438 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



Conclusions from the foregoing. — We have approximated much 

 more closely to the object we had in view, viz., a completely rational 

 system of nutrition, than it has hitherto been possible to do, and can 

 answer the proposed questions with perfectly accurate average num- 

 bers; and we have now only duly to consider the influence which the 

 unappropriated portions of food exert on the body (the getting rid of 

 them involves a waste of strength ;) and further, the greater or less 

 degree of digestibility (der leiclUeren oder schwereren, schiielleren oder 

 langsameren Verdaulichkeit) of each species of aliment, in order to do 

 it with perfect precision. 



But we can even now, from what has already been stated, educe safe 



and weighty conclusions, namely, the following : 



1. It is an impossibility to sustain either a man or a beast on food 

 entirely devoid of nitrogen, however great in quantity it may be. 



2. All that has been said in the older as well as in many of the newer 

 books on husbandry, respecting the relative nutritive value of different 

 kinds of forage, cannot, inasmuch as it was not arrived at by experi- 

 ence but deduced from theoretical views, possibly be correct, because 

 these views do not accord with facts. 



3. The discovery of the true relative value of aliment, and of the 

 proportion in which it may be replaced, may be ascertained without 

 much difficulty, so long as chemists and farmers work hand in hand for 

 the exact solution of the above questions. 



4. A completely rational system of nutrition, that is such an one as 

 combines the greatest 9 mount of strength with the least consumption of 

 nourishment, will then be possible. 



5. A loss of nutritious matter and of strength often lakes place where 

 it would be least expected, namely, by the consumption of all kinds of 

 food (or forage) where the due proportion between nitrogenous and 

 non-nitrogenous constituents does not exist, say by eating only fruit or 

 potatoes, 



6. It can with safety be decided by the above, under what circum- 

 stances substitutes for bread may be employed, and what is their re- 

 spective value for each desired proportion. 



Raw and cooked Articles of Food. — Many kinds of food cannot be 

 eaten raw by man ; others, although they may be eaten raw, agree 

 much better with us when cooked. 



Hence boiling, roasting, baking, &c. has a twofold effect; primarily, 

 it converts indigestible food or that difficult of digestion into a digestible 

 or more easily digestible condition. Thus, starch is converted into gelat- 

 inous starch, into dextrine or sugar ; cartilaginous substances into glue ; 

 and chondrine, fibrine, into changed fibrine, &c. Secondly, it fre- 

 quently confers upon them an agreeable taste. 



But can the real nutritive value of food be augmented by cooking? 

 Impossible! Still it may be of the greatest benefit in feeding cattle to 

 cook their food. The advantage accrues in this way : that potatoes, 

 turnips, &c. are more quickly and more easily digested when boiled 

 than raw ; and thus there is much less chance for any portion to be 

 thrown off in an undigested state (unassimilated). Its warmth gives 

 also a slight advantage to cooked food ; it deprives the body of no heat ; 

 and the non-nitrogenous substances, which in the cold food would have 





