different conditions of Age and Employment. 263 



know that albumen in an egg is the starting-point for a 

 whole series of tissues ; that out of the egg come feathers, 

 claws, fibrine, membranes, cells, blood, corpuscles, nerves, 

 &c, but only the result is known to us ; the intermediate 

 changes and their causes are quite unknown. After all, 

 this is but a rude and unsatisfactory knowledge. Hence, 

 when we approach the subject it is only to deal with very 

 rough generalities. Admitting that the experience of man 

 in diet is worth something, it is possible to arrive at some 

 conclusions by the statistical method, — that is, by accepting 

 experience in diet, and analyzing that experience. Take, for 

 example, the one general line of pauper diet for the English 

 counties placed in the table at the end of this notice. The 

 mode of arriving at the result of experience, in the case of 

 paupers, was to collect it from every workhouse in the king- 

 dom, and then to reduce it to one line. But the labour of 

 this is immense. In the preparation of this one line the fol- 

 lowing work had to be performed in acquiring the data : — 



Number of Unions applied to, . . . 542 



Number of explanatory letters sent to them, . 700 



Number of calculations to reduce the results, . 47,696 

 Number of additions of the above calculations, . 6,868 

 Number of extra hours, beyond the office hours, 



paid to a clerk for the reduction, . . 1,248 



The statistical method, besides being very laborious, is 

 extremely tedious, and has thus deterred persons from en- 

 countering it. In giving, therefore, an example of some of 

 the results which have been collected within the last few 

 years, they will represent much labour, but very little or no 

 originality. 



The lecturer then alluded shortly to the conditions in 

 nutrition, which must be borne in mind in looking at these 

 results. It was now admitted that the heat of the body was 

 due to the combustion of the unazotized ingredients of food. 

 Man inspires annually about 7 cwt. of oxygen, and about 

 £th of this burns some constituent and produces heat. The 

 whole carbon in the blood would thus be burned away in 

 about three days, unless new fuel were introduced as food. 

 The amount of food necessary depends upon the number of 



