THE NATURAL SCIENCE JOURNAL. 
21 
states do not contain as many. If it 
were generally known that this beautiful 
race of plants is so easy of approach, 
there is little doubt that they would re¬ 
ceive innch greater attention than they 
do at present. 
Department of iPbpsiolOQS anb 
Ibpgtene. 
DR. A. L. BENEDICT, Editor. 
174 Franklin St. Buffalo, N. Y. 
THF PHYSIOLO&IOAL AND HYGENIO 
STATUS OF SUOAE. 
Dk. a. L. Benedict. 
F ew persons realize the importance of 
sugar in the human body, the preva¬ 
lent idea being that it is a luxury of the 
palate and that its effects are positively 
harmful. W^e anticipate, therefore, some 
surprise at the statement that more than 
two thirds of all the organic food in¬ 
gested, becomes glucose before it is of 
the slightest value to the body, and that 
this sugar is, so to speak, the fuel whose 
combustion furnishes the heat and power 
required to run the machinery of the sys¬ 
tem. This statement alone shows that 
the use of sweet foods, of candy or of 
sugar as such, must be considered as 
seriously as that of any other food. 
It is a matter of simple observation 
that, however necessary glucose may be 
in the chemical processes of the body, 
life can be supported indefinitely without 
the ingestion of this or any other sac¬ 
charine substance and the conclusion is 
obvious that glucose is formed within the 
system from some other material. There 
is a very important class of organic 
chemicals found especially in the vege¬ 
table kingdom but also elsewhere in 
nature, and known as carbohydrates. As 
the name somewhat vaguely implies, 
these substances all consist of carbon 
united with hydrogen and oxygen,'the 
latter two elements being in the same 
proportion as in water, namely two 
atoms of hydrogen to every atom of oxy¬ 
gen. The principal members of the car¬ 
bohydrate group are starch, cellulose and 
the various sugars. Cellulose composes 
the dense fibrous portion of vegetable 
structures and is indigestible, though not 
harmful unless taken in too great quan¬ 
tity. Starch is the main ingredient of all 
edible plants, amounting to fifty or sev¬ 
enty-five per cent, of cereals and being 
practically the only nutritive in potatoes. 
In a general way, it may be said that 
the ultimate aim of all digestive pro¬ 
cesses, mechanical or chemical, is to ren¬ 
der insoluble substances soluble. It is 
evident that starch, even if boiled into a 
paste, is not in a proper state to pass 
through an animal membrane and to cir¬ 
culate through blood-vessels. For some 
unexplained reason, cane, milk and malt 
sugars which are already soluble, are also 
unadapted to the requirements of the 
body, and are converted into glucose be¬ 
fore they become available for oxidation. 
The very first digestive act of the body 
is a step in the process of converting 
starch into glucose. If, after carefully 
rinsing the mouth, a piece of boiled or 
baked potato is thoroughly masticated 
for a minute or two, a sweet taste gradu¬ 
ally develops. This is, in itself, a test of 
the presence of sugar but ordinary chemi¬ 
cal experiments may be used to show 
that, while neither the saliva nor the 
potato contained appreciable quantities 
of sugar, the mixture of the two, does. 
The sugar formed, however, is not glu¬ 
cose but maltose, a substance having the 
