THE USE AND ABUSE OF FOOD. 333 



This conversion takes place in the vegetable as well as in 

 the animal system, and thus fat appears in a variety of forms 

 as butter, suet, oil, and so forth. Now, precisely as sugar 

 is a more convenient heat-supplier than starch, so fat 

 exceeds sugar in its power of maintaining animal heat It 

 has been calculated that one pound of fat whether in the 

 form of suet, butter, or oil will go as far towards the 

 maintenance of animal heat as two pounds of sugar, or as 

 two pounds and a half of starch. Thus it happens that in 

 very cold countries there is developed a taste for such 

 articles of food as contain most fat, or even for pure fat and 

 its analogues oil, butter, tallow, dripping, and other forms 

 of grease. 



I have spoken of starch, sugar, and fat as heat-forming 

 articles of food ; but I must note their influence in the 

 development of muscles and nerves. Without a certain 

 proportion of fat in the food a wasting of the tissues will 

 always take place; for muscles and nerves cannot form 

 without fat And conversely, the best remedy for wasting 

 diseases is to be found in the supply of some easily digestible 

 form of fatty food. Well-fatted meat, and especially meat in 

 which the fat is to be seen distributed through the flesh, may 

 be taken under such circumstances. Butter and salad oil 

 are then also proper articles of food. Cream is still better, 

 and cream cheeses may be used with advantage. It is on 

 account of its heat-supplying and fat-forming qualities that 

 cod-liver oil has taken its place as one of the most valuable 

 remedies for scrofulous and consumptive patients. 



But it must be noted that the formation of fat is not the 

 object with which heat-supplying food is taken. It is an 

 indication of derangement of the system when heat-giving 

 food is too readily converted into fat And in so far as this 

 process of conversion takes place beyond what is required 

 for the formation of muscles and nerves, the body suffers in 

 the loss of its just proportion of heat-supply. Of course, if 

 too large an amount of heat-giving food is taken into the 

 system, we may expect that the surplus will be deposited in 



