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TREATISE
FOOD   AND   DIET:
     WITH



OBSERVATIONS ON THE
             DIETETICAL  REGIMEN



                         SUITED FOR



DISORDERED  STATES  OF THE  DIGESTIVE  ORGANS


                          AND AN



                  Account of the MrtuxteB


                        OF SOME OF THE


   PRINCIPAL METROPOLITAN AND  OTHER  ESTABLISHMENTS


                            FOR


        PAUPERS, LUNATICS, CRIMINALS, CHILDREN, THE SICK, &c.
   JONATHAN PEREIRA, M.D., P.R.S., & I.S.
            in
LICENTIATE of the royal college OF PHYSICIANS IN LONDON, ETC., ETC.
CHARLES A. LEE, M'^^rT^GEN'L'
<QTTra1n
               NEW YORK:

J. & H. G. LANGLEY, 57 CHATHAM-STREET.

                   1843. 
?A5Gt
     Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843,
               By J. & H. G. LANGLEY,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District
                      of New York.
     Stereotyped by
RICHARD C. VALENTINE,
  45 Gold-street, New York. 
PREFACE.
  The idea of the present treatise occurred  to the author during the preparation of an-
other work, when he repeatedly experienced the want of a detailed and individual account
of alimentary substances.
  His original intention was to have treated the subject in the same full and systematic
manner that he has elsewhere  done the articles of the Materia Medica ; and he had, in
fact, begun to collect materials  for a work on this plan.  But he soon found that the sub-
ject was too extensive to be  treated in such a way;  within, at  least, reasonable limits.
He was,  therefore,  compelled to  abandon, though with  considerable reluctance, his
original design, and  to substitute for it the  present work, in which he has excluded  all
Natural  Historical details;  preferring  this  course to that  of giving  a mere sketch  or
epitome of the subject.
  The present treatise on Diet differs from its predecessors  in several  particulars, some
of which it may  not be useless  to point  out.
  In the first place, it contains a tolerably full account of the  chemical elements of food,—
a subject which has always appeared  to the author of considerable importance, and to
which the recent researches and conclusions of Boussingault, Liebig, and  Dumas have
given additional interest  It is one, however, which preceding dietetical writers have  al-
together passed over, or only incidentally alluded to; and in no work,  with which he is
acquainted, has it been systematically treated.
   Another peculiarity of the present work is the increased space devoted to the considera-
tion of alimentary principles, the number of which the author, for reasons he has  else-
where assigned, has considered it proper to augment.
   The  plan  of separately  considering  Alimentary  Principles and  Compound Aliments,
adopted from Tiedemann,* he  considers to be greatly superior to the ordinary method of  •
treating these subjects, and which consists in the arrangement of foods according to the
proximate or immediate principle predominating in their composition.   Such a classifica-
tion is open to the glaring and  obvious  objection, that most  of the foods in ordinary use
consist of several alimentary principles.  Thus, butchers' meat consists of fibrine, albumen,
gelatine, and fat; bread, of starch,  gluten, gum, and  sugar;  milk, of caseine, butter, and
sugar.  Now, to arrange meat among  fibrinous, bread  among starchy, and  milk among
caseous, foods, is to overlook the other important constituents of these substances, and
to give a very imperfect view of their alimentary properties.
   The author did not venture, without  considerable hesitation and  doubt  as to  its pro-
priety, to deviate from Dr. Prout's beautifully simple and generally admitted  classification
of alimentary principles, into the aqueous, the saccharine, the albuminous, and the  oleagin-
ous.  After mature  consideration,  however, he  satisfied  himself  of the impossibility  of
reducing all nutritive principles to these four heads.  Common salt,  for example,  which a
recent writerf justly observes,  " can by  no means be considered only as a luxury, but  as

  * Untersuchungen iiber das Ndhrungs-Bedurfnvss den Nahrungs-Trieb und die Nahrungs-Mittel des
Menschen.  Darmstadt,  1836.
  t On Gravel, Calculus, and Gout, by H. Bence Jones, M.A., p. 46. London, 1842. 
iv                                  PREFACE.
a substance as essential to life as nitrogenous or non-nitrogenous food and water," can be
referred to no  one of these four classes.  Moreover, lemon juice,  which  constitutes
one of our  most valuable  antiscorbutic foods,  does not owe its efficiency to water,
sugar,  albumen,  or oil.    Furthermore,  to call  gum,  starch,  and acetic  acid,  sac-
charine substances,—gelatine an  albuminous one,—or alcohol  an  oleaginous  one,  is to
assign  new  meanings  to  common and familiar terms.   Gelatine and albumen  are not
mutually convertible into each other by any  known chemical process, nor  can oil be
transformed into alcohol, or vice versa, alcohol into  oil.  For these  reasons, therefore,
the author has ventured to adopt a new and enlarged arrangement of alimentary prin-
ciples, which he now submits to the notice of his professional brethren.
  Considerable pains have been taken in the preparation of Tables representing the pro-
portion of some of the  chemical elements, and  of the  alimentary principles contained in
different foods ; and the author believes they will be found as complete  and accurate as
the present state of our knowledge admits.
  Another peculiar  feature of this treatise  is the chapter on Dietaries, which has been
rendered necessary  by  the discussions which have  been going on, for many months past,
in the public journals and elsewhere, respecting the amount of food proper to be supplied
to paupers, prisoners, and others.   The subject has in this way forced itself on the atten-
tion of all grades of society; and professional men and others must have long felt the
want of a work giving  an account of the dietaries in use in various Public Establishments
in this country, as well as in the Navy and Army.  The author greatly regrets  that the
necessarily limited extent of the  present treatise has precluded him from entering into
a variety of interesting details connected with this subject

         47 Finsbury Square, London, )
                June 13, 1843.      \ 
5
AMERICAN   PREFACE.
  In  complying with the request of the Author of the following work, to make such
additions as would better adapt it to the wants of the American reader, it was far from
my design  or expectation to extend my remarks so far, or to comment on such a  variety
of topics.   The  subject of "food  and diet" is, however, so extensive, embracing  such a
multitude of facts, and not a little  of theory, as to embarrass by its very copiousness,—so
that the chief difficulty of one who enters upon this boundless field, is, to know where to
begin, and  when to stop.   My object has been, chiefly, to notice those topics upon which
additional information would, perhaps, be considered  desirable by the American reader;
and, while  I left  the text  entire, to offer such  brief comments as some reading and reflec-
tion would naturally suggest.  This  plan was also  in accordance with the wishes  of the
publishers.   Such notes, therefore, as have been added, will be found either at the bottom
of the page, or in the Appendix.
  With respect to the merits of this treatise, it is scarcely necessary for me to speak.  It
fully meets a desideratum which  modern discoveries,  the improvements in practical and
experimental physiology, and especially the late achievements in analytic chemistry, have
created; and which, since the appearance of  Liebig's remarkable works, every  one must
have  felt could not  long remain unsupplied.   On perusal of these pages, the reader will
doubtless agree with me in opinion, that the task could not have fallen into abler hands,
as it certainly could not have been accomplished, in all respects, in a more satisfactory
manner.  The author, Mr. Pereira, is well  known  throughout Europe and America, as
one of the most learned, scientific, and practical men of the age,—a physician of great
experience and  accurate  observation,—a highly successful writer, unsurpassed  in the
judicious selection and arrangement  of facts,  and in the felicity of his illustrations and
reasonings.  To the medical profession especially, he is universally and most favorably
known, as the author of the best work on the Materia Medica which has hitherto appeared
in our language.  With  such rare  qualifications,  he could hardly fail in  producing a
most valuable treatise ; and, as such, we commend it to the  favorable consideration of the
public, as  no legs adapted to inform the physician and man of science, than to interest
and instruct the  general reader.
                                                                    C.  A.  L.
      New  York, July 26, 1843. 
 
CONTENTS.
                                                                            Page
Preface........................   iii—iv
American Preface  ----------..........       v
Contents....................... vii—xiv
PART I.—OF FOODS.
Distinction  between the Chemical Elements of Food, Alimentaiy Principles, and
    Compound Aliments   -.............-...      1
CHAP. I.—OF THE  CHEMICAL ELEMENTS  OF FOODS.
Number of Simple Bodies known—suspicions as to their real elementary character.—
    Chemical Elements of organized beings—cannot be formed in the living body—
    Prout's idea that some of the  so-called elements  are formed by vital agents.—
    Chemical Elements of the food of man    .............2—3


1.  Cakbon—its forms—quantity in foods—daily consumption of—amount of oxygen
    required to burn the carbon—carbonic acid and heat produced in the process.—
    Consumption of food augmented  by cold—error of Liebig in ascribing the glut-
    tony of certain nations to the coldness of climate  exclusively—case of the Hot-
    tentots and the Bushmen—gluttony ascribed by the author in part to cerebral
    organization—case of the Germans, Spaniards,  and French—deficiency  of
    food attended with  diminished  evolution  of  heat.—Diseases of the  liver  in-
    duced by  external heat—how—mode of artificially enlarging the liver of the
    goose—pates de foies gras—less food required in tropical climates and  hot sea-
    sons—why.....................4—11

2.  Hydrogen.  Relative quantity  of  hydrogen  and oxygen in alimentary princi-
    ples.—Hydrates of  carbon—respiration  of graminivorous animals.—Aliments
    with excess  of hydrogen—oxydation  of  hydrogen during respiration—heat
    developed by  the  combustion of hydrogen.—Aliments with excess of oxy-
    gen  .......................H—l^

3.  Oxygen.  Constitutes three fourths of the terraqueous globe—animal life  insep-
    arably connected with the influence of oxygen on the  organism—vital air the
    cause of death.—Relative quantity  of  oxygen in aliments.—Consumption  of
    oxygen in respiration modified by the nature of the food—changes effected by
    the system on the vegetable alkaline salts, and probable  consequences  -  -  13—15 
                                                                                 Page
  4. Nitrogen.   Quantity of in  foods.—Plastic elements of nutrition and  elements
       of respiration—arguments in favor of nitrogenized foods alone being  elements
       of nutrition—inconclusiveness of some of them—Dr. Prout's notion of the gen-
       eration of nitrogen in the system, and of the conversion of fat and  sugar into
       nitrogenized  compounds—proteine  and  its  compounds—composition of the
       food consumed by, and of the excretions of, a horse during twenty-four hours—
       resume of the opinions of Liebig on foods—difficulties.—Uses  of non-nitrogen-
       ized foods—alcohol an element of respiration—is a fuel—its action on the brain
       and liver—Temperance  and  Tee-total  Soc;3ties—formation  of fat  by   non-
       nitrogenized foods—Oriental mode of producing obesity—Hogarth's Beer Alley
       and Gin Lane.—Boussingault's scale of nutritive equivalents.—Nitrogen a con-
       stituent of all vegetable poisons, according to Liebig    -------  15—29


  5. Phosphorus.   A constituent of the body and  of food—insanity and idiotcy
       ascribed  to abnormal variations in its  quantity—csecal phosphatic calculi of
       horses—quantity of phosphorus in foods   -----------  29—31


  6. Sulphur.  Its existence in the  body—organic origin of native  sulphur—evolu-
       tion of sulphur  by organic substances—cause  of  the  awful  miasma of the
       Western Coast of Africa—effect of lead on the gums—quantity of sulphur in
       foods......................31—33


  7. Iron.  A constituent of the  blood—Liebig's hypothesis of its  agency in respira-
       tion, and of the action of sulphureted hydrogen and prussic acid on the system
       —iron a constituent of foods.....----------  33—35


  8. Chlorine.  A constituent of the blood and of several secretions—Pepsin—Liebig's
       fermentation hypothesis of digestion—objections to it  ---------  35


  9. Sodium.   A constituent of the animal body, of the secretions, and of the food    -  36


:  10. Calcium.  A  constituent  of animals  and of their food.—Does the lime of the
       skeleton  of the chick pre-exist in the egg, or is it generated 1—Gypsum  eaten
       by the Chinese—morbid appetite for calcareous substances    -----  36—37


  11. Magnesium.  A constituent of the body and of the food  --.----.37


  12. Potassium.  Potash necessary for the secretion of milk—found in vegetables   -  37


  13. Fluorine.  Found in the bones and teeth.....-.....-38
                 CHAP. II.—OF ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.


Dr. Prout's classes of alimentary principles—reasons for admitting others    -   -  -  38

1.  The  Aqueous Alimentary Principle.  Quantity of water contained in the
    animal body and in foods.—Is water a nutriment!—Uses of water in  the  sys-
    tem—its influence on the conversion of uric acid into urea—diluent diet—dry
    diet.......................38—42 
CONTENTS.                                ix
     i. Common Water.  Rain Water—its impurities—carbonate of ammonia a con-
       stituent  of it.—Snow Water—Spring Water—River  Water—analyses  of
       Thames and Colne Waters—injurious effects of water contaminated  with
       decomposing organic matters—illustrative cases—Metropolitan  churchyards
       and the pumps—British army at Ciudad Rodrigo affected with  dysentery.—
       Entophyta  and Entozoa.—Well  Water—Artesian  Wells—effects of Hard
       Water—Water impregnated with lead—its effects—remedy.—Lake Water—
       Marsh Water.—Tests of the impurities  in common water—purification  of
       water—Professor Clark's patent—error of the patentee......42—51


    ii. Sea Water.  Solid constituents of—effects of..........51


   iii. Mineral Waters.  Classes of—their properties  -----.....52


   iv. Distilled Water.  Employment of,  as a  preventive  of constitutional dis-
       ease ......................52—53


 2. The Mucilaginous Alimentary Principle.  Quantity of gum in  food—prox-
     imate and ultimate analyses of gum—effects and uses of gum.—Gum Water—
     Mucilage—Gum Lozenges—Gum Pastes, Pate de Jujubes, and Pate de Gui-
     mauve.....................53—54


 3. The Saccharine Alimentary Principle.  Quantity of sugar in foods—table  of
     saccharine  matters—composition of  sugars—dietetical effects  and  uses  of
     sugar—fondness  of children for it instinctive.—Viscous  or mucilaginous fer-
     mentation—formation of lactic acid in  the stomach.—Diabetes—oxalate of lime
     and  phosphatic diatheses.—Refined  Sugar—Brown  Sugar—Sugar  Candy—
     Sugar Water and Syrup—Boiled  Sugars, Barley  Sugar, Acidulated Drops,
     Hardbake and Toffee, Pulled Sugar or Penides—Molasses and Treacle—Burnt
     Sugar, Caramel, Browning—Hard Confectionery,  Lozenges, &c.—Liquorice,
     Sugar—Preserves........-.....-...  55—59


 4. The Amylaceous Alimentary Principle.  Quantity of starch in plants—shape
     of the grains {figures)—necessity of  cooking—alimentary qualities—Sago—
     Tapioca  and Cassava—Arrow-root—Tons les  Mois—Potato  Starch—Tahiti
     Arrow-root—East Indian Arrow-root—Portland Arrow-root—Rice Starch—Lich-
     enin or Feculoid—Salep   ----------------  59—66


 5. The Ligneous  Alimentary Principle.   Quantity in plants—its composition—
     doubts as to its nutritive quality—wood-bread—bark-bread—indigestible parts
     of vegetables—Fungin................66—68


 6. The Pectinaceous Alimentary Principle.  Vegetable Jelly—Pectine—Pectic
     Acid—composition — dietetical  properties—Fruit  Jellies—Jams— Carragee-
     nin.......................69—71


 7. The Acidulous Alimentary Principle.   Reasons for admitting it—Acetic
     Acid,  Pyroligneous acid—Vinegar—usefulness—ill consequences.—Citric Acid
     —Artificial Lemon Juice—Lemon  and Kali.—Tartaric Acid—Concrete  Acid-
     ulated Alkali—Soda,  Ginger-beer,  and Seidlitz  Powders—Imperial—Acidu-
     ulated Lozenges—Malic Acid—Oxalic  Acid—Lactic Acid—Tannic Acid  -   71—76


8. The Alcoholic Alimentary Principle. Quantity of alcohol in wines, spirits,
    malt  liquors,  &c.—Brandy—Rum—Gin—Whiskey—Arrack—Liqueurs  and
     Compounds   --------------------   76—80 
CONTENTS.
                                                                             Page.
 9. The  Oily Alimentary Principle.   Fixed Oil—quantity in  different foods—
     composition—digestibility—nutritive  qualities.—Olive or Sweet Oil—Butler-
     Marrow—Animal Fats—Essential or Volatile Oils........80—89


10. The  Proteinaceous Alimentary Principle.  Proteine—composition—Animal
     Proteinaceous Principles,  Fibrine— Albumen—Caseine—quantities of each in
     foods—Milk—Cheese.—Vegetable Proteinaceous Principles, Vegetable Fibrine,
     Albumen, Caseine, and Gluten..............89  99


11. The  Gelatinous  Alimentary Principle.  Quantity in  foods— Collin—Chon-
     drin—Gelatine from  Elastic tissues—Gelatine altered by heal—composition—
     digestibility—nutritive qualities.—Isinglass—Cod Sounds—Dry and  Hard  Gel-
     atine, Grenetine—Hartshorn—Calves' feet, heads, &c........99—107


12.  The Saline  Alimentary  Principle.   Common Salt—Earthy  Phosphates-
     Potash Salts—Ferruginous Compounds..........  107—110
                     CHAP. III.—COMPOUND ALIMENTS.


                 I.  SOLID ALIMENTS, OR ALIMENTS PROPER.

Man an omnivorous animal—denied by some    ---     ......  110—111


                          SECTION I.   ANIMAL FOODS.


Chemical and organic nature of animal foods—composition of animal flesh  -   -  -  111


Class  I. Mammals.   Bones, their composition—Bone Soup—Cartilages,  Tendons,
     Aponeuroses,  and Ligaments—Cellular  Tissue—Muscles  or  Flesh—Viscera,
     brain, tongue,  heart, thymus or sweetbread, liver, kidneys, alimentary canal,
     (tripe)—Blood—Milk, composition, sugar of milk—Cream, skimmed milk—
     Milk diet—Whey—Molkencuren or Cures de Petit Lait—Buttermilk—Devon-
     shire cream—different kinds of Milk..........-  111—125


Class  II. Birds.   Flesh, its varieties—Viscera—brains, gizzard, intestine, liver.—
     Fat—Eggs...................126—130


Class   III.  Reptiles.   Turtle — Callapash  and Callipee—Green  Fat—Turtle
     Soup   -....................130—131


Class  IV. Fishes.  Ichthyophagi—While  Bait,  mode of  cooking—Integuments
     of fishes—Flesh, its composition,  digestibility,  varieties,  effects,  prepara-
     tion—Viscera, liver,  swimming bladder or sound, roe or  ovary, milt or tes-
     ticle   .....................131—138


Class V. Crustaceans.   Lobster, Sea Crawfish, Crabs, Prawns, Shrimps   -  138—139 
                                   CONTENTS.                                 xi

                                                                              Page
 Class VI. Mollusks.   Shell fish—bivalves and univalves—The Oyster—Mussel—
      Cockles—Scallops—Periwinkles—Limpets—Whelks—Snails   -  -  -  -  139—142


 Diseased and Decayed Animal Substances  --.-------.-  142—143




                         SECTION II.   VEGETABLE  FOODS.



 Mode of arrangement..................143—144
                                           *


                        Class I.  Aliments from Flowering Plants.


                                  Order I. Seeds.


 1. Mealy or  Farinaceous  Seeds—their division    ..........144


 a- Cereal Grains or Corn—composition and digestibility.....-  -  144—145


    i. Wheat—its  composition.—Semolina—Soujee—Mannacroup—Macaroni—Ver-
        micelli—Cagliari Paste—Hard's and Densham's Farinaceous Foods.—Fer-
        mented or leavened bread—compressed bread—gluten bread.—Unfermented
        or unleavened  bread—biscuits—gingerbread—Dodson's patent bread.—Dis-
        eases of Wheat.—Cakes, pastry, puddings, panado   ------  145—154


   ii. Oats.  Groats.—Oatmeal.—Composition.—Oat-bread—Gruel—Porridge—Flum-
        mery or Sowans.................154—156


  iii. Barley.  Scotch and Pearl Barley.—Composition—Barley-bread—Barley Water,
        simple and compound.—Mall—Sweetwort  --'.......156—157


  iv. Rye.   Composition.—Rye or black bread—Rye pottage.—Ergotism    -  157—158


   v. Rice.  Composition.—Rice starch—Rice gluten—Mucilage of Rice—Rice  milk,
        puddings, and cakes................- 158—160


  vi. Maize or Indian Corn.   Composition.—Polenta.....---  160—161


0- Leguminous Seeds—Peas, Beans, Lentils—their  composition—alimentary  qual-
     ities -  1................-  -  -  -  161—163


y. Seeds of Cupuliferoz.   Chestnuts   .-.............  163


2. Oily Seeds.   Walnuts—Hazel-nuts—Cashew-nuts—Pistachio-nuts—Stone  Pine
     nuts—Cocoa-nuts—Almonds,  composition of  bitter and  sweet ones—bitter  al-
     monds—amygdaline—prussic acid—macaroons or ratifia cakes—volatile oil of
     almonds—its poisonous properties   ------------  163—165 
xii                                CONTENTS.

                                                                              Page

                               Order II.  Fleshy Fruits.


 1.  Drupaceous  or  Stone  Fruits.   The Peach—Nectarine—Apricot — Plum,
     Prune—Cherry—Olive—olives farcies l'huile,  pickled olives, and olives a.  la
     picholine—Date..................165—167


 2.  Pomaceous  Fruits or  Apples.  Apples—Pears—Quinces.....167—168


 3.  Baccate  6r Berried Fruits.  Currants—Gooseberries—Cranberries—Elder-
     berries—Grapes, Raisins, Cure de Raisins.......     --  168—171


 4.  The  Orange or Aurantiaceous Fruits.  Oranges—Lemons—Citrons—Shad-
     docks......................171—173


 5.  The  Cucurbitaceous  Fruits.   Cucumbers—Melons—Water  Melons—Vege-
     table Marrow—Pumpkin    ---------------  173—175


 6.  The Leguminous Fruits.   Tamarinds—French Beans—Scarlet Beans  -  174—175


 7.  Syconus.  Figs....................175


 8.  Sorosis.  Mulberries—The Pine Apple...........175—176


 9.  Et.erio.  Strawberries—Raspberries—Blackberries   .........  176



                    Order in.  Roots, Subterraneous Stems, and Tubers.


 Relative digestibility of the different kinds.  The Turnip—Carrot—Parsnip—Jeru-
     salem Artichoke—Potato...............177—182



                          Order IV. Buds and Young Shoots.

  Onions—Leeks—Garlic—Shallots—Asparagus    ...........  183


                            Order V.  Leaves and Leaf Stalks.


  Chlorophylle—The Cabbage—Savoy—Greens— Cauliflower— Broccoli.—Sauerkraut.
     —Turnip tops—Spinage—Mustard and Cress—Lettuce—Endive—Rhubarb for
      tarts   .....................183—185


                           Order VI.  Receptacles and Bracts.

  The Garden Artichoke, (Cynara Scolymus).............185


                                  Order VII. Stems.

  Cycadaceae and Palms...................185 
                                    CONTENTS.                               xiii

                                                                                Page

                         Class II.  Aliments from Flowerless Plants.


                                    Order I.  Ferns.

Tuberous Rhizomes   .-.."................  186


                                  Order II.  Lichens.

Lichenin or Feculoid.—Tripe de Roche—Iceland Moss........186—187


                              Order III.  Algas or Sea Weeds.

Laver—Carrageen or Irish Moss—Ceylon or Jaffna Moss  .......  187—189


                             Order IV.  Fungi or Mushrooms.

Common or Field Mushroom—Common Morel—Common Truffle   ....  188—189



                         H.  LIQUID  ALIMENTS, OR DRINKS.


                 Order I.  Mucilaginous, Farinaceous, or Saccharine Drinks.

Slops or Tisans.   Toast Water, &c......-  • -........189


                         Order II.  Aromatic and Astringent Drinks.

Tea, botany, composition, effects, and uses—Coffee, varieties, adulteration,  compo-
     sition, effects and uses—Chicory or Succory—Chocolate—Cocoa  ...  189__195


                              Order III.  Acidulous Drinks.

Lemonade—Raspberry-vinegar Water—Imperial—Apple  Tea—Soda  Water—Ginger
      Beer.—Othor effervescing aqueous drinks..........  195__196


                   Order IV. Drinks containing Gelatine and Osmazome.

Broths and Soups.—Composition of broth and boiled meat—Beef Tea—Mutton Broth
     —Chicken Broth—Veal Broth -----.....____  19(J__197


                           Order V.  Emulsive or Milky Drinks.
                                    /
Animal Milk—Almond Milk—Orgeat—Cocoa-nut Milk.......197__198


                     Order VI. Alcoholic and other Intoxicating Drinks.

Malt Liquor or Beer—density, composition, effects.—Ale—Indian Pale Ale—Table
      Ale—Porter,  adulterations.— Wine, varieties, constituents, effects, and uses—
      Sherry—Port Wine—Madeira—Champagne—German Wines—Claret Wines—
     Burgundy.—Other intoxicating drinks...........198—209 
                                                         Page

m. CONDIMEFTS, OR SEASONING AGENTS.
Order 1.—Saline Condiments.—2.  Acidulous  Condiments.—3. Oily Condiments.—
     4. Saccharine  Condiments__5. Aromatic and Pungent Condiments  -  -   209-
209—210
PART II.—OF  DIET.
               CHAP. I.—OF THE  DIGESTIBILITY OF FOOD.


Primary and secondary assimilation—artificial  digestion—pepsine or chymosine—fer-
     mentation hypothesis of digestion    ............  211—212


1. Digestibility of foods affected by circumstances relating to the foods themselves—vege-
     table or animal food—cohesion—tenderness of fibre—incipient decomposition
     —age—minuteness  of  division by  cooking  and  mastication—insalivation—
     cookery.....................212—213


2. Digestibility of foods affected by circumstances relating to the individual or organism—
     state of body or mind—idiosyncrasy—habits—intervals between meals—keen-
     ness of appetite—exercise—amount of food eaten—passions  of the  mind—
     morbid states  of system.—Difference of opinion as  to  repose after meals—
     author's opinion.—Beaumont's table of the Digestibility of Foods  -  -  -  213—217
          CHAP. II—OF THE NUTRITIVE QUALITIES OF FOODS.


Amount of water in foods—indigestible constituents—relative value of nutritious
     substances—non-nitrogenized  and  nitrogenized aliments.—Table showing  the
     amount of dry  matter, moisture, carbon, and nitrogen in foods.—Conclusions of
     the Gelatine Commission...............217__220
                       CHAP. III.—TIMES  OF  EATING.


Time  required for the digestion of the food—interval between the meals__experi-
     ments made at the Zoological Gardens on the carnivorous mammalia__fixed
     periods for eating—number of meals per  day.—Breakfast—Luncheon__Dinner
     —Tea—Supper..................220—222 
CONTENTS.
Page
CHAP. IV.—DIETARIES.
Importance of the  subject—ill effects of prison dietaries—quantity of food required
     subject to variation—Captain Parry's opinion—fatigue, hard labor, and term
     of imprisonment, are modifying circumstances.—Mental influence in scurvy—
     —variety  of food  necessary—uses  of nitrogenized  and  non-nitrogenized
     foods.....................222—226
Dietaries for Children.   Children require  food more  frequently than  adults—
   why—fondness for sugar—errors in the dieting of children—consequences on
   them  of defective nutriment.—Dietaries of the Foundling Hospital, the Royal
   Military Asylum, the  Naval Asylum,  the Infant  Orphan Asylum, Mr. Aubin's
   Establishment  at Norwood, the  Hospice des Enfans Trouves  and Hospices des
   Incurables in Paris, and the Merchants' Seamen's Orphan Asylum -   -   -  226—232
2. Dietary for the Naval  Service.   Scale of Diet  used in the Navy—error in the scale
      of  equivalents  adopted—Water used in the navy.   Scale  of Victualling of
      Troovs from England to India, and Dietary for Emigrants    -   -  -  .  232—236


3. Army Rations.....................236


4. Dietaries for Paupers.  The six dietaries of the Poor Law Commissioners—com-
      parative  view  of  them.—Soup,  Gruel,  and  Suet Puddings,  used  in  poor-
      houses.—Loss in cooking and serving meat.........236—242


5. Dietaries for Prisoners.  Conclusions of the Inspectors of prisons—Dissent  of
      Mr. Hill—Instructions  issued by  the  Secretary of State—Dietaries ordered
      to be  used in prisons  in England and Wales—comparative view  of them—
      objections raised to them—reply  ------.......242—246


6.  Dietaries for  the Sick.   General   observations — natural instincts   too  often
      thwarted.  1. Full, Common, or Meat Diet.  2. Animal Diet—diabetes—effects
      of  animal diet on it.  3. Vegetable  Diet.  4.  Spare or Abstemious Diet.  5.  Fe-
      ver Diet.   6. Low  Diet. 7. Milk Diet.  8. Dry Diet.—Dietaries of  the Metro-
      politan Hospitals.—London Hospital—St.  Bartholomew's Hospital—Guy's Hos-
      pital—St. Thomas's Hospital—St.  George's  Hospital—Westminster  Hospital—
      Middlesex Hospital—King's  College Hospital—North London  Hospital—Dread-
      nought Hospital Ship.—Dr. Carpenter's observations on the dietaries of English
      Hospitals—reply thereto.—Dietaries of the Royal Naval Hospitals, the Marine
      Infirmaries, and the Royal Ordnance Hospitals   --------  246—255


7. Dietaries for the Insane.  Dr. Conolly's observations thereon—cases of refusal of
      food.—Dietaries of the  Hanwell Lunatic  Asylum,  Belhlem Hospital, and  St.
      Luke's Hospital..................255—257


8. Dietaries for  Puerperal  Women.   Dietaries of the  City of London.—Lying-in
      Hospital  and General Lying-in Hospital, Westminster........257 
xvi                               CONTENTS.
                                                                               Page


     CHAP.  V.—ON THE DIETETICAL  REGIMEN SUITED FOR DISOR-
              DERED STATES  OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS.


 General observations thereon.  Division of the subject.........257


 1. Cookery of Foods.  Boiling, Roasting, Broiling, Baking,  and Frying.—Relative
      influence of these processes on the digestibility of food.....258—259


 2. Times of Eating.  General precepts thereon ------------  259


 3. Quantity of Food taken at one  Meal.   To be judged of by the feelings—satisfac-
      tion, not satiety, to be  produced.............259—260


 4. Conduct before, at, and after eating.  Circumstances affecting digestion    ...  260


 5. Nature and Quality of the Food  eaten.  Relative value of animal and vegetable
      diet—bulk  of food—solid and liquid food—acidity of stomach, what induced
      by—lactic acid—fatty acids—fatty fermentation.—Bread, biscuits, pastry, pud-
      dings, pancakes.—Butcher's meat.—Venison and rabbits.—Birds.—Fish.—Shell-
      fish.—Potatoes, the cabbage tribe,  peas, beans.—The oily seeds.—Fleshy fruits.
      —Drinks, aqueous, malt liquor, wine, weak spirit, tea, coffee, chocolate, cocoa.
      —Condiments.—Conclusion..............260—263


Appendix.......................  265


Index.........................321 
ON
FOOD    AND    DIET.
                         PART  I—OF FOODS.


  The substances employed by man as food consist of certain compound bodies termed
Alimentary Principles, which, by their mixture  or union, constitute our  ordinary foods:
these, for the sake of distinction, I shall denominate Compound Aliments.
  Thus meat (a compound aliment) consists  principally of fibrine, albumen, gelatine,
haematosin,  fat,  and water, (alimentary principles.)  Wheat  (a  compound  aliment) is
composed of starch, gluten, sugar, and gum,  (alimentary principles.)
  Alimentary principles  are themselves compound substances.  They consist of two,
three, four, or  more, simple or  undecompounded bodies, usually  denominated elements.
These are the Chemical Elements, or Elementary Constituents of Foods.
  Thus fibrine  (an alimentary principle)  is composed  of carbon, hydrogen,  nitrogen,
oxygen, phosphorus, and sulphur, (chemical elements.)  Gum (an alimentary principle)
consists of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, (chemical elements.)
  I propose, therefore, to consider successively—
         1.  The Chemical Elements of Foods.
         2.  Alimentary Principles.
         3.  Compound Aliments.


                  Chap. I.—Of the Chemical Elements of Foods.

  Those bodies from which chemists  have hitherto failed to extract other substances of
entirely  different properties, are  denominated  Simple or  Undecompounded  Bodies,  or
Chemical Elements.
  At the present time, fifty-five* such bodies  are known.  Arranged  alphabetically, they
are  as follows :—
  CHEMICAL ELEMENTS.
Equivalent
Aluminum
Antimony (Stibium)
Arsenicum
Barium  .
Bismuth .
Boron
Bromine .
Cadmium
Calcicm
Carbon  .
   Combining Pro-
      portion.
Hydrogen=l)   Symbol.
     10    Al
65	An or Sb
M	Ar or As
69	Ba
72	Bi
10	Bo
78	Br
56	Cd
20	Ca
6	C
11. Cerium
12. Chlorine
13. Chromium
14. Cobalt
15. Columbium (Tantalum)
16. Copper (Cuprum)  .
17. Fluorine
13. Glucinum
19. Gold (Aurum)
20. Hydrogen
    Equivalent
       or
  Combining Pro-
     portion.
(Hydrogen=l)  Symbol.
      46   Ce
      36
      28
      30
      185
      32
      19
      27
     200
       1
CI
Cr
Co
Ta
Cu
F
G
Au
H
  * A fifty-sLxth element, called Didym, has been recently announced.  It is a metal which is found
along with Cerium and Lanthanium. (Poggendorff's Annalen der Physik und Cliemie, vol. xlvi. No. 7, p.
503.)
1 
ELEMENTS OF FOODS.
	CHEMICAL	elements.—Continued.				
	Equivalen			Equivalent		
	Combining Pro-			Combining Pro-		
	portion.			portion.		
	Hydrogeit=l) . 126	Symbol.		(Hydrogen=l)		Symbol.
		I	39. Rhodium	52		
	98	Ir	40. Selenium		40	Se
23. Iron (Ferrum) .	28	Fe	41. Silicon		8	Si
24. Lanthanium .	7	La	42. Silver (Argentum) .		108	Ag
25. Lead (Plumbum)	. 104	PI	43. Sodium (Natrium)		24	N
	8	Li	44. Strontium		44	Sr
27. Magnesium	12	Ma	45. Sulphur		16	S
28. Manganese	28	Mn	46. Tellurium		64	Te
29. Mercury (Hydrargyrum)	. 202	Hg	47. Thorium		60	Th
30. Molybdenum .	48	Mo	48. Tin (Stannum)		58	Sn
31. Nickel	29	Ni	49. Titanium		24	Ti
32. Nitrogen	14	N	50. Tungsten (Wolfram)		95	W
33. Osmium	. 100	Os	51. Uranium		68	u
34. Oxygen	8	O	52. Vanadium		217	V
35. Palladium	54	Pd	53. Yttrium		32	Y
36. Phosphorus	16	P	54. Zinc .		32	Zu
37. Platinum	99	PI	55. Zirconium		33	Zr
38. Potassium (Kalium)	40	K				
  As far as we have  at present ascertained, these are the substances which constitute
the elements of all known bodies, (mineral and organized.)
  It has long been suspected  that many of these supposed elementary bodies are them-
selves compounded.*  The suspicion has arisen from the analogies which exist between
some of the undecompounded substances, (especially the metals;) as  well as  from the
difficulty of accounting for the presence of several of the so-called elements found in or-
ganized beings.  But though it may be well  founded,  yet chemists have agreed to call
those substances simple or elementary which have hitherto resisted every attempt to resolve
them into  other  and simpler parts; and, therefore, when the phrase element or simple
body is used, we merely mean a substance which no one, as  yet, has  been  able to de-
compose.
  Of the fifty-five above mentioned  elementary substances,  there have been found in Or-
ganized Bodies about nineteen only; these are  arranged alphabetically in the following
table:—
CHEMICAL ELEMENTS OF ORGANIZED OR LIVING BODIES.
1. Carbon
2. Hydrogen
3. Oxygen
4. Nitrogen
5. Phosphorus
6.	Sulphur	11.	Fluorine
7.	Silicon	12.	Potassium
8.	Chlorine	13.	Sodium
9.	Iodine	14.	Calcium
10.	Bromine	15.	Magnesium
16. Iron
17. Manganese
18. Aluminum
19. Copper 1
Though I have  included  Copper as an element of organized bodies, in consequence of
its having been found  in them by several chemists,! it is, probably, only an accidental


  * Some interesting observations on this subject will be found in Sir H. Davy's Elements of Chemical
Philosophy, p. 473, et seq.  London, 1812.—See also Berzelius's Trade de Chimie, t. ii. p. 268.  Paris,
1833.
  Very recently it has been asserted that carbon is convertible into silicon, (Dr. Sam. H. Brown, Trans-
actions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, for 1841;) but the assertion has not been corroborated by sub-
sequent experiments.
  t Copper has been detected in plants by Bischoff, (De Candolle, Physiolrgie Vigetale, t. i. p. 389.)
Meissner, (Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. t. iv. p. 106,) and by Sarzeau, (Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. t. xlix. p.
334.) The last mentioned chemist also found it in the blood of animals. 
ELEMENTS OF THE  FOOD OF  MAN.
constituent.   Gold,* and, more  recently, Leadf and Arsenicum,\ have been declared to
be constituents of organized bodies ;  but there is reason, I think, to suspect some error in
the observations.
   A living body has no power of forming elements, or of  converting one elementary sub-
stance into another ;\ and it therefore follows that  the elements  of which the body  of an
animal is composed must be the elements of its food.
   The essential constituents of  the human body are  thirteen ;  and the  same, therefore,
must be the elements of our food.||
                     CHEMICAL  ELEMENTS OF THE  FOOD OF MAN.
1. Carbon
2. Hydrogen
3. Oxygen
4. Nitrogen
5. Phosphorus
6. Sulphur
7. Iron
 8. Chlorine
 9. Sodium
10. Calcium
11. Potassium
12. Magnesium
13. Fluorine
   These substances I now proceed to notice individually.
   1. Carbon.—In the  pure  and  crystallized state, carbon constitutes the diamond,  a sub-

  * Several distinguished chemists have asserted the existence of gold in vegetables, (Chaptal, Elements
of Chemistry, vol. ii. p. 442.)
  t According to Devergie, (Journal de Chimie Medicate, t. iv. 2de Serie, p. 591, 1838,) lead and copper
are constituents of the bodies of man and other animals.
  t Orfila (Journ. de Chim. Med. t. v. 2de Ser. p. 632, 1839) asserts, that arsenicum is a constituent of the
bones of  man and other animals.  But Dr. G. O. Rees,  (Guy's Hospital Reports, No. xii.,) Messrs. Dan-
ger and Flandrin, and the Commissioners appointed  by  the French  Academy of Sciences, (Journal de
Pharmacie., t. xxiv. p. 428, Juillet, 1841,) have repeated his experiments without detecting it.
  § Dr. Prout (Phil. Trans. 1822, p.  377) asserts, that the lime found in  the skeleton of the chick when
it quits the shell, did not pre-exist in the recent egg;  so  that  the only possible sources whence it could
be derived are the shell and transmutation from other substances supposed to be elementary.  But as the
membrane in contact with the shell is never vascular, and as both the albumen and yolk contain, at the
end of incubation, a considerable  quantity  of earthy matter, which it is to be supposed would have
been appropriated  to the bone in preference to  that derived from a  remote source, Dr. Prout doubts
whether the origin or source of the lime is referable to the shell.  Indeed, it is -tolerably clear, that  he
believes  in the capability of the vital energies to effect the transmutation of some of the so-called ele-
ments ; and in a more recent work, (On the Nature and Treatment of Stomach and  Urinary Diseases, p.
xxxvi. 3d edit. 1840,) he expresses himself more decidedly on this point.   " Some imagine," he observes,
"that the mineral  incidental principles  of  organized  beings are  generated during the vital process;
while others maintain that they are derived ab externo.  My  belief is, lhat, under certain extraordinary
circumstances, the vital agents can form what we now consider as elements ;  but that, in  ordinary, such
elements are  chiefly derived ab externo, in conjunction with  the alimentary principles;" and in  another
part of the same  work (p. xxix.) he speaks of the assimilating organs  being able, under extraordinary
circumstances, " to decompose principles which are still considered as elementary ; nay, to form azote
or carbon."
  These  opinions, however well founded, in no way affect the accuracy of the proposition which I have
above laid down in the text; for Dr. Prout himself, in his Bridgewater Treatise (Chemistry, Meteorology,
and the Function of Digestion considered  with reference  to Natural  Theology, p. 431, 1834) lays down a
similar one.   " No organic agent," he  says, " has the  power  either of creating material elements, or of
changing one  such element into another."   His opinions merely affect the question of the elementary
nature  of some of the substances which chemists have  not hitherto been able to decompose.  At p. 432
of the last quoted work, he observes, that" while it is thus denied that organized beings possess the power,
either to create or to change, in the  strict acceptance of  these terms ; it  has been admitted to be exceed-
ingly probable, that the organic agent is, within certain limits, qualified to compose and decompose
many substances which are now viewed as elements ; and that the organic agent does  thus apparently
form and transmute these imagined  elements."
  || Traces of manganese  have been detected in the  blood; but I have not included this metal as an
essential  constituent of the human system.  In some countries, silicious and aluminous  substances are
eaten, but they can scarcely be denominated aliments  ; and I  have not, therefore, inserted silicon and 
4                             ELEMENTS  OF FOODS.
stance which Sir D. Brewster* suspects  to be of vegetable origin.  In  its more  familiar
but impure forms, carbon constitutes plumbago (graphite or black-lead) and charcoal, (ani-
mal and vegetable.)   The last mentioned substance is always contaminated  with various
earthy bodies derived from the organic matter from which the charcoal  was made.  Thus
animal charcoal obtained from bones, and  known as boneblack, contains  only ten per cent.
of carbon.
                           COMPOSITION OF BONE  BLACK.
                                                             101
                                                            I 88-0
Carbon    ....
Phosphate of Lime  .
Carbonate of Lime  .
Carburet or  Silicet of Iron
Sulphuret of Calcium, or Iron
Animal Charcoal or Bone Blackt
 2C
traces
1000
Vegetable  Charcoal,  obtained from wood, contains a much larger proportion of carbon.

                  COMPOSITION OF  VEGETABLE CHARCOAL.
Carbon .... Volatile matter . Calcined ashes .	Thorn.	Poplar.	Maple.	Ash.	Aspen.	Spindle.
	88-0 9-6 2-4	85-6 13-4 10	85-2 13-8 10	83-2 150 1-8	82-0 150 30	828 156 1-6
Vegetable Charcoal} .	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000
  Carbon  is an essential constituent of every living or organized tissue, both vegetable
and animal.  It is, therefore, a necessary ingredient of food ; and nature has accordingly
supplied it in the aliment which she has provided for all living beings  in the early stage
of their existence.  Thus  it is an element of the organic  substances composing seeds,
and from which the embryo plant derives its first nutriment.  The yolk of eggs, (the food
of the embryo chick,) and milk, on which young mammals subsist during the first period
of their existence after birth, also contain it.
  The quantity of it  which is contained in different foods is as follows :—
                    QUANTITY OF CARBON IN FOODS.
                           1.—Alimentary Principles.
a. NoN-NlTROGENIZED:
                                         Pcr-centage, by weight,
                                                of Carbon.
             {Anhydrous Cane Sugar.....47-05
             Sugar Candy    .......42-1
             Sugar of Milk.......40-0
             Grape Sugar (from Honey)   ....  36-36
  Authority. §
Pehgot.

Prout & Liebig.
Prout.
aluminum among the elements of the food of man.  "The negroes of Guinea,  the Javanese,  the New
Caledonians, and many South American tribes, eat clay as a luxury," (Elliotson's Human Physiology,
p. 63, 1840.) The Otomacks, a savage race on the banks of the Orinoco, appease their hunger for two
or  three months, according to Humboldt, by distending their stomachs with clay.  The fossil farina,
which, according to Stanislas Julien, (Comptes Rendus, 1841, 2 Semest. p. 358,) is used in China, in times'
of  great scarcity, as a food, contains 13-2 per cent, of organic matter, (Payen,  Ibid. p. 480,) a!nd may
therefore, possess some slightly nutritive qualities.
 * Edinburgh Phdosophical Journal, vol. iii. p. 98; and Philosophical Magazine,  vol. i. p. 117.  1827
  t Dumas, Trade de Chimie applique aux Arts, t. i. p. 450.
 X Berthier, Traite des Essaispar la voie seche, t. i. p. 286.
  $ The analyses of Liebig, Scherer, Jones, Playfair, and Bceckmann, alluded to in this table are taken 
Amylaceous


Mucilaginous


Vegetable Jelly



Acidulous


Alcoholic   .

Oleaginous
CARBON.
                                  Per-centage, by weight,
                                        of Carbon.
 f Wheat Starch.......37.5
 1 Ditto, dried at 350°  Fahr.....44.0
 ) Arrow Root.      .......36.4
  Ditto, highly dried at 212° Fahr.  .   .    .  44.4
  'Gum Arabic      .....>.    .  36.3
  Ditto, dried at 212° Fahr......41.4
  Ditto, dried at 240° Fahr......45.1
  Pectine  (from Sweet Apples) ....  45.193
  Ditto (from Sour Apples)      ....  45.853
  Ditto (in Pectinate of Lead)   ....  43.5
  Acetic Acid (anhydrous).....47.06
  Citric Acid (hypothetical or dry)  .   .    .  43.63
  Ditto (commercial crystals)   ....  34.29
  Tartaric Acid (anhydrous)    ....  36.36
.  Alcohol.........52.18
  {Butter.........65.6
  Mutton Fat........78.996
  Hog's Lard........79.098
  Olive Oil     ........77.75
b. Nitrogenized:
Proteine Com-
  pounds.
Gelatinous
  Animal Albumen (from Eggs)     .    .    .  55.000
  ------   Fibrine  ...       ...  55.002
  ------■   Caseine (from fresh Milk)    .    .  54.825
«  Vegetable Albumen (from Wheat)    .    .  55.01
  -------Fibrine.......54.617
  -------Caseine.......54.133
I Gluten (from Wheat      .....55.22
(Tendons of Calves'  Feet.....50.960
< Isinglass      ........50.557
^Cartilages of Calves' ribs (chondrine)  .    .  50.895
2.—Compound Aliments.
a.  Vegetable:
Wheat  (dried in vacuo at 230° Fahr.)
Oats (ditto)       ....
Rye (ditto)       ....
Potatoes     .....
Ditto (dried in vacuo at 230°  Fahr.)
Turnips.....
Ditto (dried in vacuo at 230° Fahr.)
Jerusalem Artichoke (ditto)
Peas.....
Ditto (dried in vacuo at 230° Fahr.)
Lentils       ...
Beans        ...
Fresh Bread
Black Bread (dried at 210°)
  b.  Animal :
Ox Blood
Ditlo (dried) ....
Fresh Meat (devoid of fat)  .
Ditto (with  l-7th fat. and cellular tissue)
Dry muscular Flesh (Beef)  .
Roasted Flesh (Roe Deer)  .
Ditto (Beef) ....
Ditto (Veal) ....
Soup of the House of Arrest at Giessen
46.1
50.7
46.2
12.2598
44.0
 3.217
42.9
43.3
35.743
46.5
37.33
38.24
30.15
45.41
10.392)
51.96 <
13.6
21.75
51.89
52.60
52.59
52.52
 0.46348
 Authority.

Prout.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto
Ditto.
Mulder.
Mulder.
Fremy.
Berard.
Chevreul.
Ditto.
Calculated from Saussure.
Scherer.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Jones.
Scherer.
Ditto.
Jones.
Scherer.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Boussingault.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Playfair.
Boussingault.
Playfair.
Ditto.
Liebig.
Bceckmann.


Playfair and
  Bceckmann.
Liebig.
Ditto.
Bceckmann.
Ditto.
Playfair.
Ditto.
Liebig.
  The quantity of carbon consumed, in the form of food, by different individuals and at
different times, is subject to  very considerable variation.  Age, sex,  peculiarities, (indi-
from Liebig's Animal Chemistry, (London, 1842.)   Those of Boussingault, are taken from his papers in
the Annates de Chimie et de Physique, (t. Ixiii., lxvii., Ixix., and lxxi.)—The results of Mulder's analysis of
pectine, I have taken from the Pharmaceutisches Central-Blatt fur 1833, (p. 338;) those of Fremy's analy-
sis of the same substance from the Journal de Pharmacie, (t. xxvi. p. 373.)  Prout's experiments were
published in the Philosophical  Transactions for 1827.  I have taken the results of Berard's  and Chev-
reul's analyses from L. Gmelin's Handbuch der theoretischen Chemie, (vol. ii. p. 439.) 
6
ELEMENTS  OF FOODS.
vidual or national,) temperature and density of the air, occupation, (laborious  or inac-
tive,) and amount of clothing, are among the circumstances which produce these diversi-
ties.
  "From the accurate determination of the quantity of carbon  daily taken into  the sys-
tem in the food, as well as of that proportion of it which  passes out of the body in the
faeces  and  urine, unburned—that  is, in some form in which it  is not combined with
oxygen—it appears  that  an adult,  taking  moderate exercise,  consumes  13-9 oz. [Hes-
sian=15-3 oz. avoirdupois] of carbon daily.*
  Liebig's statement is based on observations made on  the average daily consumption of
food by from 27 to 30 soldiers, of the Body Guard of the  Grand Duke of Hesse Darm-
stadt in barracks,  for a month, or by 855 men for one day.  I have drawn up the follow-
ing table from  his statements,  and  converted the Hessian weights  into  avoirdupois
weights.
Kinds of Food.	Avoirdupois weight of Food.	Avoirdupois weight of Carbon.
Ordinary meat containing l-7th of fat and cellular tissue Fat or Lard Lentils .... Peas..... Beans .... Potatoes .... Bread ....	lbs. oz. grs. 1 306 4 186 3 13 304-5 3 10 412 12 12 161 15 0 76 1093 2 357 1923 9 214-5	lbs. oz. grs. 66 9 397-5 3 1 1561 | 11 10 131-2 133 5 374-2 603 15 300-5
Total for 855 men for one day Average for one man for one day ....	3358 5 398-5 I 3 14 370-5	818 11 46 " 0 15 140
In addition to the above, the 855 men consumed,

          Of Green Vegetables (Cabbages, Greens, Turnips, &c.)   192   15   15™
          Of Sourkrout........110    2 325
          Of Onions, Leeks, Celery, &c......26   11 203-5

                    Total for 855 men for one day    .    .    326    6 55
                    Average for one man for one day  .   ..     0    6 635
  It also appears, from an  approximate  report of the serjeant-major, that each  soldier
consumed daily, on an  average, out of the barracks,  the following  quantities of other
foods:—

              Sausages    ......    33-10oz.           > Avoirdupois
              Butter      .....3-4 oz. & 33 1-3 grs. <  weight.
              Beer......5-10 pint
              Brandy......1-10 pint

  So that we  may fairly assume, that each of these soldiers consumed  daily  about one
pound  (avoirdupois) of carbon.  Now if we  suppose that while under experiment he
neither gained nor lost in weight, what, it may be asked, became of the carbon thus taken
in the form of food 1
  I shall assume, with Liebig,  that the carbon  of the  green vegetables, sourkrout,  and
onions, was equal to that of the fasces and the urine, and shall exclude from our calcula-
  * Liebig, Animal Chemistry, or Organic Chemistry in its  Applications to Physiology and
edited by Dr. W. Gregory, p. 14.  Lond. 1842. 
CARBON.                                   7
tion  the  carbon of the  small  quantity  of food (sausages,  butter, beer,  and  brandy)
taken in the alehouse.  We have, therefore, to  account for  the  disposal of 15  ozs. 140
grs.  avoirdupois (=6702$  grs. troy)  of carbon ;  nearly  the  whole of which  quantity
must have been thrown out of the system  by the lungs and  the  skin  in  the  form of
carbonic acid.
  Now, G grs. of carbon combine with 16 grs. of  oxygen, and form 22 grs. of carbonic acid.
Hence 6702$ grs. troy of carbon require 17,840  grs. of oxygen  gas  to  yield  24,542$ grs.
of carbonic acid ; and this quantity of oxygen must, therefore,  be  derived  from the air,
either by the lungs or skin, or by both.  But oxygen is also consumed in the system in the
oxidation of hydrogen, sulphur, and phosphorus, and  this quantity also must be derived
from the same source (the atmosphere) and by the same means.
  The quantity of oxygen consumed, and of carbonic  acid  produced,  in respiration, by
an adult man,  in twenty-four hours, has been variously estimated as follows:—
Consumption of Oxygen and Production of Carbonic Acid in Respiration by an Adult Man in 24 hours.		
Oxygen consumed.	Carbonic Acid produced.	Carbon contained in the Carbonic Acid.
Cubic In. Grs. Lavoisier & Seguin 46037 or 15661 Menzies .... 51480 or 17625 Davy.....45504 or 15751 Allen & Pepys . . 39600 or 13464 Coathupe . . • . ---- ----	Cubic In. Grs. 14930 or 8584 31680 or 17811 39600 or 18612 17856 ----	Grs. 2820 (French) ---- (English) 4853 (ditto) -5148 (ditto) 2616 (ditto)
   It is obvious that the highest  of these estimates is below the quantity of oxygen re-
 quired  to  oxidate the carbon consumed by the Darmstadt soldiers.  But in drawing any
 conclusions as to the absolute amount of oxygen consumed in respiration, we must not
 omit to consider the numerous circumstances which interfere with the results, and render
 it difficult, if not impossible, to obtain a correct estimate.  The management of the ap-
 paratus, the nicety of the manipulation, the degree of muscular exertion  employed, the
 quantity and quality of* the food consumed by the individual experimented on, the state
 of the system, and various other circumstances, concur in affecting the results.
   Moreover, it is probable that  the skin produces on the air changes analogous to those
 effected by the lungs: that is, it absorbs oxygen, and evolves carbonic acid. *
   Furthermore, if the amount of carbonaceous food be less  than that supplied to the
 Darmstadt soldiers, it is obvious that less oxygen will be required to oxidize the  carbon.
 Now, according to Liebig, "prisoners in the Bridewell at Marienschloss (a prison where
 labor is enforced)  do not consume more than 105 oz. [Hessian=11568 avoirdupois] of
 carbon daily;  those in the House of Arrest at Giessen, who are deprived of all exercise,
 consume only 9 oz.f  [Hessian=99 avoirdupois;) and  in a  family well known  to  me,
 consisting of nine individuals, five adults,  and four  children of different ages, the aver-
 age daily consumption  of carbon for  each is not more  than 95 oz. (Hessian =10-46
 avoirdupois)  of carbon.   We  may safely assume, as an approximation, that the  quanti-
 ties of oxygen consumed in these different cases are in the  ratio of these numbers."

  * See Bostock's Elementary System of Physiology, vol. ii. p. 237, et seq.  Lond. 1826.
  t At  p. 36 of the English  translation  of Liebig's Animal Chemistry, it is stated that 85 oz. of carbon
are consumed: but at p. 293, the translator has given reasons for believing that the quantity should be
9oz. 
8
ELEMENTS  OF FOODS.
  Ten ounces  avoirdupois  or 4375 grs.  troy of carbon combine  with 116666 grs. troy
of oxygen, and thereby form 16041*6 grs. of carbonic acid.
  By the union of carbon with oxygen, in whatever part  of the  system this is effected,
heat must  be evolved.  At least, in  all other cases,  the  formation of carbonic  acid is
attended with the evolution of heat;  and we have a right, therefore, to assume, that the
same takes  place within the body.   We are,  in fact,  acquainted with no conceivable
reason why  it  should be otherwise.  Now, according to Despretz,* one pound of pure
charcoal evolves, by its combustion in oxygen gas, sufficient heat  to  raise the tempera-
ture of 781bs. of water from 32° Fahr. to 212° Fahr.; and this  must be about the amount
evolved  in the case of the  Darmstadt soldiers, independently of the heat produced by
the union of oxygen with hydrogen hereafter to be noticed.
  It appears to me that we  have a sufficient explanation of animal temperature in  the
chemical changes just referred to.   Indeed, it cannot be doubted that a large  proportion,
if not the whole,  of the heat evolved by animals, is produced  by chemical action.  But
it is scarcely  to be  expected that experiments can be so nicely and delicately performed
as to demonstrate in a precise manner the truth of this  chemical  theory of animal heat:
for  while, on the one hand, considerable difficulty is experienced in determining the actu-
al quantity  of combustible matter oxidated in  the system,  it is almost  impossible, on the
other, to estimate, with absolute nicety, the amount of heat actually imparted by  a living
animal  to surrounding bodies.  The results of our experiments, therefore, can only fur-
nish, at the most, approximations to the truth, f
  Liebig has endeavored  to show, that by  the  conversion of starch or sugar into fat,
oxygen is supplied to the system;  and that by the union of this disengaged oxygen with
carbon (from the bile, for example) heat is developed.  Suppose 1 equivalent of carbonic
acid, COa, and 7 equivalents of oxygen, 0„ to be abstracted from  1 equivalent  of  starch,
CM  H10 Oj0, we have, in the residue, the empirical formula for fat, Cn H10 O.

                 RELATIVE COMPOSITION OF STARCH AND FAT.
1 eq. Starch .  .  Cja H10 On
1 eq. Fat.....Clx H10 O
1 eq. Carbonic Acid C         0*
7 eq. Oxygen  ...         07
Cl2 Hio On
  The oxygen thus presumed to be separated from the starch, can only be disengaged in
the form of either  carbonic acid or water, or of both; therefore it  must have combined
with carbon or hydrogen, or both.J  Now, Liebig has adduced several reasons for presum-
ing that heat  must  attend the  formation of carbonic acid under  these  circumstances.
"Thus," says this  distinguished chemist, "in the formation of fat, the  vital force pos-
sesses a means of counteracting a deficiency in the supply of oxygen, and consequently
in that of the heat indispensable for the vital process.
  In the natural and healthy condition of the system, the  food  supplies  the  necessary
carbon for the support of animal heat, but when food is withheld, the fat  of the body is
consumed; its carbon being converted into carbonic acid, its hydrogen into water.  Ex-
perience has satisfactorily shown that the heat of the blood in health  is the same in all
climates and in all conditions of atmospheric temperature.  Now it follows that a larger

  *  Graham, Elements of Chemistry, p. 250
  t  Despretz observes, that in none of his experiments did respiration produce less than 7-10ths nor
more than 9-10ths of the whole heat emitted by the animal, (Ann. de Chimie et Physiq. t. xxvi. p.' 361
1824.)  See also Dulong's paper in the Mem. de VAcad. Royale des Sciences, t. xviii. p. 327  1842.
  t For some objections to these views of Liebig, see note on page 27.—L. 
CARBON.                                       9
quantity of combustible matter is required in cold climates and cold weather, for keeping
up this temperature, than in hot climates and warm weather; since a greater amount of
heat must be given off to surrounding media in the former than in the latter.   Hence the
necessity for a more liberal supply of food in  cold weather.   " He  who is well fed," ob-
serves  Sir John Ross,*  " resists cold better  than  the man  who  is  stinted,  while  the
starvation from cold follows but too soon a starvation in food.  This, doubtless,  explains
in a great measure  the resisting  powers of  the natives of these frozen climates; their
consumption  of food, it  is familiar, being  enormous,  and  often incredible."!   Moreover,
it is obvious that  the foods  which, theoretically, appear to  be best suited  for the inhabit-
ants of these colder  climates, are those which contain the largest amount of carbon and
hydrogen, viz.,  the fats and oils, which contain from 66 to 80 per cent, of carbon.   The
celebrated traveller just quoted,  further remarks, "that in every  expedition or voyage to
a polar region, at least if a  winter residence is contemplated, the  quantity of food should
be increased, be that as inconvenient as  it may.  It would be very desirable indeed, if
the men  could acquire the taste for Greenland food, since all experience  has shown that
the large use of oil and fat  meats is the true secret of life  in  these frozen countries, and
that  the natives  cannot subsist without it, becoming diseased, and dying, with a more
meager diet."
   The  effect of cold in augmenting, and of heat in diminishing  the appetite for food, is
well known.  I will not, however, go  the length of Liebig in asserting,  that if we were
to go naked, as the Indians, or if in hunting or fishing we were  exposed  to the  same
degree of cold as the Samoyedes, we should be able to consume the half of a calf, besides
a  dozen  of candles.}:   For though it  must be admitted  that the inhabitant  of a frozen

  * Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a Northwest Passage, page 200.  London, 1835.
  t IMost persons are familiar with the accounts which have been published respecting the gormandizing
powers of the natives of the Arctic regions.  Captain Sir W. E. Parry (Second Voyage for the Discovery
of the Northwest  Passage, p. 413, London, 1824) states that, as a matter of curiosity, he one day tried
how much food an Esquimaux lad, scarcely full grown, would consume, if freely supplied.  " The under-
mentioned articles were weighed before being given to him; he was twenty hours in getting through
them, and certainly  did not consider the quantity extraordinary."
                                     lbs-  °z-   The fluids were in fair proportion, viz:—
      Sea-horse flesh, hard frozen ...  4    4
           ditto     boiled.....4    4  Rich gravy soup,  .  .   H pint.
      Bread and bread-dust.....1   12 Raw spirits,  ....   3 wine  glasses.
                                     ------ Strong grog, ....   1 tumbler.
                 Total......10    4 Water,......1 gallon 1 pint.
  Sir John Ross (Narrative, p. 448, 1835) says, that an Esquimaux " perhaps eats twenty pounds of flesh
and oil" daily.
  But the most marvellous account of gormandizing powers is that  published by  Captain Cochrane,
(Narrative of a Pedestrian Journey through Russia  and Siberian  Tartary, vol. i. p.  255, 3d edit. 1825.)
He says that the Russian Admiral Saritcheff was told that  one of the Yakuti consumed in twenty-four
hours "the hind quarter of a large ox, twenty pounds of fat, and a proportionate quantity of melted butter
for his drink."  The Admiral, to test the truth of the statement, gave him " a thick porridge of rice boiled
down with three pounds of butter, weighing together twenty-eight pounds, and although the glutton had
already breakfasted, yet did he sit down to it with great eagerness, and consumed the whole without stir-
ring from the spot; and, except that his stomach betrayed more than ordinary fulness,  he showed no sign
of inconvenience  or injury !!"   Captain Cochrane also  states (p. 352) that a good calf, weighing about
two hundred pounds, " may serve four or five good Yakuti for a single meal."  In another place (p. 255)
the same traveller  observes that he has repeatedly seen  a  Yakut or Tongouse devour forty pounds
of meat a day ;  and, he adds, "I have seen three of these gluttons consume a rein-deer at one meal."
  X Annalen der Cliemie und Pharmacie,  vol.  xli.  Liebig, or his translator,  seems  to have had some
misgivings about  the  "half of  a calf," since, in the English translation,  I find  10 pounds of flesh"
substituted. 
10                            ELEMENTS OF  FOODS.
region requires more abundant food than he who lives in a temperate climate, yet it is
an error to ascribe  the voracity  and gormandizing powers of some of the natives of the
colder regions to the influence of cold only.  The Hottentots and the Bushmen [Bosjes-
mans]* of Southern Africa, indulge, as is well known, in beastly gluttony, yet this cannot
be the effect of the temperature of their climate; while "the inhabitants  of the Alpine
regions of Southern Europe  demand no such  extravagance of food, nor  are even the
people of Lapland and the  northern extremity of Norway conspicuous for such  eating;
as is not less true of the Icelanders."!  Instead, therefore, of ascribing the gluttony of the
inhabitants of frozen regions solely to the low temperature to which  they are  exposed, I
consider it to be in  part the result of an instinct  or propensity exercised by some  portion
of the brain.  Phrenologists place alimentiveness, or the organ of the  propensity to eat and
drink, " at the base of the middle lobe of the brain, adjoining and immediately below the
situation occupied by the organ of destructiveness in carnivorous animals.":):  But while
I entertain no doubt of the existence  of such .a propensity, I do not wish to offer any
opinion as to the precise seat of it within the skull.   To varying  degrees  in the power
and activity of this propensity I ascribe the greater or less fondness for good  living evinced
by different individuals.   It is well known that some persons  are  notorious, among  their
friends and acquaintances,  for their gormandizing propensity, while others are commonly
reputed as being little eaters.   Similar differences are observed between different nations.
" The great difference which exists between the French and Germans, in  the organs of
alimentiveness, accounts for the  difference  between the two  nations in sobriety.   After
the Spaniards, no nation in Europe is more sober than the French; while the Germans
are essentially great feeders.   Among a pretty considerable number of German, Spanish,
and French soldiers, who  were in the  same hospital at Caen,  I have observed," says
Dr. Vimont, " that a remarkable  difference existed among them in regard  to the faculty
in question.  A light soup, some fruit, or a  little meat, were sufficient for the Spaniards ;
the repast of the French consisted of three fourths of the portion;  while the Germans
swallowed  the whole allowance, and continually  complained that they did not receive
enough of meat and potatoes. Every time I happened to pass the wards where the Ger-
mans were placed, I was certain to be assailed by the words flesh, flesh, sir  .'"§II
   Much less heat is evolved when there is  a deficiency of food.  " During the whole of
our march," observes Sir John Franklin,1T " we  experienced, that no quantity of clothing


  * Barrow (Account of Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa, vol. i. p. 152.  1801) says that the
Hottentots are " the greatest gluttons upon the face of the earth.  Ten of our Hottentots," he adds, " ate a
middling-sized ox, all but the two hind legs, in three days; but they had very little sleep during the time,
and had fasted the two preceding days.  With them the word is to eat or to sleep.  When  they cannot
indulge in the gratification of the one, they generally find immediate relief in flying to the other."
  The same authority, when  speaking of the Bosjesmans, (op. at. p. 283,) says that  they are equally
 filthy and gluttonous with the voracious vultures.  " The three who accompanied us to our wagons  had
 a sheep given to them about five in the evening, which was entirely consumed by  them before the
 noon of the following day.  They  continued, however, to eat all night, without sleep and without
 intermission, till they had finished the whole animal.  After this, their lank  bellies were distended to
 such a degree that they looked less like human creatures than before."
   t Sir J. Ross, op. supra cit. p. 447.
   X A System of Phrenology, by George Combe,  p. 230, 4th ed.  Edinburgh, 1836.
   § Dr. Vimont, quoted by Mr. G. Combe, in his System of Phrenology, p. 765.
   II See Appendix, A.
   IT Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the years 1819 to 1822, p. 424.  London 
HYDROGEN.                                11
could keep us warm while we fasted, but on those occasions when we were enabled to
go to bed with full stomachs, we passed the night in  a warm  and comfortable  manner."
In tropical climates, and even in cooler regions during the summer, a smaller quantity of
food suffices to keep up the temperature of the body, and under the same circumstances
substances containing a less proportion of carbon are better adapted for the preservation
of health.
   The frequency of diseases of the liver, in hot seasons and tropical climates, is ascribed
by Liebig to the accumulation of carbon in the system.  " In our climate," he observes,*
"hepatic diseases, or those arising  from excess of carbon, prevail in summer;  in winter,
pulmonic diseases, or those arising from excess of oxygen, are more frequent."
   When the external temperature  is high, less carbon is requisite to support the natural
heat of the body, and in consequence of the air being expanded, we inhale, at each
inspiration, less oxygen by weight  than in colder climates and seasons.  If,  therefore, we
continue to consume  large quantities of food, there will be an excess of carbonaceous
matter in the system.
   The influence of external temperature, excess of food, and want of exercise, on  the
condition of the liver, is well  shown in the goose.   The  celebrated pates de foies gras,
prepared at Strasburg, are made of the livers of geese, artificially enlarged " by the cruel
process of shutting the birds up  in  coops, within a room heated to a very high  tempera-
ture, and stuffing them constantly  with food."f
   In tropical climates and in hot seasons the system requires a smaller quantity, and  a
less carbonaceous quality, of food than  in  colder countries and cold seasons; and the
frequent occurrence of hepatic disease among Europeans, who reside in tropical countries,
is probably in  part owing to their continued employment of a dietetical system  fitted for
colder climates.J
   2. Hydrogen.—Hydrogen, like carbon, is an  essential constituent  of every organized tis-
sue ; and is, in consequence, a necessary ingredient of the food of every living being, both
vegetable and animal.  The nutritive principles of seeds, the albumen and oil of eggs, and
the sugar, the butter and  caseine of milk, therefore, contain it.
RELATIVE QUANTITY OF HYDROGEN AND OXYGEN IN
              ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
Group 1.—Principles whose oxygen and hydrogen are in the same ratio as in water.	Group 2. — Principles con-taining an excess of hy-drogen.	Group 3. — Principles con-taining an excess of oxy-gen.
Acetic Acid Starch Sugar Gum	Oil Alcohol Malic Acid Fibrine 1 Animal Albumen [ and Caseine J Vegetable Gluten Gelatine	Pectine Citric Acid Tartaric Acid .i
  Considered with respect to the  quantity of hydrogen which they contain,  alimentary
principles may be arranged in  three groups:  the first containing those substances whose
oxygen  and hydrogen are in  the same relative proportion as in water; the  second, in-

  * Animal Chemistry, p. 24.
  t Murray's Hand-Book for  Travellers on the Continent;  being a Guide through Holland, Belgium,
Prussia, and Northern Germany, p. 448.  London, 1836.
  X See Appendix, B. 
12
ELEMENTS OF FOODS.
eluding those whose oxygen is to  the  hydrogen in a less  proportion than in water, or
which contain an excess of hydrogen ; and the third, comprehending those whose oxygen
is  to  the hydrogen in a proportion greater than is necessary to form water,  or  which

possess an excess of oxygen.
  Group 1.—Alimentary principles whose oxygen and hydrogen are in the same ratio as in
water.  The  substances of this group may be regarded as hydrates of carbon, since they
consist of carbon  and water, (or its elements.)  Their composition is as follows:—

                              HYDRATES OF CARBON.

                  Acetic Acid.....12 C+
                  Starch.......12 C 4-
                  Cane Sugar.....12 C -j-
                  Gum........12 C -f 10 Water 4- 1 Water
                  Sugar of Milk.....12 C + 10 Water - - 2 Water
                  Grape Sugar.....12 C + 10 Water + 4 Water

  It is obvious that these foods can  yield carbon only to be oxidated in the system, since
the hydrogen is  already  in combination  with oxygen.  This,  therefore, is a  sufficient
explanation  of the  fact mentioned  by Liebig, that  the graminivorous animals expire  a
volume of carbonic acid equal to that of the oxygen inspired; in other words, there is no
loss of oxygen, since one volume of  carbonic acid gas contains a volume of oxygen.
 9 Water
10 Water
10 Water + 1 Water
2eq.	1 eq.
Oxygen	Carbon
= 16	=6
  1 eq.
Carbonic
  Acid
  = 22
  In a state of nature, a large proportion of the food of these animals consists of prin-
ciples (starch, sugar, and gum) whose hydrogen is  saturated with oxygen.  In no other
way can we account for the fact just referred to;  for, as Liebig correctly observes,  " at
the temperature of the body, the  affinity of hydrogen for oxygen far surpasses that of
carbon for the  same element," and, therefore, the return of an equal volume of carbonic
acid by expiration  is an evidence  that there was a want of hydrogen for the oxygen to
combine with.
  Group 2.  Alimentary principles, whose oxygen is to the hydrogen in a less proportion than
in water, or which contain an excess of hydrogen.—This group  includes both  nitrogenized
and non-nitrogenized food.  If we suppose the oxygen of these principles to be combined
with hydrogen in the ratio to form  water, there will remain, for each,  an excess of hydro-
gen; the amount of which, however,  varies in  different substances.  The following table,
constructed on this view, shows the excess  of hydrogen which each principle contains,
the amount of carbon in each being calculated  to be  the same :—
ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES CONTAINING AN EXCESS OF HYDROGEN.
Malic Acid (anhydrous)
Fat (Lard)  .
Alcohol
Proteine
Albumen
Fibrine
Caseine
Gelatinous tissues, tendons
Chondrine  .
=48 C+ 18  Water-
 =48C-|-  4.5
24
14
14
=48 C-
=48 C-
=48 C-
=48 C4- 14
=48 C-- 14
=48 C-- 18
=48 C-- 20
 6  H
38.5 H
-f 48
   22
4- 22
   22
-- 22
-- 23
   20
H
H4-6N
H-6N4-S+P*
H—6 N4-2 S+P
H--6N+S
H--7.5N
H-6N
  * The letters S and P are not intended to express the absolute number of equivalents of sulphur and
phosphorus, but only the relative proportions of these two elements to each other. 
HYDROGEN.
13
  The ultimate changes which these constituents of food undergo in the system, are the
conversion of the carbon into carbonic acid, and the hydrogen into  water.   " It  signifies
nothing," says Liebig, "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 unbumed or  unoxidized carbon, is expelled in the urine or in the solid excrements."
  By the union of hydrogen with oxygen, and the consequent formation of water, a con-
siderable degree of heat is developed.  According to Despretz,* one pound  of hydrogen
yields, by combustion with oxygen,  sufficient heat to raise the temperature  of 236*4 lbs.
of water from 32° Fahr. to 212° Fahr.; weight for weight, therefore, hydrogen greatly ex-
ceeds carbon in its calorific power.
  Part of the heat developed in carnivorous animals must arise from the oxidation of hy-
drogen ; for, in the first place, hydrogen (as of the fat) disappears from  the  system, and
there is no other mode by which it can have done so except by union with  oxygen, and
its consequent conversion into water.f  In the  second place,  of the atmospheric oxygen
taken  into the lungs during inspiration, the  whole is not found, in the inspired air, in union
with carbon, nearly every experimenter having detected a loss.|
  Bostock} calculates that 45,000  cubic inches of oxygen gas are consumed in respiration
by a man, under ordinary circumstances, in twenty-four hours ; but that  of  this  quantity
only about 40,000 cubic inches are found in the expired  air in combination  with carbon.
The remaining 5000  cubic inches must, therefore, be employed in the oxidation  of other
combustible matters (principally hydrogen) in the system.
  Group 3.   Alimentary principles,  whose oxygen is to the hydrogen in a proportion greater
than is necessary  to form water.—None of the substances of this group, which  includes pec-
tine (vegetable jelly)  and some  vegetable  acids, are nitrogenized.  The following table
represents the composition of these principles, on the supposition that the hydrogen is com-
bined  with oxygen, in the ratio to form water, the calculation  being made for the same
amount of carbon in each :—
         ALIMENTARY  PRINCIPLES CONTAINING AN EXCESS OF OXYGEN.
                  Pectine   ....   = 12 C+85 Water+11 O
                  Citric Acid (dry)      .   .   =12 c4- 5    "4-60
                  Tartaric Acid (dry)   .   .   =12 0+ 6    "4-90
All the hydrogen and part of the carbon of  these principles are, therefore, in combination
with oxygen.
  3. Oxygen.—Of all undecompounded or elementary substances, none  presents,  to my
mind, so much interest as oxygen—a principle which constitutes not less than three-fourths
of the  known terraqueous globell—which is concerned  in  almost every change that occurs
  * Graham, Elements of Chemistry, p. 250.
  t Hydrogen gas is often secreted within the intestinal canal; sometimes, in cases of disease, in very large
quantities.—L.
  X Messrs. Allen and Pepys (Phil. Trans. 1809, p. 404) ascribed the slight loss observed in their researches
to some accidental circumstance, and inferred, therefore, that the oxygen which disappears is exactly re-
placed by an equal  volume of carbonic acid.
  § Elementary System of Physiology, vol. ii. p. 110. London, 1826.
  II The following calculations support the above statement:—Oxygen is a constituent of the Atmosphere,
of the Water, and of the Mineral Crust of the globe.  It constitutes 23-100 by weight of the air, 8-9 of the
aqueous vapor, and  16-22 of the carbonic acid of the atmosphere.  Water, which covers 3-4 of the globe,
at an average depth of about three miles, contains 8-9 of its weight of oxygen. Silica, carbonate of lime,
and, alumina, the three most  abundant  constituents of  the strata of the earth,  contain nearly half their
weight of oxygen.  Mr. De la Beche (Researches in Theoretical Geology, p. 8) calculates that silica alone
constitutes 45 per cent, of the mineral crust of the globe, and of this, one-half is oxygen. 
14                           ELEMENTS  OF FOODS.
among natural bodies—and which is so mysteriously connected with life, that without its
never-ceasing influence all vital phenomena  would speedily cease !  As the continuance
of the flame of a candle or lamp depends on the due supply of oxygen to  the  fat or the
oil, and as in the voltaic apparatus, an electric current is excited by the oxidizement of a
metal, so animal life seems to be inseparably connected with the influence  of oxygen on
the organism.  Interrupt the influence of oxygen and the flame is extinguished, the electric
current is stopped, and all vital phenomena cease.  In  all three processes, matter (oil,
zinc, organic substances) is destroyed or consumed by  the oxygen, or in other words, un-
dergoes a change of form.  So that though oxygen be  essential to life—though it be vital
air—yet its ultimate effect is destructive; just as, in the lamp, it is the  cause of the flame,
but consumes the oil.   " Man, and every other  animal, are exposed at every  period of
their lives to the unceasing and destructive action of the atmosphere ;  with every breath
he expires a part of his body, every moment of his life he produces carbonic acid, the car-
bon of which his food must replace."
  Oxygen is a necessary ingredient of our food.   The relative proportions of oxygen and
hydrogen in different foods have been already alluded to, (p. 12.)   The following  table,
taken from  Liebig, gives the relative proportions of carbon and oxygen in several alimen-
tary principles :—
RELATIVE PROPORTIONS OF CARBON  AND OXYGEN  IN ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
     In Fats (on an average)     .   .   120 equivalents of Carbon 10 equivalents of Oxygen
     In Fibrine, Albumen, and Caseine   120         "         36
     In Starch.....120         "        100
     In Cane Sugar    ....   120         "        110
     In Gum.....120         "        110
     In Sugar of Milk     ...   120         «        120
     In Grape Sugar   ....   120         "        140
  As the carbon and hydrogen of the food are ultimately, for the most part, thrown out
of the system in combination with oxygen—that i?, in the form of carbonic acid and water—
it follows that those foods which contain a small proportion of oxygen only must consume
a greater amount of atmospheric oxygen  than those which possess  a  larger quantity of
this element. It cannot be doubted, therefore, that the quality of the food must affect the
activity of the function  of respiration.  This is quite in accordance with the results of ex-
perience.  Mr. Spalding,* a diver, found  that he consumed more  atmospheric  oxygen in
his diving-bell, when  he had used a diet of animal food, or drank spirituous liquors; and
experience, therefore, had taught him that vegetable food, and water for drink, were best
adapted for  the performance of the duties of his business.  Dr. Fyfef also found that the
consumption of oxygen was greatly reduced  by the employment of vegetable diet, though
he differed from Mr. Spalding in his account of the effect of alcohol on the respiratory
function.
  The influence exercised by  matters taken into  the stomach on the process of respiration,
is well illustrated in  the case of the vegetable  salts of potash or soda.  If the  acetate,
citrate, or tartrate of either of these alkalies be swallowed, the salt suffers partial decom-
position in its passage through the system.  Its base can  be detected in the urine;  but its
acid has disappeared,  and  is replaced  by carbonic acid.   To effect this change, a con-
siderable quantity of oxygen  must be consumed.  In  the case  of acetate of potash, no
less than eight equivalents of oxygen are required to convert the carbon of every atom
of acetic  acid into carbonic acid.

  * See Dr. John Murray's System of Materia Medica and Pharmacy, vol. i. 509, 5th ed.  Edinb. 1828.
  t Quoted by Dr. Bostock, in his Elementary System of Physiology, vol. ii. p. 90.   London  1826. 
NITROGEN.                                 15
CONVERSION OF ACETIC ACID INTO CARBONIC ACID AND WATER.
1 equivalent Acetic Acid C1 O3 H3 8 " Oxygen — Os —	4 equivalents Carbonic Acid C<t Os 3 " Water — Os H
Total . . . C4 On H3	Total . . C4O11H3
  When we take an ordinary effervescing draught composed of tartaric acid and bicar-
bonate of soda, there is developed, by their mutual reaction, tartrate of soda, which in its
passage through the system, suffers decomposition.  Its tartaric acid  disappears, and  is
converted into carbonic acid and water by means of oxygen.

      CONVERSION OF TARTARIC ACID INTO CARBONIC ACID AND WATER.
1 equivalent Tartaric Acid C4 O5 H2 5 " Oxygen — O5 —	4 equivalents Carbonic Acid C4 Os — 2 " Water — Oa H2
Total . . . C4 O10 H2	Total . . . C4O10H2
   Now the eight equivalents of oxygen in the first case, and the five  equivalents in the
latter instance, must be derived either from  the  organism or from the atmosphere.  But,
as Liebig justly observes, there is no evidence presented by the organism in itself that any
of its constituents have yielded so  large a quantity  of oxygen;  and we have a right,
therefore, to infer  that it must have been  derived from the air; and that these salts, in
their passage through the lungs, appropriate to themselves the necessary amount of oxy-
gen.  But do they appropriate that which, if they were not present, would  be otherwise
employed in the  organism 1   Or do they consume an extra  quantity of oxygen 1  We
have  no precise data on which we can satisfactorily answer this question.  Liebig asserts
that they must consume  a part of the oxygen, which would otherwise unite with the con-
stituents of the blood ; and "the immediate consequence," he  observes, " of this must be
the formation of arterial blood in less quantity; or, in other words,  the process of respira-
tion must be retarded."   But it appears to me, that Liebig's conclusion is by no means a
necessary one, and that on this, as on several other occasions, he has decided somewhat
hastily,  and written much too positively.  I have already shown that the amount  of oxy-
gen, consumed by respiration, is  modified  by  the  quality of  the food; and it is by no
means improbable, therefore, that the passage of the above-mentioned sails  through the
lungs may occasion a temporary augmented consumption of  oxygen ; but  the  evidence
for or against this  notion is yet to be  adduced.
   4. Nitrogen or  Azote.—Nitrogen  is  distinguished from the three preceding substances,
by the  indifference which it manifests to  enter into chemical combination with other
bodies.  It is an essential constituent of every animal  tissue.*  Fat and water  are non-
nitrogenized components of the animal body, but they are not organized or living sub-
stances.  It  is obvious, therefore, that for the development, growth,  nutrition, and renova-
tion of  living animal  parts, nitrogen is essential; and accordingly we  find,  that nature
has supplied it in the food which she has furnished  for the  nourishment of the young
animal; it being a constituent of the albumen of the  yolk of the  egg,  (the  food of the
embryo  chick,) and of the caseine of  the milk, (the aliment of the young mammal.)
   A large number  of vegetable and animal substances  used as food contains no nitrogen.
The following table shows the per-centage quantity of  this element in various foods:—


  * " The chief ingredients of the blood contain nearly 17 per cent, of nitrogen, and no part of an organ
contains less than 17 per cent, of nitrogen."—Liebig. 
16                             ELEMENTS OF FOODS.
QUANTITY OF NITROGEN IN CERTAIN FOODS.
 Proteine
Compounds
                              1. In Alimentary Principles.

                                                           Per centage of
                                                             Nitrogen.
              Animal Albumen (of eggs)..........15-920
              Vegetable Albumen (of wheat)........15-920
              Animal fibrine..............15817
            <{ Vegetable fibrine.............15-809
              Animal caseine..............15-724
              Vegetable caseine.............15-672
              Gluten.................1598
            C Tendons of calves' feet...........18-470
 Gelatinous.  ^Isinglass................18-790
            ( Cartilage of calves' ribs (chrondine).......14-908

                                    2. Compound Aliments.

Wheat (dried in vacuo at 230° Fahr.)............23
Rye  (ditto)....................  1-7
Oats  (ditto)....................2-2
Barley (dried at 212°).................202
Rice  (ditto)....................  1-39
Indian Corn or Maize (ditto)...............2-0
Peas  (dried in vacuo at 230° Fahr.)............42
Horse beans (dried at 212° Fahr.).............55
White haricots (ditto).................4-3
Lentils        (ditto).................44
Potatoes (fresh)...................0-37
Ditto (dried at 212°  Fahr.)...............1-80
Ditto kept ten months.................0-28
Ditto (dried at 212° Fahr.)................1-18
Jerusalem artichokes (dried in vacuo at 230° Fahr.).......1-6
White garden cabbage........'.........0-28
Ditto (dried at 212° Fahr.)................3-70
Carrot (dried at 212° Fahr.)...............2-40
Turnips......................017
Ditto (dried at 212 Fahr.)................2-20
Dried ox blood   ...................15-08
Dried muscular flesh (beef)...............1505
Roasted flesh (roe deer).................15-23
      Ditto   (beef).................15-214
      Ditto   (veal)    .................1470
 Authority.
Scherer.
Jones.
Scherer.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Jones.
Scherer.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Boussingault.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Boeckman.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Playfair.
Ditto.
   Several circumstances have induced recent writers to conclude  that nitrogenized foods
are alone capable of conversion into blood, and of forming organized tissues;  that, in fact,
they only are  the foods  properly  so  called.   Hence  Liebig has denominated them the
plastic elements of nutrition.   The non-nilrogenized foods, it is said, are incapable of trans-
formation into blood, and  are, therefore, unfitted, for forming organized or  living tissues.
They are, nevertheless, essential to health;  and Liebig asserts  that  their  function is to
support the process of respiration, (by yielding carbon and hydrogen, the oxidation of
which is attended with the development of heat,) and some of them, he states, contribute
to the formation of fat  These non-nitrogenized foods he  calls elements of respiration.
           Nitrogenized Foods,
     or Plastic Elements of Nutrition.
Vegetable Fibrine
-------- Albumen
          Caseine
         Non-nitrogenized Foods,
        or Elements of Respiration.
Fat                          Pectine
Starch                       Bassorine
Gum                         Wine
Cane Sugar                   Beer
Grape Sugar                  Spirits
Sugar of Milk
  I propose now to state briefly those circumstances which have  been  adduced in favor
of the opinion, that nitrogenized foods alone nourish  the tissues; offering, as  I proceed,
short commentaries on them.
  1. The first argument is, that as the animal tissues  contain nitrogen as one of their essen- 
NITROGEN.                                  17
   tial constituents, and as this element cannot be created in the system, it must be derived from
   either the food or the atmosphere;  but as it is not absorbed from the atmosphere in the vital
   process, it must be obtained from the food.
     It appears to me, that if it can be demonstrated that " no nitrogen is absorbed from the
   atmosphere," the most important fact in favor of nitrogenized food  is  obtained.  But has
   this been satisfactorily  done 1  I think not.  Numerous researches have been undertaken
   by different persons to determine this point, but the  results  have been  most discordant.
   Some of the experimenters have  declared that the nitrogen of the air  is  passive in
   respiration ;  some have asserted that nitrogen is generated  in the lungs; some that it is
   absorbed ; others that  it is both absorbed and exhaled—under certain circumstances ab-
   sorption  being most active, under others  exhalation.  What conclusions,  then, it may
   be asked, have  cautious,  unbiassed,  and well-informed physiologists  drawn from these
   discrepant assertions ?  Miiller, one of Liebig's countrymen, and the  most distinguished
   physiologist  of the age, observes that "The  conclusion  to  be deduced from all these
   experiments seems to be, that during respiration nitrogen is both absorbed and exhaled
   by the blood."*  Dr. Carpenterf concludes his account of the chemical phenomena  of
   respiration with the following observation:—" Thus, there will be a continual exosmose
   of carbonic acid and nitrogen,  and a  continual endosmose of oxygen  and nitrogen; and
   the relative quantities of these gases exhaled and absorbed will be subject to continual va-
   riation  from secondary causes."  Lastly, Dr. BostockJ observes, that "It is  probable that
   the blood, as it passes through the lungs, both absorbs and exhales nitrogen, the proportion
   which these operations bear to  each other being very variable, and  depending upon cer-
   tain states of the system, or upon the operation of external agents."
     Thus,  then, it appears that some of the best systematic physiological writers admit the
   absorption of nitrogen ; and it is, therefore, somewhat  remarkable that  both Liebig and
   Dumas§ should make such positive and unqualified denials of it, without adducing some
   new facts in proof of the accuracy of their own views.  Their opinions must, I presume,
   be founded on the experiments  of DulongH and Despretz.1T   The first of these philosophers
i   has given an account of seventeen experiments made on animals.  In fourteen cases he
j   found that nitrogen was exhaled, in one that it was absorbed, in one that it underwent no
   change, and  in one the result is not stated.  Dulong,  however, seemed to think that fur-
   ther experiments were  required to verify these results ;  for he observes, that " the exhala-
   tion of nitrogen by the pulmonary surface was a phenomenon too remarkable to be passed
   over without an attempt being made to verify it in an indubitable manner; and I propose,"
   he adds,  " to make some  special experiments for this purpose."  With regard to  Des-
   pretz's experiments, it  is deserving of especial notice, that whenever his  conclusions mili-
   tate against the opinions of Liebig and Dumas, they offer sundry objections to his experi-

    * Baly's Translation of Miiller's Elements of Physiology, vol. i. p. 310.  London, 1833.
    t Principles of Human Physiology, p. 438.  London, 1842.
    X Elementary System of Fhysiohsy, vol. ii. p. 143.  1826.
    <5> " Animals constantly exhale nitrogen," says 31. Dumas, (Essai de Slatique Chimique des Etres Organ-
   ises p. 36,2me. ed. 1812.) " I insist on this point," he adds, " in order to dispel one of those illusions, which,
   in my opinion, are among the most obnoxious to your studies.  Some observers have admitted, in respira-
   tion, an absorption of nitrogen; but this is never observed except under circumstances which render it
   more than doubtful.   The constant phenomenon is the exhalation of this gas, as Despretz has very cor-
   rectly stated."
    II Memoire sur la Chaleur Animale, read to the Academy of Sciences  at Paris in  1822, but published in
   the 18th vol. of the Mtmnires of the Academy in 1842.
    1T Annates de Chimie et de Physique, t. xxvi. p. 337.  1824.
2 
18                             ELEMENTS  OF FOODS.
conclusions; but where the results of his investigations coincide with their opinions, no
objections are made to his experiments.*
  That animals frequently, if not  generally, exhale nitrogen, can scarcely be denied; but
the question is, whether, when animals are supplied  with food which contains a quantity
of nitrogen insufficient for the wants of the  system, nitrogen  may not then be absorbed
by the lungs ?  This question, it appears to me, remains yet to be solved ; and I am not,
therefore, disposed to adopt Liebig's unqualified assertion that " no nitrogen is absorbed
from the atmosphere ;" the more especially as it is in opposition to the experiments of
Priestley, Davy, Cuvier, Pfaff,  Henderson,  Spallanzani, Edwards,  and others, and to the
generally received opinions of physiologists.   It appears to me to be completely begging
the question.   The establishment  or rejection of the theory of nitrogenized foods is  most
essentially affected by the present argument;  for should  it  be  shown  that nitrogen is
absorbed  by  the lungs, we have then another  source  for the nitrogen of the  tissues;
while, on the other hand, if nitrogen be not absorbed, the tissues can obtain this  element
from the food only.f \
  But there is another source of nitrogen which has not been hitherto noticed,—I mean
the ammonia of the atmosphere.   Liebig has demonstrated the existence of this substance
in the air, and has assigned strong reasons for believing that plants derive the nitrogen of
their nitrogenized principles from  it.  The ammonia of the  inspired air may, therefore, be
one of the sources from whence animals derive a part, small though it be, of the nitrogen
of their  system.^

  * Liebig, (Animal Chemistry, p.37,) and Dumas, (op. supra cit. p. 42,85, et seq.) The first of these chem-
ists concludes  his objections to Despretz's experiments  in these words :—" We can hardly be at a loss
what value we ought to attach to the conclusions drawn from such experiments as those above described.
These experiments, and the conclusions deduced from them, in short, are incapable  of furnishing the
smallest support to the opinion," &c. &c.
  t Dr. Prout (On the Nature and Treatment of Stomach and Urinary Diseases, p. xxvi., 3d ed.  London,
1840) considers that both sugar and fat are convertible into nitrogenized animal substances.  " That the
oleaginous principle," he observes, " may be converted into most, if not all, the matters necessary for the
existence of animal bodies, seems to be proved by the well-known fact, that the life of an animal may be
prolonged by the appropriation of the oleaginous and other matters contained within its own body."  In
a foot note (p. xxvii.) he adds, " The azote may, in  some instances, be  derived from  the air, or generated.
But my belief is, that, under ordinary circumstances, the azote is principally funished by a highly azo-
tized subtance (organized urea ?) secreted from the blood, either into  the stomach or duodenum, or into
both these localities; and that the portion of the blood thus deprived of its azote is separated from the
general mass of blood by the liver, as one of the constituents of the bile, which secretion, as a whole, is
remarkably deficient in azote."
  X Miiller remarks that " a small quantity of nitrogen is absorbed by the blood from the air respired, but it
 does not appear to perform any office in the system, since its proportion is the same in arterial and ven-
 ous blood."
   It may not be amiss to allude, in this connection, to the experiments of 31. Collard de Martigny, (Journ.
 de Physiol. 1830,) who found an increased proportion of nitrogen in air wluch had been respired, and
 also an exhalation of nitrogen by  the skin.   On the ground that nitrogen, like all other gases, is imbibed
 by moist animal membranes and by the skin, M. Collard assumes that the absorption and exhalation  of
 nitrogen go on at the same time in the lungs, but that the exhalation is the most active.  Berzelius, how-
 ever, regards the idea of a simultaneous exhalation and absorption of nitrogen  as absurd.  There can be
 no doubt, that during the respiration of man and the higher animals, nitrogen is, under some circumstances
 absorbed, and under others, exhaled; and it is highly probable that this depends on the nature of the food
 the want of nitrogen in it being supplied to the system through absorption and its  superabundance re-
 moved by exhalation.  The discrepancy in the results obtained by different experimenters can hardly be
 reconciled on any other hypothesis.—L.
   % Liebig has proved that 20,800 cubic feet of air, when saturated with aqueous vapor, contain one pound 
NITROGEN.
19
   2.  The second argument is, that non-nitrogenized foods alone are incapable of supporting
 animal life.
   It has been found, by experiments on animals, that gum, sugar, starch, or butter, cannot
 alone preserve the health and life of animals.   Magendie* found that dogs fed exclusively
 on sugar and water died in from thirty-one to thirty-four days ; and similar results were
 obtained with butter and with gum.  Tiedemann and Gmelinf have confirmed Magendie's
 statements.   They found that geese fed on sugar and water, or gum and water, or starch
 and water, died in from  sixteen to twenty-four days.
   Magendie also states,  in confirmation of the above, that in 1793, five  sailors on board
 the wreck of a vessel from Hamburgh, had subsisted for nine days on sugar and a small
 quantity of rum, and that they were found by a French vessel in a most debilitated  state,
 (the  youngest excepted.)  The three  oldest  died shortly afterwards.  He further  adds,
 that an eccentric individual in Paris had  subsisted  for nearly a month on potatoes| and
 water.  At the end  of this time  he  was extremely feeble, and passed an extraordinary
 quantity of urine;  but by the use of nitrogenized  food he recovered in a few weeks.  Sir
 Christopher \Vren§ also  states, "that it was of late years found, that the blacks, who feed
 only  on potatoes, were apt to die of the dropsy; and, therefore, the planters had found it
 necessary  to allow them milk and bread, which prevented it."  And he further observes,
 " that in Ireland, where the people  feed much on potatoes, they help themselves, by drink-
 ing milk soured, to  make the potatoes digest the better."
   This second argument has not, however, much weight; since it is well known that an
 exclusive diet of nitrogenized alimentary principles (gluten excepted) is also incapable of
 supporting animal life.   Fibrine, albumen, or  gelatine, taken separately, does not support
 life;  even the artificial mixture of these principles is insufficient to preserve life—for dogs
 thus fed,  ultimately  die with  all the signs  of complete inanition.  While, on the other
 hand, a diet  of muscular  flesh, or of raw bones, or of gluten exclusively, is  capable of
 complete and prolonged nutrition.il  H
   It has been said, however, that both gum and sugar are capable of maintaining human
 existence.   The asserted power of gum to support life rests principally on a story, told by
 Hasselquist,** of a caravan of more than one  thousand persons, travelling from Abyssinia
 to Cairo, and whose provision being exhausted, supported themselves for two  months on
 the gum they were carrying as merchandise.   But there  are no details given to satisfy us
 of the accuracy of the conclusion which has  been drawn from it.   Altogether  the case is

 of water, and if this quantity contains but one fourth of a grain of ammonia, then a field of 40,000 square
 feet would annually receive upwards of 80 lbs. of ammonia, or 65 lbs. of nitrogen ; for the annual fall of
 rain over such a surface, amounts on an average to 2,500,000 lbs.  Now, this quantity of nitrogen is much
 more than is contained in the form of vegetable albumen  and gluten in 2,650 lbs. of wood, 2,800 lbs. of
 hay, or 200 cwt. of beet-root, which are the yearly produce of such a field.  As the average amount of air
respired by an adult in twenty-four hours is about 1,540 cubic feet, or 57 hogsheads, the respiration of
20,800 cubic  feet would require thirteen days and a half, and if all the nitrogen contained in  it amounted
to no more than that assumed by Liebig, it would require fifty-four days to obtain from this source a single
grain of nitrogen.  When we consider, therefore, the  large quantity of urea in urine,  and that nearly 45
per cent, of this is nitrogen, the proportion obtained from inspired air would seem to be too  small  to be
taken into account.—L.
  * Ann. de Chun, et de Physique, t. iii. p. 66. 1816.               t Quoted by Miiller.
  X Ten thousand parts  of potatoes contain, according to Boussingault, only thirty-seven parts of nitrogen.
  $ Birch's History of the Royal Society of London, vol. iv. p. 93.
  II See the  Report  of the Gelatine Committee, in the Comptes Rendus  des Seances  de VAcademe  des
Sciences, No. V.  Aout, 1841.                    H Appendix,  C.
  ** Voyages and Travels in the Levant, p. 298.  London, 1766. 
20                            ELEMENTS OF FOODS.
not one  to be  relied on.   Of the use of gum by the Moors, Negroes, and Hottentots, we
have but little detailed and satisfactory information.
  The evidence of the nutritive property of sugar will be hereafter stated;  but I may here
mention that it applies principally to the use of this substance in an impure state, in which
it contains nitrogenous matter.*  Moreover, it is  probable that nitrogenized food is, in gen-
eral, used in  combination with sugar.
  3. The third argument is, that the food of all animals, herbivorous and carnivorous, con-
tains  nitrogenized matters, identical in composition with the principal constituents of the blood
and organized  tissues of the  animal body; and,  therefore, the carbon of gum, sugar, and
starch, and the  carbon and hydrogen of the fats and oils, are not required for the production
of blood.
  One of the most surprising facts for which we are indebted to the school of Giessen is,
that vegetables contain organic principles identical in composition  with animal  fibrine,
albumen, and caseine.  "They are not merely similar," observes Liebig, " but. absolutely
identical, not only in having the same proportion of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitro-
gen, which the animal principles contain, but also in possessing the same relative amount
of sulphur, phosphorus, and phosphate of lime."
  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, by its discoverer, Mulder, proteine (from xpaTciu—I hold
the  first place.)  Its formula,  according to  Liebig, is C« H36 Ns Ou.f  Fibrine, albumen,
and caseine, are compounds of proteine and sulphur,  and, in the case  of the two  first of
these bodies, of phosphorus also.
                   animal.                                  vegetable.
Fibrine    .    —Proteine 4- S -j- Ph.
Albumen   .    =Proteine 4- S2 4" Ph-
Caseine    .    —Proteine -\- S
Fibrine    .    =Profeine 4- S 4- Ph
Albumen   .    =Proteine •
Caseine    .    —Proteine 4- S
Sa +Ph.
  " Vegetable fibrine and animal fibrine, vegetable albumen and animal albumen, hardly
differ," says  Liebig, " even in form;  if these principles be wanting in the food,  the  nu-
trition of the animal is arrested;  and when they are present, the graminivorous animal
obtains in its food the very same principles, on the presence of which the nutrition of the
carnivora entirely depends."
  4. The fourth argument is, that the quantity of nitrogenized food, which herbivorous ani-
mals consume, is amply sufficient for the growth and development of their organs  and for  the
supply of waste.
  We are indebted to Boussingault^ for the demonstration of the truth of this statement,
in the case of the cow and the horse. The following table is taken from his memoir : the
numbers represent French grammes [1 gramme= 15-434 grs. troy.]


