898 SPECIAL PHYSIOLOGY. 



Daily Quantity of the Food, and its Composition. 



It has been stated that a daily consumption of 2 Ibs. of bread, with 

 12 oz. of meat, which contain 11.6 oz. of carbon, and .7 oz. of nitrogen, 

 will support a fully-exercised adult. (B^clard.) According to another 

 estimate, 1 Ib. of meat, 1 Ib. 3 oz. of bread, 3J oz. of fat, and about 

 2J imperial pints of water, are needed by a healthy actively-employed 

 man. (Dalton.) Vierordt's estimate, as we shall see, assigns 4 oz. of 

 dry albuminoid matter, 3 oz. of fat, 11J of starchy food, and 1 oz. of 

 salts. An ordinary English laborer is said to consume daily, a diet 

 containing 12 oz. of carbon, and 5 of nitrogen, and a dietary contain- 

 ing only 10.4 oz. of carbon, and .42 of nitrogen, is stated to be insuf- 

 ficient to preserve his health. (Ed. Smith.) Cases, however, are on 

 record, such as that of Louis Cornaro, in which a much lower diet has 

 served to maintain life and health for very long periods. The diet of 

 men engaged to run, walk, or row, and also that of jockeys, has occu- 

 pied special attention in England; and though entirely the result of 

 empiricism, the rules laid down, correspond generally with the sugges- 

 tions of science. They usually include an excess of meat diet, a spare 

 allowance of amylaceous and saccharine food, and a more or less strict 

 abstinence from alcoholic beverages, tea, coffee, and tobacco. Very 

 active exercise, sweating, sponging, early rising and retirement to rest, 

 are also enjoined. 



The daily food may be classified under four chief categories ; viz., 

 the albuminoid substances, the fatty and starchy substances, the saline 

 or mineral substances, and the water. According to Vierordt, a 

 healthy adult is sufficiently nourished, by consuming daily, 4.2 oz. av. 

 of dried albuminoid substances, 3.1 of fatty matter, 11.5 of amylaceous 

 food, and 1.1 of saline substances. Playfair has estimated that the 

 daily diet of an active adult man is about 4.2 oz. of dry albuminoid 

 substances, 1.8 of fats, 18.7 of starch, and .9 of mineral substances. 

 The difference between these diets, the former preponderating in fatty 

 matters, and the latter in starchy substances, is doubtless owing to 

 differences of national habit. To these solid substances, viz., 19.9 oz. 

 in the former, and 25.6 oz. in the latter diet, must be added 93 oz. of 

 water, which, according to Vierordt, includes that taken both in the 

 food and drink, making a total of 112.9 oz. in the first diet, and 118.6 in 

 the second diet. The daily amount of new material taken into the body, 

 will, in the former case, be about j^t-h, and in the second, about y^th, 

 of the total weight of the body. In the diet indicated by Vierordt, 

 the proportion of non-nitrogenous to nitrogenous food, is as 3J to 1; 

 whilst in that allowed by Playfair, it is as 4f to 1. But a compensa- 

 tion exists in the fact, that the fatty matters, in excess in the German 

 diet, are much richer in carbon than starch ; for, adopting the so-called 

 starch equivalent for fat, which is as 2.4 to 1, and expressing the fatty 

 matters, in both diets, as if they were starch, the disparity between 

 them is lessened. The starch equivalent in the former diet would 

 then be 19, and in the latter 23, which, as compared with the amount 

 of nitrogenous matter identical in both diets, viz., 4.2 oz., would give a 

 ratio between the non -nitrogenous, or hydro-carbonaceous elements, 



