogen, which are indispensa- 

 ble to repair the waste in the bones, muscles, 

 tendons, membranes, nerves, and brain of the 

 system ? A very little of the coarse bran may 

 be removed without injury, but thecanel should be 

 eaten with the white starch called superfine flour. 



In making cheese, nearly all the sugar of milk 

 is lost in the whey. We are aware of the fact 

 that the pigs or cows get this ; still we want 

 every house keeper to know that two quarts of 

 new milk made into a baked Indian, rice, or 

 bread pudding, are worth a great deal more as 

 food for man than the milk would be if made 

 into cheese or butter. 



If most families would consume a little less 

 butter and fat, and a little more sugar, molasses, 

 or honey, the wants of nature would be better 

 provided for. Be careful never to overload the 

 stomach, nor weaken it by the presence of an in- 

 digestible substance. Beware of mellons, green 

 corn, unripe fruit, and too much meat, whether 

 salt or fresh. Neither work too hard nor be 

 guilty of the vice of laziness, under the pretence 

 that you are sick ; but study at least two hours 

 each day. Beware of all quacks whether homoe- 

 pathic, allopathic, Thomsonian, or what not ; 

 but trust much to temperance in all things, and 

 dailv ablution of the whole body. 



Burdock leaves will cure a horse of the slav- 

 ers in five minutes ; let him eat about two leaves. 

 I have tried it niany times. My horses will 

 always eat them when the slavers are bad. — 

 Ploughman. 