  * An amusing illustration of this  has been furnished by Liebig with respect to the saccharine juice
of maple  trees, which he found to emit so  much ammonia when mixed with lime, that suspicion was at
first excited that some malicious wag had introduced urine into it, and, accordingly, the vessels, which
hung upon the trees in order to collect the juice, were watched with great attention.
  t Dumas (Essai de Statique Chimique desetres organises, p. 56, 2me ed. 1842,) gives the following as the
formula for fibrine, albumen, and caseum : C48 H» N6 0>*.  This is equal to 48 eq. Carbon, 6 eq. Ammo-
nium and 15 eq. Water: he also states that the analyses made in Liebig's laboratory agree best with
the following -. C48 H3° N6 O1*, which is equal to 48  eq. Carbon, 3 eq. Ammonium, 3  eq. Ammonia, and
 15 eq. Water.
  X Ann.  de Chim. et de Physique, t. lxxi. 
FOOD CONSUMED  BY, AND  EXCRETIONS  OF, A HORSE IN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS.
FOOD CONSUMED BY A HORSE IN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS.								EXCRETIONS OF A HORSE IN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS.							
ARTICLES OF FOOD.	Weight in Fresh State.	Weight in Dry State.	a O a U	a <o bfl O ■3 >» X	a P bo p	a <0 bo >> X o	Salts and Earthy Matters.	EXCRETIONS.	Weight in Fresh State.	Weight in Dry State.	d o ■fi a	a bO o ■S >> X	c W) O	c bo >> o	Salts and Earthy Matters.
Hay .... Oats .... Water. . . .	7500 2270 16000	6465 1927	2961-0 977.0	323 2 123-3	970 42-4	25020 707-2	581-8 77-1 13-3	Urine .... Excrements . .	1330 14250	302 3525	108-7 1364-2	11-5 179-8	37-8 77-6	34.1 1328-9	109-9 574-6
Total .... Deduct Excre- ) tions. . . S	25770 15580	8392 3827	39380 14729	446-5 191-3	139-4 115-4	3209-2 13630	672-2 684-5	Total ....	15580	3827	1472-9	191-3	115-4	13630	684-5
Excess of Food	10190	4585	24651	255-2	24-0	1846.2									
Excess of Ex- ) cretions. . S					••		12-3								
		-----	-												
    * In Boussingault's table, the quantity of carbon contained in the excrements is stated to be 1364.4,  This, however, is an error, (as may be seen by referring to
p. 134 of the 71st vol. of the Annates de Chimie et Physique.) 
22                          ELEMENTS OF  FOODS.
   Now it appears from this table, that after deducting the nitrogen of the  urine and ex-
crements from that contained in the food, the surplus quantity is 21 grammes, (37014sVo
grs. troy;) and if we assume that ordinary blood contains 80 per cent of water, and that
the dry residue (20 per cent.) contains 15-07 per cent, of nitrogen, it follows that 370TVA
grs.  troy  of nitrogen  are sufficient  to form 2457-^jfifV grs.  troy of dried blood, or
12289TVo7o grs. troy (equal to lib. 12 oz. 40 grs. avoirdupois) of ordinary blood: in other
words,  about ljlb.  avoirdupois of blood may be formed daily from  the above quantity
of food.
   Moreover, 100 parts  of dried blood contain 51-96 of carbon, and, therefore, 2457tVts9o4o
grs. troy contain about 1277 grs. troy of carbon.  If, therefore, we  abstract the latter quan-
tity from 38046T3„so¥o grs- tr°y (=2465-1 grammes,) the residual carbon in Boussingault's
table, we have 36369TV9oVo  grs. troy  (5 lbs. 3oz. 56£grs. avoirdupois)  of carbon to be
thrown out of the system by the lungs and skin in the form of carbonic acid.  Now Bous-
singault calculates that a horse expires  daily 28078 grs.  troy (about 4  lbs. avoirdupois)
of carbon.
   I have thus endeavored to lay before my readers the opinions  recently advanced with
respect to the uses of nitrogenized and non-nitrogenized foods  in the animal economy.
These  opinions may be thus briefly stated :—
   1. Nitrogenized foods are alone capable of conversion into blood, and of forming organ-
ized tissues.
   2. Nitrogenized foods which contain proteine, as albumen, fibrine,  caseine, and  gluten,
alone form the albuminous and fibrinous tissues.
   3. Gelatine is incapable of conversion  into blood ; but it may perhaps serve for the nu-
trition of the gelatinous tissues, (cellular  tissue, membrane, and cartilage.)
   4. Non-nitrogenized  foods support the process of respiration by yielding  carbon,  and, in
some cases, hydrogen, to be burnt in the lungs, and thereby to keep  up the animal tem-
perature.
   5. Some of the non-nitrogenized foods contribute to the formation of fat, the carbon and
hydrogen  of which are  ultimately burnt in the lungs, and  thereby develop heat.
   6. With the exception of the substance of cellular tissue, of membranes, and of the brain
and nerves, all the organic materials of  which the animal body is composed are derived
from vegetables, which alone possess the property of producing compounds of proteine.
   The evidence hitherto adduced in favor of these opinions, I have already briefly  noticed
and criticised.  I propose now to state a few circumstances which appear to me to raise
some difficulties or objections to  the unqualified  admission of the opinions above refer-
red to.
   1. When benzoic acid, a non-nitrogenous substance, is taken  into  the  stomach, it ap-
pears in the urine in the form of  hippuric acid.  For this fact we are indebted  to Dr.
Alexander Ure.   This  hippuric  acid is  probably formed by the elements  of the  benzoic
acid, with the addition  of those of lactate of urea.

        1 eq. Urea  .    .   .    C* Na H* O'
        1 eq. Lactic Acid    .    C6 — H4 O1
        1 eq. Benzoic Acid   .    C28-  H10 O8
              Total    .   .     C3«NJ H»0]

   It cannot, therefore, be doubted, " that a non-azotized substance, taken in the food, can
take a share, by means of its elements, in the act of transformation of the animal  tissues,
and in the formation of a secretion."  Consequently, the possibility of the conversion of
2 eq. crystallized  > CM ^ j
  Hippuric Acid   J 
NITROGEN.
23
non-nitrogenized foods into nitrogenized constituents of the animal body does not appear
by any means improbable.
  2. Liebig's explanation of the uses of nitrogenized and non-nitrogenized foods does not
account for the fact stated  by the Commissioners of the French Academy,* that while
fibrine, albumen, and gelatine, taken together or separately, are  incapable of supporting
animal life, gluten from wheat or maize is alone sufficient to satisfy complete  and pro-
longed nutrition.  As fibrine, albumen, and gluten, are said to be identical in composition,
their nutritive powers ought to be equal.f
  3. According  to Liebig and Dumas, sugar is an element of respiration.  Now as it can
only reach the lungs by means of the blood, traces  of it  ought to be found in this fluid :
yet it does not  appear that sugar is a constituent of healthy blood.  At least it has not
hitherto been found in it, though to o o^th Part of sugar added to blood can be readily de-
tected.!  This circumstance, therefore, seems rather to show that sugar undergoes some
complete change in its nature previous  to its passage into the blood.   Several facts favor
this opinion.   In the first place,—of the foods (viz. yolk of eggs, and milk,) supplied by
nature for the early stages of animal existence, sugar is  found only in that food (milk)
which undergoes digestion before its application to the purposes of the  economy.  Sec-
ondly, in diabetes, the digestive powers are greatly impaired, and saccharine assimilation
is suspended.  Sugar is then detected  in the blood.  Now it cannot be said that its pres-
ence is owing to any defect in the respiratory process, since fatty matter appears to suffer
the ordinary changes in the pulmonary organs.
  4. According to Dr. Prout,§ the contents of the  stomachs of animals fed on vegetable
substances, even when fully digested, and about to pass the pylorus, exhibit no traces of
an  albuminous principle; while the chirmous mass of animals fed on animal food contains
albumen.
COMPOSITION OF THE CHYMOUS MASS FROM THE DUODENUM OF THE DOG.
				Vegetable Food.	Animal Food.
Water . . Chyme, &c..... Albuminous Matter . Biliary Principle Vegetable Gluten ? . Saline Matters .... Insoluble Residuum .				86-5 6-0 1-6 50 0-7 0-2	80-0 15-8 1-3 1-7 0-7 0-5
				1000 | 100-0	
  It would appear, therefore, that albumen is formed subsequently to the passage  of the
chyme into the duodenum.  Now this is in complete contradiction to Liebig's statement,
that albumen pre-exists in the vegetable food of the herbivora, and is not formed in the
  *  Comptes Rendus, Aout, 1342.
  t  Tiedemann and Gmelin found it impossible to sustain the life of geese by means of boiled white of
egg.  " This," says Liebig, (Animal Chemistry, p. 106,)  "may be easily explained, when we reflect that
a graminivorous animal, especially when deprived of free motion, cannot obtain, from the transformation
or waste of the tissues alone, enough of carbon for the respiratory process.  21bs. [Hessian] of albumen
contain only 3£ oz. [Hessian]  of carbon, of which,  among the last products of transformation, a fourth
part is given off in the form of uric acid.
  X  Tromer, (Pharmaceutischcs Central-Blatl fur 1841, p. 764.)
  §  Annals of Philosophy, vol. xiii. 1819. 
24                           ELEMENTS  OF FOODS.
animal economy.*   Dr. Prout's statement harmonizes well with another fact well known
to physiologists, namely, the non-existence of fibrine in the contents of the  duodenum,
though, according to Liebig, this principle also pre-exists in the food of animals, and is not
formed by them.  It has even been said that the chyle contains  no fibrine until  after its
passage through the mesenteric glands.f
  5. If the nitrogenized substances requisite for  the  nutrition  of the animal  body exist
ready formed in plants, the necessity of more complex organs of digestion for the herbivora
than for the carnivora is not very obvious.  Liebigt thinks that it "is rather owing to the
difficulty of rendering soluble  and available for the vital processes certain non-azotized
compounds (gum 1  amylaceous fibre ?) than to any thing in the  change or transformation
of vegetable fibrine, albumen, and  caseine, into blood; since,  for this latter purpose, the
less complex digestive apparatus of the carnivora is amply sufficient."   But this suggestion
is not a very satisfactory one.   Gummy and amylaceous substances are eaten,  and, appa-
rently, digested, by some animals which are essentially carnivorous in the structure of their
alimentary canal.   Moreover, as the leading distinction in the food of  the herbivora and
carnivora consists  in the  use, by  the former, of substances  containing vegetable fibrine,
albumen, and   caseine, while  the latter employ animal fibrine, albumen, and  caseine,—it
appears more natural to connect the peculiarity in the structure of the digestive organs
with the nitrogenized, than with the non-nitrogenized food.
  6. No plausible explanation has hitherto been offered, by Liebig, or others, of the neces-
sity for the variation of diet, and for the  use of succulent vegetables or fruits, which ex-
perience has shown to be  necessary for the preservation of human health and lifo.  Liebig
has shown that food must contain  both a plastic element of nutrition and an element of
respiration; but it is well  known  that a  diet (as  of salt meat and biscuit) which  fulfils
both of these conditions, is not always sufficient to preserve health and life.
  It cannot be a matter of doubt that non-nitrogenized substances are intended by nature
to constitute part of the food of man and other animals, but especially of the herbivora,
since we find them in the aliments supplied by nature  for animals  during the first period
of their existence.   Thus,  in the yolk of egg (the food of the embryo chick) we find fixed
oil,—and  in milk we have sugar and butter, both  non-nitrogenous principles.   If to these
proofs we further add the fondness of animals for nitrogenized substances, the craving, nay,
almost insatiable desire, for them, manifested by individuals who are deprived  of  them,
and the fact before  mentioned, that nitrogenized food alone cannot support life, not a doubt
can remain in our minds that these principles are essential to  health and life.
   In commencing our inquiry, then, into the particular purpose they serve in the animal
economy, I would observe, in the  first place, that with the exception of fat, none of them
are constituents of the animal system ;  nor in a state of health are  they found in the
bloody  or the excretions.   It is obvious, therefore, that they must suffer some change or
transformation in the organism.   Now they all consist of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.
In  starch, sugar, and gum, the hydrogen and oxygen are exactly in the ratio  to  form wa-

  * I have already (p. 18) noticed Dr. Prout's suggestion of the possible secretion of nitrogenized matter
by the duodenum, for the purpose of converting non-nitrogenized foods into the  nitrogenized constitu-
 ents of the body.
  t Gulliver (English Translation of Gerber's Anatomy, p. 94) says he  has seen a distinct  clot in the
 chyle of the afferent lacteals.  In this  case, therefore, fibrine must have been present.
  X Animal Chemistry, p. 165.
  $ " Hitherto grape sugar has not been detected in the blood, though j-5^-S'o Part °f i*» added to blood,
 can be readily detected," (Trommer, Pharmaceulischcs CentraVBlatt fur 1841, p. 764.) 
NITROGEN.
25
ter.   Do they, therefore, contribute  carbon, and in some cases hydrogen also, to assist in
the formation of blood 1  Liebig asserts they do not, for he observes that as the nitrogen-
ized principles used as food contain  exactly the "amount of carbon [and hydrogen] which
is required for the production of fibrine and albumen," it follows that the carbon of gum,
sugar, and starch, and the carbon and hydrogen of butter and other fats,  cannot "be em-
ployed in  the production of blood."   If the nitrogenized principles contained less carbon
than albumen and fibrine, then starch, sugar, gum, and fat, might give up some  carbon
to compensate the difference.  He, therefore, concludes, that these bodies yield their car-
bon, and,  when their hydrogen is in excess to their oxygen, part of their hydrogen also,
to form, with  atmospheric oxygen, carbonic acid and  water, and, therefore, to develop
heat.   They serve to protect the  organism from  the action of the oxygen, which, in the
absence of food,  consumes the tissues.  " If," says Liebig, "we observe a man or other
animal in  sickness, or at any time when the body is  not supplied with  nourishment to
compensate for the continual loss, we find him to  become lean;  the fat is the first to dis-
appear, it vanishes through the skin and lungs in the form of carbonic  acid  and water,
as none of it can be found in the  fasces or urine :  it resists the action of the atmosphere
on the body, and  is  a protection to the organs.   But the action of the atmosphere does
not end with the  loss of fat:  every  soluble substance of the body enters into combination
with the oxygen of the air.  The influence of the oxygen of the atmosphere is the cause
of death in most  chronic diseases;  from want of  carbon  to resist its action, that of the
nerves and brain is used.  In  a  normal state of health and nutrition, the carbon of the
carbonic acid must have another  source."  Thus, then, it would appear that nitrogenized
aliments alone are assimilated: the non-nitrogenous ones are burnt in the lungs.
   But it may be  asked, why, if both sugar and fat  serve  merely for combustion in the
lungs, are both of these principles contained in the milk, since, theoretically, one of them
would appear to  be sufficient ?  Moreover, if sugar be burnt in the lungs, is it not re-
markable  that, as I have already  stated, (p. 24,) it has not, in the healthy system, been
detected while in its passage from the digestive organs to the lungs!  Surely some traces
of it ought to  be recognizable  in the blood.   Hitherto, however, none have been found.
Does not  this fact seem to show that it undergoes some  transmutation  during digestion,
differing from that which fatty substances suffer.   The  yolk of the  egg serves directly
for the nourishment of the embryo  chick,  but  it  contains one non-nitrogenized  organic
principle  (oil)  only.  But milk, which also  serves for animal food, contains two, (butter
and sugar.)  Now milk requires  to be  digested before it can be  assimilated: whereas
yolk of egg does not,—in fact, it serves for food before the  digestive organs are devel-
oped.   This fact, therefore, favors  the notion that sugar is in some way connected with
the digestive process.
   Alcohol is classed among the elements of respiration;  and it cannot  be  doubted that
it undergoes some change  in the animal economy.   When taken into the stomach it is
absorbed,  and gets into the circulating mass.  Now, how does it get out of the system 1
Certainly  not by the bowels, urine,  or skin.  A portion of it escapes by the lungs, and is
recognizable by its  odor in  the breath; but the quantity in this  way thrown out of the
system is  comparatively small, and  is certainly quite  disproportionate to  that  often swal-
lowed. Moreover, it is principally  when the quantity taken is very large that it is most
recognizable in the breath ;—when,  in fact, the function of respiration is  very imperfectly
performed.  What, then, becomes of it 1  By  itself it cannot form tissues,  since it is de-
ficient in  some of their essential ingredients, namely, nitrogen, sulphur, and phosphorus;
and there is no reason to suppose that it contributes, even in part, to the  renovation of 
26
ELEMENTS OF FOODS.
 tissues.  Liebig's suggestion,  that it is burnt in the  lungs, and thereby converted into
 carbonic acid and water, appears to me  a very plausible one.  Now, to convert it into
 these substances, it merely requires oxygen.

          CONVERSION OF ALCOHOL  INTO CARBONIC ACID AND WATER.
           Alcohol......C4 IIs O*  1  Carbonic Acid  .  .  .   .  C4 — Os
           Oxygen......----O12    Water.......— H8 O6
             Total......C4 H6 O14  |    Total......C4 H8 O14

   By its oxidation in the lungs it must evolve caloric, and thus, when used in  modera-
 tion, it serves to support the temperature of the body.
   Alcohol, therefore, is a fuel in the animal economy, by the combustion of which caloric
 is evolved.   Common  experience favors this view.   Coachmen and others take it in cold
 weather to keep them warm, and it is familiarly used to prevent what is commonly called
 " catching cold."   In cases of extreme suffering and exhaustion from excessive  exertion
 and privation of  food,  the cautious and moderate  dietetical  use of spirit has, on many
 occasions, proved invaluable.  In  Captain Bligh's account* of the sufferings of himself
 and companions, in consequence  of the mutiny of the crew  of  the Bounty, he ob-
 serves,  " The little rum we had was of great service :  when our nights were  particu-
 larly distressing, I generally served a tea-spoonful or two to each  person: and it was
joyful tidings  when  they heard of my intentions."   It  is  said, that the inhabitants  of
 colder climates take more spirit than others,  and with less injury.  Liebig accounts for
 this by saying that they inhale a more condensed air,  that is, they take  in more oxygen
 at every inspiration; combustion is more rapid in them, and thus the elements of the al-
 cohol are more speedily got rid  of. f
   I trust that in offering these remarks on the effects of alcohol, I may not be  misunder-
 stood.   Though alcohol evolves heat in  burning, it is an obnoxious fuel.   Its volatility,
 and the facility with  which it permeates  membranes and  tissues, enable it to be rapidly
 absorbed; and when it gets into the blood it exerts a most injurious  operation, before  it
 is burnt in  the lungs,  on the brain and the liver.J  Though by its combustion heat  is
 evolved, yet, under ordinary circumstances, there are  other  better, safer, and less injuri-
 ous combustibles to be  burned in the vital lamp.J
   Some of these non-nitrogenized foods  serve another purpose in the animal economy—
 they contribute to the formation of fat.  When the quantity of these  foods taken  into the
 stomach is great, that is, out of proportion to the quantity of oxygen absorbed by the
 lungs, fat is, under some circumstances,  formed.  Sugar, starch, and gum, become, by
 the loss of part of their oxygen, fat;  for the relative proportion of their carbon  and hy-
 drogen is almost identical with that of fat.
  *  Voyage to the South Seas in 1787-9, p. 190.  Lond. 1792.
  t  The Highlanders, who it is well known are immoderate drinkers, pretend that spirit does not intoxi-
cate in the Hills as it would do in the Low Country.  (See Letters from a  Gentleman in  the North  of
Scotland to his Friend in London, vol. ii. p. 161, 5th ed.  Lond. 1818.)
  X Alcohol acts on the stomach before it  is absorbed.  Its operation on the brain and liver are probably
referable to its topical action on these organs after it gets into the blood ; for it has been detected both
in the brain and liver of those who have died under its influence.  (See my Elements of Materia Medica
vol. i. p. 359, 2d edit.)
  $ Appendix, D. 
NITROGEN.
27
RELATIVE PROPORTIONS OF CARBON  AND HYDROGEN IN SOME
                NON-NITROGENIZED PRINCIPLES.
Starch contains	79 Carbon	to	10-99 Hydrogen
Sugar	79 —	"	11-80 —
Gum	79 —	it	11-80 —
Mutton fat	79 —	"	111 —
Human fat	79 —	"	11-4 —
Hog's lard	79 —	it	11-7 —
  Some facts adduced by Liebig are almost conclusive that starch and si%ar may become
converted into fat in the animal economy.  A lean goose weighing 41bs.  gained, in thirty-
six days, during which it was fed with 241bs. of maize, 51bs. in weight, and yielded 3ilbs.
of fat.  Now this fat could not have been contained in the food ready formed, because
maize does not contain the thousandth part  of its weight of fat, or of any substances
resembling fat.   A certain number of bees, the weight of which was exactly known, were
fed with pure honey  devoid of wax.   They yielded one  part of wax for every twenty
parts of honey consumed, without any change being perceptible in their health or in their
weight.  I agree with Liebig, that with these facts before us, " it is impossible any longer
to entertain doubt as  to the formation of fat from sugar in the animal body.* f f
  Now, alcohol is  an element  of respiration.   Does  it form fat 1  I think not.  In the
first place, its carbon  and hydrogen are not in the ratio of those of fat, for it contains 79
parts of carbon to 19-74 of hydrogen.  Secondly, we  do not find that spirit drinkers are
fat;  but,  on the contrary,  emaciated.  Hogarth, in his Beer Alley  and  Gin Lane, has
ludicrously though  faithfully represented the differences in the appearance of beer topers
and spirit tipplers.  The first are plump, rubicund, and bloated ; the latter are pale, tot-
tering, emaciated, and miserable.
  But, it may be asked, what is the use of fat  in the animal economy 1  It is a reservoir
of food.   During long fasting and hybernation it  is absorbed  and consumed.   It is the
food apparently on which the animal,  at these  times, exists.  Is  it then capable of reno-
vating the tissues; and, if so, where does  it  derive the necessary quantity of nitrogen'!
Liebig asserts that it  does not renovate.  It merely yields, he says, carbon and hydrogen
to be burnt in the lungs, by  which the animal temperature  is supported without the living
organs being oxidized and destroyed.   Dr. Prout, on the  other hand, as I have already
stated, (p. 18,)  believes that fat may be converted into most, if not all, the matters neces-
sary for the existence of animal bodies.§
  Nutritive equivalents.—Several writers have endeavored  to  form a scale of nutritive
equivalents, the value of which,  if accurate, will be universally admitted.   Boussingault
has suggested one,  founded on the quantity of nitrogen contained in foods.
               BOUSSINGAULTS SCALE OF NUTRITIVE EQUIVALENTS.
 Substances.                 Equivts.
Wheat-flour   ....    100
Wheat.....107
Barley-meal   .    .    •        119
Barley  ....        130
 Substances.                   Equivts.
White haricots    ...     56
Lentils......     57
White garden cabbage  .    .    810
Ditto, dried at 212° ...     83
  * The mode of promoting obesity, practised in certain parts of the world, lends support to the above
statements.  If "we can trust to the reports of physicians who have resided in the East," says Liebig,
" the Turkish women, in their diet of rice,  and in the frequent use of enemata of strong soup, have
united the conditions necessary for the formation both of cellular tissue and fat."  M. Caullet de Vau-
moral, quoted by Mrs. Walker, (Female Beauty, p. 171.  Lond. 1837,)  states that in the Bey's seraglio
at Tripoli, women are fattened against a certain day by means of repose and baths, assisted by a diet of
Turkish flour, mixed with honey.  Fifteen days, he says, were sufficient for the purpose.
  t See page             X Appendix E.          § Appendix, F. 
28
ELEMENTS  OF FOODS.
Substances-	Equivts.	Substances.	Equivts
	117	Potatoes ....	613
Rye ....	111	Ditto, kept 10 months	894
Rice ....	177	Ditto, dried at 212°	126
Buckwheat	108	Carrot ....	757
Maize, or Indian corn	138	Ditto dried at 212° .	95
Horse-beans	44	Jerusalem artichoke	539
	67	Turnips ....	. 1335
  It will be observed, that in this table 44 parts of horse-beans, or 67 of peas, are repre-
sented as being equal in nutritive power to 100 parts of wheat flour.  Surely, this cannot
be correct 1  Liebig admits, that though lentils, beans, and peas, surpass all other vegeta-
ble  food in the quantity of nitrogen they contain, yet that they possess but small value as
articles of nourishment, because they are  deficient in the component  parts of the bones,
(subphosphate of lime and magnesia ;) they satisfy  the  appetite  without  increasing the
strength.   If this explanation  be correct, it suggests the  use of bone-ashes with either
horse-beans or peas, as constituting a  most nutritive and economical food.*
  It may be objected that all nitrogenized vegetable  principles  are  not nutritive, for the
most powerful of the vegetable poisons, as the vegetable alkalies, are nitrogenized ;f and,
therefore, the presence of such substances would lower the nutritive equivalent.   More-
over, rain-water contains  ammonia, which being contained  in the vegetable juices, would
lead to an erroneous estimate of the nutritive value of many plants.   Boussingault has
met the first of these objections by observing, that these violent poisons are not found in
appreciable quantity  in alimentary plants;  and,  therefore, a vegetable substance which
has been  accepted as animal nourishment may be inferred to  be devoid of any hurtful
principle.
  But  this assertion must be received with considerable limitation.  The solanina of po-
tatoes,  the sulphosinapisin of white mustard, and the  myronic acid of black mustard, are
nitrogenized, though  not  nutritive,  principles, which occur in substances used as  food,
and whose presence must erroneously lower the nutritive equivalent; that is, raise the
estimated nutritive  value of the  substances in which they are  respectively contained.
And if we  were  to apply  Boussingault's principle to animal substances, we should
  * The views of Dr. Prout do not seem to differ essentially from those of the Author in relation to
the use of fat in the animal economy.   Dr. Prout remarks, " that the oleaginous principle may be con-
verted into most, if not into all  the matters necessary for the existence of animal bodies, seems to be
proved  by the  well-known fact that the life of an animal may be  prolonged by the  absorption of the
oleaginous matter contained within its own body."  Dr. Prout does  not maintain that fat is capable of
renovating  the  tissues, but only that it may serve to prolong animal life ; an opinion entirely coincident
with  that of Liebig.—L.
  t Liebig asserts that all the [vegetable] poisons contain nitrogen.   But anthiarin, the active principle
of the Upas poison, is devoid of it.  Moreover, elaterin is a non-nitrogenized principle.  Furthermore,
no ratio can be  observed between the proportion  of nitrogen and the physiological effect of the vegeta-
ble nitrogenized substances.  Thus, solanina contains  1-64, picrotoxine 1-3, morphia about 5, strychnia
about 8, quina 864, and caffeine 28-78, per cent, of nitrogen ; yet solanina is a poison, caffeine not so.
Lastly, the difference between the  per centage composition of quina and strychnia is too slight to admit
of safe conclusions being drawn as to the cause of the difference of the operation of those two bodies.
Carbon
Hydrogen  .
Nitrogen
Oxygen
74-08
 7-40
 8-64
 9-88
7608
 663
 807
 9-22
10000
10000 
PHOSPHORUS.
29
in the outset meet a difficulty, in the  case of gelatine,* which contains a larger amount
of nitrogen than either flesh or blood,  but which, according to Liebig, is capable of nour-
ishing the gelatinous tissues only.
  But, notwithstanding these and other drawbacks to its accuracy, this mode of forming
a scale of nutritive equivalents is of great interest and value, on account of the extreme
difficulty of arriving at correct results by practical methods.
  5. Phosphorus.—This is a constituent of  both animals and vegetables. It is an essen-
tial ingredient of albumen  and  fibrine, and  of all  tissues composed of those principles.
Nervous matter also contains it.   Its existence in the brain has been long known.  In
1834, Couerbef advanced an absurd notion, that the healthy or morbid conditions of the
mental faculties  were connected with variations in the amount of this substance in the
cerebral matter.  "In the brains of sane men," says he, "I have found from 2 to 2-5 per
cent, of phosphorus; in those of idiots only 1 or  1-5;  while in  those of madmen there
are from 3 to 4-5 per cent.!" It is scarcely necessary to say, that  the  accuracy of this
assertion has  been disproved;  and  LassaigneJ fixes the amount of phosphorus in the
brains of madmen at from  1-93  to  1-97 per cent.
  The bones also contain phosphorus, which exists in  them in combination  with oxygen
and lime principally, constituting  a  subphosphate of lime,  (bone ash.)  Phosphorus  is
also a constituent of the sexual apparatus.  It is found in the spermatic fluid, and in the
ovary.
  As it is thus a necessary ingredient of the animal body, it must,  of course, be  an ele-
ment of the food of animals.  Thus  it is a constituent of the yolk of eggs, the food  of
the embryo chick.   " One great use of the yolk,"  says  Dr. Prout,§  " evidently is  to fur-
nish the phosphorus, entering as phosphoric acid, into  the skeleton of the  animal."  In
milk (the  aliment of young mammals)  it is also a constant ingredient, existing as sub-
phosphate  of lime.
   It is a constituent of  the blood,  the flesh,  and the bones of animals  employed by man
as food.  In the bones it exists, as I have just stated, in the form of subphosphate of lime,
which salt is also found in the  blood and flesh.   But fibrine and albumen, both of them
constituents of blood  and  flesh,  contain  phosphorus.  In  what state,  it may be asked,
does it  exist  in these organic  principles 1  When separated by an alkali, (potash,) it is
found as phosphorus or phosphoric acid.   Now it has been supposed that the oxygen  of
this acid was  derived from  the  potash, the potassium of which  combined with the sul-
phur found in both fibrine and albumen.   But  caseine  yields equally sulphuret of potas-
sium when  treated with caustic  potash, although  it contains no phosphorus to abstract
 the  oxygen.  Hence, then, it is not known  precisely in what form  phosphorus  exists in
 fibrine and albumen.  Fishes are especially rich in phosphoric matter;  a fact which ex-

  * The  reader is referred to the Comptes Rendus des Seances deVAcademie des Sciences, Aout, 1841,
for the Report made by the Gelatine Committee.  This report is the result of ten years' labor.  The re-
porter (M. Magendie) shows that though raw bones are capable of effecting the complete and prolonged
nutrition of dogs, yet that there is no process known for extracting from bones an aliment which, either
 alone, or mixed with other  substances, can  be  substituted for meat.   He also infers that—as gelatine,
 albumen, or fibrine, separately or artificially combined, are incapable of permanently nourishing ; while
 flesh, which consists of gelatine, albumen, fibrine, fat, salts, &c. combined according to laws of organic
 nature, suffices,  even in small quantity,  for complete and  prolonged nutrition—it is the " organic condi-
 tion" which forms such an important element in this process.
  t  Ann. de Chim. el de Physique, p. 190.  1834.
  X Journ. de Chim. Mid. t. 1", 11' Serie, p. 344.  1835.
  ft  Phil. Trans, for 1822, p. 388-9. 
 30                            ELEMENTS OF FOODS.

 plains the circumstance related  by Dumas,* of the evolution of phosphuretted hydrogen
 in the purification of spirit which had been used for  preserving fish.  I  have frequently
 recognised a powerfal phosphoric  odor in the breath of patients.  I have noticed that
 it occurs after certain kinds of food,  as lobster and  crab.   I have also met with it after
 the use of some Indian condiments.
  Phosphorus is a constituent of most vegetable substances, being found in the ashes of
 plants, principally  in the form of an earthy  phosphate, (lime or magnesia.)  " The soil
 in which plants grow furnishes them with phosphoric acid, and they in turn yield it to
 animals, to  be used in the formation of their bones, and of  those constituents of the
 brain which contain phosphorus.  Much more phosphorus  is thus afforded to  the body
 than  it requires, when flesh, bread, fruit, and husks of grain, are used for food,  and this
 excess is eliminated in the urine and the solid excrements.   We may form an idea of the
 quantity of phosphate of magnesia contained  in  grain, when we consider that  the con-
 cretions in the cajcum of horses consist of phosphate of magnesia and ammonia, which
 must have  been obtained from the hay and oats  consumed as  food."f  The concretions
 (hippolithi) here referred to sometimes attain the size of a child's head.   Several of this
 magnitude are contained in  the Anatomical Museum of the London Hospital.   I have
 one weighing between five and six pounds.  Ammoniacal phosphate of magnesia  " is an
 invariable constituent of the seeds of all the grasses.   It is  contained in the outer horny
husk, and is introduced into bread along with the  flour, and  also into beer.   The bran of
flour contains the  greatest  quantity of it."  " When ammonia  is mixed with beer, the
same salt separates as a  white precipitate."!
  " The small  quantity  of phosphates  which  the seeds of the  lentils,  beans, and peas
contain, must be the cause of their  small  value  as  articles of nourishment, since they
surpass all other vegetable food  in the quantity of nitrogen which enters into their com-
position.  But as the component  parts of the bones  (phosphate of lime and magnesia)
are absent, they satisfy the appetite without increasing the strength."{
  Unrefined sugar contains an earthy phosphate; for the  crust which  is deposited in
the boilers used  in  the preparation of raw sugar,  contains,  according  to  Avequin,|| no
less than 92-43 per cent, of subphosphate of lime.   " Phosphate of magnesia and am-
monia forms the principal inorganic constituent of the potatoe."1T
  The following table shows the  quantity of phosphorus contained in  some alimentary
substances:—

                 QUANTITY  OF PHOSPHORUS LN CERTAIN FOODS.
                                             Quantity of
               1000 Parts.                      Phosphorus.          Authority.**
             Fibrine (dried)    .    .   .   .)  AO,   „„        ,, ,,  ,,
             Albumen of eggs (dried).   .   . \  4'3 t0  32        Mulder.tt
             Albumen of serum of blood (dried)          3-3        3Iulder.
             Vegetable fibrine  .    .   .   .) as animal fibrine )  ,. ,.
             --------albumen .    .   .   . $  and albumen  $  "eDlS-

  *  Traite de Chimie appliquee aux Arts, t. i. p. 266.
  t Liebig, Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and  Physiology,  p 145.
  X  Op. supra cit. p. 92.                       § Ibid. p. 147.
  II  Journal de Pharmacie, t.  xxvii. p. 15.          IT Liebig, op. supra cit. p. 205.
  ** Several of the authorities quoted in this table merely state the quantity of phosphates present; 1
have, therefore, calculated the quantity of phosphorus present on the assumption that 100 parts of the
earthy phosphates are equal to 22 parts of phosphorus.
  tt Pharmaceutisches Central Blatt fur 1838, p. 885. 
PHOSPHORUS.                                31
                 1000 Ports.
              Cerebric acid (in brain)  .
              Oleophosphoric acid (in brain)
              Caseine  ....
              Bone, Ilium of Ox .
              ---- Fibia of Sheep
              Milk                 )
              Blood (average)
              Potatoes (dried)
              Wheat   ....
              Rye     ....
              Barley   ....
              Oats     ....
              Rice     ....
              Garlic   ....
  0. Sulphur.—Sulphur is  a  constituent of both animals and vegetables.   Fibrine and
albumen, and all tissues composed of these substances, contain it.  A solution of flesh
in liquor potassse contains sulphuret of potassium;  and if hydrochloric acid be added to
it, sulphuretted hydrogen is evolved, and is detected by its staining paper moistened with
a solution of sugar of lead.  The  discoloration which  a  silver spoon suffers by being
used  in eating  eggs, depends  on the  formation of sulphuret of silver.  It  is probable,
therefore, that the sulphur of both fibrine and albumen is uncombined with oxygen.  If
some white of egg, boiled  hard,  be decomposed by  heat, it evolves  hydrosulphuret of
ammonia, which discolors  paper moistened  with sugar of lead.   Caseine  also contains
sulphur, as do likewise hair and bones.   The  efficacy of a mixture of finely powdered
litharge (oxide of lead) and lime (hair dye) in staining  the hair, depends on the  forma-
tion of the black sulphuret of lead.  The lime serves  to form, in the first place, a sulphu-
ret of calcium with the sulphur of the hair.   The lead afterwards unites with the sulphur.
Animal charcoal (bone-black) evolves sulphuretted  hydrogen, when treated with  hydro-
chloric  acid, showing that sulphur was a constituent of bones.
   The existence of sulphur in so  many animal substances, serves to  explain the evolu-
tion of  sulphuretted  hydrogen and hydrosulphuret of ammonia, by  putrifying  animal
substances;   excrement, for example.   Indeed,  so  much sulphur is obtained in this way,
that some geologists  have considered it to be a source of, at least part of, the native sul-
phur of the  mineral  kingdom.**   That sulphuretted hydrogen is evolved in privies is
proved by  its darkening the  white paint, and  by its blackening silver articles (watches,
coin, spoons,  &c.)  which  have accidentally fallen into the night soil.   Game, when very
high, will sometimes discolor the silver fork used in eating it.
   Sulphur is thrown out of the system in  various  excretions.  Thus,  the urine contains
sulphates, in part formed by the action of the oxygen of the arterial blood on the sulphur

   * Journal de Pharmacie, t. xxvii. p. 453.  1841.
   t Traite de Chimie, t. vii. p. 606.
   t Chemistry of Animal Bodies, p. 241,242.  1843.
   § Essai sur I'Application de la Chimie a V Elude physiologique du Sang de VHomme, p. 211—244.
   II Thomson's Chemistry of Organic Bodies—Vegetables, p. 840.
   IT Anhilung zur chemischen Zergliederung der Vegetabilien iiberhaupt und der Gelreidearten insbesondere.
Leipzig, 1831.  The nature of the manure modifies the quantity of earthy phosphates found in corn.
   ** Brocchi, quoted by Leonhard in his Handbuch der Oryktognosie,  p. 599, Heidelberg, 1826.  When
the gate St. Antoine  at Paris was pulled down in 1778, there were found in the ditches of that place,
where many years (300?) previously excrement had been deposited, grains and crystals of sulphur depos-
ited on lime.  (Fougeroux de Bondarey,  Mem. de VAcademie Royalc des Sciences, Annee 1780, p. 105.)
It is stated in the Athenaum,  (Dec. 1, 1838, p. 860,) that Maravigno " disputes the assertions of Prof.
Gemellaro, who pretends that sulphur owes its origin to  the  decomposition of mollusca."
    Quantity of
    Phosphorus.
    9
.  12 to 19
 .  13-2
.   9-944
.  11-4334
.   0-56
.   0143
    2-5
from 0-792       T
 to 1-98
.   1-32 to 9-196 i
.   0-22 to 1-32
 .   0-352 to 132 J
 .   0-286 to 0-88
 .   0-242
Authority.
Fremy.*
Ditto.
Berzelius.t
Thomson.!
Ditto.
Berzelius.
Denis.§
Einhofflll
Hermbstaedt.1 
32                             ELEMENTS OF  FOODS.
of the metamorphosed tissues.   In the  saliva there is found an alkaline sulphocyanide ;
and in consequence of the  presence of this salt, the saliva possesses the property of red-
dening  the sesquisalts  of  iron.    The  sulphuretted hydrogen  found in the  alimen-
tary  canal is perhaps often produced by the action of decomposing organic matters on
sulphates.*
   Metallic matter  kept  in  the  mouth becomes discolored by the  action of sulphur on it.
Thus the gold  plates used to  support artificial teeth,  and the amalgam of silver, some-
times employed to  fill the  hollows of decayed teeth,  become incrusted with a film of
metallic sulphuret.  Moreover, the leaden blue line, which borders the edges of the gums
attached to the necks of the teeth, in persons whose  constitutions are  under  the  influ-
ence of lead,f is probably sulphuret of lead.  The system  derives its sulphur from ani-
mal, vegetable, and mineral  substances,  used as food.   Thus  flesh,  eggs, and milk, con-
tain it.  Vegetable fibrine,  (as of corn,) vegetable albumen,  (as of almonds, nuts, cauli-
flowers, asparagus, and  turnips,) and vegetable caseine, (as of peas  and beans,)  contain
it.  Lastly, sulphur, in  the form of sulphate of lime, is a  constituent of common and
spring water.
   Celery,  rice,  hops, ginger, and  many other  vegetable substances, contain  sulphur.
Though most culinary vegetables contain sulphur, yet in the  Cruciferoz it is especially
abundant.  Asafcetida, which contains sulphur, is sometimes  used as a condiment; and
is considered by some oriental nations as "foodfor thegods."\
   An infusion of while mustard strikes a blood-red color with  the persalts  of iron, owing
to the presence of sulphosinapisine.  By this character white mustard is readily distin-
guished from black mustard.  Both kinds of mustard-flour  charred in a tube evolve  a
sulphuretted vapor, which  blackens paper moistened with a solution of acetate of lead.
In the same way sulphur may be detected in cabbage, potatoes, and many other vegetable
foods.  If peas or almonds be boiled in  a  solution of caustic potash, and then hydrochloric
acid be added, the evolved vapor blackens paper moistened with a solution of lead, thus
showing that these seeds contained sulphur.
   The quantity of sulphur contained in various alimentary substances is as follows:—
  * An eminent chemical philosopher tells me that  he  is always much troubled with the evolution of
this gas after the use of sulphate of magnesia, (Epsom salts.)  That organic matter, in a state of decom-
position, possesses the power of decomposing sulphates, is now fully established.  Many  years since,
my friend, Mr. Pepys, (Trans, of the Geological Society, vol. i. 399,) showed that by the mutual action of
animal matter, and a solution of sulphate of iron, the latter is de-oxidated, sulphur, sulphuret of iron, and
black oxide of iron, being formed.  My friend, Professor Daniell, (Lond. Edinb. and Dub. Phil. Mag.,
July, 1841,) has  also shown that alkaline  sulphates are decomposed by decomposing organic matters.
From his statements it appears that the waters upon the western coast of Africa, to an extent of 40 000
square miles, are impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen, to an amount, in some places, exceeding that
of some of the most celebrated sulphur springs in the  world ; and he suggests that the existence of this
deleterious gas in the atmosphere, which must necessarily accompany its solution in the waters, may be
connected  with  the awful  miasma which  has hitherto proved fatal  to the explorers and settlers of the
deadly shores  of Africa, as well as of other places.  The origin of the sulphuretted  hydrogen of sea and
some other waters, has been ascribed by Dr. Marcet, (Phil. Trans. 1819, p. 195,) Mr. Malcolmson, (Trans.
of the Geological Society, 2d Ser., vol. v., p. 564, Lond.  1840,) Dr. A. Fontan, (Ann. de  Chim. et de Physique,
July, 1840,) and Professor Daniell, to the decomposition of sulphates contained in the water, by putrify-
ing vegetable matter.
   t See Dr. Burton's paper on this subject, in the Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, 2d Series, vol. v. p.
63. 1840.
   X See my Elements of Materia Medica, vol. ii. p. 1456, et seq. 2d edit.  Also Burnes's Travels  vol. i.
p. 143; and vol. ii. p. 243. 
SULPHUR—IRON.                                33
TABLE OF THE QUANTITY OF SULPHUR IN SOME ALIMENTARY  SUBSTANCES.*
             1000 Parts of                       Quantity of Sulphur.        Authority.
                                  ■  •  ■  • I   From 3-6 to 38        Mulder.
      Fibrine.
      Albumen of eggs (ovatbnmen)
      Albumen of blood (seralbumen).....               6 8        Ditto.
      Caseine.............               36        Ditto.
      Vegetable fibrine..........1    as animal fibrine,   J
      --------albumen.........[      albumen, and     >   Liebig.
      -------- caseine.........)        caseine.       )
      Volatile oil of black mustard......             2048
      Sulphosinapisine (in white mustard)  .  .  .              96-57
      Asafoetida  .  .  .   ,........              20-0        Ure.t
  These are some only of the substances from which  the  sulphur of our system is de-
rived.  Others  have been already referred to.
  7. Iron.—Iron is a constituent of most, if not all, organized beings ;  and is found in
the ashes of both animals and vegetables.   The quantity which they contain is, however,
small, and has not been accurately ascertained.  Moreover, we are unacquainted with the
precise state in which it exists in living beings.
  This metal is an essential constituent of the blood corpuscles, though, according to the
recent  researches of Scherer, it is  neither essential to hsematosin, nor necessary to the
color of the blood.  But the well-known beneficial influence of chalybeates in the disease
called Ansemia, in which the blood is found to contain a smaller quantity of iron  than in
a state  of health,  favors the notion that the  proper color of this fluid is in some way con-
nected  with the amount of iron contained in it; for one of the  most characteristic symp-
toms of this malady is an absence of the natural vermilion tint of the complexion.
  According to Denis,!  1000 parts of  the blood corpuscles yield 2 parts of per- or ses-
quioxide of iron.   But  as the  relative proportions of serum  and blood corpuscles are
subject to considerable variation, it follows that the quantity  of iron contained in a given
weight of blood cannot  be constant.   Moreover, it is probable that the proportion of this
metal in the blood corpuscles may not be uniform.
  The  quantity of sesquioxide of iron obtained from 1000 parts of blood, varies, accord-
ing to the authority^ just quoted, from 0-128 to 0-346 parts.  In pale, relaxed individuals,
of a lymphatic  temperament, in those who  have been badly fed, or have been  subjected
to frequent bleedings,  or who are laboring under  annsmia, the blood yields  the  smaller
proportion of sesquioxide above referred to.  But the blood of strong and vigorous  sub-
jects, of persons of a sanguine temperament,  and  of those who are well fed, furnishes a
much greater proportion of iron.  LiebigH assumes  the existence of a much larger quan-
tity of sesquioxide of iron in the blood than is stated by Denis in the work already quoted.1T

  * According to  Mulder, (Pharmaceutisches  Central-BMI fur 1838, p. 885,) the formula for fibrine and
ovalbumen is  C8°° H™ N'°° 02« pa S" ;  while that for seralbumen  is C8°° H^o N'«J O™ P^ S4.   But
Liebig (Animal Chemistry, p. 124) justly observes, that " Every attempt  to give the true absolute amount
of the .atoms in fibrine and albumen in a rational formula, in which the sulphur and phosphorous are
taken, not in fractions, but in entire equivalents, must be fruitless, because we are absolutely unable to
determine with perfect accuracy the exceedingly minute quantities of sulphur and phosphorus in such
compounds; and  because a variation in  the sulphur or phosphorus, smaller in  extent than the  usual
limits of errors of observation, will affect the number of atoms of carbon, hydrogen, or oxygen, to the
extent of 10 atoms or more."
  t Pharmaceutical Journal, vol. i. p. 461.
  X Essai sur V Application de la Chimie a VEtude Physiologique du Sang de VHomme, p. 205. Paris, 1838.
  § Op. supra cit. pp. 211—244.                     II Animal Chemistry, p. 273.
  If In a work published by Denis in 1830, and entitled Recherches Experimentales sur le Sang  Humain,
the mean quantity of iron in 1000 parts of blood is said to be 0-9, but in his more recent work, from which
the statement in the text has been taken, he states (p. 193) he has substituted Lecanu's method of deter-
mining the proportion of iron, as being infinitely more exact than his own.
3 
34                          ELEMENTS OF FOODS.
"According to the researches  of Denis,  Richardson, and Nasse, (Handworterbuch der
Physiologie, vol. i. p. 138,)" says Liebig, " 10,000 parts of blood contain 8 parts of peroxide
of iron."  Now 8 parts of peroxide are equal to 5r6oths parts of the pure  metal.
   Liebig regards the  compound of iron in the blood as an oxidized one.  In  the arterial
blood, it is saturated  with oxygen, (hydrated sesquioxide;) but during its passage through
the capillaries it loses part of its oxygen,* and becomes protoxide of iron,  which combines
with carbonic acid, one of the  products of the oxidation of the metamorphosed tissues,
and forms carbonate of the  protoxide of iron, which exists in venous blood.   This, in the
lungs, absorbs the same amount of oxygen it had lost, and gives out its acquired carbonic
acid.  But the fact, that for every volume of oxygen absorbed by carbonate  of the pro-
toxide  of iron no  less than four volumes of carbonic acid are evolved, appears to  me to
present some difficulties to  its admission.
QUANTITY OF  OXYGEN  ABSORBED,  AND CARBONIC  ACID EVOLVED,  BY CARBON-
                         ATE  OF THE PROTOXIDE OF IRON.
4 eq. of Carbonate of Protoxide of Iron, .  .   . 232
1 vol. or 2 eq. of Oxygen absorbed   ....  16
                                       248
4 vols, or eq. Carbonic Acid evolved ....  88
4 eq. Sesquioxide of Iron formed.....160
                                        248
  Now it has already been stated (pp. 7 and 13) that in the process  of respiration,  the
quantity, by volume, of carbonic acid expired, is not equal to that of the oxygen which has
disappeared.
  If we assume that the venous blood contains protoxide of iron, a portion only of which
is in combination with carbonic acid, this difficulty may be obviated.
QUANTITY OF OXYGEN  ABSORBED, AND CARBONIC ACID  EVOLVED, BY PROTOX-
                IDE AND CARBONATE OF THE PROTOXIDE OF IRON.
1 equivalent Carbonate of Protoxide of Iron  .  58
3 equivalents of Protoxide of Iron.....108
1 vol. or 2 equivalents of Oxygen absorbed  .  16
182
1 equivalent or vol. of Carbonic Acid evolved  22
4 equivalents of Sesquioxide of Iron .... 160
182
  "The frightful effects of sulphuretted hydrogen and  of prussic  acid, which, when in-
spired, put a stop to all the phenomena of motion  in  a few seconds, are explained in a
natural manner by the well-known action of these compounds on those of iron, when
alkalies are present; and  free alkali is never absent in  the blood," (Liebig.)f
  Iron is a constituent of the hair.  Black hair contains most  of this  metal;  white hair
the least.f
  Iron has been found by Braconnot in the  gastric juice of dogs.J  It has likewise been
detected m the chyle.||   These facts, then, explain how  this metal gets into the  blood.

  * The facility with which, under certain circumstances, the sesquioxide of iron loses part of its oxygen,
has been recently applied by Sir J. F. Herschel in the  production of photographic pictures,  termed
Ferrotypes.
  t The physiological effects of a want of the usual proportion of iron in the blood globules, yet remain
to be investigated.  If Liebig's hypothesis be correct, then such deficiency must cause the globules to
lose their property of absorbing oxygen, and of afterwards  giving up tins oxygen and carrying off the
resulting carbonic acid, which would doubtless  lead to important changes in the temperature and other
vital phenomena of the body.  The vital motions would go on, but  the change of matter would be ar-
rested; no lifeless compounds could consequently be separated, such as bile or urine, and the animal
temperature would necessarily sink.  The phenomena connected with aggravated cases of anaemia in
leuco-phlegmatic subjects, lend much plausibility to such a doctrine. See further remarks on this sub-
ject, in Appendix, F.—L.
  X Vauquelin, Ann. de Chim. lviii. p. 41.         § Ann. de Chim. et de Physiq. lix. p. 249.
  II Denis, Recherches Experimentales, p. 328.  1830. 
CHLORINE.
35
  Most articles of food contain iron.  It is a constituent of the blood found in meat.  Veal
must contain less of it than beef, since calves are usually bled copiously previous to death,
by which an anaemic state is induced.   In the yellow fat of the yolk of egg this metal may
be detected, (Liebig.)   Milk likewise contains iron, according to  Berzelius,  in  the  state
of phosphate.   Traces of iron have been detected in  most vegetable foods.   Mustard,
cabbage, potatoes, peas, and cucumbers, may be mentioned as examples.
  8. Chlorine.—This elementary substance  is a  constituent of  the blood, the  gastric
juice, and several of  the  excretions, as the urine,  saliva, tears, and  faeces.   In  the blood
and the excretions it  exists in combination with sodium, while in the  gastric juice it is
found combined  with hydrogen, and thereby  constituting hydrochloric acid.
  As the chlorine of the blood is constantly being consumed in the formation of the gas-
tric juice and secretions,  it requires to be frequently renewed.  Hence it is an indispensa-
ble constituent of our  food ; and is taken into the system in the form of chloride of sodium
or common  salt, which  contains 60 per cent,  of  chlorine.  To the embryo chick nature
has  supplied it in both the white and the yolk of egg, while  the young mammal  finds it
in its mother's milk.  The appetite which all animals evince for common salt shows that
it is an agent indispensable for their health.  Its uses will be hereafter pointed out*


  * One of the most important uses of chloride of sodium (common salt) is the formation of hydrochloric
acid, an essential ingredient of the gastric juice. By what particular agency, whether by electricity or
affinity, this decomposition is effected, we are unable to determine precisely, but that the hydrochloric
acid of this juice derives  its chlorine from  the chloride of sodium, can scarcely be  doubted. Its hydrogen
is probably derived from water, the oxygen of which at the same time  unites with the sodium to form
soda.
  The gastric juice consists essentially  of water, gastric mucus, and hydrochloric  acid.   As mucus is a
fluid secretion of all the mucous membranes,  while the mucus of the gastric membrane alone yields,
with water and hydrochloric  acid, a digestive liquor, it  is probable that the mucus of the stomach con-
tains some peculiar organic principle, not hitherto isolated, on which its peculiar properties depend.  To
this  principle, the term pepsin (from rim, I digest) has  been applied.  An artificial  digestive liquor is
readily prepared by macerating the lining membrane of the fourth stomach of the calf in water, to which
a few  drops of hydrochloric  acid have been added.  If small cubes of white of egg, boiled hard, be
macerated in this  liquor, their more superficial parts  become translucent, and  their edges  and angles
rounded.  Very gradually they are dissolved, presenting during the process the  appearance of a cube
of soap, dissolving in water, and having a gelatiniform character. The yolk of egg yields a turbid liquor,
owing to the presence of fat globules.  A  piece  of cooked beefsteak becomes pulpy at the surface,  and
gradually dissolves.
  These changes are produced neither by an infusion of the  stomach, nor by diluted hydrochloric acid
employed separately; but by the  two conjointly they are readily effected.
  Now, Liebig asserts, " that  the substance which is present in the gastric juice in a state of  change is a
product of the transformation  of the stomach itself;" and he goes on to state, that "the fresh lining mem-
brane of the stomach of a calf, digested with weak muriatic  acid, gives to this fluid no power of dissolving
boiled flesh or coagulated white of egg; but  if previously allowed to dry, or if left for a  time in water,
it then yields to water, acidulated with muriatic acid, a substance in minute quantity, the decomposition
of which is already commenced, and is completed in the solution."
  But several circumstances appear to me to be opposed to  this view.  The fact ascertained by Schwann,
that  the solvent principle of the digestive  fluid can be precipitated from its neutral  solution by acetate
of lead, and  be  obtained again in an active state from the precipitate by means of sulphuretted hydro-
gen,  is apparently inconsistent with Liebig's idea, that this  principle is matter in a state of decomposition
or transformation.   Moreover, if the essential part of the gastric juice—that by which digestion is effected
—be a mere transformation of the stomach, how is it that  other parts of analogous structure and compo-
sition do not suffer  the same transformation ?  I have tried to obtain a digestive liquor from the second
stomach of the calf, and  from the  bladder, but in vain.  How is it that this fancied transformation goes
on, during life, only when solicited to do so by the presence of aliment or by mechanical irritation ?  Dr.
Beaumont ascertained that pure gastric juice will keep for many months without becoming fetid: a fact 
36
ELEMENTS OF FOODS.
   Sodium.—Sodium is a constituent of the blood, the animal  tissues, and the secretions.
Owing to its presence, the ashes of animal substances  (feathers, bristles, hair^, flesh, &c.)
possess the property of communicating a yellow tinge  to flame.
   This metal is taken into the system, principally in the form of chloride, which contains
40 per cent, of the metal.  This salt is used at our table as a  condiment, and is a constit-
uent of most animal foods.   Thus it is contained in both the white and the yolk of egg, in
milk, and in flesh.   It is not  an ordinary constituent of plants, unless they grow in the
neighborhood of the sea or other salt water.   Minute quantities of it are found in most of
our common waters.
   Sodium is expelled from the system both in the form of chloride and of oxysalt.  In the
urine of flesh-eating animals it exists in the form of sulphate  and phosphate of soda.*
   11. Calcium.—This metal  is a component part of all animals.  In the higher classes it
exists principally in the form  of subphosphate of lime.   Thus, the bones of the vertebrata
contain this salt mixed with a small portion of carbonate of lime.  But the shells and crusts
of invertebrated animals, as  lobsters, oysters, &c., consist  of carbonate  principally, but
mixed with a little subphosphate of lime.   Muscles, nervous matter, the liver, the thyroid
gland, and, indeed, all the animal solids, as well as the  blood, contain calcium in the form
of subphosphate of lime.
   Calcium is a constituent of the white, the yolk, and the shell of eggs ; and it is probable
that the calcium found in the skeleton of the  chick, when it  quits the  shell, was derived
from one  or more of these sources.-)-  It is likewise a  constituent of milk, and from this
source the young mammal derives the requisite subphosphate of lime  for deposition in his
bones.
   We derive the calcium of our system from  the animal, vegetable, and mineral sub-
stances which we consume as food.  Thus bones, flesh, viscera, blood, and milk of animals,
yield us this metal. To these  sources must be  added eggs, as above  mentioned.  Most
vegetables also contain it.  Thus subphosphate of lime is found in  cereal grains, onions,
and garlic ; the oxalate exists in the stalks of garden  rhubarb used for making tarts and
puddings ; the tartrate is found in grapes; gum and unrefined sugar  yield ashes contain-
ing calcium.  Another source of calcium is common water, (well and river water,) which
usually contains both  bicarbonate and sulphate of lime.

scarcely explicable on the hypothesis that its activity depends on a principle in a state of decomposition.
I find that while acidulated infusions of the second stomach of the calf, and of the  bladder  soon become
putrid and fetid, that of the fourth stomach remains remarkably free from unpleasant smell for several
weeks.  Lastly, I find, contrary to Liebig's statement, that a digestive  liquor can be prepared from the
fresh undried fourth stomach of a  calf.
   I cannot agree with Liebig, that digestion is  a  process analogous to fermentation; that, in fact it is
nothing more than the transformation of food, effected by the contact of matter in a state of decomposition.
If it were, a small quantity of gastric juice ought to be capable of effecting the  digestion of an unlimited
quantity of food.  Now, the experiments of Dr.  Beaumont on the natural gastric juice, and of Schwann
on the artificial digestive liquor, prove that this is not the case.  Both found that  only a certain amount
of food could be digested with a given quantity of gastric juice :  and Dr. Beaumont observes, that "when
the juice becomes saturated, it refuses to dissolve more ; and if an excess of food have been taken the
residue remains in the stomach, or passes into the bowels in a crude state."  Now, this fact is quite in-
consistent with the fermentation theory.
   * Appendix, G.
   t This, however, is denied by Dr. Prout, (Phil. Trans. 1322, p. 399.)  " I think I can venture to assert "
says he, "after the most patient and attentive investigation, that it [the lime of the  skeleton of the chick]
does no* pre-exist in the recent «£•/; certainly not, at least in any  known state.  The only possible sources
therefore, whence it can be derived, are from the shell, or transmutation from other principles."  I have
before (p. 3) noticed Dr. Prout's opinions as to the origin of the lime  of the chick when it leaves the shell. 
MAGNESIUM—POTASSIUM—FLUORINE.
37
  " The Chinese," says  Mr. Medhurst,* " use great quantities of gypsum, [sulphate of
lime,] which they mix with pulse, in order to form a jelly, of which they are very fond."
  In  some  conditions of  system  a morbid  appetite for calcareous substances  exists.
" Physicians," says Liebig, " are well acquainted with the fact, that children who are not
well supplied with a sufficient  quantity of lime in their food, eat that which they collect
from the walls of houses, with the same appetite that they have  for their meals."   Such
cases are, according to my experience,  very rare ; and there is no evidence to prove Lie-
big's assertion, that in these cases the food was deficient in its ordinary proportion of lime.
  12. Magnesium.—Small quantities of this metal are found  in the  blood, teeth, bones,
nervous matter, thyroid gland, and other parts of the body.   It exists in  combination with
oxygen and phosphoric acid, and often with ammonia also.   (See Phosphorus.)
  It is a constituent of both vegetable and animal foods.  Thus it is found in cereal grains,
potatoes, flesh of animals, milk, eggs, &c.
  13. PoTAssiuM.f  Minute traces of potassium exist in blood, the  solids, and several of
the secretions of animals.
  Liebigf states, that " without  an abundant supply of potash, the production of milk be-
comes  impossible ;"  but I know not  on what  authority he makes  this  statement, for
Schwartz^ found only seven  parts of chloride of potassium  (equivalent to 3-68 parts of
potassium) in 10,000 parts of human milk—a quantity apparently too minute to be of much
importance.
  Potassium is a constituent of both animal and vegetable food.  Most plants which grow
inland contain it; thus,  it  is found in grapes and potatoes.   Its presence may be readily
detected : burn a grape  stalk in the candle—the minute ash obtained at the point of the
burnt stalk  will, if introduced into the outer or almost  colorless cone of the flame, com-
municate a violet tint; thus demonstrating the presence of potassium or potash.
  Nitrate of potash  is sometimes used in the preparation of salted meats.  This, therefore,
is another source of potassium  in the system.  Moreover, common salt contains  minute
traces of this metal.
  14. Fluorine.—Berzelius detected minute quantities of fluoride of calcium in the bones
and teeth of animals; but, more recently, Dr. G. O.  Rees failed to detect it.  If fluorine
be a normal constituent of the body, it  is doubtless introduced into the system in the small
portions of the bones of animals occasionally swallowed with their flesh, for it cannot be
derived from plants, since  it has never been  detected in these bodies.  It  is remarkable,
however, that fluoride of calcium is abundant in fossilized bones, and  in the human bones,
found at Pompeii and Herculaneum.||

  *  China, its State and Prospects, p. 33.  London, 1838.
  t  Potassium is the metallic basis of the alkali potash—first discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy.—L.
  X Animal Chemistry, p. 164.
  §  Gmelin, Handbuuh der theorelisclien Chemie, vol. ii. p. 1403.
  II Fluorine is the base of the acid contained in fluor spar: with hydrogen, it forms the hydrofluoric acid.
Though the existence of this body is rendered very probable by analogical reasoning, and recent experi-
ments have gone very far in  establishing its distinctive characters, yet it cannot be prepared in an isolated
form, or exhibited like the other simple bodies : for such is the intensity and variety of its affinities, that
no sooner is it liberated  from combination with one substance, than it enters into union with some other,
attacking the materials of which the apparatus used may be constructed.  It combines with  sulphur,
phosphorus, and hydrogen, but not with oxygen.  (Kane's Chemistry, p.  320.)— L. 
38
ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
                      Chap.  II.—Of Alimentary Principles.

  Two or more of the undecompounded bodies, described in the last chapter, form, by
their union with each other, certain compound substances, termed Alimentary Principles,
or Simple Aliments;  and, by the combination or mixture of the latter, our ordinary foods,
called Compound Aliments, are formed.
  Some alimentary  principles  contain two elements only, as  Water.   Others contain
three, as Sugar and  Fat.  Proteine is formed of four elements, while Fibrine and Albu-
men contain six.
  Some alimentary principles, as Water and common Salt, are derived from the Mineral
Kingdom : others are obtained from the Organized Kingdom.
  Dr. Prout* arranges alimentary principles in four great classes or groups, viz.,  the aque-
ous, the saccharine, the oleaginous, and the albuminous.  The types of these groups are
found in milk, the only article  of food actually furnished and intended by nature as  food
for animals.  Thus  this  secretion contains water, sugar, butter, and caseum, (an albumi-
nous substance.)
   This arrangement is  a  very excellent one; but several  reasons induce  me to adopt
another.  Milk holds in  solution saline matter, which is  also an  essential  article of food
to the adult animal, and hence I shall admit another class under the name of the saline
aliments.
   Moreover, both chemical and physiological  considerations induce me to separate  gela-
tine from albuminous  principles, and, therefore,  it will  be necessary to have a separate
group  for gelatinous principles.  Furthermore, it appears  to  me  to  be  desirable to  have
distinct classes  for  gum,  sugar, starch,  vegetable jelly,  alcohol, and  vegetable acids.
Hence I admit the following classes of alimentary principles:—
                      CLASSES OF ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
I. The Aqueous.
2. The Mucilaginous or Gummy.
3. The Saccharine.
4. The Amylaceous.
5. The Ligneous.
6. The Pectinaceous.t
 7. The Acidulous.
 8. The Alcoholic.
 9. The Oily or Fatty.
10. The Proteinaceous.X
11. The Gelatinous.
12. The Saline.
                    1. THE AQUEOUS ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLE.
  Water is essential to the performance of all vital processes in the higher classes of liv-
ing beings;  Mosses, and some of the infusorial animals, may, it is said, be deprived of
moisture without having their vitality destroyed.^   But with these exceptions moisture
seems essential to vital manifestations.   This connection between vitality and moisture
led the ancients to suppose that water was the parent of every thing possessed of life.||

  * On the Nature and Treatment of Stomach and Urinary Diseases, p. vi.   Lond. 1840.
  t Pectinaceous, frompectin, vegetable jelly.
  X Proteinaceous, from proteine, the organic constituent of fibrine, albumen, and caseine.
  § Needham, Baker, Spallanzani, and Fontana, quoted by Tiedemann in his Traite Complet de Physio-
bogie de VHomme, p. 116.
  II This notion is said to have been derived from a statement made by Moses, (Genesis, ch. i. ver. 2.)  It
is taught in the Koran, (Sale's Koran, vol. ii. p. 155,) and has been embraced by Milton, (Paradise Lost,
Book vii. line 234.) 
WATER.
39
  A very large proportion  of the human body is aqueous.   The blood contains about 80

per cent, the flesh about 74 per cent, of water.   So that we may safely assume that the

entire human machine contains nearly 75 per cent, or three fourths of its weight of water.

But as by evaporation, as well as by the processes of secretion and exhalation, as also

perhaps by  decomposition, part of this fluid is wasted or consumed, the  necessity of the

use of water as a drink becomes obvious.   In fact, it is more  necessary to our existence

than solid food ; and in this point of view it holds an intermediate rank between air and

solid food, being less essential than the first, but more so than  the last.*

  The water contained in the system is derived from the aqueous  drinks which we con-

sume, as well as from the moisture contained  in most of the  solid substances employed

as food.  " Water,"  says  Dr. Prout,f  " enters into  the composition of most organized

bodies,  in two separate forms ; that is, water may constitute an essential element of a sub-

stance—as  of sugar, starch, albumen, &c,  in  their driest states;  in which case the water

cannot  be separated, without destroying the  hydrated compound.   Or water may consti-

tute an accidental ingredient  of a substance—as of sugar, starch, albumen, &c, in their

moist states; in which case more or less of the water may frequently be removed without

destroying the essential properties of the compound."

  The  following  table shows the quantity  of accidental water, or that which can be  re-

moved  by drying, without  injury to the compound, in various  articles of food:—


          QUANTITY OF WATER IN 100 PARTS OF THE FOLLOWING  FOODS.

                                                       Water.   Authority.
             Gum Arabic   .......  17-6      Guerin.
             Sugar Candy.......10-53    Peligot.
              Arrow-root (by drying at 212° Fahr.)    .     .  18-2      Prout.
              Wheat (by drying at 230° Fahr.)    .    .     .  14-5      Boussingault.
              Rye (ditto).......166      Ditto.
              Oats (ditto).......20-8      Ditto.
              Barley (ditto at 212° Fahr.)    ....  13-2      Ditto.
              Maize (ditto)   .        .....18-0      Ditto.
              Peas  .........16       Playfair.
              Beans         .......1411    Ditto.
              Lentils........159      Ditto.
              Potatoes (dried at 230° Fahr.)  ....  75-9      Boussingault.
              Turnips (ditto).......92-5      Ditto
              Carrots (ditto at 212° Fahr.)    ....  87-6      Ditto.
              Beet-root (ditto at 230° Fahr.)  ....  87-8      Ditto.
             Jerusalem Artichoke (ditto)     ....  79-2      Ditto.
              Cabbage, White (ditto  at 212° Fahr.)    .     .  92-3      Ditto.
              Black Bread.....314 to 33       Bceckmann.
              Beef Tea........984375   Christison.
              Blood........80       Liebig.
              Fresh Meat.....74-8 to 75       Bceckmann.
              Muscle of Beef.......74       Brande.
              Ditto........77-5     Schlossberger.
              Ditto of Veal.......75       Brande.
              Ditto......79-7 to 78-2      Schlossberger.
              Ditto Mutton.......71      Brande.
              Ditto Pork.......76       Ditto.
              Ditto         .......78.3      Schlossberger.
              Ditto Roe Deer    .    .    .    .    .    .  76 9      Ditto.
              Ditto Chicken.......73       Brande.
              Ditto     .    .        .....77-3      Schlossberger
              Ditto Pigeon   .        .    .        .    .76       Ditto.
              Ditto Cod.......79       Brande
              Ditto Haddock.......82       Ditto.
             Muscle of Sole.......79       Brande.
              Ditto Carp.......80-1      Schlossberger.
              Ditto Trout.......80-5      Ditto,
* See Appendix, H.
t On the Nature and Treatment of Stomach and Urinary Diseases, p. xix.  Lond. 1840. 
40
ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
                                        Water.    Authority.
Calf s Sweetbread (Thymus)  .    .    .    .70       Morin.
Ox's Liver (Parenchyma of)  .    .    .    .   6864    Braconnot.
Egg (white of).......85       Gmelin.
Ditto (yolk of).......53.77    Prout.
Milk, Cows'.......87-02")
---- Asses'.......91-65
---- Human.......87-93
----Goats'.......86-80
---- Ewes'.......85-62
O. Henry and
Chevallier.
  Water is probably the natural drink of all adults.  It serves several important purpos-
es in the animal economy :  firstly, it repairs the  loss of the aqueous part of the  blood,
caused by evaporation and  the  action of the secreting and exhaling organs; secondly,
it is a solvent of various alimentary  substances, and, therefore, assists the stomach in the
act of digestion, though, if taken in very large quantities, it may have an  opposite effect,
by diluting the gastric juice; thirdly, it is probably a nutritive agent,—that is, it  assists in
the formation of the solid parts of the  body.  From the latter opinion, which I hold with
Count Rumford,* many, however, will be disposed to dissent.
  It has not, indeed, been actually demonstrated that water is decomposed in the animal
system,  or, in other words,  that it yields  up its elements to assist in the formation of or-
ganized tissues; yet such an  occurrence is by no means improbable.  It appears,  from
Liebig's observations,! that the hydrogen  of vegetable tissues is derived from water; and
it is not probable that the higher orders of  the organized kingdom should be deficient^
a power possessed by the lower orders.  Dr. Proutf appears to  admit  the  existence of
this power, but thinks that it is rarely exercised by animals.  " There is reason to be-
lieve," he says,  " that the decomposition of water  either  takes place when in a state of
combination with other principles, or during the act of its separation or combination with
such principles; and that water, as water, is rarely decomposed by the animal economy."
  The water which constitutes an essential  part of the  blood  and of the living tissues,
assists  in several ways in carrying on  the  vital processes.  " In the  blood,"  says Dr.
Prout,§  " the solid  organized particles are  transported from one place to  another; are
arranged  in  the  place  desired; and are again  finally removed  and expelled  from the
body, chiefly by the agency of the water present."   It is from water that the tissues de-
rive their properties of  extensibility and flexibility.   Lastly, this fluid contributes to most
of the transformations which occur within the body.  As a solvent, it serves not only to
aid digestion, as already noticed, but also to effect other  changes.  Thus, it is  probable
that  the conversion of  uric acid into  urea, by the action of oxygen, is effected by the
agency of water, which holds the acid in  solution; for  in  animals, which drink much
water, no uric acid, but urea only, is found  in the urine ;|| 'while  in birds, which seldom
drink, and in snakes, uric acid predominates.
CONVERSION OF URIC ACID INTO UREA.
                       2 eq. Urea      C4  N4   H8  O4
                       6 eq. Carbonic  ) r„           „.„
                             Acid    S     ~   ~   °
1 eq. Uric Acid  C10  N4  H4   O8
4 eq. Water     —  —  H4   O4
6 eq. Oxygen    —  —  —   O6
Total    C10  N4  H8   O"
Total    C10  N4  H8  O18
In some cases, water combines chemically with substances to which, therefore, it con-

* Essays, vol. i. p. 194, 5th ed.  1800.
t Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and Physiology, p. 63, in 2d ed.  1842.
X Op. supra cit. p. 8.       § On the  Nature and Treatment of Stomach and Urinary Diseases, p. 7.
II Liebig's Animal Chemistry, p. 139. 
WATER.                                   41
tributes both its elements.   Thus  the  conversion  of either  cane sugar (C13 Aqua11)  or
starch (C1J Aqua10) into either sugar of milk (C12 Aqua13) or diabetic sugar (grape sugar
Ca Aquau) can  be effected only by the addition of water.  So also the hydrochloric acid
of the gastric juice and the soda of the blood and bile, are derived from common salt
(chloride of sodium) by the aid of water.

