On the Necessity for Proper Foodstuffs. 
By E. D. Rowland, M.B. t CM. 
|N my previous papers on Air and Water pub- 
lished in this Journal, it was comparatively 
easy to show that all the human race used 
these in definite forms and proportions, but when we 
come to deal with foodstuffs proper, we find the varia- 
tion as to quantity, mode of taking, and form in which they 
are taken somewhat difficult to reduce to order without 
going into a somewhat deeper examination than is usual 
in a popular journal. If we take the ultimate analysis of 
foodstuffs the matter is simplified no doubt, but it pre- 
sumes some knowledge of organic chemistry. With this 
knowledge we are able to say that the human body 
requires to maintain it in health, a definite quantity of 
carbon, nitrogen and various salts, in the same way as we 
have seen that it requires a definite quantity of oxygen 
and water. 
The human body is composed of water, oxygen, carbon, 
nitrogen and various other elements combined in various 
proportion and ways. We have dealt with the two first 
of these and it now remains for us to examine the three 
last named, to note the proportions of each, how they 
can best be supplied to the body, and sundry other subor- 
dinate conditions. Bearing in mind what has already 
been laid down as to the perpetual change that is going 
on in the human organism ; how the cells are ever- 
changing ; now receiving new particles of matter from 
the blood, now discharging effete matter ; and that this 
