6 ON THE ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION OF 
what intermediate forms food may assume, what changes it may 
undergo in the body, the last change is uniformly the conversion 
of its carbon into carbonic acid, and of its hydrogen into water: 
the unassimilated hydrogen of the food, along with the unburned 
or unoxidized carbon, is expelled in the urine or in the solid ex- 
crements. 
a 
3% 
.s § ^ 
<U © 
o * 
u 
£4 
I . — In Alimentary Principles. 
Per Cent. 
'Animal albumen (of 
eggs) 15.920 
Vegetable albumen (of 
(wheat) 1 5.920 
Animal fibrine 15.81/ 
Vegetable fibrine 15.809 
Animal caseine 15.724 
Vegetable caseine. . . . 15.672 
_ Gluten 15.98 
• f Tendons of calves’ feet 18.470 
•3 cn J Isinglass 18.790 
§ I Cartilage of calves’ ribs 
O l (chondrine) 14.908 
II. — Compound Aliments. 
Wheat (dried in vacuo at 
230* F.) 2.3 
Rye (do.) 1.7 
Oats (do.) 2.2 
Barley (do.)at212°F. 2.02 
Rice (do.) 1.39 
Compound Aliments (continued). 
Per Cent. 
Indian corn or maize (dried in 
vacuo at 2 1 2° F.) 2.0 
Peas dried in vacuo at 230° F. 4.2 
Horse beans dried at 212° F. . 5.5 
White haricots . . (do.) .... 4.3 
Lentils (do.) .... 4.4 
Potatoes (fresh) 0.37 
Ditto (dried at 212° F.) 1.80 
Ditto kept 10 months ...... 0.28 
Jerusalem artichokes (dried in 
vacuo at 230° F.) 1.6 
White garden cabbage 0.28 
Ditto (dried at 2 12 F.) 3 70 
Carrot (do.) 2.40 
Turnips 0.17 
Ditto (dried at 212° F.) 2.20 
Dried ox blood 15.08 
Dried muscular flesh (beef) . . 15.05 
Roasted flesh (roe deer) 15.23 
Ditto (beef) 15 214 
Ditto (veal) 14.70 
Recent writers conclude that nitrogenized foods are alone capa- 
ble of conversion into blood, and of forming organized tissues; 
that, in fact, they only are the food properly so called. Liebig 
calls them the plastic elements of nutrition. The non-nitrogen- 
ized foods, it is said, are incapable of transformation into blood ; 
and are, therefore, unfitted for forming organized or living tissues. 
They are, nevertheless, essential to health ; and Liebig asserts 
that their functions are to support the process of respiration : 
and some of them contribute to the formation of fat. 
Nitrogenized Foods, or Plastic Ele- 
ments of Nutrition. 
Vegetable fibrine. 
Ditto albumen. 
Ditto caseine. 
Animal flesh. 
Ditto blood. 
Non-nitrogenized Foods , or Elements 
of Respiration. 
Fat. 
Starch. 
Gum. 
Cane sugar. 
Grape sugar. 
Sugar of milk. 
Pectine. 
Bassorine. 
Wine. 
Beer. 
Spirits. 
* Fibrine, albumen, and caseine, both animal and vegetable, dissolve in 
a solution of caustic potash : if to the resulting liquid, acetic acid be added, 
the same precipitate is obtained, whichever of the above three principles has 
been employed. The substance thus precipitated has been called bv its dis- 
coverer, Mulder, Proteinc (from I hold the first place). 