  CONVERSION  OF CHLORIDE OF SODIUM INTO HYDROCHLORIC ACDD AND SODA.
          1 eq. Chloride of ) rl  M            1 eq. Hydrochloric) r,      tt
                Sodium  5C1  Na-----           Acid      $    —  H  ~
          1 eq. Water      ——HO     1 eq. Soda         —  Na  —   O
          Total            CI Na  H  O            Total       CI  Na  H   O

   Water, considered as a  dietetical remedy, may be regarded under a twofold point  of
view ;—first, with respect to its quantity; secondly, in reference to its quality.
   In some maladies, as fevers and acute inflammatory diseases, an almost unlimited use
of aqueous fluids  is  admitted under the various names of slops, diluents, thin diet, fever
diet,  broth diet, &c.  They quench thirst, lessen  the stimulating quality and augment the
fluidity of the blood, by increasing the proportion  of its aqueous part, and  promote the
action of the secreting organs.  Moreover, it is probable that they may promote the  con-
version of uric acid  into urea, as above referred to.   Furthermore, they are sometimes
useful by lessening the irritating contents of the alimentary canal.
   But in some maladies it is necessary to restrict  the  quantity of fluids taken ;  in other
words, to  employ what is called a dry  diet.  Thus, we employ this regimen when our
object is to keep down the volume of the circulating fluid, (as in valvular diseases  of
the heart,) or to prevent thinness  of the blood, (as in  aneurism of any of the great ves-
sels, when our only hope of cure depends on the coagulation and deposition of fibrine
within the aneurismal sac,) or when we are desirous of repressing excessive secretion, (as
of urine, in diabetes.)
   Attention to the quality as well as to the quantity of the water employed, as a drink, is
also  important;  not only for the palliation and cure of some maladies, but also as a pro-
phylactic  means.  Now, considered with regard to quality, the waters  furnished us by
nature are conveniently divisible into three  classes; viz. 1st,  Common  waters, or those
employed as drinks, or for dressing food, or for other purposes of domestic economy.
2dly, Sea water, or the water of the ocean.  3dly, Mineral waters, or those waters which
belong to  neither of the preceding classes, and which possess some peculiar properties
derived from the presence of one or more mineral substances.
   From any  of these waters, though usually from  those of the first class, we obtain dis-
tilled water, which is sometimes used  for dietetical and remedial purposes.   These dif-
ferent kinds of water require separate consideration.
   1.  Common Waters.—Under this head  are included the waters commonly known as
rain, spring, river, well or pump, lake and marsh waters.
   a.  Rain Water.—This is the  purest of all  natural waters.   Its purity, however, is  sub-
ject  to some variation.  Thus, when collected in large towns or cities, it is less pure than
when obtained in the country :  moreover, it is usually loaded with impurities at the com-
mencement of a shower, but after some hours of continuous rain it becomes nearly pure ;
for the first water  which falls brings down the various foreign matters suspended in the
atmosphere.   Air is a constant  constituent of rain  water.  Carbonate  of ammonia is an-
other ingredient.   It is derived from the putrefaction of nitrogenous substances.   When
several hundred pounds of rain water " were distilled  in a copper still, and the first two
or three pounds evaporated with the addition of a little muriatic acid, a  very distinct
4 
42
ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
crystallization of sal-ammoniac was obtained:  the crystals had  always a brown or yel-
low color."*  " It is worthy of observation," says Liebig, " that  the  ammonia contained
in rain and snow water possesses an offensive smell of perspiration and animal excre-
ments—a fact which leaves no doubt respecting its  origin."   It is owing to the presence
of carbonate of ammonia  that rain water owes its softer feel than pure distilled water.
According  to Liebig, it is the  atmospheric  ammonia which furnishes the nitrogen of
plants.  The traces of nitric acid which have been detected in the air are referable to the
oxidation of the constituents of ammonia; and not to the direct union of the oxygen and
free nitrogen of the  atmosphere.   A carbonaceous (sooty) substance, and  traces of sul-
phates, chlorides, and calcareous matter, are the usual impurities of the first rain water
of a shower. Carbonate of lime, and, according to  Bergmann, chloride  of calcium, are
constituents of rain water.   Zimmermann found oxide of iron and chloride of potassium;
but Kastner could discover  no trace of iron  in it, though he  found in dew, meteoric iron
and nickel.   Brandes detected various other inorganic substances, viz. chloride of sodium,
(in greatest quantity,)  chloride of magnesium, sulphate and carbonate of magnesia, and
sulphate of lime.  He likewise mentions oxide of manganese.  The putrefaction to which
rain  water is subject, shows that some organic  matter is  present.   The term pyrrhin
(from Tu^of, red) has been applied by Zimmermann to an atmospheric organic substance
which reddens solutions of silver.   Whenever rain water is collected near large towns, it
should be boiled and strained before use.  As  it contains  less saline impregnation  than
other kinds  of natural waters, it  is more apt to become contaminated with  lead  from
roofs, gutters, cisterns, and water-pipes.
  Snow  Water  is destitute  of air and other gaseous matters found in rain; and hence
fish cannot  live in  it.  According to Liebig, in contains ammonia.  It has long been a
popular, but erroneous opinion, that it was injurious to the health,  and had a tendency
to produce bronchocele.  But this malady  " occurs  at Sumatra, where ice and snow are
never seen; while, on the contrary, the disease is quite unknown  in  Chili and Thibet, al-
though the rivers of these countries are  chiefly supplied by the melting of the snow with
which the mountains are covered."!  Snow  does not quench thirst;  on the contrary, it
augments it; and  the natives of the Arctic regions " prefer enduring the utmost ex-
tremity  of this feeling,  rather than  attempt  to  remove  it by eating  of snow."f  When
melted,  however, it proves as efficacious as other kinds of water.
  b.  Spring Water.—This  is  rain water, which, having percolated through the earth, re-
appears at the surface of some declivity.  During its passage, it almost always takes  up
some soluble matters, which of course vary according to the nature of the soil.  Its con-
stituents are similar to those of well water, presently to be noticed.
  c. River  Water.—This is a mixture of rain and spring water.  When  deprived of the
matters which it frequently holds in suspension, its  purity is  usually considerable.  The
following are the solid constituents of the waters of the Thames  and Colne, at  different
localities, according to  the analyses of Mr. R. Phillips.}


  * Organic Chemistry in Us Application to Agriculture and  Physiology ; edited by Lyon Playfair, Ph.
D., p. 75. Lond. 1842.
  t Paris, Pharmacologia, 6th ed. vol. i. p. 79.
  i Captain Ross's Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a Northwest Passage; and of a Resi-
dence in the Arctic Regions during the years 1829, 1830,  1831, 1832, and 1833, p. 366.  Lond. 1835.
  § Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords, appointed to inquire into the Supply of Water
to the Metropolis, p. 91, 1840.—See also Dr. Bostock's analysis, in the Report of the Commissioners ap-
pointed to inquire into the State of the Supply of Water in the Metropolis,  1828. 
WATER.
43
QUANTITY OF WATER. 1 Gallon = lOlbs. Avoirdup., at 62° F. or 70000 grs. Avoirdup.	THAMES WATER.			COLNE WATER. 1		
	Brentford. Source of the Grand Junction Water Works Company.	Barnes. Source of the We«t Middlesex Water Works Company.	Chelsea. Source of the Chelsea Water Works Company.	Otterpool. Sprin» near Busney.	Main Spring in the valley that supplies the Colne.	Colne Itself.
Carbonate of Lime . . . Sulphate of Lime . . ) Chloride of Sodium . $ Oxide of Iron ... 1 Magnesia.....\ Carbonaceous matter . J	Grs. 16000 3-400 Very minute portions.	Grs. 16900 1-700 V Ditto.	Grs. 16-500 2-900 Ditto.	Grs. 18-800 2-500 Ditto.	Grs. 19-300 2-500 Ditto.	Grs. 18100 3-200 Ditto.
Solid matter held in solution Mechanical Impurity . . .	19-400 0-368	18-600 0-368	19-400 0-238	21-300 0-185	21800 0-262	21-300 0126
Total Solid matter . . .	19-768	18-968	19-638	21-485	22062	21-426
No notice is taken in these analyses of the gaseous constituents (air and carbonic acid)
                                     of river water*
   The carbonate of lime is held in solution by carbonic acid, forming bicarbonate of lime.
By boiling, this acid is expelled, and the carbonate of lime is precipitated on the sides of
the vessel, constituting the fur of the tea-kettle and the crust of boilers.
   Decomposing organic matter, in suspension or solution, is  found  in  every  river water
in a greater or less proportion.  Ordinarily the quantity is insufficient  to act injuriously ;
but it cannot be doubted that water, strongly  contaminated writh  it, must  be  deleterious.
Where,  however, the quantity present is insufficient to produce any immediately obvious
effects, it is by no means easy to procure decisive evidence of its influence on the system.
In those cases in which its operation has been unequivocally recognised, it has manifest-
ed itself by the production of dysentery.f   Its influence in a milder form is attended with

  * Compare with this  the composition of the Croton Water, with
plied.
   One Gallon of Croton Water contains, of
                         Carbonate of Lime
                          Sulphate of Lime   ....
                         Chloride of Calcium     >
                         Chloride of Magnesium  )
                          Carbonate of Magnesia   .
                         Vegetable matter and Iron, a trace

                             Total Solid Matter   .    .    .    4-16 grs.
  The Manhattan water in Chambers and Reed streets, contains 125 grs. of solid matter in each gallon;
in Bleecker-street, 20 grs.; and in 13th-street, 14 grs.   The city wells in the lower part of the city con-
tain 53 grs.  of solid matter to the gallon.
  Boston.—This city is supplied almost entirely from the wells, which in 1835 were 2,767 in  number.
" The water from 2,085 of these is drinkable, though  brackish and  hard, and 682  of them are bad and
unfit for use."  (Baldwin's Report.)  Only seven of the  city wells yield soft water, occasionally used
for washing ;' from 33 wells the water was obtained by deep boring, and only  two of these furnish soft
water. For further remarks on water, see Appendix  J.—L.
  t At the  Nottingham  Assizes in July, 1836, it was proved at a trial (Jackson versus Hall) on  which I
was a witness, that dysentery, in an aggravated form, was caused  in  cattle by the  use of water con-
which the city of New-York is sup-


 1-52 grs.
  •44
  •90
  •84 
44                           ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
slight relaxation of bowels.  " The beneficial effects derived from care as to the qualities
of water," says Mr. Chadwick,* " is  now proved in the navy, where fatal  dysentery for-
merly prevailed to an immense extent, in consequence of the impure and putrid state of
the supplies ;  and care is now generally exercised on the subject by the medical officers
of the army."
  The  decomposing organic matter  above referred to,  consists principally of the exuviae
of animal and vegetable substances.f  The  water of  some of the wells of the metropolis
are  occasionally  contaminated  with the odor and  flavor  of gas-tar.   I have myself
found this to be the case in a well water obtained near the London Hospital.

taminated with putrescent vegetable matter, produced by the refuse of a starch manufactory.  The  fish
(perch, gudgeon, pike, roach, and dace) and frogs in the pond, through which  the  brook ran, were de-
stroyed.  All the animals (cows, calves,  and horses) which drank of this water, became seriously ill, and
in eight years the plaintiff lost 24 cows and 9 calves, all of a disease  (dysentery) accompanied by nearly
the same symptoms. It was also shown that the animals sometimes refused to drink the water; that
the mortality was in proportion to the quantity of starch  made at different times ; and  that, subsequent-
ly, when the putrescent matter was not  allowed to pass into the brook, but was conveyed to a river at
some distance, the fish and frogs began to return, and the mortality ceased among the cattle.  The symp-
toms of  illness in the cows were as follows: the animals at first got thin, had a rough, staring coat, and
gave less milk, (from two to three quarts less every day;) they then became purged, passed blood with
the faeces, and at length died emaciated  and exhausted.  On a post-mortem examination, the intestinal
canal, throughout its whole length, was  found  inflamed and ulcerated.  The water, which I examined,
was loaded with putrescent matter, and contained chloride of calcium, (derived from the chloride  of lime
employed in bleaching the starch.)  Traces of free sulphuric  acid were occasionally found by one wit-
ness.
  " Dr. M. Barry affirms that  the troops were frequently liable to  dysentery, while they occupied the
old barracks at Cork; but he has heard  that it has been of rare occurrence in the new  barracks.   Seve-
ral years ago, when the disease raged violently in the old barracks, (now the depot for convicts,) the care
of the sick was, in the absence of the regimental  surgeon, intrusted to the late Mr. Bell, surgeon, in
Cork. At the period in question, the troops  were supplied with water from the river Lee, which, in pass-
ing through the  city, is rendered unfit for drinking, by the influx of  the contents of the sewers from the
houses, and likewise is brackish from the tide, which ascends into their channels.  Mr. Bell, suspecting
that the water might have caused the dysentery, upon assuming  the care of the sick, had a number of
water-carts engaged to bring water for the troops, from a spring called the Lady's Well, at the same time
that they were no longer permitted to drink the water from the  river.  From this  simple but  judicious
arrangement, the dysentery very shortly disappeared among the  troops."  (Dr.  Cheyne, On Dysentery,
in the Dublin Hospital Reports, vol. iii. p. 11.)
  * Report to her  Majesty's  Principal Secretary of  State for the Home Department, from the Poor-Lam
Commissioners, on an Inquiry into the Sanatory  Condition of  the Laboring Population of Great Britain,
p. 78.  1842.
  t " In addition to its saline or natural  impurities, the well water of London is sometimes contaminated
by organic matters, the  source of which, especially in the pump-water of churchyards, is  sufficiently
obvious; and such is usually the place selected for the parish  pump.  This disgusting source of water
should be avoided ; and the disgraceful system of burying the dead in the streets of the  metropolis should
be authoritatively  discontinued.  Of this nuisance,  abundant  instances occur  to every one who walks
about London ;  the churchyard of St. Clement's, in the Strand, is a fair specimen, and there are many
infinitely worse.  In these, the same graves are repeatedly opened, and the coffins thrust in one upon
another, according to the most inexplicable system;  and  it is beneath this superstratum that the waters
of the adjacent wells flow, in some instances, perhaps, deep enough to avoid  direct contamination, but
never free from the suspicion of the oozings of the vicinity."  (Brande's Dictionary of Materia  Medica
and Practical Pharmacy, p. 81.  1839.)  In the  Report on the Health of Towns, (Effect of Interment of
Bodies,) dated 14th June, 1842, (327) it  is stated that  this pump has  been  obliged to be shut up, as the
water was found to be unfit for use.   In  the same work, Dr. Copland, in his evidence before the Com-
mittee of the House of Commons, states, that water which percolates  through soil abounding in  animal
matter becomes injurious to the health of the individuals using it. This fact, he says, " has been proved 
WATER.
45
  The quantity of organic matter contained in common water has not been accurately de-
termined.  Dr. Lambe* states, that from thirty gallons of Thames water, collected at Lon-
don, he procured  twenty-eight grains of a  carbonaceous  substance.   But from Thames
water taken out of the river at Windsor, the quantity was considerably less.   From six
gallons of water he did not procure one grain of this charcoally matter.
  Thames water, when  carried to sea in casks, soon becomes putrid and  offensive, and
evolves inflammable vapor.f   This is owing to  the  presence of decomposing organic
matter.   If, however, the water in this fetid state be racked off into larger vessels, and ex-
posed to the air, a slimy deposit is formed, and the water  becomes clear, sweet, and pal-
atable.
  I have already had occasion to refer to the evolution of sulphuretted hydrogen gas from
waters containing both sulphates and decomposing organic matter.|
  Living beings (animals and vegetables) constitute another  class of impurities of river
water.  But the public has formed a very erroneous notion of the extent and  nature of
this source of impurity, in consequence of the public exhibition in London  of aquatic
animals, by means of the  solar and  oxyhydrogen microscopes.  The  animals used on
these occasions are collected in stagnant pools in the neighborhood of the metropolis, and
are not found in the water usually supplied for domestic use.
  Recent microscopic investigations have shown that animals are liable to both vegetable
and animal parasites, (entophyta and entozoa.)   Thus, goldfish often become covered with a
white efflorescence, and, in consequence, languish and die. When examined by a microscope,
this efflorescence is found to be a cryptogamic plant, and to consist of articulated, cellular
tubes, some of which are filled with  granules, and one or two nuclei.  A  similar growth
sometimes occurs on efts,  (Triton cristata,) by which the tails of these animals are grad-
ually destroyed.  Now it  is by no means improbable  that disease may be induced in a.
somewhat  similar way in the human subject, by the use of water containing the shreds or
filaments of cryptogamic plants.   This suspicion  is  strengthened  by the case, related by
Dr. A. Farre,§ of a  woman who passed, by the bowels, substances having the ordinary
appearance of shreds of false membrane, but consisting entirely  of confervoid filaments,
probably belonging to the  genus Oscillatoria.  The patient  drank  the ordinary water
which supplies London, and it is not improbable, therefore, she may have in this way im-
bibed the reproductive sporules.   In  the same way, aquatic  animals of various species
may be occasionally  swallowed.  When the  French  army entered upon the deserts which
separate Egypt from Syria, the soldiers, pressed by thirst, threw themselves on their faces,
and drank greedily of the muddy water, and which, unknown to them, contained leeches,

on many occasions, and especially in warm climates; and several very remarkable facts illustrative of
it occurred in the Peninsular campaign. It was found, for instance, at Ciudad Rodrigo, where, as Sir
James Macgregor states, in his account of the health of the army, there were 20,000 dead bodies put in-
to the ground within the space of two or three months, that this circumstance appeared to influence the
health of the troops, inasmuch as for some months afterwards all those exposed to the emanations  from
the soil, as well as obliged to drink the water from the sunk wells, were affected by malignant and low
fevers, and by dysenteries, or fevers frequently putting on a dysenteric character.  The digestive opera-
tions are affected by water abounding with putrid animal  matter; so that burying in large towns affects
the health of individuals, in the first place, by emanations into the atmosphere, and, in the second place,
by poisoning the water percolating through that soil."
  * An Investigation of the Properties of the Thames  Water. London, 1823.
  t  A similar change is reported to have occurred to water collected at St. Jago, (see Phil.  Trans. No.
268, p. 733, vol. 22. 1701.)
  X See p. 32.
  §  Microscopic Journal, vol. ii. p. 189. 
46                         ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
(Sanguisuga azgyptiaca,) having the form of a horse-hair, and the length  of a fe\y lines
only.   Many of them felt immmediately stings or prickling  pains in the posterior fauces,
followed by frequent  coughs, glairy spots, slightly tinged with blood,  and a disposition to
vomit, with a difficulty of swallowing, laborious respiration, and sharp pains in the chest,
loss of appetite and rest, attended with great uneasiness and agitation.   On pressing down
the tongue of the individual first attacked, a leech was discovered, which was with diffi-
culty  removed  by the forceps.   Little  or no hemorrhage  followed, and the patient re-
covered.  Those which had attached themselves to the posterior fauces,  were removed
by the use of gargles composed of vinegar and salt-water.
  d. Well Water.—This is  water obtained  by sinking wells*   As it is commonly raised
by means of a pump, it is frequently called pump  water.  The  constituents  of ordinary
well water are similar to those of river water above mentioned; but the earthy salts (es-
pecially the bicarbonate and sulphate  of lime)  are  found  in much  larger  quantity.  It
usually decomposes and curdles soap, and is then denominated hard water, to distinguish
it from river and other waters, which are readily miscible with soap, and which are termed
soft waters.  The hardness of water depends on certain earthy salts, the most common of
which is sulphate of lime.  By the mutual action of this salt  and soap, double decompo-
sition is effected:  the sulphuric acid unites  with  the alkali of the soap, setting free the
fatty acids, which unite with the lime to form an insoluble  earthy soap.  Hard water is a
less perfect solvent of organic matter than soft water ; hence, in the preparation of infu-
sions  and decoctions, and for many economical purposes, as for tea-making and brewing,
it is inferior to soft water ; and, for the same reason, it is improper as a drink in dyspeptic
affections.   Moreover it proves injurious in urinary deposits.   The unfavorable effects of
hard  waters on  the  animal system  are  especially manifested in horses.   " Hard water,
drawn fresh from the  well," observes Mr. Youatt,f " will assuredly make the  coat  of a
horse, unaccustomed to it, stare, and it will  not  unfrequently  gripe and otherwise injure
him.  Instinct, or experience, has made even the horse  himself conscious of this ; for he
will never drink hard water if he has access to soft: he will leave the most  transparent
and pure [?] water of the well  for a river, although  the water  may be turbid, and even
for the muddiest pool."J
  Mr. Chadwick§  observes  that  " water containing  animal  matter, which  is the most

  * Artesian Wells are vertical cylindrical borings in the  earth, through which water rises, by hy-
drostatic pressure, either to the surface, (spouting or overflowing wells,) or to a height convenient for the
operation of a pump.  (For a description of the mode of boring, and of the tools used, see Ure's Dictionary
of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines, p. 57, London, 1839.  In the Penny Cyclopcedia, art. Artesian Wells, is
a popular and interesting account of these wells.)  They have been denominated Artesian, from a notion
that they were first made in the district of Artois, in France.  It is probable, however, that they were
known to the ancients, for a notice of them is  said to occur in Olympiodorus, (Passy, Description Geolo-
gique du Dipartement de la Seine Inferieure,\>. 292. Rouen, 1832.)  Proposals have been made for supply-
ing London with water by these wells; which would derive their water from the stratum of sand and
plastic clay, placed between the London clay and the chalk basin.  But it does not appear that a  suffi-
cient supply could be obtained  in this way.  (See an interesting account of Artesian Wells, by Mr.
Webster, in the Alhenceum for 1839, p. 131.  Also, Transactions of the Institution of Civil Engineers, vol.
in. part hi.)
  t The Horse, p. 359.  London,  1831.
  X " Some trainers have so much fear of hard or strange water, that they carry with them to the differ-
ent courses the water that the animal has been accustomed to drink, and that they know agrees with it."
  $ Report to her Majesty's Principal Secretary of Slate for the Home Department, from the Poor-Law
Commissioners, on an Inquiry into the Sanatory Condition of the Laboring Population of Great Britain
p. 77.  1842. 
WATER.
47
feared, appears to be less frequently injurious than  that which is the clearest—namely,
spring water ;  from the latter being oftener impregnated with mineral substances."  Satis-
factory and unequivocal evidence, however, of the nature  of the injurious action of the
saline ingredients of common waters, is not  readily obtained, but the most obvious and
frequent effect is diarrhoea.*
  Though the  purest  waters are the most  wholesome, yet very pure water is possessed
of one very dangerous quality ; viz. that of rapidly corroding lead, and thereby acquir-
ing an impregnation of this metal.  Distilled water  has no  action on lead, provided the
air be excluded, but, when this is admitted, a thin white crustf of carbonate and hydrate
of the oxide of lead is speedily formed.  Now, it  is very remarkable that the neutral
salts  usually  found in spring  water, impair the corrosive action of water and air, and
thus  exercise a protecting influence.  To the presence of saline matter, therefore, is to be
ascribed the comparative  infrequency of the  plumbeous impregnation  of water kept in
leaden cisterns or transmitted through leaden pipes.   All salts  do not possess an equally
protective influence, the carbonates and sulphates being  most, the chlorides (muriates)
the least, energetic of those  saline substances commonly met with  in  spring waters.}
Rain and other pure kinds of water which contain but minute portions of these protect-
ing salts, readily acquire an  impregnation of lead from roofs, gutters, cisterns, or pipes,
made of this metal.  " There is another way in which lead is occasionally acted upon by
water, and to which attention was first directed by Dr. Paris: it is in consequence of gal-
vanic action, and in cases where iron and lead are in  metallic contact, as often  happens
in the employment of iron bars  to strengthen  and support leaden cisterns, and in the in-
troduction of iron pumps under similar circumstances;  in these  cases, though the lead
is rendered  electro-negative, and  so  far protected from  acid reaction, it becomes more
susceptible of, and exposed  to, the  agency of electro-positive elements, among which are
alkalies and alkaline earths, and these exert considerable solvent power over it.   So that
all such combinations of lead and iron, zinc, &c, should be cautiously avoided.  Lastly,
there is another source of contamination of water by lead, which is this;  leaden cisterns
have often leaden covers, and the water, spontaneously evaporating from  the  cistern, is

  * Sulphate of lime  or  gypsum is the ordinary constituent of hard waters.  Dioscorides (lib. v. cap.
134) describes it as possessing  an astringent property, and, when drank, destroying life; and Pliny
(lib. xxxvi. cap. 59) states, that C. Proculeius killed himself by taking it.  From the few observations
respecting it which  have been published, (see Wibmer, Die JVirkung der Arzneimittel und Gifte, vol.
ii. p. 11,) it appears that it acts on the system as an astringent, causing constipation and disordered di-
gestion.  Parent du Chatelet (quoted by Mr. Chadwick) ascribes to it a purgative quality; and refers
the chronic diarrhoea, so often observed in the hospital of Salpetridre and the prison of St.-Lazarus, to
the " very great proportion of sulphate of lime and other purgative salts " contained in the  water with
which both these establishments are supplied.
  t Dr. Christison (Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. xv. part ii. 1842) made three
analyses of this crust, and found that it consisted of Oxide of Lead, Carbonic Acid, and Water, in pro-
portions which nearly correspond to  the formula 3 Pb O -4- 2 CO2 -f- Aq.; that  is, a compound of
three  equivalents Oxide of Lead, two of Carbonic Acid, and one of Water; or  rather, a compound of
two equivalents of Carbonate of Lead in union with one  equivalent of Hydrated Oxide  of Lead =
2 (Pb O + C02 ) + (Pb  O -f- Aq.)
  X My friend,  Professor Daniell, informs me that he has found lead in the well water obtained at
Norwood.   The water is very hard (that is, holds a large quantity of sulphate of lime in solution) and
contains much free carbonic acid.  It is the latter ingredient, apparently, which holds the lead in solu-
tion, for, by boiling, the whole of the lead is precipitated.   The water is raised from the well by a
leaden pump, to which is attached a few feet of leaden pipe. Professor  Daniell's attention was di-
rected to the subject in consequence of the occurrence of several cases  of lead colic in the neighbor-
hood of his residence at Norwood.  (See also  Pharmaceutical Journal, Nov. 1,1842.) 
43                         ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
condensed (now in the form of pure or distilled water) upon the lid, upon which it exerts
its usual energetic action, and drops back  into the  body of the  cistern, contaminated  by
lead: so that wood, not  leaded, should  be used in all cases  for covering leaden reser-
voirs."*
  Water impregnated with lead, in the way above alluded to, possesses the following pro-
perties :—By exposure to the air it becomes covered with a thin white film, and the ves-
sel in which it is contained becomes lined with a thin white incrustation of a  pearly lus-
tre.  This  crust, dissolved in acetic acid,  yields a  solution which  is  rendered  blackish
brown by sulphuretted hydrogen, and  yellow by  either iodide of potassium or bichromate
of potash.
  The continued use of water containing lead gives rise to lead or painter's colic, which is
accompanied by a narrow leaden blue line on the edges of  the gums attached to the necks
of two or  more (usually incisor) teeth of either  jaw, (see p. 32.)   If the  cause  of the
malady be not discovered, and the water not discontinued,  palsy usually succeeds colic.f }
  The following  conclusions, drawn  by Dr. Christison,§ as to  the employment of lead-
pipes for conducting water, are of considerable  importance, and therefore deserve  espe-
cial attention.
  " 1.  Lead-pipes ought not to be used for the purpose,  at least where  the  distance is
considerable, without a careful examination of the water to be transmitted.
  " 2. The risk of a dangerous impregnation with lead is greatest in the instance of the
purest waters.
  " 3.  Water, which tarnishes polished lead when left at rest upon it in a glass vessel
for  a few  hours, cannot be safely transmitted through lead-pipes  without certain  pre-
cautions.||
  " 4.  Water, which contains  less than about an  8000th of salts in solution, cannot be
safely conducted in  lead-pipes without certain precautions.1T
  "5.  Even this proportion will prove insufficient to prevent  corrosion, unless a  con-
siderable  part of the  saline matter consist of carbonates and  sulphates, especially the
former.
   "  6. So  large a proportion as a 4000th, probably  even a  considerably larger proportion,
will  be insufficient, if the salts in solution be in a great measure muriates.
  * Brande's Dictionary of Materia Medica and Practical Pharmacy, p. 80. Lond. 1839.
  t See my Elements of Materia Medica, p. 793, vol. i. 2d edit.
  %  Palsy is often  met with  in this city among grocers and porterhouse keepers, and is  doubtless oc-
casioned by their drinking beer in the morning which has stood in  the lead-pipes over night.__L.
  §  Trans, of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. xv. part ii. p. 271.
  || " Conversely, it is probable, though not yet  proved, that if polished lead remain untarnished, or
nearly so, for twenty-four  hours in a glass of water, the water may be safely conducted through lead-
pipes."
  IT  The Croton water contains about one 18,000th part of salts in solution, and of course, according to
Christison, could not be safely conducted in lead-pipes.  Dr. Kane, however, says, that " no danger is
to be apprehended from the supply of water to a city being conveyed through leaden pipes, and pre-
served in leaden cisterns, for all water of mineral origin dissolves, in filtering through the layers of rocks
in its passage to the surface, a sufficiency of saline matters to serve for its protection," (p. 395.) Dr.
Turner thinks that one 30,000th part of phosphate of soda, or one grain to 5i pints of water, will pre-
vent the corrosion of lead;  and according to Dr. Pereira this salt exerts a weaker protective  influ-
ence than either the sulphates or carbonates.  Experiment, however, has proved that Croton water
acts with great rapidity on lead.  The simple experiment of immersing a piece of brightly polished
lead  in water for a few hours, will show whether it is safe to conduct such water in lead-pipes.   If the
lead is tarnished, it proves that the water exerts a solvent power over it, and therefore such a practice
should be prohibited.—L. 
WATER.                                    49
  " 7. It is, I conceive, right to add, that in all cases, even though the composition of the
water seems to bring  it within  the conditions of safety now stated, an  attentive  exami-
nation should be made of the water after it has been running for a few days  through the
pipes.  For it is not improbable that other circumstances, besides those hitherto  ascer-
tained, may regulate the preventive influence  of the neutral salts.
   " 8. When the water is judged to be  of a  kind which is likely to attack lead-pipes, or
when it actually flows through them impregnated with lead, a remedy may be found,
either in leaving  the pipes full of the water and at rest for three or four months, or by
substituting for  the water a weak solution of phosphate of soda, in the  proportion of
about a 25,000th part."*
  e. Lake Water.—This is a collection of rain, spring, and river water, usually contami-
nated with putrefying organic matter.
  /. Marsh  Water.—This is analogous  to  lake water, except that it  is altogether stag-
nant, and is more loaded with putrescent matter.   The sulphates in sea  and other waters
are decomposed  by putrefying vegetable matter, with the evolution of sulphuretted  hy-
drogen ;  hence the intolerable stench from marshy and swampy grounds  liable to occa-
sional inundations from the sea.
   Tests of the usual Impurities in Common Water.—The following are the tests by which
the presence of the ordinary constituents or impurities of common waters may be ascer-
tained :—

  1. Ebullition.—By boiling, Air and Carbonic Acid  gas are expelled, while  Carbonate of Lime
(which has been held in solution by the carbonic acid)  is deposited.  The latter constitutes the fur or
crust which lines tea-kettles and boilers.
  2. Protosulfhate of Iro*.—If a crystal of this salt be introduced into a phial filled with the water
to be examined, and the phial be well corked, a yellowish-brown precipitate (sesquioxide of iron) will
be deposited in a few days, if Oxygen gas be contained  in the water.
  3. Litmus.—Infusion of litmus or syrup of violets is reddened by a free Acid.
  4. Lime Water.—This is a test for Carbonic Acid, with which it causes a white precipitate (car-
bonate of lime) if employed before the water is boiled.
  5. Chloride of Barium.—A solution of this salt usually yields, with well water, a white precipitate
insoluble in nitric acid.  This indicates the presence of Sulphuric Acid, (which, in common water is
combined with lime.)
  6. Oxalate of Ammonia.—If this salt yield a white precipitate, it indicates the presence of Lime,
(carbonate and sulphate.)
  7. Nitrate  of Silver.—If this occasion a precipitate  insoluble in nitric  acid, the presence of Chlo-   '
rine may be inferred.
  8. Phosphate of Soda.—If the lime contained in common water be removed by ebullition and ox-
alic acid, and to the strained and transparent water, Ammonia and Phosphate of Soda be added, any
Magnesia present will, in  the course of a few hours, be  precipitated in the form of the white ammo-
niacal phosphate of magnesia.
  9. Tincture of Galls.—This is used as a  test for Iron, with solutions  of which it forms an inky
liquor, (tannate and gallate of iron.)  If the test produce this effect on the water before, but not after
boiling, the iron is in the state of Carbonate : if after as well as before, in that of Sulphate.  Tea may
be substituted for galls, to which  its effects and indications are similar.  Fe?-rocyanide of Potassium
yields, with solutions of the sesquisalts of iron, a blue precipitate, and with the protosalts a white  pre-
cipitate, which becomes blue by exposure to the air.
  10. Hvdrosulphuric Acid, (Sulphuretted Hydrogen.)—This yields a dark (brown or black) precipi-
tate (a metallic sulphuret) with water containing Iron or Lead in solution.


  * The object of this is to form, while the water is at rest, a fine film of mixed carbonate and phos-
phate  of lead, which shall adhere eo firmly as not  to be swept away when the water is allowed to
flow, and which will serve as a lining to prevent the contact of the running water with the metal.
4 
50                          ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.

  11. Evaporation  and Ignition.—If the water be evaporated to drynes?, and ignited in a glass tube,
the  presence of organic matter may be inferred by the odor and smoke evolved, as well as by the
charring.  Another mode of detecting organic matter is by adding  nitrate (or acetate) of lead to the
suspected water, and collecting and igniting the precipitate; when  globules  of metallic lead are ob-
tained if organic matter be present.*  The putrefaction of water is another proof of the presence of
this matter.  Nitrate of silver has been before mentioned as a test.-f-

  Purification of Common  Water.—By filtration water may be deprived of living beings
and of all suspended impurities.   But substances  in solution are not got rid of by this
proceeding.   Ebullition  destroys  the vitality of either  animals or vegetables ;  expels air
or carbonic acid ; and causes  the precipitation of carbonate of lime.   Subsequent filtra-
tion may be advantageously  combined.   Distillation,  when properly conducted, is  the
most effectual method of purifying water.  But distilled  water is,  in general, contami-
nated  by traces of organic matter, (see Distilled Water.)  The addition of chemical agents
to water is another  mode which has been proposed  and practised for freeing wrater from
some of its  impurities.  Alum is oftentimes used by common people to  cleanse muddy
water.  Two or  three grains are sufficient for a quart  of water.  The alum decomposes
the carbonate of lime :  sulphate  of lime  is formed  in solution, and  the alumina precipi-
tates in flocks, carrying with it mechanical impurities.  It is obvious that  this agent adds
nothing to the chemical purity of the water, but by converting the carbonate into sul-
phate of lime augments  its  hardness.   Caustic  alkalies added to lime saturate the excess
of carbonic acid,  and throw down the carbonate of lime, having an  alkaline carbonate in
solution.  A patent has  recently been taken out, by  Professor Clark,{ of Aberdeen, for  the
purification  of waters.  The patent process consists in the addition  of lime to the water.
The lime unites  with the excess  of carbonic acid in the water, and forms carbonate of
lime, (chalk,) which precipitates along with the carbonate of lime held previously in solu-
tion in the water.  The  effect  of  this process is similar to  that  of ebullition.^   It has no


  * See Dr. Lambe's  Investigation of the  Properties of Thames Water, p. 11.  1828.—Also Clement,
Ann. de Chim. et Phys. t. iv. p. 232.
  t See  p. 42.  Also Davy, in Jameson's Journal, Dec. 1828, p. 123; and my Elements of Materia
Medica, pp. 257, 258, 259, and 689.
  X See  Repertory  of Patent Inventions, for October,  1841.  Also, A New Process for Purifying the
 Waters supplied to the Metropolis by the existing Water Companies : rendering  each Water much softer
preventing a fur on boiling, separating vegetating and coloring matter, destroying numerous water-insects',
and withdrawing from solution large quantities of solid matter not separable by mere filtration. By Tho-
mas Clark, Professor of Chemistry in  the University of Aberdeen, 2d ed.  Lond. 1841.
  § The patentee asserts that his process renders water much softer, and calculates that if his patent
were adopted, £63,000 would annually be saved to the metropolis by the diminished consumption of
soap and soda.  Unfortunately  for this calculation, it does not appear that  the patent process has much
if any, effect in lessening the hardness of water, since  the lime used merely acts on the bicarbonate of
lime held in  solution  in the water.   Now this salt, it appears, scarcely affects  soap, and, therefore
does not give to water its property of hardness.  Dupasquier (Des Eaux de Source et'des Eaux de Ri-
viere, p. 105, Paris  and Lyons, 1840) observes, that "It is generally supposed that all calcareous salts
equally decompose soap; but though this  is true  for  the sulphate and other  calcareous salts directly
soluble in water, as chloride of calcium and nitrate of lime, it does not hold  good with regard to the
 carbonate, which is held in solution by an excess of carbonic acid. Numerous experiments have
satisfied me," he adds, " that the  latter salt has only a slight action on  soap, and cannot, in the pro-
 portions in which it exists  in potable  waters, decompose it, by giving rise to the formation of a clotty
precipitate, as we  observe with sulphate and nitrate of lime and chloride of calcium.  If a reason for
 this interesting fact be required, I should say that the non-decomposition of the soap is owing to the
 excess of carbonic acid, which prevents the reaction of the calcareous carbonate on the  oleate  and
 stearate of soda of the soap. This fact completely explains why the waters of the Roye, the Ronzier 
WATER.                                    51
effect on the gypsum of common water, and, therefore, can  have little or no influence in
rendering hard water soft.   Alkaline  carbonates soften water, decompose all the  earthy
salts, (calcareous and magnesian carbonates, sulphates and chlorides,) and precipitate the
earthy matters.  They leave, however, in  solution, an alkaline salt, but which  does not
communicate to water the property of hardness.

  Sea Water.—Under this head are included the waters of the ocean,  and of those
lakes, called inland seas, which possess a similar composition.  The Dead Sea, however,
differs exceedingly  in  its  nature from sea water, and may properly  be ranked  among
mineral waters.
  The quantity of solid matter varies  considerably in the waters of different seas, as the
following statement from Pfaff* proves :—
                              10,000 parts of Water of                  Solid Constituents.
          The Mediterranean Sea.................410 grs.
          English Channel............      ......330  "
                       f At the Island of Fohr..........345  "
          n      r»     J     "   "     Norderney..........342  "
          German°ceani In the Frith of Forth  ............312  »
                       I At Ritzebiittel..............312  "
                       fAt Apenrade, in Sleswick..........216  "
                        At Kiel, in Holstein............200  "
          o n- e„„     J At Doberan, in Mecklenburg.........168  "
          Baltic Sea     i M Travem<lnde . .  .  .     .........167  »
                       | At Zoppot, in Mecklenburg..........76  "
                       LAtCarlshamm..............66  "
  We shall not be far from the truth  if we assume that  the average  quantity  of saline
matter is 3$ per cent; and the density about 10274.
  The composition of sea water varies in  different localities, as the following analysesf
show:—
                 Sea Water.               Of the English Channel.      Mediterranean.
                                             (Schweitzer.)          (Laurens.)
                                                 Grains.                Grams.
            Water             ........964-74372......959-26
            Chloride'of Sodium.........2705948......27-22
                  «   Potassium........0-76552......001
              "    "   Magnesium.......3.66658......614
            Bromide of Magnesium.......002929......   —
            Sulphate of Magnesia........2-29578......702
              »    »   Lime.........1-40662......0-15
            Carbonate of Lime.........003301   and Magnesia   0-20
                                               100000000               100000
  Iodine has been found in the Mediterranean  Sea by Balard.
  Sea water, taken  internally, excites thirst, readily nauseates, and, in  full doses, occa-
sions vomiting and purging.  The repeated use of it, in moderate doses, has been found
beneficial, on account of its  alterative and resolvent operation in  scrofulous affections,
especially glandular  enlargements and mesenteric diseases. Its topical action is more
stimulant than common water.  It is  used as an embrocation in chronic  diseases of the
joints.  Employed as a bath, it  more speedily and  certainly  causes the  reaction  and
glow; and,  consequently, the sea-water bath may be used for a longer period, without
causing  exhaustion, than the  common water bath.   It is  a popular opinion,  which  is

the Fontaine, and the Neuville, which, at  their source, contain a considerable quantity of carbonate,
but extremely little sulphate of lime and chloride of calcium, dissolve soap without curdling it."  Du-
pasquier then proceeds to detail a series of experiments in support of the above statements.
  * Schwartz's Allegmeine und specielle Heilquellenlehre, 2'e Abt. S. 186. Leipzig, 1839.
  t Lond. and Edin. PhU. Mag. vol. xv. p. 51, July, 1839.  Also, Graham's Elements of Chemistry, vol. i.
p. 266. 
52                        ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
perhaps well founded, that patients are less likely to take cold after the use of salt water,
as a bath, than after the employment of common water.*
  Mineral Waters.—These are waters which belong to neither of the preceding classes.
In consequence of their peculiar, sensible, and chemical properties, they are not applicable
as drinks, or for the general purposes of domestic economy.
  Those mineral waters whose predominating active principle is iron, are called Chalybeate.
or Ferruginous.   They  are of two kinds; some contain carbonate of the  protoxide  of
iron, and  are called Carbonated Chalybeales, as those of Tunbridge Wells;  while others
contain sulphate of iron, and are termed Sulphated Chalybeales;  as the Sand Rock Spring,
Isle of Wight.
  Some mineral waters are impregnated with sulphuretted  hydrogen, and  have, in con-
sequence, the odor of rotten  eggs.  These are called Sulphureous or Hepatic waters.
The Harrowgate waters are of this kind.
  Those mineral waters which are brisk and sparkling, and  have an acidulous taste, con-
tain carbonic acid, and are called Carbonated or Acidulous waters ; as those of Selters
and Pyrmont.
  The last class of mineral waters is that called  Saline.   It includes the Purging Saline
(as of Cheltenham,) the Brine (as of Cheshire,) the Calcareous (as of Bath and  Bristol,)
the Alkaline (as of Malvern  and Teplitz,) and  the  Siliceous (as  of Geyser, and  Reikum
in Iceland.)
  As none of these mineral waters are employed for dietetical purposes, they do not  re-
quire further notice here.f \
  Distilled Water.—When it has been carefully prepared and preserved, this water is
nearly pure.   Its taste is flat, mawkish, and by no means agreeable, in consequence of the
absence of air and carbonic acid.  It is unaffected by solutions of acetate of lead, nitrate
of silver,  oxalate of ammonia, chloride  of barium, or soap.  It usually contains traces  of
organic matter.
  Dr.  Wm.  HeberdenJ suggests its dietetical  employment as  a substitute  for  common
water, where this was bad and productive of diseases.  But the greatest advocate for its
use, in modern times, is Dr. Lambe,|| who, regarding the  presence of decomposing organic
matter, in common waters, as noxious,  and  as the prolific source of many constitutional
diseases, proposed distillation as the most certain mode of getting rid of it.   But while, on
the one hand, neither the public nor the profession has adopted his opinion of the injurious
qualities of common water,—on the other hand, the difficulties and expense of procuring
a sufficient supply of distilled water offer a serious, if not fatal impediment to its extended
and general use.  Moreover, it is  well known that distilled water, as ordinarily met with,
contains traces of organic matter.
   In some calculous affections, as the oxalate of lime diathesis, the employment of dis-
tilled water is one of the remedial means which have been suggested.
  * On the medicinal properties of sea water, consult Logan's Observations on the Effects of Sea Water
in Scurvy and Scrophula, London, 1770; and Dr. R. White, on The Use and Abuse of Sea Water, Lon-
don, 1775.
  t Further details concerning them will be found in my Elements of Materia Medica, vol. i. 2d ed.
  X Appendix, K.
  § Remarks on the Pump Water of London, in the Medical Transactions published by the College of
Physicians in London, vol. i.
  II Reports of the Effects of a peculiar Regimen on  Schirrous Turners and Cancerous Ulcers, 1809.  Ad-
ditional Reports on the Effects of a peculiar Regimen, 1815. 
GUM.
53
  The distillation of water at sea, for the use of mariners, is an  old  suggestion.  The
proposition seems a very feasible one, as it may be effected at  a  moderate expense, and
all danger of distress from want of water thereby avoided.   Coulier* has more recently
insisted on the advantages to be obtained by the use of distilled water on ship-board,  as
well as in other places where serious maladies have been ascribed  to the use of impure
water.

           2. THE MUCILAGINOUS OR GUMMY ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLE.

                               (Mucilaginosa.  Gummata.)

  The organizable principle termed gum exists almost universally in plants, and appears
to hold the same position in the vegetable economy that albumen  does in the animal.  It
is found in great abundance in some plants, from which it frequently exudes spontaneously,
and concretes on the stem in the form of tears.  In this way are obtained Gum Arabic,
Gum Senegal,  East Indian,  Barbary, and Cape Gums,  Gum Tragacanth, the Gum  of
Cherry and Plum-trees, and Gum Bassora.
  The following table shows the quantity of gummy matter contained in various vegeta-
ble  substances used as food :—
QUANTITY OF GUM CONTAINED IN 100 PARTS OF THE FOLLOWING FOODS.
Barley-meal
Oatmeal
Wheat-flour .
Wheat-bread
 Gum.
 4-62
 2-5
 2-8 to 5-8
18-0
Rye-meal.......1109
Maize........2-283
Rice.......    .   01 to 0-71
Peas........6-37
Garden Bean (Vicia Faba) ....   461
Kidney Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)   .    .   19-37
Potatoes.......   3-3 to 41
Cabbage   .   .    .    .    .     .    .   289
Sweet Almonds ......   3-0
Green Gage (ripe).....4-85
Pears (ripe and fresh).....3-17
Gooseberries (ripe).....0-78
Cherries (ripe)......3-23
Apricot (ripe)......4-85
Peach (ripe)......    .   5-12
Linseed.......5-2
Marshmallow-root.....35-64
Authority.
Einhof.
Vogel.
Vauquelin.
Vogel.
Einhof.
Bizio.
Braconnot.
Einhof.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Schrader.
Boullay.
Berard.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Meyer.
Buchner.
  The gummy matters of different plants differ one from another in several of their pro-
perties.  Some are soluble in water, (soluble gum;) others, however, merely swell up, and
do not completely dissolve in this liquid, (insoluble gum.)   The following table shows the
relative proportion of soluble and insoluble gummy matters contained in certain mucilagi-
nous alimentary substances: —

 PROXIMATE COMPOSITION OF SOME  MUCILAGINOUS ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
                                                                          Ashes.
                                                                           30
                                                                           2-8
                                                                           1-5
                                                                           333
                                                                           2.02
                                                                           319
                                                                           2-97
                                                                           5-60
                                                                           2-50
                                                                           7.11
100 Parts	Soluble Gum.	Insoluble Gum.	Water.
Gnm Arabic, . .	. 79-40	—	17-60
" Senegal . .	. 81-10	—	1610
" Cherry-tree .	. 87-30	—	11-20
" Apricot-tree . .	. 89-85	—	6-82
" Plum-tree. .	. 82-83	—	15-15
" Peach-tree	. 82-60	—	14-21
" Almond-tree .	. 83-24	—	13-79
" Bassora . .	. 11.20	61-31	21-89
" Tragacanth .	. 53-30	3310	1110
Mucilage of Linseed	. . 52-70	29-89	10-30
Comptes Rendus, 1841, p. 96a 
54                        ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
Gum consists of carbon and the elements of water.
COMPOSITION  OF GUM.
            100 Parts               Carbon.             Water.            Authority.
          Gum Arabic......363              637             Prout.
          Ditto, dried at 212° ....  414              58 6             Prout.
          Ditto, dried in vacuo  .  .   .  42682  50944 Oxyg. 4- 6-374 Hydr.    Berzelius.
          Ditto, dried at 324.5.  .  .   .  4510   438    "  -f 61    "       Mulder.

  The atomic formula which agrees with Berzelius's analysis is  C12 -f- Aqua11 : whereas
Mulder's analysis gives Cia + Aqua10 as the formula.
  Some mucilaginous substances yield nitrogen ; but it is doubtful whether  this is  con-
tained in the mucilage itself or in some foreign matter.  From mucilage of linseed, Guerin
procured 727 per cent, of nitrogen.
  Gum is usually considered to possess nutritive properties, but to be somewhat difficult
of digestion, and, therefore, apt to disagree with dyspeptics.  According to  Liebig, it is
merely an element of respiration.   " From the chemical properties and analogies of this
principle," says Dr. Prout,* "it is probable that it is neither converted  (at least so readily)
into sugar nor oxalic acid as farinaceous  matters."   May it not  be advantageously sub-
stituted for sugar and amylaceous  substances, in diabetes 1
  Gum is sometimes employed, as a dietetical agent, by invalids.   It  is useful  as a de-
mulcent or soothing agent in inflammatory affections of the mucous  membranes.   Gum
Arabic is slowly dissolved in the mouth to allay troublesome cough and irritation of the
throat.  It is also used in irritation of the intestinal canal, and of the  urinary organs.  It
may be taken dissolved in milk.
  The preparations of gum in use are, Gum Water,  Mucilage, Gum Lozenges, and Gum
Pastes (Pates.)
  1.  Gum Water.—Take  of Gum  Arabic from half an ounce to an ounce.   Wash  it in
cold  water to remove any bitter matter, and then dissolve  it, by maceration, in two  pints
of cold water.   When  made with either powdered gum or hot water,  the flavor of the
solution is less agreeable.   Gum water is employed as a demulcent drink in colds and
coughs, and in inflammatory affections of the alimentary canal and urinary organs.
  2.  Mucilage.—Take of Gum  Arabic  nine ounces ; wash it with a  little cold  water, tie
it up in a linen bag, and macerate  it in one pint of cold water, occasionally squeezing it
gently.  Its uses are similar to those of gum water.  It is sometimes employed as a vehi-
cle for the exhibition of medicinal  powders.
  3.  Gum Arabic Lozenges.—Gum Arabic is a constituent of most kinds of lozenges, but
of one kind (gum lozenges)  it is  the essential ingredient; the other  constituents being
sugar and starch.  These are employed as an agreeable pectoral,  to allay the tickling in
the throat which provokes coughing.
  4.  Gum Pastes (Pates.)—These  consist essentially of gum and sugar, to which  some
medicinal substance is sometimes  added.   They are transparent or opaque.  The  Pale
de Jujubes is a transparent gum paste, colored either  pink or yellow.  It should be flavor-
ed with a decoction of jujubes, (the fruits of Zizyphus vulgaris.)  It is a popular remedy
to allay teasing coughs.  The Pate de Gomme Arabique or Gum  Paste, commonly called
Pale de Guimauve, or Marshmallow  Paste, consists  of gum, sugar, and  white of eggs,
flavored with orange-flower water. Formerly an infusion of marshmallow root was used
in its preparation.  It is opaque, and is employed as  a pectoral.
On the Nature and Treatment of Stomach and Urinary Diseases, p. 299.  1840. 
SUGAR.                                      55
             3.  THE SACCHARINE ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLE.—(Saccharina.)

  Saccharine matter exists in both vegetables and animals.  In the former it is very gen-

erally distributed.  The  following table shows  the quantity  of it which is contained  in

various alimentary substances.
                                                                Sugar.     Authority.
      Barley-meal...........5 21      Einhof.
      Oat-meal......(including bitter matter)  8-25      Vogel.
      Wheat-flour  .,.........42 to 848      Vauquelin.
      Wheat-bread.....             ....    36       Vogel.
      Rye-meal...........3-28      Einhof.
      Maize............1-45      Gorham.
      Rire...........005 to 029      Braconnot.
      Peas............    20       Einhof.
      Sweet Almonds..........60       Boullay.
      Figs............62-5       Bley.
      Green Gage (ripe)..........11-61      Berard.
      Tamarinds...........125       Vauquelin.
      Pears (ripe and fresh).........645      Berard.
      Ditto (kept for some time)........11-52      Ditto.
      Gooseberries (ripe)     .    .    .    •.....6-24      Ditto
      Cherries (ripe)..........1812      Ditto.
      Apricot (ripe)      .    .    .    .   -.......11-61      Ditto.
      Peach (ripe)       ..........1648      Ditto.
      Melon............1-5       Payen.
      Expressed Carrot juice evaporated to dryness   ....  93-71      Wackenroder.
      Beet-root..........5 to 9        Payen.
      Ditto...........5-8 to 10       Pelouze.
      Cow's Milk...........4-77")
      Ass's Milk...........6-03 I    n  „onT„   ,
      Woman's Milk..........6-50 ^    °;£Kd
      Goat's Milk..........   5-23 |      Chevalher
      Ewe's Milk...........5-00 j

  The substances to which I apply the term saccharine  are not uniform in their proper-

ties ;  but differ more or less from each other in their susceptibility of undergoing the pro-

cess of vinous fermentation, in their crystallizability, solubility, and composition.

                          TABLE OF  SACCHARINE MATTERS.
Saccharine Matters susceptible of Vinous Fermentation,
           (Sugars properly so called.)
1. Crystallizable. This division includes three
  kinds of Sugar:

  a. Common Sugar, comprehending Cane, Maple,
    and  Beet-root Sugar, whose formula is C'2
    Aqua11.

  b. Sugar of Milk or Lactine, composed of Cia
    Aqua13.
  c. Granular Sugar or Glucose, including the Su-
    gar of Fruits (as of Grapes,) and Diabetic Su-
    gar,  whose  formula is C1* Aqua14.

2. Uncrystallizable.  This division compre-
  hends the liquid or mucous sugars, as Treacle.
Saccharine Matters unsusceptible of Vinous Fermenta-
                   tion.
1. Crystallizable. This division includes Man-
  nite (and Canellin ?) whose formula, according
  to Liebig, is C6 1IT O6.

2. Uncrystallizable.  This division compre-
  hends at least two kinds of sugar.

  a. Glycyrrhizin or Liquorice Sugar.

  b. Glycerine, Hydrated Oxide of Glycerule, or
    Sweet Principle of Oils, whose formula is C
    HT 0 s + Aqua.
  The following table shows the relative proportions of carbon and water (or its elements)
contained in several varieties of saccharine matters, according to Dr. Prout :*—
     100 Parts.
Pure Sugar Candy
Impure ditto
East India ditto
Englished refined .
COMPOSITION OF SACCHARINE SUBSTANCES.
                            Carbon.             Water.
42-85	5715
41-5 to 42-5	58 5 to 57-5
41-9	58-1
41-5 to 42-5	53-5 to 57-5
* Phil. Trans, for 1827, p. 355. 
56                         ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
    100 Parts.
East India refined.
Maple  .
Beet-root
East India moist  .
Diabetic
Of Narbonne Honey
Of Starch   .
Of Milk
Carbon.	Water.
42-2	57-8
421	57-9
421	57-9
40-88	5912
36 to 40 ?	64 to 60 ?
36-36	63-63
36-2	f.3-8
400	600
  Those varieties which contain the smallest quantity of water, Dr. Prout  terms  strong
or high;  while such  as contain  the largest proportions, he  denominates weak or low.
Thus sugar-candy is a high or strong sugar —sugar of starch  a weak or low one.
  Sugar is usually regarded as a nutritious substance, but Liebig declares that it is mere-
ly an  element of respiration, as  I  have already stated.  (See  pp. 16, 18 foot-note, 19,
20, 23, 25, and 26.)  Many insects (especially the Lepidoptera,  Hymenoptera, and Diplera)
feed on sugar or saccharine liquids.  During the sugar season  of the West  India Islands
" every negro on the plantations, and every animal, even  the dogs, grow fat."*   The in-
jurious effects which have been ascribed to sugar are more imaginary than real; for some
individuals have consumed large quantities of it, for  a  long series of years, without  suf-
fering any ill consequences therefrom.   We are told that Henry, Duke of Beaufort,  who
died about 1702, ate nearly a pound of  sugar daily for 40 years.  He died of fever in the
70th year of his age.  He was never troubled with cough, his  teeth were firm, and all his
viscera were found,  after death, quite sourid.f
  The fondness  of  children  for saccharine substances may be regarded as a  natural in-
stinct ; since  nature, by placing  it  in  milk, evidently intended it to form a part of their
nourishment during the first period of  their existence.   Instead, therefore,  of repressing
this appetite for sugar, it ought rather to be gratified  in moderation.  The popular  notion
of its having a tendency to injure the teeth is totally unfounded.  " It has been alleged,"
says Dr. Wright,  " that the eating of sugar spoils the color of, and corrupts, the  teeth:
this, however, proves to be a  mistake, for no people  on the earth have  finer teeth than
the negroes in Jamaica."   It  is probable, therefore,  that  this  erroneous notion has been
propagated by frugal housewives in order to deter children from indulging in an expen-
sive luxury.
   Sugar is readily digested by the healthy stomach; though in some dyspeptic individuals,
it is apt to give rise  to flatulency and preternatural acidity of stomach.  In  these cases it
 probably  yields lactic  acid.f   "In  certain diseases,"  says Liebig,$  "there are produced

  * Dr. Wright, Medicinal Plants of Jamaica.
  t See Dr. Slare's  Vindication of Sugar, p. 59.  Lond. 1715.
  X Anhydrous lactic acid (in lactate of zinc) consists of C« ID O* .   Hence one equivalent of crystal-
lized Cane Sugar (C» H» O") contains the elements of two equivalents  of lactic acid 2 (C» ID O*) plus
one equivalent of water. But when lactic acid is lbrmed  out of sugar, there are also produced mannite
and mucilage, (hence the process is termed the viscous or mucilaginous fermentation,) while gas is evolved
Now, two equivalents of mannite 2 (C« H' O") are equal to one equivalent of granular sugar (C»H'« O"
minus two  equivalents of oxygen.  Consequently one equivalent  of  lactic acid (C« ID O*) and one
equivalent of mannite (C° IP O') are equal to one equivalent of sugar of milk minus one  equivalent of
oxygen.
1 eq. Lactic Acid   .    C° ID O3
1 eq. Mannite   .   .    C6 H7 Ofi
         Total        CUI'iO"
1 eq. Sugar of Milk    C18 H12 O12
Abstract    .    .    — — O

      Residue        CwHwO"
  Liebig suggests that lactic acid and mannite may, therefore, be formed by the deoxidation of sugar —
part of the oxygen  of which is consumed in the oxidation of the elements of the nitrogenized sub-
stances present in the fermenting liquids.
  § Animal Chemistry, pp. 111-112. 
SUGAR.
57
from the starch, sugar, &c. of the food, lactic acid and mucilage.   These are the very same
products which are produced out of sugar by means of membrane in a state of  decompo-
sition out of the  body; but in a normal state  of  health, no lactic acid is formed in the
stomach."
   In diabetes, the power of assimilating saccharine  matter  is in a great measure, if not
wholly, lost; and hence, therefore, the dietetical employment of sugar and sweet foods, in
this malady, is  highly improper.  In the oxalate of lime diathesis, likewise, these foods are
objectionable.   " I have seen repeated cases," says Dr. Prout, " in which the too free use,
or rather abuse, of sugar, has given occasion to the oxalic  acid  form of dyspepsia ; and
sooner or later, under favorable circumstances, to the formation of an oxalate of lime cal-
culus."  In the phosphatic diathesis, the copious use of unrefined sugar is objectionable, on
account of the  lime contained in it.
   The varieties and preparations of sugar used for dietetical purposes are very numerous.
The following  are all which it is necessary to notice :—
   1. Purified or Refined Sugar.—This is met with in the shops either  in conical loaves,
(Loaf Sugar,) or truncated cones called lumps, (Lump Sugar,) of various sizes and degrees
of purity.  Small lumps are called Tillers. The finest refined sugar is perfectly white, and
is termed double refined; the inferior kind has a slightly yellowish tint, and is called single
refined.  Both  varieties are compact, porous, friable, and  made up of small  crystalline
grains.*
   2.  Brown  Sugarf  occurs in commerce in the form of a  coarse powder, composed of
shining crystalline grains.  It is more or less damp and sticky, and has a peculiar smell
and a very sweet  taste.  Its  color is brownish yellow, but varies considerably in intensity.
Muscovado or raw sugar, sometimes termed Foot Sugar, has the deepest color, and is in-
termixed with  lumps.  Bastard is a finer kind prepared from  molasses, and  the green
syrups.
   Raw sugar contains several impurities from which it may be freed by the process of re-
fining.   Its color is  owing  to the presence of uncrystallizable sugar, (treacle.)  In an
aqueous solution  of raw  sugar lime is  detected by oxalic  acid.   By keeping, it is well
known that a strong raw sugar becomes  weak, that is, soft, clammy, and gummy.  This
change Professor Daniellf ascribes to the action of the lime.  Subphosphate of lime is another
constituent of  raw sugar.J   Glutinous and gummy matters, and traces of tannic acid, are
also present in  raw sugar.  The crystal sugar brought from Demerara (and St. Vincent's 1)
is the finest and purest kind of the colored sugars  which are imported.   Its color is pale
yellow, and its crystals are larger and  more brilliant than the preceding varieties.   It is
used  for sweetening  coffee.   On account of the before-mentioned impurities, unrefined
sugar is an improper article of diet for those afflicted with calculous disorders.
   3. Sugar Candy.—This is crystallized cane-sugar.  It is prepared from  concentrated
syrup.  The crystals deposit themselves, as the liquid cools, on the sides of the vessel and

  * Appendix,  L.
  t Brown sugar is extensively adulterated with sugar prepared from potato starch, as well as with that
made from sago flour.  Potato sugar is manufactured at Stratford, in Essex. It is clammy, and wants
that sparkling crystalline appearance possessed by West Indian sugar, is much less sweet than the lat-
ter, and possesses a bitter somewhat unpleasant taste.  Trommer (Pharm. Central-Blalt fur  1841, p. 762
—4) and more recently Krantz (Annals of Chemistry, Nov. 11, 1842) have pointed out the means of de-
tecting sugar of starch in cane  sugar.                 + Quarterly Journal of Science, vol. vi. p. 38.
  X Avequin (Journal de Pharmacie, torn, xxvii. p. 15) states that the crust, which deposits in the boilers
during the manufacture of raw sugar, contains, after it has been  calcined to destroy the saccharine and
other vegetable matters, in 100parts, subphosphate of lime 9243, lime, in part carbonated, 135, silica 47,
and phosphate of copper 141. 
58                          ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
on strings stretched across.  The form of the crystals is an oblique rhombic prism.  Three
kinds of candy are sold—the white, the brown, and the pink.   Powdered candy is used to
sweeten coffee.
  4. Aqueous Solutions of Sugar.—Sugar water is  frequently used at  the  table on  the
continent.  Syrup is prepared by dissolving two pounds and a  half of sugar in a wine-
pint of water, by the aid of a gentle heat.  If necessary it may be clarified by white of egg.
It is used for sweetening.
  5. Boiled Sugars.—If a small quantity of water be added to sugar, the mixture heated
till the sugar  dissolves, and the solution boiled to drive off part of the water, the tendency
of the sugar to crystallize is diminished, or, in some cases, totally destroyed.  To promote
this effect, confectioners sometimes add a small portion of cream of tartar to the solution
while boiling.  Sugar thus altered by heat,  and sometimes variously flavored,  constitutes
several preparations sold by the confectioner.   Barley Sugar and  Acidulated  Drops  are
prepared in this way from white sugar;—powdered tartaric acid being added to the sugar
while soft, when the drops are prepared.  Hardbake and Toffee are made by  a similar pro-
cess from brown sugar.  Toffee differs from Hardbake in containing butter.  The orna-
mental  sugar-pieces or caramel-toys with which pastry-cooks  decorate their tarts,  &c.  are
prepared in the same way.  If the boiled and yet soft sugar be rapidly and repeatedly ex-
tended, and pulled over a hook, it becomes  opaque and white, and then constitutes Pulled
Sugar or Penides.  Pulled sugar, variously flavored and colored, is sold in several forms
by the preparers of hard confectionery.
  6. Molasses and Treacle.—The brown, saccharine, viscid fluid, which drains from raw
sugar when placed in  hogsheads, is called Molasses,  and is  used  in the preparation of
brown sugar.  It is imported from the  West Indies in casks.   Closely allied to this is
Treacle—a viscid, dark-brown, uncrystallizable syrup, which drains from the moulds in
which refined sugar concretes.  These liquids result from an alteration effected in crys-
tallizable sugar, and do not exist in the sugar cane.  Both of them contain free acid.
  7. Burnt Sugar.—When sufficiently heated, sugar becomes brown, evolves a  remark-
able odor, loses its sweet taste, and acquires bitterness: in this state it is  called  Caramel
or Burnt Sugar,  and is sold, when dissolved  in water, as a coloring matter,  under the
name of Essentia Bina or Browning.   It is used to color soups and  sauces.  The high-
colored brandies and dark brown sherries are said sometimes to owe part  of their color
to this liquor.  The brewer, it is reported, occasionally makes use of it  to color his beer.
  8. Hard Confectionery.—Sugar constitutes the base of an  almost innumerable variety
of hard confectionery, sold under the  names of Lozenges, Brilliants, Pipe, Rock, Comfits,
Nonpareils, &c.   Besides sugar, these preparations  contain some flavoring  ingredient,
often flour or gum, to give them cohesiveness, and frequently coloring matter.* Cara-
way fruits, almonds, and pine seeds, constitute the nuclei of some of these preparations.
   9. Liquorice  Sugar.—An aqueous extract of the root of liquorice (Glycyrrhiza) is ex-
tensively imported under the names of Liquorice Juice, or, according  to the countries
from whence it is brought, of Spanish or Italian Juice.  Solazzi Juice is  most esteemed.
The Spanish extract is prepared in Catalonia, from the common liquorice plant,  (Glycyr-
rhiza glabra,) but  the Italian extract, obtained in  Calabria, is procured from  G. echinata.
Extract of liquorice is imported in cylindrical or flattened rolls, of five or six inches long,
and about one inch in  diameter, enveloped  in bay-leaves.   Its principal constituent is

  * Cochineal and indigo, employed to color respectively red and blue, are harmless.  But, in order to
meet the demands of their customers, confectioners are necessitated to use other coloring ingredients, of
a less innocent nature, to give several admired tints (yellow and green) to their goods. 
STARCH.
59
Glycyrrhizin, or Liquorice Sugar, mixed with some foreign matters.   If the  foreign  ex-
tract be  dissolved  in  water, and the solution filtered and evaporated, we obtain Refined
Liquorice; but the  Pipe Refined  Liquorice of the shops is a very adulterated article.  The
Pontefract Lozenges are made of refined liquorice, and are much esteemed.   The Liquo-
rice Lozenges  are officinal in  the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia, and are directed to be pre-
pared of extract of liquorice, gum, and sugar.  There is also another  liquorice lozenge
sold in the shops,  under the name of Quintessence of Liquorice.  Extract of liquorice is
used as a flavoring ingredient.   Slowly dissolved  in  the mouth, it  is taken  to appease
tickling cough, and to allay irritation of the fauces.
   10. Preserves, tf-c—In addition to its  dietetical  and condimentary uses, sugar is exten-
sively employed, in domestic economy,  as an antiseptic; that is, to prevent the decompo-
sition or putrefaction  of organic substances.  A  variety of fruits, as  well as some roots,
 stems, and even leaves, are in this way preserved, some in the moist state, (as Fruits in
 Syrup, and Preserved Ginger,) others in the dry state, (as Candied Angelica, Candied Cit-
ron, Orange,  and  Lemon Peels, and  Crystallized  Fruits.)   In these  cases sugar acts by
excluding air, or by absorbing moisture, or in both of these ways.  In some instances, per-
haps, its efficacy may be of another kind, as when it promotes the solidification of vege-
table jelly.   (See  The Pectinaceous Alimentary Principle.)  " Latterly," says Berzelius,
(Traite de Chimie, t. v., p. 243,) "sugar has begun  to   be more generally employed than
formerly for the preservation of meat, in consequence of a  much smaller quantity of it
being  required for preventing putrefaction, than of salt, while  it renders the meat  neither
less savory nor less nutritive.  Fish, when  gutted,  may be equally  well preserved by
spreading powdered sugar inside  them."
                   4.  THE AMYLACEOUS ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLE.
                            (Farinaceous  or Starchy Substances.)
   This principle is peculiar to plants, from which it is obtained under the various names
 of Amylum*  Starch, Fecula, or Farinaceous Matter.   It is very generally distributed in the
 vegetable kingdom, existing in both cryptogamic and flowering (endogenous  and exoge-
 nous) plants, and being found in thallus, roots, stems, tubercles, fruits, and seeds.
   The following table gives an approximative idea of the quantity of starch  contained in
 different parts of plants.
  QUANTITY  OF STARCH IN 100  PARTS OF THE FOLLOWING VEGETABLE ORGANS.
1. Thallus

2. Roots.
3.  Tubercles.
Iceland Moss.....
Janipha Manihot or Tapioca plant (var. red)
Ditto (var. green)
Ipomsea Batatas .
Ditto (var. red)  .
Potatoe (var. kidney)
Ditto (var. red)  .
Ditto (var. Shaw)
Ditto (var. Champion)
Ditto (var. Chair rouge)
Ditto (var. L'Orpheline
Ditto (var. Captain Hart)
Starch.
44-6t
135
11-5
 7-5
133
 9-It
15-0$
18-811
15-91T
12-2**
24-4tt
15
Authority.
Berzelius.
De Candolle.
Ditto.
Ricord.
O. Henry.
Einhof.
Ditto.
Vauquelin.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Skrimshire.
  * The Greeks called it fyvAov (from a negative, and  uH\oS a mill) because it was not prepared by
grinding in a mill. (See Pliny, Hist. Nat. lib. xviii. cap. 17. ed. Valp.)
  t Besides 36-2 parts of amylaceous fibre.           X  In addition to 88 parts of amylaceous fibre.
  * Vlso 7-0 parts of amylaceous fibre.               II  In addition to 51 parts of amylaceous fibre.
  IT Besides 49 parts of amylaceous fibre.           **  And 102 parts of amylaceous fibre.
  tt Also 6-2 parts of amylaceous fibre. 
60                          ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
4. Rhizomes.
5. Pericarps.
6. Seeds.
Maranta arundinacea or Arrow-root plant
Ditto.......
Canna coccinea.....
      indica.....
Ginger
Ditto......
Turmeric.....
Dioscorea sativa, or the Yam   .
Ditto  .         ....
Artocarpus incisa, or Breadfruit
          integrifolia, or Jak-fruit
'Barley-meal
 Oatmeal.....
 Wheat-flour    ....
 Wheat-bread   ....
 Rye-meal.....
 Maizet.....
 Rice (Piedmont) ....
 Ditto (Carolina) ....
 Peas......
 Garden Bean (Vicia Faba)  .
 Kidney Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)
Starch.
12-5
260
12-5
 33
130
19-75
260
12-5
22 66
 3-2
 6-2
6718
5'J-O
56-5 to 72
535
61-07
80-92
82-8
8507
32-45
3417
35-94
 Authority.
De Candolle.
Benzon.
De Candolle.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Bucholz.
De Candolle.
Ditto.
Siiersen.
De Candolle*
Ditto.
Einhof.
Vogel.
Vauquelin.
Vogel.
Einhof.
Bizio.
Braconnot.
Ditto.
Einhof.
Ditto.
Ditto.
  The amylaceous substances are organized.   Examined by a microscope they are  seen
to consist  of small  grains,  which are  usually  rounded,  or elliptical, flask-shaped, or
mullar-shaped, or polyhedral.   The polyhedral  form  probably arises  from  the  mutual
compression of numerous grains in the same or neighboring cells.  On some part of the
surface of each grain is a circular spot, called  the hilum: very rarely, two or even three
of these spots are observed on the  same  grain.   According to Raspail, the  hilum is the
spot where the starch-grain was adherent to the  vegetable  cell in which these grains are
contained.  The hilum  usually cracks in a linear  or stellate  manner.   Starch-grains have
a laminated texture: that is, they consist of a  series of  concentric layers or membranes,
the outermost of which is the  thickest or firmest.  To  these layers is owing  the appear-
ance of concentric rings or rugae which starch-grains present on their surface, and which
are most evident in grains of  Tous  les Mois and of Potato Starch.
  * Physiologie Vegetate, vol. i.  See also some experiments on the quantity of starch in various plants
by Dr. Clark, in the Medical Facts and Observations, vol. vii. 1797.
  t It will be seen from the above table  that while kidney potatoes, from which starch is usually pre-
pared, yield but 91 per cent, of starch, Maize, or Indian corn, yields 80-92. Advantage has lately been
taken of this fact, in the establishment of manufactories,  in this country, for the production of starch
from this grain.—L. 
STARCH.                                   61
MICROSCOPIC  APPEARANCE OF STARCH GRAINS.


                   (Drawn to one scale.)


                                              ex®
                                               Grains of Potato Starch.

j-i  .    j.m   i   -mi  •    n      en    7   a. Normal starch particle (Fritzsche).
Grams of Tous les Mots or Canna Starch.  £' ir,.egu]ar ditto.
                                        c\ d, Particles each having two hila.
                                        e,f,g, Particles broken by pressure and water;
the internal matter remains solid (Payen).
Grains of West-Indian Arrow-Root.
Grains of Sago Meal.
Entire Grains of Tapioca.
Grains of Tahiti Arrow-Root,

     or Otaheite Salep.
                                                                   ©0®






Grains of East'lndian Arrow-Root.   Grains of Wheat Starch.       G[^s/r0Wm

                                    a, A particle seen edgeways.          Root. 
62                          ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
  The organic principle of which starch-grains are composed is called amidon or amylon.
This substance consists of carbon and water, (or its elements.)
COMPOSITION OF STARCH.
Fine Wheat Starch .... Ditto, dried at 212° .... Ditto, highly dried at 350° . Arrow-root...... Ditto, dried at 212° .... Ditto, highly dried at 212° . --------------	Carbon.	1 Water.	Authority.
	37-5 42-8 440 364 42-8 44-4	625 57-2 560 63-6 57-2 55-6	-Prout.
  The formula which agrees with Prout's third analysis of Arrow-root is C19 -+- Aqua™.
  The starchy matter (called Lichenin or Feculoid) of Iceland Moss consists, according
to Guerin-Varry, of C10 H11 O10.  If the analysis be correct, this variety of starch  contains
excess of hydrogen.
  To render  amylaceous matter digestible, it  requires to be cooked  in order to break or
split the grains ;*  for, of the different laminae of which each grain consists, the outer ones
are the most cohesive, and present the greatest  resistance to  the digestive power of  the
stomach, while the internal ones are the least so.  Hence farinaceous  substances  are
boiled in milk or water,—or they are panified  with gluten, by  which the grains are com-
pletely broken up—or they are made into puddings and tarts.
  When cooked, it is usually regarded as a mild, slightly nutritious,  easily digestible arti-
cle  of food.   Directly or indirectly, observes  Dr. Prout,f " it forms  a constituent of  the
food of most of the higher animals, as well as of man.   It  differs, therefore, from sugar,
in being a necessary article  of food, without which animals could not exist;  while  sugar is
not.  Hence a much larger quantity of amylaceous matter than  of sugar can be taken ;
and what is a still more decisive fact, the use of this larger quantity of amylaceous matter
may be persisted in for an  unlimited period, which, it appears, is not  the case with a large
portion of sugar."
  By digestion, starch becomes converted into gum and sugar ; the  latter probably be-
comes absorbed.   This conversion is  effected, according  to  Leuchs, by the action of the
saliva.J

  * " Fecula," says  Raspail,  (Chim. Organique,) "  is  not actually nutritive to man until it has been
boiled [or otherwise cooked].   The heat of the stomach is not sufficient to burst all the grains of the
feculent mass which is subjected to the rapid action of this organ. The stomach of graminivorous
animals and birds seems to possess, in this respect, a particular power; for they use feculent substances
as food in a raw state.  Nevertheless, recent experiments prove the advantage that  results from boil-
ing the potatoes and partially fermenting the farina which are given them for food.   At all events  it is
certain, that bruised grain is much more nutritive for them than that which is entire ; for a large  pro-
portion of the latter passes through the intestines perfectly unaffected as when it was swallowed."
  Braconnot (Journ. de Chim. Med. t.  iii. 2e  Ser. p. 428—130) found  unbroken starch grains in the
excrement of a slug; the temperature of  this cold-blooded mollusk being insufficient to crack the
grains.  Unbroken grains, he  states, are also found  in the excrements of hot-blooded animals fed on
raw potatoes.  Hence, he adds, the potatoes employed for feeding cattle should be boiled; since inde-
pendently of the  accidents which may arise from the  use of them in the raw state, a considerable
quantity of alimentary matter  is lost by the employment of these tubercles in the unboiled state.
  t On the Nature and Treatment of Stomach and Urinary Diseases, p. 10.  Lond. 1840.
  X Muller's Physiology, by Baly, vol. i. p. 548. 
STARCH.                                   63
  The exterior laminte of the  starch-grain are thicker, more cohesive, and less readily
digested, than the inner ones.  Leeuwenhoek* observed that the excrements of birds fed
on the cereal grains contained a considerable quantity of these exterior laminae, but with-
out the interior matter ; and from this he inferred that the latter only was the  nutritive
portion of starch.
  According to Liebig, (see ante, p. 16,) starch being a non-nitrogenized food,t is an ele-
ment of respiration, and is incapable  of transformation into blood or organized tissues.
He, therefore, regards it as an element of respiration, and as contributing to the formation
of fat, (see  ante, p. 26.)   "Children  fed upon arrow-root, salep, or indeed any kind  of
amylaceous food, which does not contain ingredients fitted for the formation of bones and
muscles, become fat, and acquire much embonpoint; their limbs appear full, but they do
not acquire strength, nor are their organs properly developed."J
   The times required for the digestion of some  amylaceous matters, are, according to
Dr. Beaumont,} as follows :—

                     DIGESTIBILITY OF AMYLACEOUS MATTER.
                                                Time required for Stomachal Digestion.
                 Sag9 boiled........1 hour.
                 Tapioca boiled      .......    2 hours.

   It is doubtful whether tapioca is uniformly more difficult of digestion than sago.
   Farinaceous  food is, perhaps, the least irritating of all kinds of aliments.   It is,  there-
fore, well adapted for the use of persons affected  with morbidly sensible conditions  of the
primae visa.  It will sometimes remain  on  the stomach when every other kind of nutri-
ment  is immediately rejected.   Being totally devoid of all stimulating properties,  it is a
useful and valuable article of food in  febrile and inflammatory diseases.
   The following are the varieties of amylaceous matter in common use for dietetical pur-
poses :—
   1.  Sago.—This is obtained from the interior tissue (commonly termed medulla or pith)
of the stems of various species of palms, especially those of the genera Sagus and Saguerus.
It is manufactured in the Moluccas, and is imported into this country from Singapore.  Three
kinds of it are met with—namely, Sago-meal, Pearl Sago, and  Common Sago.  Sago-
meal (called also Sago-flour or  Sago-powder) is a whitish powder, which is now, or very
recently was, extensively used in the manufacture of a saccharine substance, called  Sago-
 sugar, (see p. 57.)   Pearl-sago consists of small pinkish or yellowish grains, about the
size of a pin's head.  It is the  kind  in general use  for domestic purposes.   Common or
 Brown Sago occurs in  grains varying in size from that  of grains of pearl-barley to that
of peas.  Its color is brownish  white ; each grain being whitish on one part of its surface,
and brownish  on another.  Of these three  varieties of sago, one only, namely,  pearl-
sago, swells up in cold water, and yields an infusion which becomes blue on the addition
of iodine.   This arises from its having been subjected to heat in the process of manufac-

   * Quoted  by Guibourt, (Hist. Abrig. des Drogues simples, t. ii. p. 447.  3me ed.)
   t Jacquelain (Ann. de Chim. el de Physique,  t. lxxiii. p. 167—207) states, that both starch  and its
granules contain from 024 to 031 per cent, of nitrogen.
   X Liebig,  Chemistry in its Application to  Agriculture and Physiology, p. 128-9, foot note, 2d ed. 1842.
 Very recently, Dumas (Annals of Chemistry, Nov. 11,1842) has denied that animals have the power of
forming fat; and he asserts that the fat of animals is derived immediately from the fatty substances
 contained in the food on which the animals feed.
   § Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice and the Physiology of Digestion.  By W. Beau-
 mont, M.D.   Reprinted from the Plattsburg edition, with notes by Dr. Combe.  Edinb. 1838. 
64                        ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
 turing it, whereby its grains have become ruptured.   All the kinds of sago contain color-
 ing matter, which renders them inferior to those amylaceous substances (ex. West Indian
 arrow-root and tapioca) which are perfectly white.  By bleaching,  however, pearl-sago
 may be rendered perfectly white.  Bleached Pearl-sago resembles an imitation sago manu-
 factured in France from potato-starch.  The microscope readily distinguishes Potato-sago
 from the genuine sago.
   Sago is nutritive, and easy of digestion.  It  is an  important  article  of food  in some
 parts of the East.  " The Malay sago-palm," says Dr. Roxburgh, " is the tree the  pith of
 which is the staff of life to the inhabitants of the Moluccas."  In England,  Sago pud-
 dings (made like tapioca puddings)  are occasionally brought to the table.   But the prin-
 cipal use of sago is to yield a light,  nutritious, easily  digestible, and non-irritating  article
 of food for  the invalid, in febrile and inflammatory cases.   Sago  milk  is prepared by
 soaking an ounce of sago in a pint of cold water for an  hour, pouring off this water, and
 adding a pint and a half  of good milk, and boiling slowly until the sago is well incorpo-
 rated with the milk, (Dr. A. T. Thomson.)*  Sugar, an aromatic, (as nutmeg,) and a little
 white wine, are  occasionally added for flavoring, when their use is not contraindicated.
 In cases where milk is apt  to disagree with the patient, Sago  gruel (Sago mucilage) may
 be substituted for sago milk.  It is prepared by macerating an ounce (or a table-spoonful)
 of sago in a pint of water,  on the hob  or hot-plate, for two hours, then boiling for fifteen
 minutes, assiduously stirring  during  the boiling, (Dr. A. T.  Thomson.)   Sugar,  lemon
juice, an aromatic, (as nutmeg or ginger,) and white wine, are occasionally permitted  for
 flavoring.  Sago gruel containing all these  ingredients is called, by Dr. A. T. Thomson,
 Sago posset.
  Dr. Christison  states that sago  has  come  into use,  in England, for feeding domestic
 animals, and especially the  horse.
  2. Tapioca.—The tuberous root of the poisonous plant Janipha Manihol yields a large
quantity  of amylaceous  matter,  which is  imported  into  England from  the  Brazils.
 When it comes over in the form of a white  powder  it is  called  Brazilian  Arrow-root,
 Tapioca-meal, Mandiocca, Moussache or Cipipa. But it is usually  met with in the shops
in the form of irregular small lumps, and in this state is called  Tapioca.  It has acquired
this form in consequence of having been dried on hot plates.  The heat used in its prep-
aration  breaks  the starch  globules, and renders  them  partially soluble in cold water.
Hence an infusion of  tapioca in cold water yields, after filtration,  a blue color with iodine.
In boiling water, tapioca becomes tremulous, gelatiniform, transparent, and viscous.
  In its  nutritious qualities tapioca  agrees with sago,  than which it is much purer, being
free from coloring matter.   It also yields a more consistent jelly than some other kinds  of
starch.  It is principally employed as an agreeable light nourishment  for invalids, as well
as for children.   " No amylaceous substance,"  says Dr. Christison,  " is  so much  relished
by infants about the time of weaning ; and in  them it is less apt  to become sour during
digestion, than any other farinaceous food, even arrow-root not excepted."   Tapioca gruel
 (Tapioca mucilage) and Tapioca milk are made in the same way as sago gruel and sago
milk ; but tapioca, being more soluble than sago, requires only half the time for its mace-
ration and boiling, (Dr. A.  T. Thomson.)   Tapioca pudding for invalids is prepared by
beating the yolks of two eggs, and half an ounce of sugar, together, and stirring the mix-
ture into a pint of tapioca milk.
  Cassava-bread or Cassada-bread is  made thus :  the roots of the Janipha Manihot are
 washed and scraped clean ; then grated into a  tub or trough, and afterwards subjected to

                 * The Domestic Management of the Sick Room.  Lond. 1841. 
STARCH.
65
pressure in a hair bag.  It  is then dried, and constitutes  Cassava powder, or Farine de
Manioc.   When  made into cakes and dried or baked, it forms Cassava bread, used as a
wholesome bread in Brazil, Guiana, Jamaica, &c.
  3. Arrow-root; West Indian Arrow-root.  This is a very pure white amylaceous pow-
der,-obtained from the roots (tubers)  of the Maranta arundinacea.  It is brought  from
most  of the West India Islands, but that from Bermuda (Bermuda Arrow-root) is  most
esteemed.  It makes a tolerably  strong jelly,—stronger than that from wheat-starch,—
and is free from  coloring matter,  and also from any unpleasant flavor and odor.  On
these accounts it is greatly in request.  Dr. Prout  regards  it as  a low variety of starch,
analogous to the low sugar of honey; while wheat-starch he considers  to  be the most
perfect form of starch, analogous to sugar candy.   It is employed as  a nutritious, easily
digested,  agreeable,  non-irritating diet for invalids and infants.   Arrow-root pudding is
prepared like tapioca pudding, (see  p. 64.)   Arrow-root gruel and Arrow-root  milk are
made like the corresponding preparations of sago.   Arrow-root Blanc-mange (Arrow-root
jelly)  contains three times as  much arrow-root as the arrow-root gruel.   A moderate
quantity of milk being added, the whole is boiled down to  a proper consistence, poured
into a shape to cool and set; and afterwards turned out, (Dr. A. T. Thomson.)
  4.  Tous-les-Mois ;  Canna Starch.—Within the last few years considerable  quantities of
an amylaceous matter have been imported from St. Kitt's, under the  name of  Tous-les-
mois,  or Starch of the Canna coccinea.  It is said to be prepared by a tedious  and trouble-
some process from the rhizome of the above-mentioned species of Canna ; but it is very
doubtful whether it really be obtained' from the Canna coccinea  of botanists. Its grains
are larger than those of any other starch; and indeed are almost visible to the naked eye.
Their tegument, according to Guibourt, is very thin.  It is a very excellent kind of starch,
equal perhaps to any, and superior to several, of the amylaceous matters in ordinary use.
It yields a fine jelly, and  is devoid of coloring matter and of any  disagreeable flavor  or
odor.  It is very soluble, and very readily digested.  It is used for invalids and infants ;
 and may be  administered in the same forms as Arrow-root.
   5.  Potato  Starch.—This  kind of  amylaceous matter is imported  from   France and
Guernsey, and  is also  manufactured in England.   It is frequently  sold under  the
names of Potato-flour or English Arrow-root.   Its grains are somewhat smaller than those
of Tous-les-mois. An imitation sago (Potato-sago) is made of it, as I  have already men-
tioned, (see p. 64;) and sometimes, it is stated, potato-starch is substituted for arrow-
root.   It is most extensively consumed in the  manufacture of Potato-sugar, (see p. 57.)
In its general dietetical properties, potato-starch agrees very much with the other amyla-
ceous substances above mentioned.  It does not, however, yield  so firm a jelly; and, ac-
cording to Dr. Christison, is more apt to cause acidity, especially in infants, than arrow-
root.   It is used by the cook in  the preparation of souffles, and sometimes, as a substitute
for wheat-flour, for thickening gravies, sauces, &c, on account  of its being both cheap
and tasteless.
   6.  Tahiti Arrow-root;  Otaheite Salep;  Arrow-root  prepared by  the  Native Converts at
the Missionary Stations in the South  Sea Islands.—This is  a  white amylaceous powder
obtained at Tahiti (Otaheite) from the Tacca  pinnatifida.  It  has been  introduced as  a
substitute for the West Indian  arrow-root, on the ground  of its  purity, superior quality,
and lower price; (Is. 8d. per lb.;) but the specimens which I have met with had a musty
odor.
   7.  East Indian Arrow-root.—Under this name two kinds of an amylaceous powder  are
imported from Calcutta ; one white,  the other pale buff-colored.  To the microscope both
kinds present the same appearance, from which it is probable that they are obtained from
5 
66                          ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.

the same or some neighboring plant, but with unequal degrees of care.   As the grains
very much resemble in form those obtained from the rhizomes  of ginger and  turmeric,
there can be but little doubt that this fecula is procured from some  scitamineous plant.
Now, it appears from the statements of Drs. Roxburgh  and Ainslie, that an amylaceous
matter called Tickor or  Tikhur* is obtained in India from the tuberous roots of three
species of Curcuma, viz., C. anguslifolia,  C. rubescens, and C. leucorrhiza.  This is iden-
tical, probably, with our East Indian Arrow-root.   In Travancore it forms a large part of
the diet of the inhabitants.   It is employed by Europeans as a substitute  for the West
Indian arrow-root.
  8. Portland Arrow-rod;  Portland Sago.—This is a white amylaceous powder obtained
in the island of Portland, from the underground  tubers of Arum maculalum, or  Wake
Robin, and used as a substitute  for West Indian arrow-root
  9. Rice Starch.—Mr. O. Jones has  recently taken  out a patent for the preparation of
starch from  rice by means of a weak solution of caustic alkali.  In another  patent an al-
kaline salt is substituted for the caustic alkali.
  10. Lichenin or Feculoid.—This is the name applied to the starchy matter found in  the
thallus of the foliaceous lichens.  As, however, it is not sold in the separate state, it will
be described hereafter, (see Iceland Moss,  or Cetraria islandica.)
  I have not included the  substance called Salepj  among the amylaceous substances,
though it is  closely allied to them.  It  is the prepared and  dried tuberous or palmate
roots of several orchideous  plants, and is sometimes sold in  the state of powder.  Indige-
nous Salep is procured from Orchis mascula,  O. latifolia, and other native plants of this
order.   It has been recommended by Dr. Thomas Percival as furnishing a cheap, whole-
some, and most nutritious  article of diet;  and he  adds  that  it  "is said to contain  the
greatest quantity of vegetable nourishment in the smallest bulk."  Oriental Salep  is im-
ported from India, in the form of ovate tubers.  When ground  to powder, these consti-
tute the salep powder sold at Butler's, in Covent Garden Market.   Dr. Royle states that
the salep of Cachmere is obtained from a  species of Eulophia.\

                    5. THE LIGNEOUS ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLE.
                                (Lignine; Woody Fibre.)

  The substance commonly called lignine constitutes  the  basis of all vegetable tissues,
(woody fibre, vessels, ducts, and cellular tissue.)   It is obtained by submitting vegetables
to the  successive action of ether, alcohol, water, diluted  acids,  and  diluted alkalies, to
extract all the matters soluble in  these liquids.   Lignine, therefore, is insoluble in all these
solvents.
      QUANTITY OF LIGNINE CONTAINED IN 100 PARTS OF THE FOLLOWING
                            ALIMENTARY SUBSTANCES.
Lignine	Authority.
4-8	Braconnot.
18-75 (husk)	Einhof.
34 (bran)	Vogel.
          Rice......
          Barley......
          Oats......

  * Dr. Royje (Illustrations of the Botany, fyc., of the Himalayan Mountains, p. 359) says that an ex-
cellent starch, called Tikhur, is made at Patna and Boglipore from the tubers of Batatas edulis.
  t Salep is in small, oval, irregular masses, hard, homy, semi-transparent, of a  yellowish color, a fee-
ble odor, and a mild mucilaginous taste.  In composition and relation to water,  it  is closely allied to
tragacanth gum, consisting of a substance insoluble, but swelling up in cold water, (bassorin,) of another
in much smaller proportion, soluble in cold water, and of minute quantities of saline matter.__L.
  X Appendix, M. 
LIGNINE.                                   67
				Lignine.		Authority.
Rye			. 24-2 (husk)			Einhof.
Apricots (ripe)				1-86		Berard.
Green Gages (ripe)				111		Ditto.
Peaches (ripe)				1-21		Ditto.
Gooseberries (ripe)				801		Ditto.
Cherries (ripe)				112		Ditto.
Pears (ripe) .				219		Ditto.
Sweet Almonds .				9-0 (and seed coats)		Bonllay.
Peas				21-83 (amylaceous	fibre)	Einhof.
Garden Bean (Vicia	Faba) .			25-94 (ditto & membrane) Ditto.		
Kidney Bean (Phas	eolus vulgaris)			18-57 (ditto)		Ditto.
			4-3 to 10-5 (amylaceous		fibre)	Vauquelin
Cocoa-nut kernel				14-95		Bizio.
   The substance  called by Einhof amylaceous fibre  is probably  woody fibre, with some
 intermixed amylaceous matter.
   According to Dr. Prout's experiments, the composition of lignine is probably similar in
 all plants.*
                              COMPOSITION OF LIGNINE.
                                                       Carbon.      Water.
            Lignine from Box......42-7          57-3
             Ditto    ditto, dried......500          500
             Ditto from Willow......42-6          574
             Ditto    ditto, dried......498          50-2

   The formula for lignine which agrees with these analyses is C12 +  Aqua9 or C1* H8 O8.
   According to Payen,t  the substance called  lignine consists of two organic  principles.
 One of these  is the  true  or primitive tissue of the wood, or, in other words, the mem-
 brane or  fibre of which the vegetable tissues are built up; this  he calls cellulose.  It is
 isomeric  with starch, and, therefore, consists of C12 H10 O10.   The  other, called pure lig-
 nine, is a secretion, and fills the cells.   Its composition is C35 H24 O20.
   Though I have placed ligneous matter among the alimentary principles, yet I confess I
 am by no means satisfied  that it is capable of yielding nutriment to man.  Dr. Prout,|
 whose example I have followed in calling it an alimentary principle, observes that it forms
 the appropriate food of numerous insects and of some of the lower  animals, but of few
 of the higher classes of animals.  The reason of this is probably to be sought for in  their
 not being furnished  with  organs proper for comminuting and reducing  it;  for when
 lignine is  comminuted  and reduced by artificial processes, it is said  to  form a substance
 analogous to the amylaceous principle, and to be highly nutritious.
   This statement of  the nutritious  property  of lignine when minutely  pulverized, is
 made  on  the  authority of Professor Autenrieth,$  of Tubingen,  who states, that when
 wood  is deprived of every  thing soluble, reduced to powder, repeatedly subjected to the
 heat of an oven, and then ground in the  manner of corn,  it yields, boiled with water, a
 flour, which forms a jelly, like that of wheat-starch, and, when  fermented with leaven,
makes a  perfectly uniform and spongy bread ; and Linnaeusli states that the Laplanders

  * According to the Rev. J. B. Reade, (Lond. and Edin. PhU. Mag. vol. xi. p. 421,) a very remarkable
difference exists between the chemical composition of cellular membrane and  of spiral vessels in the
same plant.   But his "results are in many  respects so remarkably af variance with all that we are as
yet acquainted with respecting  similar subjects, that we must at  the outset doubt their correctness."
 (Meyen's Report on the Progress of Vegetable Physiology during the year 1837.  Translated by William
Francis. Lond.  1839.
  t Ann. des Scicn. Nat. 2nd* Ser. Botanique.  1338.
  X On the Nature and Treatment of Stomach and Urinary Diseases, p. xi.  1840.
  $ Phil. Trans. 1827, p. 355.—Also, The Scots Mag. vol. Ixxx. p. 313.
  || Flora Lapponica 
68                          ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
eat bark-bread (barkbrod,) prepared from the bark of Finns sylveslris,* during a great part
of the winter, and sometimes even during the whole year.
  But admitting the accuracy of these facts, it by no means follows that lignine is nutri-
tive ; because in the autumn, after the formation of wood has ceased,  starch  is formed,
and is diffused through every part of the plant by the  autumnal sap.f   "According to
the observations of M. Heyer, the starch thus deposited in the body of the tree can be
recognised in its known  form by the  aid of a  good microscope.  The barks  of several
aspens and  pine-trees contain  so  much of this  substance, that it can be extracted from
them as from potatoes by  trituration with  water."!  So mat starch may, in reality, be
the nutritive principle of the wood-bread and bark-bread above referred to.§
  The ligneous matter  of our ordinary vegetable  foods  is indigestible, and is evacuated
with the faeces,  of which it makes a part.  The skin of potatoes, the husk of the grape,
the peel and core of apples and pears, the skin and stones of drupes, (as plums, peaches,
&c.,) the skin or seed-coats of the  kernels of nuts, the  membrane covering  beans and
peas, the husk of gooseberries, the peel of cucumbers, melons, &c,  the husk or bran of
corn, &c, are all indigestible, and incapable of being  assimilated.  But though insoluble
and unassimilable, ligneous matter is not  quite useless.   It serves as a mechanical stimu-
lus to the bowels, the action of which it promotes.  " Of the numerous  shapes assumed
by lignine," says Dr. Prout,|| "the best adapted for excreniental purposes is undoubtedly
the external  covering of the  seeds  of the  cerealia, and particularly  of wheat.  Bread,
therefore, made with undressed flour, or even with an extra quantity of bran, is the best
form in  which farinaceous  and excreniental matters  can  be  usually taken; not only in
diabetes, but in  most of  the other varieties of dyspepsia accompanied by obstinate consti-
pation.  This is a remedy the efficacy of which has been long known and admitted ; yet,
strange to say, the  generality of mankind choose to consult their taste  rather  than their
reason; and  by officiously separating what nature has beneficently combined, entail upon
themselves much discomfort and misery.  In stating above, that most individuals subject
to constipation  obtain relief by  the use of brown bread,  I wished to imply that there are
some exceptions; and that not only among the various forms of dyspepsia, but even in dia-
betes.  In such instances, the mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines is often so
irritable, that the mechanical excitement produced by furfuraceous matters cannot be borne ;
and in a few  of such instances, (not in all,) the second great class of  excremental matters,
those, namely, consisting of the green matter of the  leaves of plants, is, in general, little
acted on by the stomachs of the higher animals; and  hence may, in most cases, safely
form a portion of the food of diabetic individuals."
  Fungin, or the fleshy  part of  mushrooms,  is closely allied to lignine, of which, perhaps,
it is only a variety.  It  is the substance which remains  after mushrooms have been de-
prived of every thing soluble in water, alcohol, and a weak alkaline solution.  From Bra-
connot'sIT experiments it would appear to be highly nitrogenous, but those of Vauquelin,**
who probably obtained fungin  in a purer form and freer from foreign nitrogenous sub-
stances, do not  confirm Braconnot's statement, but seem to show that fungin contains but
little nitrogen.  Mullerjf considers fungin to  be one of the simple nutritive substances.|J

  * See Von Buch, "n The  Sc ts Magazine, vol. Ixxx. p. 315.  Edinb. 1817.
  t Hartig, in  Erdmann und Schweigger-Seidel's Journal. 1835.
  X Liebig, Chemistry mits  Application to Agriculture and Physiology, p. 119, 2d ed.  1842.
  § Appendix, N.                                             ||  Op. supra cit. p. 300.
  IT Ann. Chim. lxxix.                                          ** ibid. Ixxxv.
  tt Elements of Physiology, Baly's Translation, p. 478.              XX Appendix N. 
PECTINE AND  PECTIC ACID.                      69
                6. THE PECTINACEOUS ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLE.
                                  (Vegetable Jelly.)
  Jelly is of two kinds—animal and vegetable.  The first has for its base animal gelatine,
and will be described hereafter, (see The Gelatinous Alimentary Principle.)   The second
has for its base starch, pectine, or pectic acid.  Starch has been already noticed, (see The
Amylaceous Alimentary Principle;) and I now proceed to examine the dietetical properties
of pectine and pectic acid, both of which substances I include under the denomination of
the Pectinaceous Alimentary Principle.
  Pectine (so  called from wtU, coagulum) and  Pectic acid  are both vegeto-gelatinous
matters.  One or both of  them are most extensively distributed in the vegetable kingdom.
Most pulpy fruits contain vegetable jelly; as Currants, (red,  white,  and  black,) Apples,
(both sweet and sour,) Pears, Quinces, Plums, Apricots, the Cucurbitaceous fruits, (as
Melon,) Gooseberries, Blackberries, Raspberries,  Strawberries,  Bilberries, Mulberries,
Cherries, Love-apples, Oranges, Lemons, Guava, and  Tamarinds.  The Jerusalem Arti-
choke and the Onion also yield it.  It if likewise obtained from the Carrot, Turnip, Celery,
Beet, and  many other roots.  Hitherto  the quantity procurable from different plants has
not been ascertained.
   In  the dried state, pectine and pectic acid closely resemble each other; but the former
is distinguished from  the latter  by several characters.  Pectine dissolves in cold  water,
yielding a thick solution which does not redden litmus paper; whereas pectic acid reddens
litmus, and is scarcely soluble in water.  Dissolved in solution of ammonia, pectine yields
no precipitate on the addition of an acid ; whereas pectic acid, treated in the same way,
 yields  a  gelatinous precipitate.   Very small quantities of the fixed  alkalies or alkaline
 earths convert pectine into pectic acid.
   Pectine has been analyzed by Mulder* and Fremy.f
                             COMPOSITION OF PECTINE.
       100 Parts.                            Carbon.      Hydrogen.      Oxygen.  Authority.
   Pectine from sweet apples.......45198       5352        4%4JLlMn}A»r
     Ditto from sour apples   .......45 853       5479        48668VMulder.
     Ditto in pectinate of lead......45608       5 370        f®?2)-
     Ditto in aitto...........435         52         514    Fremy.
   Fremy  gives as  the formula  for pectine C4 H" Offl.  Both Fremy and Mulder agree
 that  pectine and pectic acid are identical in composition : the latter chemist gives Cw H8
 O10 as the formula for pectic acid; while RegnaultJ gives C" H7 O10.  According to  Fremy
 the saturating power of  pectic acid is double that of pectine : pectic acid combining with
 two  atoms, pectine with  one atom of a base.
    By boiling with an acid  solution (as of malic acid) both  pectine and pectic acid are
 converted into metapectic acid,  which is very soluble in water.
    According to Fremy, unripe fruits contain  a very  small portion only of pectine; but
 when the fruit becomes  ripe, pectine is formed by the  action of the vegetable acids of the
 fruit  on a pulpy  matter.   These acids are contained in cells, from which they do not
 escape until the period  of ripening, when the cells are transparent, distended, and per-
 meable.   By subjecting fruit to heat the cells burst and allow the  acid  to escape, and in
 this way  the formation of pectine is promoted.
    The same chemist has also shown that under  the influence  of vegetable albumen con-
 tained in fruits, pectine is convertible into  pectic acid.   This  fact explains why an  impure
 aqueous  solution of pectine gelatinizes by keeping : the pectine  is changed by vegetable
 albumen into pectic acid.  It explains also why the juice of a fruit by prolonged ebullition
L
* Pharmaceutisches Central-Blatt fur 1838, p. 337.
t Journal de Pharmacie, t. xxvi. p. 368.  1840.            X Ibid. t. xxiv. p. 201.  1838. 
70                        ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
often loses its power of gelatinizing; since the matter destined to form the jelly has been
coagulated or destroyed.  Moreover, under the influence of heat, the malic or other vege-
table acid of the juice may convert the pectine or pectic acid into metapectic acid, which
is very soluble in water, and does not possess the property of gelatinizing.
  Sugar promotes the solidification  of both pectine  and pectic  acid.  If sugar be dis-
solved in a solution of pectine, an imperfect jelly is formed, which finally may be  drawn
out in threads.   It also promotes the gelatinization of pectic acid,  a  property which the
confectioner takes advantage of, in the preparation of the jellies of currants, apples, cher-
ries, gooseberries, &c.
  The dietetical properties of vegetable jelly have been but imperfectly examined.  We
believe  it to be slightly nutritive, and  readily digestible.  Analogy leads us to suppose
that its alimentary properties  are similar  to  those of gum ; from which, however, it  dif-
fers somewhat  in composition:—gum being composed of carbon and water, (or  its ele-
ments,) while both pectine and pectic acid consist of carbon and  water, (or its elements,)
plus oxygen, (see  p. 13.)   Both of  these vegeto»gelatinous principles  being deficient in
nitrogen, are considered by Liebig (see ante, p.  16) to  be  mere  elements of respiration.
But on account of the  excess (in relation to the hydrogen) of oxygen which they contain,
it is possible that their copious use would diminish the activity of the function of respi-
ration, (see anlc, p. 14.)  Most fruits have more or less tendency to promote alvine evacu-
ations :  whether or not  this  is ascribable to the vegeto-gelatinous principles which  they
contain, or to  some  other constituent, has not  been  ascertained.  Braconnot* has  sug-
gested the preparation of  jellies with pectic acid, to which various flavoring ingredients
may be added.  " I  dissolved," says he, " in warm water, one part of pectate of potash
prepared from turnips, and  then added sugar  to  the  solution.  On  the addition of  an
infinitely small quantity of acid, the whole became, in a few minutes, a mass of trembling jelly,
weighing 300 parts."  Such  a jelly, however, must contain so small  a quantity of solid
matter, that, instead of nourishing, its great value would be  in deceiving morbid appetites.
  1. Fruit Jellies.—A variety of vegetable jellies are prepared by the confectioner.   Those
in greatest request are Currant, (red and black,) Apple,  Strawberry,  and Raspberry Jellies.
To  some jellies the term Marmalade  is applied.   Thus Quince Marmalade, (formerly  con-
tained in the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia,) prepared  with strained quince-juice and sugar,
is in fact a jelly.
  Fruit jellies  owe part of whatever nutritive properties they possess, to sugar, and fre-
quently to animal gelatine.  The sugar used in  their preparation  promotes the solidifi-
cation of, and likewise preserves, the vegetable jelly, which, though apt to become mouldy,
does not become sour.  Ising-glass is  frequently added to communicate firmness or stiff-
ness.   Fruit jellies form  very agreeable cooling articles  of food in  febrile and inflam-
matory  complaints.  They are frequently  used by invalids  to moisten the mouth  and
fauces, and  to allay thirst. They are esteemed antiscorbutic.
  When dissolved in  water  they form an  agreeable  drink.  An  extemporaneous Rasp-
berry Vinegar  is made  by dissolving half a pint of raspberry jelly in a pint of vinegar.
This,  when  diluted  with  water, (forming Raspberry-Vinegar Water,) affords  a pleasant
cooling beverage for allaying thirst in fever.-, colds, and inflammatory maladies.
  2. Jams,  <Spc.—These being mixtures of vegetable  pulps  with  sugar, are in fact Con-
serves.   Those in most demand are Raspberry, Strawberry, Currant, (red and black,) Apricot,
Green  Gage, Gooseberry,  and  Pine  Apple Jams.  Closely allied  to these are the Fruit-
Cheeses,  as  Damson  Cheese, Green Gage Cheese,  Bullace Cheese, <$-c.   Some of the Mar-

                          * Ann. Chim. et Phys. t. xxviii. and xxx. 
ACIDS.                                    71
malades are more allied to jams than to jellies.  Thus  Orange  or  Scotch Marmalade  is
prepared with Seville  Oranges and Sugar, to which Apple liquor, and sometimes a little
Balsam of Tolu, are added for flavoring.
  These preparations  are very similar in their effects and uses to the fruit jellies above
mentioned, from  which they principally differ in containing a quantity of insoluble, and,
therefore, indigestible ligneous matters, (as vegetable membrane, cellular tissue, and some-
times seeds,) which, in the healthy state of the system, contribute by their mechanical
stimulus to promote the action of the bowels; but, in irritable conditions of the alimentary
canal, sometimes prove injurious.
  3.  Carrageenin.—The mucilaginous or vegeto-gelatinous substance which  I have else-
where* denominated Carrageenin,  is  contained in Chondrus crispus, and  other allied sea-
weeds,  which are sold in the shops under the name of Carrageen, Pearl, or  Irish Moss.
It is  perhaps more closely allied  to pectine than to any other vegetable principle.
  Its composition,  according to Mulder,f is  Carbon  45-17, Hydrogen 4-88,  and Oxygen
49*95.  Its formula, therefore, is C12 IP O10.   So that, like  pectine, carrageenin  contains
excess of oxygen.  A solution and  jelly of it are in use.   (See Chondrus crispus.)

