FOOD 101 



Colonel Fred. Smith states that from some careful experiments of his 

 own he found that horses might be kept in perfect health without loss 

 of body weight on 12 Ib. of hay per diem, of which not more than about 

 one-half was digested and assimilated by the system. Assuming that 

 nearly 5 Ib. of assimilated food possesses the same digestive co- efficients 

 as those of the 12 Ib. of hay given in the table marked ''First Food", 

 the horses received: 



Lb. 

 Albuminoids ... ... ... '656' 



Fat ... - -100 



Carbohydrates ... 2-574 The potential energy being 



Cellulose ... ... 1-330 equal to 11,041 foot-tons. 



Salt -150. 



4-810 



Presumably the animal referred to as having been kept in health 

 without loss of weight on 12 Ib. per day did very little, if any, work, 

 but the writer does not give any information on this point. He, how- 

 ever, remarks that it is difficult to fix the number of foot-tons of daily 

 work which can be performed by a horse without loss of condition and 

 weight, but he adds there are many circumstances which lead him to 

 believe that 3000 foot-tons per day is the quantity. 



FOOD AS A CAUSE OF DISEASE 



Very little reflection is required to make it perfectly evident that 

 good food of unexceptionable quality and free from any contamination 

 with objectionable substances may, nevertheless, induce disease, as the 

 consequence of variations in quantity and character. 



Dr. Parkes remarks that so great is the influence of food on health 

 that the diseases connected with food are probably the most numerous 

 of any which proceed from a single class of causes. 



Excess of Food. When more food is introduced into the stomach 

 than can be readily digested, the ordinary action of the gastric fluids is 

 checked, and chemical changes, including fermentation, advancing to 

 putrefaction, result. This final change is more likely to occur among 

 flesh-feeding animals than among those which live on grain or herbage. A 

 vegetable food is also of course capable of undergoing decomposition and 

 producing considerable derangement in the alimentary canal. In cases 

 where any of the products of decomposition are absorbed into the blood, 

 signs of blood-poisoning may result, with a possibility of a fatal termi- 

 nation. Short of this, however, excess of food may only produce more 



