December 25, 1902] 



NA TURE 



187 



large proportion of the money spent on food to have been 

 expended on other things. 



What applies to this family applies equally to many of the 

 other families in which dietary studies were carried out, and 

 over and over again we find it stated that more food was pur- 

 chased than was necessary for efficient nourishment. To each 

 dietary study is appended criticisms of and suggestions for 

 changes and improvement in the diet pursued, and these con- 

 stitute a valuable addition to the report and form, indeed, an 

 eloquent argument that our school curriculum should provide for 

 the education of children in the elementary principles of diet in 

 relation, not only to the economy of the body, but also to that 

 of the family purse. 



The selection of food stuffs on rational or scientific principles 

 does not, perhaps, sound appetising, but the numerous investiga- 

 tions on the nutritive value attaching to substances which have 

 been carried out in America and elsewhere cannot be overlooked, 

 and it is, perhaps, not unreasonable to believe that current notions 

 on diet may become modified in the future, more especially in 

 those cases where on economical grounds reform is so urgently 

 needed. These studies are, therefore, of social as well as 

 scientific importance, and acquire particular significance for the 

 poor at times when taxes shall tell heavily upon their resources. 



In conclusion, brief reference may be made to the elaborate 

 experiments which have been carried out on the different degrees 

 of waste entailed in the different methods adopted for the cooking 

 of food of various kinds. 



Amongst the names associated with investigations on the loss 

 of nutrients in the cooking of meat, we find that of Thudicum in 

 this country, Vogel and Konig in Germany, whilst in America 

 the most recent contributions to this subject have been made by 

 Grindley, in conjunction with Messrs. McCormack and Porter. 

 As regards the loss in weight which takes place, various investi- 

 gators agree in stating it to be from one-fifth to one-third, whether 

 the meat be boiled or roasted. Where beef, for example, is 

 cooked in water, from 3 to 20 per cent, of the total solids is 

 found in the resulting broth, the degree of loss in constituents 

 appearing, to a certain extent, to depend upon the size of the piece 

 of meat employed, the smaller the dimension it is reduced to the 

 greater being the loss ; whilst the duration of time of cooking 

 must also be taken into consideration, the more prolonged it is 

 the greater, again, being the loss entailed. The practical lesson 

 to be learnt from the investigations which have so far been made 

 appears to be that the most economical method of cooking meat 

 is to broil it in a frying-pan, for in this manner the least loss of 

 nutrients occurs. 



In the case of vegetables, the losses entailed by cooking appear 

 to be even greater than those recorded for meat. Thus as regards 

 carrots, in boiling them nearly one-half of the mineral matters 

 present are lost, together with about 40 per cent, of the total 

 nitrogen and about 26 per cent, of the sugar present. 



These percentages of loss or waste may be considerably reduced 

 if the carrot is boiled whole instead of being first cut, as is 

 customary, into small pieces. In this manner the loss in sugar, 

 for example, instead of being 26 per cent., is reduced to very 

 nearly half that amount, and similar economies may be effected 

 in regard to the other constituents of the carrot. 



In boiling cabbages the loss is very considerable, from 35 to 

 40 per cent, of the total nitrogenous matter present being left in 

 the water, which, as everyone knows, is consigned to the kitchen 

 sink as rapidly as possible. The Scotch recipe for making broth, 

 which involves the addition of uncooked cabbage to the stock- 

 pot, besides being justly renowned for the excellent results it 

 produces, has also, therefore, distinct advantages from an 

 economic point of view. As regards potatoes, we cannot do 

 better than follow the custom of cooking them which prevails 

 in the Emerald Isle. The Irish method of boiling potatoes in 

 their skins is not only the most palatable, but also the most 

 economical way of using them, for when potatoes are peeled 

 and then boiled there is a very considerable loss, not only of 

 organic nutrients, but also of the mineral salts present. 



The above brief review may help to emphasise the economic 

 importance quite apart from the scientific interest attaching to 

 such investigations, for by indicating, not only the best means of 

 utilising the existing sources of food supply, but also for ex- 

 tending their range, such researches may conceivably contribute 

 not a little to the prosperity of a country as a whole, whilst they 

 can undoubtedly promote the well being and to a certain extent, 

 therefore, the happiness of the individual. 



G. C. Franki.and. 



NO. I73O, VOL. 67] 



MAGNETIC OBSERVATIONS IN BADEN. 