                   7. THE ACIDULOUS  ALIMENTARY  PRINCIPLE.
  I have admitted  the existence  of an acidulous alimentary principle for  two reasons.
  The first is, that vegetable acid  constitutes one of the ingredients of our foods.  This
statement holds good for ancient as well as for modern times,—and both for barbarous
and civilized nations.   Fruits and  succulent herbs, in both of which vegetable acid exists,
have always been employed as food.  Moreover, acetic acid, obtained by the acetous fer-
mentation of wine, was in very  early use.   Moses,} who lived 1,490 years before Christ,
speaks of vinegar of wine being used as a drink.   " Vinegar, either by accident or design,"
says Dr.  Prout,§ " has been employed by mankind in all  ages, in greater or less quantity,
as an aliment ;  that is, substances  naturally containing it in small quantity have been em-
ployed  as aliments ; or it has been formed artificially from certain bodies,  with the view to
alimentary purposes."
  The  second reason is, that the  employment of vegetable acid, as an aliment, is necessary
for the  preservation of health.   At least, it seems pretty clearly established that the " com-
plete and prolonged  abstinence  from succulent vegetables or  fruits,  or  their preserved
juices, as articles of food,"|| is  a  cause of scurvy ; and various  " circumstances  render it
probable  that the antiscorbutic virtue [of succulent  vegetables or fruits] depends on the
organic acids,  or  on some  salt that  enters the  system only in combination with such
acids.  The latter supposition is the more probable, because the  acids, pure, have much
less efficacy in preventing scurvy than the vegetable juices from which they are derived.
Lemon-juice evaporated to the  consistence of  syrup, as originally recommended by Dr.
Lind, was found very inferior to the  fresh fruit;  and the crystallized acid, after being ex-
tensively tried, was renounced in favor of the juice  preserved simply by the addition of a
certain proportion  of spirit."1T
   But in admitting that the dietetical use of vegetable acid is necessary to health, it must
not be  assumed that  all vegetable acids, which can  be taken as food, are equally effica-

  * See  my Elements of Materia Medica, vol. ii.p. 874, 2d ed.  1812.
  t  Pharmaccutisches Cent ral-Blalt fur 183S, p. 500.
  I Numbers, ch. vi. v. 3.
  §  On the Nature and Treatment of Stomach and Urinary Diseases, p. ix. 3d ed. 1840.
  ||  Dr.  Budd, Lectures on the Disorders  resulting from Defective Nutriment, in The London Medical
Gazette, July 22, 1812, p. 633.                      V Dr. Budd, loccii. p. 716. 
72                        ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
cious ; for experience has proved  that this is not the case.  Thus, though we admit that
lemon-juice is a valuable anti-scorbutic, we cannot  make the same statement of vinegar;
the united observations of Drs. Lind, Gilbert Blane, and Trotter,  having shown that the
liberal use of vinegar by sailors did not prevent the appearance, nor check  the progress
of scurvy.
   Water sharpened with the vegetable acids oftentimes proves a  most refreshing bever-
age, allaying thirst, and moderating  excessive heat.  When taken in the free state these
acids suffer no appreciable chemical  change in the system, except  that of combining with
a base; for Drs. Wohler and Stehberger*  detected  oxalic, tartaric, and gallic acids, in
combination with bases, in the urine  of persons  to whom these acids had been adminis-
tered in the  free state.  Now, inasmuch  as the chyle  and blood  are always alkaline, it
follows that these acids must have entered  into combination  with bases before they en-
tered the circulation.  It is probable, therefore, that the bile furnishes the basic matter for
neutralizing the acids previous to  their absorption.   It  is remarkable, however, that the
tartrates, citrates, malates, and acetates of potash and soda, taken  into the stomach, suf-
fer decomposition in the system,  and are converted into  carbonates of their respective
bases.   This  fact, first noticed by  Sir Gilbert Blane, but confirmed by Drs. Wohler and
Stehberger, has  been already adverted to, and  the changes  which the  vegetable  acids
suffer, explained.  (See ante, pp. 14 and 15.)f
   I now proceed to make a  few remarks on those organic acids which are most frequently
used for dietetical  purposes.
   1. Acetic Acid or The Acid of Vinegar.—To this substance Pyroligneous Acid, Vinegar,
Sour Beer, and Sour Wine, owe entirely or  principally their acid properties.   Anhydrous
or real acetic acid, as it exists in some acetates,  has the following  composition, C4 H3 0s.
Glacial or Crystallizable Acetic Acid, the strongest  procurable, contains one equivalent of
water.  Its formula is C* H3 O'. + Aqua.
   Pyroligneous Acid, called also Wood Vinegar, or  White Vinegar, is obtained by  the dis-
tillation of wood.  When pure it  consists of acetic  acid and water only.
   The  Common Vinegar of the  shops is  procured by subjecting an infusion of malt, or
of a mixture of malt and  raw  barley, to the acetous fermentation.}   Hence it is com-
monly termed Malt  Vinegar.  It has a yellowish  red  color and an agreeable acid taste,
which it owes principally to acetic acid, but in part also to sulphuric acid, and a peculiar
refreshing, pleasant  odor,  which it derives from acetic acid and acetic  ether.   The
makers of it  sell four vinegars, of different degrees of strength,  which they distinguish
as Nos. 18, 20, 22, and 24.   The vinegar distinguished as  No. 24,  or  Proof Vinegar, is
the strongest that is made.   It is  almost  too  strong for  ordinary use at the table,  but is
employed for pickling and preserving meat, fish, and game ;  whence it has received  its
name of  Strongest Pickling  Vinegar.   The vinegar known  as No. 22  is  adapted  for
the table,  and for pickling most vegetables, whence  it is frequently called Best Pickling
Vinegar.  Malt vinegar has the following composition:—

                        COMPOSITION OF MALT VINEGAR.
               Acetic Acid.                      Alcohol (a small portion.)
               Acetic Ether.                      Sulphuric Acid (1-1000 part.)
               Coloring Matter.                   Water.
Peculiar Mucilaginous Matter.        Malt Vinegar.^
  * See my Elements of Materia Medica, vol. i. p. 109, 2d ed.     t Appendix, O.    f Appendix, P.
  t Vinegar is very liable to undergo decomposition:  it becomes turbid, loses its acidity, acquires an
unpleasant odor, and deposites a slippery gelatiniform substance.  The mucilaginous coat or skin which
forms on the surface of vinegar, and is called the Mother of Vinegar, consists of myriads of exceedingly 
ACIDS.                                       73
  Vinegar-makers are allowed by law to add the above-mentioned quantity of sulphuric
acid.
  Wine Vinegar, also called French  Vinegar,  is obtained from wines of inferior quality.
It is of two kinds, white  and  red.  While Wine Vinegar is  usually preferred,  as it keeps
better.  That which is made at Orleans is considered to be the best   The constituents of
wine  vinegar are very  similar to those of malt vinegar.  It contains a small quantity of
bitartrate and sulphate of potash.  Wine vinegar may be distinguished from malt vinegar
by ammonia, which occasions in the former a purplish precipitate, but not in  the latter.
  Distilled Vinegar is usually imitated in the shops by diluted pyroligneous  acid; but this
imitation has not so fragrant an odor as the genuine article.
  The  following  table  shows  the  proportion of acetic  acid in the preceding prepara-
tions  :—
    TABLE SHOWING THE QUANTITY OF ACETIC ACID IN SEVERAL ACETOUS
                                    COMPOUNDS.
            •   100 Parts.                                              Anhydrous Acid.
           Pyroligneous Acid (Acetic Acid of the London Pharmacopoeia)        30-8
           Malt Vinegar (No. 24, or Proof Vinegar)       .....46
           Wine Vinegar...........5-36
           Distilled Vinegar of the London Pharmacopoeia   ....     307

  Vinegar is used  at the  table as a condiment, on account of its agreeable  flavor and
refreshing odor.  It is  employed either alone or with pickles.   When  taken in  small
quantities  it is  quite wholesome, allaying thirst and checking preternatural heat.   Small
quantities  do not appear to act injuriously on the stomach ; nay, a considerable quantity
has been  taken at one  time with impunity.   Dr. Christison knew a case  in which eight
ounces were swallowed  without injury.  But the habitual  use of it  is injurious, and, by
disturbing the function of the stomach, may give rise to wasting.*  " Every one knows,"
says  Giacomini, " that  when habitually taken, it  produces leanness, from a sort of lan-
guor  of the digestive process."
  2.  Citric Acid;  Concrete Acid of Lemons.—This acid, in  the free  state  and combined
with  little  or no malic acid, is a  constituent of the juice of the Lemon, the Orange, (bitter
and sweet,) the Lime, the Citron, the Shaddock, and other fruits of the genus Citrus,  all
of  which  owe their sourness to this acid.   The Cranberry  and the fruit  of the Dog-rose
likewise contain it.   Mixed with an equal quantity of malic  acid, it is found in  the Goose-
berry, the  Red Currant,  the  Strawberry,  the Raspberry, the Cherry, and the  Bilberry.
Mixed with both malic and tartaric acids, it exists in  the pulp of the Tamarind.
  The composition of citric acid is as follows :—
                             FORMULA OF CITRIC ACID.
        Hypothetical or dry Citric Acid as it exists in some citrates     C'3 H5 O"
        Citric Acid crystallized by cooling a solution saturated at 212°  C" IIs O" 4-  Aqua*
        Commercial crystals of Citric Acid.....C12 H5 O11 -j-  Aqua8
  Citric acid is  employed as a substitute for lemon and  lime  juice in the  preparation of
refreshing and cooling beverages.

minute vegetables having a  spheroidal form.   The surface of vinegar  is frequently covered by mouldi-
ness, which, when examined by the microscope, is  seen to consist of minute fungi, called by botanists
Mucor Mucedo.  The microscopic animals called Vinegar Eels  (Anguillula Aceli)  are generated and
nourished in vinegar.   They may be destroyed by submitting the  liquid,  in which they are contained,
to heat.  Vinegar is also infested by a small fly, (Musca cellaris.)
  *  It is in  repute with young ladies for diminishing obesity.  But the following case, from Portal, quo-
ted  by Giacomini,  shows the ill consequences of employing it for  this purpose :— •' A few  years ago, a
young lady, in easy circumstances, enjoyed good heaith; she was very plump, had a good appetite, and 
74                                     ACIDS. '
  Artificial Lemon Juice is prepared by dissolving  nine  drachms and twelve  grains  of
crystallized citric  acid  in  a wine-pint of water,  and flavoring with a  drop of essence  of
lemon dissolved in a teaspoonful of spirit.*   This preparation is less  apt to  undergo de-
composition than the genuine juice, for which the artificial compound may be substituted
in the preparation of agreeable and refrigerant drinks.
  The  effervescing powder sold  under  the name of Lemon and Kali should consist  of
powrdered white sugar  two parts, dried and powdered citric acid one part,  and  powdered
bicarbonate of potash one  part and a quarter.  But as citric acid is slightly deliquescent,
this preparation does not keep well, and is apt to form a hard mass.  Hence Concrete
Acidulated Alkali [hereafter to be described] is frequently substituted for it.
  3. Tartaric Acid or Crystallized  Acid of Tartar.—This acid, in the free state, exists in
Tamarinds, Grapes, and the Pine-apple.   Bitartrate  of potash, also called Cream of Tar-
tar, is found  in  Tamarinds, Grapes, and Mulberries.   During the fermentation of wine,
this salt, in combination with coloring and extractive matters, is deposited on the sides of
the  cask, and is termed Crude  Tartar or Argol.  A further deposition  alsf takes place
after bottling, and is then called the Crust.
  The formula for anhydrous tartaric acid  is C4 H5 O5,  or  double this, viz. C8 H4 O10.
The crystallized acid, therefore, is either C4  Ha 0s + Aqua, or C8 H4 O10 + Aqua\
  Tartaric acid is employed as a cheap substitute for citric acid or lemon juice.   Besides
cheapness, it has another advantage over  citric acid, viz. its not being  deliquescent when
exposed to the air.   But in flavor it is decidedly inferior to citric acid.
  A variety  of effervescing powders, prepared  with tartaric acid and sesquicarbonate
(bicarbonate) of soda, are  kept in  the shops.  The  Concrete Acidulated Alkali,  before re-
ferred to, is prepared by intimately mixing one part of powdered tartaric  acid, one part
of bicarbonate of soda, and two parts of powdered white sugar.   This powder is flavored
with essence of  lemon, in  the proportion of fifty drops to one pound of the mixture.  A
teaspoonful of this is taken in  a little water contained in a tumbler.—The  Soda Powders
of the shops consist of thirty grains of bicarbonate of soda, contained in a blue paper, and
twenty-five grains of powdered tartaric acid, in a  white paper.  When taken,  they should
be dissolved in half  a pint of water.—Ginger-beer Powders are made in the same way as
soda powders, except that  five grains of powdered ginger and a drachm of  white sugar
are mixed with the bicarbonate of soda.   All these preparations furnish us  with an ex-
temporaneous Effervescing Saline Draught, containing tartrate of soda, and the flavor of
which is much improved by adding to the  water,  before dissolving the  acid or  mixed
powder, two or three drachms of syrup and half a drachm of tincture of orange peel.

a complexion blooming  with roses and lilies.  She  began to  look upon her plumpness with suspicion;
for her mother was very fat, and she was afraid of becoming like her.  Accordingly,  she consulted a
woman, who advised her to  drink a small glass of  vinegar daily : the  young lady followed her advice,
and her plumpness diminished.  She was delighted with the success of the remedy, and continued  it
for more than a month.  She began to have a cough; but  it was dry at its commencement, and was con-
sidered as a slight cold, which would go off.  Meantime, from dry it became moist; a slow fever came
on, and a difficulty of breathing; her body became lean,  and wasted away ; night-sweats, swelling of
the feet and of the legs, succeeded, and  a diarrhoea terminated her life.  On examination, all the lobes of
the lungs were found filled with tubercles, and somewhat resembling a bunch of grapes."
  * Of this solution, or of lemon juice, which is of equal strength, a scruple of bicarbonate of Potassa
saturates three  fluid drachms and a half; a scruple of carbonate of Potassa,  four fluid dracluns ; and  a
scruple of carbonate of Ammonia, six fluid drachms.  Haifa  fluid ounce of lemon  juice, or of an equal
solution of citric acid, when saturated, is considered as a dose.  A pleasant drink may be prepared by
dissolving a scruple of the citric acid in a pint of water, and  sweetening to the taste  with sugar which
has been rubbed on fresh lemon-peel.—L. 
ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.                          75
   Seidlitz Powders consists of two drachms of tartarized soda and two scruples of bicar-
 bonate of soda, contained in a blue paper, and a half a drachm of powdered tartarac acid
 in a  white paper.  These are  to be taken,  dissolved in half a pint of  water, while the
 liquid is in a  state of effervescence.  They form an  agreeable and mild  aperient.*
   Cream of tartar is frequently substituted for tartaric acid, in the preparation of cooling
 drinks.  The liquid called Imperial is of this kind.  It is formed by dissolving one drachm or a
 drachm and a half of cream of tartar in a pint of boiling water, and flavoring with lemon-peel
 and sugar.  When cold, the solution may be taken  ad libitum, as a refrigerant beverage
 in febrile complaints, especially where it is desirable  to promote the secretion of urine.
   All the above effervescing compounds, as  well as imperial, are  injurious to patients
 troubled  with white sand (phosphatic deposits) in the urine ; in consequence of the alka-
 line tartrate being converted  into an alkaline carbonate, (see p. 15,) which passes out of
 the system in the urine, and promotes the deposition  of the earthy phosphates.
   Acidulated  Drops or Lozenges, consist of barley-sugar sharpened with tartaric acid, as I
 have before stated, (see p. 58.)  They are useful in coughs and sore-throats, but are com-
 monly taken, on account of their agreeable flavor, as articles of confectionery.
   4.  Malic Acid or Acid of Apples.—This acid is very extensively distributed in the vege-
 table kingdom.  It exists in the free state  in Apples,  Pears, Quinces,  Plums, Apricots,
 Peaches, Cherries, Gooseberries, Currants, Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Pine-
 apples, Barberries, Elderberries, Grapes, Love-apples, Tamarinds, and several other fruits.
 It is usually  accompanied by citric acid.   Wine, Cider, and Perry, likewise contain it.
 The  formula for the hydrated acid is C" H4 O3 + Aqua?.  Its dietetical properties are ana-
 logous to citric acid;  but it is not employed in the separate state.
   5.  Oxalic Acid.—This exists  in a considerable number of plants.   Those which it is
 necessary here  to refer to, as being employed  at the table, are the Garden Rhubarb, whose
 leafstalks are used  in tarts and  puddings; Common Sorrel, which is sometimes taken as
 a potherb and  salad ; and Common Woodsorrel, which is  occasionally  eaten as an anti-
 scorbutic.  The crystallized  acid  of the shops  is obtained by the action of nitric acid on
 sugar, or molasses.f   Its formula is CO3 -f- Aqua3.  In  large doses and in a concentrated
 form, it is an  energetic poison ;  but  in small quantities and largely diluted, it may be used
 without injury.  In this country it  is never taken internally.  In France, however, it is
 sometimes employed in the preparation of acidulous drinks, (called lemonades,) in the pro-
 portion of twelve  or  fifteen grains  of acid to a quart of water; but it is  much safer to
 use tartaric acid.   Lozenges containing this acid have been prepared under the name of
 Tablettes d'Acide Oxalique, or Pastilles pour la soif; but they present no advantage over
 the ordinary acidulated drops.}
   Quadroxalate of Potash, sold in the shops as  Salt of Sorrel, has also been employed in
 the preparation of refrigerant drinks and lozenges.
   6.  Lactic Acid, or Milk Acid.—This acid exists in  sour milk.  It is  also  formed when

  * Seidlitz Powders, in this country, are usually prepared  by mixing two  drachms of Tartrate of
 Potassa and Soda, (Rochelle Salt,) and two  scruples of bicarbonate of Soda, put up in a white paper,
 and thirty-five grains of Tartaric Acid contained in a blue one.  This excess  of acid renders it more
 pleasant, without injuring its aperient quality.—L.
  t Many substances besides sugar yield oxalic acid, by the action of nitric acid, such as starch, gum,
 wool, hair, silk, and many vegetable acids.  Organic  substances also yield oxalic acid when heated
 with potassa, such as wood-shavings, &c.—L.
  X Oxalic acid has frequently destroyed  life, from its  having been mistaken for Epsom salts, which it
 closely resembles.  They are however readily distinguished by tasting; the first being very sour, and
the latter  bitter.  Epsom salts should never be swallowed without previously  testing them  by the
 taste.—L. 
76
ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
various vegetable substances become sour—as when oatmeal is left in a large quantity of
water.  Its composition and formation out of sugar have been already adverted to, (see p.
56.)   "This acid,"  says Dr. Prout,  "like  the  acetic acid, is probably, under certain cir-
cumstances,  capable of becoming  an aliment;  but as it is often found  unchanged  and
even  developed in the stomach, and, indeed, in  almost all parts of the animal system,  it is
probably less digestible, and, therefore, less adapted as an aliment, than the acetic acid."
Under the erroneous idea that lactic acid was  one of the  agents by which aliments are
dissolved in the stomach, lactic acid lemonade, and lactic acid lozenges, have been employed
in dyspepsia arising from simple debility of the digestive organs.
  7.   Tannic Acid.—This, though a constituent  of some articles employed at the table, as
Tea,  can scarcely be considered alimentary.
                   8. THE ALCOHOLIC ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLE.*

  The reasons for believing that under some circumstances alcohol is an alimentary prin-
ciple, have been already stated, (see pp. 25, 26, and 27.)
  The formula for pure or anhydrous alcohol (sp.  gr.  07947 at 60° F.)  is C4 H" O5.
Spirit of Wine consists of alcohol and water.  Rectified spirit  of wine (sp.  gr. 0835 to
840) contains about 90 per cent, of alcohol.
  Alcohol is  a product of the vinous fermentation.  It is, therefore, a constituent of Wines,
Cider,  Perry, and Malt liquors, (Beer,  Ale, and Porter,) and of Ardent Spirits obtained by
distillation from vinous liquids.  The  following are  the quantities of  alcohol contained in
various Wines, Spirits, and Malt Liquors, according to the best authorities.

Table of the proportion of Alcohol  (sp. gr. 0825, at  6°  F.)  by measure, contained in
                    100 parts  of Wine, Spirits, Malt Liquors, c^c.f
Brande.
1. Lissa.....	A.	25-41
2. Raisin ....	A.	2512
3. Marsala ....	A.	25-09
4. Port.....	A.	22-96
	A	22-27
		20-55
	A	1917
8. Teneriffe . . .		19-79
9. Colares ....		19-75
10. Lachryma Christi		19-70
11. Constantia, white		19-75 ) 18-92 5
12. Constantia, red .		
13. Lisbon ....		18-94
15. Bucellas . . .		18-94
		18-49
16. Red Madeira . .	. A.	20-35
17. Cape Muschat		18-25
18. Cape Madeira .	. A.	20-51
19. Grape Wine . .		18-11
20. Calcavella. . .	. A.	18-65
		19-25
22. Alba Flora . . .		17-26
23. Malaga ....		17-26
24. White Hermitage		17-43
25. Rousillon . . .	. A	1813
	A	1510
		17-05
23. Malmsey-Madeira		16-40
		15-52
30. Sheraaz ....		15-52
31. Syracuse . . .		15-28
32. Sauterne . . .		14-22
 Others.

15-90 P.

18-40 P.
20-64 P.
21-20 P.

23 80 P.
14-50 P.
Brande.
1801 F.

3000 P.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.

48.

49.
50.
te)
Burgundy  .  .
Hock   .  .  .
Nice   .   .  .
Barsac  .  .  .
Tent ....
Champagne
Red Hermitage
Vin de Grave
Frontignac (Rivesa
Cote Rotie
Gooseberry
Orange .  .
Tokay  .  .
Elder  .   .
Cider, highest av«
Ditto, lowest ditto
Perry, average of four
  samples .  .  .
Mead  ....
Ale (Burton)  .  .
London (Edinburgh
Ditto (Dorchester)
       Average
Brown Stout  .  .
London Porter (ave
  rage) ....
Ditto Small Beer
Brandy ....
Rum.....
Gin.....
Scotch Whiskey
Irish ditto .  .
14-57
1208
14-63
13-86
13-30
12-61
12-32
13-94
12-79
12-32
11-84
11-26
 9-88
 8-79
 9-87
 5-21

 7-26
 7-32
 8-88
 6-20
 5-56
 6-87
 6-80
 4-20

 1-28
53-39
53-68
57-60
54-32
53-90
 Others.

1216 P.
12-20 F.
Appendix, Q.       t A. means average, F. Julia-Fontenelle, P. Prout. 
                                        ALCOHOL.                                    77


  According to the more recent experiments of Dr. Christison, the quantity of alcohol in
wines has been somewhat overrated.  The following are his results :—
     ("Weakest      .....
Port  J  Mi-iin of 7 wines    ....
     )  Strongest.....
     L White......
        f Weakest.....
         Mean of 13 wines,  excluding those
             very long kept in cask .
Sherry  -^ Strongest.....
         Mean of 9 wines very long  kept in
             cask in the East Indies
        i_Madre da Xeres
Madeira, all long in cask in  ( Strongest
   East Indies     .    .   ( Weakest
Teneriffe, long in cask at Calcutta
Cercial      ....        .    .
Dry Lisbon.......
Shiraz       .......
Amontillado      ......
Claret, a first growth of 1811
Chateau-Latour, first growth 1325
Rosan, second growth 1825
Ordinary Claret, a  superior  "vin ordinaire"
Rivesaltes           .....__
Malmsey.......
Rudesheimer, superior quality
   Ditto     inferior quality
Hambacher,   superior quality
Edinburgh Ale, unbottled  ....
Same Ale, 2 years bottled
London Porter, 4 months  in bottles
Alcohol (0-7039)	Proof Spirit
per cent, by	per cent, by
weight.	volume.
14-97	30-56
16-20	33-91
1710	37-27
14-97	31-31
13-98	30-84
15-37	33-59
1617	35 12
14-72	32-30
16-90	3706
16-90	36-81
1409	30-86
13-84	30-21
15-45	33-65
1614	34-71
12-95	28-30
12-63	27-60
7-72	16-95
7-78	1706
7-61	16-74
8-99	18-96
9-31	22-35
12-86	23-37
8-40	18-44
6-eo	15-19
7-35	1615
7-35	16-15
5-70	12-60
5-36 "	1 11-91
   Dr. Christison states that by keeping wines, as Sherry and Madeira, in casks, for a mod-
erate term of  years, the quantity of alcohol increases ; but after a certain time it decreases ;
and it is probable that at the period when wines begin to lose alcohol they cease to im-
prove in flavor.
   The value of ardent spirits  is, of course,  proportionate  to the quantity of alcohol con-
tained therein  ; and,  therefore, a ready mode of estimating  this is most desirable.   The
alcoholometrical method usually adopted consists in determining the sp. gr. of the liquid by
an instrument called  the hydrometer, (from {.tap, water; uerpia, I measure.)  That employ-
ed in this country, in  the collection of the duties  on spirits, is called  Sikes's hydrometer.
Spirit having the sp.  gr. 0 920, at  60° F., is called proof spirit; that which is heavier is
said to be under proof, while that which is lighter is called over proof*   The origin of these
terms is as follows :—Formerly a very rude mode of ascertaining the strength of spirits
was practised, called the proof: the  spirit  was poured upon gunpowder, in  a dish, and
inflamed.   If at the  end of the combustion the gunpowder took fire, the spirit was said

  *  Spirit, which is of the strength of 43 per cent, over proof at the least, is recognised by the legislature
(6 Geo. 4. cap. 80, Sects. 101 and 114) as spirits of wine. All spirit under this strength is known in trade
as plain spirit.   Distillers are not permitted (Ibid.  Sect. 81) to send out spirits at any other strengths
than 25 or 11 per cent, above, or 10 per cent, below proof.  Raw corn spirit, therefore, is sold at 25 or 11 per
cent, above proof.  Compounded spirits (as  Gin) are not allowed (Ibid. Sect.  124) to be kept or sent out
stronger than 17 per cent, under proof; but Gin, as sold  by the rectifier, is usually 22 per cent, under
proof.  Foreign  or Colonial spirits (not being compounded colonial spirits) must not be kept or sent out of
less strength than 17 per cent, under proof, (Ibid. Sect. 130.)  Rum and Brandy, as commonly sold, are
10 per cent, underproof. 
78                          ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
 to be above or over proof; but if the spirit contained  much water, the  powder was ren-
 dered so moist that it did not take fire : in this case the spirit was  declared to be below or
 under proof.  As spiiit of different strengths will or will not inflame gunpowder, according
 to the quantity of spirit employed, it became  necessary to  fix the legal  value of proof
 spirits : this has been done, and proof spirit (Spiritus tenuior) is  defined, by act of par-
 liament, to be such, that at the temperature of 51° F., thirteen volumes of it weigh exactly
 as much as twelve volumes of water.   According to this definition the sp. gr. at 60° F. is
 0 920, and spirit of this strength  consists of
                                       By Weight.                  Sp. Gr.
                 Alcohol    ....    49   ...    .    0-791
                 Water     ....    51   ...    .    1000
                Proof spirit      ...   100   ...    .    0920
   Spirit is employed by the cook and confectioner, as a preservative agent.  Thus Brandy
 is used to preserve several kinds of fruit.*   Its efficacy is imperfectly understood.  It
 acts,  in part at least, by excluding air (oxygen) and water, the two powerful promoters
 of fermentation and putrefaction.
   1.  Brandy; Eau-de-vie.—This is an ardent spirit obtained by the distillation of wine.
 Its constituents  are  alcohol, water, volatile oil, a minute  portion of acetic acid, oenanthic
 ether, coloring matter,  and  tannin.  The  latter is  said to  be derived from the cask in
 which the spirit has been preserved.  The most celebrated  of the French Brandies are
 those of Cognac atid Armagnac.  Pale brandy has a very slight brownish yellow tint,
 derived from the cask.  The high colored brandy usually found in the shops of this country
 is artificially colored.   When fresh imported the alcoholic strength of brandy is usually
 above proof; but by keeping it diminishes.  A sample of pale brandy, in bond, supplied
 me by Mr. Gassiot, of Mark Lane, I found to be 15 over proof, and a colored brandy 2-2
 over  proof.   But I am informed that 10 per cent, under proof is the strength of brandy
 as usually sold.   British brandy is extensively manufactured and sold as foreign brandy.f
   From other  ardent  spirits in  ordinary use, brandy is distinguished by its  cordial and
 stomachic properties.   It is, therefore, often  resorted  to as a domestic remedy to relieve
 spasmodic pains and flatulency, to check vomiting, especially sea-sickness, and  to  give
 temporary relief in some  cases of indigestion, attended with pain after taking food.  A
 little warm brandy and water with nutmeg is often a very  efficacious remedy for slight
 cases of diarrhoea unaccompanied with inflammatory symptoms.
   Burnt brandy is a popular  remedy for diarrhoea.
   In  the London Pharmacopoeia there is, under the name of Brandy Mixture, (Mistura
 Spiritus Vini Gallici,) an imitation  of Egg-Flip, and  as  it is a valuable stimulant and
 restorative it deserves a place here.  It consists of brandy, cinnamon water, of each four
 fluid ounces, [a  gill,] the yolks  of two eggs, white sugar half an ounce,  and  oil of cinna-
 mon two drops.  From one  to  three table-spoonfuls are given as  a dose, in  extreme ex-
 haustion from flooding or other hemorrhages, and in the latter stages of low fevers. -

  * Cherries and plums shrivel when preserved in syrup, but remain plump in brandy: in the first  case,
 exosmosis preponderates, because the syrup is denser than the  juice of the fruit; in the second, endos-
 mosis, because the juice is denser than the brandy: the separating  membrane is the skin or epicarp of
the fruit.
  t British brandy is made by mixing 80 gallons of rectified spirits with 7 gallons of vinegar, 12 ounces
 of orris root, 15 lbs. of raisins, and 2 lbs. of sulphuric acid.
  Cognac brandy  is often  adulterated with Spanish or Bordeaux  brandy, old neutral-flavored  rum
rectified  spirits, British brandy,  cherry-laurel-water, extract  of almond cake, extract  of capsicum
grains of Paradise, and coloring sugar.—L. 
ALCOHOL.                                  79
  2. Rum.—This is ardent spirit, obtained both in the West and East Indies, by distilla-
tion from the fermented skimmings of the  sugar boiler, molasses,  the washings of the
boilers, and the lees or spent wash of former distillations, called dunder.   It is imported
into this  country in puncheons.   In some parts of the West India Islands it is customary
to put slices of pine-apples in the puncheons of rum ; hence the designation of pine-apple
rum.   Jamaica rum is more highly esteemed than the Leeward Islands rum.  The pecu-
liar flavor of rum depends on volatile oil.
   The general effects and uses of rum are similar to those of brandy.  But rum is con-
sidered more heating, and  more disposed to cause sweating, than the  other kinds of ardent
spirit,  to  which  it has been  popularly  thought preferable in slight colds, long-standing
coughs, and rheumatism.*  Of its great value  in cases of extreme suffering and exhaus-
tion, from excessive fatigue and privation of food, I have already furnished evidence, (see
p. 26.)
   3. Gin.—Gin  is an ardent spirit prepared from corn spirit, and flavored with Juniper,
Sweet Flag, &c.  It is not allowed to be sent out stronger than 17 per cent, under proof,
but is usually sold to the trade at 22  per  cent, under proof.   The retail dealer always
further reduces its strength, and flavors it with sugar.
   On  account of the oil of juniper which it holds in solution, gin is  more powerfully diu-
retic than either brandy or rum; and hence it is a more popular diuretic in dropsical and
other  affections  where an augmentation  of the  renal secretion is  considered desirable.
Moreover,  it is  frequently used, in preference to other ardent spirits, to promote men-
struation.  At the London Hospital, it is frequently administered medicinally, as a substi-
tute for brandy,  to patients who have been accustomed to it, and whose maladies require
the use of  some alcoholic  stimulant.f
   4.  Whiskey.—This is a  corn  spirit, and agrees in  most of its properties with gin ; from
 which it differs  in its peculiar smoky flavor and odor:  these  it acquires from the malt,
 which is dried by turf fires.  But the smell of burned turf, called peat-reek in Scotland,
 " which was originally prized as a criterion of whiskey made from pure  malt, moderately
 fermented and distilled with peculiar care, has of late years lost its value, since the artifice
 of impregnating bad raw  grain whiskey with peat-smoke has been extensively practised,"
 (Ure.)J:   The peculiar flavor of whiskey is  owing  " to  a volatile oil which exists in  the
barley from which the spirits have been made," (Thomson.)^   Highland whiskey is some-
times  sold 11 per cent, over proof.   The greater reputation of the Highland over Lowland
whiskey  has been ascribed  to  the  use of porter-yeast by the Lowland distillers, which is
said to deteriorate the flavor.
   5. Arrack or Rack.—This is a spirit  obtained from different sources in various  parts of
the East.  In Batavia it is procured by distillation from fermented infusions of rice, whence
it has been termed Rice Spirit.  In Ceylon, it is  obtained by distillation from fermented

   * They talk of a common  experiment here, [Jamaica,] that any animal's liver put into Rum grows
soft, and not so in Brandy, whence they argue this last less wholesome than that; but their Experiment,
if true, proves no such thing.   I think it may be said to have all the good and bad qualities of Brandy,
or any fermented or vinous spirit,"  (Sir Hans Sloane's Jamaica, vol. i. p. xxx.  Lond. 1707.)
   t The gin which is in general use in this country is an adulterated article, having, for the most part,
the cheapest kind  of whiskey, with oil of juniper and oil of vitriol added to  it.  In addition to these,
oil of cassia, oil of turpentine, oil of caraways, oil of almonds, sulphuric ether, extract of capsicum,
extract grains of Paradise,  orris  root,  angelica root, water,  sugar, &c,  are  used for the same
purpose.—L.
   X Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines, p.  399.  Lond. 1839.
   § Chemistry of Organic Bodies—Vegetables, p. 481. 
80
ALIMENTARY  PRINCIPLES.
cocoa-nut toddy, (by some  called Palm Wine.)  Pine-apples, steeped in it, impart a most
exquisite flavor to  the spirit; and, by age, it becomes a delicious liqueur, which is  unri-
valled in the world for making nectarial punch.  Arrack is said to be distinguished from
the other ardent spirits by its stimulating and narcotic properties.  It is sometimes used
in this country to impart an agreeable flavor to punch.  A mock arrack is made by dis-
solving twenty grains of benzoic acid in two pints of rum.
  6. Liqueurs and Compounds.—By spirit dealers, British compounded spirits are denom-
inated Compounds, while Foreign compounded  spirits  are  called Liqueurs.  Both classes
of liquors consist of spirits sweetened and otherwise flavored.
  A great variety of Liqueurs is imported.  In France they are called  Ratafias,* and some
of them also Crimes.  Kirschemcasser or Kirschwasser (literally Cherry-water) is obtained
by distillation from the fermented  juice  of a black  cherry (Cerasus avium macrocarpa,
De  Cand) cultivated in Switzerland and in some parts of France, (in  the Vosges and the
Foret-Noire.)  Maraschino di Zara is  procured  in  Dalmatia from  a  peculiar variety of
cherry, called  Marasquin  (Cerasus  Caproniana var.  a Montmorencyana, De  Cand.?)
Curacoa is  prepared by digesting bitter orange-peel (or orange berries,) cloves, and cin-
namon, in old brandy, to which sugar dissolved in water is subsequently added.f
  The following list of Compounds or British Liqueurs usually kept at  the gin-shops  of
this metropolis has been furnished me by the proprietor of one of these establishments:—
COMPOUNDS, OR BRITISH LIQUEURS.
Under Proof.
  .  17
  .  22
  .  64
Gin........
Gin........
Mint (Peppermint)  .  .   .
Cloves..........."
Bitters..........."
Raspberry.........."
Noyeau ....    ......"
Cinnamon.........."
Tent.........
Aniseed........
Caraway.......
Lovage......•  .
Usquebaugh (seldom asked for)
Orange Cordial   (ditto)  .  .
Citron Cordial    (ditto)  .  .
Rum Shrub......
 Under Proof.
.  .   64
  Those marked at 64  under proof,  though usually permitted  to  the retailers at that
strength, are usually much nearer 80  under proof.J
                      9. THE OILY ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLE.
                                 (Oleaginous Aliments.)
  The substances usually denominated oils are of two kinds, fixed and volatile.   The first
cannot be distilled with water, and when dropped  on paper communicate to it a perma-
nently greasy stain.  The second are volatile, and  communicate  to paper a stain, which
can be removed by moderate warmth.
  1.  Of the Fixed Oils.—Under this head are included all fatty  substances employed as
food, whether  obtained from animals or vegetables.  To  this, therefore, belong the sub-
stances popularly known as Fat, Suet, Tallow, Lard or Axunge,  Marrow, Grease, Butter,
Blubber, and Fixed Oil.
  The vegetable fixed oils reside principally in the seed;  either  in the embryo itself, as
in Almonds, Rape-seed,  Mustard-seed, Filberts, Walnuts, Earth-nuts, and Linseed ;—or

  * Ratafia, like the verb ratify, is derived from the Latin words ralum and fio, to make firm  or to con-
firm.   By Ratafia, therefore, was originally meant a liquid drank at the  ratification, confirmation  or set-
tlement of an agreement or bargain.  The practice of drinking on these occasions is by no means of
modern origin.
  t Formulae for the preparation of the above and other Liqueurs (Ratafias) are given in MM. Henry
and Guibourt's Pharmacopee Raisonnee.
  X Appendix, S. 
FIXED  OILS OR FATS.
81
in the perisperm or albumen which surrounds the embryo, as in the Cocoa-nut, Poppy-

seed, and Nutmeg.  The pericarp or fruit-coats rarely contain fixed oil.  Olives, however,

constitute a remarkable exception to this statement.

  In animals, fat is lodged in the cells of what is called adipose tissue—a structure analo-

gous to, if,  indeed, it  be not identical with, common cellular membrane.   A stratum  of

this tissue, of variable thickness, lies beneath the skin.  A considerable accumulation of it,

containing a very firm kind of fat, exists in thev neighborhood  of the kidneys.  In the

omentum, (popularly  called the  caul,) the orbits, and various  other parts of the animal

body, depositions of fat take place.
  The quantity of oil or fat procurable from different vegetable  and animal substances is

as follows:—


QUANTITY OF OIL OR FAT YIELDED BY 100  PARTS  BY WEIGHT OF  THE FOLLOW-
                           ING ALIMENTARY SUBSTANCES.
                                                Oil or Fat.           Authority.
a. Vegetables.                                                       ,
  Filberts........       -60           Schiibler.
  Olives (including pericarp, stone, and seed,) .   .   .32           Sieuve.
  Olive-seeds.........54           Ditto.
  Walnuts......•    ...  50           Schiibler.
  Earth-nut (Arachis hypogcea)......47           Payen and Henry tils.
  Cocoa nut (nucleus or fleshy part).....47           Buchner.
  Almonds..........46           Schiibler.
  White Mustard........36           Ditto.
  Plums..........33           Ditto.
  Linseed..........22           Ditto.
  Black Mustard.........18           Ditto.
  Grape-stones (seeds).......11-4 to 18-5    Juha-Fontenelle.
  Maize..........9           Dumas and Payen.
  Dates (fleshy part of the fruit)......0-2          Reinsch.

o. Animal.
  Yolk of Eggs  .                .....28-75        Prout.
  Ordinary Meat (including cellular tissue)    .    .    .  143          Liebig.
  Caviare (fresh unpressed)......4-3          John.
  Liver of the Ox (parenchyma of).....3-89        Braconnot.
  Milk, Cows'.........313      "]
     "   Women's........3-55       I
     "  Asses'.........0-11       }■ O. Henry and Chevalher.
     "  Goats'.........3-32       I
     »   Ewes'.........4-20      J
  Bones of Sheeps'feet.......5 55       J French Gelatine Commission.
     "     Ox-head........1154       J

   The elementary constituents of the fatty substances are Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen,

to  which, in some instances, Saussure adds Nitrogen.


              ULTIMATE COMPOSITION OF SOME FIXED OILS OR FATS.
                                   Carbon.    Hydrogen.    Oxygen.    Nitrogen.   Authority.
    Almond Oil........77-403      H-481      10,828       °"288     Saussure.
    Olive Oil (liquidpart or oleine) .  .  76036      11545      12068       0 353     Ditto.
    Ditto (solid ]Sart £ margarine)  .  .  82170      11232      6-302       0-296     Ditto.
    Walnut Oil     .......  79-774      10570      9-122       0-543     Ditto.
    Train Oil              ....  761        124       115         0       Berard.
    bSEf                        .  65-6        17-6       16-8         0       Ditto.
    Hoff'sLard........79098      11146      9-756        0       Chevreul.
    Muftonluei........78-996      11-700      9-304        0       Ditto.

   The fixed oils or fats employed as aliments are mixtures or compounds of two, three,

or  more neutral, fatty, saponifiable  principles, viz.,  Slearine, Margarine,  Oleine, Butyrine,

 Caprine, CaprHne, Hircine, and Phocenine.  Each of these fatty principles is convertible,

by a caustic alkali, into a fatty acid, a saccharine substance called glycerine, or the oxide

of glycerule,  (see p. 55,) and water.  They are  probably, therefore, hydrated salts of gly-

cerine. 
82
ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
1. Stearine (Slearale of Glycerine)   yields Stearic acid  ■
2. Margarine (Margarate of Glycerine)  "   Margaric acid •
3. Oleine (Olcate of Glycerine)        "   Oleic acid
4. Butyrine (Butyrate of Glycerine)    "   Butyric acid  ■
5. Caprine (Caprate of Glycerine)      "   Capric acid
6. Caproine (Caprbate of Glycerine)    "   Caproic acid  ■
7. Hircine (Hircate of Glycerine)      "   Hirsic acid
8. Phocenine (Phocenate of Glycerine)  "   Phocenic acid
•Glycerine.
•Glycerine.
•Glycerine.
 Glycerine.
 Glycerine.
 Glycerine.
•Glycerine.
 Glycerine.
  Stearic, margaric, and  oleic acids, are without  smell, and as they cannot be distilled
with water, are called fixed acids.  The other acids are odorous, volatile, and acrid.  The
peculiar smell, which most fats have, is due to one or more of these volatile oily acids.
  The fixed oils and fats  are difficult and slow of digestion;  more so than any other ali-
mentary principles.  This fact has long been familiar to dyspeptics; but it has of late
years been confirmed in a very satisfactory manner, by the experiments of Dr. Beaumont,*
made on a Canadian who had a  permanent artificial opening in the stomach, produced
by a gun-shot wound at about two inches below the left nipple.  By means of this aper-
ture, Dr. Beaumont was  enabled to introduce into the stomach various  articles of  diet,
and from time to time to withdraw them, in order to examine the changes they underwent.
He was also able to extract the gastric juice, and  to  perform various experiments on its
digestive powers.  He found that this secretion had  a  very slow  and feeble action on
fatty matters, whether contained in the  stomach or otherwise.
  The mean time required  for the chymification  of fatty substances is, according to Dr-
Beaumont's experiments,  as follows:—
ARTICLES OF DIET.	MEAN TIME OF THE CHYMIFICATION.			
	IN STOMACH.		IN PHIALS.	
	Preparation.	H. M.	Preparation.	H. M.
Butter...... Mutton Suet . . . Beef Suet (fresh). . Olive Oil ....	Melted Boiled Boiled	3 30 4 30 5 30	Divided Entire piece Raw	10 0 12 0 60 0
  The first change which the animal fat suffers when swallowed, consists in its conver-
sion into liquid  oil by the warmth of the stomach.   Very gradually this  oil is converted
into a creamy-looking chyme, containing myriads of oily globules, visible to the eye when
aided by a microscope; so that  the  oil is, in fact, not in solution, but, like  the  butter in
milk, or the oil in an emulsion, is held in suspension merely.  Hence  oils  or fats, if swal-
lowed  in the form of an emulsion or milk, are more readily digested  than if taken in the
raw or undivided state.
  I have repeatedly  subjected fatty substances to the action of an artificial  digestive
liquor.f which readily dissolved coagulated white of egg or  beefsteak.  In no case, how-
ever, have I been able to get the fat or  oil  in  solution.  When yolk  of egg boiled hard
was submitted to its influence, the  albuminous  matter was readily dissolved, but not so
the yellow fat of the yolk, which was  merely diffused  through the  liquor, rendering it
creamy or yellowish white, and opaque.
  * Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juwe, and the Physiology of Digestion, by Wm. Beau-
mont, M.D.  Reprinted from the Plattsburg edition by Andrew Combe, M.D.  Edinb. 1838.
  t See p. 35, foot-note, for the mode of preparing this liquor. 
FIXED OILS OR FATS.                            83
  Thus minutely divided, and perhaps  otherwise somewhat  changed, fat or  fixed  oil
becomes absorbed by the chyliferous vessels; for it is well known that the opacity of the
chyle depends entirely or principally on the  presence of myriads of minute oily globules,
which readily dissolve in ether.
  The chymification of fatty substances is assisted by the presence of bile in the stomach.
" Bile," says Dr. Beaumont, " is seldom found in the stomach,  except under peculiar cir-
cumstances.  I have observed," he  adds, " that when the use of fat or oily food  has been
persevered in for some time, there is generally the presence of bile in the gastric fluids."
The popular  notion that oily or fatty foods " cause bile" in the stomach, is not, therefore,
so groundless as medical men have generally supposed.  From Dr. Beaumont's observa-
tions and experiments, it appears that oil is  slowly, and with great difficulty, acted on by
the gastric  juice; but that  the admixture of bile greatly accelerates chymification.  Per-
haps the alkaline property of the bile partly contributes to this  effect.
   In many dyspeptic individuals fat does not become properly chymified.  It  floats on
the contents of the stomach in the form of an oily pellicle, becoming odorous, and some-
times  highly rancid, and, in this state, excites  heartburn, most disagreeable nausea, and
eructations, or at times  actual vomiting.   It appears  to me  that the greater  tendency
which some oily substances have  than  others to  disturb the stomach, depends on the
greater facility with which  they  evolve volatile fatty acids, which are for the most part
exceedingly acrid and irritating.   The unpleasant and distressing feelings excited in many
dyspeptics  by  the ingestion of mutton fat, butter, and fish-oils, are in this way readily
accounted for; since all these  substances contain each one or more volatile acids to which
they respectively owe their odor.  Thus mutton fat contains hircic acid; butter no less
than three  volatile fatty acids, viz. butyric, capric, aad  caproic  acids; while train oil con-
tains phocenic acid.
   Fats, by exposure to the air, become rancid, and in this state are exceedingly obnoxious
to the digestive organs.  Their injurious qualities depend in part on the presence of vola-
tile acids, and in part also on other volatile but non-acid substances.  The following table
shows the differences in composition between fresh and rancid lard:

                    COMPOSITION OF FRESH AND RANCID  LARD.
                 Fresh Lard.                             Rancid Lard.
             Stearine.                        Stearine [Margarine T\ and Oleine.
             Margarine.                      Volatije non-acid matter, having a rancid odor.
             Oleine.                         Cuproic (1)  acid.
                                            Another volatile acid.
                                            Oleic, margaric, and perhaps stearic acids.
                                            Yellow coloring matter.
                                            Non-acid non-volatile matter, soluble in water.
   The influence of heat on fatty substances effects various chemical changes in  them,
whereby they are rendered more difficult of digestion, and more obnoxious to the stomach.
Hence those culinary operations in  which fat or oil is subjected to high temperatures, are
objectionable for the  preparation of foods for persons with  weak  stomachs.   On this
account, dyspeptics should be prohibited from employing foods prepared by frying ; as in
this operation the heat is usually applied by the intermedium of boiling oil or fat.   Fixed
oils give off, while  boiling, carbonic acid, a little inflammable vapor, and an acrid volatile
oil called Acroleins or Acroleon,* while the fatty acids of the oils  are, in  part, set free.  It

  • Acroleine is probably generated by the decomposition of the glycerine.  Its vapor most powerfully
and painfully affects the eyes.  I have known a whole class of medical students obliged to leave the
lecture-room to avoid the irritating effects of acroleine vapor developed during the distillation of a
couple of  ounces of olive oil. 
84                  '       ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
has  always appeared to me that cooked butter proves more obnoxious to  the stomach
than cooked olive oil.   This I ascribe to the facility with which, under the  influence of
heat, the acrid volatile acids of butter are set free.
   The fat of salt-pork and of bacon is less injurious to some dyspeptics than fresh animal
fats.  A somewhat similar observation has been made by others.   " There is one form of
impaired digestion," says Dr. Combe,* " in which the fat of bacon is digested with perfect
ease, where many other apparently more appropriate articles of food oppress the stomach
for hours."  This must depend on some change effected in the fat by the process of curing
it, for, in the cases which have fallen under my observation, the fat of salt-pork or of bacon
was the only kind of fat which did not disturb the digestive organs.  Dr. Combe, however,
suggests that it may depend on the presence of bile in the  stomach.   But on this expla-
nation,  however, other fats should be equally digestible, which, according to my experi-
ments, they are  not.f
   Fixed oil or fat is more difficult of digestion, and more obnoxious to the stomach, than
any  other alimentary principle.  Indeed, in some more or less obvious or concealed form,
I believe it will be found the offending  ingredient in  nine-tenths of the dishes which
disturb  weak stomachs.  Many dyspeptics who have most religiously avoided the use of
oil or fat in its obvious or ordinary state, (as fat meat, marrow, butter, and oil,) unwittingly
employ it in some more concealed form, and, as I have frequently witnessed, have suffered
therefrom.   Such individuals should eschew the yolk of eggs, livers (of quadrupeds, poultry,
and  fish,)  and brains, all of which abound in oily matter.  Milk, and especially cream,
disagree with  many persons, or, as they term  it, " lie heavy at the stomach," in conse-
quence  of the  butter  they contain.  Rich  cheese likewise contains butter, and  on that
account is  apt to disturb the stomach.   Fried  dishes of all kinds are abominations to the
dyspeptic, on account of the oil or fat used in  their preparation.  Melted butter, buttered
toast, butter-cakes, pastry, marrow-puddings,  and suet-puddings, are, for  the like  reason,
obnoxious  to the stomach.  Several kinds of fish, as salmon,  herrings,  sprats, and eels,
abound in oil, and on this account form objectionable foods for the dyspeptic.   Moreover,
the mode  of cooking (frying) some fishes, and  the  condiment (melted butter) used with
them, often render this kind of animal  food injurious.   The  oily seeds, as nuts, walnuts,
and  cocoa-nuts, are very indigestible.  Chocolate prepared from the oily seeds of the Theo-
broma Cacao is, therefore, not a fit article of food for a delicate stomach.  Hashes, slews,
and broths, frequently prove injurious, from the oil or fat  contained in them.  In preparing
broths for such persons, therefore, the fat should be carefully removed by skimming.
   Oleaginous aliments have been until very recently regarded as highly nutritious;  though
alone, it is well  known, they are  incapable  of  supporting life.  But Liebeg  asserts that,
like other non-nitrogenized foods, they are incapable of  transformation into food, and are,
therefore, unfitted for forming  organized  or living tissues, and that they  merely serve for
supporting the process of respiration.  I  have, however, already fully discussed Liebig's
opinions on this  subject in a former part of this work, (see pp. 16—27,)  to which, there-
fore, I must refer the reader for further information.  I  have likewise noticed the impor-
tance of the fatty foods in enabling the  inhabitants of frozen regions to resist  the effects
of extreme cold, (see pp. 8—11.)
   In  the Report  made  to the French Academy of Sciences, in the name of the Gelatine
  * See the foot-note at p. 87 of his edition of Dr. Beaumont's Experiments.
  t We  have treated many cases of cholera infantum, where every thing would be rejected from the
stomach, except salt-pork, or fet bacon, rare-broiled and given in small quantities at a time. Many
cases have recovered under such a diet, where vegetable farinaceous food could not be  retained, or if*
retained, passed through the alimentary canal undigested.—L. 
FIXED OILS OR FATS.                           85
Commission,* it is stated that animals fed on fatty substances (fresh butter, lard, and the
fat which surrounds the bullock's heart) refuse, after  some  time, to take this food, and
ultimately die of inanitioaf   During life, they exhaled a strong fatty odor, and though
dying of inanition, were in a remarkable state of embonpoint.  On  a post-mortem exam-
ination, all the tissues and organs were found infiltrated with fat, and the fiver was in the
state called by anatomists fatty.
  In the preceding part  (p. 27) of this work I have mentioned the facts adduced by Liebig,
to prove that fat may be formed in the animal body from  starch and sugar.  Very recently,
however, MM. Dumas and PayenJ have  denied the correctness of Liebig's conclusion ;
and have related some  experiments which have led them to infer that animals  derive
their fat from plants.  Maize, they state, contains 9 per  cent of a  yellow oil; so that the
goose referred to by Liebig (see ante, p. 27,) in eating 24 lbs. of maize received 2-16 lbs.
of fatty matter.  " It is  not astonishing, therefore,  that the  animal should yield 3i lbs.,
when we reckon that which it contained originally."
  Hitherto I have not alluded to the ulterior changes which the fixed oils or fats suffer in
the animal economy.  On this  point, physiology is very barren in facts.  I have already
stated (see p. 82) that the chyle contains, floating in it, globules  of oil visible  by the  aid
of a microscope.  In the blood, however, the oil or fat§ does not exist in a free state, but
is intimately combined with some of the other constituents of the serum; while its pro-
perties  are different from those of the chyle-oil.  It has,  therefore, undergone  some im-
portant modifications.
   From the blood, the adipose and nervous tissues must  derive their oily or fatty  consti-
tuents.   The peculiar fatty matters of the brain pre-exist in  the blood.
  Obesity and leanness  depend,  the one on excessive,  the other on deficient, quantity of
oleaginous matters in the system.  Dr.  Prout also very properly refers gall-stones, which
consist  of a  fatty matter called cholesterine, to the mal-assimilation  of the  oleaginous
principle.
  Oleaginous foods often agree so remarkably well with diabetic patients, " that some
have gone so far as to propose them as remedies.   When freely taken, they usually cause
a flow of saliva, and  thus diminish the urgent thirst.  When they agree, also, they give
a sensation of satisfaction and support to the stomach, which other alimentary substances
do  not.  Perhaps butter is the most agreeable form in which they can be taken, and this,
under proper circumstances, may be taken freely.   When  oleaginous  matters disagree,
as  is sometimes the case, they should be carefully shunned."||
   1. Olive Oil; Siveel Oil—This is obtained by expression from olives. In France, the finest
oil  is procured by bruising them in the mill immediately after they are gathered, and sub-
mitting  the  paste to  pressure.  The first product, termed Virgin Oil, (Huile  Vierge,) is
greenish, and is  much sought after by connoisseurs, for its superior flavor.  Provence Oil,

  * Comptes Rendus, A out, 1841.
  t To the general statement in the text two exceptions were reported by the Commissioners.   One
dog ate  daily 125 grammes [1929i troy grs.] of the fat which surrounds the  bullock's heart, and at  the
end of a twelvemonth was  in perfect health.  Another dog took  190 grammes [2932* troy grs.] daily,
and was in perfect health at the end of six months' trial.  But as this kind of fat contains cellular tissue
and fragments of muscular  fibre, both nitrogenous substances, these results do not invalidate the general
statement made in the  text, and which is  founded on the results  obtained by feeding animals on
pure fat.
  % Comptes Rendus, Oct. 24,1842.  Also, Annals of Chymistry, Nov. 11,1842.
  § Chemists have detected in the blood the following fatty substances:— Cholesterine, Oleic and Mar-
garic Acids, Serolin, and Cerebrote, (Cerebric Acid.)
  || Dr. Prout, op. supra cit. p. 43, foot-note. 
86                           ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
the produce of Aix, (Huile d'Aix  en Provence,)  is  one of  the  most esteemed kinds.
Florence Oil is a fine kind of olive oil imported from Leghorn in flasks surrounded by a
kind of network, formed by the  leaves  of a monocotyledonous  plant.  These are the
kinds of olive oil in most frequent use at the table for salads, (hence they are called Salad
Oils.)  Lucca Oil is imported in jars holding nineteen gallons each.  Genoa Oil is a fine
kind.  Gallipoli Oil is imported  in  casks:  it constitutes the  largest  portion of the olive
oil brought to England.   Sicily Oil is of inferior quality.  Spanish Oil is the worst.  The
foot deposited by olive oil is used for oiling machinery, under the name of Droppings of
Sweet Oil.
  Olive  Oil  consists of Oleine and Margarine.  In cold weather, the  latter constituent
congeals in the form of white or yellowish globules.   The following table shows the rela-
tive proportion of oleine and margarine in olive and almond oils :—
Olive Oil
Almond Oil
leine.	Margarine
72	28
76	24
As olive oil  contains somewhat more margarine than almond oil does, it is more apt to
congeal in  cold weather.
   In England, the dietetical uses of olive oil are comparatively limited; being principally
confined to its mixture with  salads.  It is also  employed  in frying fish.  In  Spain, and
some other countries, it  is frequently  employed as a substitute for butter.   Taken in
large quantities, it acts as a mild laxative.
   The difficult  digestibility  of oil has been  already adverted  to, (see p. 82.)   Some
writers on dietetics are of opinion that taken as a condiment, with salad, it promotes the
digestibility of the latter.  But I do not coincide with them.   The statement is, d priori,
improbable, while the facts adduced in support of it are  insufficient to prove it  Raw
oil, as taken with salad, is less likely to disturb the stomach  than the same or other oily
or fatty substances when cooked;  for  while, on the one hand, the freshest and sweetest
oil is generally selected for employment at  the table in the raw state, so on the other, oil
which has  been subjected to heat, as in various  culinary  operations, is rendered more
difficult of digestion, (see p. 83.)  Fresh  olive oil I believe to be less obnoxious to the
stomach than some  other oily or fatty substances, and which  I ascribe to its not contain-
ing any free volatile acid, (see p. 83.)*
   2. Butler.—As usually  met with,  this substance contains about one-sixth of its weight
of butter-milk.f   Cow's butter, according to Bromeis,J has the following composition :—

                             COMPOSITION OF BUTTER.
        Margarate of glycerine [Margarine].........68
        Butyroleate of glycerine [Oleine]........     *.   30
        Butyrate [Butyrine,] caproate [Caprbine,]  and caprate of glycerine [Caprine]   .'    2
        Butter     ..............100
   The  same authority gives the  following as the formula;  for the fatty acids of but-
ter:—

   * Olive oil is employed extensively in the manufacture of soaps, unguents, and plasters ; also for lubri-
cating machinery, as well as  for culinary purposes.  In 1832, 5,000 tuns of olive oil were' imported into
Great Britain ; and in 1830, 8,521 tuns—the tun being 4 hogsheads, or 252 wine gallons.   The importation
into the United States, in 1840, was estimated at $96,000.—L.
   t Thomson's Chemistry of Animal Bodies, p. 430.  1843.
   X Journal de Pharmacie, 3™e Ser. t. ii. Aout, 1842. 
FIXED OILS  OR FATS.                           87
                 COMPOSITION OF THE FATTY  ACIDS OF BUTTER.
                 Margaric Acid......C3«  H33  O3
                 Butyroleic Acid......C3<  H3°  O*
                 Butyric Acid.......C«  ff  0!
                 Caproic Acid.......C'2  H9  O3
                 CapricAcid.......Cis  H14  O3
  The  acid  called  by Bromeis  butyroleic acid was obtained  from the oil  (oleine  of
Chevreul) which he had extracted from butter by pressure.
  Butter is employed rather as a condiment than as  a direct alimentary matter.  Its
dietetical  properties' I have  already noticed, (pp.  83 and 84.)  Its  odor  depends on the
volatile fatty acids:  to the facility with which these are set free, I have  before ascribed
its  greater tendency to  disorder the stomach  than some other fats.  When rendered
rancid by keeping, or empyreumatic by  heat, it is exceedingly injurious to the dyspeptic,
(pp. 83-84.)
  In the Report  of the Gelatine Commission of the French  Academy of Sciences,  it  is
stated that a dog, fed on fresh butter only,  continued to eat it irregularly for 68 days.
" He died subsequently of inanition, although in a remarkable state of embonpoint.  Dur-
ing the whole of the experiment he  exhaled a strong odor  of butyric  acid, his hair felt
greasy, and his skin was unctuous and covered with a  fatty layer.  At the autopsy all the
tissues and organs were found infiltrated with  fat  The liver was in the state called, in
pathological anatomy, fatty.  By analysis, a very large quantity of stearine [margarine'?]
but little or no oleine, was found in it   Into this organ, therefore, there had been a kind
of infiltration of fat"*
  3. Marrow.—This is the fatty matter  contained in the interior of the cylindrical bones.
Berzelius analyzed beef marrow,  and found its  constituents to be as follows :—

                         COMPOSITION OF BEEF MARROW.
                 Medullary fat.........96
                 Skins and blood-vessels.......1
                 Watery liquids contained in these bodies     ...     3
                 Beef marrow.........100
  " The constituent parts of these liquids do not differ  from the matters which cold water
extracts from beef."
  Marrow is deprived of the skins, vessels, &c, by melting  it, and straining through a
linen cloth.
  " The marrow  of large bones," says Berzelius, " is absolutely of the same nature as the
other fat of the same animal. The difference of flavor which exists  between the marrow
of boiled bones  and  ordinary melted fat depends  on  foreign matters derived from the
liquids which circulate in the cellular tissue by which the fat is surrounded, and espe-
cially by an extract! form substance which is insoluble in alcohol."
  The proportions of solid and  liquid fats contained in  marrow are, according to  Bra-
connot, as follows :—
                                                        So/id Fat.   Liquid Fat
                                                       (Stearine.)     (Oleine.)
            Beef marrow........76           24
            Mutton marrow.......26           74
  In its dietetical properties, marrow agrees with other oily or fatty substances.  Beef
marrow is the only variety used at  the table.  It is never eaten raw.   It is frequently
employed as a substitute for suet in the making of puddings.
  4. Animal Fats.—Under this head are  included the oils or fats contained in the adipose

                                   * Appendix, T. 
88                           ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
tissue of animals : when separated from vessels and skins by melting and straining, they
are said to be rendered down.  By subjecting  animal fats to pressure, Braconnot procured
the following proportions of stearine and oleine from them:—
                                                       Solid Fat.     Liquid Fat.
                  100 Ports.                            (Stearine, &c.)    (Oleine.)
                 Hog's lard.......38           62
                 Goose fat.......32           58
                 Duck fat.......28           72
                 Turkey fat.......26           74
  Hog's lard contains, besides Stearine and  Oleine, some Margarine, (see p. 83, where
also is  stated  the  composition  of rancid  lard.)  Mutton  Suet  consists of  Stearine,
Margarine, Oleine, Hircine, and  Hircic Acid, (see p. 83.)  Whale  oil, obtained, by boil-
ing, from the blubber of whales, consists principally of  Oleine with some Phocenine, and
usually a  little  Phocenic acid, to which  it owes its  odor.  It also  contains  a  solid
crystallizable fat.
  The digestibility of animal  fats  has already been  adverted  to,  (see p. 82,)  as  well
as the injurious influence of heat on them, (see p. 83.)   I have likewise  noticed the fact
that some kinds of cured  fats (as salt-pork and  bacon) are less  indigestible, by some
stomachs, than other forms  of fat (see p. 84.)
  The incapability  of  pure animal fats to  effect  prolonged nutrition has likewise  been
stated, (see pp. 19 and 84.)   Magendie* reportsthat many animals which  at first ate lard
with pleasure, subsequently refused to touch it  After a  shorter or  longer use of it they
all died.   The autopsy of one of these animals showed, as in the case of the animal who
died when kept exclusively on a diet of butter,  " a general atrophy  of the organs, but  a
great abundance of fat particularly under the skin, where it formed a layer of more than
one centimetre [039371 of  an  English inch] in thickness."
  " We tried," continues Magendie, " whether, by mixing a certain portion of bread with
the lard, we could ameliorate its effects.  We made a paste composed of
                Lard........120 Grammes.
                White bread.......250  Ditto.
But  the animal  who was submitted to this nourishment refused it after a few days' use
of it"
  Six dogs were fed exclusively on the fat which surrounds the heart of the ox.  This fat
contained  some nitrogenous matter in the form of cellular tissue, and some small parcels of
muscular  fibres.   Four  of the  animals refused to eat  of it after using it for seven days,
and died in from 19 to 35 days.  The  two other animals continued to take it, and  were
nourished by it, as I have already stated, (see p. 85 foot-note.)
  The animal fats are  sometimes used by  the cook, as preservative agents for various
foods.  Thus plums and damsons, when  boiled, are covered with suet in order to pre-
serve them ; potted  meats with butter ;  &c.  The antiseptic virtue depends,  in these
cases, on the exclusion  of atmospheric air; the oxygen  of which is  a powerful accelera-
tor of fermentation and putrefaction.
  2. Of the Volatile or Essential  Oils.—As volatile oil is a constituent of several
substances employed at the table, either as aliments or condiments, I have thought it ad-
visable to  notice it here ;—the  more especially as Dr. Prout includes it among oleaginous
aliments.
  The labiate  plants used in cookery, under the name of sweet or savory herbs, such as
Mint Marjoram, Savory, Sage, and Thyme, owe their peculiar odor and flavor to volatile
* Comptes Rendus, Aoat, 1841. 
VOLATILE OILS—PROTIENE.
89
oil lodged in small receptacles contained in the leaves.   The fruits  and leaves of several
umbilleferous plants employed for flavoring, as Caraway, Anise, Fennel and Parsley, like-
wise contain volatije oil, to which they owe their agreeable flavor.  In the  case  of the
umbelliferous  fruits, the  oil is  contained  in tubes or vessels, called vitta, situated  in  the
pericarpial coat of the fruit  The cruciferous or siliquose condiments, such  as Mustard,
Horse-radish,  and Water Cresses, yield an acrid volatile oil, to which they owe their pun-
gency.  The  alliaceous condiments,  such as Garlic, Onions, Eschalots, and  Leeks, like-
wise  owe their peculiar flavor to volatile  oil.  The  spices, as Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Mace,
Cloves, Allspice, Pepper, and Ginger, owe their strong but grateful odor and taste to vola-
tile oil.  Lastly, the bitter-almond flavor, obtained, not only from Bitter-Almonds, but  also
from the leaves of the Peach and the Cherry-Laurel, resides in a volatile oil.
   The volatile oils of many of the preceding substances are prepared and sold.  But in
flavor and odor they are generally inferior to the substances from which they are obtain-
ed ;  as the act of distillation, by which they are procured, usually diminishes more or less
their agreeable qualities.   Dissolved in rectified spirit  of wine, in the proportion of one
part of oil to eight parts of spirit, they form the liquids commonly sold as  Essences for
flavoring, &c.
   The  relish  for flavoring or seasoning  ingredients, manifested, in a greater or less de-
gree, by almost every person, would lead us to suppose  that these substances serve some
useful purpose in the animal economy, beyond that of merely gratifying the palate.  At
present, however, we have no evidence to prove that they do.  They stimulate,  but do
not seem to nourish.  The  volatile oil which they contain is absorbed, but is subsequently
thrown out of the system, still possessing  its  characteristic odor.  A portion of it may,
perhaps, under  some circumstances, be  burnt  in the lungs, and  in this way produce
heat*

                10. THE PROTEINACEOUS ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLE.
                               (Albuminous Substances.)
   Several organic principles, both animal and vegetable, which are employed  as aliments,
contain as their basis, or  at least  yield, the substance called by Mulder Proteine,  and
which I have  before noticed, (see p. 20.)  They  may, therefore, be regarded as modifica-
tions of one another, or of proteine, and I have  accordingly included them in one group,
under the name of the proteinaceous alimentary principle.
   This group corresponds very nearly with  that called  by Dr. Prout the  Albuminous
Alimentary Principle. It differs, however, in not comprehending gelatinous substances,
which, for reasons hereafter to be  stated,  I have thought it advisable to form into a dis-
tinct group.
   Proteine has been analyzed by its discoverer, Mulder, and also  by Scherer.

                             ANALYSES  OF PROTEINE.
                                      MULDER.
                              From Fibrine.     From Ovalbumen.      From Vegetable Albumen.
              Carbon    .    .   55-44          55  30              5499
              Hydrogen  .    .    6-95           6-94               687
              Nitrogen    .    .   1605          1602              15-66
              Oxygen   .    .   21-56          2174              2248
              Proteine   .   .   10000         10000             10000
* Appendix, U. 
90
ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
                                       SCHERER.
                              From Fibrine.      From Albumen.         From Crystalline Lens.
               Carbon    .    .   54-848         55160             55-300
               Hvdrogen .    .    6959           7055              6-940
               Nitrogen  .    .    15847          15-966              16-216
               Oxygen    .    .    22346          21819             21-544

               Proteine  '.    ".   100000         100000             100000

  Mulder and Liebig  have deduced the following formulae for the representation of the

composition of proteine:
                                       MULDER.
                                       Atoms.         Eq. Wt.         Per Cent.
               Carbon    ...        40           240           54-93
               Hydrogen ....    31            31            709
               Nitrogen      ...     5            70           1602
               Oxygen        ...    12            96           2196

               Proteine  ....     1           437          10000
                                         LIEBIG.
                                        Atoms.        Eq. Wt.         Per Cent.
               Carbon    ....   48           288           5538
               Hydrogen ....    36            36            692
               Nitrogen  ....     6            84           1616
               Oxygen    ....    14           112           21-54

               Proteine  ....     1           520          10000

  These  formulae differ considerably from each other, yet agree very closely with the ex-

perimental results.  They are good illustrations of the difficulty of determining the atomic

constitution of complicated organic substances.

  Proteine does not exist,  as such, in organized beings.   Combined with  small quantities

of mineral or organized substances, (sulphur, phosphorus,  potash,  soda,  common salt,

and phosphate of lime,) it constitutes fibrine, albumen, and caseine, both animal and vege-

table.

  The composition of Fibrine, Albumen, and Caseine,  is, according to Mulder,* as fol-

lows :—
                  COMPOSITION OF PROTEINACEOUS COMPOUNDS.
                                Fibrine.       Ovalbumen.      Seralbumen.     Caseine.
           Proteine   .   .    .   99-31          99-19         98-99        99-64
           Sulphur   .   .    .    0-33         0.43          0.33        0-36
           Phosphorus    .    .    0-36         0-38          0-68        000

                                 10000        10000         100-00       10000
                                 [Salts]         [Salts]        [Salts]       [Salts]

   Fibrine, albumen, and caseine, contain, besides Proteine, Sulphur,  and Phosphorus, a

quantity of saline matter, (not included in the above analyses,) and hence,  when burned,

they leave ashes, (composed principally of phosphate of lime and alkaline salts.)  The

following are the proportions of ashes obtained by Scherer and Jones :—

       QUANTITY OF ASHES YIELDED BY FIBRINE, ALBUMEN, AND  CASEINE.

               100 Parts.                                   Ashes.     Authority.
               Fibrine.......1-3   to  2-3  Scherer.
               Seralbumen......1-265 to  21  Ditto.
               Ovalbumen  (white of egg)    ...            2-0  Ditto.
               Albumen of the yolk of egg  ...            48  Jones.
               Albumen of Calf s brain  ....            2-8  Ditto.
               Caseinet.......15  to 100  Scherer.
               Zieger.......            20  Ditto.

   The dietetical properties of pure  proteine  have not yet been ascertained.  The pro-

 teinaceous compounds constitute the  plastic elements  of nutrition, (see p. 16.)  Accord-

          * Mulder's formulae for fibrine and albumen I have before stated, (p. 33, foot-note.)
           t  The ashes of caseine consist chiefly of phosphate of lime and potash, (Liebig.) 
FIBRINE.
91
ing to Liebig, they are produced by  vegetables only, and  cannot be formed by animals,
" although the animal  organism possesses the power of converting one modification of
proteine into another, fibrine into albumen, or vice  versa, or both into caseine, &c.  In this
point of view, the vegetable forms of proteine, vegetable  albumen,  fibrine, and caseine,
become signally important as the only sources of proteine for animal  life, and consequent-
ly of nutrition, strictly so called—that is, the growth in mass of the animal body."*
   The  brain  and nervous matter (which is quite similar to brain)  are  distinct from al'
other animal tissues, and, according to Liebig, are  formed, in the  animal body exclusively,
" from compounds of proteine, either by the  loss  of some  azotized compounds, or by the
 addition of highly carbonized products, such as faff
   Proteinaceous  aliments are obtained from both animals and vegetables, and it will, there-
fore, be convenient to consider them under two distinct sub-groups;  notwithstanding that
Liebig  states, as  I have before observed, (see p. 20,) that animal and vegetable fibrine,
animal and vegetable albumen, and animal and vegetable caseine, are respectively identi-
cal in every particular.
   1.  Animal Proteinaceous Principles.—This  sub-group comprehends  Fibrine, Albu-
men, and Caseine, (see p. 20.)
   a. Fibrine; Animal Fibrine.—The fibrine  is contained  in solution in the  circulating
blood, but coagulates when this fluid is drawn from the body, forming, with the coloring
particles,  the clot or crassamentum.  In the solid  state it constitutes the basis of muscular
fibre.   It forms, therefore, the principal constituent of the  fleshy or lean parts  of animals.
 It is also  found in some other animal tissues.

                  QUANTITY  OF FIBRINE IN ANIMAL SUBSTANCES.
                                        Fibrine.              Authority.
   100 Parts.
Blood of the Hog
        "  Ox
  "     "  Sheep
Beef (muscle of)
Veal (ditto)
Mutton (ditto)
Pork (ditto)
Chicken (ditto)
Cod (ditto)
Haddock (ditto)
Sole (ditto)
Calf's Sweetbread
  (Thymus)
  Fibrine (as beefsteak, &c.)
described, (see p. 35, foot-note
         .  .   < Andral, Gavarret,
              \  and Delafond.
20*0  including albumen  Brande.
19-0
22
19
20
14
13
15
 8
ditto
ditto
ditto
ditto
ditto
ditto
ditto
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.

Morin.
                             is  readily soluble  in the artificial digestive liquid already
                                It is also speedily dissolved in the living stomach; and
is generally considered, even by dyspeptics, as being easy of digestion.
  It is an important element of nutrition, and yields fibrine, albumen, and caseine, as well
as the tissues composed of these substances.  Alone, however, it is incapable of support-
ing life, except for a very limited period.   MagendieJ  mentions,  as a  most singular and
surprising circumstance, that animals  who took regularly for two  months from 500
grammes [1 lb. 4 oz. 37 grs. troy] to 1000 grammes [2 lbs. 8 oz. 74 grs. troy] of fibrine daily,
died of inanition ;  and on  a post-mortem examination, it was  found that the blood had
almost entirely disappeared.  " Notwithstanding," says Magendie, " the  care we took  to
collect it, [the  blood,] a few minutes after death, scarcely a  gramme  [15*444 grs. troy]  of
fibrine could be obtained."
  b. Albumen; Animal Albumen.—This substance constitutes the most important part of
* Turner's Chemistry, 7th ed. p. 1185.  1842.
X Comptes Rendus, Aotit, 1841.
t Ibid, p. 1197. 
92                         ALIMENTARY  PRINCIPLES.
animal foods.   The albumen, both of the egg (ovalbumen) and of the serum of the blood,
(seralbumen,) is liquid.   But the albumen of flesh, glands, and viscera of animals, is solid.
The quantity of albumen contained in several aliments is as follows :—
                QUANTITY  OF ALBUMEN IN  ANIMAL SUBSTANCES.
Blood of the Ox
   "    "   Hog (English Breed)
   "    "   Goat  .
   "    "   Sheep (Merino)  .
   "    "   Ditto (Dishley breed)
East India Isinglass
Egg, white of
      yolk of
Liver of Ox, parenchyma of .
Sweetbread (Thymus) of Calf
Caviare, fresh unpressed
Muscle of Beef
         Veal
   "     Pork
   "     Roe Deer
   "     Pigeon
   "     Chicken
   "     Carp
   "     Trout
  Albumen.

    18-6
    18-58
    19-28
    18-35
    18-74

2 to 13-5
    15-5
17-47
2019
1400
3100
 2-2
 3-2 to 2-6
 2-6
 2-3
 4-5
 30
 5-2
 4-4
   Authority.
Mean  quantity of
 blood  corpuscles
 and solid contents
 of the serum, ac-
 cording  to MM.
 Andral, Gavarret,
 and Delafond.
E. Solly, jun.
Bostock.
Prout.
Braconnot.
Morin.
John.
Soluble  Albumen
 and Hsematosine,
 according to
 Schlossberger.
  I have included the blood corpuscles among the albuminous constituents of some of the
preceding alimentary substances, since albumen is their principal constituent*
  Albumen is  highly nutritious, and, when either raw or lightly boiled, is easy of diges-
tion ; but when boiled hard, or especially when fried, its digestibility is considerably  im-
paired, (see Eggs.)   The gastric juice has the property of coagulating liquid albumen,
and afterwards of dissolving the coagula which are formed.  The influence of an artifi-
cial gastric juice on cubes of coagulated  albumen, (white of egg,) I have already men-
tioned, (see p.  35, foot-note.)
   " Albumen," says Liebig.f " must be considered as the true starting point of all the  ani-
mal tissues; and all  nitrogenized articles of food, whether derived from the animal or vege-
table kingdom, are  converted into  albumen befere they can take part in the process of
nutrition.  This appears from the phenomena of incubation, where all the tissues are de-
rived from the albumen  of the white  and of the yolk,  which contain albumen also, with
the aid only of the  air, of the oily matter of the yolk, and of a certain proportion of iron,
also found in the yolk."  Out of this albumen, therefore,  must be formed flesh, blood,
membrane and cellular tissue, blood-vessels, feathers, claws, &c.
   Notwithstanding  this, however,  animals cannot  subsist solely on albumen, (see p. 23,
foot-note.)  After a few days' use of it they refuse to take it, preferring to suffer the most
violent pangs of hunger rather than eat it; and ultimately they die  of inanition.!   It has

  * According to Denis, (Essai sur V Application de la Chimie a VEtude Physiologique du Sang de f Homme,
p. 205, 1838,) the blood corpuscles have the following composition :—
            i?„..«t,«*o„   S Coloring matters (Haimatosine).....1-8
            Envelopes   J Peroxid| of  Iron   .    .    [.....02
            Central nucleus (albuminous matters).......980

            Blood Corpuscles...........1000
   t Turner's Chemistry, 7th ed. p. 1187.
  X The reason why  graminiferous animals cannot subsist on albumen alone, according to the theory of
 Liebig, is that when deprived of free motion, they cannot obtain from the waste, or transformation of the
 tissues, a sufficient quantity  of carbon for the respiratory process. For example, 2 lbs. of albumen con-
 tain only 3i oz.  of carbon, of which, among the last products of transformation, a fourth part is given off
 in the form of uric acid.—L 
CASEINE.                                 93
been justly observed by Magendie,* that white of eggs combines a number of conditions
favorable to digestion.   " It is alkaline, contains saline matters, and especially common
salt in very large proportion :  the animal matter  which  it contains is the same as that
found in the chyle and in the  blood: it is liquid, but is coagulated by the acids of the
stomach, forming flocculi having but little cohesion.  Lastly, white of egg contains some
organized membranes, which may perform, in digestion, some  useful and  perhaps indis-
pensable function.  But  notwithstanding all  these good reasons, albumen is refused by
animals."
  Albumen (as the white or glaire of eggs) is used by the cook and confectioner as a clar-
ifying or clearing agent for syrups, jellies, &c.  Its efficacy depends on its coagulation, by
which it entangles in its meshes the impurities, with which it either rises to the surface or
precipitates.   When the liquid to be clarified does not spontaneously coagulate the albu-
men, it is necessary to apply heat.
  c. Animal  Caseine;  Caseum; Lactalbumen;  Curd.—This is the coagulable matter of
milk, and its only  nitrogenized constituent, and is closely allied to albumen, of  which it
may be  regarded as a modification.  Liquid  caseine, unlike liquid  albumen, does not
coagulate by heat,  though when milk is  heated in an open  vessel  an insoluble pellicle
forms on it,  owing  to the action of the atmospheric oxygen.  " The ashes of soluble
caseine," says Liebig,f " are very strongly alkaline; and there is  reason  to  believe that
the  potash found in the  ashes had served, by combining with the  caseine, to render it
soluble."
   The quantity of caseine contained in different kinds of milk is as follows :

                          QUANTITY OF CASEINE IN MILK.
            100 Parts.                                  Caseine.       Authority.
         Cow's milk...............448  0. Henry and Chevallier.
           Ditto fed on hay............30 T
           Ditto   "   turnips..........30
           Ditto   "   clover   ...........4-0 >Boussingault and Le Bel.
           Ditto   "   potatoes and hay........15-1
           Ditto   "       ditto       ........3-3 J
         Ewe's milk...............450  O. Henry and Chevallier.
         Goat's milk...............4-02  Ditto.
         Asses' milk...............1-82  Ditto.
         Woman's milk.............1-52  Ditto.
   Mulderf has shown that caseine, like albumen and fibrine, is a proteinaceous substance.
It differs, however, from the two last-mentioned  principles, in containing no phosphorus,
(see p. 20 and 90.)  When coagulated by rennet and  afterwards burnt, it  yields 6 per
cent, of  phosphate of lime and a half per cent, of caustic lime.j
   Coagulated  caseine, deprived of whey by pressure, and usually mixed with more or
less of butter, constitutes cheese; the richness of which is in proportion to the quantity of
butter present  Rich cheese, when toasted, undergoes a kind of semifusion, and becomes
soft and  viscid.   The poorer cheeses, or those which contain very little  butter, are better
adapted for keeping.  When toasted they shrivel like horn.   Stilton Cheese is  prepared
from milk to which cream is  added.  Cheshire and the best  Gloucester Cheeses are made
from unskimmed milk.  Suffolk and Parmesan Cheeses are prepared from skim-milk.||  An-
notta is often employed, as a coloring agent, in the preparation of cheese.  Salt is used to
preserve it as well as to improve the flavor and add to the weight.

  * Comptes Rendus, Aout, 1841.               t Pharmaceutisches  Central-Blatt fur 1839, p. 244.
  t Turner's Chemistry, 7th ed. p. 1190.          § Berzelius, Traite de Chimie, t. vii. p. 603.
  || Gruyere cheeses are made of skimmed milk and  flavored with herbs.  The  most  celebrated
cheese, as well as butter of this country, is that made in Goshen, Orange county, New York.—L. 
94                         ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
   When long kept, cheese undergoes a series  of peculiar changes.  According to Chev-
 reul,* its odor depends on the development of the fatty acids of butter ; and, when the
 fermentation is prolonged, to the alteration of the capric acid.  Roquefort Cheese owes its
 odor to the latter circumstance.  By the decomposition of moist cheese, there is developed
 a  solid substance, which Braconnotf called aposepedin, (from a™, from, and  si*tSi»>, putre-
faction, because it  is the produce of putrefaction,) but which Proust}, had previously de-
 nominated  caseic oxide.   This last-mentioned chemist also mentions caseic acid as a con-
 stituent of  cheese; but Braconnot  states that the substance to  which Proust gave this
 name is  a  compound or mixture  of no  less  than nine substances, viz. free acetic acid,
 aposepedine, animal matter soluble in water and insoluble in rectified spirit, (osmazome,)
 animal matter soluble in water and alcohol, yellow acrid oil, brown slightly sapid oil, ace-
 tate of potash, chloride of potassium, and traces of acetate of ammonia.  From 750 parts
 of cheese,  Braconnot  obtained 36 parts of fatty matter, composed of margarate  of lime
 1492, margaric acid 2-57, oleic acid retaining margaric acid and a brown animal matter
 18-51.  The piquant flavor of old cheese  depends on oleic acid and an acrid oily matter.}
   Cheese is subject to the attacks of both animals and vegetables.  The Fly called Musca
 (Tephritis)  putris  deposits  its leaping larvae or magots (called  hoppers or jumpers) on
 cheese.   The Cheese-mite (Acarus domesticus) is  another animal  of frequent occurrence.
 The Mould of cheese is composed of minute fungi.   Blue Mould is the Aspergillus glaucus
 of Berkeley ;|| while Red Cheese-mould is  the Sporendonema  Casei of the same authority.
   Liquid caseine, as it exists in milk, is coagulated in the stomach by the gastric secretion,U
 and the coagula thus formed are subsequently redissolved.** In this form, caseine is easy
 of digestion.   Cheese, however, is digested with difficulty, especially by dyspeptics.ff In
 the toasted state it is still more obnoxious to the stomach-fl

   * Ann. de  Chim. et de Phys. xxiii. p. 29.         J Ann. de Chim. etde Phys. x. p. 39.
   t Ibid, xxxvi. p. 159.                          § Appendix, V.
   || Smith's English Flora, Vol. v.  Part ii. Fungi, by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley.   Lond. 1836.
   IT  " The action of the digestive principle on caseine deserves a more particular consideration.  Ber-
 zelius had already pointed out that the rennet of the calf has the property of coagulating milk, even
 after all traces of acidity have been removed by washing. It is known, too, that  the coagulation of
 the caseine produced by rennet is peculiar; inasmuch as the curds are insoluble in water and in an addi-
 tional quantity of acid.  Now Schwann has shown that this  property of coagulating  the caseine is
 possessed  by the artificial digestive fluid, even when neutralized.   On the addition of a very small
 quantity of the acid fluid to  milk, and the application of heat, the coagulated caseine soon separates:
 of the neutral fluid, more than 0-42 per cent, are necessary; 083 is sufficient.  The power of the arti-
 ficial digestive fluid to coagulate milk  is destroyed by the boiling temperature; it cannot, therefore, be
 the saline  ingredients which  produce the coagulation.  This peculiar action of the digestive principle
 on milk renders the latter fluid a test  for its  presence.  Schwann has in  this way proved that the
 digestive principle which we are  here considering, really  exists  in the stomach.  He divided the
 stomach of a rabbit,  which had died immediately after birth, into two portions; boiled one, and then
 added to each some milk.  On the application of a  gentle heat, the milk coagulated in the portion
 which had not been boiled, while in the other it remained unchanged," (Midler's Physiology, by Baly,
 vol. i. p. 547.)
   ** According to Schwann, caseine dissolves in the acid of the gastric juice • whereas  albumen
 requires the  presence of pepsine to effect its solution.
   tt " By many," says Dr. Dunglison, (Elements of Hygiene, p. 278, Philadelphia, 1835,) " cheese is
 supposed to be an excellent condiment, and, accordingly, it is often  systematically taken at the end of
 dinner as a digestive, in accordance with the old proverb:—
                                ' Cheese is a surly elf,
                                Digesting all things but itself.'"
   ft " With respect to cheese," says Dr. Cullen, (Materia Medica, p. 331,) " there is yet one particular to
 be mentioned, and which is to remark,  that it is often ate after having been toasted—that is, heated over 
CASEINE.                                  95
  The time required for the chymification of cheese  is, according to Dr. Beaumont's ex-
periments, as follows:—
ARTICLES OF DIET.	MEAN TIME OF THE CHYMIFICATION.			
	IN STOMACH.		IN PHIALS.	
	Preparation.	H. M.	Preparation.	H. M.
Cheese, old, strong, . tl iC u " new, mild .	Raw	3 30	Masticated Entire piece Divided	7 15 18 0 8 30
  Caseine is highly nutritious, constituting a plastic element of nutrition, (see p. 16,) by
which, in the young mammal, the development of the tissues is effected.
  " The young animal," says Liebig,* " receives, in the form of caseine, which is distin-
guished  from fibrine and albumen by its great solubility, and by not coagulating when
heated, the  chief constituent of the mother's  blood.  To convert caseine  into blood no
foreign substance is required, and in the  conversion of the  mother's blood  into caseine,
no  elements of the constituents of the  blood have been separated.  When chemically
examined, caseine is found to contain a much larger proportion of the earth  of bones than
blood does, and that in a very soluble form, capable of reaching every part of the body.
Thus, even in the earliest period of its  life, the development of the organs, in which vital-
ity  resides, is, in the carnivorous animal,  dependent on the supply of a substance, identi-
cal in organic composition with the chief constituents of its blood."
  2.  Vegetable Proteinaceous Principles.—According to  Liebig, vegetables contain
proximate principles, which are not only similar to,  but absolutely identical with, the
fibrine, albumen, and caseine of animals; and  he, therefore, denominates them respect-
ively vegetable fibrine, vegetable albumen, and  vegetable caseine.
  There is  also  a fourth  proteinaceous vegetable principle  called  glutine, or  pure
gluten.
  The composition of these substances  may be assumed identical, for their analyses do
not differ more than two  analyses of the  same substances differ from each other.

