FLESH FOOUS. 301 



Water and table salt form, exceptions to fae rule that in- 

 organic bodies are eaten imperceptibly along with other 

 things, since the Body loses more of each daily than is usu- 

 ally supplied in that way. It has, however, been main- 

 tained that salt, as such, is an unnecessary luxury; and 

 there seems some evidence that certain savage tribes live 

 without more than they get in the meat and vegetables 

 they eat. Such tribes are, however, said to suffer especially 

 from intestinal parasites; and there is no doubt that to 

 civilized man the absence of salt is a great deprivation. 



Mixed Foods. These, as already pointed out, include 

 nearly all common articles of diet; they contain more than 

 one alimentary principle. Among them we find great 

 differences; some being rich in proteids, others in starch, 

 others in fats, and so on. The formation of a scientific die- 

 tary depends on a knowledge of these characteristics. The 

 foods eaten by man are, however, so varied that we cannot 

 do more than consider the most important. 



Flesh. This, whether derived from bird, beast, or fish, 

 consists essentially of the same things muscular fibres, 

 tendons, fats, blood-vessels, and nerves. It contains several 

 proteids and especially mybsin; gelatin-yielding matters 

 in the white fibrous tissue; stearin, palmatin, margarin, and 

 olein among the fats; and a small amount of carbohydrates 

 in the form of glycogen and grape sugar; also inosite, a. 

 kind of sugar found only in muscles. Flesh also contains 

 much water and a considerable number of salines, the most 

 important and abundant being potassium phosphate. Os^ 

 mazome is a ciystalline nitrogenous body which gives much 

 of its taste to flesh; and small quantities of various similar 

 substances exist in different kinds of meat. There is also 

 more or less yellow elastic tissue rn flesh; it is indigestible 

 and useless as food. 



When meat is cooked its white fibrous tissue is turned 

 into gelatin, and the whole mass becomes thus softer and 

 more easily disintegrated by the teeth. When boiled much 

 of the proteid matters of the meat pass out into the broth, 

 and there in part coagulate and form the scum : this loss 

 may be prevented in great part, if it is not intended to use 



