OUR FOOD. 
113 
OUE FOOD. 
ABSTEACT OF ME. GEOEGE JACKSON's PAPEE. 
(Read 10th October, 1870.) 
The lecturer first pointed out the importance of food not only in 
an individual, but in a national point of view ; that the political 
influence of a nation is as much dependent upon the muscular 
strength of the people as upon their intelligence and commercial 
industry, and that this strength is wholly referable to a right use 
and a proper distribution of food. Savage nations often have 
plenty of food, but it is ill-regulated and not properly mixed, 
frequently consisting in large quantities of animal food alone. He 
then referred to the profuse gluttony of the later Eoman Empire, 
when one dish alone at the table has been known to cost £4000, 
and contrasted it with the habits of the present day — as they are 
in many cases, and as they should be. The division of food into 
heat -producers and tissue -formers — not altogether correct — dis- 
proved by the experiments of Pick, Wislicenus, and others. Ali- 
ments divided by Dr. Prout into four kinds — aqueous, albuminous, 
saccharine, and oleaginous : their uses. The objections to using 
tea as a diluent with meat ; its action in hardening the muscular 
fibres : in this respect coifee is preferable, as it does not contain so 
much astringent matter. The starchy and saccharine matters, 
speaking generally, pass through a series of changes, which end in 
their being oxidized and burnt to support the animal heat. A 
necessity that fresh vegetables should enter into the diet of all 
persons, the want of them causing scurvy ; this is now prevented 
in sea-going ships by the enforcement of the law causing them to 
be provisioned with good lime-juice, the goodness being ensured 
by government examination. The desirability of stricter legisla- 
tion with regard to adulterations generally. The position tea, 
005*06, and tobacco, occupy in the animal economy by diminishing 
the waste of the animal tissues, which is probably connected with 
their sedative action. Tea and coff'ee aid activity of thought by 
lessening the cerebral congestion, which is always associated with 
sleep. The difi'erent effects of tea and coffee — the former acting 