                      COMPOSITION  OF VEGETABLE FIBRINE.
                                                    sn.         From Rye Meal.
                                                    Jones.           Scherer.
                                                    53-83           54-617
                                                     702            7-491
                                                     15-58           15-809
                                                    23-56           22083
                            100-000       100000      10000          100000


the  fire to a considerable degree ; whereby a portion of its oil is separated, while the other parts are
united more closely together.  1  know many persons who seem to digest this food pretty well; but it is
certainly not easily digested by weak stomachs;  and for those  who can be hurt by indigestion, or
heated by a heavy supper, it is a very improper diet."
  *  Animal Chemistry, p. 52.
Obtained from Wheat-Olute
Carbon  .
Hydrogen
Nitrogen .
Oxygen  .
Sulphur  .
Phosphorus
r" ...... Scherer.	Scherer.
. 53064 . 7132 . 15-359	54-603 7-302 15-810
'. 1 24-445	22-285
 
96                        ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
        COMPOSITION OF VEGETABLE ALBUMEN, CASEINE, AND GLUTEN.
                        Vegetable Albumen from Rye. Vegetable Casrine.      Pure Gluten.
                                (Jones.)            (Scherer.)           (Jones.)
          Carbon.......5474             54138             55-22
          Hydrogen......777              7-156              7-42
          Nitrogen.......15-85             15-672             1598
          Oxygen, &c......  2164______________23034______________2138
                                10000             100000             10000
  No experiments have been made on the nutritive powers of these principles in the
separate  state; but they are doubtless equal to those  of the same principles procured
from animals,  (see p. 20.)
  " How beautifully and admirably simple," says Liebig, " appears the process of nutri-
tion in animals, the  formation of their organs in which vitality chiefly resides!  Those
vegetable principles which, in animals, are  used to form blood, contain the chief constitu-
ents of blood,  fibrine, and albumen,  ready formed, as far as regards their composition.
All plants, besides, contain a certain  quantity of iron, which reappears in the  coloring
matter of the blood.  Vegetable fibrine  and animal fibrine, vegetable albumen  and animal
albumen, hardly differ, even in form;  if these principles be wanting in the food, the nu-
trition of the animal is arrested ; and  when they are present, the graminivorous animal
obtains in its food the very same principles on the presence of which the nutrition of the
carnivora entirely depends.   Vegetables produce in their organism the blood of all ani-
mals, for the carnivora, in consuming the  blood and flesh of the  graminivora, consume,
strictly speaking, only the vegetable principles which have served for the nutrition of the
latter. Vegetable fibrine and albumen take the same form in the stomach of the gram-
inivorous animal as animal fibrine and albumen do in that of the carnivorous animal."
   a. Vegetable Fibrine.—This principle is most abundant in the seeds of the cereal grasses,
as  Wheat,* Rye,  Barley, Oats, Maize, and  Rice.  It  exists also in Buckwheat.  The
Juice of Grapes is especially  rich in  it. It is  also  found in the newly-expressed juices
of most vegetables, as of Carrots, Turnips,  and Reet-root, from which it coagulates spon-
taneously on standing.  It is a  constituent of the raw gluten obtained from the dough
of wheaten flour.  From both vegetable albumen and vegetable caseine, it differs in being
insoluble in water.  Moreover, it does not dissolve in ammonia.
   6. Vegetable Albumen.—This, like vegetable fibrine, is a constituent of the seeds of the
Cereal Grasses, as of Wheat. In  the  preparation of raw gluten from wheaten dough, it
is washed away along with the starch.  It is found  in great abundance in the Oily Seeds,
as Almonds,  Nuts,  &c.  Most  Vegetable  Juices  contain a  considerable quantity of it.
Thus the juices of Carrots, Turnips, Cabbages, Cauliflowers, Asparagus, and other cul-
tivated nutritious vegetables, after being separated  from the coagulum of fibrine, which
spontaneously forms in them, yield by  boiling a second coagulum of vegetable albumen.
   This principle differs from vegetable fibrine  in being soluble in water, and  from vegeta-
ble caseine in coagulating when heated.
   c.  Vegetable Caseine.—This is chiefly found in  Leguminous Seeds, as Beans,  Peas,
 Lentils; and  has, in consequence, been termed Legumine.  The oily seeds,  such as Al-
 monds, Nuts, &c, also contain it along with albumen.   It exists, perhaps, in solution in
 grape juice, and in other vegetable juices  which yield very little vegetable  albumen on
 being heated.   It differs from vegetable fibrine in being soluble in water : and from  vege-
 table albumen in not coagulating when its aqueous solution is heated.
   d. Pure Gluten.—By washing wheaten dough with a stream of water, the gum, sugar,
   * The vegetable fibrine of wheat is identical with the zymome of Taddei, and with the  vegetable albu-
 men of Berzelius. 
GLUTEN.
97
starch, and vegetable  albumen, are removed; while  a ductile,  tenacious, elastic, gray
mass is left, which is usually denominated gluten.   I  shall distinguish  it as raw, impure,
or common gluten.  It is sometimes  called Beccaria's gluten.   It  is a mixture of several
organic principles.
   When raw gluten is boiled in alcohol, it is resolved into two portions, one  soluble, the
other insoluble in this liquid.   The  insoluble  portion  is Liebig's  vegetable fibrine.  It is
identical with what Taddei called zymome, (from y^, ferment,)  and which Berzelius de-
scribes as vegetable  albumen.   The soluble portion is that which Jones (quoted by Liebig)
analyzed as pure gluten, and  which Taddei called gliadine, (from Y\ia, glue.)  It probably
consists  of at least  two substances;  one  which deposits  as  the hot  alcoholic solution
cools, and which has been termed mucine; the other remains in solution in the cold liquor,
and has been called gluline.
   The quantity of  pure gluten (glutine and  mucine)  contained in different alimentary
substances, has not been accurately determined.   According to Saussure,*  raw gluten
has the following composition:—
         COMPOSITION  OF  RAW GLUTEN.
Glutine..........20
Vegetable albumen [vegetable fibrine of Liebig]    .    .    72
Mucine     ....        .....4
Oily matter.........3-7
Starch (accidental).......small quantity.
Raw Gluten
99-7
  The quantity of raw gluten contained in various alimentary substances is  as follows:—

QUANTITY  OF GLUTINOUS MATrER CONTAINED IN SEVERAL ALIMENTARY SUB-
                                       STANCES.
        100 Parts.
Wheat, Middlesex (average  crop)
   "    Spring    .....
        Mildewed of 1806   .
        Blighted of 1804
   "    Thick-skinned Sicilian of 1810
   "   Thin-skinned Sicilian of 1810
   "   from Poland   ....
   "   North American
   "    of the neighborhood of Paris .
   "    cultivated in soil manured with ox-blood
Ditto
Ditto        "
Ditto        "
Ditto        «'
Ditto        "
Ditto        "
Ditto        "
Ditto        "
Ditto,  not manured
with human faeces
with sheep's dung
with goat's dung
with human urine
with horse-dung
witli pigeon's dung
with cow-dung
with vegetable humus
Wheat
   "    Bavarian      .....
Barley,  Norfolk       .....
   "    grown in soil manured with horse-dung
Oats from Scotland.....
   "    grown in soil manured with horse-dung
Rye from Yorkshire.....
   "    grown in soil manured with horse-dung
Rice,  Carolina......
Matter.
  190
  240
   3-2
  130
  230
  23-9
  200
  22-5
   9-2t
  34-24
  33-94
  32-9
  32-88
  351
  13-68
  12-2
  11-96
   9-6
   9-2
  12-5
  240
   60
   5-7
   8-7
   40
  10-9
   7-98
   360
Authority.
Davy.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Boussingault
Hermbstaedt
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Proust.
Vogel.
Davy.
Hermbstaedt.
Davy.
Hermbstaedt.
Davy.
Hermbstaedt.
Braconnot.
  * Bibliothlque Universale.  Sciences et Arts, t. liii. p. 260.  1833.
  t Mechanical analysis gave Boussingault only 92 per cent, of raw gluten ; but the quantity of nitrogen
contained in the same wheat  indicated 144  per cent, of raw gluten.  The difference  (5-2per cent.) he
ascribes to the vegetable albumen and gluten carried away by washing in the mechanical analysis, (Ann.
de Chim. et de Phys. t. lxv. p.  308-9.) 
98                       ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
        100 Parts.                                    Glutinous Matter.   Authority.
       Rice, Piedmont.........3-60  Braconnot.
       Maize        .........(ze">ne)  3 0   Gorham.
          »..........(ditto)   5-753  Bixio.
       Beans, common.........10 3   Davy.
       Peas, dry..........35   Davy.
       Potatoes..........4 to 3  Davy.
       Beet, Red..........13   Davy.
       Turnips,  common     ........01   Davy.
       Cabbage..........0-8   Davy.

  From Schwann's experiments it appears that gluten dissolves  in the acid of the gastric
secretion;  for when it was digested separately with dilute acid and dilute digestive fluid,
no difference  could be  perceived in  the change  which it underwent  in  the  two fluids.
Tincture of iodine  threw down a precipitate in the  solution of  gluten in the  dilute acid,
but produced no change of color.*
  Gluten  is  easy  of  digestion;  at least substances (as the  preparations  of wheat)
which contain  it  in  the largest quantity, are readily  digested even by invalids  and
dyspeptics.
  Gluten is highly nutritious, and alone is capable of the prolonged nutrition  of animals.
" Gluten," says Magendie,f " obtained either from wheat or maize, presented a phenomenon
which we had not observed in our experiments with organic immediate principles, which,
in every instance, excited greater or less aversion in the animals obliged to subsist on it
solely.
  " Gluten, notwithstanding that its odor is savorless, and sometimes  somewhat nause-
ous, while its taste has nothing agreeable, was taken  without  difficulty  from the first day,
and the animals continued to  use it without distaste for three months uninterruptedly.
The dose  was 120 to 150 grammes [1852 to 2315 grs.  troy] daily, and the animals pre-
served all the characters  of excellent health.  This fact appeared the more remarkable to
us,  as it was in opposition to the  law which seemed  to  result from very numerous facts
before stated, namely, that an  alimentary substance,  especially if it were an isolated im-
mediate principle, is not fitted for supporting life beyond a very limited period.
  " Here, however, is a substance heretofore considered as an immediate azotized principle,
which, without  any preparation or seasoning, excited neither repugnance nor disgust, and
which alone nourished completely and for a long period."
  Magendie subsequently observes that gluten ought not to be considered as an  imme-
diate principle.   " That  which we employed," he adds, " undoubtedly contained some
traces of fecula.  Exclusive of this, we  know that it may be resolved into two distinct
substances; one of  an albuminous nature, the other called glai'adine.   This latter is like-
wise separable into  gluten properly so called, gum, and mucilage."
  " Our dogs, therefore," he continues, " eat much gluten, combined with a little albumen,
gum, mucilage, fecula, and even sugar arising from the  fecula.   This aliment, simple in
appearance, was then,  in reality, very compounded."
  " It is the presence of gluten in wheaten flour  that renders it pre-eminently nutritious,
and its viscidity or tenacity confers upon that species of flour its peculiar excellence  for
the manufacture of macaroni, vermicelli, and similar pastes, which are made by a kind of
wire-drawing, and for which the wheat of the south  of Europe (more abundant in  gluten
than our own)  is particularly  adapted.   The  superiority of wheaten  over other bread
depends upon the  greater tenacity of its  dough, which, in panary fermentation, is  puffed

  *  Muller's Physiology, Baly's Translation, vol. i. p. 547.
  t Rapport fait a V Acadimie des Sciences au nom de la Commission dite de la Gelatine.  Comptes Rendus
Aout, 1841. 
GELATINE.
99
up by the evolved carbonic acid, and retained in its vesicular texture, so as to form a very
light loaf."*
  Gluteti being nutritious and unobjectionable as an article of food in diabetes, has been
recently  used in the preparation of what has been called gluten bread, for the use of dia-
betic patients.f

                   11. THE GELATINOUS ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLE.

  Dr. Prout} comprehends gelatine among albuminous aliments.   He considers it to be a
modification of albumen, or " as the least perfect  kind of albuminous matter existing in
animal bodies."
  But gelatine and albumen, and the proteinaceous and albuminous tissues respectively
differ in their chemical properties and composition.   And though it is probable that in the
animal system, gelatinous  tissues are formed out of proteine  compounds, chemists have
hitherto  totally failed to convert albumen into gelatine, or, vice versa, to  change gelatine
into albumen.  Moreover,  as the composition of proteine compounds is identical with that
of the flesh and blood of animals, while  that of the  gelatinous tissues is not, it follows
that the  nutritive qualities  of the proteinaceous and gelatinous tissues  cannot be identical.
For these reasons I have thought it desirable to separate gelatinous aliments from albu-
minous ones.
  Albuminous or proteinaceous tissues are insoluble in water, and by boiling become hard.
Gelatinous tissues, on the other hand, yield, by boiling, a substance  called  gelatine, which
is soluble, and  forms with water a  tremulous mass, termed jelly, (animal jelly.)  The
quantity of gelatinous matter  obtained  from different alimentary substances  is as fol-
lows :—

QUANTITY OF GELATINOUS  MATTER  OBTAINED FR03I ALIMENTARY SUBSTANCES.
Isinglass (East Indian)  865 to 92-8
    "    (good quality)
Muscle of Beef   .   .
        Veal   .   .
    "    Mutton .   .
        Pork   .   .
    "    Chicken
    "    Cod    .   .
    "    Haddock
        Sole   .   .
                           700
                            60 1
                            60
                            70
                            50
                            70
                            70
                            50
                            60

Caviare, fresh unpressed  .  .   0-5

Sweetbread (Thymus) of Calf.    60
Antlers of Stag (Hartshorn)  .   27-0  (Cartilagel
Bones, spongy portions  ...   39      (ditto)
Bones of Sheep (Ileum)  . 43 3 to 47-2 )
  '•  of Ox (Ileum)  ....   485 >    .  .  .
  "  of Haddock (Vertebrae)   33.49 )
 (including )
some salts))
Authority.
E. Solly, jun.
John.
Brande.
John.
Morin.
Merat-Guillot.
D'Arcet,

Dr. T. Thomson.
  Under the name of gelatine are included several substances which differ more or less
from each other, but  which  agree  in most of their principal characters.  Two of these
have been distinguished by distinct names, viz.,  Collin or Colla and Chondrin.
  a.  Collin, Thomson; Colla, Miiller;  Common  Gelatine.—This is obtained from  Isin-
glass, Skins, Tendons, Cartilage  of bone after ossification has taken place, Cellular Tis-
sue, and the Serous Membranes.  It is distinguished from chondrin by not being precipi-
* Brande's Manual of Chemistry p. 1091, 5th ed.  1841.
t See the article Bread.
\ On the Nature and Treatment of Stomach and Urinary Diseases, pp. xii. and xiii. 3d ed.
1840. 
100                        ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
tated  from its aqueous solution by muriatic  acid, acetic acid, acetate of lead, alum, sul-
phate of alumina, or sulphate of the sesquioxide of iron.   Glue, Size,  and Isinglass
Jelly,  are examples of collin.
  /?. Chondrin, Miiller.—This is obtained from  the Cornea,  the  Spongy Cartilages, the
Permanent Cartilages,  Cartilage of bone  before  ossification, the  Unossified Cartilages of
the Cartilaginous fishes, and the Bony Crusts of the Armadillo.   It is distinguished from
collin by being precipitated from its aqueous  solution by muriatic acid, acetic acid, acetate
of lead, alum, sulphate of alumina, and  sulphate of the sesquioxide of iron.
  Y. Gelatine from Elastic  Tissues.—The gelatine obtained  from the Elastic Tissues, as   ,
the Inner Arterial Coat, the Ligaments of the Larynx, &c, is identical with neither collin   j
nor chondrine, though it approximates nearer to the latter.   Its aqueous solution is ren-   |
dered turbid by acetic acid and acetate of lead,  and  is precipitated by alum and sulphate
of alumina, but does not form a precipitate with sulphate of  the sesquioxide of iron.
   S. Gelatine altered by heat.—When  gelatine is  submitted to prolonged ebullition, or to a
temperature exceeding 220°F., it undergoes important changes.  It evolves ammonia,
becomes syrupy, loses its characteristic property of forming with water a jelly, and very   j
speedily undergoes putrefaction.  Thus altered,  it has a disagreeable flavor.  Its nutritive
properties are greatly deteriorated, if  not altogether destroyed.  It is less  digestible, and
readily deranges the functions of the  digestive organs.
   The ultimate composition of gelatinous substances is as follows :—
                   COMPOSITION  OF GELATINOUS SUBSTANCES.
Carbon . . . Hydrogen . . Nitrogen . . Oxygen.	Tissues yielding Collin.	Collin.	Tissues yielding] Chondrin.
	Tendons of Isinglass. Calfs Foot. (Scherer.) (Scherer.) 50-557 50-960 6-903 7-188 18-790 18-320 23-750 23-532	Hartshorn jelly. (Mulder.) 50018 6-643 18-383 24-921	Cartilages of Calf's Ribs. [Scherer.] 50-895 6-962 14-908 27-235
	100-000 100000 1 100000		100*000
  From the researches of Mulder and Scherer, Liebig has deduced the following empiri-
cal formula? of the composition of various organic substances.
                       COMPOSITION OF ORGANIC TISSUES.
           Albumen.....C* N° IP O14 + P -f S*
           Fibrine.....C48 N6 IP" O14 + P + 2 S
           Caseine.....C48 N8 H36 Ou -[" S
           Gelatinous tissues, tendons  .    .    C4' N7S H" O18
           Chondrine.....C48 Ns H40 O20
           Hair, horn.....C48 N7 H™ O17
           Arterial membrane    .    .    •    C48 N8 H38 O16

  " The  composition of these  formulae shows  that when proteine passes into chondrine,
(the substance of the cartilages of the ribs,) the  elements of water, with oxygen, have
been added to it;  while in the formation of the serous membranes, nitrogen also has en-
tered into combination.
  " If we  represent the formulae of proteine C48 N6 H38 Ou by Pr, then nitrogen, hydro-
gen, and oxygen, have been added  to it in the form of known compounds, and in the fol-
lowing proportions, in forming the gelatinqus tissues, hair, horn, arterial membrane, &c."

  * " The quantities of sulphur and phosphorus here expressed by  S and P are not equivalents but
only give the relative proportions of these two elements to each other, as found by analysis." 
		GELATINE.					101
	Proteine.		Ammonia.		Water.	Oxygen.	
Fibrine	Pr						
Albumen	Pr			+	2 HO		
Chondrine	Pr			+	4 HO	. 20	
Hair, horn	Pr	+	Nils			. + 30	
Gelatinous tissues	2 Pr	+	3 NIP	+	. HO	-f- 70	
   According to Schwann, the artificial digestive liquor (described at p. 35, foot-note,) pro-
 duced no other change upon gelatine than what simple acidified water equally produced.
 His statements are confirmed by Dr. Beaumont's experiments.*
   The digestibility of the different varieties and forms of gelatinous matter is not uniform.
 Calf s-foot jelly, when fresh prepared, I believe to be readily digested even by invalids and
 dyspeptics, with whom I have rarely found it disagree.  I am confirmed in this opinion
 by the experiments of Dr. Beaumont.f
   Isinglass jelly, when fresh prepared from isinglass of good quality, and also Hartshorn
jelly, are probably equally easy of digestion.J
   But other forms of gelatinous matter are more difficult of digestion, and some are very
 apt to  derange the functions of  the digestive organs.   Thus very  hard gelatinous tissues,
 as tendons, require a larger quantity of gastric juice and a longer time for their complete
 digestion.}   Gelatinous  liquids,  when very weak, or which are obtained by means of a
 high temperature  or prolonged  ebullition, or which are procured from tissues containing
 fat or other matters apt to become rancid, readily  disturb the  functions of the stomach
 and intestines.   The  injurious  effects of gelatine which has been altered by heat, I have
 already  had occasion to mention, (see p. 100.)   Soups, hashes, and stews, all of which con-
 tain gelatine, are  obnoxious to the  digestive organs of dyspeptics  and invalids, partly
 perhaps on account of the changes effected in the gelatinous matter by heat, but principally
 from the presence of fatty and  other substances difficult of digestion, (see p. 84.)
   It is customary with writers on dietetics to declare all gelatinous substances difficult of
 digestion : but such assertions are, in my opinion, far too sweeping. They can apply only
 to certain kinds of gelatinous foods;  and not to  some  of the simplest and purest forms
 of gelatine, such as plain  calPs-foot jelly.
   The times required for  the digestion of various substances, as  ascertained by  Dr. Beau-
 mont, are as follows:—
  * Op. supra, cit. pp. 237-239.
  t The experiments of Dr. Beaumont, above referred to, were made on the Canadian whose case I
have already noticed, (see p. 82.)  The following are the notes of one experiment:—
  " Experiment 41.—At 1 o'clock, p.m., he ate eight ounces of Calf s-foot jelly, and nothing else.
  " In  twenty  minutes, examined stomach, and  took out a portion of its contents, consisting of gastric
juice,  combined with the jelly, nearly all of it in a fluid form ; a few particles only of entire jelly, sus-
pended in the fluids, with a few small yellowish-white coagula floating near the surface, could bo per-
ceived.
  " At 2 o'clock examined again, extracted a little fluid, but found no appearance of jelly.
  " Remarks.—The operation of gastric juice on gelatine is very difficult to be detected. Unlike albu-
men, it is unsusceptible of coagulation ; and it is probable  that the gastric juice acts upon it in its soft
solid state.  This was disposed of in a short period.  It was, however, but a  small quantity, and was
much  sooner digested than a full  meal would have been.   From various trials, I am disposed to  think
that gelatine, if not in too concrete a state, is a very digestible article of diet."
  X  We have found Isinglass jelly a better  article of nourishment, in cases of cholera infantum in
children, than farinaceous substances.—L.
  $ Beaumont, op. supra, cit. p. 194-5. 
102                       ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
DIGESTION OF GELATINOUS SUBSTANCES
Articles of Diet	Mean time of Chymification.			
	In Stomach.		In Phials.	
	Preparation. H. M.		Preparation. 1 H. M.	
Calfs-foot Jelly (Exp. 41) Isinglass Jelly (Exp. 64) Aponeurosis .... Tendon of young beef Bone, beef, solid . . . " hog's, solid . .	Boiled Boiled Boiled Boiled Boiled Boiled	1 0 1 0 2 33 3 0 4 15 5 30	Boiled Boiled Divided Masticated Entire piece Entire piece Enii e piece	4 45 6 30 12 0 12 45 24 0 80 0 80 0
  A gelatinous  substance, though  possessing some degree of nutritive power, cannot
alone sustain animal life;  but, when taken in conjunction with other alimentary sub-
stances, takes part in the nutrition of the body.  Different gelatinous substances,  how-
ever, are  unequally  nutritive.   Thus gelatine is less  nutritive  than the bone  which
yields it.
  The French Gelatine Commission found that dogs fed solely on raw bones and water for
three months, continued in  perfect health, and lost none of their weight by the use of this
kind of food.  Now as by boiling in water the cartilaginous tissue of bone is resolved into
gelatine principally, it follows that a gelatinous tissue (that is, a tissue which by boiling is
resolved into gelatine) contributes to the nutrition of the body ; though  it cannot be said
to be the exclusive agent in this process, since  bones contain other alimentary principles
(such as  fatty and albuminous matters) besides the earthy salts and the substance which
is resolvable into gelatine.
  The same experimenters found that the  nutritive quality of bones is deteriorated, or
even destroyed, by boiling them, by digesting them in hydrochloric acid, and especially
by resolving their cartilaginous tissue into gelatine.  Thus  the  very same kind of bones
which in the raw state effected nutrition,  failed to support animal life after they had been
boiled; for dogs  which had been fed on them died at the end of two months, with all the
signs of inanition, and with a considerable diminution of their weight.
  An exclusive diet of beef tendon and water is incapable  of  effecting perfect nutrition.
A dog ate the tendons  for eighteen days, and  then manifested dislike to them ; but he
continued to take them for five days  longer,  when  he refused them.  He had now lost
considerably in weight, and  manifested other  signs of inanition.
  Gelatine extracted  from bones was refused by dogs,—by some from the first, by others
after once or twice using it.   They preferred enduring the pangs of hunger to eating it;
though it was tried in various forms, namely, both in the dry and humid states, and  as a
tremulous jelly.   Seasoned  gelatine prepared for the use of man, and which had a very
agreeable flavor,  was eaten  for a few days, and then refused; the animals dying of star-
vation on the twentieth day.  These experiments, therefore, are tolerably conclusive that
animals cannot be nourished on gelatine exclusively.  M. Donne tried its  effects on  him-
self.  He took daily  from  20 to 50 grammes [from 308$ grs. to 7711 grs. troy] of dry
gelatine (in the form  of a sugared and aromatized jelly, whh either lemon or some spirit,)
and  from 85 to  100  grammes [from 1312 grs. troy to 1543* grs. troy]  of bread.  At the
expiration of six  days he had lost two pounds in weight, and during the whole time was
tormented with hunger,  and suffered with extreme faintness, which was only alleviated
after dining in his usual way. 
ISINGLASS.                               103
  These experiments  do not, however, go  the length of proving that gelatine, taken in
conjunction with other alimentary substances, does not assist in nutrition.  The every-day
experience of the physician would negative  such an inference.   Moreover, the investiga-
tions of MM. Edwards and Balzac favor the notion that  gelatine taken with other kinds
of food assists the nutrition of the body.
  Liebig has  recently suggested that the nourishing powers of gelatine are confined to
the gelatinous tissues: for, as  proteine cannot be  obtained from gelatine, the latter can
serve neither for the formation of blood nor for the reproduction and growth of albuminous
and fibrinous tissues.  It is, therefore, probable, he  thinks, "that gelatine, when  taken in
the dissolved state, is again converted, in the body, into cellular tissue, membrane, and
cartilage.   And when the powers of nutrition in the whole body are affected by a change
of the health,  then, even should the power of forming blood remain the same, the organic
force by which the constituents of the blood are transformed into cellular tissue and mem-
branes must necessarily  be enfeebled by sickness.   In the sick man, the intensity of the
vital force, its powers to produce  metamorphoses, must be diminished  as  well in the
stomach as in all  other parts  of the body.   In this condition, the uniform experience of
practical physicians shows that  gelatinous matters in a dissolved state exercise a most
decided influence on the state of the  health.  Given in a  form adapted for assimilation,
they serve to husband  the vital force, just as may be done, in the case of the stomach, by
due preparation of the food  in general."
  These opinions, however ingenious and plausible, require to be confirmed by facts; for
at presetit  they are rather to be regarded as  unsupported hypotheses.  Even should they
be eventually admitted as true, they offer no explanation of many of the curious and  inter-
esting circumstances respecting the alimentary properties of gelatinous substances, which
have been recently reported by the  French Gelatine Commission.
   As gelatine is convertible into a kind of sugar (gelatine sugar or glycicoll C8 H7 N2 0s
+ 2 HO) by a process similar  to that by which starch may be so converted, it is probably
a less appropriate alimentary principle for diabetic patients than proteinaceous (albumin-
ous) substances.
  Besides  its use  as  an alimentary substance, gelatine (in the form of isinglass princi-
pally)  is employed  as  a clarifying, clearing, or fining agent, for  coffee, wines,  beer, &c.
Some of the  constituents  of these  liquors  unite  with the gelatine and form  insoluble
compounds, which precipitate and carry with them the matters which rendered the liquor
turbid.
  A few only of the gelatinous  substances in use as food  will require  separate notice.

   1. Isinglass.—This is procured from the air-bag or swimming-bladder, sometimes termed
the sound,  of various fishes.  The finest kinds are  procured from different species of Aci-
penser,  (Sturgeons,) and are imported  from Russia  and Siberia.  But other genera of
fishes, as  Si/urus, Morrhua, Gadus, Otoliihus, Lota, and Polynemus, also yield it. Some-
times the bag is dried unopened, as in the case of  the purse, pipe, and lump isinglasses of
the shops.   At other times it is  laid open, and submitted to some preparation ; being either
dried unfolded, as in the leaf and honeycomb isinglasses; or folded, as  in  the staple (long
and short)  and book isinglasses; or  rolled out, as in the ribbon isinglass.   When  it arrives
in this  country it  is picked or cut.  Formerly it was picked into shreds  by women and
children, but is now usually cut by machines  worked by steam.  The Russian and Sibe-
rian isinglass*-s. (the kinds which from iheir purity and ready solubility are  best adapted
for domestic  use,) are  carefully prepared by washing them with warm water to remove
any adhering blood, cut open longitudinally, exposed to the air, with the inner, delicate, 
104                          ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
silvery membrane  upwards.   When dried, this  fine membrane* is removed by beating
and rubbing, and the swimming bladder is then made into various forms.
  For the following table  of the  varieties of isinglass at the present time known in the
London markets, I am indebted to Mr. James Metcalfe, wholesale dealer in isinglass,  of
No. 20 Artillery Place, Finsbury Square, London.  I have  thought  it desirable to  have
the prices annexed in order to show the relative  commercial value of the different kinds.

                              VARIETIES OF ISINGLASS.
Country.
Russian
Empire.  '
 North
America.
 South
America
:».!
East Indies
Philippine )
 Islands  )
Place of Pro-
    duce.
The Oural (Ural)

The Irtysch and
  Obi......

Oural and tribu-
  taries .....

Astrakhan . . .

The  Volga  and
  tributaries .
Tributaries   of
  Black Sea. .
Tcherkaskoy .

The Don and tri-
  butaries . . .
Ditto......
The Irtysch and
  Obi......

Hudson's  Bay
  and rivers . .
United States .
The Brazils .
Bay of Bengal,
Place of Ex-
   port.
St. Petersburg
Odessa. .
Taganrog
St. Petersburg


Hudson's Bay


New York. .
Maranham
  and Para
Calcutta
Manilla.
Name and Char-
    acter.
Long    Staple
  Ural  1st & 2d
Short ditto  Pa-
  triarch ....

Ditto ditto 1st and
  2d.......
Book.......
Thin Leaf 1st &
  2d.......

Beluga  1st & 2d
Cut by  machine
  or hand ....
Pickings    (the
  brown ends) .

Sisane Leaf . .
Kroski or Kros-
  ky.......
Samovey  Leaf
  1st and 2d. . .
Ditto Book 1st &
  2d.......
Ditto Short Sta-
  ple  ......
Siberian Purse
Purse
Ribbon ......
 'Pipe Brazil
  Lump ditto
  Honeycomb
    ditto.....
Cut Brazil
Purse .
Leaf . .
Picked
Manilla Thin )
  Cake.....$
     Prices
Per Lb. English.
s. d.

14 6
14 6
14 6	to 9 6
14 6	10 6
16 0 14 6	13 6 to 9 6
8 0	
3 6	
6 0	
3 9	3 3
4 0	3 6
5 6	
   8 6


   86


 No price
5 0  4 0
5 0  4 0

   3 6

7 6  6 6
4 6

4 0
4 0
13 6
13 0
7 6


6 0
3 0
3 3
2 0

6 0
4 0

3 6
3 6
Remarks.
Very choice;
  dear.
f These are
J the   sorts
; w'ich yield
l^the cut.
Refuse of the
  above.
Seldom  im-
  ported.
Seldom  in-
  quired for.
Used for fin-
  ings.
In great de-
  mand.
Seldom  im
  ported.

In good es
  teem.
A  thin inso-
  luble mem
  brane lin'g
  the inside
Not in use.
) In  general
)  demand

Not in much
  repute.
Used perhaps
  for mixing
  = 111.1
    - -r> ^j-
  ■3<c o.= ~
  o ot: z a
  .-••£ Con
 lo
Quality assi
  milating to
  Samovey.
  * It is usually stated that the innermost membrane of the swimming bladder is that which yields gela-
tine by boiling : but I have elsewhere shown this to be an error, (see my Elements of Materia Medica 
ISINGLASS.                                  105
   Isinglass has been analyzed by both John and Mr. E. Solly, jun.  Their results are sub-
joined :—
                              COMPOSITION OF ISINGLASS.
John.		Mr. E. Solly, jun.
Gelatine.....	700	Gelatine.
Osmazome [?] . . . Membrane insoluble in boil-	160	Albumen.
	I 2-5	Saline and earthy substances (small
ing water....		quantity.)
Free acids and salts	40	Osmazome.
Water ...	7-5	Odorous oil (a minute trace.)
Isinglass of good quality .   .  1000
East Indian Isinglass.
   The relative proportions  of gelatine  and albumen  in three specimens of East Indian
isinglass were, according to Mr. E. Solly, jun., as follows:—
                 Isinglass.          Soluble Grlatine.                Insoluble Albumen.
                   100  .    .    .    .  86-5......135
                   100  .    .    .    .90-9......9-1
                   100  ...    .  928......7-2
   When isinglass is reduced to small shreds (picked or cut isinglass)  it is scarcely possible
to distinguish, by the age, some of the inferior from the finer kinds.   The best criteria are
its whiteness, freedom from unpleasant odor, and its complete solubility in  water.
   Isinglass is a very pure form of gelatine, and  is employed in the preparation of jellies,
blanc-mange, &c.   It is frequently added to fruit jellies,  (see p. 70,) to give them firmness
or stiffness.   Dissolved in milk, and flavored with sugar, lemon, and some  aromatic, it is
frequently taken  in  the liquid state  by convalescents with advantage, when recovering
from the effects of extreme debility, (as that brought on by hemorrhage;)  but  this  form
of exhibition does not suit all stomachs.
   Isinglass is also used in  domestic economy as a clarifying, clearing, or fining agent for
coffee, wine, beer, &c.  For this purpose it is extensively used by brewers,* who employ
principally the Brazilian variety.
   2. Cod Sounds.—These are analogous to isinglass, being prepared from the swimming

pp. 1859 and 1861, vol. ii. ed. 2d, 1842.)  The innermost membrane  of cod sounds and of the Hudson's
Bay and East Indian isinglasses, is insoluble in water.  If the Siberian purse isinglass be carefully ex-
amined, the bag will be found to have been deprived of its innermost lining.
   * Mr. Metcalfe, who supplied me with the table of isinglass already given, (p. 104,) has kindly furnish-
ed me with the following information as to the mode of preparing and using isinglass for beer-finings.
  " I herewith  beg to hand you such particulars as have come under my own observation  as  to the
method generally adopted by brewers in their mode of preparing isinglass for beer-finings, and the way
in which it is customarily applied.  Firstly, with regard to the more insoluble sorts, such as the Lump
Brazilian and common Book Glasses, as much should be put in a cask as it is likely will be required for
three months' consumption; to this should be added just sufficient of strong sours to cover the isinglass,
and as it swells above the  liquor fresh sours of the first strength should be added daily, covering the
isinglass to the depth of about 3 inches in the liquor after it has done  swelling.   It is a practice with
some brewers to add a small quantity of pyroligneous acid to cut or dissolve it the more quickly, though
if the first sours are good, and care is taken  that the fresh, added  from time to time during the process of
swelling, is of equal strength, the pyroligneous acid may be advantageously dispensed with : care should
be taken not to add more sours than is just  necessary.  In this state they should be well stirred up fre-
quently with a stiff birch-broom, or some similar instrument, which materially assists the cutting or dis-
solving.  The liquor should be used in a cold state, or at a very moderate heat, as by using it hot  it
would form a jelly, and be  perfectly useless as finings.  It having become thoroughly dissolved or cut
by the cold sours, it may be kept for any  length of time  by being  frequently well stirred up as  above
described.
  In applying it for use, a proportionate quantity should be taken to the beer requiring fining, and  press-
ed through a horse-hair sieve into as much mild  beer as will reduce it to the consistency of thin treacle ;
of this about one pint is enough to fine abarrel, (36 gals.,) unless the beer is what is termed stubborn, when
it will take sometimes double the  quantity.  One pound of good Brazilian isinglsss, if treated in this 
106                       ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLES.
bladder of the Common Cod, (Morrhua vulgaris.)   In the dried state they are brought
from Scotland, and are used as a substitute  for isinglass.  They are, however, usually
preserved soft by salting, and dressed  for the  table.   The glue obtained  by boiling the
cod sounds does not gelatinize, but dries into a hard brown substance, which may be em-'
ployed to glue pieces of wood together.*
   3. Dry and Hard Gelatine.—This is  a pure kind of glue prepared for  dietetical use.
Nelson's Patent Opaque Gelatine  (called, in the specification of the patent,f gelatine of the
first quality) is prepared, by preference, from " the cuttings of the hides of beasts or of the
skins of calves," " freed from hair, flesh, and  fat."   It is sold in the form of cuttings.   I
have been furnished with a similar kind of gelatine, prepared  by another  maker, under
the  name of Pale Gelatine  English Machine cut.  A third kind  of gelatine is met with in
the  shops, under the name of French Gelatine or Grenetine.\  It occurs in sheets, or thin
plates or cakes, marked by the nets in which it has been dried.  White grenetine of the
first quality is transparent, inodorous, tasteless, atid almost colorless.   Colored grenetine
is rose-red, yellow, blue, or green.   Grenetine  is extracted from bones, either by the pro-
longed action of boiling water under pressure, or by first digesting the bones  in dilute
hydrochloric acid, and afterwards submitting them to the action of boiling water.§
   These different kinds of gelatine  are employed  in  the  preparation of jellies,  blanc-
manges, soups, gravies, &c,  as substitutes for isinglass and calves' feet,  to which I con-
sider them inferior in  nutritive power  and digestibility.  For it is well known that gela-
tinous substances, when  subjected to  the prolonged action of water and heat, suffer
changes in their chemical properties; and the French Gelatine  Commission has shown
that the nutritive qualities of at least one gelatinous tissue (bone) are diminished or even
destroyed by submitting it  either to decoction in water  or to the  action  of hydrochloric
acid, or  by resolving  it into  gelatine.   It  is  not, therefore, too much  to assume that the
different operations to which the gelatinous  tissues, used in the preparation  of gelatine,
are subjected,  must  deteriorate the dietetical qualities of the product.  Moreover,  a
knowledge of the substances  from which  commercial  gelatine is procured, is  not calcula-
ted to create an appetite for foods obtained from such sources.
   4. Hartshorn.—Shavings  or raspings of the antlers of  the stag, commonly called harts-
horn shavings, are employed in the preparation of jellies and gelatinous solutions.  Their
 composition is as follows :—
                            COMPOSITION OF HARTSHORN.
                 Soluble cartilage........27-0
                 Subphosphate of lime.......57-5
                 Carbonate of lime      .......1-0
                 Water and loss........14-5
                 Total    '.     '.    '.    ;    ;    ;    ;    ;    ;    ;    nxFo
 manner, will  make 15 gallons of strong finings.  The liquid  finings having been thus prepared, about
 one pint should be whisked up with about a gallon of the beer from each barrel intended to fine, and
 then poured in through the bung-hole of the cask.  Under some circumstances a small quantity of strong
 infusion of hops, added after the finings, will cause a perfect precipitation of all the  impurities in the
 beer, and leave it  thoroughly cleansed and bright after standing a few hours.  The  only advantages
 gained by using the more expensive qualities of isinglass are, that the process of cutting or dissolving is
 less tedious, the fine Long Staple, Siberian Purse, and Astrakhan Pickings, not requiring above 48 hours
 for preparing, and that a milder Alegar will answer the purpose of cutting it; it may also possess some
 advantages in purity, for fine ales.  Its mode of application should be similar to that given for the Bra-
 zilian and Book."                                 * Thomson's Animal Chemistry, p. 216.
   t For the specification, see The Mechanic and Chemist for 1840.
   X The word Grenetine  is derived from Grenet, the name of the  first manufacturer  who supplied  a
 white, transparent, and very pure gelatine for  sale.  Grenetine is now made by M. Grenet  file of Rouen.
   % Lecanu, Cours Comptet de Pharmacie, t. i. p. 451.  1842. 
HARTSHORN.—COMMON SALT.
107
  By boiling, the cartilage is resolved into gelatine; and the decoction, if sufficiently con-
centrated, gelatinizes on cooling.  Bones cannot be substituted for hartshorn, on account
of the  fat they contain.  Decoction of Hartshorn is prepared by boiling one ounce of the
shavings in four pints of water, down  to two pints.  When sweetened, it is sometimes
taken as a mild demulcent and emollient  drink, in intestinal and pulmonary irritation.
An elegant Hartshorn Jelly is prepared  by  boiling down  half a pound  of the shavings in
three quarts of water to one quart, and adding to the strained liquor an ounce of Seville
orange or of lemon juice, a quarter of a pint of mountain wine, and half a pound of fine
sugar ; and boiling down  the mixture to a due consistence.*  It is sometimes used, as a
grateful kind of aliment,  by invalids and convalescents.
  5. Several gelatinous  tissues, besides those already noticed, are  employed in the pre-
paration of jellies and gelatinous liquids, (as soups.)   Thus a jelly  is obtained from Calves'
Feet ;  and Calves' Heads are used in the  preparation of mock-turtle soup.  These sub-
stances yield, by boiling,  an oily or fatty matter, as well as gelatine.   Cows' Heels, Sheeps'
 Trotters, and Petit-toes (sucking pigs' feet) abound  in gelatinous tissues, for which they
are principally  employed as aliments.
                  *    12. THE SALINE ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLE.
   Saline matters are essential constituents of  the blood, of the  organized tissues, and of
the secretions.   They are, therefore,  necessary components of our food ; for without them
health and vitality cannot be maintained.
   The alimentary salts, which, on account of their occurring more frequently and large-
ly in the system, may be regarded as of the most importance in a  dietetical point of view,
are  Common Salt and  the Earthy  Phosphates.  Ferruginous compounds (salts 1) and
probably salts of Potash, are also indispensable ingredients of our food.
   1.  Common  Salt,  (Chloride of  Sodium.)—Though salt is a constituent  of most of our
foods and drinks, we  do not, in  this way, obtain  a sufficient supply of  it  to satisfy the
wants of the system ; and nature has accordingly furnished  us with an appetite  for it.
The salt, therefore,  which we consume  at our table  as  a condiment, in reality serves
other and  far more important purposes in the animal economy, than that  of merely  grati-
fying the palate.  It is a necessary article of food, being essential for the preservation of
health and the maintenance of life.
   It forms an essential constituent of blood, which fluid doubtless owes many of its im-
portant qualities to  it.  Thus it probably contributes to keep the blood  corpuscles  un-
changed ;  for when these are put into water a powerful and rapid endosmose takes place,
in consequence of which they swell up and assume a globular form; whereas in a  weak
solution of salt they remain unchanged.  In  malignant cholera, and some other diseases
in which  there is a deficiency of the saline ingredients of the blood, this fluid has a very
dark or even black  appearance ; whence it has been assumed by some  writers that the
red color of the blood is dependent  on the presence of its saline ingredients.  From the
salt of the blood,  aided  by water, the gastric juice derives its hydrochloric acid, and the
blood and the bile their soda, (see p. 35, foot-note, and p. 40.)  The soda  which exists in
 the blood in combination  with  albumen, passes out of the  system in union with organic
matter, (C70 II" N2 O25) represented  by choleic acid:  in other words,  bile contains the ele-
ments of chloleate of soda, though not necessarily arranged as such.  Lastly, " the soda,
which has been used in the vital processess, and any excess of soda, must be expelled in
the form of salt, after being separated from the blood by the kidney," (Liebig.)
* Lewis's Materia Medica. 
108                        ALIMENTARY  PRINCIPLES.
  It has been calculated that the average annual consumption of salt by an adult amounts
to 16 lbs.; equal to about 5 ounces per week.
  The salt consumed in this country is obtained principally from fossil or rock salt, and
by the evaporation of the water of brine springs.   The  salt districts are Northwich, Mid-
dlewich, and Nantwich, in Cheshire ; Shirleywich, in  Staffordshire ; and Droitwich, in
Worcestershire.  Salt  is also procured in Durham.  In some parts of  England, as at
Lymington in  Hampshire,  and some parts of Scotland, salt is  procured by the evapora-
tion of sea-water.*
  The small-grained salt is formed by the strongest heat, and constitutes the butter, stov-
ed, lump, and basket sail of commerce ; while the larger crystals, forming the bay and fishery
salts, are formed at a lower temperature.   For table use, for salting butter, and for vari-
ous domestic  purposes,  the small-grained salt  is preferred.  It is also employed for
making the  pickle for striking the meat,  which is the first part of the process in curing
fish and preserving animal  flesh.  The coarse or large-grained salt is preferred for the
packing and preservation of fish and  other provisions.   For these purposes it is greatly
superior to  the small-grained salt:  hence it  is technically termed  a  stronger salt.  Its
superiority depends,  not on any difference in its chemical composition, but on its greater
cohesiveness and  hardness  of texture, whereby it dissolves much less readily.
  Common  salt, or chloride of sodium, formerly called muriate  of soda, has the following
composition:—

                     COMPOSITION OF  CHLORIDE OF SODIUM.
1 equivalent of Chlorine
1 equivalent of Sodium
36 or per cent.
24 or per cent.
60
40
           1 equivalent of Chloride of Sodium    .    .    60 or Chloride of Sodium   100

  A little water is  frequently lodged (mechanically) between the plates of the crystals.
  Common salt, as found in commerce, is not absolutely pure ;  being  contaminated with
some other salts.   The following table shows the composition of several varieties of salt,
according to the analyses of Dr. Henry:—
COMPOSITION OF VARIOUS KINDS OF SALT, (HENRY.)

              1000 Parts by Weight consist of
Kind of Salt.
  ^ I St. Ube's ....
M -^ ] St. Martin's  .  .  .
  » ( Oleron.....


"II ® C Scotch (common)  .
"a g J Scotch (Sunday)
,Ji. & J Lymington (common)
■z% l Ditto (cat) ....


g   f Crushed rock  .  .
£ « J Fishery.....
J 03 | Common  ....
y   [_Stoved.....
« o
960
959*
964*
935}
971
937
938
983i
986
983*
982*
■El

I3
trace
 do.
 do.
01-16
 0*
 Oi
 0-i
o-ss

.2 &
28
in
n
 5
0-3-16
 9-*
 OJ
 0-4

23
Hi
11
 5
Oi
 1
 1
 1

23*
19
191
15
12
15
 1
 6*
Hi
14i
15*

<u
a a
ii
17*
 4*
35
 5

28
25
23}
32*
16*
50
 6
 6*
Hi
144
15*
a 2
"o a
 9
12
10
I'S
40
40*
35?
641
29
63
12
161
131
164
17*
* Appendix, W. 
CHLORIDE OF  SODIUM.                            109
  Besides its use at the table as  a flavoring or seasoning agent, salt is extensively em-
ployed in the preservation and curing of alimentary substances.
  Its antiseptic power is by  no means well understood.  It is usual to ascribe it  to the
desiccating  influence of the  salt, but the explanation is  not a satisfactory  one.   A dry
bladder, says Liebig, remains more  or less  dry in  a saturated solution of common salt.
The solution runs off its surface in the same  manner that water  runs from a plate of
glass besmeared with tallow.  " Fresh flesh, over which salt has been strewed, is found,
after 24 hours,  swimming in brine, although not a drop of water has been added.  The
water has been yielded by muscular fibre itself, and having dissolved the salt in immedi-
ate contact with it, and thereby  lost the power of penetrating animal  substances, it has
on this account separated from the  flesh.  The water still retained  by the flesh contains
a proportionally small quantity of salt, having  that  degree  of dilution  at  which a saline
fluid is capable of penetrating animal substances.  This property of animal tissues  is
taken advantage  of in domestic economy for  the  purpose of removing so  much water
from meat that a sufficient quantity  is not left to enable it to enter into putrefaction."*
  But the fact, that a dilute aqueous  solution of salt possesses antiseptic properties, appears
to me  to render Liebig's  explanation inadmissible ;  and we are compelled, therefore,  to
admit that the preservative power depends either on the chemical combination of the salt
with the organic tissues,f or on occult causes more or less analogous to those which pre-
vent the development of the volatile oils of black  mustard and bitter almonds, when  in
contact with mineral acids and salts.
   2. Earthy Phosphates.—These are almost universal constituents of the ashes of animal
tissues.  From their  constant presence, we cannot suppose  them to be  accidental: we
have a right to infer that  they are in some way necessary to vitality.
   Phosphoric acid and lime  combine together in several proportions.  Of  these combina-
tions two have been found  in the  human solids and fluids.  The bone  subphosphate  of
lime (8 Ca O + 6 PO25) is by far the most frequently met with calcareous phosphate.  It
constitutes the principal part of the earthy matter of bones,  and is probably the calcareous
phosphate usually found  in the ashes of animal tissues.  According to Dr. Wollaston,|
it exists in ossifications of arteries, veins, valves of the heart, bronchia?,  and tendinous
portion of the diaphragm, as well as in the tartar of the teeth.   According to the same
authority, the neutral phosphate of lime (Ca O + PO2'*) exists  in the urine, from which it
is sometimes deposited in a  pulverulent form.   The phosphate of lime calculus, prostatic
calculi, and pineal concretions, also contain the neutral phosphate.
   Phosphate of magnesia, though of very  frequent occurrence, is  formed  in the  animal
solids  and fluids in very small quantities only.  Sometimes  it exists in combination with
ammonia, (ammoniacalphosphate of magnesia.)
   The system obtains its  supply of earthy phosphates from both vegetable and animal
foods,  (see pp. 29-31, and 36.)   Corn, potatoes, milk, and the flesh and blood of animals,

  * Liebig, Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and Physiology, 2d ed. 35-67.  1842.
  t The conservative efficacy  of bichloride of mercury, sulphate  of copper, and some other metallic
salts, depends on the union of these substances with the animal matter; and the formation of compounds
which are not subject to the putrefactive  process.  Chemists, however, have hitherto refused to admit
that common  salt, nitrate of potash, and some alkaline salts, owe their antiseptic efficacy to the  exercise
of a chemical influence.  But an argument in favor of this view may be  derived from  the well-known
reddening effect produced by saltpetre (nitrate of potash) on beef, during the process  of curing.  More-
over, the augmented firmness or hardness of fibre, possessed by old  salted meats, is, I  suspect, an evi-
dence of chemical action.
  t Phil. Trans, for 1797. 
110                         COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
furnish us with more than the wants of the system require, and the excess is eliminated
in the secretions.
                 QUANTITY OF EARTHY PHOSPHATES IN FOODS.
100 Parts.             Earthy Phosphates.       Authority.
Wheat .	from 0-36		to	0-9 "I	
Rye Barley .		0-6 0-!	to to	418 i 0-6 f	Hermbstaedt.
Oats		016	to	0-6 J	
				04	Braconnot.
				11	Cadet.
				60	Berzelius.
Milk .				01975	Schwartz.
Blood .				003	Denis.
Bones (ileim) of	sheep			50-53 )	
" (ileum) of	ox			45-2 {	Thomson.
" (vertebrae) of haddock				5603 )	
Muscular flesh of 11 14	ox calf .			traces "1 01	
It IC U (i	P'g ■ roe			traces 1 04 f	Schlossberger.
IC i(	chicken			0-6	
u (1	trout .			2-2 J	
  The amount of earthy phosphates  in  several foods which contain these salts, has not
been ascertained.
  3. Potash Salts.—Minute quantities of potash  salts exist in the ashes of blood and sev-
eral of the animal tissues.   They  are derived from both animal and vegetable food, (see
pp. 37 and 93.)
  4. Ferruginous Compounds.—The  existence of iron in the animal system,  and the
sources of it, have been already noticed, (see pp. 33-35.)   The precise  state  in which
this metal exists in, and is  introduced into, the system, has not been made out.  In some
cases it is supposed to be in the form of a phosphate.
                     Chap. III.—Of Compound  Aliments.

  The foods which consist of two or more alimentary principles, may be conveniently
termed Compound Aliments.  These it is customary to divide into Solid Foods or Aliments
Proper,  Liquid  Foods or Drinks, and  Seasoning Agents or Condiments.   This division,
though by no means accurate, is both familiar and convenient; and  I  shall, therefore,
adopt it.
                   1. SOLID ALIMENTS, OR ALIMENTS PROPER.
  Man obtains  his food from both  the animal and vegetable kingdoms.   This is  almost
universally the case, and is  a strong confirmation of the correctness of the inference
drawn by the anatomist from the structure of the entire human digestive  apparatus, that
man is omnivorous.  "It is  quite certain,"  says Dr. Carpenter,* "that the most perfect
physical development, and the greatest intellectual vigor, are to  be  found among  those
races in which this [a mixed] diet is the prevalent habit."   Yet a modern writer,f who
eloquently and ably advocates the exclusive use of vegetable food, declares that " the ad-
herence to the use of animal food is no more than a persistence in the gross customs of

       * Principles of Human Physiology, p. 349.  1842.
       t Dr. Lambe, Additional Reports on the Effects of a Peculiar Regimen, p. 243.  1815. 
ANIMAL FOODS.
Ill
savage life ;  and evinces an insensibility to the progress of reason, and to the operation of
intellectual improvement" ! !*

                             SECT. 1.—ANIMAL FOODS.

  Exclusive  of water and saline matters, we obtain, from animal foods, Proteinaceous,
Gelatinous, and Fatty alimentary principles; to which must be added, in the case of milk,
Sugar.
  These are  derived from flesh, blood,  viscera, bones, cartilages, ligaments, cellular tissue,
the milk of the mammals, and the eggs of some  of the oviparous animals.
  The proximate  composition of the  muscular flesh of different animals has been ex-
amined by Mr. Brandef and more  recently by Schlossberger :f their results are as fol-
lows :—
COMPOSITION  OF MUSCLE, ACCORDING  TO MR. BRANDE.
100 Parts
Muscle of
 Beef
 Veal
 Mutton
 Pork
 Chicken
 Cod
 Haddock
 Sole
Water.
  74
  75
  71
  76
  73
  79
  82
  79
 A'bumen
or Fibriue.
   20
   19
   22
   19
   20
   14
   13
   15
Gelatine.
   6
   6
   7
   5
   7
   7
   5
   6
Total of Nutri-
  tive Matter.
     26
     25
     29
     24
     27
     21
     18
     21
COMPOSITION OF MUSCULAR FLESH, ACCORDING TO  SCHLOSSBERGER.
	Ox.	Calf.	Pig.	Roe.	Pigeon.	Chicken.	Carp.	----- Trout.
Flesh, Vessels, nerves, ) and cellular tissue . $ Soluble albumen and he- ) matosine . . . . $ Alcoholic extract with salts Watery extract with salts . Ph sphaie of lime contain- ) ing albumen . . . ) Water and loss ....	17-5 2-2 1-5 1-3 traces 77-5	15—16-2 3-2 — 2-6 11 — 1-4 10 — 1-6 0-1—traces 79-7 —78-2	16-8 2-4 1-7 I 0-8$ traces 783	180 23 2-4 0-4 76-9	170 4-5 10 1-5 760	16-5 30 1-4 1-2 0-6 77-3	120 5-2 10 1-7 801	Ill 4-4 1-6 0-2 2-2 80-5
	100-0	10U-0—1000	1000	1030	100-0	1000	1000	1000
  A very large number of animals is used, in  different parts  of the world, as food.  In
this work,  however, I  purpose  speaking of those only which are  employed  in  Eng-
land.J
                         CLASS I. MAMMALIA.—MAMMALS.

  In  England, the mammals, employed by man as food,  are, the Ox, the Sheep, the
Hog, the Deer, the Rabbit, and the Hare.
  These animals furnish  their  Bones,  Cartilages, Tendons, Aponeuroses,  Ligaments,
Cellular Tissue, Fat, Muscles or Flesh,  Viscera, Blood, and Milk, as alimentary sub-

stances.
  1. Bones.__The bones of the ox and sheep are those principally which serve for aliment-
ary purposes.   Their composition, exclusive of the marrow (see p. 87) which they con-

tain, is as follows :—

  *  Appendix, X.                    t Manual of Chemistry.
  t Pharmaciutisches CentralBlatl, 1842, p. 41.
  §  For an account of other animals used  as food, the reader is referred to the article Aliment, in the
Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, and Lardner's Cabinet Clyclopcedia, Domestic Economy, vol. ii., by Mr.
Donovan. 
112
COMPOUND ALIMEXTS.
COMPOSITION OF BONE, (THOMSON.)
      Ox.                              Sheep.
Cartilage
Phosphate of lime
Carbonate of lime
Magnesia
Soda
Potash   .
Ilium or Haunch-bone.
       48-5
       45-2
        61
        0-24   .
        0-20   .
        Oil   .
    Ilium.
43-30— 47-20
50-58— 46-35
 4-49— 4-88
 0-86— 0-64
 0-31— 209
 019— 0-25
 Tibia.
 51-97
 40-42
  703
  0-22
  0-19
traces
                             100-35   .    .    .    9y-73—101-41    .    .    .    99-83
  By digesting bones in hydrochloric acid they  are deprived of part of their earthy salts.
They are then semi-transparent, flexible, and elastic; and have a fatty smell and an acid
taste.  In this state they are known in France under the name of Alimentary gelatine.
Their composition is as follows :—
COMPOSITION  OF BONES WHICH  HAVE  BEEN  DIGESTED IN  HYDROCHLORIC
                                       ACID.
Water      .....
Fat.......
Matter which may be transformed into )
    gelatine     ....      5
Earthy phosphates and other salts
Insoluble animal matter
Sheep's feet bones.
     47-22
      5-55
17-30
12-42
17-51
10000
Ox-head bones.
   22-87
   11-54
   27-99
   32-77
    4-83
           10000
esolved by boiling into collin
  The cartilage of bone, after ossification has taken place, is
or common gelatine, (see p. 99.)   Hence  bones are employed in domestic economy for
the preparation of soups.  But the quantity of gelatine extractable from  bones by the
ordinary mode of boiling, is comparatively small.  To increase it, Papin* proposed to ex-
pose them to the action of water and steam under pressure.  By this means he declared
that he could make the oldest and hardest cow as tender and well-flavored as the finest
meat!!
  At the commencement  of the French revolution, the  attention of every one in France
was directed to the improvement of the food for the poor and for the army.   All were
agreed in employing  for  this purpose bones.  The government, led away  by the en-
thusiastic reports of scientific men, (Proust, d'Arcet, Pelletier, Cadet de Vaux, &c.,) issued
a public instruction, declaring that " a bone is a tablet of soup formed by nature: a pound
of bone gives as much soup as six pounds of meat: bone soup, in a dietetical point of
view, is preferable to  meat soup."  It need scarcely be stated that these inflated expres-
sions  were gross exaggerations.  It is obvious, as Magendie has justly observed, that in
this hyperbolic language the terms jelly (gelatine) and nutritive matter were considered
synonymous.   The favorable report made  by the Faculty of Medicine,  on the nutritive
and easily digestible properties of gelatine, induced the French administration des hospices^
in 1824, to introduce its employment into the  public hospitals of Paris; and for this pur-
pose,  in many of these  establishments d'Arcet's apparatus for  obtaining a solution  of
gelatine  from bones, by the aid of  steam, was fitted up.  In most, if  not in all, its em-
ployment was, however,  soon abandoned.  At the Hotel-Dieu  its use was abolished in
consequence of the unfavorable report given  of its properties by the medical officers of
that institution.  The report concludes with the following summary:—
      1. The soup made with the gelatinous solution is of bad quality.
      2. It is more liable to putrefaction than soup prepared by the old method.

  * A New Digester, or Engine for Softening Bones, 4to. Lond. 1681.—A Continuation of the. New Digester
of Bones,  4to.  Lond. 1687. 
FLESH.
113
  3. Its taste is disagreeable, and even disgusting.
  4. It is less digestible than common soup, and may even derange the functions of the digestive organs.
  5. It contains a smaller quantity of nutritive matter than common soup.
  6. Its nutritive matter is inferior to that contained in common soup.
  This report, which is dated November  8th, 1831,  is signed by MM.  Petit, Recamier,
Caillard, the Baron Dupuytren, Breschet, Gueneau de Mussy, Honore Husson, Sanson,
Magendie,  Bally, Henry, Duval, and Gendrin.
  The nutritive qualities of bone, as well as of bone-gelatine, have been already noticed,
(see p. 102.)   The time required for the  chymification of bone contained in a phial  has
likewise been  stated, (see p. 102.)
  2. Cartilages, Tendons, Aponeuroses, and Ligaments.—The cartilage of unossified parts,
by boiling,  yields  chondrine.   Tendons, (popularly called  sinews,) the aponeuroses,  and
most of the ligaments, by long boiling, yield collin.  All these, therefore, are gelatinous
tissues, and have been before  noticed, (see pp. 100-102.)  The ligament nucha (commonly
termed pack-wax) of ruminants  differs, however, from ordinary ligament.  Though it
yields a little gelatine to water, it does not soften or dissolve by long boiling.
  3. Cellular  Tissue.—This, by boiling in water, becomes soft, and is ultimately convert-
ed into collin.   It, therefore, belongs to the gelatinous substances, (see p. 99.)
  4. Fat.—The fat of mammals is lodged in the cells of the adipose tissue, which  pro-
bably is only a modification of, if, indeed, it be not identical with, the common cellular tis-
sue.  The  animal fats have already been described, (see p. 80, et seq.)
  5. Muscles or Flesh.—The flesh of mammals consists principally and essentially of the
muscles, intermixed, however, with tendons, aponeuroses, fasciae, nerves, vessels, cellular
tissue, blood, serum, and fat.   That  part  of the  flesh which consists of muscle without
the fatty and other matters, is called the lean.
  The chemical constituents of flesh  are the following:—

                             CONSTITUENTS OF FLESH.
           Water.                    Fatty matter                Gelatinous matter.
           Osmazome.                 Albumen.                  Peculiar nervous matter.
           Fibrine.                    Creatine.                  Hematosine.
           Salts.
  Osmazome  (from doixl), a smell, and ^3j, broth or soup) is an  alcoholic extract obtained
from the flesh, brain, and other parts of  animals.  It  has a reddish brown color,  and the
smell and taste of soup.  It is generally mixed with lactic acid, the lactates,  and common
salt.  To  this principle, broths and  soups  owe their flavor and smell, and part of their
nutritive qualities.
  The substance called, by its discoverer,  Chevreul,* creatine, (from Koias, flesh,) is a nitro-
genous, crystallizable substance, insoluble  in alcohol.
  Liebigf calculates that ordinary meat, as bought from the butcher, contains about one
seventh of its weight of fat and cellular tissue; and  that meat devoid of fat contains, on
the average, 74 per cent, water, and 26  dry matter ; the latter of which contains 13-6 parts
of carbon.   On these assumptions, therefore, 100 parts of ordinary butcher's meat  has
the following  composition :—
                  COMPOSITION OF ORDINARY BUTCHER'S MEAT.
                                         (Water.....63418
         Meat devoid of fat            .  857 I Dry matter containing 116552 )     oo.oqo
                                         (   parts of carbon   .    .   )
         Fat, cellular tissue, &c.........            14300
                Ordinary Butcher's meat   '.    ".   '.    '.   '.    '.   '.   '.  100-000

         *  Journal de Chimie Med. t. viii. p. 548.            t Animal Chemistry, p. 286.
8 
114
COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
Lean of Beef. (Berzelius.)	Heart of an Ox. (Braconnot.)
17-70 2-20 ) 008 < 1-80 105 77-17	18196 2-733 1-566 0-465 77036
10000	100000
The following are analyses of the muscular flesh of the ox
                        COMPOSITION OF BEEF FLESH.
Muscular fibre, vessels, and nerves    158'
Cellular tissue convertible into gela-      .
  tine by boiling     .    .   .    .19
Soluble albumen and coloring matter
Phosphate of lime and albumen
Alcoholic extract with salts (osmazome) .
Aqueous extract with salts
Lactate and phosphate of potash, and com-
  mon salt......
Water    ...."...
  The analyses of Brande and Schlossberger have been already given, (p. 111.)
  The fibrine of the muscular flesh of different animals is very uniform in its chemical
properties, and appears to be identical in its composition.   The flesh of the mammalia of
the chase is of a darker color, and is sometimes called black meat;  while  that of the rab-
bit, after boiling, is pale,  and may be termed  while meat.  The  quantity of blood in the
flesh of animals augments with their age.  Schlossberger found it to be inversely to that
of the water, but directly to that of the fibrine.   To augment  the whiteness of veal, it is
said that butchers sometimes repeatedly bleed calves, by which an anaemic  state is in-
duced.   Young meats yield, by boiling, a larger  amount of gelatine  than old meats.
Every one is probably familiar with the  fact that the gravy of lamb more readily gelatin-
izes when cold than that of mutton.  The osmazome augments  with  the age of the ani-
mal.  The flesh of wild animals, as the stag and the roe, contains a very small quantity
of fat, compared with that of the well-fed domesticated animals, as the sheep and hog.
   The ultimate composition of flesh is identical with  that  of blood.  " The  analyses of
Playfair and Boeckmann," says Liebig, " give  for flesh (fibrine, albumen, cellular tissue,
and nerves)  and for blood, as the most exact expression  for their  numerical  results, one
and the same formula, namely, C48 N8 IP9 O15.  This may be called the empirical formula
of blood.  Moreover, it appears that roasting and boiling alter in no way the composition
of animal food.
                 ULTIMATE COMPOSITION OF FLESH  AND BLOOD.
Roasted Flesh.
	Ox Blood.	Dry Beef Mu
	(Playfair)	(Playfair.)
Carbon	51-95	51.83
Hydrogen	717	7-57
Nitrogen	1507	1501
Oxygen	21-39	21-37
Ashes	4-42	4-23
    Beef.
(Playfair.
 52-590
  7-886
 15-214
 24-310
  Veal.
(Playfair.)
  52-52
   7-87
  14-70
  24-91
Roe Deer.
(Boeckmann.)
   52-60
    7-45
   1523
   24-72
100-00
10000
100000
10000
10000
  The tenderness of flesh is influenced by a variety of circumstances;  as age, sex, lean-
ness or fatness, mode of slaughtering, and incipient decomposition.  Thus  the  flesh of
young animals is more tender than that of old ones.  That of the entire male  adult is
coarser and tougher than that of the female.  The meat of the bull and of  the cow are
familiar illustrations of this.   The  flesh of castrated animals is  not only more delicate 
FLESH.
115
more tender, and finer grained, but has a more agreeable odor and flavor than that of the
uncastrated animal;  and a similar improvement in the flesh of the female "effected by
the operation of spaying.  The flesh'of lean animals is generally  firmer than mat 01
plump ones, in which the fibres are  penetrated with fat  The mode of preparation for
slaughter affects the  tenderness  of the meat.  Hunting, baiting, fighting, and whipping
animals just before death, augments the tenderness of their flesh.  With the exception o
the first one, these barbarous  and  cruel practices  are now justly exploded in the most
civilized  countries of the world.   Another circumstance which promotes the tenderness
of meat is incipient decomposition ;  hence the flesh of most animals is kept for some time
after death.                                                            ,,    .  .
   With regard to digestibility, Dr. Beaumont* found that digestion is facilitated by minute-
ness of division and tenderness of fibre; and retarded by opposite qualities.   " ^ymin-
cation,"  he observes,  "is  most readily effected on solid  food, or rather on a soft solid,
which is easily divisible into shreds or small particles.  Such is particularly the character
of venison, which is ascertained to be one of the most digestible  substances   The qual-
ities of looseness of texture and  susceptibility of division  belong to most of those wrid
meats and game which  are generally acknowledged to be easy  of digestion.  Beef and
mutton, of a  certain age, possess  similar qualities."                          ft/.nu»te-
   As young meats are more tender than old meats, and as tenderness of fibre focditat s
 digestion, it might be expected that the flesh of young animals would ^ more digestfole
 than that of oil ones ; and this inference is  favored by the <^m*«*-*»»^
 who found that roasted  sucking-pig was more speedily digested ^**£f£j
 and boiled fresh lamb sooner than boiled fresh mutton;  though, on  the other hand, veal
 proved less digestible than beef.
                             DIGESTIBILITY OF MEATS.
------~~		MEAN TIME OF CHYMIFICATION.			
ARTICLES OF DIET.		IN STOMACH.		IN PHIALS.	
		Preparation.	H. M.	Preparation.	H. M.
Venison steak Pig, sucking Lamb, fresh . Beef, with salt only " fresh, lean, raw . " steak . Pork, recently salted a u « Mutton, fresh u » " Pork, recently salted Pork-steak . Mutton, fresh Beef, fresh, lean, dry " with mustard, &c Veal, fresh . Beef, old, hard, salted Pork, recently salted Veal, fresh . Pork, fat and lean		Broiled Roasted Broiled Boiled Roasted Broiled Raw Stewed Broiled Boiled Broiled Broiled Roasted Roasted Boiled Fried Broiled Boiled Fried Fried Roasted	1 35 2 30 2 30 2 45 3 0 3 0 3 0 3 0 3 0 3 0 3 15 3 15 3 15 3 30 3 30 4 0 4 0 4 15 4 15 4 30 5 15	Roasted Masticated Raw Masticated Roasted	9 30 8 15 8 30 6 45 7 45 12 30
* Op. ante cit. pp. 36 and 142. 
116                          COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
  Notwithstanding the preceding facts, experience seems  to show that young meats fre-
quently prove less digestible than old ones.   Dr. Cullen,* after stating that  young meat
is universally more soluble than old, adds:  "Therais, however, a difficulty which occurs
here.   Although from their texture young meats are more soluble than  old, and appear
to be so in decoctions with water, yet in some stomachs the young meats are more slowly
digested than old; and thus in some persons veal is more  slowly digested than beef, and
lamb than mutton.
  Animal flesh is a plastic element of nutrition, (see p. 16.)  Being identical, in composi-
tion, with our own flesh and blood, it requires neither addition nor subtraction to render
it nourishing ; but in order that it may reach the different organs,  it  is necessary that it
should be reduced to a liquid form, (blood.)
  " Muscular flesh," says Magendie, f " in which gelatine,  albumen, and fibrine, are com-
bined according to the laws of organic nature,  and where  they are associated with other
matters, such as fats, salts, &c,  suffices, even  in very small  quantity, for complete and
prolonged nutrition."  Dogs fed solely for 120 days on raw meat from sheep's heads pre-
served their health and weight during this period ;  the daily consumption never exceed-
ing 300 grammes,  [=4630$ grs. troy,] and  often being less than this  quantity.  But 1000
grammes [=15434 grs. troy] of isolated fibrine, with  the  addition  of some  hundreds  of
grammes of gelatine and albumen, were insufficient to support life.  " What,  then," ex-
claims Magendie,  "is the peculiar principle  which renders meat  so perfect  an aliment 1
Is it the odorous and sapid matter, which has this function, as seems probable ?   Do the
salts, the trace of iron, the fatty matters, and the lactic acid, contribute to  the nutritive ef-
fect, notwithstanding that they constitute so minute a  portion of meat!"
   The meats of different species of mammals  are unequally digestible and nutritive: but
the digestibility of the same kind of meat is by no means uniform in  different individuals.
Venison, as I have already stated, is  easy of digestion; but it is generally considered  to
be more stimulating than other meats, (e. g. mutton ;)  and, therefore, less fitted  for con-
valescents.   Occasionally mutton disagrees with certain individuals.^  1  know a gentle-
man who has repeatedly had  an attack of indigestion after the use of roast mutton ; but
I have reason to suppose that it was caused  by the mutton  fat, and probably, therefore,
depended on the hircic acid, (see p. 83.)
   4.  Viscera.—The brain, the  tongue, the heart, the thymus, the liver, the kidneys, and
the alimentary canal of quadrupeds, are employed as  food.
   The  following are the mean times of chymification  of some of these, according to Dr.
Beaumont's experiments:—

  * A Treatise on the Materia  Medira, vol. i. p. 358.
  t Rapport fait a VAcademie des Sciences au nom dela Commission dile de la Gelatine.  Comptes Rendus
Aout, 1841.
  X Dr.  Prout (On the Nature and Treatment of Stomach and  Urinary Diseases, p. xxx. 3d ed.) knew an
individual on whom mutton acted as a poison.  He  " could not eat mutton in any form.  The peculiarity
was supposed to be owing to caprice, and the mutton was repeatedly disguised and given unknown to the
individual;  but uniformly with the same result of producing violent vomiting and diarrhoea.  And from
the severity of the effects, which were, in fact, those of a virulent poison, there can be little doubt
that if the use of mutton had been persisted in, it would soon have destroyed the  life of the individ-
ual." 
VISCERA OF QUADRUPEDS.                      117
ARTICLES OF DIET.	MEAN TIME OF CHYMIFICATION.			
	IN STOMACH.		IN PHIALS.	
	Preparation.	H. M.	Preparation.	H. M.
Liver, ox's, fresh . . . Spinal marrow, ox's .	Boiled Boiled Broiled Boiled Fried	1 0 1 45 2 0 2 40 4 0	Boiled Cut fine Boiled Entire piece	4 30 6 30 5 25 13 30
  a. The brain contains about 80 per cent, of water.   Its other constituents are albumen

and fatty matters.  The principal fat is cerebric acid.   It exists free or combined with soda

and phosphate of lime.

                        COMPOSITION OF CEREBRIC ACID.
                     Carbon........66-7
                     Hydrogen.......10-6
                     Nitrogen........2-3
                     Phosphorus.......0-9
                     Oxygen........19-5

                                                          1000

It differs, therefore, from ordinary fats in containing nitrogen  and phosphorus.  From

the  proteine compounds  it differs in  containing so small a proportion of nitrogen, (see

p. 91.)

  The other cerebral fats are  oleophosphoric acid, (which  contains  about 2 per cent, of

phosphorus, and probably  consists of oleine and phosphorus,) oleine, margarine, small

quantities of oleic and margaric acids, and cholesterine.

  In composition, then, brain may be regarded as intermediate between ordinary fat and

the  proteinaceous substances.  It appears, from Dr. Beaumont's experiments, (see p. 116,)

to be somewhat more digestible than common fat.

  b. and c.—The tongue and heart of mammals are muscular organs, (see p. 114,) for the

composition of the heart of the ox,) and in their dietetical properties agree with the flesh

of these animals.
  d. The thymus of the calf is employed as food, under the name of sweetbread.   Its com-

position, according to Morin,* is as follows:—

                     COMPOSITION OF CALF'S SWEETBREAD.
                  Albumen.........1400
                  Osmazome........1-65
                  Gelatine.........600
                  Peculiar  animal fat.......0-30
                  Margaric acid........005
                  Fibrine.........800
                  Water.........7000
                  Thymus or Sweetbread......10000

  A fresh sweetbread, when plainly cooked (by boiling) and moderately seasoned, forms
a very agreeable and suitable dish for the convalescent; but when highly dressed, is im-
proper both for dyspeptics and invalids.
  e. The liver of the ox has been analyzed by Braconnot,f who  found  its composition to

be as follows :—
* Journ. de Chim. Med. t. iii. p. 450.                 t Ann. de Chimie et de Physique, t. x. p. 189. 
118                          COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
                     COMPOSITION OF THE LIVER OF THE OX.
                 Vascular and cutaneous tissues        ....  18-94
                 Parenchyma (i. e. soluble parts)        ....  8106
                Liver...........100 00
  The parenchyma consisted of the following substances :—
                  Brown oil, containing phosphorus   ....  3-89
                  White fatty flocculi......      ?
                  Nitrogenous matter.......6-07
                  Albumen.........2019
                  Blood..........?
                  Salts..........1-21
                  Water..........68-64
                  Parenchyma of the liver.....10000

  On account of the oily matter which it contains, the liver of quadrupeds is not an ap-
propriate food for invalids, or for those whose stomachs are weak.   Moreover, the ordin-
ary mode of cooking it, (frying,) renders it still  more inappropriate.
  / The kidneys.—From Berzelius's experiments it appears that  the solid part of the
kidney is neither fibrine nor cellular tissue, but approaches nearer to  the  substance  of
which the fibrous coat of the arteries consists, (see p. 101.)   The liquid portion of the
kidney contains albumen and lactic acid.   Berzelius could detect no urea in it  But the
urinous odor  which  a cooked kidney presents is a sufficient  evidence that it contains
some of the essential constituents of this secretion.  Dr. T. Thomson* states  that urea
has been detected in the kidney.
  g. Alimentary Canal.—The stomachs of ruminants when  prepared as food constitute
tripe.  Its principal organic constituents are albumen and fibrine.   " Few things," says
Dr. A. T. Thomson,! " are more readily digested than tripe, when it is properly cooked.
After partially boiling, in the  usual manner, and also  some onions, in two waters, both
should  be  slowly boiled together, until the tripe is very  soft and tender.   A sufficient
quantity of  salt, and  a pinch  or  a few grains  of cayenne pepper, may be added."  Dr.
Beaumont's experiment, before quoted, (see p.  117,)  also  shows the ready digestibility
of tripe.
  5. Blood.—Blood forms a greater or less constituent of the flesh and viscera of quadru-
peds, notwithstanding that in  the  ordinary mode of slaughtering these animals they are
deprived of the greater part of their circulating fluid.f  Among civilized nations, the pig is
the only animal whose blood  furnishes  a distinct  article  of food.   Mixed with fat and
aromatics, and enclosed in the  prepared intestines, the blood of this animal constitutes the
sausages sold in the shops under the name of black puddings.
  The following table shows the mean composition of the  blood of several  animals em-
ployed as food, according to the analyses of MM. Andral, Gavarret, and Delafond.§


  * Animal Chemistry, p. 330.
  t  The Domestic Management of the Sick-Room, p. 433.
  X Some animals are bled to death ; others, after being knocked  down, have the vessels of their  neck
divided.  By the Mosaic law the Jews are expressly forbidden to  eat the blood of any beast or bird, or to
partake of the flesh of any beast or bird, whose throat has not been cut in  order to drain off its blood.
They are not to eat of any creature that dies of itself, (Leviticus, chapters 7, 11, and 17.)   » Previously to
boiling any meat, they are required to  let it lie half an hour in  water and an hour in salt, and then to
rinse off the salt with clean water.  This is designed to draw out  any remaining blood."  (Allen Modern
Judaism, p. 420-21, 2d. ed.  1830.)
  §  Annates de Chimie et de Physique, 3e  serie, t. v. 
MILK.
119
MEAN COMPOSITION OF THE BLOOD OF THE OX,  THE SHEEP,  AND THE PIG.
Constituents.	Oxen.	Sheep.		Pigs of from 2 to 6 months old. English Breed.
		Merino.	Dishley Breed.	
	3-7 99-7 86-3 810-3	30 1011 82-4 8135	2-6 950 92-4 8100	46 1057 801 809-6
				
Solid matters of the serum .... Water...........				
				
	10000	10000	10000	10000
  The composition and alimentary properties of fibrine have already been stated, (see pp.
90-91.)  I have also  given the composition of the blood corpuscles according to Denis,
(see p. 92,  foot-note.)   Their alimentary properties are  similar to  those of albumen and
other proteinaceous substances.
  The solid matters of the serum  of the blood consist of  albumen, (see  pp. 90-93,) which
constitutes more than  1-10 of their weight, of fatty matters, (see p. 85, foot-note,) of, ac-
cording to Denis, two  coloring matters, (yellow biliary matter  and traces of a blue sub-
stance,) and, lastly, various salts, (viz. alkaline chlorides, alkaline carbonate, phosphate,
and sulphate, carbonates of lime and magnesia, and phosphates of lime and magnesia.)
  The nutritive quality of blood is equal to that of flesh,  with which it is identical in com-
position, (see p. 114.)
  6. Milk.—On account of its liquidity milk ought, perhaps, to be placed among Drinks ;
but inasmuch as it contains,  in  solution and  suspension, a large quantity of alimentary
matter ; as it  constitutes the sole food of mammals during a certain period of their life,
after birth ; and, lastly, as it yields some solid alimentary substances, (butter, cheese, and
sugar of milk,)  it will  be, on the  whole, most convenient to notice it here.
  Milk,  or, to  be  more precise  in  our description,  Cow's Milk,  is an  opaque, white
emulsive liquid, with  a bland, sweetish taste, a faint peculiar odor, and a specific gravity
of about 1-030: the latter property,  however, is subject to considerable variation.   When
recently drawn from  the animal  it is  slightly alkaline, (see p.  93.)  Subjected  to a mi-
croscopical examination, it  is observed  to consist of  myriads  of excessively  minute
globular particles floating in a serous liquid.   These particles are  butter.  They instantly
disappear, by solution, on the addition of a drop of caustic alkali; and they may be sepa-
rated by filtration,—the filtered liquor  being transparent.  Being  specifically lighter  than
the liquor in which they are  suspended, they readily separate by standing.  They rise to
the surface, carrying with them some caseine,  and retaining  some of the serum,  thus
forming cream.   The  milk from which the cream is separated is termed skimmed  milk.
  Milk has been the  subject of repeated chemical investigation.   The following is the
composition of several kinds of milk, according to the very elaborate experiments of MM.
O. Henri and Chevallier,* published in 1839.
Milk of the
  Constituents.
Caseine
Butter
Sugar of Milk
Various Salts
Water
 Cow.
 4-48
 313
 4.77
 0-60
87-02
 Aes.
 1-82
 0-11
 608
 0-34
91-65
Woman.
  1-52
  3-55
  6-50
  0-45
 87-98
Goat.
402
3-32
5-28
0-59
86-80
Ewe.
 4-50
 4-20
 500
 0-68
85-62
Total
Solid substances
1UO0J
 12-98
IlKJ-00
  8-00
10000
 1300*
100-00
 13-20
10000
 1438
  * Journal de Pharmacie, t. xxv. p. 340.
  t According to the preceding data the quantity of solid substances  in woman's milk is 12-02; but
13-00 is given in the memoir quoted, and I have no means of discovering  where the error exists. 
120                           COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
   But the relative proportions of the constituents of milk vary with the quality of the
food, the age of the animal, and the period after parturition.  The following table, taken
from the memoir of the last-mentioned chemiats, shows the influence of food.
                           COMPOSITION OF COW'S MILK.
                                                  Kind of Food.
                                          Carrots.               Beets.
                    Caseine     ...     4-20   ..    .    375
                    Butter  ...         308   ..    .    2-75
                    Sugar of Milk   .    .     530   .   .    .    5-95
                    Salts   ....     0-75   .   .    .    0-63
                    Water         .    .   8667   .   .    .   86-87
                    Total       .   .    .   10000   .   .    .   10000
                    Solid substances .    .    13-33   .   .    .    1313
   MM. Boussingault and Le Bel* have  also  made a series  of experiments to determine
the effect  of various kinds  of food upon  the quantity and  quality of the  milk  given by
cows.  Some of their results have been before noticed, (see ante, p.  93.)
   I have  already considered the composition  and  alimentary qualities of butter, (pp. 81-
87,) and of caseine, (pp. 90-91, 93-95.)
   Sugar of Milk, in its  nutritive qualities, is similar to saccharine substances in general,
and  which  have  been already stated, (see pp.  55-59.)  In its chemical properties it is
allied to gum.  Its alimentary uses are precisely similar to those of whey.   Dissolved in
skimmed  cow's  milk, I have occasionally employed it  in consumptive  cases,  where  un-
skimmed  milk disagreed with the stomach.  The homceopathists use it as the vehicle
(excipiens vel  constiluens) for  the exhibition, in a pilular  (globular) form, of small doses
of their remedies; as they object to the  use of common sugar, for  this  purpose, on ac-
count of the lime which it contains.
   The saline constituents of milk have been slightly alluded to, (see p. 93.)  According
to Schwartzf the following is the composition  of the ashes of cow's milk.

          COMPOSITION OF  THE ASHES OF  100 PARTS OF COW'S MILK.
                Soda (in milk combined with lactic acid)  .    .   .    00115
                Chloride  of potassium     .    .    .    .     .   .    0-1350
                Phosphate of soda.......00225
                Phosphate of lime.......01805
                Phosphate of magnesia......00170
                Phosphate of iron.......00032
                                                               0-3697
   But according to Berzelius  the lactic acid is combined with potash.
   Cream  of cow's milk has a variable specific gravity : perhaps the  average is 1*2044.
According to the analysis of Berzelius, it has the following composition:—
                    COMPOSITION OF CREAM OF COW'S MILK.
                Butter..........4-5
                Caseine or curd........3-5
                Whey..........920
                                                                1000
   The upper stratum of cream is richer in butter, the lowest in caseine.  By agitation, as
in the process called churning, the fatty globules unite to form butter: the residue, called
butter-milk, consists of caseine, serum, (whey,) and a little  butter.
   Skimmed milk,  like  cream, has  a variable specific  gravity: perhaps  the  average is
1-0348.  If left  to  itself, it  readily acquires acid properties; white coagula, commonly
                 * Ann. de Chim. et de Physique, t.  lxxi. p. 65.
                 t  Gmelin, Handbuch der theoretischen Chemie, vol. 2, p. 1404. 
MILK.
121
called curds, separate from it.  If an acid  or rennet (the infusion  of the  fourth  or true
stomach of the  calf) be added to skimmed milk, this change  is immediately produced.
The curd separated by rennet is the caseine.  But after rennet has ceased to produce any
more coagula, acetic acid will cause a further quantity to be formed.   The curd thus sub-
sequently separated by the acid  is known by the various  names of zieger, serai, ricotta,
and bracotle.  It is probably nothing else than uncoagulated caseine united to acetic acid.
The whey left after the separation of the caseine and zieger, yields, on evaporation, sugar
of milk, one or more nitrogenous substances, (osmazome,) lactic acid, and salts.
  The following table shows the composition of several domestic preparations of milk :—
Milk<
Cream
Skimmed
  milk
(Butter
I
( solid fat
( liquid fat
Butter-milk
 CONSTITUENTS.
1. Margarine.
' Matters  coa-
   gulable .
caseum.
serum or whey.
by rennet   ....
not by rennet, but by acetic
  acid.....7. Zieger or Serai.
2. Bulyroleine.
3. Butyrine.
4. Caproine.
5. Caprine.

