198 Prof. Frankland on the Origin of Muscular Power. 



Table V. — Weight of various articles of Food required to sus- 

 tain Respiration and Circulation in the Body of an average 

 Man during twenty-four hours. 



Name of food. 



Weight 

 in ozs. 



Name of food. 



Weight 

 in ozs. 



Cheshire cheese 



30 



13-4 



207 



3-4 



35 



3-5 



3-6 



3-4 



6-4 



9-3 



11-4 



7-9 



8-3 





16-8 



231 



5-8 



3-6 



21-2 



25-6 



31-8 



1-9 



1-8 



1-5 



3-9 



4-0 







Apples 



Hard-boiled egg 





Flour 



Milk 



Pea-meal 



Carrots 



Ground rice 



Cabbage 



Arrowroot 





Bread 



Butter 



Lean beef 



Cod-liver oil 







Lean ham (boiled) 



Mackerel 



Commercial grape-sugar 





These results are fully borne out by experience in many in- 

 stances. The food of the agricultural labourers in Lancashire con- 

 tains a large proportion of fat. Besides the very fat bacon which 

 constitutes their animal food proper, they consume large quan- 

 tities of so-called apple dumplings, the chief portion of which 

 consists of paste in which dripping and suet are large ingredients ; 

 in fact these dumplings frequently contain no fruit at all. Egg 

 and bacon pies and potatoe pies are also very common pieces de 

 resistance during harvest time, and whenever very hard work is 

 required from the men. I well remember being profoundly im- 

 pressed with the dinners of the navigators employed in the con- 

 struction of the Lancaster and Preston Railway ; they consisted 

 of thick slices of bread surmounted with massive blocks of bacon 

 in which mere streaks of lean were visible. These labourers 

 doubtless find that from fat bacon they obtain at the minimum 

 cost the actual energy required for their arduous work. The 

 above Tables affirm the same thing. They show that '55 lb. fat 

 will perform the work of 1*15 lb. cheese, 5 lbs. potatoes, 1*3 lb. 

 of flour or pea-meal, or of 3J lbs. of lean beef. Donders, in 

 his admirable pamphlet ' On the Constituents of Food, and their 

 relation to Muscular Work and Animal Heat/ mentions the ob- 

 servations of Dr. M. C. Verloren on the food of insects. The 

 latter remarks, " many insects use, during a period in which very 

 little muscular work is performed, food containing chiefly albu- 

 minous matter; on the contrary, at a time when the muscular 

 work is very considerable, they live exclusively, or almost exclu- 

 sively, on food free from nitrogen." He also mentions bees and 

 butterflies as instances of insects performing enormous muscular 