A N account of a minute magnetic survey of a small district in 

 -^ Baden, adjacent to the Rhine, where there is considerable 

 local magnetic disturbance, has been received from the author. 1 

 Observations of horizontal force were made at nearly 400 stations, 

 and observations of declination and inclination were made at 

 about 140 of them. The object seems to have been to observe at a 

 large number of stations with moderate accuracy in a short time. 

 In fact, most of the data recorded in the tables on pp. 6-26 seem 

 to have been obtained in the two months August and September 

 of 1898. Horizontal force was observed only to the nearest 

 o 001 C.G.S., and declination and inclination usually only to the 

 nearest o°l. Within the narrow region dealt with — some 150 

 square kilometres — declination was observed to vary between 

 3 7 W. and 2o°'S W., inclination between 56'6 and 72° - o, and 

 horizontal force between cri^and 0227 C.G.S. Ina district so 

 disturbed, it would have been of doubtful advantage to have 

 employed superior instruments, giving a higher order of accuracy 

 than that actually aimed at. The results are embodied in four 

 charts, which give respectively the lines of equal horizontal 

 force, t#ie isoclinals, the isogonals, and particulars of the 

 horizontal and vertical components of the disturbing force 

 system. The chief conclusions appear on p. 39. The most 

 interesting of them is that the basaltic rocks — using basaltic ina 

 general sense — which form the chief hills in the district, behave 

 mostly like vertical magnets with their north poles uppermost. 

 Their magnetisation is thus opposite to what it would be if 

 induced under the action ol the earth's own field. The 

 phenomena thus differ in a remarkable way from those observed 

 by Riicker and Thorpe in the United Kingdom. A second 

 somewhat interesting deduction from the observations is that 

 there is an extension of underground basaltic masses beneath 

 part of the level country adjacent to the Rhine near Breisach, 

 where local disturbances would not have been anticipated from 

 the superficial appearance of the country. The author also 

 gives the results obtained from taking a line integral of the 

 horizontal magnetic force round the whole district and round 

 four subdivisions. With the exception of one of the smaller 

 subdivisions, the departure of the line integrals from zero is very 

 small. This may be regarded as evidence of the accuracy of the 

 observations, if we assume that the magnetic forces are derivable 

 from a potential, which can hardly fail to be the case so far as 

 concerns the field answering to the local disturbances. C. C. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE THOROUGHBRED 

 HORSE." 



"THE author said that he had shown {Academy, January, 1S91, 

 p. 91) that not only, as had been long observed, did the 

 Homeric Greeks drive the horse before they rode him, but that 

 the same was true of all ancient peoples — Egyptians, Canaanites, 

 Assyrians, Aryans of Rig-Veda, Umbrians, Celts — and that the 

 explanation of this was given by Herodotus (v. 9), who, in 

 speaking of the Sigynnx, the only tribe north of the Danube, 

 whose name he knew, said that they had small horses, with 

 large flat noses and very long hair, which, though not able to 

 carry a man, were excellent rnder chariots : " wherefore they 

 used chariots." Dio Cassius likewise says that the Britons used 

 chariots in war, because their horses were "small though active." 

 The description of the horses of the Sigynnx tallies exactly with 

 the abundant remain? of the primitive horse of Europe, eaten in 

 great quantities and delineated on antlers by the men of the 

 Stone Age. He was a small animal about 10 hands high with 

 a big head. Even after domestication he remained very small, 

 as witness bits of bronze and horn found in Swiss lake 

 dwellings, the shoes found at Silchester, and in camps on the 

 Roman Wall, &c. Authorities are agreed that from this primitive 

 horse has been developed the cart horses of the continent and 

 these islands, whilst our blood horses have come from an 

 eastern stock of slight build and smart appearance. Our 

 problem is to ascertain the original habitat of this superior 

 horse. He has not come from upper Asia, as the Mongolian 

 pony is taken as the type of the coarse, thickset horse from 

 which sprang the cart horse. The Mongolian pony probably 



1 " Erdmagnetische Untersuehungen im Kaiserstuhl." Von Dr. G. Meyer. 

 Mit 4 Karlen. (Separatabdruck aus den Berichten der Naturforschender] 

 Gesellschaft zu Freiburg i. B. Bd. xii., 1902.) 



-Abstract of paper read before the Cambridge Philosophical Society on 

 November 24, by Prof. Ridgeway. 



