PATHOLOGY. 
cence. The fame round of employments to be continued 
until the third meal of the day, which is fuppofed toconfti- 
tutethelaft. According to this arrangement, the intervals 
between breakfaft and dinner, and between dinner and 
Aipper, (or tea,) will be each lix hours. See Abernethy 
on the Conftitutional Origin of Local Difeafes. 
We have to give our fmall tribute of encomium to 
this plan of life, being well allured by experience of its 
i'alutary and beneficial operation. It is very remarkable, 
but no lefs fatisfaddory, to find, that the habits which ex¬ 
perience has proved to be molt conducive to health, 
coincide completely with the practice founded on reafon- 
ing ; the trainers of our pugilifts having long fubmitted 
their pupils to rules very fimilar to the dietetic ones juft 
mentioned, and truly we can fcarcely find any-where elfe 
fuch ftrong proofs of their propriety. A bloated drun¬ 
ken fellow, whofe hours are perpetually occupied with 
debauch, and whofe frame evidently betrays the baneful 
effects of intemperance, fubjefted to three months 
training, that is, to the influence of regular and power¬ 
ful exercife, falubrious air, wholefome and fparing fup- 
plies of food, reftrifted in drink to water, and perhaps a 
few glaffes of wine, becomes developed in his mufcular 
ftrutture to an aftonifliing fize: he affords a ftudy for the 
painter which almoft equals the boafted ftatues of Italy; 
his Ikin acquires a fairnefs which might add beauty to 
our falhionable females ; and indeed the whofe appear¬ 
ance of the man is changed “ quanto ab illo Hettore.” 
In recommending, however, the above, we are aware, 
that they require much modification in their application 
to morbid ftates, becaufe the digeftive functions are in¬ 
fluenced in various and in oppofite modes, according to 
fex, age, habits of body, and habits of life. 
Though the refults of chemical analyfis, in regard to 
the nutritious parts of our diet, do not furnilh much 
practical information, it may be proper to advert to 
them with a view to future generalization. The food of 
man conlifts of feveral unchangeable principles, foreign 
to the bufinels of nutrition, combined with others in 
which the nutritive power refides. The latter varies in 
its characters and proportions. Mucilage, gelatine, 
gluten, albumen, fecula, fibrine, fugar, and the bafe of 
oxalic acid, are the general modifications under which 
the nutritive fubftance prefents itfelf. Each of thefe 
varies according to the nature of the heterogeneous prin¬ 
ciples with which it is aflociated. 
In the numerous plants which do actually, or which 
might, lerve for food, mucilage fometimes exifts alone, 
or mingled with extractive, colouring, acrid, bitter, or 
odorous, matters; or diluted with various proportions of 
water. It is often united with oxalic acid and fugar; 
fometimes with a very aCtive volatile principle of a very 
acrid tafte and penetrating odour. Laftly, it furnilhes 
the matter of gums and vegetable jellies ; in one of which 
the nutritive principle is imperfeClly formed, while in 
the other it is brought into a very fmall volume. Gum 
tragacanth, feneca, cherry-gum, &c. are examples of this 
matter. It is no-where cultivated, nor even collected, 
for food ; fo that we might be apt to confider it as inca¬ 
pable of affording any nourifliment, if it were not known- 
that the caravans eroding the fandy deferts of Africa, 
over which they have brought gum feneca, have in many 
inftances loft their way, exhaufted their provifions, and 
been obliged to live on this gum for many weeks, having 
nothing elfe but water alone, and a very fparing fupply 
of that. Mucilage is aljo contained in moft vegetable 
juices, and in the Items and other parts of plants. 
In the flelh of animals which we ufe for food, the ge¬ 
latine is united with fibrous, extractive, faline, and earthy, 
particles. It is mingled with fat, and with ferous or 
lymphatic fluids. It is found in various degrees of te¬ 
nacity and confidence; in which it determines all the 
fenfible differences of the white organs, which contain an 
abundance of gelatine. In a word, it forms the animal 
i 
105 
jellies, which conftitute a mild, light, and wholefome, 
food. 
