THE FOOD OF MANKIND 



33 



Provinces of Agra and Oudh. Only averages of the chemical 

 composition are shown ; full details will be found in the original 

 papers.* 



These results are the averages of a very large number of analyses 

 carried out at different seasons of the year, during which the 

 degree of moisture varies considerably. 



Professor F. G. Benedict, of the Nutrition Laboratory of the 

 Carnegie Institution of Washington, U.S.A., very kindly assisted 

 in the examination of the Indian food materials. A tabular 

 statement of the averages of his results for the moisture and the 

 heat of combustion is appended : 



The moisture was determined by prolonged desiccation 

 in a high vacuum, according to the method of Benedict and 

 Manning. The heat of combustion was determined in a Kroker's 

 calorimetric bomb by means of a new form of adiabatic calori- 

 meter, designed by Benedict and Higgins. The hydrothermal 

 equivalent to the calorimeter system was so taken that the heat 

 of combustion of pure cane-sugar was 3,959 calories per gramme. 





THE DIGESTIBILITY AND ABSORBABILITY OF FOODSTUFFS. 



The food of mankind may now be considered from the stand- 

 point of its real value i.e., the amount of the food ingested that is 

 actually taken up and made available for the requirements of the 

 body. It is a mere truism to state that the gross chemical value 

 of a food material may not necessarily be a measure of its real 

 nutritive value, and that the real value depends on the degree of 

 absorbability of its proximate principles ; yet in many cases 



* Scientific Memoirs, Government of India, Nos. 34, 37, and 48. 



