FOOD. 221 



bile, which, somewhat concentrated, usually fills the gall-bladder. All 

 parts of the body readily decompose. 



II. EFFECTS OF IMPROPER DIET. 



Experiments on Feeding. Experiments illustrating the ill effects 

 produced by feeding animals upon one or two alimentary substances only 

 have been often performed. 



Dogs were fed exclusively on sugar and distilled water. During the 

 first seven or eight days they were brisk and active, and took their food 

 and drink as usual; but in the course of the second week, they began to 

 get thin, although their appetite continued good, and they took daily 

 between six and eight ounces of sugar. The emaciation increased during 

 the third week, and they became feeble, and lost their activity and appe- 

 tite. At the same time an ulcer formed on each cornea, followed by an 

 escape of the humors of the eye: this took place in repeated experiments. 

 The animals still continued to eat three or four ounces of sugar daily; 

 but became at length so feeble as to be incapable of motion, and died on 

 a day varying from the thirty-first to the thirty-fourth. On dissection, 

 their bodies presented all the appearances produced by death from starva- 

 tion; indeed, dogs will live almost the same length of time without any 

 food at all. 



When dogs were fed exclusively on gum, results almost similar to the 

 above ensued. When they were kept on olive-oil and water, all the phe- 

 nomena produced were the same, except that no ulceration of the cornea 

 took place; the effects were also the same with butter. The experiments of 

 Chossat and Letellier prove the same; and in men, the same is shown by 

 the various diseases to which those who consume but little nitrogenous 

 food are liable, and especially by the affection of the cornea which is 

 observed in Hindus feeding almost exclusively on rice. But it is not only 

 the non-nitrogenous substances, which, taken alone, are insufficient for 

 the maintenance of health. The experiments of the Academies of France 

 and Amsterdam were equally conclusive that gelatin alone soon ceases to 

 be nutritive. 



Savory's observations on food confirm and extend the results obtained 

 by Magendie, Chossat, and others. They show that animals fed exclu- 

 sively on non-nitrogenous diet speedily emaciate and die, as if from starv- 

 ation; that life is much more prolonged in those fed with nitrogenous 

 than by those with non-nitrogenous food; and that animal heat is main- 

 tained as well by the former as by the latter a fact which proves, if 

 proof were wanting that nitrogenous elements of food, as well as non- 

 nitrogenous, may be regarded as calorifacient. 