Vegetable gluten is always found combined with other 
fubftances folublein water, without which it could not be 
diffolved in, and blended with, our juices. It abounds 
in the gramina, where it is united with fecula, extractive 
principle, colouring matter, mucilage, and an earthy 
fubftance. The albumen of animal matters refembles, in 
many points, the vegetable gluten. The whole white, 
and a great part of the yolk, of an egg, are a compofition 
of albumen, and colouring and oily principles. The 
cafeous matter of milk is a modification of albumen : 
which, together with the principles of butter and fugar, 
compofes that foft etnulfive liquor, fo favourable to the 
conftitution of infancy. The moft nutritive plants are 
thofe whofe bafe and prevailing principle is the amyla¬ 
ceous fecula. It exifts fometimes completely pure, and 
free from extraneous admixture ; fometimes united with 
mucilage, oils, or gluten ; fometimes with fugar, extrac¬ 
tive or colouring matters; fometimes with earthy, acid, 
or faline, principles ; and very rarely with noxious or 
poifonous matters. Wheat is compofed of gelatinous 
matter and fecula. Thefe two principles, aCted on by the 
fermentative procefs, form bread, the nutritive qualities 
of which are not furpaffed by any vegetable fubftance. 
It is fo much the more proper for animalization, inafmuch 
as the fermentation has already brought it into a ftate fit 
for decompofition. 
The principle now alluded to, which conftitutes the 
farinaceous matter of vegetables, is contained, perhaps, 
in the largeft proportion, in rice ; and wheat is the next 
to this. Other grains are only fubftitutes for thefe ; ex¬ 
cept maize, which is eafily cultivated, and contains much 
farinaceous matter. The legumina contain much of the 
fame principle ; as alfo nuts, and the feeds of the cucur- 
bitaceae and poppy, although not ufed for food. It exifts, 
probably, in the Items of fome plants, as thepalmse, from 
the expreffed juice of which fago is formed ; in the roots 
of many claffes, as the potatoe, yam, and pignut, in 
which it is very abundant. 
The fibrine of the mufcles and blood partakes of the 
properties of gluten and fecula : it admits of a very fpeedy 
aflimilation, and exerts a more marked, rapid, and exten- 
five, influence on the ftrength in general, than any other 
food; yet it refifts the digeftive powers, when, deprived 
of gelatine or dried, it is reduced to a hard coriaceous 
fubftance. It forms a clofe and firm, but delicate and 
divifible, texture, in the mufcles of healthy animals,which 
form a light and fucculent kind of food. An extractive 
colouring matter generally adheres to the fibrous fub¬ 
ftance; and the differences in its quantity or quality pro¬ 
bably influence the appearance and nutritive powers of 
our various animal foods. 
Sugar, and the oxalic bafe, which can hardly be fepa- 
rated from it, are produced by both kingdoms. The ve¬ 
getable acids are convertible into a fugary fubftance, which 
bellows on them whatever nutritive powers they may 
poffefs. Other acids, befide the oxalic, are unfit for nou- 
rilhment; and they only acquire that property by an ad¬ 
mixture of the latter or of fugar or mucilage. The fame 
principles exift in various proportions in the fruits em¬ 
ployed for food. The refpeCtive quantities of mucilage, 
fugar, acid, and water, indicate how far they are fufeep- 
tible of digeftion, and, confequently, nourilhing. Sugar 
exifts in moft vegetables; but is moft abundant in the 
fugar-cane, from which alone it is furniflied to any great 
amount, in the fugar-maple, and the beet-root. Except¬ 
ing whatisfupplied from the vegetables above mentioned, 
and which hardly forms the food of any perfon, its 
fources for the purpofes of food are not very general, 
being confined principally to dates, grapes, figs, and fome 
other fr.uits. Fruits indeed, in general, contain fugar; 
many of them in fufficient quantity to afford confiderable 
nourifliment. But the three fpecies juft enumerated are 
thofe 