6 Caseine.
|_Whey or se
   rum
 ("saccharine matter
__ I azotized matter
                                                             8.  Sugar of Milk.
                                                             9.  Osmazome.
                                        {soluble in alcohol   .  10.  Alkaline and earthy lactates
                                                                  and phosphates.
                                        soluble in water, not  11.  Alkaline sulphate and phos-
                                          in alcohol    .   .        phates.
                                        insoluble in water   .  12.  Earthy  and  ferruginous
                                                                  phosphates.
  The morbid changes produced in the quality of the milk by diseased  conditions of the
cows, have recently attracted considerable  attention in Paris, owing to the  prevalence of
a malady,  called the  cocote, among the cows  in that  capital.*  Those which  have been
recognised are want of homogeneousness, imperfect mobility or liquidity, capability of
becoming thick or viscid on the  addition of ammonia, and  the presentation of, when ex-
amined by the  microscope, certain globues (agglutinated, tuberculated  or  mulberry-like,
mucous or pus globules) not found in healthy milk.f   LabillardiereJ states  that the milk
of a cow, affected with a kind of turbercular phthisis (pommeliere) contained seven times
more phosphate of lime than usual; and Dupuy  also§  speaks of the large quantity of
calcareous matter in the milk of cows, in whose lungs abundant deposits of the same sub-
stance were found.||
  Good milk is quite liquid and  homogeneous; not viscid; and, when examined by  the
microscope, is found  to contain only spherical transparent globules, soluble in alkalies and
ether.   Moreover, good milk  yields a  flocculent  precipitate  with acetic acid, but is not
coagulated by heat.   The relative quantity of cream,  which it affords, is estimated by a
glass tube  divided into 100 parts.  Such an instrument is called a lactometer.  The thick-
ness of the layer of cream which, in a few hours, forms at  the  top of the  milk, may be
easily led off.  I have repeatedly submitted the milk supplied to me by a respectable dealer
in London, to examination by  the lactometer, but the results have been very unsatisfac-
  * See Journal de Pharmacie, vol. xxv. p. 301-318.
  t Reclierches microscopiques sur divers tails obtenus de vaches plus ou moins affecties deh. Maladiequt a
rtgnl pendant VHiver de 1823 a 1839, et designee vulgairement sous la denomination de Cocote,  par M.
Turpin, in the Mimoires de VAcademie Royale des Sciences de Vlnstitut, t. xvii.  Paris, 1840.
  X Diet. Mat. Med. iv. 23.
  $ Quoted by Andral, Treat, on Path. Anatomy, Engl.  Transl. vol. i. p. 675.
  || Appendix, Y. 
122
COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
tory, as the quantity of cream which I procured varied from 5 to 23 per cent by measure.
I subjoin a few results obtained in November, 1840:—
   100 Parts by measure
        of Milk.
1840,  November 6,—Morning .
        "      Afternoon
        "   7,—Morning
        "      Afternoon
QUANTITY OF CREAM IN COWS MILK.
                        100 Parts by measure
                             of Milk.
                    1840, November 8,—Afternoon
                            "10,   .  .  .  .
                            "17,   .  .  .  .
                            "18,   .  .  .  .
Quantity of Cream
  by measure.
.  .   . m
.  .   .   5
... 10
.  .   . 16i
Quantity of Cream
  by measure.
.  .  10i
.  .   8
.  .  23
.  .  23
  The milk yielded by an Alderney cow, belonging to a gentleman in the neighborhood
of Whitechapel, yielded 17i per cent, (by measure) of cream.
  The following table of the quantity of cream contained in the milk supplied by con-
tract to the London Hospital, has been kindly furnished me by Mr. Macmeikan, the apoth-
ecary to that establishment.  The specific gravity  was,  for  convenience,  taken by the
urinometer.
   SPECIFIC GRAVITY AND PROPORTION OF CREAM ON MILK SUPPLIED TO THE
                               LONDON HOSPITAL.
Date.	Specific Gravity.	Cream.	Tempera-ture.
1842.			
Sept. 12	1023	9	—
13 .	1030	5	—
14	1026	5	_
15	1025	5	_
16	1030	5	62
17	1026	41	62
18	1030	5i	62
19	1027	5k	63
20	1026	5i	61
21	1026	5	60
22	1026	5	62
23	1027	5i	62
24	1026	5	_
25	1-027	4i	_
26	1025	4i	64
27	1-028	44	64
28	1-028	5	_
29	1-027	5	_
Oct. 1	1030	5	_
2	1027	7	_
3	1028	6	_
4	1-027	7	
5	1030	7	__
6	1-027	7	__
7	1029	7i	_
8	1028	7	—
26 days.	Average) 7 sp. gr. Jl VZi26	Average I ,9 quantity 5 Oj T2 of cream )	
  Donne* says ordinary cow's milk should furnish 12 to 15 per cent, of cream,—woman's
milk, of good quality, 3 per cent,—and ass's milk from 1 to 2 per cent
  The influence  which many medicines, taken by the parent, have over the offspring, is
a circumstance known  to  every nurse, though  Cullen denies it.  We  can  modify the
color of the milk  by mixing saffron or madder with the food ;  the odor may be affected by
various cruciferous and alliaceous plants; the taste may be altered by the use of bitters,
as wormwood ; and lastly, the medicinal effect may be also influenced.  Children may be

            * Conseils aux Mires sur la Manilre d'Elever les Enfans nouveau-nis.  1842. 
MILK.                                     123
salivated by sucking nurses under the  influence of mercury, or purged by the exhibition
of drastics, or narcotized by the administration of opiates to the nurse.  These  facts are
so familiar  to  every one, that further evidence of them is scarcely requisite.   Mental
emotions also affect the quality of the  milk.  Thus the action  of the bowels of the  child
is frequently disordered in consequence of some sudden  emotion on the part  of the
mother.
   The quality of the milk is also affected by  the state of health of the female supplying
it.  I have already mentioned the effect of tubercular disease  of the  lungs in increasing
the quantity of phosphate of lime in the milk, (see p. 121.)   This subject is one of the
greatest moment not only in reference to the frequency of disease in cows, and, there-
fore, to the possible morbific character  of their milk, but also  in reference to the  milk of
the human subject.  I think, with these facts before us, it  would be highly improper to
allow a female, with any trace or suspicion of tuberculous disease, to suckle.  Not that
a few grains, more or less, of phosphate of lime in the milk, can  probably do any injury
to the child ; but the fact once established, that the milk may be thus altered by  disease,
leads to the suspicion that some  other substances, not yet  recogtiised by their physical
or chemical characters,  may be in the  milk of diseased nurses, and which may have an
injurious influence on the child; and the suspicion does not confine itself to those affect-
ed with tuberculous  diseases: other hereditary  or constitutional affections may also be
attended with altered conditions of the milk.   This suspicion is strengthened by the  com-
mon observation that the milk of different nurses  does  not equally suit the same child ;
nor that of  the same nurse, different children.
   Milk being furnished by nature as the only food for the young mammal, during a cer-
tain  period of his existence, contains  all  the  elements  necessary for the nutrition and
growth of the body.
   Out of the caseine  of milk are formed the  albumen and fibrine of the blood, and
the  proteinaceous  and gelatinous  tissues.   The butter  serves  for the formation  of
fat and contributes, with  the sugar,  to support the animal heat by  yielding carbon and
hydrogen to be burnt in the lungs.   The earthy salts are necessary for the development
of the osseous system ; the iron is required for the blood corpuscles and the  hair;  while
the alkaline chloride furnishes the hydrochloric acid of the gastric juice.
  Milk  is in general readily  digested by children, unless it contain too large a quantity of
nutritious matter,* when  it is apt  to  induce various disorders of the digestive organs,
(vomiting, griping, &c.)  It frequently  disagrees with adults.  With some  it proves heavy
and  difficult of digestion, owing to its  oily  constituent, (butter.)  With such, ass's  milk,
(which contains very little butter,) or  skimmed cow's milk, usually agrees.   The follow-
ing table of the digestibility of milk, &c, is taken from Dr. Beaumont's work:—
ARTICLES OF DIET.	MEAN TIME OF CHYMIFICATION.			
	IN STOMACH.		IN' PHIALS.	
	Preparation.	II. M.	Preparation.	H. M. 4 15 4 45 25 30
Milk .... Milk .... Butter .... Cream ....	Boiled Raw-Melted	2 0 2 15 3 30	Boiled Raw Raw	
  * See Payen, Journ. dt Chim. Med. t. iv. p. 118.  Also Donne, Conseils aux Mires sur la Manitre d'Elever
les Enfans nouveau-ncs.  1812. 
124                        COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
  Pure milk injected into the veins exerts no deleterious effects, except in the horse.*
  Milk is a very useful and valuable article of food as well for the adult as for the child,
—and for healthy individuals as for invalids and convalescents.   The principal drawback
to its  employment,  in many cases, is  the  difficult digestibility of its  fatty constituent,
(butter.)  Under the name of Milk Diet it is extensively employed, in conjunction with
farinaceous substances  and light puddings,  with great benefit in many  maladies.  (See
the article Milk Diet, in a subsequent part of this work.)
   Whey is an excellent diluent and nutritive.  It  may be used  in febrile and  inflamma-
tory complaints.  It is usually prepared by means of rennet ;f and when thus procured
may be denominated Rennet Whey, in order to distinguish it from whey prepared by other
methods.  White  Wine Whey, taken warm and combined with a sudorific regimen, acts
powerfully on the skin, and is a valuable domestic remedy in slight colds and  febrile  dis-
orders.  Cream of Tartar Whey is prepared by adding a quarter of an ounce of cream of
tartar (bitartrate of potash)  to a pint of milk.  It may  be diluted with water, and taken
in febrile and  dropsical complaints.  It is refrigerant and diuretic.  Alum Whey is made
by boiling a quarter  of an ounce of powdered alum with a pint  of milk ; then  straining.
It may be flavored with sugar and nutmeg.   This is a pleasant  mode of exhibiting alum,
and may be beneficially  resorted to in disorders requiring the use of this astringent, as in
lead colic, hemorrhages, and colliquative sweating.   The dose is a wine-glassful.   Tama-
rind Whey is  prepared  by  boiling an  ounce  of tamarind pulp  with a pint of  milk, and
then straining.  It is refrigerant, slightly laxative, and nutritive, and may be exhibited in
febrile disorders.  Mustard Whey is prepared by boiling together half an ounce of  bruised
mustard seeds and one pint of milk, until  the milk  is curdled:  then  strain, to separate
the whey.  " This whey has been found to be a useful drink in dropsy :  it stimulates the
kidneys ; and, consequently, augments the urinary  secretion.  It may be taken in a tea-
cupful at a time."J
   Milk and lime-water forms a very useful remedy in some irritable conditions of stomach
arising from uterine and other maladies.  It oftentimes  proves  a most effectual  remedy
for obstinate  vomiting.   I have  likewise found it  highly  serviceable in the climacteric
disease, or, what is technically  known as  " a breaking  up  of the constitution."   It
nourishes, while it  checks sickness and relaxation  of bowels.   One part of lime-water
may be taken with one, two,  or three parts of milk, according to  circumstances.  The
milk completely covers the offensive taste of the lime-water.
   Whey possesses slightly  nutritive qualities: these it  derives  from the sugar  of  milk
which it contains.  It is devoid of all stimulating properties with reference either to  the vas-
cular or nervous systems.   It therefore, forms a  very agreeable and  excellent  diluent
and slight nutrient  in  febrile and inflammatory  complaints ;  and  is  well adapted for
catarrhal and pulmonary affections, especially incipient phthisis, haemoptysis, atrophy,
scrofula,  and chronic  disorders of the liver, and other digestive organs. It very gently

   * Donn6, Comptes Rendus, 1841.
   t The term Rennet, or Runnel, is applied to tbe stomach of a sucking animal (as of the calf) preserved
by means of salt. These terms are also applied to the liquid obtained by macerating this stomach in
water.  It is the gastric juice which is the effective agent in coagulating or curdling milk, (see pp. 35, and
94 )  According to Deschamps, (Journ. de Pharm. vol. xxvi. p. 412,) liquid  rennet contains hydrochloric
acid, (in great quantity,) butyric, caproic, capric, and  lactic acids, sal ammoniac, chloride of sodium, (inde-
pendently of that which  has been added,) magnesia, (not  as ammoniacal phosphate,) soda, (probably
with the magnesia, as  lactate,) traces  of a sulphate, phosphate of lime, and a peculiar matter which he
calls chymosine, (from x^oSi chyme, xu^&xtis, chymification.)
   X  Dr. A. T. Thompson, The Domestic Management of the Sick-Room, p. 420. 
MILK.                                  125
 promotes the  action of the secreting organs, and in this way may prove useful in con-
 gestion of the liver and of other abdominal viscera.  In various parts of Switzerland and
 Germany there are special establishments for the cure of chronic disorders by the use of
 pure or aromatized whey,  (Molkencuren; Cures de Petit  Lail.)  The whey is  obtained
 from the milk of the cow, the goat, or the ass ; and is used as a drink, as a lavement, or
 as a bath.  Its use is often associated  with that  of mineral waters; as at  Salzbrunn,
 Reinerz, Kreuth, Gaiss, Weissbad,  and many other continental watering places.
   Butler-milk, when  made from whole milk, differs from this in the absence of butter.
 As it contains the caseine, the sugar,  and the salts of milk, it must possess  nutritive
 qualities.  It is extensively used as an article of food by the lower  classes in Ireland.  It
 forms a very agreeable cooling beverage in febrile and inflammatory cases.   As " it can-
 not  be  procured at  all  times in  large towns,  and  not always  in the country,  the
 method of making it in small  quantities, daily, should be understood.  It is readily pre-
 pared by putting a quart of new milk into a bottle which will hold a gallon, corking the
 bottle,  and covering it with a towel in such  a manner, that  by drawing alternately each
 end of  the towel, the bottle can be rolled upon a table.  This movement should be con-
 tinued until such time as all the butter is separated, which is known by its appearing in
 clots or masses swimming in the milk.  During  the rolling, it is necessary to  open the
 bottle occasionally to admit fresh air into it, as that  is essential for the formation  of butter.
 When the process is finished,  all the butter  should be carefully separated from the but-
 ter-milk."*  This may be drank ad libitum.
  The preparations of milk known as Corstorphin  Cream, Devonshire  Cream, or  Clotted
 Cream, consist of cream and the coagulated curd.  They are nutritive and  delicious
 substances, but apt to disagree with dyspeptics on  account of the butter which they con-
 tain.
  Having noticed the leading alimentary properties of milk, and its most frequently used
 preparations, it may be proper now  to say a few words  on the distinctive properties of
the different milks in most frequent use.
  It will be seen by reference to p.  119, Ewes'  milk contains the largest amount of nutri-
 tive  matter, (caseine and butter;) but on this account is less easy of digestion, and,  there-
fore, unfitted  for dyspeptics.   Next to this is  Goals' milk,  concerning which  the same
remarks may be made.  It is said to be useful in checking obstinate diarrhoea.  Ass's milk
is the least nutritive,  but the  most  easy of digestion.  With the exception of  woman's
milk, it is the  richest  in sugar of milk.  In the convalescence from  acute maladies, in
consumptive cases, and chronic diseases of the digestive organs, it  is a most  valuable
aliment.  Its medicinal value seems  to depend on  the small quantity of butter and large
quantity of sugar  of milk which it contains.  An  artificial ass's milk may be  prepared
by dissolving   a couple of ounces of sugar of milk in a pint of  skimmed cow's milk.
 Cow's  milk is  intermediate, in  nutritive and digestible  properties, between goat's milk
and  ass's milk.  Donnef says that it is the only milk which is either very feebly alkaline,
often neutral,  and sometimes slightly acid.  The  milk  of the ass and the woman are
always  very obviously alkaline.  He thinks  that the cause  of this peculiarity  of  cow's
milk is referable to  the fact that this milk is,  to a certain extent an artificial production :
that  is, it is furnished by the  animal long after  the time of suckling its offspring, and it is
well  known that the milk varies in its qualities at different  periods after the parturition
of the animal.

            *  Dr. A. T. Thomson, The Domestic Management of the Sick-Room.
            t Comptes Rendus, 1841, p. 1064 ; also Conseils aux Meres, 1842. 
126
COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
                              (LASS II. AVES.—BIRDS.
  This class of animals, like the preceding one, furnishes a very safe aliment to man,
for none of the species are  poisonous ;  and, accordingly, a very large number are em-
ployed as food.  My remarks, however,  will be  directed to those in most frequent use in
England;—principally to the Common  Fowl, the  Pheasant  the Partridge,  the Pigeon,
the Duck, and the Goose.
  The flesh, viscera, and eggs of birds, are used as food.
  1. Flesh.—The composition of the muscular flesh of birds, according to the analyses of
Mr. Brande and Schlossberger, has been already stated, (see p. 111.)  " The flesh of
birds," says the late Dr. Duncan,  jun.,* " differs  very much in its sensible properties, not
only in different kinds, but even in the different muscles of the same bird.  The pectoral
muscles which  move  the wings are drier and more tender than those which move the
legs.  The tendons of the legs are also very strong, and at a  certain age become  bony ;
but the flesh of the legs, when sufficiently tender, either from the bird being young, or
from long keeping, or sufficient cookery,  is more juicy and savory than that of the  wings.
Of a few birds,  especially the woodcock  and snipe, the  legs are at all times preferred to
the breast   In  the black-cock,  the outer  layer of the pectoral muscle is of a dark-brown
color, while the inner is  white.  A similar difference is observed in many other birds, and
perhaps it is general in a slight degree.  The muscular organs of birds differ from those of
quadrupeds in their flesh never being marbled, or having fat mixed with the muscular fibres."
  The muscles  of those parts of the body  most frequently exercised become firmer, harder,
and tougher than those which are more  rarely used.  " That exercise produces strength
and firmness of fibre," says Dr. Kitchener,! " is excellently well exemplified in the  wood-
cock and partridge.  The former flies most—the latter walks ;—the wing of the woodcock
is always very tough,—of the partridge very tender: hence the old doggerel distich,—
                     1 If the Partridge had but the Woodcock's thigh,
                     He'd be the best bird that e'er doth fly.'
The breast of all birds is the most juicy and nutritious part."
  Castration improves the flesh of birds for  the  table, rendering it more tender and sa-
vory.   Of this we have an illustration in  the capon,  (the castrated cock.)   Spaying exer-
cises a similar influence  over the female bird ; as in the poulard, (the  spayed hen.)
  The flesh of the  older and larger birds  is  in  general coarser than  that of the younger
and smaller animals.
  Though great diversity exists in the flesh of different orders of birds, yet no accurate
distribution of those animals, founded  on  the kind of flesh, can be made, because though
the extremes are well marked, they run insensibly into each other.  The usual division is
into four classes, as follows :
  a. The While-fleshed, as the common fowl and  the turkey.  The meat of these animals
is white,  contains but little osmazome,  when good is generally liked, and when young is
exceedingly tender.  Chicken flesh is, in  general, easily  digested. Dr. Beaumont* states
that it  is more difficult of digestion than beef.   He says,  that the texture of the chicken
being closer than that of beef, the gastric juice does not insinuate itself into the instersticefl
of the muscular fibre so  readily  as into beef, but operates entirely upon the outer surface,
which  it dissolves, as a piece of gum arabic  is dissolved  in  the mouth, until the last
particle is dissolved.
* Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, art. Food.
t Cook's Oracle.                        X Op. supra cit. p« 122. 
FLESH OF  BIRDS.
127
  Chicken flesh is nutritious, and is, perhaps, the least stimulating of animal foods.   It is
often  retained  on the stomach  of invalids when other meats would be immediately re-
jected.  Chicken broth is well adapted for irritable stomachs.
  b. The Dark-Fleshed Game, as the grouse, and the black-cock.  The flesh of the wild
gallinaceous birds is darker-colored, firmer, richer in osmazome, somewhat less digestible,
and more stimulating, than that of the chicken.  When sufficiently kept it acquires a pe-
culiar odor, called fumet, and an aromatic bitter taste, most sensible in the back.  In this
condition it is said to be ripe or high, and is much esteemed as a luxury.
  c. The Aquatic, (including swimmers  and waders,) as the goose and  the duck.   The
flesh of water fowl is mostly firm, penetrated with fat, (which often acquires a  rancid and
fishy taste,) and is more difficult of digestion.  It forms, therefore, a less  appropriate ali-
ment for invalids.
  d. The Rapacious, as the hawk and the owl.  None of these are eaten, partly, perhaps,
from  prejudice, and partly because those which  touch carrion acquire a cadaverous
smell.
  The following table  contains Dr. Beaumont's results  respecting the digestibility of the
flesh of birds.
DIGESTIBILITY OF THE FLESH OF BIRDS.
		MEAN TIME OF CHYMIFICATION.			
ARTICLES OF DIET.		IN STOMACH.		IN PHIALS.	
		Preparation.	H. M.	Preparation.	H. M.
Turkey, wild . " domestic Goose, wild Chicken, full grown Fowls, domestic Ducks, domestic u it		Roasted Boiled Roasted Roasted Fricasseed Boiled Roasted Roasted Roasted	2 18 2 25 2 30 2 30 2 45 4 0 4 0 4 0 4 30	Masticated	6 30
  2. Viscera.—Some of the viscera of birds are employed as aliment.  They constitute
part of what is called, in the case of the goose and duck, giblets.
  a. The brains of birds are eaten at the table.   In their chemical properties they resem-
ble  calves' brains.  John says the cerebrum  contains a larger quantity of fat (part of
which is crystallizable) than  the brain  of the  calf; the cerebellum of birds contains less
water and no crystallizable fat
  b. Gizzard.—This is the muscular or pyloric portion of the stomach.  It  consists of a
very dense and firm  muscular  or fleshy texture, lined by a thick, hard, fibrous, or ten-
dinous membrane.  On account of its density and hardness of texture,  it is very slowly
digested; and hence  is not  adapted  for persons with weak stomachs. Dr. Beaumont
found  that the gizzard of a chicken, introduced into the stomach of the Canadian, was
not completely dissolved at the end of five hours,—the residuum, consisting principally
of tendinous fascia, weighed seven and a half grains.
  c. Intestine.—In the  woodcock, the intestine (called the trail) is, by epicures, considered
a bonne bouche.
  d. Liver.—The liver of most birds is a favorite morsel.   Its peculiar  flavor it owes to
the bile which it contains.  Its oily constituent would seem to render it difficult of diges- 
128                           COMPOUND  ALIMENTS.
tion; but Dr. Beaumont found that it was almost as completely dissolved in the  same
time as the breast of a fricasseed chicken.
  I have already (p. 11) referred to the  morbidly enlarged liver of the goose,* employed
in the preparation  of the celebrated P&Us de Foies gras de Strasbourg.  The principal
agents in .inducing it  are  external  heat, obscurity, inactivity, and cramming the animals
with food.f  At Alsace, a trough in front of the animal is always kept " full of water, in
which some pieces of wood charcoal} are left to steep," (Sonnini.)   In this way the liver
becomes enormously enlarged, and oftentimes weighs one or two pounds; while the ani-
mal is excellent for the table, and furnishes, during roasting, from  three to five pounds
of fat.  The change thus induced in the liver is that known to  pathologists by the  name
of fatly  degeneration,!} in which  the liver is very rich in a phosphoric oil.  It is obvious,
therefore, that these  diseased livers must  be  difficult of digestion, and  unfit for persons
with delicate stomachs.   Dr. Proutf has  endeavored to deter indolent and  dyspeptic in-
dividuals from partaking of  them, by suggesting that they " cannot be supposed, in all
instances,  to assimilate them; and consequently run considerable risk in inoculating and
converting their own livers, or other organs, into  a similar mass of disease."
   3. Fat—The composition  of the fat of the goose, the duck, and  the  turkey, has been
 already stated,  (see p. 88.)  Goose  grease, when spoiled  (by keeping?) has  produced
 symptoms of poisoning.IT
   4. Eggs.—Both the Avhite or glaire, and  the yolk of eggs, are employed as food.
   a. While or Glaire of Eggs.—This  is also termed the Albumen of  Eggs, or Ovalbumen.
 Its composition, according to Dr. Bostock, is as follows :—
                           COMPOSITION OF WHITE OF EGG.
                   Water..........800
                   Albumen.........15-5
                   Uncoagulable matter  [mucus].....4-5
                                                                 1000
   Couerbe  has extracted from the  white of egg a peculiar non-nitrogenous principle,
 which he  first called albuminin, but afterwards, oonin.


   * These livers were  highly esteemed by the Romans, who effected their enlargement by cramming
 the animals as in modern times.  Pliny (Hist. Nat. lib. x. cap. 27, ed. Valp.) tells us, that the honor of the
 discovery was contested for by Scipio Metellus and 31. Seius.
   t The ordinary method  of producing the disease at Strasburgh, I have before noticed, (p. 11.)   For
 further details, the reader is referred to Sonnini, (Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. art. Oie,) and to the article
 Food, in the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Brilannica.
   X Liebig (Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and Physiology, p.  133, 2d ed. 1842) observes, that
 " it is well known that charcoal powder produces such an excessive growth of the liver  of a goose as
 at length causes the death of the animal."  But there is no valid reason for supposing that charcoal has
 any thing to do with the effect  in question: indeed it does not appear that this substance is used at
 Strasburgh;  for Tiedemann, (Untersuchungen ii.  das Nahrungs-Bedurfniss, den Nahrungs-Trieb und die
 Nahrungs-Mittel des Menschen, p.  127, 1836,) after describing the mode adopted in that city, adds, " In
 other places charcoal powder is mixed with the drink."
   § Cruveilhier, Diet, de Med. et de Chir., prat. t. viii. p. 326.—An analysis of a  fatty liver has been pub-
 lished by Vauquelin (quoted by Mr. W. J.  E. Wilson, in the Cyclopaedia of Anatomy, art. Liver,) " from
 which the quantity of oily matter present may be fairly estimated thus:—in 100 parts he found,
                             Oil......45
                             Parenchyma     .    .    .    .19
                             Water......36
                                                          100."
    II On the Nature and Treatment, of Stomach and Urinary Diseases, p. 244. 1840.
    I Christison, Treatise on Poisons, p. 593, 3d ed. 
EGGS.
129
  The composition  and dietetical uses of the white of egg have been previously stated,
(see pp. 89-93.)
  b. The  Yolk of Egg is a kind of yellow emulsion, consisting of oil suspended in water
by means of albumen, and enclosed  in a sac  called the  yolk bag.   Its composition, ac-
cording to Dr. Prout, is as follows :—

                          COMPOSITION OF YOLK OF  EGG.
                  Water     .            .        ....  53-78
                  Albumen.........17-47
                  Yellow oil  .   .        .        ....  28-75
                                                             10000

  According to Planche, the oil of yolk of eggs consists of stearine 10, oleine 90.  Liebig
states that cholesterine and iron may be detected in the yellow oil of the yolk.
  The albumen of the yolk is identical in its nature with that of the white.   Dr. Prout
ascertained  by combustion the relative proportions of the fixed constituents of the white
and yolk of three eggs.   Assuming the weight of each egg to be 1000 grs. the proportions
of the mineral substances were as follows:—

                         FIXED CONSTITUENTS OF EGGS.
Potash, soda, and their carbonates Lime, magnesia, and their carbonates	WHITE OF EGG.			YOLK OF EGG.		
	No. 1.	No. 2.	No. 3.	No. 1.	No. 2.	No. 3.
	0-29 0-45 0-94 2-92 0-30	0-15 0-46 0-93 2-93 0-25	0-18 0-48 0-87 2-72 0-32	0-21 3-56 0-39 0-50 0-68	006 3-50 0-28 0-27 0-61	019 400 0-44 0 51 0-67
	4-90	4-72	4-57	5-34	4-72	5-81
   Dr. Prout's observations on the supposed  production of lime during the incubation of
 the egg have been before noticed, (see p. 3, foot-note.)
   Fresh or newly laid eggs, when lightly cooked, as when poached or very slightly boiled,
 are nutritive, and moderately easy of digestion.  Dr. Pearson* has justly observed that,
 in general, the lightest as well as the simplest mode of preparing eggs for the table is to
 boil them only as long as is necessary to coagulate slightly the greater part of the white,
 without depriving the yolk of its fluidity.  Raw eggs are  said to be gently laxative, and
 were  formerly in repute  in cases of jaundice and obstructed liver.  When boiled hard,
 and especially when fried in butter, oil, or fat, they are less readily soluble in  the gastric
juice, and  are  commonly very difficult of digestion.  Cooked in this way they prove  in-
jurious to persons whose stomachs are delicate, giving rise to  various disorders  of the
 digestive organs.  These observations also apply to  omelettes, pancakes, fritters, and
 other dishes made with eggs and cooked by frying.   Yet there are " instances  of laboring
 people, and persons who use violent exercise, with whom eggs, hardened by boiling or
frying, agree better  than in the soft or liquid state," (Pearson.)   These, however, are
exceptions  to the general rule.
  The following are the mean times  of the digestion of eggs, as observed by Dr. Beau-
mont :—
* A Practical Synopsis of the Materia Alimentaria  1808. 
130                         COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
DIGESTIBILITY OF EGGS.
ARTICLES OF DIET.	MEAN TIME OF CHYMIFICATION.			
	IN STOMACH.		IN PHIALS.	
	Preparation.	H. M.	Preparation.	H. M.
Eggs, whipped " fresh . 11 11 u u n n n n	Raw Raw Roasted Soft boiled Hard boiled Fried	1 30 2 0 2 15 3 0 3 30 3 3J	Whipped Raw Soft boiled Hard boiled	4 0 4 15 6 30 8 0
  The raw yolk of egg is often taken whipped up in tea, as an agreeable  and easily di-
gestible aliment.  Mixed with sugar, brandy, and a little cinnamon, it forms an  exceed-
ingly valuable restorative and stimulant, (see Brandy Mixture, p. 78.)  Wine is sometimes
substituted for brandy.  Flip is prepared with hot ale, eggs, nutmeg or ginger, and some
ardent spirit, (rum or brandy.)

                         CLASS III. REPTILIA.—REPTILES.
  The number  of reptiles employed by man as food is small; indeed, the Green or Edible
Turtle is the only one used in this country.  The flesh of some of them, however, forms
a dehcious  and wholesome  aliment.   When  cooked, it  resembles somewhat  that  of
chicken or veal, is pale, aqueous, soft, rich in  gelatine, poor in  fibrine, and contains little
or no osmazome.  It is easily  digestible and  nutritive, and, by decoction, yields  highly
restorative broths, which have been much valued in consumptive  and other  maladies.
The eggs of several are eaten as agreeable and nutritive articles of food.
  The Green or Edible Turtle, above referred to, is greatly  prized by the epicure.   In the
markets of Jamaica  it  is bought and  sold like  beef.*  To the  tropical  navigator it is
highly important as  forming a valuable article of food.  The  female with egg  is most
esteemed.  In this country the  principal use of the turtle  is for the preparation of soup.
An  imitation (called mock-turtle) is prepared with the integuments (scalp) of the calf's
head.  The large  shield of  the turtle's back  (dorsal  shield) is called by naturalists the
Carapace, by cooks the Callipash, (Callapash or Calipash;)  while the shield of the belly,
(ventral or sternal shield) is denominated by naturalists the Plastron, by cooks the Callipee,
(Calipee or Callepee.)  When  these two shields  have been removed from  the  animal,
preparatory to dressing, they are scalded, to enable the cook to separate  the scalesf or
shell.   They are then boiled  until the bones can be separated, the liquor being kept as a
kind of stock.   The softer parts of the shields (thus deprived of their bones) as well as
portions of the fins, are,  when cold, cut into square or oblong pieces, which constitute the
favorite glutinous  or  gelatinous morsels in turtle soup; and which by turtle-eaters are
often erroneously supposed to be green fat  They considerably resemble the pieces of the
scalp of the calf contained in mock-turtle.   The pieces from the  callipash are dark colored
externally, and  are sometimes called black or green meat: while those from the callipee
are  white externally.  " The callepee, or under part of the breast or belly, baked," says
Sir  Hans Sloane,t " is reckoned the best  piece."  The flesh of the turtle is sometimes
* Dr. P. Browne's History of Jamaica, p. 465.
t The scales of thellorsal shield are used for veneering ladies' work boxes, and for other purposes.
X Jamaica, vol. i. 
FISH.                                   131
 dressed at taverns, in London, as a steak ; but it is more commonly used in the prepara-
 tion of soup.   By boiling it becomes white, like veal or chicken.  Besides contributing to
 flavor the stock, it is cut in small pieces  and put into the soup.  The viscera of the turtle
 are not used, in London, as food.  But Sir Hans Sloane says that " the livers are counted
 delicacies.  Those who feed much on  them," he adds, "sweat out a yellow serum, es-
 pecially under the armpits."  The fatty tissue (green fat) of the turtle is of a greenish
 yellow  color, and on  this account the  animal has been termed the green turtle.   The lard
 or fat, when melted out of the tissue in  which it is naturally contained, is of a warm yel-
 low color, and resembles, both in appearance and taste, marrow.  It communicates a yel-
 low tinge to the sweat of those who feed on it; "whence," says Sir Hans Sloane, "their
 shirts are yellow, their skin and face of the same color, and their shirts under their arm-
 pits stained prodigiously.  This, I believe," he adds, " may be one  of the reasons of the
 complexion of our European inhabitants, which is changed, in  some  time, from white to
 that of a yellowish color, and which proceeds from this, as  well as the jaundies, which is
 common, sea air, &c.  The fat is used in the preparation of the soup ; but many of the
 turtles  used in soup,  in London,  contain very little fat.  The  green fat is said to commu-
 nicate a green color to the urine.  Turtle is highly nutritious, and, probably, when plainly
 cooked, is easy of digestion; but when taken  in the form of the highly esteemed " turtle
 soup,"  is very apt to disagree with dyspeptics.  " Turtle," says Dr. P. Browne,* " is deli-
 cate,  tender food, while young; but,  as it grows old, it grows more  tough  and gristly,
 and is not so agreeable to the  stomach in those warm countries,  [Jamaica;] the juices,
 however, are generally reckoned great restoratives."!
                             CLASS IV. PISCES.—FISHES
   This class of animals yields an  almost endless variety of food for man.  It furnishes a
 much greater number of edible genera and  species  than any other  class.   From it, some
 nations derive their chief sustenance.  The inhabitants of the most  northern parts of Eu-
 rope, Asia,  and America, where but  few alimentary plants are found, are compelled to
 live almost  exclusively on fish.
   In  ancient times, fish formed  the chief or sole nutriment of certain people, who were
 in consequence called Ichthyophagi, (from ixtos, a fish, and  <pdyu>, I eat.)  Herodotusf says
 that there were three tribes of Babylonians whose food was fish. They prepared it thus :
 having dried it in the sun, they  beat it very small in a mortar, and  afterwards  sifted it
 through a piece of fine cloth ; they then  formed  it into cakes, or baked it as bread.  The
 same mode of preparing fish  is practised at this day, among the Esquimaux, and north-
 ern Indians of the American continent.   In another place, Herodotus^  states  that with a
 considerable part of the Egyptians, fish constituted the principal article of food ; they  dried
 it in the sun, and ate  it without any other preparation.
   Some of  the smaller and  more  delicate fishes are  eaten whole, as the White Bait||

  * The Civil  and Natural History of Jamaica.
  t Appendix, 1.                 X Clio, cc.                  § Euterpe, xcii.
  II White Bait, formerly supposed to be the  fry of some other fish, as the Shad, but now universally ad-
mitted to be a distinct species, (Clupea  alba,)  is  found in immense shoals, during the summer season, in
the Thames, in the neighborhood of Blackwall and Greenwich, to which places the London admirers of
this delicacy repair to enjoy their  favorite dish ; the fish-dinners of these places being proverbially ex-
cellent.  Having had an  opportunity of seeing the mode of cooking this fish, as practised at Lovegrove's
at Blackwall,  the following notice of the  process may not, perhaps, be uninteresting :—
  I was informed that the fish should  be cooked within an hour after being caught, or they are apt to
cling together. Those which I saw cooked were contained in water in a pan, from which they were from
lime to time removed, as required, by a  skimmer.  They were then thrown on a stratum of flour contained 
132                          COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
Some are eaten whole, with  the exception of the head.  The skin, the flesh,  and  the
viscera only, of others, are eaten.
  1. Integument.—The  corium or true skin  of fishes, as of many  higher  animals,  is a
gelatinous tissue,  (see p. 100;) but varies considerably  in thickness in different species.
On account of their gelatinous nature, the skins of some fishes are used as food, and em-
ployed for various purposes in the arts.  Thus,  by boiling, the  skin of the Turbot and
Ling becomes pulpy and gelatinous, and forms a rich and favorite nutriment;  and vari-
ous parts about the jowl of the Cod are much esteemed by epicures, on account of their
gelatinous quality.  Sole skins, when clean, sweet, and well prepared, are used as a sub-
stitute for isinglass in fining, (see pp. 103, 105.)  Dr. Fleming says that the skin of the
Cod is employed for the same purpose.   Eel skins are used in the preparation of size.
  2. Flesh.—The great bulk of the soft parts of fishes consists of voluntary muscles form-
ing the flesh, which are  disposed upon the sides of the spinal column,—in four series on
either side.   They are soft, pellucid, and but little permeated with blood.
  The composition of the flesh of the Cod, Haddock, Sole, Carp,  and Trout, has already
been stated, (see p. 111.)   It will be seen, by reference to the analyses of Brande  and
Schlossberger, that fish-flesh contains more water than the flesh of  either quadrupeds or
birds.
  In many  fishes  the flesh is mixed with, or covered by, oily or  fatty  matter,  as  in  the
Salmon,  the Herring, the Pilchard,  the  Sprat, and  the  Eel.  This  is more abundant in
the thinner  or  abdominal parts than in the thicker or  dorsal portions.   Hence  the thin-
nest part of salmon is preferred  by epicures.  After spawning, the  quantity of this oil is
greatly diminished.  But in the Cod,  the fish of the Ray kind,  and  some others,  the
liver is the only organ which contains  fat; the flesh being quite devoid of it.
  The flesh of the Smelt has been analyzed by Morin,* who found its composition to be
as follows:—
                  COMPOSITION  OF THE FLESH OF  THE  SMELT.
Yellow phosphoric oil.
Fibrine.
Albumen.
Gelatine.
Osmazome.
Mucus.
Salts—viz. sal ammoniac, phos-
    phates   of  potash,  lime,
    iron, and magnesia; chlo-
    ride of  potassium, carbo-
    nate of  lime, and lactate
    of soda.
Water.
  In the Cod  and many other fishes, the muscles are arranged in more or less wedge-
shaped  masses, called flakes, which, after cooking, readily  separate from  each other,
owing partly to the contraction of the muscular fibre,  and partly to the solution of the in-
terposed ligamentous or tendinous matter.   The white  curdy matter observed between
the flakes of boiled fresh fish is a film of albumen  produced by the coagulation  of the
serous juices intervening between the muscular layers.
  In the flat or eel-shaped  fishes, the  flesh has rather a fibrous than a flaky arrange-
ment.
  The flesh of the Whiting, the Cod,  the Haddock, the Sole, the Plaice, the Flounder,

in a large napkin, in which they were shaken until completely enveloped with flour. In this state they
were placed in a cullender, and all the superfluous flour removed by sifting.  They were now thrown
into hot melted lard, contained in a copper caldron or stew-vessel placed over a charcoal fire.   A kind
of ebullition immediately commenced, and in about two minutes  they were removed by a tin skimmer
thrown into a cullender to drain, and served  up by placing them on a  fish-drainer in a dish.  At table
they are flavored with cayenne and lemon juice, and eaten with  brown-bread and butter ;__iced punch
being the favorite accompanying beverage.
  * Journal de Pharmacie, t. viii.  p. 61. 
FISH.                                  133
the Turbot, and many other species, is white :  hence they are  termed White-fish.   The
flesh of these fishes, when  in season, becomes  white and opaque by boiling; but, when
the animal is out of condition, it  remains semi-transparent and bluish after being suffi-
ciently cooked.
  The flesh of some species is colored : thus that of the Salmon is pale-red.  The higher
the color, the more highly the flesh of these fishes is esteemed.
  The flesh of the male fish, called the melter or sqft-roed, is  in general considered to be
superior to that of the female, called the hard-roed: at least this is certainly the case with
the Salmon and  the Herring.
  The flesh of fish  is in the greatest perfection for food at the period of the ripening of
the milt and the roe.  It is then said to  be in season.  At  this time, the flesh, especially
of the thinner or abdominal part, of many fishes, as of the Salmon and Herring, abounds
in oily matter, and  possesses, in the highest degree, flavor and richness.  But after the
fish has deposited its spawn, the  flesh becomes soft, flabby, and inferior in flavor, owing
to the disappearance of the oil or fat which has been  consumed in the function of repro-
duction.   " The superiority of deep-sea herrings over  those caught near the shore and in
bays, arises," says Dr. Fleming,* "from this circumstance.  The former are fat, while the
latter have either recently spawned, or are nearly ready for spawning, and consequently
lean."
  The digestibility of fish varies considerably in different species.  The oily fishes are
always more difficult of digestion ; and, in consequence, are unfit for the use of invalids.
Melted butter, lobster-sauce, shrimp-sauce, and  egg-sauce, are  very  indigestible additions
to fish : they are exceedingly obnoxious to the stomach, and should be excluded from the
table of the invalid, (see p. 84.)   The digestibility of fish is also injured by frying them,
 (see p. 83.)
   The following are the mean times of digestion of several kinds of fish, according to
 Dr. Beaumont's experiments :—
                              DIGESTIBILITY OF FISH.
ARTICLES OF DIET.	MEAN TIME OF CHYMIFICATION.			
	IN STOMACH.		IN PHIALS.	
	Preparation.	H. M.	Preparation.	H. M.
Trout, Salmon, fresh Codfish, cured dry Flounder, fresh . . Catfish, fresh . . . Salmon, salted . .	Boiled Fried Boiled Fried Fried Boiled	1 30 1 30 2 0 3 30 3 30 4 0	Boiled Boiled Boiled	3 30 5 0 7 45
  The Whiting, the Haddock, the Sole, the Plaice, the Flounder, the Cod, and the Tur-
bot, are devoid of oil or fat, (except in their livers ;) and, therefore, belong to the more
easily digestible fish. They are also less stimulating to the system.  On these accounts
they are preferred to other species for the use of invalids.   The  Whiting and the  Had-
dock are the most delicate and tender ; the Turbot and Cod the least so.  The Whiting,
sometimes called " the chicken of the sea," stands pre-eminent among  them  for its ten-
derness, delicacy, easy digestibility, and purity  of flavor.   The Haddock is very similar
* Philosophy of Zoology, vol. ii. p. 373. 
 134                             COMPOUND ALIMENTS.

to the whiting, but  has a firmer  texture, and is inferior in flavor and digestibility.  The
Cod,  when in good condition, yields an excellent  food, but  it is denser, less delicate, and
probably somewhat less easy of digestion, than either the whiting  or haddock.  Crimped
Cod is firmer, keeps longer, and has a better flavor, than that which is not crimped. The
Dogger-Bank Cod is more flaky than the Scotch Cod, which is stringy or woolly.*  Among
flat fish, the Sole is distinguished for its tenderness, delicacy, and  easy digestibility.  The
Flounderf and the Plaice, especially when small, are  tender and  delicate.   The  Turbot
for flavor is justly regarded as " the prince of flat fish," but is richer and less digestible than
the flat fish just mentioned.  The gelatinous  skin is especially unfit for delicate stomachs.
The  Brill, though  an  excellent  fish, is inferior in flavor to the turbot, for which, however,
it is sometimes substituted-!
   Salmon,  Eels, Herrings, Pilchards, and Sprats,§ abound in oil, and are, in consequence,
difficult of  digestion, very apt  to disturb the stomach, and exceedingly injurious to  the
dyspeptic.  Moreover, they prove stimulant to the general  system.  The thirst, and un-
easy feeling at the stomach, frequently experienced after the  use of the richer species of
fish, have led to the employment of spirit to this kind of food.   Hence the vulgar proverb
that " Brandy is Latin for Fish."
   The flesh of fish is less satisfying to the appetite than the flesh of either quadrupeds
or birds.   As it  contains a larger proportion of water, (see p. Ill,) it is obviously less
nourishing.||  A fish diet, therefore, is less substantial than either butcher's meat or poul-
try.   Medicinally,  we employ it, when  the  digestive powers are  unable to  assimilate
stronger kinds of aliments,  or when it is considered desirable to avoid the stimulus which
  * There are two well-marked  varieties of the  Cod, which are  known respectively as Dogger-Bank
and Scotch Cod.  The first has a sharp nose, elongated before the eye, and the body  of a very dark-
brown color : the second has a round blunt nose, short and wide before the eyes, and the body of a light
yellowish ash-green color.  (See Yarrell's British Fishes.)
  t Dr.  A. T. Thomson (Domestic Management of the  Sick-Room, p. 434) gives, under the head of
" Cookery for the Convalescent," the following directions for the preparation of Water-Souchy.  " Take
two small Thames flounders, boil them in a quart of water to one-third, long enough to reduce the fish
almost to a pulp.  Strain the  liquor through a sieve, and, having cut the fins off four oilier small floun-
ders, put them into the above-mentioned liquor, witli a sufficient quantity of salt, a few grains  of cayenne
pepper, and a small quantity of chopped parsley ; and boil just long enough to render the  fish proper to
be eaten. The fish and the sauce  should be eaten  together.  If  flounders are not in season, soles or
whitings, or small haddocks, may  be prepared in the same manner.   1 know few dishes which are so
much relished as this by convalescents from fever. I  have  heard invalids ask for it daily for ten or
more days.  In advanced convalescence, the yolk of one or two eggs may be beaten up with a little soft
water, and added to the strained liquor  before the fi;h is put into it."
  X Appendix, 2.
  § In the Standard of  Feb. 9, 1842, is a notice of an inquest held on the body of a person whose death
was caused by the use of sprats.
  II Haller (Elem.  Phys., xix.) found himself weakened  by a fish diet;  and he states that persons are
generally debilitated by Lent diet.  Pechlin (Observat. physico-medicat.  Hamburgi,  1691, p 513) also
states that a mechanic nourished merely by fish had less  muscular power than one  who lived on the
flesh of warm-blooded animals.  Dr. Cullen, (Mat. Med. vol. i. p.  390,) however, maintained that the nu-
tritive powers of fish are nearly, if not quite, equal to those of meat; and  in support of his  opinion  he
states that he has known " several instances of persons who felt  no weakness from  a Lent diet, when a
great deal of fish was taken ;"  and he further observes that there are "several instances of villages in-
habited  almost only by fishers, and who, therefore, live  very much upon this sort  of aliment  but in
whom no diminution of  health or vigor appears" His evidence, however, is  by  no means satisfactory
But to avoid the fallacies attendant on appeals to experience, I have relied, in the text, on the chemical
composition of fish, as an evidence of their inferior nutritive power. 
FISH.
135
butcher's  meat communicates  to  the  system.  " The jockeys who waste themselves at
Newmarket, in order to reduce their weight, are never allowed meat, when fish can be ob-
tained."*
  It is an ancient and popular notion that the frequent employment of fish is favorable to
the powers of generation ;  and that those who live principally on this kind  of food are
unusually prolific.-)-   These effects have been ascribed to  the oil contained in fishes, the
phosphorus of which  possesses aphrodisiac properties.  That the frequent use of those
fish which abound in phosphoric oil may have  an exciting  effect on persons previously
unaccustomed to this kind  of diet, I  am neither  prepared to admit nor to deny.  But
there is, I  think, sufficient evidence to  prove that the ichthyophagous  people  are not
more prolific than others.   " In Greenland,  and among the  Esquimaux," says Foster,!
" where the natives live chiefly upon fish, seals, and oily animal substances, the  women
seldom bear children oftener than three or four times:  five or six births  are reckoned a
very extraordinary  instance.   The Pesserais, whom we saw, had not above two or three
children belonging to each  family,  though their common food consisted of muscles, fish,
and seal flesh. The New  Zealanders  absolutely feed on fish, and yet no more than three
or four children were found in the most prolific families ; which seems strongly to indi-
cate that feeding on fish by no means  contributes to the increase of numbers in  a na-
tion."
  An ill effect ascribed to fish diet is the production or augmentation of skin  diseases, es-
pecially leprosy and elephantiasis.   This  notion is  a very  ancient one, and probably has
some foundation in fact.  It  is not improbable that it was, in  part at least, the origin  of
the prohibition from eating fish, under  which  the Egyptians  labored ;§ as well as of the
Mosaic law, that fish without fins and  scales must not be eaten.||
   Some species of fish, especially in tropical climates, possess poisonous properties, either
at all times or at  certain seasons ;  or to all persons or only to particular individuals. The
subject, however, is veiled  in  great obscurity.  Sometimes  the symptoms  are allied  to
those of cholera.  An eruption, (often  resembling nettle-rash,) and various nervous symp-
toms, (as trembling or convulsive  twitches of the limbs, paralysis, and stupor,) are occa-
sionally observed.  These  poisonous effects have been variously ascribed to the aliment
on  which the fish have fed,—to disease in the fish, to the putrefaction of the fish, and  to
the idiosyncrasy of  the patient: but none of these hypotheses are satisfactory.
   " For dietetical uses, fishes have frequently to undergo some sort of preparation, vary-
ing according to the situation, the  necessities, or the taste of the consumers.   When cir-
cumstances permit, they are in general used in  a fresh state ;  and in large cities, where
the supply must be brought from a distance, various expedients are resorted to, to pre-
vent the progress of putrefaction.  By far the best contrivance for this  purpose is the
well-boat, in which fish may be brought to the place of sale even in a living state.  Placing
the fish in boxes, and packing with ice, is another method, and has been extensively em-
ployed, particularly in the  supply of the capital with salmon.
   " In many maritime districts, where fish can be got in abundance, a species of refine-
ment in taste, or at least a departure  from the simplicity of nature, prevails, to  gratify

  * A Treatise on Diet, p. 210-211, 5th ed.  1837.
  t Montesquieu (QSuvres  Completes, t. 51-2, 1767) mentions, as instances in point,  the  Japanese and
Chinese.
  X Observations made during a Voyage Round the World, p. 315.   Lond. 1778.
  $ Herodotus, (Euterpe, xxxvii.)  Perhaps  the supposed aphrodisiac effect of fish may have been one
of the causes of the prohibition.
  II Leviticus, ch. xi. verse ix—xii. 
136                          COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
which, the fish are kept for some days, until they begin to putrefy.  When  used in this
state they are far from disagreeable, unless to the organs of smell.  Such fish are termed
by the Zetlanders blawn-fish.
  " Where fish  are to be procured only at certain seasons of the year, various methods
have been devised to preserve  them during the  periods of scarcity.  The simplest of
these  processes is to dry them in the sun.  They are then used either raw or boiled, and
and not unfrequently, in some of the poorer districts  of the north of Europe,  they  are
ground into powder, to be afterwards formed into bread.
  "But by far the most successful method of preserving fish, and the one in daily use, is
by means of salt.  For this purpose  they  are packed with salt  in barrels, as soon after
being  taken as possible.   In  this  manner  are herrings, pilchards, cod, and salmon pre-
served, as well as many other kinds of esculent fish.
  " The fish, in rrfany instances, after having been salted in vessels  constructed for the
purpose, are exposed to the air on a gravelly beach, or in a house, and dried. Cod, ling,
and tusk, so prepared, are termed in  Scotland,  salt-fish.  Salmon in  this state  is called
kipper; and haddocks are usually denominated by the name of the place where they have
been  cured.
  "After being steeped in salt, herrings are, in many places, hung up  in houses made for
the purpose, and dried with the smoke of wood.   In this state they  are sent to market,
under the name of red-herrings.
  "Although  salt is generally employed in the preservation of fish, whether intended to
be kept moist  or to be dried, vinegar in certain cases is added.  It is used, in this coun-
try at least, chiefly for the salmon  sent from the remote districts  to the London market.
It can only, however, be employed in the preservation  of those fish to which this acid is
served as a sauce."*
  By drying, salting, smoking, and pickling, the digestibility of fish is greatly impaired ;
though, in some cases, their savory, stimulating,  and even nutritive qualities, may be aug-
mented.   Dried, sailed, smoked,  and pickled fish,  therefore, are  totally unfit for dyspeptics
and invalids.  By drying, part of the water is got rid of, and thereby the relative propor-
tion of solid or nutritive matter is augmented :  but the fish is more difficult of digestion.
Salt-fish excites thirst and feverish symptoms.  Smoked-fish,  as smoked sprats,  some-
times prove injurious.   " Putrid pickled salmonf has  occasioned  death in  this  country;
and I may  mention," says Dr. Christison,! " mat I nave known most violent  diarrhoea
occasioned in  two instances by  a very small portion of the oily matter about the  fins of
Kipper or smoked salmon, so that I have no doubt a  moderate quantity would produce
very  serious effects."
   3.  Viscera.—Several  of the viscera of fishes are used as aliments; as the Liver, the
Swimming Bladder, the Roe or Ovary, and the Milt or Testicle.
   a.  The Liver.—The livers of fishes always abound in oil.   In the Cod, the  Whiting,
the flat fish, and some others, this  is the only  organ which  contains oil.   Though the
livers of some fishes, as  the Cod and Barbot, are much admired as articles of food, yet
they  are not adapted for invalids and dyspeptics, on account  of  their fatty nature.  The
oil obtained from the liver of the Cod (Cod oil) is celebrated in obstinate rheumatic, gouty,
   * Fleming's Philosophy of Zoology, vol. ii. p. 371-2.
   t "The three indispensable marks of the goodness of Pickled Salmon  are, 1st, The brightness of the
 scales, and their sticking fast to the skin; 2dly, The firmness of the flesh; and; 3dly, Its fine pale-
red rose color:—without these it is not fit to eat, and was stale  either before it was pickled, or has been
 kept too long after," (Dr. Kitchener,  Cook's Oracle.)
   X Treatise on  Poisons, p. 593.  3d ed. 
FISH.
137
and scrofulous maladies, as well as in chronic skin diseases.   Dr. Ure* has suggested the
adoption of cod livers as a diet for patients who are recommended to take the oil, which,
on account of its nauseous flavor, is very objectionable.  In  order to prevent the loss of
oil during the process of cooking,  "he recommends the livers to be immersed entire in
boiling water, to  which a sufficient quantity of salt  has been added, to  raise the boiling
point about 220* F.  The sudden application of this high temperature  coagulates the al-
bumen  of  the liver, and prevents the escape of the  oil.  When the liver is cut, the oil
exudes, and mashed potato may be used as a vehicle."
  The constituents of cod-liver oil are stated to be as  follows:—
                         COMPOSITION OF COD-LIVER OIL
       Fatty matter (oleic and margaric acids com-    Chlorides of calcium and sodium.
         bined with glycerine.)                     Sulphate of potash.
       Resin.                                   Iodide of copper.
       Gelatine.                                 Bromide of  potassium.
        Coloring matter.
  The two last ingredients were detected by Herberger; but Dr. Ure has recently statedf
that he could not detect iodine in  the cod-liver oil sold in London.
  b. The Swimming Bladder.—This organ  is a gelatinous  tissue,  and has already been
considered, (see pp. 103-106.)   It constitutes the well-known Isinglass  and Sound.
  c. The Roe or Ovary, commonly called the Hard Roe, of many fishes is eaten.  That
of the Carp, Pike, Perch, Salmon, Trout, and many other  fishes, furnishes  a  much es-
teemed and nourishing aliment.   The roe of the Barbel, and of some others, has at times
proved injurious; giving rise to nausea, vomiting, and purging.
   The roe has been analyzed by several chemists; that of the Pike by Vauquelin,! of the
Trout and Carp by Morin,§ and of the Barbel by Dulong d'Astafort||  Their results show
that the roes of different fishes have a similar  composition and bear a striking analogy
to the eggs of birds.
                       COMPOSITION OF THE ROE OF FISHES.
	Pike.		Trout.		Carp.		Barbel.	
	• +				+			
	. I	J			-	-		
Oil ...... Phosphorus......								
								
Sal-Arnmoniac .					(1			
			1	i	0		-	-
			^	r	+			
				-	0			
			-	-	+			
" of Magnesia	• -		1	i	0		(	)
			0		0		0	
		)	*		-r-		0	
	. 0				0		0	
	. 0		+		-4-		0	
An organic salt with base of potash .	.	3		3		)	-	h
  The purgative property, said to be possessed by the roe both of the Pike and the Bar-
bel, is ascribed to the oil, which possesses acrid properties.
  The substance called Caviare^ is the roe of several species of Acipenser, (Sturgeons,)
preserved by salting.  The best is that prepared on the shores of the Caspian.  The fol-
lowing is the composition of Caviare :—

  * Pharmaceutical Journal, vol. ii. p. 361.                          t  Ibid p. 459.
  t Journal de Pharmacie, t. iii. p. 385.                            § Ibid. t. ix. p. 203.
   II Ibid. t. xiii. p. 521.
  IT Several kinds of Caviare are met with in Russia.  The worst sort is the common pressed caviare,
(pajusnaja ikra.)  A better sort is that called grained caviare, (sernistaia ikra.)  The cleanest and best
                                        \                                       = 
138                         COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
                            COMPOSITION OF CAVIARE.
               Yellow odorous fatty oil.......4-3
               Soluble  albumen.........6-2
               Insoluble albumen........248
               Chloride of sodium and sulphate of soda   ....   6*7
               Gelatine, with some salts.......0-5
               Water...........57-5
                     Fresh unpressed Caviare     .                  1000
  Caviare is difficult of digestion, and apt to excite nausea.  Very little of it is used  in
England ; but  considerable quantities of  it are  exported from  Russia  to  Italy.  It  is
extensively employed in Russia and  other places on  fast-days;  and  is eaten raw with
toasted bread,  or with vinegar and oil, or with lemon juice.
  4. Milt or Testicle.—This is usually called the Soft Roe.   Messrs. Fourcroy and  Vau-
quelin analyzed the milt of the Carp ; and John, that of the Tench.  The milt of the Carp
consisted of 75 parts water and 25  parts of dry residuum.
                   COMPOSITION OF THE MILT OF  THE TENCH.
         White fat.                        Phosphates of ammonia, lime, magnesia,
         Osmazome.                          and potash or soda.
         Animal Jelly.                     Water.
         Insoluble albumen.
  It appears from Fourcroy and Vauquelin's experiments that phosphorus (not as  phos-
phoric acid) exists in the milt.
  The milt of the Cod is used as a garnish, and is eaten at the table; but, on account  of
its fatty constituent, is not adapted  for delicate stomachs.  That of the Herring is also
employed as food.   The latter (testes harengi) has been recommended by Ritter, Neumann,
Frank, Siemerling, and Hufeland, as a remedy for obstinate cough, hoarseness, and phthisis
laryngea.   It is to be taken in the morning fasting. Its efficacy (!) has been ascribed  to
the common salt which it contains.
                      CLASS V. CRUSTACEA.-CRUSTACEANS.
  Many of  the species of this class are esculent;  and some of them form highly esteem-
ed articles of food.  Those  in  use  in this  country are the Common Lobster, (Astacus
marinus,) the Thorny  Lobster, better known as the Common Sea Crawfish, (Palinurus
vulgaris,)  the  River Crawfish, (Astacus fiuviatilis,)  the Large Edible  or Black-clawed
Crab, (Cancer Pagurus,) the Common or Small Edible Crab, (Cancer Manas,) the Prawn,
(Palccmon serratus,) and the  Shrimp,  (Crangon vulgaris.)
  These Crustaceans have " a white firm  flesh, which contains much gelatine.  In the
membrane, which encloses the calcareous shell, is found  a  resinous substance, which,  in
the living animals, is of a brownish-green color, but becomes red by boiling.  From this
matter proceeds the peculiar odor and taste of these animals.  The flesh is difficult of diges-
tion ; the broth is stimulant. In febrile and inflammatory complaints, their use is injurious."*
  The coloring matter of the shells of the crustaceans, above referred to, has been termed
Cancrin.  Its  composition  is as follows :—
      COMPOSITION OF CANCRIN OR COLORING MATTER OF CRUSTACEANS.
           16 atoms of Carbon   .              96  or per cent   .    .    .   6808
           13 atoms of Hydrogen     .   .    13         ....     9-22
            4 atoms of Oxygen  .     .    .    32             ...   22-70
                1 atom of Cancrin    '.   \   141         '.    ~.    '.    \   100-00

sort bag-pressed caviare, (Meschechaja ikra.)  In some parts of Russia a reddish kind of caviare (Krasnaja
ikra) is prepared from the roes of the white salmon and pike.  (For further information consult Brandt
and Ratzeburg's Medicinische Zoologie • and Tooke's View of the Russian Empire, vol. iii., p. 467-469.)
  *  Tiedemann, Unlersuchungen uber Nahrungs-Bedurfniss, &c 
MOLLUSKS.                                 139
  Both the Crab and the Lobster excite, in some constitutions, Urticaria or nettle-rash, and
even colic.  Neither of them are easily digestible ; so that, though they form very agree-
ble and moderately nutritive articles of food, they are not appropriate substances for dys-
peptics or invalids.
  The parts of Crustaceans employed as food are the muscles and some of the viscera.
The branchire or gills are commonly known under the name of dead men's fingers.  The
muscles (fiesh) of the lobster and crab are principally confined to the parts moving the
tail and limbs.  Their alimentary properties are very similar to those of fishes.
  Both  lobsters and crabs are  apt to disagree with some persons; and to give rise to a
sensation  of heaviness at the epigastrium, nausea, depression, giddiness, and nettle-rash.
Cullen mentions violent colic as also having been produced in several instances.  These
effects appear to depend  on  some peculiar  susceptibility (idiosyncrasy) of particular per-
sons.  In some parts of the world poisonous crustaceans are found.
  The Lobster is  found in considerable abundance on the rocky coasts of various parts
of England and Scotland.  The males  are preferred, especially  in winter,  for eating:
they are distinguished by the narrowness  of  their tails, and by " their having a strong
spine upon the centre of each of the transverse processes beneath the tail, which support
the four middle plates of their tails."  The females (called hen-lobsters) are preferred for
making sauce  on account of the coral  (ovary) and  spawn, (ova  or eggs:) the former,
when boiled, is bright red, and is useful for garnishing ; the latter serves  to communicate
both color and flavor.   They are known by their broader tail and smaller claws.  The
muscles (fiesh or meat) of the lobster reside principally in the tail and claws: those of
the claws being more tender, delicate, and easily digestible.  It is a popular notion that a
part of the body of the lobster, called " the  old  lady  in her arm-chair,"  proves  injurious
when eaten.  This part is the bony teeth  of the stomach, and, being indigestible, should
not be eaten.  The bag, in  which " the  old lady "  is contained, is the stomach.  The
flavor of  the lobster is generally considered to  be superior in both purity and  delicacy to
that of the other crustaceans.  But, on  account of its difficult digestibility, as well as of
its  occasional ill effects, before referred to,  it does not  form  a  fit aliment for invalids
and dyspeptics.   "As  found  in  the  London market," says Dr.  Paris, lobsters  "are
generally  under  boiled,  with  a view to  their  better  keeping; and in that  case they are
highly indigestible."  The injurious effects of lobster sauce have been already alluded to,
(see p. 133.)
  The Sea Crawfish is frequently used as a substitute for the lobster, with which it agrees
in its general alimentry properties.  But  it is usually thought to be inferior in delicacy of
flavor and tenderness.
  Of the Crab the same remarks may be made.  The muscles or flesh (contained in the
claws) is much less apt to disturb  the stomach than the viscera (liver, testicles, ovaries,
&c.,) which constitute the soft contents of the shell.
  Prawns and Shrimps are almost universal favorites on account of their delicious flavor.
They are generally and correctly regarded as being easier of digestion than the preceding
crustaceans.*
                         CLASS VI. MOLLUSCA.—MULLUSKS.
  In England a few  species only of this class are used as  food.  Among the bivalves,
the principal are the Oyster, the Mussel, the Cockle, and the Scallop: among  univalves,
we  have  the Periwinkle, the Limpet, and the  Whelk.  To these,  as well  as to the
Crustaceans, (Lobsters, Crabs, &c.,) the term Shell Fish is usually applied.
* Appendix, 3. 
fe;
=^i
140
COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
  Some of the  edible mollusks are  principally and extensively used by the poor ;  but the
Oyster constitutes a favorite article  of food to all classes.
  Molluscous foods are not without danger ; since Mussels, and even Oysters, occasion-
ally give rise to deleterious effects.
  The Oyster holds the most distinguished  place among the foods of this class.   It was
greatly admired by the luxurious Romans, who highly esteemed  the Oysters of  Britain.
They are found on various parts of our coast, and are caught by dredging.  But, in order
to improve their flavor and size,  or, as it is termed, to fatten  them, they are not immedi-
ately consumed, but are laid  in beds in  creeks along shore, where they rapidly improve.
Colchester and other places  of Essex are the  nurseries or feeding grounds for the me-
tropolis.
  The flesh, and  the liquor or water, of the  oyster have been  analyzed by Pasquier.*
                          COMPOSITION OF THE  OYSTER.
Fibrine    "j
Albumen
Gelatine
Osmazome
Mucus
Water  .
Flesh.
12-6

87-4
          Liquor or Water.
Osmazome.
Albumen.
Chloride of sodium.
Sulphate of lime.
Sulphate of magnesia.
Chloride of magnesium.
Water.
                                     1000
            By incineration the organic matters
           yielded  1-84 of a white ash, contain-
           ing phosphate of lime and the same salts
           as the liquor contained.
  The oyster furnishes a  delicious and favorite article of food.  It is more digestible in
the raw state than when cooked, (by roasting,  scolloping, or stewing ;) for the  heat em-
ployed coagulates and hardens the albumen, and corrugates the fibrine, which are then
less easily soluble  in the gastric juice ;  and the heated butter, generally  used as an ac-
companiment, adds still more to the indigestibility of the oyster.  The following  are the
mean times of digestion of oysters, according to the experiments of Dr. Beaumont:—

                           DIGESTIBILITY OF OYSTERS.
ARTICLES OF DIET.	MEAN TIME OF CHYMIFICATION.			
	IN STOMACH.		IN PHIALS.	
	Preparation.	H. M.	Preparation.	H. M.
ii u	Raw Roasted Stewed	2 55 3 15 3 30	Raw, entire Stewed	7 30 8 25
  As far as my own personal observation  extends, the finest raw oysters of the London
market, usually called  natives, rarely disagree even with convalescents and dyspeptics;
and  Dr. Cullen declares oysters to  be easy of  digestion.  But the experience of some
other physicians is very different  to this.  In the raw state, says Dr. Pearson,! " they
agree very well with strong stomachs, but by no means so with persons who are subject
to indigestion; and dyspeptic and gouty persons, who have ventured to swallow them in
this state, have often been violently disordered by them.  Such persons, if they eat them

    * Merat and De Lens, Diet, de Mat. Med. t. v.; and Gmelin, Handb. d. Chemie, vol. ii. p. 1478.
    t A Practical Synopsis of the Materia Alimentaria and Materia Medica, p. 55. 1808. 
MOLLUSKS.
141
at all, should have them well stewed and seasoned with some aromatic.   But even in that
state they should  be eaten rather sparingly in the instances above mentioned."  Dr.
Paris*  also  observes, that  " when eaten  cold, they are  frequently distressing to weak
stomachs, and require the aid of pepper as a stimulant;  and since they are usually swal-
lowed without mastication, the stomach has an additional labor to perform, in order to
reduce them into chyme."   In reply to this last statement however,  it may be observed,
that Dr. Beaumont found that an entire raw oyster was chymified, in a phial, in 7£ hours,
—while masticated beefsteak required 84, hours.
   It cannot  be doubted that oysters  disagree with  some  constitutions;  and that occa-
sionally they have appeared to possess noxious  properties.   But  considering the enor-
mous consumption of these animals,  their supposed deleterious effects are exceedingly
rare.f   The late Dr.  Clarke! has related some  remarkable cases, in which convulsions,
followed in two cases by death, occurred  in women who had taken oysters soon  after
their delivery.   But we are  not authorized in adopting his conclusion, that fresh healthy
oysters are apt to occasion apoplexy and  convulsions  in puerperal women.  The fact
that the symptoms did not come on until the day after the oysters were  taken, is against
such an assumption.
   The green color, which certain parts of the oyster sometimes  assume, has been as-
cribed by some to marine Ulvse,  on which  the  animal has fed,—by others, to the absorp-
tion of a green-colored microscopical animalcule, (called Vibrio ostrearius.)   Very recently,
Valenciennes^  has shown that the green coloring matter is a  peculiar organic substance,
derived perhaps from a peculiar state of the bile of the animal.  The popular notion that
the color is produced by  coppery beds, on which the animal is supposed to have laid, is
totally unfounded.||
   It is a popular notion that the oyster possesses aphrodisiac properties, derived from the
phosphorus which it contains;  but  it has not  yet been shown that oysters contain more
phosphorus than the flesh of other animals.
   As 100 parts of the flesh of the oyster  contain only about  12-6  parts of solid matter,
while 100 parts of butchers' meat contain, on  an average, about 25 parts, it is  obvious
that oysters must be  less nutritive than butchers' meat.
   When eaten raw it  is  customary  to swallow the oyster  entire; but for stewing or
making sauce  they are deprived  of the beard, (the branchiaj or gills.)IT   The indigestible
nature  of oyster sauce has been  alluded to.

  * Treatise on Diet.
  t Some cases of supposed deleterious properties acquired by oysters are referred to by Dr. Christison,
(Treatise on Poisons,) as having occurred in the years 1816-19 at  Havre and Dunkirk.  But it is by no
means clear that the diseases which prevailed at  these places originated from the use of oysters.  MM.
Vauquelin and Chaussier, who were appointed to  inquire into these cases, denied that they were caused
by oysters, since many persons were attacked who had not eaten them.  (See Merat and De Lens Diet
de Mat. Med. vol. v. p. 123.)
  t Transactions of the London College of Physicians, vol. v. p. 109.
  § Comptes Rendus, t. xii. p. 345.  Fevrier, 1841.
  II " I am acquainted with a lady," says Dr. Paris, (Treatise on Diet, p. 8, 5th ed,) " who is constantly
made sick by eating a green oyster ; the cause of which may be traced to an erroneous impression she
received with respect to  the coloring matter being cupreous."
  T " We cannot walk the streets without noticing that, in the fish-shops, the oysters are laid with then-
flat sides uppermost; they would die were it otherwise.  The animal breathes and feeds by opening its
shell, and thereby receiving anew portion of water into the concavity of its under  shell; and if it did
not thus open its  shell, the water would neither be propelled through its  branchia, or  respiratory appara-
tus, nor sifted for its food. It is in this manner that they he in their native beds : were they on their flat 
142                           COMPOUND  ALIMENTS.
  Oysters have been employed as medicinal agents in phthisis, (in which  disease  they
have been vaunted as a specific,) in chronic affections of the digestive organs, in scrofula,
and several other complaints.  They are useful as nutrients in the stage of convalescence
of many disorders, but I am unacquainted with  any evidence of their curative powers
beyond this.
  The Mussel  is used  as food by the lower  classes principally.  Its  flesh  is  yellowish
and difficult of digestion.  Dr. Paris* states that  the common people,  in eating mussels,
take out a dark part, (the heart,) which is erroneously supposed to be poisonous.   Under
some circumstances mussels acquire  deleterious  qualities,  and occasionally prove fatal.
The symptoms which  they give rise  to, however, are  by no means  uniform.  At one
time they are those of irritation of the alimentary canal; but " much more commonly the
local effects have been trifling, and the prominent symptoms have been almost entirely
indirect,  and chiefly nervous.  Two affections of this kind have been noticed.   One is an
eruptive disease, resembling nettle-rash, and accompanied with violent asthma ;  the other,
a comatose or paralytic disorder of a very peculiar description."!   The presence of cop-
per, a putrid condition  of the mussels, idiosyncrasy on the part of  the sufferers, a mor-
bid condition of the mussels, and the poisonous quality of their food,  (medusae or starfish,)
have, at  different times, been supposed to be the source of the deleterious effects; but at
present the cause is involved in considerable obscurity.!
  Cockles, Scallops, Periwinkles, Limpets, and Whelks, are of inferior moment as aliments.
They are principally used by the  poorer inhabitants on the coast,  and are not adapted
for persons of  delicate  stomachs.   Snails are employed in some countries  as  food.  In
England the Great or Vineyard Snail (Helix pomatia) is  a popular remedy for emacia-
tion with hectic fever and phthisis, on account of its nourishing qualities.  Figuier§ says
its medicinal property resides in an oil, which he calls Helicine.\\
  Diseaseo and Decayed Animal Substances.—On several occasions (pp. 121,123,128,
and 135-141) I have incidentally  alluded to the deleterious qualities sometimes acquired
by certain animal foods.  It deserves,  however, to be  specially noticed, with  regard to
animal  foods  in general, that when  obtained  from  animals  affected with  disease at
the time of their death,  they are always  dangerous, and have  in some  cases proved
fatal.1T
  Moreover, Animal foods,  even if procured from perfectly  healthy individuals, some-
times suffer a  peculiar kind of decay or putrefaction,  by  which they acquire  poisonous
properties.  Thus, Sausages made of the flesh, viscera, or blood of animals,  and cured
by smoking, have sometimes acquired, by keeping, highly deleterious qualities, which in

surface, no food  could be gathered, as it were, in their cup ;  and if exposed by the retreating tide, the
opening of the shell would allow the water  to escape, and leave them dry—thus depriving them of res-
piration as well as food."  (Sir Charles Bell's notes to Paley's Natural  Theology, vol. ii  p. 220-1.)  The
same author also  observes, that  " in confirmation of these remarks, the  geologist, when he sees  those
shells in beds of diluvium, can determine whether the oysters were overwhelmed in their native beds, or
were rolled away and scattered  as shells merely."
  * Treatise on Diet.                      f Dr. Christison, Treatise on Poisons.
  X It is a very common thing, for persons to be poisoned in this city by eating mussels, produced from
our adjacent waters.  In one instance a whole family were made dangerously ill by them, with symptoms
of Cholera Morbus, of the most malignant kind, of which  the father of  the family died.—We could not
ascertain that the mussels were putrid, or affected by disease, though we have noticed that they are more
apt to produce deleterious effects in the hottest season of the year.—L.
  § Journal de Pharmacie, t. xxvi. p. 113.             || Appendix, 4.
  IT Tiedemann, Untersuchungen iiber dasNahrungs-Beddrfniss,&c. pp. 119-120; also, Lond. Med. Gazette
Oct. 21, 1842. 
VEGETABLE FOODS.
143
many cases, has been attended with fatal  results.   Buchner ascribes  the effects  to the
presence of a peculiar fatty acid, which has been termed botulinic acid, (Wursl-fell-saure.)
Bacon, probably other  kinds of cured meat, Ham-pie, Cheese, Milk, Goose-grease, (see p.
128,) Smoked Sprats, Pickled Salmon, Kipper or Smoked Salmon, see p. 136,) and the de-
cayed flesh of  quadrupeds (as  veal  and beef) have  also  at  times  produced effects
analogous to those caused by the sausages above alluded to.*
  The cause of the  poisonous quality of those animal foods is involved in complete ob-
scurity.  Liebigf has offered an ingenious but gratuitous hypothesis concerning  it.  The
sausages, he says, are in a peculiar state of putrefaction ; and in this condition " exercise
an action upon the organism, in consequence of the stomach, and other parts with  which
they come  in contact,  not having the power  to arrest their decomposition; and entering
the blood in some way or other,  while  still possessing their  whole  power, they impart
their peculiar action to the constituents of that fluid."!
  The  subject  of fish-poison^ has been already  noticed, (see pp. 135, 136, 139,  141, and
142.)

                            SECT. II.— VEGETABLE FOODS.
  The  aliments obtained from the Vegetable kingdom greatly exceed in number and va-
riety  those procured  from  Animals;  and it is not  very  easy to adopt a classification
which shall be at the same  time accurate and practical.
  * For further details consult Dr. Christison's Treatise on Poisons; Tiedemann, op. cit.; and Buchner's
Tokicologie.
  t Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and Physiology, pp. 368-369.  2d edit. 1842.
  1 Appendix, 5.
  $ In connection with the above subject, I subjoin the following table, taken from the Times newspaper
of April 14, 1842 :—
Annual Return of Fish seized at Billingsgate,
                 1st of January, 1841, to
(being unfit to be used as human food,) from the
the 1st of January, 1842.
Salmon			136	Salt-fish			86
Turbot .			185	Smelts			1,100
Cod .			. 1,295	Mullets			61
Haddocks			. 28,611	Hallibuts .			24
Scate			287	Trout .			224
Gurnets			. 5,700	Lings .			14
Mackerel			. 39,520	Dories			13
Soles			. 9,790	Dried Haddock			324
Maids			. 7,372	Roach and Dace			300
Plaice			. 50,085	Tench			82
Herrings Whitings			. 27,720 . 1,706	Pickled Herrings			2,800
Brills	222				5,028		
172,629					172,629		
				Total	. 177,657		
Sprats ... 36 bushels.				Oysters			
Pickled Salmon . 3 kits.				Shrimps	12 bushels.		
Eels . . . 1,232 lbs.				Lobsters	2,819		
Winkles . . 50 bushels.				Crabs .	2,332		
Whelks . . 38 bushels.				Crawfish	122		
Mussels			22 bushels.				
    Total number of Fish seized and condemned:__
|ntale........177,657
l?™**  c :.......     36 bushels.
Pickled Salmon......      3 kits.
Eels.......       ] 232 iD8.'
Shell-fish in tale    .   .       .           5774
Shell-fish......'   .*    '173 bushels. 
144                        COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
  The Natural-history method which I have elsewhere* adopted for the  Vegetable and
Animal Materia Medica,  and which I have followed to a certain extent in the present
work, in noticing animal aliments, does not appear to me to  be  sufficiently practical,  for
my present purpose, to be exclusively adopted.   Nor can we adopt a chemical classifica-
tion, since most of the substances which we have to notice owe  their dietetical properties
to more than one proximate principle, and oftentimes to several.
  On the whole, then, I believe the arrangement of Tiedemannf  to  be  the most appro-
priate  for my present purpose, and I shall therefore  adopt it.  It is-founded partly on
Natural History, partly on the Vegetable organs which are used as food.   The following
table presents a general view of the classes and orders :—
                   CLASSIFICATION OF VEGETABLE  ALIMENTS.
    I. Aliments derived from Flowering Plants.
      1. Seeds.                             I    5. Leaves, Leaf-stalks, and Flowers.
      2. Fleshy Fruits.                            6. Receptacles  and Bracts.
      3. Roots, Subterraneous Stems, and Tubers.      7. Stems.
      4. Buds and Young Shoots.               |
    II. Aliments derived from Flowerless Plants.
      1. Ferns.                                  3. Algae, or Sea-weeds.
      2. Lichens.                            |    4. Fungi, or Mushrooms.
             CLASS I. ALIMENTS DERIVED FROM FLOWERING PLANTS.
  The  Flowering  Plants are  also called by botanists  Phenogamous or Vascular plants.
They are Phanerogamia, the Cotyledoneaz, or Embryonatcc of some authors.

                           ORDER I.  SEMINA OR SEEDS.
  The seeds employed as food are of two kinds, farinaceous and  oleaginous.
  1. Mealy or Farinaceous Seeds.—This division includes the  alimentary seeds of the
Cerealia, Polygonacese, Chenopodiacese, LeguminosaB, and Cupuliferse.
  a.  Cereal Grains or Corn.—These are the seeds of certain grasses, which, on account
of their comparatively much larger  size, are preferred, for dietetical purposes, to other
grass seeds.  Those commonly employed are Wheat,  Oats, Barley, Rye, Rice, Maize  or
Indian Corn, Millet, and Sorghum, Durra or Guinea Corn.
   The fruit of the grasses is one-seeded, and is  called  a caryopsis.  Its endocarpium ad-
heres inseparably to the integuments of the seed.  The seed, exclusive of its coats, con-
sists of a farinaceous albumen, on the outer side  and at the base of which lies the embryo.
In a dietetical point of view the albumen is the most important  part of the  seed.
   The proximate constituents of the Cereal grains are  as follows :—

                         PROXIMATE PRINCIPLES OF CORN.
                             Starch.
                             Vegetable albumen.
                             Vegetable Fibrine. }
                             Glutine.         f    Raw or
                             Mucine.         C Ordinary Gluten.
                             Oily Matter.     )
                             Sugar.
                             Gum.
                             Earthy Phosphates.
                             Ligneous Matter, (bran, husk, <&c.)
                             Water

   * Elements of Materia Medica.
   t  Untersuchungen itber das  Nahrungs-Bedurfniss, den Nahrungs-Trieb und die Nahrungs-Mittel.  1836. 
WHEAT.
145
  A bitter principle  and resin have  been found in some kinds of corn.  The dietetical
properties, and the proportions, of the alimentary  principles  found in corn have been
already stated.
  The  ultimate composition  of several kinds of corn is, according to Boussingault,* as
follows:—

               ULTIMATE COMPOSITION OF CORN DRIED  AT 230" F.
Carbon...... Hydrogen ...... Oxygen ...... Nitrogen . .... Ashes ...... Total .	Wheat.	Rye.	Oats.
	46-1 58 43-4 2-3 2-4	462 5-6 44-2 1-7 2.3	50-7 64 36-7 2-2 40
	1000	1000	1000
  The Cereal grains and the farinaceous foods obtained therefrom, are, when sufficiently
and  plainly cooked, nutritive, and readily digestible.   Their nitrogenized constituents, or,
in the language of Liebig, their plastic elements of nutrition, are vegetable albumen, vege-
table fibrine, glutine, and mucine ;  while their non-nilrogenized constituents, or the elements
of respiration, are starch, (principally,) sugar, and gum.
  The following table, drawn up  from Dr. Beaumont's work, shows the mean time of
chymification of several kinds of foods, composed  wholly,  or partially, of the cereal
grains:—

                     DIGESTIBILITY  OF THE CEREAL GRAINS.
ARTICLES OF DIET.	MEAN TIME OF CHYMIFICATION.					
	IN STOMACH.			m PHIALS.		
	Preparation.	H.	M.	Preparation.	H.	M.
Rice ...» Barley Soup .... Barley..... Cake, Sponge . Custard ... Dumpling, Apple Cake, Corn .... Bread, Corn .... Bread, Wheat, fresh	Boiled Boiled Boiled Baked Baked Boiled Baked Baked Baked	1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 3	0 30 0 30 45 0 0 15 30	Broken Baked Masticated	6 6 4	15 30 30
  1. Wheat.—The grains of several species of Triticum are employed as food under the
name of wheat; viz., Triticum vulgare, turgidum, polonicum, Spelta, and  monococcum.  In
this country, the first species is that which is principally cultivated.   The flour obtained
from  Lammas Wheat (Tritieum vulgare, variety hybernum) has the following compo-
sition :—
* Memoires de T Academic Royale des Sciences de VInstitut de France, t. xviii. p. 345.  1842.
10 
146                         COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
COMPOSITION OF WHEATEN FLOUR.
	French Wheat.	Odessa	Odessa			Flour of	Ditto, of good qual-	Ditto
		Hard	Soft	Ditto.	Ditto.	Paris	ity used in public	inferior
		Wheat.	Wheat.			bakers.	establishments.	kind.
Starch . .	7149	56-5	62-00	70-81	72-00	72-8	712	6778
Gluten . .	1096	14-55	12-0fr	1210	7-30	10-2	103	9-02
Sugar . . . Gum . . .	4-72	8-48	7-56	4-90	5-42	4-2	4-8	4-80
	3-32	490	5-80	4-60	3-30	2-8	3-6	4-60
Bran . . .		2-30	1-20					2-00
Water . .	10-00	1200	10-00	8 00	1200	100	8-0	12-00
	10049	98-73	98-56	100-44	100-02	1000	979	100-20
  The quantity of gluten contained in wheat is subject to very considerable variation, as
will  be  obvious  by reference  to the table at p. 97.  " In general," says Sir H. Davy,*
" the wheat of warm climates abounds more in gluten and in insoluble  parts; and it is
of greater specific gravity, harder, and more difficult to grind.  The wheat  of the  South
of Europe, in consequence of the larger quantity of gluten it contains, is  peculiarly fitted
for making macaroni,  and other preparations of flour, in which a  glutinous quality is
considered as an excellence."—"In the  South  of Europe," the same  authority adds,
" hard or thin-skinned wheat is in higher estimation than soft or thick-skinned wheat;
the reason of which is  obvious, from the larger  quantity of gluten and nutritive matter it
contains."!
  I am  informed by Mr. Hards, miller, of Dartford, that the following  are  the products
obtained by grinding one quarter or eight bushels of wheat:—

        PRODUCE OF ONE  QUARTER  OF WHEAT WEIGHING 504 POUNDS.
        Flour.............392 lbs.
        Biscuit or fine middlings.........10
        Toppings or specks..........8
        Best pollard, Turkey pollard, or twenty-penny.....15
        Fine pollard      ............18
        Bran and coarse pollard     .    .    ....    .    .    .    50
        Loss, sustained  by evaporation, and waste in grinding, dressing, (tec.      11
                                                                     504 lbs.

  Owing  to  the larger quantity of gluten which  it contains,  (see p.  139,) wheat is
more nutritive than the other cereal  grains;  and its nutritive  equivalent, founded  on
the quantity of its nitrogen, is, therefore, less than these,  (see p. 27.)  It yields the finest,
whitest, lightest, and most digestible kind of bread;  the greater lightness  of which  de-
pends on the toughness of its dough, which, retaining the evolved carbonic acid, swells
up during fermentation, and thus acquires a vesicular  or cellular  character.  This light-
ness or  sponginess contributes to the digestibility of bread; since the gastric juice  more
easily permeates and acts on  it when it has  this loose texture.J
  Semolina, Soujee, and  Mannacroup, are granular preparations of wheat,  deprived  of
bran.  A manufacturer^  of these substances informs me that they are prepared from the
best  Kentish wheat.  They possess all the nutritive qualities of wheat, and are very
agreeable, light, nutritive articles of food, well fitted  for invalids and children.
  Macaroni, Vermicelli, and  Cagliari Paste, are prepared  from wheat.  They are  im-
ported from Genoa and Naples, and are  manufactured in London by Mr. Walter Levy,
who prepares them from a paste made  from  semolina.  Macaroni and  vermicelli have

              * Elements of Agricultural Chemistry, pp. 130-131.  4th ed.  1827
              t Ibid. pp. 138-9.                             t Appendix, 6.
              S Mr. Walter Levy, of No. 2, White's Row, Spitalfields, London. 
FERMENTED BREAD.                           147
their well-known forms given to them by forcing  the  tenacious paste through a number
of holes in a metallic plate.  Three varieties of macaroni are kept in the shops, the pipe,
the celery, and the ribbon macaroni.   The Cagliari paste is sold in the form of stars, rings,
fleurs de lis, Maltese crosses, &c.   The  nutritive qualities of all these  preparations are
identical with  those  of wheat; and when plainly cooked,  as by boiling, they are easily
digestible.   Boiled in beef-tea, they form a nutritious kind  of soup (Macaroni or Vermi-
celli Soup)  for invalids.   Or they  may  be made into puddings.  Dr. A. T. Thomson*
gives the following directions for the preparation  of Macaroni  or Vermicelli Pudding:—
" Take two ounces  of macaroni or  vermicelli, a pint of milk, and two fluid ounces (four
table-spoonfuls) of cinnamon water; simmer until  the macaroni or vermicelli is tender.
Next, beat up three yolks of eggs and the white of one egg, one ounce of sugar, one drop
of the oil of bitter almonds, and a glass of raisin wine, in half a pint of milk; and add the
mixture to the macaroni or vermicelli.  Bake in a slow oven."
   Some  of the powders sold under the name of  Farinaceous Foods for infantsf consist
wholly or partially of wheaten  flour, with which,  therefore, they agree in nutritive  qual-
ities.  Hards's Farinaceous Food is  prepared, as  Mr.  Hards  positively assures me, from
the finest wheat only.  Judging from its color, smell, and microscopic appearance, it must
have  been  submitted to some heating  process   (baking?)  by which its properties are
modified.  It is a deservedly esteemed aliment for infants.   Densham's Farinaceous Food
is a mixture of three parts wheat-flour and one part barley-meal.J  It is an excellent
preparation.
   Bread is the most  important article of food prepared from the flour or meal of wheat
It is of two kinds; fermented or leavened, and unfermented or unleavened.
   a. Fermented or Leavened  Wheat-Bread.—This  is the ordinary Loaf Bread.  Wheaten
flour, salt, water, and either  yeastj or leaven (old dough already in a state of fermenta-
tion) are the ingredients from which it is prepared.  Bakers generally employ, in addition,
potatoes and alum.   The yeast or leaven  causes the sugar of the flour to undergo the
vinous fermentation, by which carbonic acid gas  and  alcohol||  are formed.  It is not im-

  * The Domestic Management of the Sick-Room.
  ■f- Bright's Nutritious Farina is Potato-starch, (see Potatoes.)
  X Mr. Hooper, chemist, of Pall Mall, who prepares Densham's farinaceous food, has kindly furnished
me with the method of preparing it: Three parts of the best wheat-flour and one part of the best barley-
meal are intimately mixed, and  the mixture being placed in tins lined with paper, is submitted to a
heat of about 200° F. in a baker's oven, for three hours.   The time generally chosen is between ten
o'clock A. M. and two o'clock P. M., when the  oven has cooled considerably.  The mixture should
not be browned by the process, as it then acquires a pea-flavor. It acquires by heating an  improved
flavor.  In this state it keeps well, without becoming sour or musty, and makes excellent puddings.
  The barley used in preparing this food is intended to  prevent  the supposed  constipating  effects  of
the wheat.
  § Ale and table-beer yeast answer perfectly well.  An  artificial yeast, prepared by fermenting a wort
made of malt, is sometimes employed.  Lately, German  yeast  has been extensively used.  It is a
friable soft solid, which, when examined by the microscope, appears to consist wholly of yeast globules,
(Torula Cerevisia.)—[A good solid yeast may be made by boiling three ounces of hops in two gallons
of water down to a quart; strain it, and stir in a quart of rye-meal while boiling hot—cool it, and add
half a pint of good yeast;  after it has risen a few hours, thicken it with Indian meal stiff enough to roll
out into cakes, half an inch thick, upon a board; put them in the sun and air for a few days to dry—turn-
ing them frequently.  A piece of this cake two inches square, dissolved in warm water, and thickened
with a little flour, will make a large loaf of bread.   These cakes, if rightly made, and preserved in coarse
cotton bags, in a cool dry place, will keep a year, and are very convenient when fresh yeast is not to
be obtained.—L.]
  || The alcohol is dissipated by the heat of the oven.  A few years ago  a patent was taken out by Mr.
Hicks for collecting the alcohol during the baking process; and above £20,000 were expended in the 
148                            COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
  probable that the fermentation  is promoted  by the starch, a proportion of which  may,
i  perhaps, yield an additional quantity of sugar.  The carbonic  acid is prevented  from
!  escaping  by the tenacity of the dough,  which, becoming distended with  gas, swells up
  and acquires a vesicular texture, forming a kind of spongy mass.*  In this  way, therefore,
  are produced the vesicles or eyes which  give to ordinary loaf-bread its well-known  light-
  ness and elasticity.   In  well-baked bread these vesicles are stratified in layers which are
  perpendicular to the crust; forming thus what  bakers termed piled or flaky bread.   The
  tenacity of the dough, on  which the vesicular  structure of the  bread depends, is owing
  to the gluten.
     If the vinous fermentation  be not checked in due time by baking, the dough becomes
  sour, owing, probably, to the formation of both acetic and lactic acids.
     On  weighing bread, when taken from  the oven, it is found to be from 28  to 34 per cent.
  heavier than the flour used in  its preparation.  "In the formation of wheaten  bread,"
  says Sir H.  Davy,f " more than one-quarter of the elements of water combine with the
  flour;  more water is consolidated in the formation of bread from barley, and still more in
  that from oats;  but the gluten in wheat being in much larger quantity than in other grain,
  seems to form a combination  with the starch and  water,  which renders  wheaten bread
  more digestible  than other species of bread."
     The common  salt used in bread-making  serves principally to flavor;  but it also im-
  proves the color of,  and  gives stiffness to, the dough.
     Notwithstanding  that the law prohibits, under a penalty, the use of alum by bakers, it
  is very frequently employed under the name of " stuff."   It  augments the  whiteness and
  firmness of bread made from inferior kinds of flour, and, by the latter effect, renders the
  bread  less liable to crumble when  cut, while it enables the baker to  separate the loaves
  more readily after their  removal from the oven.  Whatever doubts may be entertained as
  to the ill effects of alum on the healthy stomach, none can exist as to its injurious influ-
  ence in cases of dyspepsia.   Bread which oontains alum is objectionable,  not merely on
  account of its containing  this salt, but because it is generally made  from  inferior flour,
  which, when mixed with yeast and water, and formed into dough, quickly passes through
  the stage of vinous  fermentation, and becomes acid.J
     Potatoes are very commonly used in bread-making.  They assist fermentation in the

  establishment of a manufactory for bread and spirit; but, as a commercial speculation, the scheme
  failed.   The bread prepared under the patent was baked in pans, and was generally considered to be
  less agreeable than the ordinary loaf-bread.—[Mr. Hicks, who is a very scientific man, and excellent
  surgeon, informed the Editor that his plan of collecting the spirit from bread, during the process of
  baking, succeeded perfectly;  but that the other London bakers circulated so many false reports re-
  specting his bread, that the people could not  be persuaded to purchase  it. One was, that Mr.  Hicks
  extracted all the spirit from his bread by a patent process; whereas, theirs contained the whole, and
  of course was far more nourishing and wholesome !  "This it was," said Mr.  H., " that blew off the
  cap of my still, and caused the whole concern  to explode."—L]
    * In  the ordinary mode of bread-making, the baker mixes together water, a little  flour, yeast, and
  potatoes, and sets the mixture aside for six or eight hours, to undergo  fermentation.   The fermented
  mixture is, "in the language of the bakehouse, the sponge; its formation and abandonment  to spon-
  taneous decomposition is termed setting the sponge; and  according  to the relation which the amount
  of water in the sponge bears to the whole quantity to be used in the dough, it is called quarter, half, or
  whole sponge."  (Dr. Colquhoun, Annals of Philosophy, N. S. vol. xii. p. 165.   1826.)
    t Elements of Agricultural Chemistry, 4th ed. p. 127.  1827.
     X Alum is used to some extent by bakers in this country, but not generally, we believe.  Mr. Allison
  states (On Culinary Poisons, p. 132)  that without the addition of alum, it does not appear possible to
   make white, light, and porous bread, such as is used in London, unless the flour be of the very best quabty.
   When bread contains  alum, it may be  detected as follows: mix the crumbs of stale bread in water, 
FERMENTED BREAD.                           149
manufacture of bread, and render the product lighter.   As they contain  less gluten, they
are, of course, less nutritive than wheat flour;  but in other respects their use is unobjec-
tionable, and the law  imposes no penalty on the baker for employing them.
  The following is Vogel's analysis of wheaten bread:—
COMPOSITION OF 100 PARTS OF WHEATEN BREAD, (MADE WITH WHEAT-FLOUR,
             DISTILLED WATER, AND YEAST, BUT WITHOUT SALT.)
                    Starch........53 5
                    Torrefied or gummy starch   ....    180
                    Sugar........3-6
                    Gluten combined with a little starch   .   .    2075
                                                             95 85
           Exclusive of carbonic acid, chloride of calcium, and chloride of magnesium.
  From this it appears that a portion of the starch is gummified (converted into dextrine)
by the process of panification.  Moreover, as the quantity of sugar in the  baked loaf is
nearly equal to that of the flour, it is probable that a certain portion of saccharine matter
is formed at  the expense of the  starch.  The gluten  does not appear to have suffered
much change in its amount; but  in some of its qualities (tenacity and elasticity) it has
undergone considerable alteration.  If a piece of bread be "placed  in a lukewarm decoc-
tion of malt, the starch  and  the substance called dextrine are seen to dissolve like sugar
in water, and, at last, nothing remains except the gluten, in the form of a spongy mass,
the minute pores of which can be seen only by a microscope."*
   Liebigf states that 100 parts of fresh bread contain, on an average, 3015 parts of car-
bon: and  though  this  statement is meant to apply to  rye-bread, (Schwartzbrod or black
bread,) it is probably equally applicable to wheaten bread.
   Notwithstanding that bread is denominated the staff of life, alone it does not appear to
be capable of supporting prolonged human  existence.  BoussingaultJ came to this con-
 clusion from observing the small quantity of nitrogen which it contains ; and the Reports
 of the Inspectors of Prisons, on the effects of a diet of bread and water favor  his notion.
   The fine bread prepared from flour only is the most nutritive  and digestible   Brown
 bread, made  from wheaten meal, which contains bran, is laxative, as I have already stated,
 (see  p. 68,) and is  used by persons troubled with habitual constipat.on, as well as by those







   t Animal Chemistry,?. 237.   _                      ^  ., M H  useful jn cases 0f habitual
   * Brown  or Dyspepsia bread, e«onJ« ' habits   It may be used in every family with advantage,
  costiveness, and for ^*^££°2L ofth 'bread sold as dyspepsia bread in our cities, is made
  but never to the exclusion of fine bread.  Jiu-             separated : it  is a popular notion that saw-

  dust is sometimes mixed with tne meai.
  by passing tbe flour through a common ^-^.               ^       ^ ^ ^ ^ rf
   Good bread may be made by Un; « q«*£ o              ^ ^ ^ a ^ ^^
  and half atea-cupof molass   , m   tb*JP      ^^ fa the middle of lhe meal Ull ,t is
  ash or sal  .eratus ; make  a bole u  the flour                       ^ ^^ moponnd

  £ lo" w-tked6 J I^IrTa «n *~ *» *~ *-. - - *» ^ » ^ "*
  a half.—L. 
150                         COMPOUND ALIMEx\TS.
with a much larger proportion of yeast than is employed for ordinary bread.   The  dif-
ferent kinds of fancy breads are less adapted for the use of invalids and of those who suf-
fer with a tender stomach, than the common loaf-bread.   Bread which has been submit-
ted to compression by the hydraulic press becomes dry and hard, and may be kept for an
almost indefinite period.  When used, this  compressed bread requires to be granulated like
semolina.*
  Very recently,  Bourchardatf has  suggested the  use of what he calls gluten bread, by
diabetic patients.  It is  bread made  of wheat dough deprived of the chief portion  of its
starch.  It is impossible to eat bread  made of gluten only, on account of its hardness and
toughness.  Hence  one fifth  of the normal quantity of starch is allowed to remain in;
and  in this form  the bread is tolerably  light, edible, and  moderately agreeable.J  But
though the substitution of this bread for ordinary loaf-bread is attended  with a  diminu-
tion of the quantity of sugar  contained in the urine, yet  the remedy is a  mere  palliative,
and has no curative tendency.  I have tried  it in one case only, and that for about ten
days, when the patient (a medical man) finding himself not improved by it, ceased its use.
In a  case related by Dr.  Budd,§ the general  symptoms of diabetes appeared to be  relieved
by its use.||
  Rusks and Tops and Bottoms belong to  the class of fermented breads.   Both  are  made
with wheat flour,  butter, sugar, milk,  and  a considerable  quantity  of yeast, to give them
lightness.   Notwithstanding that they are frequently employed as infants' food,  it is  ob-
vious that they are objectionable, on the double ground of containing butter and of being
fermented.
  0.  Unfermented  or  unleavened bread-—There are two  principal  kinds  of unfermented
bread, the one heavy and compact, the other light and elastic.
  Of the heavy and compact unfermented bread  we have an excellent example in the com-
mon  sea-biscuit, called ship-bread, which is  hard, compact, heavy,  and  difficult  either to
cut or chew.  That made at the Government Victualling Establishment  at Weevil, near
Portsmouth, is  composed of wheaten  meal (containing a certain portion of bran)  and
water only.  It must be very obvious that  this very cohesive, firm, and  compact bread,
must be slowly digested, as the gastric  juice cannot so speedily and  readily permeate  it
as the light and elastic kinds of bread.  It requires, therefore, a very perfect mastication
and insalivation.
  Notwithstanding this objection, biscuit sometimes agrees better with the dyspeptic than
fermented bread.  In such cases the  biscuits prepared by Mr. Dodson, on the patent un-
fermented principle, deserve a trial.  Biscuit powder  is frequently  used for infants' food,
and is, of course, free from the objection raised to the whole biscuit; the cobesiveness of
which has been overcome by grinding.  It is generally prepared for use by the aid  of hot
water, which likewise tends to obviate the foregoing objection.  It  is greatly superior to
rusks and to tops and bottoms.
  The  Captains'  biscuits sold in the shops are professedly unfermented, and made of
wheaten flour and water, with a small portion of butter.   Milk is sometimes used instead
of water.   It is reported that some biscuit-bakers employ a little yeast, to render  the pro-
duct somewhat less dense.   The meal biscuit is prepared with wheaten meal, which con-


  * See Laignel, Comptes Rendus, 1841, 1" Sem. p. 25.
  t Comptes Rendus, Nov. 1841, p. 942.
  X Gluten bread is prepared and sold by Mr. Bullock, chemist, of Conduit-street, London.
  § Lond. Medical Gazette, April 22, 1842.
  II See Appendix, 7. 
UNFERMENTED BREAD.                        151
tains a portion of bran.  The common buttered biscuit is rendered somewhat light  by a
little yeast; and contains, as its name indicates, butter.  Abernelhy's biscuits are variously
made  by different  bakers: yeast is generally used in their preparation.  They contain
caraway-seeds.   The small square York biscuit is prepared with  wheaten flour, butter,
milk, and sugar, but without yeast.  Of course those biscuits which contain butter* are
more objectionable  for dyspeptics than plain biscuits.
  Of the light and elastic (spongy) unfermented breads, there are several kinds.  They owe
their lightness to a  cellular  or  vesicular texture (similar to that of ordinary fermented
bread) produced by a gaseous or volatile body, not developed  by fermentation, but other-
wise set free in the  dough, and,  being  expanded  by  the heat of the oven, distends the
dough.  The Patent Unfermented Bread obtains its lightness from carbonic acid developed
within the dough by the action of hydrochloric (muriatic) acid, sometimes called  spirits
of salts, on the  sesquicarbonate of soda.   Gingerbread is also rendered light by carbonic
acid gas;  but the latter is obtained by the mutual action which takes place between car-
bonate of potash and treacle.f   I have tasted  some excellent Gingerbread and Ginger-
bread  Nuts made by Mr. Dodson, by the patent unfermented process, without either  alum
or potashes.  Several kinds of light biscuits owe their lightness to sesquicarbonate  of am-
monia (volatile or smelling salts) which is dissolved in the water used in the formation of
the dough.  In  the  oven, the heat converts the ammoniacal salt into vapor, which dis-
tends the dough.  When the whole salt has been nearly evaporated, the texture of the
dough has become  sufficiently stiff and dry to prevent the  mass shrinking to its  former
dimensions.  Biscuits  thus prepared are  porous, but have not the piled texture of ordi-
nary fermented  bread.  As  examples of unfermented  biscuits, in the manufacture of
Which sesquicarbonate  of ammonia is used, I may mention Cracknells, and the Victoria
and Clarence Biscuits.   Cracknells are prepared with wheaten flour, a small quantity of
sugar, a little milk, butter, eggs, and the sesquicarbonate of ammonia.   The  curl of the
oak-leaved cracknells is produced by the  latter salt.   The  Victoria Biscuit contains, be-
sides the smelling  salt, flour, eggs, sugar, milk, and butter.   The  Clarence Biscuit con-
tains some eggs, and a few caraway seeds.
  The Patent Unfermented Bread deserves a more extended notice.   Many years since it
was stated in the Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, (art. Baking,) that if,  in-
stead of the ordinary dose of common salt being mixed with the dough in the usual way,
we substitute carbonate of soda and muriatic acid in due proportion, and knead them as
rapidly as  possible with the dough, it will rise immediately, fully  as much, if not more,


  * The difficult  digestibility of butter, and its injurious effects  on dyspeptics, have been already al-
luded to, (see pp. 83-85.)
  t The ingredients used in the manufacture of gingerbread are flour, treacle, butter, common potashes,
and alum.  " After the butter is melted, and the potashes and alum are^dissolved in a little warm water,
these three ingredients, along with the treacle, are poured among the flour which is to form the basis of
the bread.   The whole is then thoroughly incorporated together, by mixture  and'kneading, into a stiff
dough." This dough, " however thoroughly kneaded, almost invariably requires to stand over for  the
space of from three or four to eight or ten days, before it arrives at that state which is  best adapted for
its rising to the fullest extent, and becoming duly gasified in the oven."  The alum is the least essential
ingredient;  "although it is useful in having a decided tendency to make the bread lighter and crisper,
and in accelerating the tardy period at which the dough is in the most advantageous  condition for being
baked." (Dr. Colquhoun, Annals of Philosophy, N. S. vol. xii. p. 271. 1826.)
  Treacle contains free glucic and melassic acids, which, by their action on the carbonate of potash, set
carbonic acid free.  It is not improbable that, during  the rising of the gingerbread dough, more glucic
acid may be formed by the action of the potashes on the saccharine matter. 
152                          COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
  than dough mixed with yeast, and, when baked, will constitute a very light and excellent
  bread.
     By the mutual action of the  muriatic acid and carbonate of soda we obtain common
  salt, (chloride of sodium,) water, and carbonic acid gas.  The  latter ingredient being set
  free distends the dough and gives it a vesicular character.   In  this way the bread is  ren-
  dered light without the destruction of any of the  nutritive  ingredients of the flour ;  and
  without the risk of the production of acetous fermentation, or of the decomposition of
  the gluten.   Dr. Colquhoun  tried this plan ;  and  though he used an unnecessarily large
  quantity of the carbonate and acid, the  bread Avhich  he obtained proved, as he says,
  "doughy and sad, possessed but  a few diminutive vesicles,  and was never  piled."   His
  failure arose, I suspect, from setting aside the dough for twenty minutes  before putting it
  in the oven ; whereas it cannot be too quickly heated.
     In 1836, Dr. Whiting* took out a patent for rendering bread, cakes, light  biscuits,  and
  such like farinaceous foods, cellular, light (spongy,) without the aid of fermentation.   His
  process  is essentially that just described.  The proportions of the ingredients which he
  directs to be used are as follows:—
             Wheaten Flour  ....   7 lbs.
             Carbonate of soda   .     .   . 350 grs. to 500 grs.
             Water.....21 pints.
             Muriatic acid   .   .     . from 420 to 560, or as much as  may be sufficient.
     Mr. Dodson, of 98 Blackman-street, Southwark, London, having purchased the patent
  of Dr. Whiting, prepares bread,  (white and brown,) biscuits, biscuit-powder, and cakes,
  according to the unfermented process.  The bread appears to  me to be made of excellent
  flour, and though it is scarcely so light as the ordinary loaf-bread, its flavor is very agree-
  able.   It resembles home-made  bread rather than bakers' bread, and keeps well  without
  becoming sour or mouldy.  I greatly prefer the brown to the white unfermented bread.
     A most delicious unfermented  bread, equal in lightness to any bread  prepared by the
  fermented process, was made, in  my presence, by the cook of  Mr. John  Savory, of New
  Bond-street, London, according to the following formula :f—
                       Flour, 1 lb.
                       Sesquicarbonate of soda, 40 grains.
                       Cold water, half a pint, or as much as may be sufficient.
                       Muriatic acid of the shops, 50 minims [drops.]
                       Powdered white sugar, a tea-spoonful.
     Intimately mix  the sesquicarbonate of  soda and  the sugar with the  flour, in a large
  basin, by means of a wooden spoon.  Then gradually add the  water, with which the  acid
  has been previously mixed, stirring constantly, so  as  to form an intimate mixture very
  speedily.  Divide into two loaves, and put into a quick oven  immediately.  If any soda
  should escape the action of the acid it causes a yellow  spot, which, however, is more un-
  sightly than detrimental.  The sugar can be omitted if thought desirable.
     The unfermented bread possesses several advantages,  besides those already speci-
   fied, over the  ordinary  fermented  bread.  In its manufacture both  time and  trouble
   are saved;  and all risk of vitiating  the bread  by the  use of inferior yeast, or  by
   carrying the fermentation too far, is  thereby avoided.   It is well adapted for the use of
   invalids and dyspeptics, with whom the ordinary fermented bread disagrees.  In  urinary
   maladies, likewise, it deserves a  trial.  In its porosity  and  lightness it is superior to  bis-
   cuits, (see p. 150,) since it is more speedily permeated, and more readily acted on, by the
   gastric juice.

