GENERAL THERAPEUTIC MEASURES. 



Food and Feeding 



In order to comprehend the rationale of feeding in disease it is essen- 

 tial to know something of the principles of feeding in health. A food 

 has been deiined as "that which, heing innocuous in relation to the tissues, 

 is a digestible, absorbable substance that can be oxidized in the body and 

 decomposed in such a way as to give up to the body the forces it con- 

 tains." 



A complete food is composed of organic and inorganic constituents. 

 The inorganic matters, with the exception of common salt, and rarely 

 phosphate of lime and sodium, are usually present in sufficient quantity 

 in ordinary food. The organic components of vegetable food stuffs arc 

 divided into nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous classes. These are analo- 

 gous to the constituent parts of the animal body into which they are 

 transformed. The greater portion of animal tissue is made up of nitrog- 

 enous elements, while the larger part of plants is composed of non- 

 nitrogenous material. Among the nitrogenous elements the most im- 

 portant are the proteids. Gluten of flour is an example of a vegetable 

 proteid; while white of egg, casein of milk, and fibrin of blood represent 

 animal proteids. Fat exists as such in both plants and animals. A single, 

 chemical compound, as protein, is known as a nutrient in relation to feed- 

 ing. The nutrients of importance are proteids, fat, and carbohydrates. 

 The first two are common to animal and plant structure; the latter to 

 plants alone. A complete food contains the three nutrients just men- 

 tioned and inorganic substances. Carbohydrates include such bodies as 

 sugar, starch, and cellulose, or woody matter of plants. Proteids con- 

 sist of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulphur, united in differ- 

 ent proportions. Carbohydrates are composed of carbon, hydrogen. and 

 oxygen. Fat is similar in composition to carbohydrates but in its com- 

 bustion outside the body yields two and a quarter times as much heat as 

 that produced by an equal weight of carbohydrate. Fat as a nutrient 'is 

 therefore empirically regarded as equivalent to two and a quarter times 

 the same weight of carbohydrate material. 



Very recent experiments have revolutionized our ideas concerning 

 the feeding of animals. These have shown (by feeding pure protein, 

 carbohydrates, fat and salts) that a food containing proteids, carbo- 

 hydrates, fat and salts is very far from being complete as has hitherto 

 been accepted. 



To begin with there are two essentials in every complete food with- 

 out which animals not only cease to grow and thrive but sicken and die. 

 These until very lately were unknown quantities. 



1. There is a soluble, organic substance essential for growth, health 



and life, which exists in fresh meat, milk, eggs, vegetables (especially in 



growing parts), in the kernel or germ of grains and in fruit. It is 



absent in pure starch, sugar and fats. It is destroyed by heating, drying 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



