346 



FOODS, COMPOSITION AND NUTRITIVE VALUES OF. 



mens of cheese were from Washington market, 

 New York, the analyses in the table represent- 

 ing averages of several samples. The butter 

 was from a Vermont dairy. Some of the speci- 

 mens of fish were purchased in Middletown, 

 the most, however, were furnished gratuitously 

 from Fulton market, New York, by Mr. E. 

 G. Blackford, Fish Commissioner of the State 

 of New York, who also contributed to the 

 pecuniary expense of the investigation, as did 

 likewise Mr. A. K. Crittenden, of Middletown ; 

 A considerable number of the specimens whose 

 analyses are given in this table, and in Table II 

 beyond, were furnished by Mr. F. B. Thurber, 

 of New York, who also contributed a consid- 

 erable sam toward defraying the cost of the 

 research. It may be added that the figures 

 in Table I (aside from those from European 

 sources) are selected from the results of nearly 

 three hundred analyses of American food ma- 



TABLE II. 



CONSTITUENTS OF VEGETABLE FOODS AND BEVERAGES.' 



* Of forty-nine analyses, 

 t From flour of about average composition. 

 The analyses of foods in Roman letters are American, those 

 of foods and beverages in italics are European. 



terials, of which some two hundred are of fish 

 and invertebrates. The analyses of fish, being 

 more numerous, give more satisfactory figures 

 and averages than those of meats, etc. 



Table II gives analyses of vegetable food ma- 

 terials and beverages. The figures for wheat- 

 flour represent the results of forty -nine analyses 

 of American flours, of which the majority were 

 analyzed under the direction of Prof. Brewer, 

 and the rest collated by him from other sources 

 for the "Report of the United Census, 1880." 

 The largest and the smallest percentages of each 

 ingredient found in the analyses are given oppo- 

 site " maximum " and " minimum." The speci- 

 mens of bread, crackers, etc., were purchased 

 and analyzed at Middletown, Conn., and have 

 probably about the usual composition of such 

 materials. 



An attempt is made in Tables III and IV to 

 illustrate graphically the composition of some 

 of the foods whose composition is given in Ta- 

 bles I and II. 



Comparative Costs of Nutritive Ingredients in Dif- 

 ferent Foods. A subject that has received but 

 little attention in this country, though it has 

 become a vital one in Europe, and is becoming 

 so with us, is the cost of the nutritive mate- 

 rial of our foods. The relative cheapness or 

 dearness of different foods must be judged by 

 comparing, not the prices per pound, but the 

 costs of the actual nutrients. In making such 

 comparisons, the cost may be assumed to fall, 

 not upon the inedible portions and the water, 

 but solely upon the three classes of nutrients : 

 protein, fats, and carbohydrates. The relative 

 physiological values of the nutrients in differ- 

 ent foods depend upon (1) their digestibility 

 and (2) their functions and the proportions in 

 which they can replace each other in nutrition. 

 An accurate physiological valuation is, in the 

 present state of our knowledge, at least, im- 

 practicable. The pecuniary costs of the nutri- 

 ents are, however, more nearly capable of ap- 

 proximation. 



Various methods have been proposed for 

 computing the relative pecuniary costs of the 

 nutrients of foods, none of which, however, 

 are entirely beyond criticism. The following, 

 based upon German estimates of the relative 

 costs of protein fats and carbohydrates, is per- 

 haps as satisfactory as any. 



From extended comparisons of the compo- 

 sition and market prices of the more important 

 animal and vegetable food-materials, such as 

 meats, fish, flour, etc., those which serve for 

 nourishment and not as luxuries, and form the 

 bulk of the food of the people, it has been esti- 

 mated that a pound of protein costs, on the 

 average, five times as much, and a pound of 

 fats three times as much, as a pound of carbo- 

 hydrates; that, in other words, these three 

 classes of nutrients stand related to each other, 

 in respect.to cost, in the following proportions : 



Assumed ratios of costs \ -p 1 "? em 



in staple foods | Carbohydrates: '. '. '. 1 