     * Repertory of Patent Inventions, N. S. vol. vii. p. 267.   1837.
     + This formula differs somewhat from that published by Mr. Deane, (Pharmaceutical Journal, vol. i.
   p. 492,) for making what he terms " Pharmaceutical Bread."
IL-—.------------- 
UNFERMENTED BREAD.                          153
  Mouldy bread, (that is, bread covered with Mucor Mucedo, and  other allied fungi,) has
on several occasions proved injurious.*   Colic, headache,  great thirst, dry tongue, fre-
quent pulse, and stupor, have been induced by it.   Wheat  is liable to several disorders,f
produced by the attack of certain fungi and animals, and probably in these states is more
or less  deleterious  to  health, independent of losing,  partially  or  entirely,  its  nutritive
qualities.
   Cakes, of which the Plum-cake may be taken  as the type, may be regarded  as a rich
variety of bread;  though in common parlance  they are  considered  distinct  from this.
They are composed of wheaten flour, butter or lard, eggs, sugar, raisins, (the larger kind
as well as the small Corinthian raisin, popularly called the currant,) frequently almonds,
&c.   They form a  most indigestible kind of food, totally unfit for children, invalids, and
dyspeptics.  Their indigestible  quality is principally derived from the butter or lard which
they  contain, (see p. 84.)
   Mr. Dodson  prepares cakes, (plain, currant, sultana, or fig,) by the unfermented patent
process,  without butter.   They are, therefore, free from the objections  raised to ordinary
cakes.
   The action of heat on the butter or lard used in the manufacture of pastry, (baked paste,)
renders  this compound  highly injurious  to  the dyspeptic, who should, therefore,  most
carefully avoid its  use.   " All pastry is  an abomination," justly observes Dr. Paris-J   " I
verily believe," he  adds, "that one half, at least,  of the cases of indigestion which occur,
after dinner-parties, may be traced to this cause."  I have  already (p. 83-84) pointed out
the injurious influence of heat on oily and fatty substances, especially butter.
   The same authority correctly adds, that " the most digestible pudding is that  made with
bread,  or biscuit and boiled  flour:  batter pudding is not so  easily digested; and suet pud-
 ding is  to  be considered as the most mischievous to invalids in the whole  catalogue.
 Pancake is objectionable, on account of the process  of  frying  imparting a greasiness, to
 which the dyspeptic stomach is not often  reconciled."^

   * See Chevallier's paper in the Journ. de Chim. Med. t. vii. p. 122.   1831.  The  author refers to Bar-
 rurel's observations, and also quotes some cases published by WesterhofT in 1826.
   t The Rev. Professor Henslow, in his Report on the Diseases of Wheat, (published in the Journal of the
 Royal Agricultural Society  of England, vol. ii.,) states that he has examined wheat infested by  five
 species of parasitic fungi; by the  Ergot; by the little animalcule,  (Vibrio Trilici,) which produces the
 Earcockle, Purple?, or Peppercorn; and the fly called the Wheat Midge, (Cecidomyia Trilici.)  The five
 fungi referred to are :—
   1st. The Bunt, Smut-balls, or  Pepperbrand, (Uredo Caries, De Cand.; Uredo faelida, Bauer.)
   2d. The Smut or Dust Brand,  (Uredo Segetum.)
   3d!y and 4thly. The Rust, Red-rag, Red-robin, or Red-gum, (Uredo rubigo and Uredo linearis.)
   5thly. The Mildew, (Puccinia graminis.)
   Mr. Quekett and  others  have, I think, satisfactorily shown the Ergot to be a disease induced by the
 attack of a fungus, which Mr. Quekett has denominated the Ergolaetia abortifaciens. (See Trans, of the
 Linn. Society, vol. xviii.; also my Elements of Materia Medica, vol.  ii. p. 913, 2d ed.)
   |  Treatise on Diet, 5th ed
   $ Paste Puddings or Dumplings are  often brought on  our tables, but they are extremely indigestible,
 and should therefore never be eaten by invalids.  It is doubtful  whether there  is any way of boiling
 wheat dough so as to render it  fit for food ; it will always be crude and heavy, and impermeable to the
 gastric juice.  Our  best puddings are those made of rice, bread, sago, or Indian meal, baked.  Boiled
 Indian puddings are not very indigestible, and  are far preferable to those of wheat.  In preparing pud-
 dings,  the eggs should  be beat very light—the yolks and whites  apart; the flour should be dried and
 sifted; if currants are used, they must be carefully washed and dried, and dusted  with flour before being
 put into the batter; raisins must be stoned ; sugar dried and pounded ; spices finely ground; and all the
 ingredients  thoroughly mixed.  It is better to mix the pudding an hour or two before it is  to be baked
 or boiled.—L. 
154
COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
   The following is a formula for a boiled bread-pudding, adapted for the convalescent:*
" Grate half a pound of stale bread, pour over it a pint of hot milk, and leave the mixture
to soak for an hour in a covered basin ; then beat it  up with the  contents  of two eggs.
Put the whole into a covered basin, just large enough to hold it, which must be tied in a
cloth, and placed in boiling water for half an hour.  It may be eaten with salt  or with
sugar;  and, if wine be allowed, it may be flavored with sherry."
   Panada is prepared as follows:—Place some very thin slices of crumb bread in a sauce-
pan, and add rather more water than will  cover  them.  Boil until the bread becomes
pulpy, then strain off the superfluous water,  and beat up the bread  until it becomes of the
consistence  of gruel; then  add white sugar, and, when permitted,  a little  sherry wine.
This forms a very agreeable aliment for the  sick.
   2. Oats.—The Oat cultivated in England is  the Avena saliva or  Common  Oat.   When
the grains are deprived of their integuments they are  called groats or grits; and these,
when crushed, are denominated Embden groats,  and when ground  into flour, prepared
groats.  Oatmeal is prepared by grinding the kiln-dried seeds, deprived of their husk and
outer skin.  It is not so white as wheaten flour, and has a somewhat bitterish taste.
   The following is the  composition  of oats, according  to Vogel:—
                              COMPOSITION  OF OATS.
The Entire Seeds.
Meal
Husk
66
34
100
               Dried Oatmeal.
Starch  ....
Bitter matter and sugar
Gray albuminous matter
Fatty oil    ...
Gum   ....
Husk, mixture, and loss
 59-00
  825
  4-30
  200
  250
 23 95
100 00
But oatmeal yielded Dr. Christison the following results :—
                           COMPOSITION OF  OATMEAL.
                    Starch    .......
                    Saccharo-mucilaginous extract
                    Albumen.......
                    Oleo-resinous matter     ....
                    Lignin (bran)  ......
                    Moisture.......
72-8
 5-8
 3-2
 0-3
11-3
 6-6
1000
  Oats are generally considered somewhat less nutritive than wheat.   But from Boussin-
gault's ultimate analysis, already referred to, (see p. 145,) the quantity of nitrogen yielded by
them is nearly equal to that obtained from wheat; and, accordingly, the nutritive equivalent
for oats, according to this chemist, differs but little  from that of wheat, (see p. 28.)   Oat-
meal, says Dr. Cullen,t " is especially the food of the people of Scotland, and was formerly
that of the northern parts of England; counties which have always produced as healthy
and as vigorous a race of men as any  other in Europe."
  Oats are apt  to disagree with some dyspeptics; or, in popular language, they are liable
to become acescent on the stomach.
  Unfermented oat-bread,  in  those  unaccustomed to it, is apt to occasion dyspepsia, with
heartburn,  and  was formerly thought  to  have a tendency to  produce skin diseases, but
without just grounds.   Gruel is a mild, nutritious, and, in most cases, an easily digested
article of food,  in chronic diseases, and in the  convalescence from acute maladies.  In
some irritable conditions of the stomach it is occasionally retained when many other foods

              * See Dr. A. T. Thomson's Domestic Management of the Sick-Room.
             f Materia Medica, vol. i., p. 278. 
OATS.
155
are rejected.  Yet it is less demulcent than barley-water.  " Unless  gruel  be very thin,"
says Dr. A. T. Thomson, " it can scarcely be  regarded as a diluent;  and when thick, it
is too heating an aliment for patients laboring under febrile  symptoms."   On account of
the nitrogenous  principle  which it contains, it  is of course more nourishing than the
starchy preparations  (arrow-root, tapioca,  sago, &c.) frequently employed in  the  sick-
chamber.   It is prepared from either groats or oatmeal.  It  may be sweetened, acidulated
with a little lemon-juice, or aromatized with a very small portion of some spice.  Butter,
which is frequently added, is objectionable in dyspeptic and other cases  where the stom-
ach is tender.*
  Oatmeal Porridge or Stir-about is a moderately consistent  mixture, composed  of oat-
meal  and water, and prepared by boiling.  It  is sometimes  eaten with milk as  a  moder-
ately  nutritive diet.   When mixed  with the thin liquor of boiled meat, or the water in
which cabbage or kale has been boiled, it is called beef-brose or kale-brose.
  The husk and some  adhering starch separated from oats in  the manufacture  of oat-
meal  are sold in Scotland "under the inconsistent name of Seeds."f  These, "if  infused
in hot water, and allowed to become  sourish in  this state, yield, on expression, a muci-
laginous liquid, which, on being sufficiently concentrated, forms a firm jelly, known by the
name of Sowins."  Dr. A. T. ThomsonJ gives the following directions for the preparation
of " Flummery or Sowans.-"—
  " Take a quart or any quantity of groats, or of oatmeal;  rub the groats or the meal for
a considerable time with two quarts of hot water, and leave the mixture for several days
at rest, until it becomes sour; then add another quart of hot water, and strain through a
hair sieve.  Leave the strained fluid at  rest until it deposits a white sediment, which is
the starch of the oats; lastly, pour off the supernatant water, and wash the sediment with
cold water.  The washed sediment may be either boiled  with fresh  water, stirring the
whole time it is  boiling, until it forms a mucilage or jelly,  or it may be  dried, and after-
wards prepared  in the same manner as  arrow-root  mucilage.^  Flummery is light,  mod-
erately nutritious, and very digestible; it  is, consequently, well adapted  for  early conva-
lescence.   It may be eaten with milk or wine, or lemon-juice and sugar."
  "A diet of oats," says Dr. Christison, "has the credit of tending to keep the  bowels
open; and I have seen it apparently have this effect in several instances of habitual con-
stipation,  when taken at breakfast in the form of porridge.   In cases of dyspepsia, associ-
ated with  acidity of stomach, it is on  the  contrary in  general a noxious article of food ;
and some dyspeptics  among the working classes  recover entirely on abandoning it for a
time.   A curious, though now rare,  consequence  of its long habitual use  as food, is the
formation of intestinal concretions composed of phosphate  of lime, agglutinating  animal
matter,  and the  small, stiff, silky-like bristles which may be  seen at one end  of  the  inner
integument of the oat-seed.  This affection must have been common in Scotland during
the last century, as Dr. Monro  Secundus collected forty-one specimens, still in the ana-
tomical museum of this University.  But it is now far  less frequent, probably in conse-

  *  Oatmeal gruel is not much used in this country, Indian being substituted in its place. Water gruel
is prepared by first mixing well two table-spoonfuls  of oatmeal with six of cold water in a basin, and
then adding this gradually to a quart of boiling water, constantly stirring until it is sufficiently boiled,
which will be in about ten minutes.  It is then to be strained, and, if it is desirable to have it clear, it
may be decanted when cold.  Sugar, acids, or aromatics may be employed for flavoring.  When it ia
desired to have it more nutritive, a pint of boiling milk may be added to a pint of water in which the
oatmeal has been previously well mixed, then proceed as before —L.
 t Dr. Christison, Dispensatory.                     X Domestic Management of the Sick-Room.
 § " Flummery should not be made in a metallic vessel." 
156
COMPOUND  ALIMENTS.
quence of the oats being more thoroughly cleared of their investing membranes before
being ground into meal.   I have had occasion to examine one specimen only, which was
removed from the rectum by Mr. Liston in a case of recto-vesical fistula."*
  3. Barley.—Several species  of Barley are cultivated in England, viz. Hordeum dis-
tichon, the Common Long-eared  Barley ; Hordeum vulgare, the Spring Barley; Hordeum
hexastichon, Winter  Barley ; and Hordeum  Zeocitron, Sprat or  Battledore Barley.   The
grains, when  deprived of their husk  by a mill,  form Scotch, hulled, or pot barley.   When
all  the  integuments of the  grains are removed, and the seeds are rounded and polished,
they constitute pearl barley.   The farina  obtained by grinding  pearl  barley to powder is
called patent barley.
  The following is the composition of barley according to Einhof:—

                             COMPOSITION OF BARLEY.
                                                         Barley-meal.
	6718
Fibrous matter (gluten, starch,) and lignin) . . J	7-29
	
	462
	5-21
Gluten.....	352
	115
Phosphate of lime with albumen .	0-24
	9-37
	1-42
	10000
  The husk of barley is slightly acrid.   Deprived of this, as in Scotch  and pearl barley,
the seeds are highly nutritious.  They are considered to be more laxative than  the  other
cereal  grains.  The  quantity of gluten which they yield, is, however, considerably less
than  that  obtained from wheat, (see p. 97,) and as they contain less nitrogen, their nutri-
tive equivalent is less than that of wheat, (see p. 27.)   Count Rumford,f however, regarded
barley-meal, when  used  for  soup, as three  or four times as nutritious as wheaten  flour.
It is a constituent of  Densham's farinaceous food, (see  p. 147,) being used, on account of
its  laxative operation, to counteract the supposed  constipating effect of wheat.  Barley
bread is somewhat more difficult of digestion  than wheaten bread.  Barley water is a light,
mild, emollient demulcent liquid, which is slightly  nutritive, and very easy of digestion.
It forms an excellent  diluent beverage in febrile and inflammatory  cases, especially mala-
dies of the chest, bowels, and urinary  organs.   It is prepared  as follows :—Take two
ounces  and a half of pearl  barley ; first wash away,  with water, the foreign matters ad-
hering  to  the seeds  ; then add half a  pint of water, and boil for a little while.  This
liquid being then thrown away, pour on them four pints (imperial)  of boiling water  ; boil

 *  It has been computed that there are 623,000 persons, consumers of oats in England and Wales.
The export  of oats from Ireland, chiefly for the  English market, was, in 1825,12,025,632 bushels, and
in the state of meal, 1,636,936 bushels.   In France about 90,000,000 of bushels are produced annually,
of which 25,000,000 of bushels are used by the inhabitants for  food, chiefly in the southern  part  of the
kingdom.  Oats yield, on an average, eight pounds  of meal  for fourteen pounds of the grain.   Oats
have been used to some extent for the purpose of making malt, and oat ale is commended by Mr
Mowbray as a pleasant summer drink.  In former days, a drink called mum was manufactured for sale,
in the preparation of which oatmeal was employed.  English Geneva, or gin, is made of spirit obtained
from oats and barley or malt, rectified or distilled, with the addition of juniper berries, oil of turpen-
tine, &c. One hundred pounds  of oatmeal will yield by distillation thirty-six pounds of spirits.
  One hundred millions of bushels of oats were grown in the United States in 1810, of which New
York produced upwards of twenty millions, and Pennsylvania the same quantity.—L.
  t Essay on Feeding the Poor.
           i ne lupe oeeas.
Meal......7005
Husk  .....    18-75
Moisture.....11-20
10000 
RYE.
157
down to two pints, and strain.   It is frequently flavored with sugar, and sometimes with
slices of lemon-peel.   Compound barley water is prepared  by boiling together two  pints
of barley water, a pint of water, two ounces and a half of sliced figs, half an ounce of liquor-
ice root, sliced and bruised, and two ounces and a half of raisins.  They  are boiled down
to two pints, and strained.   This decoction is emollient, demulcent, and  slightly aperient.
   Mall.—This is barley which has been made to germinate by moisture and warmth, and
afterwards dried, by which the  vitality of the seed is destroyed.  By this process a  pecu-
liar nitrogenous principle, called diastase, is produced.   This, though it does not constitute
more than l-500th part of the malt, serves to effect the conversion  of the starch of the
seed into dextrine and grape sugar, preliminary to the operation of brewing.   The  color
of the malt varies according to the  heat employed in drying it: pale or amber malt yields
a  fermentable infusion : brown or blown malt is not fermentable, but is used to communi-
cate  flavor ; while  roasted  or  high-dried malt, which has  been scorched, is employed for
coloring.  The infusion or decoction of malt, (called sweet-wort,) contains saccharine mat-
ter, starch, glutinous matter, and mucilage.  It is nutritious and  laxative, and has been
used as an antiscorbutic and tonic.   Macbride recommended it in scurvy, but it is apt  to
increase the diarrhoea.  As a  tonic, it has been used in scrofulous affections, purulent
discharges, as from the kidneys, lungs, &c, and  in  pulmonary consumption.   The de-
coction  is  prepared by boiling three ounces of malt in a quart of water. This quantity
may be taken daily.
   4.  Rye.—The cultivated or common rye is the Secale cereale of botanists.  Though in com-
mon use among the northern inhabitants of Europe, it is rarely employed as food in England.
                                COMPOSITION OF RYE.
Husk
Pure Meal
Moisture
The Entire Seeds.
 24-2
 65-6
 10-2
1000
               Rye-Meal.
Starch     ....
Gum.....
Gluten     ....
Albumen   ....
Saccharine matter
Husk      ....
Undetermined acid and loss
6107
1109
 9-48
 3-28
 3-28
 6-38
 5-42
1000
  It contains less gluten than wheat, (see p. 97,) and yields less nitrogen, (see pp. 145
and 28 :) hence it is inferior in nutritive properties to the latter.
  Rye-bread, called in Germany  Schwarlzbrot, or Black Bread, has, according to Bceck-
mann, the following composition :—
COMPOSITION OF RYE BREAD.
   1      2
Water  .
Dry matter
33 -
67 -
31-418
63-592
100  - 100000
Carbon
Hydrogen
Nitrogen
Oxygen
Ashes
 45.09
  6-54
145.12
  3.25
45-41
 6-45
44.89
 3.25
                                            Dry matter     .    .    10000   10000
  From these analyses Liebig calculates that 100 parts of fresh bread contain on an aver-
age 3015 parts of carbon.
  In  those  unaccustomed to it, rye bread is apt to occasion diarrhoea, which Dr. Cullen
ascribes to its readily becoming acescent.
  Rye-pottage is said to be a useful article of diet in consumptive cases.*

  *  Rye bread  has one advantage, in its retaining its humidity at the same time that it preserves its
flavor.  Dr. Bell of Philadelphia remarks, (on " Regimen," &c, p. 144,) " When made of flour not too 
158                        COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
  Rye is exceedingly subject to the attack of the Ergot;  and to the use of ergotized rye
a disease termed Ergotism has been ascribed.  It assumes two  forms, one  called convul-
sive,—the other, gangrenous ergotism.   In the former, convulsion, in the latter, gangrene
of the extremities, constitutes the most marked  character.-)
  [Buckwheat is a  native of Asia,  but somewhat extensively cultivated in many parts of
the U. States for cakes.   It is sometimes used for bread, but not often.  In Germany, it forms
a common ingredient in pottage and puddings; and in  some countries, the poor mix buck-
wheat meal with a small proportion of wheat flour, and make a kind of bread of the com-
pound.  Those who keep bees, frequently sow buckwheat in the vicinity, under a belief
that these insects are  partial to  the flowers, and derive  more  materials for their honey
from this than any other plant.
  Buckwheat may be converted into malt, and subsequently into beer and ardent spirit.
  In 1840, the quantity of buckwheat grown in  Pennsylvania, amounted to  2,113,742
bushels ; in New York, to  2,287,885; in Virginia,  to  683,130; and in Ohio, to 681,215.
The produce of the whole U. States was  about eight millions and a half of bushels.  In
France there is annually raised about 25  millions of bushels of buckwheat, it being very
extensively employed  among the people as an aliment.
  For making buckwheat cakes, take one quart of buckwheat meal, a  handful  of Indian
meal,  and a tea-spoonful of salt; mix them with two  large spoonfuls of yeast, and suffi-
cient cold water to make a thick batter.   Put it in a  warm place to rise, which will take
3 or 4 hours ; or, if mixed at night, let it stand where it is rather cool.   Bake on a grid-
dle, or in a pan.]—L.
  5. Rice.—This is the well-known grain of Oryza saliva.  While in the husk it is called
paddy (padi or paddie) by the Malays, bras when deprived of the husk,  and  nasi after it
has been boiled.  It is extensively raised in India, China, and  most, other Eastern coun-
tries ; in the West Indies, Central America, and the  United States ; and in some of the
southern countries of Europe.  The kinds  most esteemed in England are the Caroli-
na and Patna rice.
  The composition  of  Carolina  and  Piedmont  rice is,  according  to  Braconnot,  as
follows:—
                              COMPOSITION OF RICE.
Parenchyma (woody fibre) Rancid, colorless, tallowy oil . Uncrystallizable sugar .... Acetic acid, phosphate of potash, ) chloride of potassium, and vege- [ table salts of potash and lime . )	Carolina Rice.	Piedmont Rice.
	85-07 4-80 360 013 0-29 0-71 0-40 500 traces	83-80 4-80 3-60 0-25 005 010 0-40 7-00 traces
	100-00	100-00
   finely bolted, rye bread is suited to certain forms of dyspepsia with costiveness, and the subjects of which
   are of a sanguine temperament."  Spiced rye cakes were for a long period greatly in vogue in Europe—
   from the time of the Romans to that of Louis XIV.  Rye meal boiled in water, (rye mush,) is very useful
   in cases  of habitual costiveness, taken with molasses; or in cases less obstinate it may be eaten to
   advantage with milk.—L.
     t  For further details, as well as for references, respecting ergot of rye, see my Element of Materia
   Medica.
JL                                                                              --------- 
RICE.
159
  In the manufacture of rice starch by Mr. Orlando Jones's patent process, Patna rice is
digested in a weak solution of caustic alkali,  (soda,) by which  the  gluten, as it is techni-
cally called, is  dissolved and removed.  The insoluble matter  consists of starch, and a
white substance termed by Mr. Jones, fibre.  The last mentioned substance appears, when
examined by the microscope, to consist chiefly of starch grains, but in drying it does not
split into prismatic columnar masses,—in the language of the  starch-maker, it does not
race,—and, therefore, is not fit for commerce.   Mr. Jones informs me that in manufactur-
ing rice starch  on the large  scale,  Patna rice, dried at  from  160° to 180° F., for several
days, yields 80 per cent, of marketable starch,* and  8-2 per cent, of fibre;  the remaining
11-8 per cent, being made up of gluten, gruff or bran, and a small quantity of light starch,
carried  off in suspension by the alkaline  solution.f
  If the alkaline solution of glutinous  matter  be  carefully neutralized by an  acid, the
gluten is precipitated.  I have received from Mr. Jones a quantity  of this precipitate.   It
had a  creamy consistence,  an  agreeable smell, and a  bland taste,  somewhat  like pap.
When heated it separates into two parts,—a  coagulum  or curd, and a serous or aqueous
substance.  By keeping it  curdled, and subsequently underwent a  peculiar kind of fer-
mentation, evolving a smell somewhat like  sour yeast.  When fresh,  it appeared to me
well adapted for use as food; and I have a diabetic patient, in the London Hospital, now
trying its effects.  He uses it in the form of a baked pudding containing eggs.   The only
other vegetable food which he is permitted to take is cabbage.   He has, however, a  plen-
tiful allowance of meat, cheese, milk, &c  On this regimen  the quantity of urine passed
in twenty-four hours has been reduced,  in about ten days, from 11 pints to  3£.  Its sp.
gr., however, is but little changed.
  The  granule  of rice  starch  is excessively small. According to  Vauquelin this starch
begins to dissolve in water when this liquid  has attained a temperature of from 122°  F.
to 132° F.  The same  authority states that an infusion of rice contains a little phosphate
of lime, which is held in solution by the starch.  Vogel  obtained 1-05 per cent, of oil from
dried rice.
   " Rice," says Marsden,f " is the grand material  of food on  which a hundred millions
of the inhabitants of the earth subsist, and although chiefly confined by nature  to the re-
gions included between, and bordering on the tropics, its cultivation is  probably more ex-
tensive than that of wheat, which the Europeans are wont to  consider as the  universal
staff of life."
   Rice, though nutritious,  is less so than wheat:  this is proved  by chemical  analysis,
which shows the much smaller proportion of glutinous or nitrogenous matter found  in the
former than in the latter grain.   " Rice," says Boussingault.^ " is held up as a  most
nutritive food.   But though I  have lived long in countries which produce it, I am far
from considering it as a substantial nourishment.   I have always seen  it, in ordinary use,
replace  bread; and when  it has  not been associated with  meat,  it has been  employed
with milk."
  * According to Vogel, a dried rice yielded him 96 per cent, of starch.
  t  Vauquelin (Mimoires du Museum d'Histoire Naturelte,  t. iii. p. 229.  1817) says that  rice contains
scarcely an appreciable quantity of gluten.  Braconnot, however, in his analyses, obtained 36 per cent.
of gluten. It is probable that the 118 per cent, loss of weight, experienced by digesting rice in a weak
alkaline solution, is  ascribable, not merely to gluten, and the other substances named in the text, but
also to gum, sugar, and water,  contained in the grain.  But even assuming this to be the case, 1 suspect
that both Vauquelin and Braconnot have underrated the glutinous or nitrogenous matter contained in
rice.  My suspicion does not rest merely on Mr. Jones's results, but also on Boussingault's statement of
the quantity of nitrogen contained in rice.
  X History of Sumatra, p.  65, 3d ed.  1811.          § Ann. Chim. el Phys.lxy'n. p. 413. 
160                         COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
  Rice is less laxative than the  other cereal grains.   Indeed, it  is generally believed to
possess a binding or constipating quality ; and, in consequence, is frequently prescribed by
medical men as a light, digestible, uninjurious article of food in diarrhoea and dysentery.*
  Various ill effects, such  as  disordered vision,  &c., have been ascribed to its use ;f but,
as I believe, unjustly so.   Neither dees  there appear to me to be any real foundation for
the assertions of Dr. Tytler.j that malignant cholera  (which he calls  the morbus oryzeus,
or rice disease) is  induced by it.
  Rice is employed as a nutriment in a variety of forms.   Mucilage of Rice, obtained by
boiling well-washed rice in water, contains both starch and phosphate of lime in solution.
It is used as a demulcent  in  diarrhoea.   Rice-milk, rice-pudding, &c,  are other prepara-
tions of rice employed by invalids.   Rice-cakes contain, besides flour,  eggs,  and  sugar,
about  one third of their weight of rice.§
  [Wild Rice, (Zizania Aqualica, Faluus Avena,) called by the Indians menomeme, is found
in great abundance  on the marshy margins of the northern lakes and waters of the upper
branches of the  Mississippi; it grows also as far south as Natchitoches,  below lat. 32°.
The grain has a  long slender hull,  much  resembling that of oats, except that it is larger
and darker.  On it the migratory water-fowls  fatten,  before they  wing  their autumnal
flight to the south.  It furnishes the northern  savages and the Canadian traders and
hunters with  their  annual supplies of grain.   But for this  annual resource  they could
hardly exist.  The wild rice is a tall, tubular,  reedy, aquatic  plant, not  unlike the bas-
tard cane  of  the southern  countries.  It  springs up  from  waters of six or seven feet in
depth, where the bottom  is soft and muddy ;  and it rises nearly to the  same distance
above  the water.  The grain, when detached from its chaff, is as white as the common
rice.   Puddings made of it, tasted to us like those  made of  Sago.—Bell on  " Regimen,"
tj-c, and  Flint on the History and  Geography  of the Mississippi Valley.] —L.
  6. Maize or Indian Corn.—This is the produce of the plant called by botanists the Zea
Mays.  Its composition, according to the  analyses of Dr. Gorham and Bizio, is  as fol-
lows :—
                     COMPOSITION OF MAIZE OR INDIAN CORN.
                                 1. Dr. Gorham's Analysis.
                                                         Common State.          Dried.
Starch||       ..........770  .
Zeine...........30  .
Albumen..........25  .
Gummy matter.........1'75 .
Saccharine matter.........1'45 .
84-599
 3-290
 2-747
 1-922
 1-593
  * We regard rice as one of the most valuable of all the articles of food, in cases of derangement of the di-
gestive organs.  It nourishes, while it soothes the irritable mucous membrane, and while it supports the
strength, it never seems to aggravate the existing disease.  For acute or chronic affections of the alimen-
tary canal, rice-water for drink, and rice jelly for food, seem peculiarly well adapted, and in many cases
appear almost to exert a specific influence in bringing about a recovery.  The jelly may be prepared by
boiling two ounces of the flour, and three ounces of loaf-sugar in a pint of water, until it becomes thick
and transparent, flavoring with rose, or orange flower water.  It may also be made by slow  and careful
boiling the whole rice, in a small quantity of water, until it assume the appearance and consistence of cream,
when, on cooling, it assumes the form of a jelly.  The same preparation is invaluable in convalescence
from acute febrile and other maladies, and in the summer complaints  of children.—L.
  t Bontius, Account of the Diseases, Natural History, fyc., of the East  Indies, translated into English, 1769.
Also, Bricheteau, in Tortuelle's Elem. d'Hygiene, 4me ed.
  X Lancet, 1833-31, vol. i.                          § Appendix, 8.
  || The substance sold under the name of Indian Corn Starch, in the London shops, is Potato Starch. 
LEGUMINOUS SEEDS.                           161
                                                        Common State.          Dried.
      Extractive matter.........0.8  ..    .   0-879
      Cuticle and ligneous fibre   ...                     30  •           3-296
      Phosphate, carbonate, and sulphate of lime, and loss     .     15  .    .    .   1-648
      Water...........90  .             0
                                                           1000             99-98
                                    2. Bizio's Analysis.
             Starch   ....            ......80-920
                           I Fatty oil  .        ......1-152
             Zei'ne  .    .   ] Gliadine........2-499
                           (Zimome........2^107
             Zimome...........0945
             Fatty oil...........0-323
             Extractive matter and sugar.......1'987
             Gum............2-283
             Hordein...........7-710
             Acetic acid, salts, and loss........0-074
                                                                    100-000
  MM. Dumas and Payen procured 9 per  cent, of yellow oil  from maize ;* but Liebigf
was able to obtain only 4-25 per cent.  This oil consists, according to Fresenius, of carbon
7968, hydrogen 11-53, and oxygen 8-79.
  In America, Asia, and some parts of Europe, maize is extensively used for human ex-
istence.  "Like the farina of the wheat," says Dr. DunglisonJ, "it is formed into bread,
alone or with various additions,—as milk, eggs, &.c.  It is a wholesome and  nutritious
aliment, but with those who are unaccustomed  to its  use it  is  apt to produce diarrhoea;
in consequence, probably, of the  presence of the husk, with which it is always more or
less mixed, in  the state in which it is brought to market.  It is on this account that it has
been regarded as a bread  but  little adapted for those liable to, or laboring  under, bowel
affections,  or  in  times when a choleric  predisposition exists.   The same author further
adds,§ that "the young grains, constituting  the 'roasting ears,' make a delicious vegeta-
ble, ready  for  the table, too, after the season for green  peas has gone by.   When very
young,  corn in this  state is in its  most  digestible condition, the husk being comparatively
tender; but when old, a considerable part of the grain withstands the digestive  operation,
and passes through  the bowels unchanged.   It need hardly, therefore, be added, that
where bowel affections are rife, this  vegetable ought to be used with caution.  Corn meal,
mixed with cheese,  and baked into a kind of pudding, forms the dish which the Italians
call polenta."\\ IT
  b. Leguminous Seeds.—Of the Leguminous Seeds the best known in England are Peas
and Beans; but on  the continent, and  in eastern countries, Lentils  are in common use.
Their composition, as determined by Einhof, is  as follows:—
  * See ante, p. 85.               t Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie, Bd. xlv. S. 126.  1843.
  X Elements of Hygiene, p. 289.  1835.                                § Ibid. p. 294.
  ||  The substance sold in the London shops under the name of Polenta is the meal of Indian corn.
  IT Indian corn and potatoes, indigenous to  our country, have contributed much to promote the health
and longevity of mankind in both hemispheres.  As they are among  the cheapest, so also are they
among the most wholesome of all articles of food employed by man.  Good corn weighs about 60 lbs.
to the bushel, and costs at present 56 cents per bushel, or  nearly one cent  per pound.   Now a pound
of corn, when cooked, makes from two  and a half to three and a half pounds of food, and this will
suffice for the daily support of a laboring  man.  If an  individual could be supported on this alone, his
annual expense for food would be but $3 65, or say $15 to a family of five. The average cost of po-
tatoes may be put at about half a cent a pound, and allowing five pounds per day to an adult individual,
the  expense will be about $9 a year; or for a family of five, (reckoning them at three and a half adults,)
about $30.  When we consider that it is not unusual for land to yield 100 bushels of corn to the acre,
and 30 tons, or 67,200 pounds of potatoes to  the acre, we may form some estimate of the population
which this country is capable of Supporting from the produce of the soil.—L.
11 
162
COMPOUND  ALIMENTS.
COMPOSITION OF LEGUMINOUS SEEDS.
Peas Garden Bean*		Kidney Beanf	Lentils
(Pisum sativum.) (V	icia FubuJ	(Phaseolus (Ervum Lena.)	
		vulgaris.)	
. 32-45 .	3417 .	. 3594 .	32.81
. 21-88 .	15-89 .	. 1107 .	18-75
. 14-56 .	1086 .	. 2081 .	37-32
6-37 .	461 .	. 1937 .	5-99
. 1-72 .	081 .	. 135 .	115
Iter 211 .	3-54 .	. 3-41 .	312
—	10-05 .	. 7-50 .	—
. 1406 .	15-63 .	. (dried) .	
. 6-56 .	3-46 .	. 055 .	0-57
. 0-29 .	0-98 .	—	0-29
Starch   .
Amylaceous fibre  .
Legumine (Caseine)
Gum
Albumen
Sweet Extractive matter
Membrane
Water   .
Salts
                          10000           10000           10000            10000
  Peas, Beans, and Lentils, have  been submitted to ultimate analysis  by BoussingaultJ
and by Playfair.,
                ULTIMATE COMPOSITION OF LEGUMINOUS SEEDS.
Peas. Playfair.		Peas. (dried in vacuo at 230° F ) Boussingault.	Beans. Playfair.	Lentils. PJaylair.
Carbon Hydrogen Nitrogen . Oxygen Ashes Water	. 35-743 . 5-401 I 39366 . 3-440 . 16000 100000	46-5 62 40-0 4-2 31 00	38-24 5-54 I 33.10 3-71 1411	37-38 5-54 37-98 3-20 15-90
		1000	10000	10000
  Liebig assumes, that  the average amount of carbon in peas, beans, and lentils, in the
state in which they are  used, is 37 per cent;  an assumption sufficiently near the truth
for all practical purposes.
  The quantity of nitrogen contained in these leguminous seeds is larger than that  found
in the cereal grains ; so that if the nutritive quality of vegetables was in proportion  to the
nitrogen which  they contain, these seeds would  be more nutritive than  wheat; and,
accordingly, in Boussingault's scale of nutritive equivalents, their nutritive equivalent is
lower, or in other words, their nutritive quality is assumed to be higher than that of wheat,
(see ante, pp. 27-28.)  For
           44 parts of horse beans, or   "]
           56 parts of white haricots, or I are said to be > ,™      c  ,   x a
           57 parts of lentils, or        f  equivalent to ^ 10° Part0 ofwheat flour-
           67 parts of peas,           J
  Experience, however, by no means confirms these theoretical conclusions;  and Liebig,
therefore, offers the following explanation of the want of relation between their nutritive
quality and the proportion of nitrogen which they contain.   " The small quantity of phos-
phates which  the  seeds of the lentils, beans, and peas contain,"  says Liebig,|| " must be
the cause of their  small  value as articles  of nourishment, since they surpass all other
vegetable food in the quantity of nitrogen which enters into their composition.  But as

  * This species is commonly known as broad bean, or Windsor bean.
  t The common dwarf kidney bean, the haricot of the French, is commonly termed French bean.  It is
a distinct species from the scarlet bean, (Phaseolus multiflorus.)
  X Memoires de VAcademie Royale des Sciences, t. xviii. p. 345. 1824.
  § Liebig's Animal Chemistry.
  || Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and Physiology, p.  147, 3d ed. 
OILY  SEEDS.
163
the component parts of the bones (phosphate of lime and magnesia)  are  absent, they
satisfy the appetite without increasing the strength."
  I have already (see p. 28) remarked, that were this hypothesis correct, the addition of
bone-ashes (earthy  phosphates) ought  to add greatly to the nutritive powers  of the
leguminous seeds, and would, in fact, render them much more nutritious than the cereal
grains.
  Peas and beans are very apt to occasion flatulence, and even colic;  and their difficult
digestibility augments with their age ; for when very young they are sweet, and more di-
gestible, but less nourishing.  They are usually regarded as being stimulating! or heating,*
and, on that account, unfit for febrile and inflammatory cases.
  c. Seeds of Cupuliferaz.—The principal cupuliferous seeds used in this country as food
is the Chestnut, (Castanea vesca.)  It possesses considerable nutritive power,  and  in Lom-
bardy is used as food by the lower classes.  Its sweetness, especially when roasted, indi-
cates the presence of sugar.  No oil  can be  obtained from it  by pressure.   In  the raw
state, it is very difficult of digestion :  it requires to be cooked (roasted) to split the starch
grains which it contains, and thereby to render them readily digestible.  Dyspeptics should
carefully avoid chestnuts, even in the cooked state.
  2. Oily Seeds.—To this division belong the Almond, the Walnut, the Hazel-nut, the
Butter-nut, the  Filbert, the Cashew-nut, the Pistachio-nut, the Stone-Pine-nut, (Pignoli-
Pine,)  and the Cocoa-nut.  These contain vegetable albumen and caseine, on which their
nutritive qualities principally depend.   They also contain  a quantity of fixed oil, which
renders them very difficult of  digestion ;  and unfit for dyspeptics and others who have a
delicate stomach.
  The Almond (both sweet and bitter) is  the produce of the Amygdalus communis.
      BOULLAY AND VOGEL'S ANALYSES OF SWEET AND BITTER ALMONDS.
Boullay's Analysis.		Vogel's Anal},	sis	
Fixed oil .	540	Volatile oil and hy-	\	Quantity un-
Emulsin	240	drocyanic acid		determined.
Liquid sugar	60	Fixed oil		. 23-0
Gum	30	Emulsin		. 300
Seed-coats .	50	Liquid sugar		65
Woody fibre	40			30
Water	3-5	Seed-coats .		8-5
Acetic acid and loss .	0-5	Woody fibre		50 . 190
Sweet almonds .	1000	Bitter almonds		. 100-0
   Sweet almonds are nutritive and emollient, but, on account of their fixed oil, difficult of
digestion, at  least when taken in  large quantities, or by persons whose digestive powers
are weak.  When  rancid they are still more apt to disorder the stomach.  The husk or
pellicle of the almond has been known to occasion nausea, uneasiness in the stomach and
bowels,  increased heat, cedematous  swelling of the face,  followed by nettle-rash.  Dr.
Winterbottomf suffered twice in this wray  from the use  of unWanched sweet almonds ;
but blanched  almonds caused him  no  inconvenience.  Almonds are employed as a des-
sert, and in puddings, cakes, &c.   For table use they should  always be blanched, on ac-
count of the injurious qualities of the husk.
   Bitter  almonds are more or  less poisonous  to ail classes  of animals.  They contain
neither volatile oil nor prussic acid,}: though they yield both these substances when sub-

  * Beans are believed, by veterinarians, to possess a stimulating influence over the horse.
  t Medical Facts and Observations, vol. v. p. 60.
   X For the facts in proof of the accuracy of this statement, see my Elements of Materia Medica, vol. ii.
p. 1535. 
164
COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
mitted to distillation with water ;  but they contain a peculiar crystallizable principle, called
Amygdalin, whose composition is C40 H2' NOM.  Now, when bitter almond cake  is sub-
mitted to distillation, with  water,  the  amygdalin  suffers decomposition by  the  united
agencies of the emulsin (of the seed) and the water, and yields hydrocyanic acid, volatile
oil of bitter almonds, sugar, formic acid, and water.

        PRODUCTS  OF THE DECOMPOSITION OF AMYGDALIN BY EMULSIN.
                                                        Atoms of
1 atom of Hydrocyanic Acid
2 atoms Volatile Oil of Bitter Almonds
1 atom of Sugar.....
2 atoms of Formic Acid
7 atoms of Water.....
Carbon
  2
 2-3
  6
  4
  0
1 atom of Amygdalin.....40
Hydrogen
  12
   5
   2
   7
27
Nitrogen

  0
  0
  0
  0
Oxygen
  0
  4
  5
  6
  7
22
  When bitter almonds are chewed, the moisture of the mouth and the emulsin  of the
seeds effect the decomposition of the  amygdalin, and the  formation of prussic acid and
volatile oil;  and the poisonous operation of the seeds depends on the prussic acid.   The
smaller animals, as dogs, pigeons, &c, are readily destroyed by them.  One drachm has
killed  a pigeon,  and  twenty seeds have  destroyed a dog.   On  man they frequently
prove injurious even in small doses, while, in large ones, they are highly deleterious.  In
some persons, nausea, vomiting,  and purging, are readily caused by them.  On the late
Dr. Gregory* they produced first sickness, generally  tremors, then vomiting, next a hot
fit, with an eruption of nettle-rash, particularly on the upper part  of the body.  At the
same time the face and head swelled very much, and there was a general feeling like in-
toxication.   The symptoms lasted only a few hours.  The rash did not alternately appear
and  disappear, as in common nettle-rash.
  When eaten in large quantities, bitter almonds have caused serious and even fatal con-
sequences.   Pierer states that three children, having taken  some of these seeds, were at-
tacked in a few minutes with nausea, vomiting, loss of  consciousness and of speech, and
convulsions; and Mr. Kennedy has noticed the case of  a stout  laborer who died after the
use of a large quantity of them.   These, and other observations referred to by Wibmer,
Cullen, and  others, prove that the poisonous effects of the bitter almond are similar to
those of prussic  acid, on  the  development  of  which, in fact,  their  activity depends.
Macaroons and  Ratafia cakes, as well as Noyeau,  which owe their peculiar flavor to these
seeds, likewise prove injurious when taken in large quantities.
  The volatile oil  of bitter almonds (frequently sold in the shops as essence of bitter almonds)
is a most potent poison, being in general four times as powerful as the prussic acid kept
in chemists' shops.  A single drop of it  will kill a cat in a few minutes.  Sir Benjamin
Brodie happening to touch his tongue with a probe which had  been dipped in it, suffered,
almost instantaneously, an indescribable sensation at the pit of  the stomach, feebleness  of
the  limbs,  and loss  of power over the muscles.  These, effects  were, however, quite
transient.  A few years ago, a lady, in Aldersgate-street, London, was accidentally killed
by it.   She sent to a chemist's shop for  beech nut oil, to destroy worms, and the person in
the shop, mistaking the inquiry for peach nut oil, served her with oil of bitter almonds, of
which she took half an ounce, by which she lost her life.  An hypochondriacal gentleman,
48 years old, swallowed about two tea-spoonfuls  of the oil, and in a  few minutes after
was found  by his servant lying in bed, with his features spasmodically contracted, his
* Dr. Christison's Treatise on Poisons. 
DRUPACEOUS  FRUITS.                        165
eyes fixed, staring, and turned  upwards, and  his chest heaving  convulsively and hur-
riedly.  A physician, who entered the room twenty minutes  after the draught had been
taken, found him quite insensible, the pupils immoveable, the breathing stertorous and
slow, the  pulse feeble,  and only thirty in a minute, and the  breath exhaling  strongly the
odor of  bitter  almonds.   Death ensued  ten  minutes afterwards.   With these facts
before us, it is, I conceive, highly improper for  ignorant persons  to  employ it; yet it  is
extensively used by cooks and confectioners for flavoring !*

                              ORDER II.  FLESHY FRUITS.
   A very considerable number of fleshy or succulent fruits are employed  as food. Of
these, however, it is intended to notice  only such  as are  in most  frequent use in this
country.
   1. Drupaceous or Stone Fruits.—These are called by botanists Drupes.  They con-
tain one or two seeds (popularly termed the kernels) contained in  a bony endocarp, com-
monly called the stone, on  the outside of which is a soft fleshy  mesocarp or sarcocarp,
(usually known as the pulp or fiesh of the fruit,) which is covered by the membranous
epicarp,  (generally denominated the skin.)
   From the Almond tribe are obtained several drupes in common use in  England.   Such
are the Peach, the Nectarine, the Apricot, the Plum, and the Cherry.  They are usually
regarded as difficult of digestion; and  the popular  opinion is probably the correct one,
for Dr. Beaumont found that from six to ten hours  were required  for the artificial diges-
tion of peaches.   They are sometimes  eaten with the view to open the  bowels.  When
taken too freely they are apt to disorder the digestive organs, and to occasion griping and
relaxation.
   The following is the composition of several of these fruits, according to Berard.f
COMPOSITION OF  DRUPACEOUS  FRUITS OF THE ALMOND TRIBE.
					PEACH (			
			(REINE CLAUDE.)			d'ete.)		
Nitrogenous matter . Coloring matter . . .							(royales.;	
	Unripe.	Ripe.	Unripe.	Ripe.	Unripe.	Ripe.	Unripe.	Ripe.
	076	017	0-45	0-28	0-41	093	021	0-57
	004	010	003	0-08	0-27	"	005	(C
	3-61	1-86	1-26	111	3-01	1-21	244	112
Gum ......	410	5-12	5-53	2-06	4-22	4-85	6-01	3-23
	traces	16-48	17-71	24-81	0-63	11-61	112	18-12
Malic acid ....	2.70	1-80	0-45	056	107	110	1-75	201
Lime ....	very small quantity	very small quantity	traces	traces	008	006	014	010
	89-39	74-87	74-57	7110	9031	80-24	88-28	74-85
	100-60	1C0-40	100-00	100-00	100-00	10000	10000	100-00
  * The Bitter Almond forms the basis of the delicious cordial called Creme de Noyeau.
  The following embrace the principal varieties of the Almond which are now cultivated :
  Sweet Soft-shelled Almond, (Amand' Sultan a Coque Tendre ;) Amande Princesse, ou des Dames ; Amande
Sultan; Amande Pistache; Bitter Almond, (Amande Amere;) Bitter Soft-shelled Almond, (Amande Amere
a Coque Tendre ;) Bitter Hard-shelled Almond, (Amande Amere a Coque Dure;) Peach Almond, (Amande
Pecher;) Great Flowering Almond ; Dwarf Double Flowering Almond.
  The varieties of Almond are propagated by inoculation either on the native stocks of the common
Almond, or on stocks of the peach or plum.  They are  equally as  hardy as the peach, and flourish
equally as well in this country.—L.
  t Ann. de Chimie et de Physique.  1821. 
166                          COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
  In these analyses, however, no  mention is made of vegetable jelly, (pectine or pectic
acid,) which, as I have before stated, (see p. 69,) is always a constituent of these fruits ;
but it is probable that, in the above table, it is included under the denomitiation of gum.
  The highly palatable flesh of the Peach is  slightly nutritious from the nitrogenous mat-
ter, sugar, gum, and pectine, which it contains, while the  malic acid  renders it cooling.
Both  in  the  fresh and preserved  state it is  employed as a delicious  dessert.  Its use is
objectionable in gouty persons, and in those whose bowels  are easily disordered.  When
stewed with sugar it may be given as a mild laxative to convalescents.*
  The Nectarine differs from the Peach in having a smooth skin.  This trivial distinction
has led many botanists to regard it as a distinct species.
  Gardeners cultivate several hundred sorts of the Plum, (Prunus damestka.)  De Can-
dolle admits the following as distinct varieties :f—
                o- Armenioldes, including the Mirabclle Plum.
                0.  Claudiana, including the Green Gage.
                y. Myrobalana, including the Myrobalan Plum.
                6. Damascena, including the Damask Plum.
                t. Turonensis, including the Orleans Plum.
                5. Juliana, including the Officinal Prune.
                17. Catharinea, including the St.  Catharine Plum.
                0. Aubertiana, including the Magnun Bonum, or Mogul Plum.
                1. Prunealina, including the Damson.
  Dried plums, called prunes, are prepared  in warm  countries  by drying the plums on
hurdles by solar heat;  but in colder climates artificial heat is employed.  In France both
methods  are  adopted ; the fruit being exposed to the heat of an oven, and to that of the
sun, on alternate days.  Table prunes are prepared from the larger kinds of plum—as the
Saint  Catharine and the Reine-Claude, (Green Gage:) Medicinal Prunes from  the St.
Julien.   The  former has an agreeable, very sweet taste ; the latter are  somewhat austere.
They are principally imported from Bordeaux.  The edible part is the  pulp.
  Fresh ripe  plums, taken in moderate quantity, are wholesome and nutritive;  but when
eaten freely are apt to disorder the bowels ;  an effect more readily excited by the unripe
fruitj  The medicinal prune is slightly laxative.  The finer kinds of plums are employed
at the table as a delicious  dessert: the inferior qualities are used in pies, tarts, conserves,
and sweetmeats.  The larger prunes are eaten  at table as a  dessert.  The medicinal
prunes form an agreeable and mild laxative for children, and during convalescence from
frebrile and inflammatory disorders.
  The Cherry possesses dietetical properties similar to those of  the plum.  In the unripe
state it readily disorders the bowels.
   The stones of all these  drupaceous fruits should not be swallowed, as they are apt to
  * Appendix, 9.
  f Kenrick, in his " New American Orchardist," enumerates about seventy varieties of plum, which
 are cultivated in Europe and this country, of which fifty-two are produced here.  Though the plum is
 generally considered a native of Asia, it is yet indigenous to North America, and is found from Canada to
 Mexico.   The one best known, perhaps, is the Red or Yellow Plum, (Prunus Americana,) of a reddish-
 orange when ripe, with a juicy yellow pulp, and a thick tough skin, of from half an inch to an inch in
 diameter. The Chickasaw Plum is the  domesticated fruit of the Prunus  Chicasa, (va. Normalis of
 Michaux,) a native of the country west of the Mississippi, but extensively cultivated in the southwest-
 ern states and Arkansas, and sometimes in the northern states.  The fruit is half an inch or more in
 diameter, with a thin  skin and a tender pulp, and pleasant to the taste.  The Beach Plum is the fruit
 of the Prunus Maritima, (Wang,) is about half an inch in diameter, and often pretty well flavored, but
 only arrives to perfection on a warm sandy beach.—[Torrey &  Gray's Flora.]—L.
   X Unripe plums are probably more unwholesome than any other kind  of unripe  fruit, often causing
 bowel complaints, dysentery, &c.  In our cities they occasion much sickness, especially among chil-
 dren, in the summer and autumnal months.—L. 
POMACEOUS FRUITS.                           167
cause intestinal obstruction.  I have known fatal enteritic  inflammation produced by the
accumulation of cherry-stones in the appendix cseci.  The kernels or seeds yield, like the
almond, prussic acid.*
  The  Olive  is a drupaceous  fruit, which, when  ripe,  is remarkable for its sarcocarp
abounding in  a bland fixed oil, (see Olive Oil, p. 85-88.)   Olives farcies a Vhuile&re some-
times imported.  The preserved or pickled  olives, admired by most persons as a  dessert,
are the green unripe fruit, deprived of part of their bitterness by soaking them in water,
and then preserved  in an aromatized solution of salt.   Several varieties are  met with in
commerce, but the most common is the small French olive  and the large Spanish olive.
Olives a la picholine have  been soaked in a solution of lime or alkali.   Pickled olives are
employed  at the table to excite the appetite for, as well as to improve the flavor of, wine.
They are also used  in some sauces.
  The Dale  is a drupaceous fruit, of vast  importance in the East, for a considerable por-
tion of the inhabitants  of  Egypt, Arabia, and Persia, subsist in great part on it.  It is the
produce of the date  palm,  or Phoenix dactylifera of botanists.  Dates have been recently
analyzed by Reinsch,f who gives the following as their constituents:—

                              COMPOSITION OF DATES.
               Flesh.
Uncrystallizable sugar    .    .    .   58-0
Pectin......8-9
Pectinaceous gum    ....    3-4
Bassorine......4-1
Fatty oil......0-2
Wax.......01
Fibre, with traces of coloring matter) 9-3
    and tannic acid  .    .    .    -5
Water......24-0

                                  1010
                Kernel.
Fibre.......39-6
Gummy matter.....36-4
Gum and mucus
Epidermis (albumen)
An astringent acid (catechuic V)
Stearine.....
Oleine.....
Water.....
 2-5
 06
 71
 0-5
 0-3
130
100.0
  It is obvious from this analysis that sugar is the leading alimentary constituent of this
fruit.  In this country dates are used principally as condiments.
  2. Pomaceous Fruits or Apples.—These  are the produce of the sub-order Pomeaz of
Rosaceous plants.  The edible or pulpy portion  of the fruit is  the  sarcocarp or fleshy
mesocarp, which is covered on the outside by a membranous  epicarp, (commonly called
the peel  or  skin,) and lined  on the inner side by a cartilaginous endocarp (the  core) en-
closing the seed.  Apples, Pears,  and Quinces, are familiar examples of this division of
fruits.   The following are  the results of Berard's analysis of the Jargonelle pear:—

                COMPOSITION OF  JARGONELLE, (CUISSE-MADAME.)
Nitrogenous matter

Coloring matter
Lignine
Gum
Sugar
Malic acid
Lime
Water
UNRIPE.	RIPE.
003	0-21
0-08	001
3-80	219
317	2-07
6-45	11-52
011	0-08
003	004
86-28	83-88
100-00	100-00
resin sol-
 uble in
 alcohol
  0-301

I 0-0S8

  2-534
  3-400
 11-417
  0-786
 traces
 81-500
99-99
  * The principal cherries indigenous to our country are the Sand Cherry, (Cerasus pumila,) Wild Red
Cherry, or Bird  Cherry, (Cerasus Pennsylvania,) Choke  Cherry, (Cerasus Virginiana,) Wild Cherry,
Black Cherry, (C. serotina.)  Besides these, there is the fruit of the C. ilicifolius, C. demissa, C. emar-
ginata, C. umbellata, and probably a few others.—L.
  + Pharmaceutisches Central-Blatt fur 1840, p. 400. 
168                          COMPOUND  ALIMENTS.
  No mention is here made of vegetable jelly, (pectine or pectic acid,) which the author
included, I presume, under the head of gum.
  Apples and Pears are very agreeable fruits, but they are not in general regarded as easy
of digestion ;  and apples, being of a much firmer texture, are believed to be more slowly
digested than pears.   "In the case of a dyspeptic  stomach,"  says Dr. Cullen, "I have
known  apples, a long time after they had been taken down, brought up  again by eructa-
tion in  the same masses they had been swallowed,  and that even after two days."  Dr.
Beaumont's experiments, however, by no means  confirm ordinary experience, for they
appear  to show that apples, even when raw, are readily digestible.
DIGESTIBILITY OF APPLES.
ARTICLES OF DIET.	MEAN TIME OF CHYMIFICATION.			
	IN stomach.		IN PHIALS.	
	Preparation.	H. M.	Preparation.	II. M.
Apples, sweet, mellow " sour, mellow " sour, hard . Apple dumpling. .	Raw Boiled	1 30 2 0 2 50 3 0	Masticated Masticated Entire pieces	6 45 8 30 18 0
Both  apples and pears  are occasionally eaten to move the bowels.  Roasted apples are
much easier of digestion than raw apples.   They gently promote relaxation of bowels;
and are, therefore, used by persons troubled with habitual constipation.*
  The Quince is not eatable in its raw state; but stewed in pies or tarts, along with  ap-
ples, it is much esteemed.   The expressed juice  is cooling and astringent.  An excellent
marmalade (see p. 70)  and syrup  are  prepared from  the  quince by the  confectioner.
Quince seeds abound in mucilage.
  3. Baccate  or Berried  Fruits. Berries.—To this  division belong the Currant,  the
Gooseberry, the Whortleberry, the Cranberry, the Elderberry, and the Grape ; the eatable
part of which is the pulp.  The epicarp, (commonly called skin or husk,) and the seeds

  * The apple is also a native of the East, but to such perfection has its cultivation been brought in the
United  States, that American apples are considered among the finest in the world.  Those, however
from New York and New Jersey are tbe most prized, and among  the last the Newtown Pippin is mucb
esteemed.  The  annual export  of apples from the United States, as estimated from an average of four
years, ending in 1837, was 19,462 barrels, valued at 35,886 dollars. Of this quantity, 3,237 barrels were
shipped for England ; 6,782 were sent to the British North American colonies ; and  4,280 to the island
of Cuba.  The value of the  products of tbe orchard (including peaches) in  the United States, in  1840
was about 8,000,000 of dollars.
  Although apples are very generally used in a raw state, yet we have much doubt as to their being
easily chested, especially by persons of weak digestion.   Dr. Bell remarks that "the apple containing
both malic  and  acetic  acids, with  some  sugar, has a pleasant and refreshing flavor, and to persons in
health constitutes a useful addition to bread or other farinaceous food.   It is inimical to the dyspeptic
the rheumatic, the gouty, and those troubled with renal and cutaneous disorders ; it is often a source of
serious, sometimes fatal, disease in children who have not  masticated the fruit sufficiently, but swallowed
it in pieces of some size.  Subjected to various changes by roasting, baking, and stewing, and the addition
of sugar, apples acquire more nutritive value, and when eaten, as they often are,  with milk or cream
and bread, may be regarded as furnishing a meal equal to the subsequent requirements of active  exer-
cise, if not of labor.  Duduit tells us that " one third part of boiled apple pulp, baked with two thirds of
flour, and properly fermented with  yeast for twelve hours, makes a very good bread, full of eyes  and
quite palatable and light."- L. 
GRAPES.                                  169
are indigestible, and should not be swallowed.  The pulp, when freely eaten, slightly re-
laxes the bowels.  In the unripe state these fruits readily disorder the alimentary canal,
and occasion griping.
  The juice of Red Currants has, according to Proust, the following composition :—
                      COMPOSITION OF RED CURRANT JUICE.
                   Citric Acid,                          Vegetable Jelly,
                   Malic Acid,                          Gum,
                   Sugar,                              Extractive.
  These fruits are very agreeable and cooling, and are  eaten both raw and  in  tarts.  A
jelly and a jam are prepared from them, (see p. 70-71.)
  The constituents of Black Currants  are similar to those  of red currants, with the ad-
dition of a peculiar volatile principle and a violet coloring matter.   A jelly,  (see p. 70,)
a jam, (see p. 71,) a paste, and fruit lozenges, are made from them.  These different pre-
parations are employed in febrile and  inflammatory cases, and are in particular request
in hoarseness and affections of the throat.
  Gooseberries have been analyzed by Berard.  Their composition is as follows:—
COMPOSITION OF GOOSEBERRIES.
				UNRIPE.	RIPE.
Nitrogenous matter				107	0-86
Coloring matter				003	(1
Lignine and seeds				8-45	801
Gum				1-36	0-78
Sugar Malic acid				0-52	6-24
				1-80	2-41
Citric acid				012	0-31
Lime .				0-24	0-29
Water .				86-41	8110
				10000	10000
  In their general properties they agree with currants.  Their husks are indigestible, and
should not be  swallowed.  In the unripe  state, gooseberries are apt to gripe, and other-
wise disturb the bowels.
  The Cranberry  is usually eaten  when baked;  and in this way proves  an agreeable,
and, in general, harmless  fruit.
  The juice of the Elderberry contains  malic  acid, a little  citric acid,  sugar, pectin, and
coloring  matter.   The inspissated juice, (elder rob,) diluted with water, forms a cooling
beverage in febrile and  inflammatory disorders.    The berries  are  principally employed
in the preparation of elder wine.
  The Grape is one of the most valuable and  esteemed of fruits.  Considered with regard
to shape and color, the different varieties may be thus arranged:—
  1. Round, dark-red, purple, or black grapes.—This division includes a considerable num-
ber of sorts.   The  grapes from which port wine* is procured belong to this division.
The black Muscardine, common on dwelling-houses about London, come under this head.
The most remarkable variety of this division is the black  Corinthian grape, which, when
dried, constitutes  the  currant of the grocer. This was  formerly produced  at Corinth,
(whence its name,) but it is now grown at Zante,  Cephalonia, Patras,  &c.   At Zante the
grapes are gathered in August, disposed  in  couches on the ground to dry, cleaned, and
laid up  in magazines, (called seraglios,) where  they eventually adhere so firmly as to

  *  In September, 1842, my friend Mr. Gassiot, of the firm of Martinez, Gassiot & Co., of Mark lane,
London, showed me sixteen sorts of grapes which had been  sent by their agent at Oporto as the grapes
yielding  port wine.  They were all round, dark, and rather small.  Those numbered "2" and " 16" 
170
COMPOUND  ALIMENTS.
require digging out.  They require  eight, ten, or fourteen  days for drying.   For exporta-
tion they are trod in  barrels.   They  form  one of the constituents of the well-known
English dish, plum pudding.
   2. Oval, dark-red, purple, or black grapes.—To this division belong  the black and purple
Hamburgh grapes.
   3. Round and white grapes.—Of this there are several sorts.
   4. Oval and while grapes.—The Portugal grape comes  under this division.   It is im-
ported, packed  in  saw-dust,  and contained in earthen jars, from Portugal and  Spain
The berries are large, fleshy, sweet, and slightly acidulous.  They keep a long  time after
they have ripened.
   5. Red, rose-colored, grayish, or striped grapes.—Of this there are  several sorts.
   The juice of both unripe and ripe grapes has been examined by  several chemists. The
following are the most important results :—

                            COMPOSITION OF GRAPE JUICE.
JUICE OF THE UNRIPE GRAPE.
     Proust^

Extractive.
Malic acid, a little.
Citric acid, much.
Bitartrate of potash
Sulphate of potash.
Sulphate of lime.
Unripe Grape juice,
1. Deposit
 from the
 juice.
2. Filtered
  juice.
    Geiger.

fWax.
 Chlorophylle.
 Tannin.
.Glutinous matter.
"Tannin.
 Extractive.
 Sugar (uncrystallizable.)
 Gallic acid.
 Tartaric acid (free) about
   1 12 per cent.
 Malic acid (free) about 219
   per cent.
 Bitartrate of potash.
 Malate, phosphate,  sulph
L   ate, and muriate of lime
Juice of White Grape of good quality.
JUICE OF THE RIPE GRAPE.
     Proust.

Extractive.
Sugar (granular and
  uncrystallizable.)
Gum.
Glutinous matter.
Malic acid, a little.
Citric acid, a little
  (tartaric,  Bracon-
  not.)
Bitartrate of potash.
Ripe Grape juice.
      Berard.

Odorous matter.
Sugar.
Gum.
Glutinous matter.
Malic acid.
Malate of lime.
Bitartrate of potash.
Supertartrate of lime.
Ripe Grape juice.
The composition of grape sugar (called also granular sugar or glucose) has been already

stated, (see p. 55.)   The bitartrate of potash contained  in grape juice deposits, along with

coloring and other matters, from wine, and forms what are termed crude  tartar or argol,


were the largest berries, and  nlso formed  the largest bunches;  while "7" and " 14" were the smallest.
I subjoin the list of grapes, with the names and remarks, as sent by Messrs. Martinez & Gassiot's Oporto
agent:—

                           "LIST OF THE GRAPES, AS SHIPPED.
      Tinta Francisca.....Dark colored wine.
      Touriga.......Full bodied.
      Tinta amareUa \
        »   Cao . . \.....Good-
        "  grossa......Give abundance, but not of the best.
    5. Bastardo.......Rich.
    6. Alvarelhdo.......Good flavor, but little color.
    8. Negrao
    9. Mourisco preto......Body and flavor.
   10. Custilloa.
   U. Souzao            .....Gives the darkest colored, but in general bad wine.
   12. Donzehnho do Castello    ....  Very little color, and not the best wine
   13. Tinta da Lameira.....Color and flavor.
   14. Bastardeira......Good wine.
   .15. Moretlo
   16. Noveira.......Gives abundance of wine, but of the worst quality •
                                              has the name of the ' Poor Man's Wine.' "
No. 1.
    2.
    3.
    7.
    4. 
GRAPES.
171
and the crust of wine.  Crude tartar, when purified  and deprived of coloring matter,
constitutes cream of tartar, from which tartaric acid is obtained, (see p. 74.)
   Grapes when dried are called Raisins.  In  Granada the finest kinds of raisins, viz. the
Muscatels and the Blooms, are sun-dried; while the Lexias (so  called from the liquor in
which they are immersed,) are dipped in a  mixture  of water, ashes, and  oil, and after-
wards sun-dried.  By this treatment the juice exudes and  candies on the fruit.  The
raisins of Valentia are prepared by steeping them in boiling water, to which a lye of vine
stems has  been added.   The alkaline  solution serves to remove the waxy coat which
checks  the drying of the berry.  The varieties of raisins known in the market are dis-
tinguished partly from their place of growth,  as Valenlias and Smyrnas;  partly from the
variety of grape from which they are prepared, as Sullanas, Blooms,  and Muscatels;  and
partly from the mode of curing them, as Raisins of the Sun.  Muscatels are the finest:
Sultanas are stoneless.   The raisins of Malaga are of three kinds: 1st, Muscatels; 2dly,
Sun or Bloom Raisins;  and 3dly, Lexia Raisins.
   The  small  or Corinthian  raisins, (called, by grocers, currants,) have been already no-
ticed, (see p. 169.)
   Fresh grapes, when ripe, are wholesome, nutritious,  refrigerant, and, when taken freely,
diuretic and laxative; but the skin and the seeds are indigestible, and should be rejected.
In the alvine discharges  of children  who  have eaten plum pudding, the currants (black
Corinthian  raisin) will be  found almost entirely undigested.  " I  think we may assert,"
says Dr. Cullen, "that grapes which contain a large quantity of sugar, are, if taken with-
out their husks, the safest and most nutritive of summer fruits."  They are used at table
as a dessert, and in febrile and inflammatory complaints as a very agreeable fruit, which
allays thirst, and checks febrile heat.  In the  inflammatory form of dyspepsia, (called by
Sir James Clark and  others gastritic dyspepsia,) and in pulmonary affections, ripe grapes
are eaten in considerable quantities,  in Switzerland and other parts of the continent, occa-
sionally with considerable benefit, and forming what is called  the " Cure de Raisins."  It
deserves  consideration how far  the bitartrate of potash, contained in grapes, may con-
tribute to the beneficial effect.  For this salt, like the other vegetable alkaline salts, is con-
verted, in the  system, into  an alkaline carbonate  at the  expense of atmospheric oxygen,
(see p. 15.)   In tubercular phthisis the system manifests no want, but rather redundancy,
of oxygen.  May not the bitartrate, in such cases, prove useful  by appropriating to itself
a portion of oxygen 1  If so, in bronchitis with a purple tint the same treatment would
prove injurious, as there is a manifest deficiency of oxygen in the system.*
  Raisins are somewhat more nutritive and  less refrigerant than fresh grapes; for they
abound more in sugar and less in acid.   If eaten freely they are apt to disorder  the di-
gestive organs and cause  flatulence.  They are employed  at the table as a dessert, and
are used in various articles of pastry.f
  4. The Orange or Aurantiaceous  Fruits.—These fruits, called by  botanists  the
Hesperidium or Auranlium, are the  produce of the  genus Citrus: they are the Orange,
the Lemon, the Lime, the Citron, and the Shaddock.  Their rind  is  leathery or spongy:
the external portion, c&Wedfiavedo or zeste, is yellow, and contains a volatile oil lodged in
rounded or vesicular  receptacles.  The acid juice of the fruit is lodged  in small pulpy
bags, which are readily separated from each other.


  *  Appendii, 10.
  t Raisins may be prepared in the following manner—Dip the ripe clusters of grapes, without separa-
ting them from  the branches, in a lye of wood-ashes, containing a small  portion of sweet oil, and dry
by exposure to the sun.—L. 
172                          COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
  Lemons, are imported from Spain, Portugal, Italy, and the Azores.  Their rind contains
a volatile oil, (essence of lemons,) a bitter principle, (auranliin,) and a peculiar crystalline
substance, (hesperidin.)  It is a grateful aromatic and stomachic, and is used as a flavor-
ing substance.  Candied lemon peel is an agreeable stomachic, and is employed as a des-
sert, and in confectionery.  Lemon Juice is a slightly turbid, very sour liquid, with a grate-
ful  flavor.  Owing to  the  mucilaginous  matter  which  it contains,  it  readily becomes
mouldy, and suffers decomposition.  Its constituents, according to Proust, are as follows:—
                          COMPOSITION OF LEMON JUICE.
                      Citric acid.                    Bitter extractive.
                      Malic acid.                    Water,
                      Gum.
  The relative proportions of these  ingredients vary somewhat according  to the  degree
of ripeness of the  fruit.  One fluid  ounce (two table-spoonfuls) of good juice is equal to
thirty-two grains of crystallized citric acid, and saturates about 45J grs. of bicarbonate of
potash.  Lemon juice  furnishes a most agreeable and  refreshing  beverage, and  proves
refrigerant  and anti-scorbutic.   It may be  either added to barley water, or mixed  with
sugar  and  water  to  form Lemonade.*   The latter may be extemporaneously made, by
adding two lemons sliced, and  two ounces of sugar, to two pints of boiling water, and
digesting  until cold.  A somewhat similar beverage  has been denominated King's Cup.
These acidulated drinks are exceedingly useful  for allaying thirst,  and as refrigerants in
febrile and inflammatory complaints, and in hemorrhages.  In the latter maladies iced
lemonade is to be preferred.  When  there is nausea or a tendency to sickness, effervescent
lemonade is useful.
  Lemon juice has long been justly regarded as a valuable anti-scorbutic; but on account
of the difficulty of preserving it, a solution of crystallized  citric acid is often substituted.
Experience, however, has proved that it is inferior to  the recent  juice.  Even the con-
centrated juice is not equal to the  fresh fruit.  Hence Sir Gilbert Blane suggested that the
juice should  be preserved by the addition of a little spirit, without the  employment  of
heat; and this plan is usually followed.
  Lemon juice is not an infallible specific for scurvy, as  Sir Gilbert Blane and some others
have supposed; for occasionally the malady rages despite  of the copious use of it.f

  * " Lemonade, as a beverage in putrid diseases, was first introduced by the French physicians in the
beginning of the seventeenth century; and about the year 1660,  an Italian, from Florence, having
learnt the process of  freezing confectionery, conceived  the  happy idea of converting  such beverage
into ice.  This  found a ready sale, and was the occasion of so great an increase in  the number of
sellers of lemonade, that in the year 1676 the Limonadiers of Paris were  formed into a company, and
received a patent from government."   (Dr. Paris, Pharmacologic.)
  t The following extract from  Dr. Johnson's Medico- Chirurgical Review, for 1824, serves to illustrate
the statement in the text:—
  " Lemon Juice in Scurvy.—It has long been known to many intelligent observers that salt provisions
are not the only cause of scurvy, and that lemon juice is  by no means an infallible cure for the disease,
however induced, notwithstanding the evidence of Sir Gilbert Blane, so positively advanced to the
contrary.  In support of our position, we shall here bring forward  an abstract from an official docu-
ment of unquestionable authenticity and recent occurrence.
  In the year 1822, his majesty's ship Leander sailed from Trincomalee for the Cape of Good Hope,
taking on board the mechanics of the Dock  Yard establishment, then reduced on the island.  There
were also embarked  twenty-six invalids, and all the sick that  could be removed from the hospital.
These  invalids and  sick were principally affected with  chronic hepatitis, dysentery, and phthisis pul-
monaks, all of which (even some who were expectorating large quantities of purulent matter) recov-
ered on the passage to the Cape. This good fortune was counterbalanced by scurvy, which broke out
among the crew, and in spite of large quantities of lemon-juice plentifully administered, in conjunction 
CUCURBITACEOUS  FRUITS.                       173
  The properties  and the uses of the Lime are similar  to those of the  Lemon.  Lime
juice contains the same ingredients as lemon juice, but in somewhat different proportions.
  The Common or Sweet  Orange is a most delicious  fruit.  Its juice has the following
composition:—
                          COMPOSITION OF ORANGE JUICE
                                     Citric Acid.
                                     Malic Acid.
                                     Mucilage.
                                     Albumen.
                                     Sugar.
                                     Citrate of Lime.
                                     Water.

  The proportions, however, vary with the degree of ripeness of the fruit.   The juice of
the ripe  orange is a refreshing and grateful beverage, and is extensively used at the table.
In febrile and inflammatory complaints it is a valuable refrigerant; allaying thirst and di-
minishing preternatural heat.  The orange, when unripe,  is very apt to cause griping;
but when quite ripe,  is rarely inadmissible: the seeds (called  pips) and rind,  however,
should  be rejected.  Orange peel is  used as  a flavoring agent.  It is an agreeable sto-
machic.
  The Citron is seldom brought to  the table in the raw state, but it yields some  excellent
preserves and  sweetmeats.  The juice is employed to flavor punch  and negus.   It forms,
with sugar and water, a refreshing refrigerant beverage.   Candied Citron peel is a favor-
ite condiment and sweetmeat.
  The  Seville  Orange has a rough, sour, and somewhat bitter juice, which is used by the
cook to flavor  jellies,  and for other purposes.  The peel of the Seville orange,  and also
the small dried green fruits (Orangetles or Curacoa Oranges) of both the Seville and Sweet
oranges, are employed for flavoring the liqueur termed  Curacoa (p. 80) and other sub-
stances.   Candied orange peel is used as a condiment.
  5. Cucurbitaceous Fruits ; Pepones ; Gourds.—Those cucurbitaceous fruits which
are  employed  for alimentary purposes contain a pulpy, aqueous, sweet or  somewhat
acidulous, refreshing flesh, which, though agreeable to the palate, is difficult of digestion,
and when eaten freely, relaxes  the bowels,  and sometimes  occasions griping  pain.  It
yields  but little nutritive matter, and  readily disagrees  with the dyspeptic.   Pepper is
eaten with several of them with the view of assisting their digestion, and preventing any
injurious effect on the stomach.
  The Cucumber is the most commonly employed, and, therefore, the best known fruit of
this order.  Its constituents, according to John, are as follows :—


with every other antiscorbutic which the ship could produce, spread to an alarming extent, and in one
case proved fatal.  Had they not reached the Cape at the time they did, the Leander would have pre-
sented as deplorable a spectacle as the Anson [Centurion,] at Juan Fernandez, notwithstanding the
supposed  infallible specific, lemon juice, which, in no instance,  on board the Leander, had the slightest
effect in even checking the ravages of the scurvy.  Immediately the ship reached  the Cape, and the
crew got  plenty of animal food in conjunction with vegetables, they rapidly recovered, (see Mr. Bamp-
field's remarks on the subject, in his valuable work on Tropical Dysentery.)  Specimens of  the lemon
juice used were transmitted to the Victualling Board, and carefully  analyzed in London.  It  was
found to be perfectly good."— [Scurvy is generally caused by a close humid atmosphere, in connection
with faulty vegetable aliment.   If a ship is kept dry and well ventilated, and furnished with good wa-
ter, a diet consisting chiefly of salt provisions will not produce scurvy, especially if the crew be sup-
plied with good biscuit, and  a small allowance of peas and beans, with molasses and vinegar.  It is a
mistaken notion that vegetable acids will cure or even prevent scurvy, if the above precautions are
neglected.]—L. 
*
174
COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
COMPOSITION OF THE GREEN CUCUMBER.
The Peeled Fruit.
Sugar and extractive
Chlorophylle ....
Odorous matter  .  .
Fungus-like  membrane
  (lignin?) with phos-
  phate of lime  .  .
Soluble albumen   .  .
Mucus  with free pbos-1
  phoric acid, an ammo-
  niacal  salt,  malate,
  phosphate, sulphate, \
  and muriate of potash,
  and phosphate of lime |
  and iron  ....  J
Water......
1-66
004
 7
0-53

0-13
0.50
9714
              The Fresh Peel.
Solid matters (similar  to"
 those of the peeled fruit,
 but containing much fun-
 gus-like matter)   .  .
Water.......
15

85
100
                                     10000

In its raw state the cucumber is slowly, and with difficulty, digested, and is usually eaten
with condiments (pepper, vinegar,  and  oil) as a salad ; but its employment should be
carefully avoided by dyspeptics.  When stewed it forms a light  and  wholesome food.
Young cucumbers, (called gherkins,) as well as the full-grown fruits, are eaten as condi-
ments, when pickled.
   The Melon, when in perfection, is a very delicious  fruit.   The Cantaloupe variety was
examined by Payen,*  who obtained the following results :—

                    COMPOSITION OF THE CANTALOUPE  MELON.
100 parts
   of
Melon.
f Flesh
Internal
 portion
46-29
0-57
             {Juice.......
             Do. in the pulp   .  .   .
             Fibrous pulp, washed and
               dried  .......

            {Juice around  the
              seeds.........6-97
            Fresh seeds.........1-54
            Fibres    .........019
LRind..............  . 44-44

                                       10000
Flesh of the Melon.
Crystallizable sugar
Pectic acid  .  .   .
Uncrystallizable su-
   gar
Vegetable albumen
Mucilage
Free acid
Saponifiable fat
Nitrogenous matter
Coloring matter
Aromatic matter
Starch
Lignin
Salts
Water
   1-5
traces
.98-5
1000
  The melon, like other cucurbitaceous fruits, is very apt to disagree with  delicate sto-
machs, and, to obviate this, is  usually eaten with  salt and  pepper, and sometimes with
sugar.
  The Water Melon  possesses  similar properties to the melon.   The Vegetable Marrow,
when cooked by boiling, forms  a very agreeable and wholesome article  of food.   The
Pumpkin (Pompion)  agrees with the other cucurbitaceous fruits in its alimentary qualities.
  6. Leguminous Fruits ;  Legumes or Pods.—The pulpy mesocarp or sarcocarp of the
Tamarind possesses alimentary properties.  Its composition, according to Vauquelin, is
as follows:—
                            COMPOSITION OF TAMARINDS.
Citric acid
Tartaric acid .
Malic acid
Bitartrate of potash
Sugar
* Journal de Chimie Mid. t. iii. p. 15.1827.
 9-40
 1-55
 0-45
 3-25
12-5 
FIGS—MULBERRIES.                          175
                Gum..........4-7
                Vegetable jelly (pectine)......6-25
                Parenchyma (lignine).......34-35
                Water..........27-55
                                                               10000
  Tamarind pulp is slightly nutritive.  It allays thirst, diminishes  febrile heat, and when
eaten freely proves laxative.  It is adapted  for febrile and inflammatory cases ;  and is
sometimes employed to form whey, (see Tamarind  Whey, p. 124.)  The East Indian
tamarind has a much longer pod than the West Indian fruit.
  The unripe pods  of  Phaseolus vulgaris,  (Kidney bean  or Haricot,) commonly called
French beans, form, when boiled, a favorite dish ; though their nutritive properties are but
slight.  They are  also eaten as a pickle.   Scarlet beans,  (the unripe pods of Phaseolus
mulliflorus,) when boiled, are also brought to table, and greatly resemble the French bean,
to which they are preferred by many.
  7. Svconus.—The Fig is a familiar illustration of the collective fruit called by botanists
the Syconus.  It consists of a pulpy or fleshy pear-shaped receptacle, within which are
many seed-like bodies, which are the fruits (achenia) properly so called.   In the green or
unripe state  figs contain an acrid bitter juice ;  but as they ripen, this disappears, and is
replaced by sugar ; and  in this state  they form  an agreeable and  wholesome  food.  The
figs, which are imported, have been  dried in the sun or in ovens, are compressed, covered
with a whitish saccharine efflorescence, and have an agreeable though peculiar odor, and
sweet taste.  In this state  if freely eaten they are  apt to produce disorder of the stomach
and bowels, and occasion flatulence, griping, and slight relaxation  of bowels, especially
in children.  Their composition is as follows :—

                               COMPOSITION  OF FIGS.
               Granular sugar (glucose)     .    .   . '  .   .   •    •    62-5
               Fatty matter..........0-9
               Extractive with chloride of calcium.....0-4
               Gurn with phosphoric acid.......5-2
               Woody fibre  and achenia.......150
               Water...........16-0
                                                                  1000

   In eastern countries figs are eaten as food; but here they are taken as a dessert princi-
 pally.  A roasted or boiled fig is a popular poultice for gum-boils.
   8.  Sorosis.—The  Mulberry  belongs to this  order  of fruits. It consists of the female
 flowers, become fleshy and grown together, and enclosing a dry membranous pericarp.
 Its constituents are as  follows:—

                           CONSTITUENTS OF MULBERRIES.
Coloring matter.
Pectine.
Bitartrate of Potash.
Sugar.
Woody fibre.
Water.
  Mulberries possess very slightly  nutritive qualities.  They check thirst, relieve febrile
heat, and, when eaten freely, gently relax the bowels.
  The Pine-apple,—the most delicious of fruits,—is, like the mulberry, composed of ova-
ria  and floral envelopes, which have become fleshy and grown together.   It is a native
of South  America  and of some of the West India Islands, and  is now naturalized in
several of the hotter parts of Asia  and Africa.  Its juice was  examined  by Adet, who
states its constituents to be as follows :— 
176                          COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
CONSTITUENTS OF THE JUICE OF THE PINE-APPLE.
Peculiar Aroma.
Sugar.
Gum.
Malic Acid.
Citric and Tartaric Acids.
Water.
  " Ripe pine-apples,"  says  Dr. Wright,* " are amongst the finest of our fruits in  the
West Indies, and  are  relished by all ranks of people, especially sick of acute diseases,
dysenteries, &c.  They  have a detersive  quality, and  are  better fitted to cleanse  the
mouth and gums than any gargle whatever.  Besides being eaten raw, they are often
candied  with sugar, and sent home as presents."   The same authority adds that they
are made into tarts and pickles.   I have before stated (see p. 79)  that they are used
for flavoring rum.
  9. Etjerio.—To this  order  of fruits belong the Strawberry, the Raspberry, and  the
Blackberry.
  In the Strawberry, the seed-like pericarps are dry, but are placed upon a fleshy or pulpy
receptacle, which forms the juicy or succulent part of the fruit.  The strawberry consti-
tutes one of the most delicious of our summer fruits.   The  following are the constituents
of it :—

                       CONSTITUENTS OF THE STAWBERRY.
Peculiar volatile Aroma.
Sugar.
Mucilage.
Pectine.
MancicidSe^P"t80f^-
Woody fibre.
Pericarps.
Water.
  Strawberries contain a very small portion only of nutritive matter.   They are employed
as a very admired  dessert, and also  in the preparation of jellies and jams, (see p. 70.)
The grains or seed-like pericarps are not digestible, and, it is  stated, are apt to excite
intestinal  irritation.  The late  Dr.  Armstrong entertained  a very strong opinion of the
injurious effects of these grains, and,  on one occasion, in which I met him in consulta-
tion, he directed the  patient to suck strawberries through muslin, in order to prevent  the
grains being swallowed.  The cream  frequently taken  with strawberries is objectionable
for dyspeptics.
  The Raspberry differs in several respects from the strawberry.   The pericarps (some--
times called  drupes) are succulent instead  of dry; while the receptacle, which in  the
strawberry is juicy, is in the raspberry dry and spongy.   In 1838  this  fruit was analyzed
by Bley, who found its constituents to be as follows :—

                       CONSTITUENTS  OF THE RASPBERRY.
Volatile oil,
Citric acid.
Malic acid.
Crystallizable, fermentable sugar.
Red coloring matter.
Mucus.
Woody fibre.
  It is obvious, however, that he has omitted pectine, which is a well-known constituent
of raspberries.  The ashes contained carbonate, phosphate, and muriate  of potash, car-
bonate and phosphate pf lime and magnesia, silica, and oxide  of iron.
  The raspberry is  an agreeable  acidulous  fruit, containing very little nourishment, but
rarely disturbing the stomach.  If eaten freely it promotes the action of the bowels.   Be-
sides being  used at the  table as a  dessert, it is employed in the preparation of jellies,
jams, raspberry vinegar, (see p. 70,)  and  creams.  The latter preparation is  an objec-
tionable one for dyspeptics.

