FOODS, FOOD-STUFFS, AND FOOD-ADJUNCTS. 27 



line of distinction between true nutrients and food- 

 adjuncts. There is scarcely a single article of food 

 which does not possess some constituents which give 

 it flavour, perfume, or colour, but which yet cannot 

 be considered as doing any actual work in the body. 

 But these adjuncts, in the forms of flavouring and 

 colouring matters, etc., make our food agreeable, 

 stimulate a flagging appetite, aid indirectly in the 

 digestion of the nutrients, and help to render palat- 

 able food which would otherwise be wasted. More 

 than this : some of the food-adjuncts actually furnish 

 along with their characteristic flavouring, stimu- 

 lating or narcotic constituents real nutrients. Cocoa 

 and beer are examples in point. And it has been 

 thought that the active principles of certain food- 

 adjuncts have some power of economizing the true 

 nutrients by arresting the rapid changes of tissue, 

 etc., which go on in the body.' 



The nutrient food -principles Professor Church 

 arranges in four groups ; viz., (i.) Water ; (ii.) Salts ; 

 (iii.) Carbon compounds, ' heat - givers ' or * force- 

 producers,' such as starch, sugar and fat, and the 

 substances resembling starch, gum, mucilage, pectose 

 and cellulose; and (iv.) Nitrogen compounds, 'al- 

 buminoids/ or 'flesh-formers,' such as fibrin, albumen, 

 and casein. The food-adjuncts also form four groups ; 

 viz., (i.) Alcohol ; (ii.) Volatile or Essential Oils, as 

 contained in condiments and spices ; (iii.) Acids, such 

 as those in most fruits ; and (iv.) Alkaloids, nit- 

 rogenous crystallizable substances such as caffeine, 

 theobromine and nicotine. We may, therefore, con- 

 sider the nutrients practically under the following 