                           * Medicinal Plants of Jamaica. 
TURNIPS.
177
            ORDER III.—ROOTS, SUBTERRANEOUS STEMS, AND TUBERS.
  This order includes the Turnip, the Carrot, the Parsnip, the Beet, the Potato, and the
Jerusalem Artichoke.
  Before proceeding to notice them individually, it may be advantageous to give a tabu-
lar view of their relative digestibility, according to Dr. Beaumont's  experiments :—
     RELATIVE DIGESTIBILITY OF TURNIPS, PARSNIPS, POTATOES, CARROTS,
                                    AND BEETS.
			MEAN TIME OF CHYMIFICATION.				
ARTICLES OF DIET.							
			IN STOMACH.			IN phials.	
			Preparation.	H.	M.	Preparation.	H. M.
Parsnips			Boiled	2	30	Mashed	6 45
Potatoes, Irish			Roasted Baked	2 2	30 30		
Carrot, orange			Boiled	3	15	Mashed	6 15
Turnips, flat			Boiled	3	30		
Potatoes, Irish			Boiled	3	30	Mashed	8 30
Beets .			Boiled	3	45		
Parsnips			Boiled			Entire piece	13 15
Parsnips			Raw			Entire piece	18 0
Carrot, orange						Entire piece	12 30
			Raw			Entire piece	17 15
Potatoes, Irish						Entire piece	14 0
   The Cruciferous or Siliquose root called the Turnip, is, on account of the large propor-
 tion of water of which it is made up, but slightly nutritive.  By drying it in vacuo, at 230°
 F., Boussingault* found  the relative proportion of solid  and liquid matters which it con-
 tains to be as follows:—
                    QUANTITY OF SOLID MATTER IN TURNIPS.
                Water..........925
                Solid matter.........75
                         Turnips     .......1000
   The same chemist submitted  the  solid or dried matter of turnips to ultimate analysis,
and obtained the following results :—
                ULTIMATE COMPOSITION  OF THE DRIED TURND?.
                Carbon       .........42 C
                Hydrogen.........55
                Oxygen..........423
                Nitrogen..........17
                Ashes..........76
                         Dried Turnip......100 0
   The juice of the turnip contains two nitrogenous constituents, viz. vegetable fibrine and
vegetable albumen.  The first coagulates spontaneously on standing,—the second is after-
wards coagulated by heat.
   The turnip,  though very slightly nutritive, is in general easily digested;  and though by
some it is reputed  flatulent, I have never seen it prove so when it has been well boiled.
   The Carrol  and  Parsnip are umbelliferous  roots in common  use.  They contain vege-
ble fibrine, vegetable albumen, sugar, and volatile oil.  The following are the constituents
of the expressed and dried juice  of the carrot:—

                * Memoires de VAcademic Royale des Sciences, t. xviii.  1842,
12 
178                        COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
                 EXPRESSED AND DRIED JUICE OF THE CARROT.
           Fixed oil, with some volatile oil.......10
           Red crystalline neutral substance (carotin)    ■    .    .    .          034
           Uncrystallizable sugar, with some starch and malic acid .    .     •    9371
           Albumen............435
           Ashes (alumina, lime, and iron).....:     .     0 60
                                                                      100 00
  Both the carrot and the parsnip  are highly nutritive; but the volatile oil  which  they
contain renders their flavor unpleasant to many, and causes them to be apt to disagree
with some dyspeptics.
  The Beet-root is the produce of a  Chenepodiaceous plant, and is used both as a garnish
and a salad.
  The Jerusalem Artichoke  is  the tuber of the Helianlhus tuberosus.   It  is in use, on the
continent, as a substitute for the potato, to which it is inferior  in nutritive power as well
as in flavor.   In taste it somewhat resembles the bottom of the Garden Artichoke, (Cynara
Scolymus.)
  The Potato,* (Solanum tuberosum,) next to the Cerealia, is the most important and val-
uable of the esculent vegetables.  For its introduction into England, from America, we
are indebted to Sir Walter Raleigh.
  The part of the plant  which is used as food is the tuber attached to  the subterranean
stem, of which, in.fact, it may be regarded as a part in a state  of excessive development.
It is provided with a number of buds, commonly called  eyes, which, with contiguous por-
tions of the potatoes, are used, under the name Of sets, for multiplying the species.
  When examined by the microscope the  tissue of the potato is found to  consist of a mass
of cells, between  and within which is an albuminous liquor.  Each cell also contains about
ten or twelve starch grains.
  Potatoes have been repeatedly subjected to chemical examination;  but the most im-
portant investigations are those of Einhof, Lampadius, Vauquelin, Otto, Baup, Michaelis,
and Boussingault.  The last-mentioned chemist submitted the potato to ultimate analysis,f
and obtained the following results :—
                      ULTIMATE ANALYSIS OF THE POTATO.
Water......75.9
Solid matter dried at 230° F. in
  vacuo......24 1
1000
Carbon......440
Hydrogen.....58
Oxygen......447
Nitrogen.....]5
Ashes......40
                                            Solid matter dried at 230° F. in
                                              vacuo.....100 0
  So that 100 parts of the Potato, in its ordinary state, contain the following substances:—
       Water.......        .......   759
       Carbon.....10 604 "]
       Oxygen"   .'    .'    !   ]   \  iJ'S  SoM ™*erd^ at 230° F.
       Nitrogen.....0 3615 [  mvacuo.....«'»
       Ashes      .....0 9840 J                            -----
                                                                          100 0

  * This plant is sometimes confounded by writers with the Batatas edulis, the Convolvulus Batatas of
most botanists, whose tuberous roots are  called  Sweet Potatoes, Spanish Potatoes, or Batatas.  The
latter constitute the Potatoes of Shakespeare, as well as of some other authors.  When boiled or baked
they form a wholesome farinaceous food, which, however, is slightly laxative, and according to many
writers, aphrodisiac.
  t Memoires de I'Academie des Sciences de I'Instiiut de France, t. xviii.  1842, p. 345. 
POTATOES.
179
  From this analysis we learn that the proportion of nitrogen contained in the potato is
very small;  but it is still smaller in potatoes that have been kept for some time.
100 parts of	Moisture.	Nitrogen in dried substance.	Nitrogen in un-dried substance.
Potato, lresh Ditto, kept 10 months	794 768	1-80 1 18	037 028
  From these statements it follows, that if nitrogenized principles alone contribute to the
nutrition of the body, the  nutritive power of the potato must be very low;  or, in  other
words, its nutritive equivalent must be very high, (see p. 28;)  and accordingly both Bous-
singault and  Liebig  have endeavored  to  show that this is really the case.   Two  milch
cows, says Boussingault,* were  fed with a quantity of potatoes  according to  my equiva-
lents.  They  always consumed their rations, and had they been fed with less  would have
been insufficiently nourished.  A horse may be kept alive by feeding it with potatoes, ob-
serves Liebig,f but life thus supported  is a gradual starvation;  the animal increases nei-
ther in size nor strength, and sinks under every exertion.
  If we assume  that all  the  nitrogenized principles of the potato are alimentary, it  fol-
lows that butcher's meat is about 104 times as nutritive as  the  potato.   But  solanine,
and probably  other  constituents of the potato, are nitrogenized though not alimentary
principles ;  and we may, therefore, estimate  1 lb. of butcher's meat as being equal, in nu-
tritive power, to 10i  lbs. of potatoes.
  In the year 1840 some experiments were made on the effects of different diets, on the
prisoners confined in the Glasgow Bridewell; and the  following extract from the reportj
of the inspectors  of  prisons, deserves to be noticed here in connection with the preceding
observations on the nutritive powers of potatoes.
  " Eighth Diet.—Cost,  including cooking, lid.
  Breakfast.—2 lbs.  of potatoes boiled.
  Dinner.—3 lbs. of potatoes boiled.
  Supper.—1 lb. of potatoes boiled.
  A class of ten young men and boys was put on this diet.  All had been  in confinement for short
periods only, and all were employed at light  work, teazing hair.  At  the  beginning of the experiment
eight were in good health, and two in indifferent health; at the  end, the eighth continued in good health,
and the  two who had been in indifferent health had improved.  There was on an average, a gain in
weight of nearly 3i  lbs. per prisoner, the greatest gain being 8i lbs., by a young man, whose health had
been indifferent at the beginning of the experiment.  Only two prisoners lost at all in weight, and the
quantity in each case was trifling.  The prisoners all expressed themselves quite satisfied with this diet,
and regretted the change back again to the ordinary diet."

  Now the quantity of nitrogen,  contained in the six pounds  of potato allowed to each
of these prisoners, was equal to that contained  in somewhat more than nine  ounces of
butcher's meat.
  The  proximate principles  of the  potato are water, starchy matter, (starch  grains  and
amylaceous fibre,) ligneous matter, proteinaceous principles, (vegetable  fibrine, vegetable al-
bumen, and gluten,) fat, gum, asparagine, extractive, vegetable acids, salts, and  occasionally
solanina.
  The  following  is  a recent  analysis, by  Michaelis,  of a  red variety of potato, which
was suspected to possess injurious properties.


  * Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. t. 67, p. 410, et seq.
  t Chemistry in its  Application to Agriculture and Physiology, p. 82, 2d ed.  1842.
  |  Fifth Report of the Inspectors of Prisons.  IV. Scotland, Northumberland, and Durham, pp. viii.—xi. 
180                           COMPOUND ALIMENTS.

                   PROXIMATE COMPOSITION  OF THE POTATO.
              Water...........66875
              Starch and amylaceous fibre......30-469
              Albumen.........    .   0-503
              Gluten      ..........0055
              Fat...........0056
              Gum...........0020
              Asparagin..........0-063
              Extractive..........0-921
              Chloride of potassium........0-176
              Silicate, phosphate, and citrate of iron, manganese, alumina, )
                soda, potash, and lime, (of these, potash and citric acid are > 0815
                the prevailing ingredients)     .    .    .    .     •    .  )
              Free citric acid.........0047
                                                                 100000
  I have already given some account of Potato Starch, (see p. 65,) as  well  as  figures
representing its microscopic appearance, (see p. 61.)  The quantity obtained from potatoes
is subject to considerable diversity, (see p. 59;) and varies  not only with the sort of po-
tato used but also with the season.
    QUANTITY OF  STARCH YIELDED BY 100 lbs. OF POTATOES AT DIFFERENT
                                      SEASONS.
           In August, about     .    .   10 lbs. I   In March   ....    17 lbs.
           In September   .   .    .   14i   I   In April   ....    131
           In October ....   14*      In May    ....    10
           In November   ...   17
  From this it will be seen that the quantity of starch  is at  its  maximum  in the winter
season.  In the spring vegetation becomes active, and  the buds begin to grow at  the ex-
pense of the starch contained in the tuber.   Hence at this season potatoes are less mealy,
and, in consequence, less esteemed for the table.
  Potato starch agrees with the other amylaceous substances in its alimentary and  dieteti-
cal properties, (see pp. 62 and 65.)   Being  devoid of nitrogen it is of course inferior  in
the nutritive power to the flour or meal  of the  cereal grains, which  contain vegetable
fibrine, vegetable  albumen, and gluten.  But  being readily soluble  in boiling water, it
yields  several  agreeable  articles of food.   It  is sold  in the shops under  the name  of
Potato Flour or  English Arrow-root.  Bright1 s Nutritious Farina, sold for invalids and
infants, is a carefully prepared potato starch  slightly  scented.   The  substance sold as
Indian Corn Starch is potato  starch colored blue.  Bright's  Universal  Sanative Breakfast
Beverage appears to be a mixture of potato starch and chocolate.
   The presence of Citric acid in the potato deserves to be especially noticed, since  on it
probably  depends, in a great measure, the antiscorbutic  property of this tuber.  Baup*
says that the potato yields sufficient  citric acid  to admit of its  being employed for the
preparation of this acid, for commercial purposes.
   Solanina, a vegetable alkali possessing powerfully  narcotic properties,  has been de-
tected by Otto  in the buds  and  underground shoots of the  potato.  "If potatoes are
grown where they are not supplied with earth, the magazine of inorganic bases,  (in cel-
lars, for example,) a true alkali, called solanin, of very poisonous nature, is formed  in
the sprouts which extend  towards the light, while not  the smallest trace of such a sub-
stance can be discovered in the roots, herbs, blossoms, or fruits of potatoes  grown in the
field."f   The most delicate test of solanina  is,  according to  Otto, iodine.  If small pieces
of this be added to a weak solution of solanina, (as the sulphate,) they become surround-
ed by  a brown syrupy fluid.  A watery solution of iodine also forms, with a very  weak

        * Pharmaceutisches Central-Blalt fitr 1836, p. 47.
        t Otto, quoted by Liebig, Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture, p. 100. 2d edit. 
POTATOES.                                181
solution of solanina, a brownish color.*  Michaelis,t however, declares that the color thus
produced  depends not  on the solanina, but on the  fatty acid of an alkaline [basic] cal-
careous soap contained in the potato.  Solanina or  other noxious principle, if present  at
all, must be contained in extremely small quantity  in the potato, or must be destroyed  or
removed by  cooling, since  notwithstanding  the  universal employment of this vegetable,
poisonous effects from it are never heard of; or if they occur must be exceedingly rare.
Nauche asserts that the infusion or  decoction of potatoes promotes the  renal  and biliary
secretions, and slightly affects the nervous system.  If the observation be correct, it would
follow that the water, in which potatoes are boiled, extracts or destroys some noxious
matter ; and as both baked and  roasted potatoes  are likewise wholesome, it follows that
heat alone is capable of destroying the noxious principle of the potato.
   When potatoes are boiled in water the albumen of the liquor contained in the cells and
intercellular  spaces is coagulated, and the starch grains absorb the watery portion of it,
swell up, and distend the cells in which they are contained.  The coagulated albumen
forms irregular fibres between the starch grains, and probably, also,  covers them with a
thin film of albumen.  Lastly, the cells, in which the starch grains are contained, separate
from each other.  Potatoes in which these changes are  complete are  called mealy, while
those in which they are only partially effected are called watery, doughy, or waxy.  Pota-
toes,  unlike  potato starch, do not yield, by boiling, a mucilage or jelly.  This arises  pro-
bably from the starch  grains being enveloped by a coating of coagulated albumen, as well
as by the membrane of the cell in which the grains are contained.
   Potatoes, when in good condition and cooked by boiling, form a nutritious  and easily
digestible  article  of food.   From an experiment made  on the prisoners in the Glasgow
Bridewell, it would appear that baked potatoes are less nourishing than boiled ones.  The
following is  an extract,  from the report of the Inspectors, bearing on the point :\—

  " First Diet.— Cost, including cooking, 2id.
  Breakfast.—8 ozs. oatmeal, made into porridge, with a pint of Buttermilk.
  Dinner.—3 lbs. of boiled potatoes with salt.
  Supper.—5 ozs. of oatmeal made into porridge, with half a pint of buttermilk.
  Ten prisoners were put on this diet, (five men and five boys,) all under sentences of confinement for
two months, and all employed at light work, (picking hair and cotton.)  At the beginning of the experi-
ment eight were in good health and two in indifferent health ; at the end all were  in good health, and
they had on an average gained more than 4 lbs. each in weight, only one prLoner, (a man,) having lost
in weight.  The greatest gain was 9 lbs. 4 ozs., and was made by one of the men.  The prisoner who
was reduced in weight had lost 5 lbs. 2 ozs."
  The second diet  was similar  to the first, except, that a third of a pint of skimmed milk was substituted
at breakfast for a pint of buttermilk.  Five  young men and five women, some of whom had been in
prison for several months, were put on this diet.   All were in good health at the beginning of the expe-
riment and all in good health at the end.  On an average each prisoner had gained rather more than
4 lbs. in weight.
  " Third diet.__Cost, including cooking, 2i{d.  This diet was the same as the first, except that the pota-
toes were baked instead of  boiled.  Three young men, two boys, and five young women, were put upon
this diet.  Most of them had been in confinement about five months.  The men and boys and two of the
women were employed in weaving, and the other three women in winding and twisting.  All were in
good health, both at the beginning and at the end of the experiment. There was, however, an  average
loss of H lb.  in weight, the greatest loss being 10 lbs., (by a man,) who had been in prison nearly five
months, and the greatest gain 6i lbs. by a woman, who had been in prison about eight weeks.  The
prisoners all disliked the baked potatoes."

  * Otto, Pharmaceutisches Central BUM fur 1834, pp. 458-459.
  t Ibid./iir 1833, p. 379.
  1 Fifth Report of the Inspectors of Prisons.  IV.  Scotland, Northumberland, and Durham, pp. viii.—xi. 
182                          COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
    In order to  render potatoes more palatable they are usually boiled only so far as to
  make them soft without affecting their shape; and probably in this state they contain a
  larger amount  of nutritive matter than if longer boiled.   It  can scarcely, however, be
  doubted that  they must be more  readily permeated by the gastric juice, and, therefore,
  more easily digested, if boiled until they begin to break down, or are so softened as to be
  readily mashed.
    Hard and waxy potatoes must, for the same reason, be less digestible than mealy ones;
  and new potatoes being less mealy  are less easily  digested than old ones.
    The influence of a freezing temperature  on the potato is remarkable.  The effect is
  mechanical; the watery juice contained in the cells and intercellular spaces,  expands in
  the  act of freezing, and by this means ruptures and isolates the cells, and destroys the
  organization of the tuber.   It does not appear, however, that any  chemical change is
  produced in the first instance either on  the starch or the other constituents, for Girardin*
  obtained the same proportions  of water, fecula, woody fibre, albumen, sugar, and  saline
  matters, from frosted, as from unfrosted potatoes.  But it is obvious that when the organ-
  ization and life  of the potato  is destroyed, decomposition  must  soon succeed; though
  even then the fecula or starch seems but little  altered.
    I have already slightly alluded to the antiscorbutic property of the  potato, and which I
  have in  part  ascribed to  the  contained citric  acid.  The importance of the subject de-
.  mands a more  specific  reference  to it.  Sir  Gilbert Blanef mentions that raw potatoes
  sliced, with vinegar, had been found beneficial in scurvy.  Much more recently, M. Julia
  FontanelleJ gave a brief sketch of its antiscorbutic effects on  sailors, many of whom, he
  states, declared themselves to have been cured of the  scurvy  by  long-continued  use of
  potatoes very slightly baked under the ashes, and eaten without salt.  Nauche$ also  tes-
  tifies to the antiscorbutic properties of this vegetable ; which he used  in the  form of a de-
  coction.  Mr. Dalton|| and  Mr.  BerncastlelT  have recommended the  use of  potatoes as a
  preventive of scurvy in ships making long voyages.  Dr. Baly,** Physician to the General
  Penitentiary at Milbank, has published some interesting observations on the antiscorbutic
  quality of the potato; and he declares that its  efficacy is not, as some had supposed, im-
  paired by a boiling heat, but " as ordinarily cooked, it is an admirable preservative against the
  scurvy."   In  1840  he found that scurvy was  a  disease of rather frequent  occurrence
  among the military prisoners, while among the convicts  it was never seen.  The exemp-
  tion  of the latter  he found could only be attributed to their weekly diet containing five lbs. of
  potatoes and an  onion.  The military prisoners, therefore, were allowed two lbs. of pota-
  toes  weekly during  the  first three months  of their imprisonment, three  lbs.  during  the
 second three months, and four lbs. after the expiration of six months.  " This addition to
 the dietary of the military prisoners was made in January, 1842, and  not a single case of
 scurvy has since occurred."  Dr. Baly has also shown, from the Reports  of the Inspec-
 tors  of Prisons, that in those prisons where scurvy has prevailed, the  diet of the prisoners,
 though often abundant in other respects, has contained no potatoes, or only  a  very small
 quantity ;  and that in several prisons the appearance of the disease has wholly ceased on
 the addition of a few pounds of potatoes being made to the weekly dietary.
   These facts, then, are of high importance, inasmuch as the  potato is a cheap and rea-
 dily  accessible preventive of scurvy—a  disease which the excellent reports of the prison
 inspectors have shown to be of frequent occurrence in Great Britain.ff

   * Journal de Pharmacie, t. xxiv. p. 301.   1839.        t Diseases of the Fleet.  1781.
   X Journal de Chimie Medicate, t. ii. p. 129.  1826.      § Ibid. t.  vii. p. 374.   || Lancet, Sept. 4, 1842.
   T Ibid. Sept. 23, 1842.     ** London Medical Gazette, Feb. 10, 1843.       tt Appendix, I. 
LEAVES AND LEAFSTALKS.                       183
                     ORDER IV.—BUDS AND YOUNG SHOOTS.
  Onions, Leeks, Garlic, and Shallots, though usually ranked among roots, (bulbous roots,)
are in reality buds,  formed at  or beneath the ground, and whose scales are  thick and
fleshy.  They owe their  peculiar odor and flavor, as well as their pungent and stimula-
ting qualities, to an acrid volatile oil which contains sulphur.  This oil becomes absorbed,
quickens the circulation, and occasions thirst.  Passing out of the system by the different
excreting organs it communicates its peculiar smell to the secretions.   Hence the well-
known odor of the breath after eating onions or garlic.  The following are the constitu-
ents of onions, according to Fourcroy and Vauquelin:—
                           COMPOSITION  OF THE ONION.
                    Acrid volatile oil.                Woody fibre.
                    Uncrystallizable sugar.           Acetic and phosphoric acids.
                    Gum.                         Phosphate and carbonate of lime.
                    Vegetable albumen.             Water.
  Garlic, Leeks, and Shallots, have a similar composition.
  If the volatile oil be dissipated by  boiling, these bulbs no  longer possess any acrid or
stimulating qualities.  They then form mild and  easily digestible aliments:  whereas in
the raw state, that is, with the oil, they are pungent, acrid, difficultly digestible, stimulating
substances.
  The young shoots of Asparagus officinale  form a delicious article of food, known at ta-
ble  as Asparagus.   Their constituents are as follows :—
                          COMPOSITION OF ASPARAGUS.
                Asparagine (Asparamide.)            Woody fibre.
                Gum.                             Acetate, malate, phosphate, and muri-
                Uncrystallizable sugar.                   ate of potash and lime.
                Vegetable albumen.                  Iron.
                Resin.
  Asparagine is a crystalline substance whose formula is C8 H8 N2 O" + Aq".   Liebig re-
gards it as a nutritive agent, (see Theine.)
  Asparagus is a wholesome,  very agreeable, light kind of aliment, which acts as a mild
diuretic,  and communicates a peculiar and unpleasant odor to the urine.  It was  former-
ly charged with causing bloody urine  and accelerating the fits of the gout, but there does
not appear to be any ground for such an accusation.   It is usually brought to table with
toasted bread and melted butter, and is sometimes  eaten in soup.
                       ORDER  V.—LEAVES AND  LEAFSTALKS.
  The green color of foliaceous parts depends on  the presence of green globules contain-
ed in the  cells of the leaf.  These  globules  consist  of a substance called  chlorophylle,
which, in its properties, is intermediate between resin  and fat.  It does not appear to pos-
sess any alimentary properties.
  " The green  matter  of plants," says Dr.  Prout,* " is  in general  little acted on by the
stomachs of the higher animals; and hence may, in  most cases, safely form the portion
of the food of diabetic individuals, as  first,  I believe,  recommended by Dr. B. G.  Babing-
ton:  though on  very  different  principles.  In many cases of common dyspepsia, also,
more especially connected with derangements of the lower intestines, and with irritable
states of the mucous  membrane,  the green matter of plants contributes, as above men-
tioned, to the action of the bowels by its excremental  properties.  In dyspeptic affections,
however, more immediately connected with the stomach, it is  apt to disagree, by produ-
cing acidity and flatulence, and their consequences ;  and as such forms of dyspepsia are
by  far the  most common,  herbaceous vegetable matters in general are much less suited
for dyspeptic individuals than farinaceous."
       * On the Nature and Treatment of Stomach and Urinary Diseases, p. 300, 3d ed.   1840. 
184                          COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
  The CabbageTribe includes the Cabbage, (both white and.red,) the Savoy, Greens, the
Cauliflower, and Broccoli.   The  parts used  are the  leaves, and, in the case of the two
last-mentioned substances, the young and compact flowering heads.
  These vegetables by drying lose more than 90 per cent, of water.  The dried residue
is remarkably rich in nitrogen as  well as in sulphur.
100 parts of	Water lost by-drying at212° F.	Nitrogen in the dried residue.	Nitrogen in the undried plant.
Cabbage ....	92-3	37	0-28
  According to Boussingault,* from whom these data are  taken, 810 parts of fresh cab-
bage, or 83 parts of  dried cabbage, are  equal, in nutritive power, to 100 parts of wheat,
(see p. 27.)
  The following are the results of Dr. Beaumont's experiments on the digestibility of the
cabbage:—

                           DIGESTIBILITY OF CABBAGE.
ARTICLES OF DIET.	MEAN TIME OF CHYMIFICATION.			
	IN STOMACH.		IN PHIALS.	
	Preparation.	H. M.	Preparation.	H. M.
Cabbage with vinegar . . .	Raw Raw Boiled	2 0 2 20 4 30	Shaved Masticated Boiled	10 15 12 30 20 0
The Cabbage has been analyzed by Schrader ;f the Cauliflower by Trommsdorff.J:
234
2-89
0 05
029
063
                Cabbage
Extractive
Gummy extractive
Resin
Vegetable albumen
Green fecula
Water with acetic acid,
  nitrate of potash, chloride of potassi-
  um, malate  and  phosphate  of lime, }-93 80
  phosphate of magnesia, iron and man-
  ganese    .        ....

                                 10000
sulphate and")
                                                           Cauliflower
                                            Coloring matter.
                                            Mucilage.
                                            Resin.
                                            Vegetable albumen, (about 05 per cent.)
                                            Chlorophylle.
                                            Fatty matter.
                                            Pectic acid, (a product1?)
                                            Woojiy fibre, (about 1-8 per cent.)
                                            Silica'.
                                            Water, (rather more than 90 per cent.)
                                            Malate of ammonia, malate of lime, free malic
                                              acid, acetate of potash, phosphate of lime,
                                              chloride of calcium, and sulphate of potash.

  Sourkrout or  Sauerkraut.—Sauerkraut is prepared  by the fermentation  of  cabbage.

The plants are collected from the fields in autumn, divided, the stalks removed, and the

leaves cut by machine or hand into  slices, a layer  of which is placed into  a vat,  alter-

nating with a layer of salt, until the vessel is filled, when it is subjected  to the pressure

of heavy weights placed on the whole.  At the  end  of six weeks, (more or less, accord-

ing to the temperature,) when  the  acetous fermentation is completed, it is considered fit

for  use.  The method  of cooking it in Germany is to stew it  simply in its own liquor,

with bacon, pork, or other fat  meat.  Dill, caraway seeds,  and other carminatives, are

sometimes added.
* Ann. de Chim. et Phys.
t Schvveigger's Journ fiir Chem. Bd. v. S. 19.  1812.
X Pharmaceutiiches Central-Blatt fur 1832, p. 97. 
RECEPTACLES  AND  BRACTS.—STEMS.
185
   Sauerkraut is not fitted for persons troubled with acidity of stomach.   It has a slightly
 relaxing effect on the bowels.  As an antiscorbutic it has long  been celebrated, and was
 highly spoken of by Capt. Cook.
   Turnip tops are frequently boiled and used as greens, but they are apt to disorder the
 bowels.   The same remarks likewise apply to Spinage.
   The  herbaceous part of the Water Cress, the seed leaves of White  Mustard  and of
 Common Cress,  and the leaves of Lettuce and Endive, are eaten raw, under the  name of
 Salads, (Acetaria,) with the addition of vinegar, oil, salt, and sometimes mustard.  They
 of course yield very little nourishment.  The three  first-named plants probably owe their
 pungency to  a  minute portion of sulphureted volatile oil, analogous  to that found in
 horse-radish.
   Lettuce leaves are used at  table as a salad.  They usually abound in a cooling, bland,
 pellucid juice ;  but the more advanced plant contains a bitter, milky juice, which has a
 slight tendency  to promote sleep.   Hence  lettuce  leaves are  eaten at supper by those
 troubled with watchfulness.   Galen, in his old age, obtained relief in this way.   It is pru-
 dent, however,  to avoid the use of this salad when any tendency to apoplexy manifests
 itself.  The inspissated milky juice of the lettuce is called Lactucarium, or Lettuce Opium,
 and is  employed  medicinally as an anodyne, sedative, and soporific.  Mr. Loudon enu-
 merates no less  than fourteen varieties of the  lettuce, which  are cultivated by gardeners
 for the table.  Of these, seven are Cabbage le#uces,  and seven Cos lettuces.
   The stalks of Rhubarb leaves are used, when peeled, for making pies, tarts,  and pud-
 dings, in the manner of apples and gooseberries.  Most species of Rheum may serve for
 this purpose; but Rheum Rhaponticum  and Rheum hybridum are the kinds usually cul-
 tivated.   Rheum palmatum and Rheum Emodi yield excellent tart rhubarb.   Lassaigne
 found in the stalks of Rheum Rhaponticum oxalic and  malic acids.   The presence of
 oxalates makes  this food highly objectionable where there  is a tendency to oxalate of lime
 calculi.  " I have seen," observes Dr. Prout, " well-marked instances in which an oxalate of
 lime nephritic attack has followed the free use of rhubarb, (in the shape of tarts, &c.,)
 particularly when  the patient  has been  in the habit, at the same time,  of drinking hard
 water."*
                     ORDER VI.—RECEPTACLES AND BRACTS.
   Of this order it will be necessary to  notice one  vegetable only, namely, the Garden
 Artichoke, (Cynara Scolymus,) whose flower-heads are used before the expansion of the
 flowers.   The parts of these  heads which are eaten, are, 1st, the fleshy receptacle, usu-
 ally called the bottom, deprived of the thistles and seed down, vulgarly termed the choke;
 and, 2dly, the talus, or base  of the involucral scales.  These contain a sweet saccharine
 and mucilaginous juice with starchy matter, and they form a bland readily digestible arti-
 cle of food; but the melted  butter, with which  they are usually  eaten, renders them
 objectionable for  dyspeptics and others with delicate stomachs.
                               ORDER VII.—STEMS.
  From the stems of several Cycadaceee, as well as from some Palms, is obtained a fari-
 naceous substance, which is employed, in the East, as an article of food.   Sago (see p.
63) is procured  from this source.

  * Rhubarb tarts  and pies are made of the young green stalks of the plant called in England " Spring
Fruit." After peeling ofl" the skin, cut the stalks into small pieces, and put them  in a saucepan with
plenty of brown sugar. Cover  it, and let it stew slowly in its own juice, till soft  enough to make a
marmalade, then set away to cook.  For pies, the rhubarb  should be cut very small, and a great deal
of sugar mixed with it. Bake about three quarters of an hour.—L. 
186                          COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
      CLASS II.   ALIMENTS DERIVED FROM FLOWERLESS PLANTS.
                                  ORDER I.—FERNS.
  From the tuberous rhizomes of ferns is obtained, in some of the Polynesian islands, as
well as in some other parts of the world, a farinaceous or ligneous matter, which is em-
ployed by the natives as a nutritive substance.  The rhizomes are cooked by baking or
roasting.  In general, however, they are only resorted to in times of scarcity, when other
and more palatable food cannot be  obtained.*
                                ORDER II.- LICHENS.
  Many lichens contain  a starchy or amylaceous  matter, analogous  to  gelatine, called
lichenin or feculoid, (see  p. 66,)  to which they owe their  alimentary qualities.  But it is
usually accompanied with a bitter principle, which gives them  an unpleasant flavor, and
renders them apt to disorder the bowels.  To separate the latter  substance they require
to be soaked in a cold weak alkaline solution, and then washed with cold water.
  Several species of Gyrophora, as G. proboscidea,  (s. arctica, G. hyperborea, G. Pennsyl-
vania, and G. Muhlenbergii, are employed by the hunters of the Arctic regions of America
as articles of food, under the name of Tripe de Roche.j  All four species were eaten by Capt.
Franklin and his companions, in 1821, when suffering great privations in America; and to its
use may their preservation be  in part ascribed.J   But not having the means of extracting
the bitter principle, these  lichens proved nrftrious to several of the party, producing severe
bowel complaints.
  Iceland Moss (Cetraria Islandica) is extensively  used in England, but principally as a
medicine.^   Its composition, according to Berzelius, is as follows :—
                          COMPOSITION OF  ICELAND MOSS.
            Starchy matter (lichenin)......        .   446
            Bitter principle (cetrarin)       ...       ...    30
            Uncrystallizable sugar      ........3-6
            Chlorophylle..........16
            Extractive matter     ....            ...    70
            Gum..........  .         ,37
            Bilichenates of potash and lime with phosphate of lime    .    .    19
            Amylaceous fibre........       36 2
                                                                     101-6
  Like the  other lichens, it must  be deprived of its bitter matter before it is  fit for use.
One  part of subcarbonate of potash (salt of tartar) dissolved in water,  and rendered


  *  Ellis, Polynesian Researches, vol. i., p. 363;  Bennett, Narrative of a Whaling Voyage, vol. ii., p.
394.  1810.—Dieffenbach (Travels in New Zealand, vol. ii., 1843) says, that the " korau or mamako, the
pulpous stem of a tree-fern, (Cyalhea medullaris,) is an excellent vegetable ;" and he adds, " it is pre-
pared by being cooked a whole night in a native oven."—[Besides these, the roots of Nephrodium escu-
lentum are eaten in Nipal, according to Dr. Buchanan.   Those of Angiopteris evecta are used for food
in the Sandwich Islands, under the name of Nehai.  Diplazium esculentum, Pteris esculenta, and Glei-
chenia dichotoma, are also occasionally employed for food in different  countries.  Pteris aquilina, and
Aspidiam filix mas have been used in  the manufacture of beer, and Aspidium fragans as a substitute
for tea.]—L.
  f  Gyrophora Muhlenbergii is employed by the North American Indians, boiled with fish-roe or other
animal matter, and is agreeable and nutritious.   The G. proboscidea is found abundantly on our highest
mountains, and is an extremely pleasant article  of food, and of a sweetish taste.—L.
  X  Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea.  1823.
  §  The Cetraria nivalis is also found in abundance on our  high mountains, and might be substituted,
with advantage, for the C. Islandica.   The Raindeer Moss, which forms the winter food  of that ani-
mal, is the Cenomyce rangiferina.—L. 
SEA WEEDS.
187
caustic by an equal weight of lime, is sufficient to extract the bitter principle out of twenty
parts of Iceland moss;  but for this purpose the plant must be soaked in the solution for
ten or fourteen days.  Thus deprived of its bitterness, Iceland moss may be used as food
by boiling it in water or milk, and flavoring with sugar, lemon, wine, or spices.  A con-
centrated decoction gelatinizes on cooling.
  A decoction of  Iceland moss, made with the unprepared plant, and therefore containing
the bitter principle, is used as a demulcent tonic in consumptive cases.  It is prepared by
boiling down five drachms of the moss and a pint and a half of water to one pint.   The
dose is from two table-spoonfuls to a  wine-glassful.

                        ORDER III.—ALGiE OR SEA  WEEDS.
  Several species of the inarticulated Algae are occasionally employed  in some parts of
the British islands as articles of food.   Some of them abound in a mucilaginous or vegeto-
gelatinous substance,  to which they in part  owe their dietetical uses.   Starch, and in
some cases sugar, are also alimentary principles of some of the Alga?.
  Laver  (Porphyra laciniata and vulgaris)  is sold in  the London  shops.  When boiled or
stewed for several  hours, until reduced  to a pulpy substance, it is brought to table as  a
luxury, under the name of Marine Sauce,  Sloke, or Slouk.*  In its absence, Green Laver
(Ulva latissima) is sometimes substituted for it.
  Carrageen or Irish Moss, called also Pearl Moss, (Chondrus crispus,) is extensively used,
partly as  a domestic remedy and partly as a nutritive substance.
  Its composition is as follows :—

                         COMPOSITION  OF CARRAGEENIN.
                 Vegetable jelly (Carrageenin).....79-1
                 Mucus..........9'5
                 Resin..........07
                 Fat and free acid........traces
                 Wfter    •    •    •......I    107
                 Salts.........i
                                                                1000
       The salts contain chlorine, iodine, bromine, sodium, magnesium, potassium, and calcium.
  The substance  which I have  elsewheref denominated Carrageenin (see p. 70,)  ap-
proximates to the mucilage of quince seed in composition.  Mulderf found it to consist of
carbon 4517, hydrogen 488, and oxygen 4995.
  Carrageenin possesses slight nutritive  qualities.   In the form of decoction, it is em-
ployed as a popular remedy for consumption, scrofula, &c.  A very concentrated decoc-
tion gelatinizes on cooling, and the jelly thus prepared is used, by careful housekeepers,
in the  preparation of Blanc-mange, jellies, white soup, &c.; but it is  a  wretched substi-
tute  for  gelatine, (isinglass or calves' feet.)  It  has  a fishy or sea-weed  flavor, especially
when it has been kept for some days.
  Ceylon or Jafna Moss (Gracilaria lichenoides) is a whitish filamentous sea weed brought
from India.  Its composition is as follows :—

                         COMPOSITION OF CEYLON MOSS.
               Vegetable jelly.........54-5
               True Starch..........150
               Ligneous fibre.........18*0

               * The Hon. W. H. Harvey's Manual of the British Alga.  1841.
               t See my Elements of Materia Medica, vol. ii. p. 874, 2d ed.
               X Pharmaceutisches Cenlral-Blalt fur 1838. 
188
COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
               Gum...........40
               Sulphate and muriate of soda......6-5
               Sulphate and phosphate of lime        .....10
               Wax, iron, and loss,     .    .         .....1-0

                                                                      100.0

   By boiling in water  it  yields a liquid which  gelatinizes on  cooling.  The  decoction  or
jelly forms an agreeable, light, nourishing article of food for invalids and children.*

                          ORDER IV. FUNGI OR MUSHROOMS.
   Though a considerable number of species of fungi are edible in fact, several  form deli-
cious articles of food—a small number only are  in  common use  in England.  This has
arisen,  in  great  measure, from the difficulty experienced by the public  in  discriminating
wholesome from poisonous species.   Nay, it would appear that the same species is under
some circumstances edible, under others deleterious.  This, if true, is a very proper ground
for distrust.   " So strongly did the late Professor L. C. Richard feel the prudence of this,
that although no one was better acquainted with the distinctions of fungi, he would never
eat any, except  such  as had been  raised in  gardens  in mushroom beds."f  The edible
species in most common use  in England are—1st. Agaricus campeslris, (Common Field or
 Cultivated Mushroom,) which, in the adult state, is employed in the preparation of ketchup,
and is eaten fresh,  either stewed or broiled : the  young or button mushroom is  pickled.
2dly. Morchella esculenta, (Common Morel,) employed to flavor gravies, ragouts, Sic.   3dly.
 Tuber cibarium, (Common Truffle,)  a subterraneous fungus, used for seasoning.  No less
than thirty-three species of fungi are eaten in  Russia-J
   The  supposed alimentary principle of mushrooms is fungin, already  described, (see p.
68,)  to which must, in  some cases, be added  mannite.  But it appears to me by no means
 clearly made out that these vegetables possess  much  nutritive power.§  They are  cer-

   * Besides the Algce above mentioned, we may, on the authority ofLindley, add the Rhodomelapalmata,
 the dulse of the Scots, dillesk of the Irish, and saccharine Fucus of the Icelanders, which is consumed in
large quantities throughout the maritime countries of  the north of Europe, and in the Grecian Archipel-
ago ; the Irideea edulis, employed in Scotland and the  southwest of England ; the Enleromorpha com-
pressa, used by the Sandwich Islanders as an esculent, and found on our shores ; the Laurenlia pinnali-
fida (Pepper-dulse) and  Laminaria digitata, (Tangle,) both eaten in Scotland, and hawked about the streets
of Edinburgh with the cry, " buy dulse and tangle ;" the Alaria esculenta,  which forms part of the simple
fare of the poorer classes of Ireland, Scotland, Iceland, Denmark, and the Faroe  Islands.   The Laminaria
potatorum furnishes the aborigines of Australia with a large proportion of their food, vessels, and instruments ;
the Durvitlea ulilis constitutes an equally important resource to the  poor on the west coast of South
America.  In Asia several species of gelidium are made use of to render more palatable the hot and bit-
ing condiments of  the East.  Some undetermined species of their gums furnish the materials of which
the edible swallow's-nests are composed.  Lamouroux remarks that three species of swallow construct
edible nests, two of which build at a distance from the sea coast, and use the sea weed only as a cement
for other matters.  The  nests of the third are  consequently most esteemed, and  sold for nearly then-
 weight in gold.  Gracilaria  lichenoides, mentioned by our author, is highly valued for  food in Ceylon
and  other parts of the east; and  G. compressa, found  in Great Britain and this country, is scarcely in-
ferior to it.  To the lower animals sea weeds also furnish invaluable resources in times of scarcity of other
food. In the north of Europe the Rhodomela palmata  is a favorite article with sheep and goats : in some
 of the Scottish islands horses, cattle, and  sheep feed  chiefly upon Fucus  vesicubsus  during the  winter
months, and in Gothland it is  commonly given to pigs.  Fucus serralus and Chorda filum constitute a
part of the fodder upon which the cattle are supported in Norway.—L.
   t Lindley, Natural System of Botany, 2d ed. p. 442
   X Dr. (now Sir G.) Lefevre, London Medical Gazette, vol. xxiii. p. 414.
   § " We do not believe," says the eccentric Dr. Kitchener, in his Cook's Oracle, "that  mushrooms are
 nutritive." 
TEA.                                    189
tainly difficult of digestion, and on certain  constitutions act very injuriously.   Invalids,
dyspeptics, and others with delicate stomachs, will act prudently in avoiding the use of
this doubtful order of foods.*
                         2. LIQUID ALIMENTS OR DRINKS.
   The  basis of all  drinks is water, which I have already considered among alimentary
principles.  I have  now to notice the compounded liquid aliments, or those composed of
water combined  with some  other substance.  These I shall  arrange  in six  orders, as
follows:—
                  1. Mucilaginous, farinaceous, or saccharine drinks.
                  2. Aromatic or astringent drinks.
                  3. Acidulous drinks.
                  4. Animal broths, or drinks containing gelatine and osmazome.
                  5. Emulsive or milky drinks.
                  6. Alcoholic and other intoxicating drinks.
         ORDER  I.—MUCILAGINOUS, FARINACEOUS, OR SACCHARINE DRINKS.
   These drinks  differ but  little from  common water.  They are very slightly nutritive,
and are employed as demulcents and diluents.   They include the liquids popularly known
in the  sick-chamber as slops, and which on the continent  are called tisans.   They are
well adapted for  febrile and  inflammatory maladies, especially  when combined with an
affection of the mucous membrane of the alimentary canal.
   One of the simplest of the drinks of this order is Toast Water, which is prepared by in-
fusing toasted bread or biscuit in water.  By this means the  water is rendered much more
palatable and agreeable, by the empyreumatic or aromatic and gummy  or starchy matter
which the toast communicates to it.  It is a very wholesome and useful drink.
   The  other drinks  of this order have been already considered.   (See Gum Water,  p. 54,
Sugar  Water, p. 58, Sago Gruel, p. 64, Tapioca Gruel, p.  64, Arrow-root Gruel,  p. 65,
Common or Oat Gruel,  p. 154, Barley  Water, p. 156, Compound Barley Water, p.  157,
and Mucilage of Rice, p. 160.)
                  ORDER II—AROMATIC  OR ASTRINGENT DRINKS.
   Under this order  are included Tea, Coffee, Chicory, Chocolate, and Cocoa.
   1. Tea.—The shrub or shrubs  from  which  Tea is procured are  closely allied to the
well-known Camelia Japonica.  Two kinds, known respectively as the Thea viridis  and
Thea Bohea, are cultivated in the botanical gardens of England;  the  first is commonly
said to  yield Green  Tea, the latter Black Tea.  Though their general characters and ap-
pearance give the idea of their being distinct species, yet by some botanists they are  con-
sidered to be mere varieties.   Thus De Candolle refers them to one  species, under the
name of Thea Chinensis.
   Great discrepancy of opinion exists amongst writers as to whether the green and black
teas of commerce are the produce of one or of two  species.  Some  writers contend for
one species; " the green  and black,  with all the  diversities of each, being mere  varieties
produced by a difference  in the culture, qualities of soil, age  of the crop  when taken up,
and the modes of preparation for the market."t  Others, however, assert the existence of

  * Repeated instances of poisoning from the use of mushrooms have occurred in  the United States within
a few years past.  There is no doubt that climate, as well as the mode of cooking, modifies, in an im-
portant manner, the qualities of these fungi; and there is some reason to believe that poisonous and
wholesome species are sometimes  confounded under the  same name.  The plan which we adopt, and
which we can recommend as perfectly safe, is never to eat them at all.—L.
  t Robinson's Descriptive Account of Asam.   1841. 
190
COMPOUND  ALIMENTS.
two distinct species.  Thus Mr. Reeves,* whose opinions are entitled to great  weight, ex-
presses his surprise "that any person who has been in  China, or, indeed, any  one who
has seen the difference in the color of the infusions of  black  and green  tea, could sup-
pose for a moment that they were  the produce of the same plant, differing only in the
mode of curing;  particularly as they do not grow in the neighborhood of each  other."
  The  principal  varieties  of Black Teas are, Bohea, Congou,  Campoi, Souchong, Caper,
and Pekoe.   The last-mentioned one is  the  best.  It is prepared from the unexpanded
leaf-bud.  Bohea is the lower grade of black tea.   To the  Green  Teas belong Twankay,
Hyson-skin,  Hyson, Imperial, and Gunpowder.  " The gunpowder here stands in the
place of the pekoe, being composed of the unopened buds of  the spring crop.   Imperial,
hyson, and young hyson, consist of the second  and third  crops.   The light and inferior
leaves,  separated from the  hyson by a winnowing machine, constitute hyson-skin."f
  The latest analysis of tea is that of Mulder.J
COMPOSITION OF TEA.
JAVANESE.
Volatile oil.....
Chlorophylle    .    .    .    .
Wax......
Resin ....'.
Gum......
Tannin......
Theine .    .    .    .
Extractive.....
Apotheme.....
Ext. obtained by hydrochloric acid
Albumen.....
Fibrous matter   ....
Hyson.  Congou.    Hyson.   Congou.
 079 -  0-60  -  0-98  -  065
 2-22 -  1-84  -  3-24  -  1-28
 0-28 —  000  -  0-32  -  000
 2-22 -  3-64  -  1-64  -  2-44
 8-56 -  7-28  -  12-20  - 1108
17-80 - 12-88  -  17-56  - 14-80
 0-43 -  0-46  -  0-60  -  0 65
22-80 - 19-88  -  21-63  - 1864
     -  1-48  -        -  1-64
23-60 - 1912  -  20-36  — 18-24
 300 -  2-80  -  3-64  -  1-28
1708 - 28-32  -  18-20  - 2700
                                                98-78 - 98-30  -100-42  - 9770
         Salts included in the above    .    .    .    5-56 —  524  —  476  —  536

According  to this analysis, green tea contains more tannin than black tea.  This accords
with every-day experience,  as well as with the experiments of Mr. Brande ;§  but it is op-
posed to the results obtained by Sir H. Davyll and Frank,IT both of whom state that black
tea is the most astringent.   It is probable, therefore,  that the amount of tannin in  differ-
ent teas is  subject to variation.
  The substance called Theine, or Theina, is a crystalline salifiable base, discovered some
years since by Oudry,$ and  since found to be identical with caffeine, obtained from  coffee.
Its formula is C8 H5 N2 O2.   It exists in tea, in combination with tannic acid.   Hot water
extracts the tannate of theina as  well as free tannic  acid;  but by cooling, both of these
substances almost entirely precipitate.   According Mulder, theina is not to  be regarded as
the principle which confers  on tea its peculiar or characteristic properties.  Its action  on
the system is not very obvious.   He gave half a grain to a rabbit; the animal ate but lit-
tle the next day, and aborted the day after. Liebigft has suggested that it may contribute
to the formation of bile.  "  Without entering minutely  into the medicinal action of caf-
feine, (theine,)" he observes, "it will surely appear a most striking fact, even if we were
to deny its influence on the  process of secretion, that this substance, with the  addition of


  * Loudon's Gardener's Magazine, vol. ix. p. 713.
  t M'Culloch's Dictionary of Commerce.       X Pharmaceutisches Central-Blalt fur 1838, p. 403.
  % Quarterly Journal, vol. xii.  p. 201.           || Philosophical Transactions for 1803, p. 268.
  IT Gmelin, Handbuch der Cliemie, vol. ii. p. 1252.       ** Thomson, Organic Chemistry, p. 295.
                            tt Animal Chemistry, p. 179, et seq. 
                                          TEA.                                 191

oxygen and the elements  of water, can yield taurine, the nitrogenized compound peculiar
to bile:—
                1 atom Caffeine or Theine     .    .   =      C8 N» H* O"
                9 atoms Water  ...        .   =           H9 Os
                9 atoms Oxygen                    =              O9
                                                         C8 N2 H14 O20
                = 2 atoms Taunne  .       ...     2 (C4 N H' 0>»)"
  The same authority adds, that " 2T8jrths grains of caffeine   [theine]  can  give  to an
ounce of bile the nitrogen it contains in the form of taurine.   If an infusion of tea con-
tain  no more than the y^th of a grain of caffeine, [theine,] still, if it contribute in point
of fact to the formation of bile, the action even of such a quantity cannot be looked upon
as a nullity.  Neither can it be denied that, in the case of an excess of non-azotized food
and  a deficiency of motion,  which is required to cause the change of matter in the tis-
sues, and thus to yield the nitrogenized product which enters into the composition of bile,
that in such a condition the health may be benefited by the use of compounds which are
capable of supplying the place of the nitrogenized product produced in the healthy state
of the body,  and essential to the production of an important element  of respiration.  In
a chemical sense—and it is  this alone which  the preceding remarks are intended to show
—caffeine  or theine, asparagine, and theobromine, are,  in virtue of their composition,
better adapted to this purpose than all other nitrogenized vegetable products.  The ac-
tion  of these substances, in ordinary circumstances,  is  not obvious, but it unquestion-
ably exists."  These views, though quite hypothetical, are highly ingenious and interest-
ing.
   The peculiar  flavor of tea depends on the volatile oil, which is lighter than water, and
has  a lemon yellow  color, and the taste and smell of tea.   Alone it acts as a narcotic, but
in combination with tannin, as a diuretic and  diaphoretic.  It is extracted  from  tea by
hot  water, in which, however, it is  not always equally soluble,  its solubility being modified
by the other constituents.
   The following is the composition of the ashes of black tea :—
                               ASHES  OF CONGO TEA.
                                                            Chinese.   Javanese.
           Potash, sulphate, phosphate, and muriate of potash  .   .    2-84  —  340
           Oxide of iron, carbonate, sulphate, and phosphate of lime, )    j—^  _.  1.54
             and carbonate of magnesia......>
           Hypermanganate of potash......traces  —    0
           Silica    ....        .....       068  —  0-32
5-24     536
  Notwithstanding the  extensive employment of tea in this country, it is no easy matter
to ascertain its precise effects on the constitution.  Its astringency, proved by its chemi-
cal properties, depends  on the presence of tannin.  Of this quality we may beneficially
avail ourselves in some cases of poisoning,  as  by poisonous mushrooms,  by opium or
laudanum, or by any other vegetable substance containing a vegetable alkali, with which
tannin combines.   Schwann* found that tannin throws down a precipitate from the arti-
ficial digestive liquids, and renders this fluid  inert.  Does the copious use of strong tea,
therefore, immediately after a meal, impede the process of digestion 1
  The peculiar influence of tea, especially of the green variety, over the nervous system,
depends on the volatile oil above referred to.   This influence is analogous, in  some re-
spects, to that of foxglove ; for both green tea and foxglove occasion watchfulness, and

          * Quoted by Muller, in his Elements of Physiology; see Baly's translation, p. 546. 
192                          COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
act as sedatives on the heart and blood-vessels.  These effects of tea are familiar to most
persons.  It is  a common practice  with those who desire nocturnal study to use tea; and
on the same principle it may be  employed as an antisoporific to counteract the effects of
opium and intoxicating liquors, and to relieve the stupor of fever.  As a diluent and se-
dative  it is well adapted for febrile and inflammatory disorders, and  most  persons can
bear testimony  to  its good effects in these cases.   To its sedative influence also should be
ascribed the relief of headache sometimes experienced by the use of strong tea.   In colds,
catarrhs,  and slight rheumatic  cases, warm tea  is  used  as a  diluent, diaphoretic, and
diuretic.
  Strong green tea produces on some constitutions, usually those popularly known  as
nervous, very severe  effects.   It gives rise to tremor,  anxiety, sleeplessness, and most
distressing feelings.   On  others, however,  none  of these  symptoms are  manifested.
Part of the ill effects  sometimes ascribed  to  tea  may be owing to the use of so much
aqueous liquid,—to  the temperature of the liquid,—to milk and sugar used with it,—or
to the action of the tannin on the digestive liquid.   But independently of these, tea pos-
sesses a specific and marked  influence over the  functions of the brain not  referrible to
any of the circumstances just alluded to.
  Weak tea rarely disagrees with the invalid, and is admissible  in  a variety of maladies,
in most of which  it  proves refreshing and agreeable.  It is well adapted for febrile and
inflammatory complaints ; and is particularly valuable when we are desirous of checking
sleep.  Moreover, if the suggestions  of Liebig, before noticed, be correct,  tea is by no
means  to be considered as a mere diluent,  but as possessing nutritive powers of no mean
kind.*
  2. Coffee.—The Coffee plant (Coffea arabica) is a native of Arabia Felix and Ethiopia,
but is extensively  cultivated in Asia and America.   It is an evergreen  shrub, from fifteen
to twenty  feet high,  and bears an oval, succulent, blackish red or purplish two-seeded
berry.   The seeds are enclosed in a membranous  coat,  (endocarp,) called by some bota-
nists a parchment-like putamen.  Occasionally they are imported with this coat remaining
on them, and in this state they form  what is called  in commerce  coffee in the husk.  In
general, however,  they are met with without this coat, and in this state are called  simply
coffee, or raw coffee.  They then  consist of a horny, yellow, bluish  or greenish  albumen,
which is convex on  one side,  but flat on the  other side, with a  longitudinal furrow.  At
one end of the seed is the embryo, with its cordiform cotyledons.
  The  varieties of coffee are distinguished  in commerce according to  their  places of
growth; but considered with reference to their physical properties, they are characterized
by color (yellow, bluish, or greenish) and size, (the smallest seeds being about three lines
long and two broad, the largest five lines long and two lines and a half broad.)   Arabian
or Mocha  Coffee is small and dark yellow.  Java and  East  India (Malabar) kinds are
larger and paler yellow.  The Ceylon is more analogous to  the West India kinds, (Jamai-
ca, Berbice, Demerara, Dominica, Barbadoes, &c.,) which, as well as the Brazilian, have
a bluish or greenish gray tint.
  Roasted Coffee  is,  when ground, extensively adulterated with chicory.   To detect the
adulteration,  shake the  suspected  coffee  with cold water  in a  wineglass: if it be pure
coffee, it will swim, and scarcely communicate any color to  the fluid.  Chicory,  on the
other hand, sinks, and communicates a deep red tint to  the water.   The  microscope
serves  also  to  detect the adulteration; fragments  of dotted ducts being found when
chicory is present, but not when the coffee is  pure.  The presence of roasted corn may
* Appendix, 12. 
COFFEE.                                193
be detected by the blue color produced on the addition of a solution of iodine to the cold
decoction.
  Coffee has been the suhject of repeated chemical investigation ; but a good analysis of
it is still a desideratum.
   The following probably are the constituents of raw coffee :—
                          COMPOSITION OF RAW COFFEE.
                Caffeic acid.                I      Gum.
                Tanno-caff eic acid (Gallic           Extractive.
                    acid of some?)                 Albumen.
                Caffeine.                         Lignin.
                Wax.                           Sulphur (Robiquet.)
                Fixed oil.                        Lime and Magnesia.
                Resin.                    I      Iron.
   Caffeic acid is a white powder insoluble  in alcohol, but soluble in water.   Its charac-
teristic property is, that when heated it  emits an  odor precisely similar to that of roasted
coffee;  so that the aroma of roasted coffee must depend on the decomposition by heat of
this acid.*  Zenneck,f it is  true, denies this, and asserts that the aromatic principle is
neither acid nor alkaline;  but he admits that alkalies render it odorless, while the subse-
quent addition of an acid causes the smell to reappear;  a fact strongly confirmatory of its
acid nature.   Pfaff J analyzed this acid, and  found it to consist of carbon 291, hydrogen
6-9, and oxygen 6-4.
   Tanno-caffeic acid is a dark brown extractiform substance, whose solution yields a green
color with the salts of the peroxide of iron, but no precipitate with a solution of isinglass.
In these properties it resembles  catechine, (catechuic acid.)
   Caffeine is identical with Theine, already described, (see p. 190.)
   By roasting, coffee  suffers some remarkable and well-known changes in its  sensible pro-
perties ; but, in a chemical  point of view, the precise nature of these  changes  is  by no
means well determined.   The aroma is, as I have already stated, ascribed by Pfaff to the
effect of heat on the caffeic acid.
   The infusion or  decoction of coffee forms a well-known favorite beverage.   Like  tea,
it diminishes the disposition to  sleep, and hence is often resorted to  by those who  desire
nocturnal study.   It may also be used to counteract  the stupor induced by  opium, alco-
holic liquors, and other narcotics.  In some constitutions it acts on the bowels as a mild
laxative.  I have known several persons on whom it had this effect; yet it is usually de-
scribed as producing constipation.  Employed moderately, I believe it to be a wholesome
and slightly  nutritive beverage.  I have already  (see p. 190 et seq.) explained Liebig's
hypothesis of the nutritive agency of caffeine, (theine.)   The immoderate use of coffee is
said to produce various nervous disorders, such as anxiety, tremor, disordered vision,
palpitation, and feverishness.
  Coffee is occasionally useful in the sick-chamber.   It relieves some forms of headache,
especially those denominated nervous, and which are unaccompanied with  sanguineous
congestion.   It likewise proves beneficial in some  cases of spasmodic asthma. 5
  Dunn's Essence of Coffee is prepared by subjecting moistened roasted coffee  to pres-
sure.
  3. Chicory or Succory.—The substance sold in the shops under the name of chicory
is the roasted root of the Cichorium Intybus, (Wild Succory, or  Wild Endive,)  an indi-

  * Pfaff, Pharmaceutisches Central-Blatt, fur 1831, pp. 423 & 441.
  t Ibid. p. 444.                                            X Ibid- P- U3-
  § Coffee is one of the most valuable cordials and restoratives after exhaustion and great fatigue, and
in cases of sudden withdrawal of alcoholic liquors:  See Appendix, 13.—L.
13 
194                        COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
genous syngenesious plant,  extensively cultivated in Holland, Belgium,  and Germany,
from whence it is largely imported.  The root  is cut, dried, roasted  like coffee in heated
iron cylinders which are kept revolving, and then  ground in mills.  The powder is em-
ployed by grocers and others to adulterate coffee, (see p. 192.)  Its infusion or decoction
forms a perfectly wholesome beverage, but which wants the fine flavor for which genuine
coffee is renowned.   I have been informed, however, that some persons prefer the flavor
of a mixture of coffee and chicory to that of unmixed coffee.   Chicory is frequently adul-
terated.   A grinder of the  article tells me that roasted peas and beans, damaged corn, and
coffee husks, are used as sophistications, and that Venetian  red or Armenian bole is em-
ployed as a coloring agent.*
   4. Chocolate.—This is prepared from the seeds of the Theobroma Cacao, a native of
the  West Indies and of Continental America.  The kernels of the seeds have, according
to Lampadius,f the following composition :—
                  COMPOSITION OF THE KERNELS OF CACAO SEEDS.
          Fat or oil (butter of cacao)......•    •    •  5310
          Albuminous brown substance.......•    •  J" 7.V
          Starch.............  10 91
          Mucilage or gum.......•     •    •    '   «ni
          Red coloring matter.......•    •    •   * °*
          Lignine.............9 90
          Water.............520
          Loss (from adhesion of mucilage to the filter).....3 43
                                                                       100 00
   The fat or oil, called butter of cacao, is, therefore, the  principal  ingredient of the seeds.
 It is a white solid substance, has  a chocolate flavor,  and is chiefly composed of oleine
 and stearine; but, unlike  most other fats, is not  apt to  become rancid.
   More recently, a nitrogenized  crystalline principle, called theobromine, has been discov-
 ered in these seeds.   Its formula is C H6 N3 O2, or C18 H10 N6 O4.  It is very similar to
 caffeine.
   The husks consist principally of lignine, but they yield by boiling a brownish mucilagi-
 nous extract.
   Chocolate  is prepared by roasting the seeds, and depriving them of their  husks, which
 constitute about 23 per cent, of  the whole.  The kernels of the roasted seeds constitute
 what is called Nib Cocoa.  They are ground  in a mill, whose sole  rests on  a heated iron
 plate, by which they are made  into a  brown pasty mass, which, when sweetened  with
 some saccharine matter, flavored  with either vanilla or cinnamon, and  placed in proper
 moulds,  constitutes Chocolate.  In a large manufactory of this substance in London, honey
 is employed  as a sweetener, and a portion of starchy matter (sago flour or potato starch)
 is added, in order to give the chocolate a thickening quality.  Most of the chocolate made
  at  this establishment consists merely of the  decortieated roasted seeds, sago flour, and
 honey, without any other flavoring ingredient.f
     Chocolate furnishes a moderately nourishing  and very agreeable beverage.  On hypo-
  thetical grounds, Liebig  has suggested  that the theobromine  may contribute to the forma-
  tion of the nitrogenized principle of  the bile and  urine; for with the addition of the  ele-

    * We have used a decoction of chicory with great benefit in congestions and torpor of the liver and
   other forms of hepatic disease.  With equal purts of dried Dandelion root, it forms a not unpleasant
   beverage, and may be employed as a substitute for coffee in such cases.—L.
     t Quoted in Dulk's Preussische Pharmakopbe.
     X A similar manufactory has lately been established in this city, (N. York,) and the  process of grind-
   in^ may  be seen at almost any hour, especially in the  evening, in a certain windpw in Broadway.—L.
I___________________________________________________________===^= 
ACIDULOUS  DRINKS.                          195
ments of water and of a certain quantity of oxygen, it yields the elements of taurine-and
urea.
        1 at. theobromine, Cw N" Hw O4 1   f 4 at. taurine        .  C" N4 H"  040
       22 at. water   .  .       H22 0» |
       16 at. oxygen  .  .          O16 j> = < 1 at. urea          .  C2 N2 H4  Oa
                        C18 N6 IP3 0«J   [                     C18 N6 H3a Oa
  Chocolate, though devoid of the disagreeable qualities frequently evinced  by tea and
coffee, of disturbing the nervous functions, yet is difficult of digestion, on account of the
large quantity of oil which  it contains, and is, therefore, very apt to disturb the stomach
of dyspeptics and of others troubled with a delicate stomach.
  5.—Cocoa.—Under this name is sold in the shops another preparation of the seeds of
the Theobroma Cacao.  It is prepared by grinding the entire roasted seeds, (kernels and
husks,) sometimes  mixed with sago meal or potato starch.  I suspect  that, besides the
entire seeds, the husks separated in the manufacture of chocolate are also intermixed.  It
is somewhat less oily than chocolate, and being rather astringent, is adapted  for persons
with relaxed bowels.
                          ORDER III.-ACIDULOUS DRINKS.
  These drinks consist of water, as their basis, and an acid, which is usually  a vegetable
one.
  a. A considerable number of acidulous  drinks are prepared with the juices of fruits.
Of these Lemonade, already noticed, (see p.  172,) is the most familiar example.
  j3,  Acidulous drinks are also prepared  by dissolving vegetable acids or acidulous salts
in water, and variously flavoring the liquid.   Raspberry-vinegar water (see p. 70) and
Imperial (see  p. 75) are drinks of this kind.
  The general effects of these  acidulous drinks have been already explained,  (see p. 72.)
They allay thirst, both as well  by the acid as the water which  they contain.  They form
cooling,  refreshing,  antiscorbutic drinks,  and  are  well adapted for hot seasons and for
febrile and inflammatory cases.
  y # Decoctions of fruits likewise form acidulous drinks.   They promote  the secretions
of the alimentary canal, and act as laxatives.  Apple Tea is prepared by boiling  an apple
in half a pint  of water, and adding sugar to the decanted liquor.
  S #  The carbonated or effervescent drinks belong to  this order.   They owe their brisk-
ness and sparkling quality to carbonic acid gas, which  has been either forced into the
liquid by pressure, or developed in it after the corking of the bottle.
  The Bottle Soda Water of the  shops is, in general, merely a  solution of  carbonic acid
gas  in water;  and might, therefore, be more properly denominated Carbonic  acid Water.
Webb's Soda  Water is an exception to this statement, as, in the  preparation of it, 15 grains
of crystallized carbonate of soda are added to every 10 fluid ounces of water ;  and, in con-
sequence, it  effervesces on the addition of an acid, after  the escape of the free carbonic
acid.  The quantity of gas contained in these effervescing waters depends on the pressure
employed in their preparation.  At the ordinary temperature and pressure  of the atmo-
sphere, water absorbs its own volume of carbonic acid gas, and acquires a specific gravity
of 10018.  By doubling the pressure, it takes up two volumes of gas;  by trebling it,
three volumes; and so  on.  Mr.  Webb informs me that a pressure of eleven atmospheres
is used in the preparation of his soda water.*  Water thus charged with carbonic acid

  * " Hudson's Soda Water," which is in very general use in New York, is prepared under an  equal
degree of pressure. More than one fatal accident has occurred from the explosion of the fountains in
which it is confined.—L. 
196                          COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
forms a refreshing cooling beverage.   It acts both as a diaphoretic and  diuretic, and is a
most valuable agent for checking  nausea and vomiting.   When it contains bicarbonate
of soda in solution, it proves antacid, and is a most valuable beverage for persons afflicted
with calculi  in the  bladder.  The facts adduced by M. Chevallier* appear to me to be
conclusive that bicarbonate of soda promotes the solution of uric acid in the bladder, and
that it assists in breaking up and dividing other calculi,.(the phosphates.)
  Ginger Beer is a well-known popular and agreeable beverage.  A very superior pre-
paration of this kind is made as follows :—Take of White Sugar 20 lbs., Lemon or Lime
Juice 18 oz., Honey 1 lb., Ginger, bruised, 22 oz., Water  18 gallons.  Boil the ginger in
three gallons of water for half an hour; then add the sugar, the juice, and the honey,
with the remainder of the water, and strain through a cloth.  When cold, add the White
of one  Egg and half an ounce of Essence of Lemons.   After it  has stood for* four  days,
let it be bottled.   This preparation will keep for many months.
  Several other effervescing or carbonated  drinks have already been noticed—(see Lemon
and Kali, p. 74;  Concrete Acidulated  Alkali,  p. 74;  Soda Powders, p. 74 ;  Ginger Beer
Powders, p. 75 ; Effervescing Saline Draught, p. 75;  and Seidlitz Powders, p. 75.)   They
are prepared with a vegetable acid (citric or tartaric) and  an alkaline carbonate.  Hence
there is formed, in their manufacture, a vegetable alkaline salt, (citrate or tartrate,) the
general effects of which on the system have been already noticed, (see p. 15.)

          ORDER IV.—DRINKS CONTAINING GELATINE AND OZMAZOME.
                                  (Broths  and Soups.)
  These are essentially decoctions of animal flesh, (meat;) though frequently vegetables
are also used in their preparation.
  The composition of the flesh of various species of animals has been already stated, (see
pp. Ill, 113, and 114;) but the changes which it suffers in the operation of boiling are by no
means well  ascertained.  The fibrine of the meat is rendered harder, but being insoluble
in water, contributes nothing to this liquid.   The albumen  of meat is partly solid, partly
liquid;  the  latter  is coagulated by  the boiling water.,  By the united agency of water
and heat, a  portion of albumen—or  at least a  nitrogenous matter—is rendered  soluble,
and therefore is contained in the broth.   The hematosin, (see pp. 92 and 119,) or coloring
matter of the blood, dissolves  in, and communicates a  red color to, cold water: but, as
soon as the  water becomes sufficiently heated, the hematosin coagulates, and forms brown
flocculi, which float on the top of the liquor,  and constitute part  of what  is called the
scum.   The cellular tissue, the bones, the aponeuroses, and the tendons, yield, by boiling in
water, gelatine. The fatty matters melt, and, except when they are contained in closed cells,
escaping from the meat, float on the top of the broth.  The nervous or cerebral fatty matter,
(see p. 117,) which principally constitutes the pulp of the  nerves, is softened by the heat,
and is in part carried off during the process.  The odor which it evolves when heated i3
recognised both in the broth and the boiled meat.
   During the ebullition  there are obtained, by unknown  reactions, other products; viz.
lstly, creatine, (see p. 113,) 2dly, osmazome, (see p. 113,) or the extractive matter on which
the  odor and flavor of broth principally depend; 3dly, ammonia; 4thly, a sulphureted
compound,  (sulphureted hydrogen?) which blackens paper moistened  with a solution of
 acetate of lead; 5thly, a volatile acid, analogous to acetic acid ; 6thly, an odorous volatile
 acid, similar to butyric acid.   The three last-mentioned substances are partially or wholly
 volatilized.

                         * London Medical Gazette, vol. xx. p. 542. 
BROTHS AND SOUPS.
197
Thus, then, th# following are the constituents of broth and boiled meat:—
      Broth.
Gelatine.
Albuminous matter.
Creatine.
Extractive matters (Osmazome.)
Lactic acid.
Salts.
A little fatty matter.
Saccharine matter.
Water.
     Boiled Meat.
Fibrine.
Albumen (coagulated.)
Gelatinous cellular tissue.
Fat.
Nervous matter.
Water.
  Besides meat, it is customary to employ vegetables, (as turnips, carrots, onions, &c.) in
the preparation of broths.  These communicate coloring and mucilaginous matters, sugar,
nitrogenized matter, volatile oils and salts.  All the cruciferous plants, as turnips and cab-
bages, yield a sulphureted and nitrogenized principle.  Onions and leeks furnish an acrid
volatile oil: the sweet herbs an aromatic oil.
  The  following table, drawn up from Chevreul's results, shows the  quantity of aliment-
ary matter contained in broth :—
Substances used in the preparation of broth.
Beef .	1-433
	0-430
Common salt	0040
Water	. 5000000
Turnips	)
Carrots	[ 0-331
Onions (burnt) .	)
Products.
Broth
Boiled meat
Bone
Vegetables
4 litres
r<
    JUL
    i n o
wine pints.)
   0-858
   0-392
   0-340
The specific gravity of the broth was 1-0136.
tained—
One litre ( = 2T,J^\ wine  pints)  con-
		. 985-600
Organic matters	f Potash "] Soda	16917
f soluble	< Chlorine )■ ) Phosphoric acid LSulphuric acid J	10-721
Salts -|		
[insoluble	( Phosphate magnesia )	
	" lime	8-539
	( Oxide copper ;	
                                                              1013-6
  Magendie*  states that 1 litre (= 2-JJJL wine  pints) of the  broth, whiah is very care-
fully prepared by the " Compagnie hollandaise" in Paris, contains from 24 to 25 grammes
(= 370-416 to  385-85  troy  grains)  of dry matter, of which from 8 to 10 grammes
(—123-472 to 154-34 troy grains)  are saline substances.  It is  obvious from these  state-
ments that the actual amount of nutritive matter in broths is very small.
  Beef Tea, Mutton, Veal, and Chicken  Broths, are the  lightest forms  of animal food,
and are employed by invalids and convalescents.  Beef Tea is a light and pleasant arti-
cle of diet.  Mutton Broth is  apt to disagree with persons having delicate stomachs, es-
pecially if the fat be not skimmed from it.   It is  frequently given to promote the opera-
tion of purgative medicine.  Chicken  Broth, of all the animal  decoctions, is the least dis-
posed to disturb the stomach.  It is especially adapted for invalids with great irritability
of stomach.   Veal Broth is less frequently used.  When prepared from a knuckle of veal,
and sufficiently concentrated, it gelatinizes on cooling.
                      ORDER V.—EMULSIVE OR  MILKY DRINKS.
  These liquids  hold in suspension  an  oily or fatty substance in a finely divided state.
                           * Comptes Rendus, 1841, t. xiii. 
198                          COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
  Animal Milk, the principal and most important  drink of this order, has been already
fully considered, (see p. 119, et seq.)
  Almond Milk is an emulsive liquid used as a drink.   It is prepared as follows:—Take
of Sweet Almonds, blanched, half an ounce, Powdered Gum Arabic  a drachm, White
Sugar two drachms, and Water six ounces and a half.  Beat the almonds with the sugar
and water, and then gradually add the water.  Almond milk agrees  with animal milk
in many of its properties.  It contains in solution caseine, sugar, and gum, and retains in
suspension a fixed oil.  It forms a very agreeable demulcent drink in colds, coughs, and
inflammatory affections of the bowels and urinary organs.
  Orgeat, Syrup of Orgeat, or Syrup of Almonds,  is  thus prepared:—Take of Sweet
Almonds a pound; Bitter Almonds four ounces; Water three wine  pints ; and Sugar
six pounds.   Blanch the almonds, and beat them in a mortar to a fine paste, adding three
fluid ounces  of the water and a pound of the sugar.  Mix  the paste thoroughly with the
remainder of the water, strain with strong expression, add the remainder of the sugar to
the strained liquor,  and dissolve it with the aid of a gentle heat.  Strain the syrup through
the linen, and, having allowed it to cool, put it into bottles, which must be  well stopped,
and kept in a cool place.—In most recipes for it, about an  ounce of Powdered Gum is
directed to be used, and about half a pint of Orange Flower Water:  but the latter, as
found in the shops, is frequently  contaminated with lead.   Orgeat  is demulcent and
slightly narcotic, owing to the presence of prussic acid,  (derived from the bitter almonds.)
It is used to flavor  drinks for invalids, and to allay troublesome coughs.  The dose of it
is from one to two table-spoonfuls.
  The Milk  of the Cocoa Nut is an  albuminous liquid, closely allied to vegetable emul-
sions, though it is devoid of oily matter.   It holds in solution a proteine compound, (vege-
table caseine 1) sugar, gum, and some salts.   It is, therefore, slightly nutritive.

          ORDER VI.—ALCOHOLIC AND OTHER  INTOXICATING DRINKS.
  I have already fully considered the dietetical properties of Alcohol and of the different
kinds of Ardent Spirit  in ordinary  use in  England,  (see  pp. 25  to  27,  and 76 to 80.]
Of alcoholic drinks, therefore, Malt Liquor and Wine alone remain  for consideration.
  1. Malt Liquor or Beer.—Under this head are included Ale, Slout, Porter, and  the
weaker kinds of beer commonly known as Table or Small Beer.  All these are ferment-
ed infusions of malt flavored with hops.
  The densities of different kinds of beer are, according to Mr. Richardson, as follows :—
DENSITY OF BEER.
Kinds of Beer.	Excess in pounds per barrel over a barrel of water.	Specific Gravity.
" " 2d sort ..... " " 3d sort..... << « " best brown stout ....	40 to 43 35 to 40 28 to 33 25 to 57 21 18 20 23 26 6 12 to 14	1111 to 1120 1 097 to 1 111 1 077 to 1092 1 070 to 1073 1058 1050 1055 1064 1072 1014 1 033 to 1039
The following are the principal constituents of beer :— 
BEER.
199
Alcohol.
Stnrch sugar.
Dextrine, (starch gum.)
Extractive and bitter matter
Fatty matters.
Aromatic matters.
COMPOSITION  OF BEER.
                       Glutinous matters.
                       Lactic acid._
                       Carbonic acid.
                       Salts.
                       Water.
  1. Alcohol.—The quantity of spirit contained in different kinds of beer, according to the
experiments of Brande and Christison, has been  already stated, (see  p. 77.)   We may
safely assume, with Dr. Ure,* that the amount of  spirit, " in common strong ale  or beer, is
about 4 per cent, or four  measures of spirits, specific gravity 0825, in 100  measures of
the liquor.  The best brown stout porter contains 6 per cent., the strongest ale even 8 per
cent.;  but common beer only one."f
  2. Carbonic Acid.—The quantity of free carbonic acid in beer is subject to considerable
variation, as the following table, taken from Dumas, shows:—
                       QUANTITY OF CARBONIC ACID IN BEER.
                                                           Carbonic Acid per cent.
                                                               in volumes.
               Not frothy.........2
               Beading, not fi'othy      .    .   .....    3
               Yielding a little scum, not frothy  . .  ,.    .     .    .    4
               Very slight froth........8
               Slight froth.........11
               Moderate froth........15
               Rather strong froth.......20 to 22
               Strong froth, much scum......25 to 26
  3. Extract.—By evaporation we obtain the soluble but fixed and nutritive constituents
of beer, in  the form  of an extract, which consists  of starch-sugar, dextrine, lactic acid,
different salts, the extractive and aromatic  parts of  the  hop, gluten, and  fatty matters.
The quantity of extract yielded by beer is subject to  considerable variation.  It depends
not only on the strength of the wort, but on the length of the fermentation and the  age of the
beer. An imperial pint of good porter yields in general about one ounce and a half of extract.
   The following is the composition of six  varieties of beer, according to Wackenroder :\—
                               COMPOSITION OF BEER.
	■38	Hi	g"?	few	CO E	-a .in a >-1-1
CONSTITUENTS.	15 ^		OfJe ^r'ange sp. gr. 1	SI	V a. a.	f Jena. Doppe sp. gr. 1
	o ™	t.		w	£>	O
	3 168	3096	3 018	2834	2567	2 080
Albumen coagulated by heat .	0 048	0 079	0 045	0 030	0 020	0 028
Water . . ) Carbonic acid > ....	4 485	7 072	6 144	6 349	7316	7 153
	92 299	89 753	90 793	90 787	90097	90 739
Acetic acid j						
Total ....	100000	100 000	100000	100 000	100000	100 000
Soluble salts; viz., phosphate of potash,						
more or less chloride ol potassium and						
sulphate of potash, with some intermixed						
phosphates of lime and magnesia	0078	0107	0118	0101	0107	0085
Insoluble substances; viz., phosphates of						
lime and magnesia, with some silica	0162	0104	0071	0 076	0196	0103
  * Dictionary of Arts, p. 105.—For further information respecting the quantity of alcohol in beer, the
reader is referred to Accum's Treatise on Adulterations of Food, and to the writings of Leo, (Pharma-
ceutisches Central Blatt fiir 1833, p. 413.) Schrader, Wackenroder, and  Lampadius, (Ibid, fur 1834, p.
96, et seq.)
  + Appendix, 14.   X Traite de Chimie, t. vi.   1843.  § Pharmaceutisches Central-Blatt fur 1834, p. 100. 
200                       COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
  Considered  dietetically, beer possesses a three-fold property :—it quenches thirst; it
stimulates, cheers, and, if taken in sufficient  quantity, intoxicates; and, lastly, it nour-
ishes, or strengthens.   Its power of appeasing thirst depends on the aqueous ingredient
which it contains, assisted somewhat by its acidulous constituent.  Its stimulating, cheer-
ing, or intoxicating power, is derived either wholly, or principally, from the alcohol which
it contains.  Lastly, its nutritive or strengthening quality is deriyed from the sugar, dex-
trine, and other substances contained in the extract.  Moreover, the bitter  principle of
hops confers on beer tonic  properties.
  From these  combined qualities beer proves a refreshing and salubrious drink, (always
presuming that it is used  in moderation,) and an agreeable  and valuable stimulus and
support to those who  have to undergo much bodily  fatigue.  When  Dr. Franklin* as-
serted that a penny loaf and a pint of water yielded more nourishment than a pint of beer,
it is obvious that he  regarded beer merely as a nutrient, and overlooked its stimulating
and cheering qualities, of which bread and water are totally devoid.
  It is  a  popular notion, which has, perhaps, some foundation in  fact, that beer has a
tendency  to promote corpulency.  This cannot be the  effect  of the  alcohol which it con-
tains, since  it  is well known that confirmed spirit-drinkers are usually slender, or even
emaciated, (see p. 27.)
  Considered  dietetically, beer differs from wine, in containing less alcohol, but more nu-
tritive matter; and, in addition, a bitter tonic extractive derived  from the hop.
  The  practice of taking  a moderate quantity of mild  malt liquor, of  sound quality, at
dinner, is in general  not only unobjectionable, but beneficial.  It  is  especially suited for
those who lead an active, life, and are engaged in laborious pursuits.  For the sedentary
and inactive it is  less fitted.  In the convalescence after lingering diseases, it often  proves
a most valuable restorative; but in delicate conditions of the stomach, and in relaxation
of the bowels, its use  should be prohibited.  With bilious  and dyspeptic individuals it
frequently disagrees, and by such,  therefore, should be  avoided.  In plethoric constitu-
tions, especially when  there is a tendency to apoplexy, it is  objectionable.  In some per-
sons  it is apt  to produce  headache,  and by such it should be either used  sparingly, or
totally abstained from.f
  There are considerable differences in the dietetical properties of different kinds of malt
liquors, to which it is necessary to make allusion.
  Ale is prepared with pale malt, and on this account is much lighter colored than Porter
and Stout.  The strongest kinds of ale are richer in alcohol, sugar, and gum, than any
other kind of malt liquor : but though they thus contain a larger amount of nutritive mat-
ter, they  are  not fitted for ordinary  use, on account of their intoxicating and stupefying
qualities,  and  are especially to be avoided in diabetic and dyspeptic cases.  On some per-
sons they act  as purgatives.  The  Pale Ale prepared for the India market, and, there-
fore, commonly known as the Indian  Pale Ale,\ is free from these objections.   It is care-
fully fermented, so as to be devoid of all sweetness, or, in other words, to be  dry; and it
contains double the usual quantity of hops : it forms, therefore, a most valuable restora-
tive beverage  for invalids and convalescents.  It is taken with benefit by many persons
on  whom other kinds of ale act injuriously.   For ordinary use at table, the weaker kinds
of ale, popularly known as Table Ale, are to be preferred.
  Porter  is prepared from  a mixture of pale and high-dried or  charred  malts;  the pale
  t Select Works, by W.  T. Franklin, vol. i., p. 36.   Lond., 1818.
  * Appendix, 15.
  t "The beer  which the English send to the Indies," says Dumas, "is more highly charged with the
essential oil [of hops.]" 
WINE.
201
kind being used to give body or strength—the dark kind to communicate color.*  More-
over, a larger amount of hops is used in the preparation of porter  than of the ordinary
kinds  of beer.  Porter is much  better adapted for table use than  strong ale.   It agrees
with many individuals on whom the latter liquid acts  injuriously.   When new, as gene-
rally prepared at the present day, it is called mild;  by  keeping, a portion of acid is devel-
oped in it, and it is then denominated hard.   Formerly, when hard porter was in request,
publicans were in the habit of rendering new beer hard, or, as it was called, of bringing it
forward, by the addition of sulphuric acid.  To  render  old beer mild, carbonate of lime,
or of soda, or of potash, is used to neutralize the acid.
   Beer, especially Porter, is  very extensively adulterated.-)-  Coculus indicus is used to
augment its  intoxicating quality ;  and some of the popular  treatises on brewing give  di-
rections  for employing it.  Thus Morrice  directs three lbs. of Coculus to be used for every
ten  quarters of  malt.   " It gives," says  he, " an inebriating quality  which  passes  for
strength  of  liquor;"  and he adds, that it  prevents second fermentation in bottled beer,
and consequently the bursting of the bottles in warm  climates."   This  sophistication is a
highly dangerous one,  coculus  indicus being a very poisonous fruit, as well for man as
for  the  inferior animals; and the  legislature  has, therefore, v#y properly imposed a
penalty  of £200 upon the  brewer, and £500  upon the seller of the drug.   In order to
avoid detection, brewers' druggists are in the habit of preparing a watery extract of  the
fruit, which  is sold as black extract or hard  multum.\  Quassia is used  as a substitute for
hops,  to  communicate a bitter taste.   Grains of Paradise and  Cayenne give pungency ;
though it is a common but erroneous opinion, that grains of paradise have an intoxicating
or narcotic property.  Coriander, Caraway, &c, are used to communicate flavor; Liquor-
ice,  Treacle,  and Honey, give color and  consistence.  A mixture called  Beer-heading,
composed of green  vitriol, (sulphate of  iron,) alum,  and  common  salt, is  used to give a
fine frothy or cauliflower head to beer.
   2. Wine.—By the term wine is usually meant a drink or liquid prepared by  the vinous
fermentation of must, (i. e. the juice of the grape ;) but  sometimes it is made to include  the
fermented juices of fruits generally, as of  elderberries, currants, gooseberries, &c.; and,
in a more general sense, it comprehends all saccharine liquids which have been subjected
to the vinous fermentation.   The liquid called ginger wine is an instance of this more  ex-
tended use of the word wine.
   In a dietetical point of view it will be necessary to notice those  wines only which  are
obtained  from the  grape ; and to these, therefore, the following remarks are intended
to apply.
   Must—the expressed  juice of the grape—whose composition I have already noticed,
(see p. 170,) readily undergoes fermentation when subjected to a temperature of between
6GC F. and 80° F.; while in the  grape  itself the juice does  not  ferment, owing, as Gay-

   * The high temperature employed in preparing the brown or black malts greatly alters or actually de-
composes the saccharine matter, the diastase and other  constituents of the grain, and gives rise to the for-
mation of a coloring matter analogous to caramel.
   t In the Sunday Times of March 13, 1842, is the report of the conviction of a druggist for selling,  and
of a brewer for buying, various drugs to adulterate  beer.  Each was fined £200.  The drugs were Cocu-
lus indicus, Grains of Paradise, Liquorice, Linseed, Caraway, and Cayenne Pepper.
   X In  addition to this, Opium, Extract of Poppies, St. Ignatius' Bean, Nux Vomica, Tobacco, Bohemian
Rosemary, and Henbane are used  to augment  the intoxicating  quality of malt liquors ; Aloes,  Gentian,
Wormwood, Horehound, and Bitter Orange, as a substitute for hops, and a vast variety of  articles to give
flavor, color, consistency, &c.  The " Domestic  Chemist" enumerates forty-six different  articles  which
are used for the manufacture of beer and porter.—L. 
202                            COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
 Lussac has shown, to the exclusion of atmospheric air, the presence of which, therefore,
 is in some way necessary to set up the process of fermentation.*
   The peculiar qualities of the different kinds of wine depend on  several  circumstances ;
 such as the variety and place of growth of the vine from which the wine is  prepared—
 the time of year when the  vintage is collected—the  preparation  of the  grapes  previously
 to their being trodden and pressed—and the various manipulations and processes adopted
 in their fermentation.
   The wines of different countries are distinguished in commerce by various names.   The
 following is a list of the wines most commonly met with, arranged according to the coun-
 tries producing them :—
   I. French Wines.—Champagne, (of which we have the still, creaming, or slightly sparkling,—the full-
frothing, the white, and the pink; Burgundy, (red and white;) Hermitage ; Cotie Rutie ; Rousillon; Fron-
 tignac; Claret, (the most esteemed being the produce of Lafilte, Latour,  Chateau Margaux, and Haul-
 Brion;) Vin de Grave;  Sauterne; and Barsac.
  2.  Spanish Wines.—Sherry, (Xeres ;) Tent, (Rota;) Mountain, (Malaga ;) Benicarlo, (Alicant.)
  3. Portugal Wines.—Port, red and white, (Oporto;) Bucellas, Lisbon, Calcavalla, and Colares, (Lis-
 bon.)   An inferior description of  Red Port Wine is shipped at Figuera and Aveiro.
  4. German Wines.—Rhine  and Moselle Wines.  The  term Hock, (a corruption  of Hochheimer,) is
 usually applied to the first growths of the Rhine.  The term Rhenish  commonly  indicates an inferior
 Rhine wine.
  5. Hungarian Wines.—Tokay.
  6. Italian and Sicilian Wines.—Lachryma Christi ;  Marsala ;  Syracuse ; Lissa.
  7.  Grecian and Ionian Wines.—Candian and Cyprus wines.
  8. Wines of Madeira and the Canary Islands.—Madeira and  Canary, (Teneriffe.)
  8. Wines of the Cape of Good Hope.—Cape Madeira, Pontac, Constantia red and white, (a sweet,
 luscious wine, much esteemed.)
  10. Persian Wines.—Shiraz.
  11. English or Home-made Wines.—Grape, Raisin,  Currant, Gooseberry, &c.

   The composition of wine  is subject to considerable variation;  but, in a  general  way,
 the following may be said to be its constituents:—
                            CONSTITUENTS OF  WINE.
                 Water.
                 Alcohol.
                 Bouquet (volatile oil? an ether?)
                 Sugar.
                 Gum.
                 Extractive matter.
                 Gluten (except when tannin is present.)
                 Acetic acid.
                 Bitartrate of potash.
                 Tartrate of potash and alumina (in German wines.)
                 Sulphate of potash.
                 Chlorides of potassium and sodium.
                 Storing matter of the husk  \ ^ red «*>»•>
                 Carbonic acid (in Champagne and other effervescing wines.)
   1.  Bouquet of Wine.—Every wine  has a peculiar  odor, called its perfume or bouquet,
 and which must depend on  the presence of some volatile  principle generated during the
 process of vinous fermentation.  In  some cases,  if not in  all, it appears  to be an  ether
 formed  by the action of an organic  (fatty 1) acid on the  alcohol.  Thus by  submitting
 wine lees to distillation, Liebig and Pelouze procured an oily liquor, having a vinous odor,
 consisting of cenanthic ether (C18 H18 O3) mixed  with oznanlhic acid (C1* H13 Oa.)

   * Must may be preserved for any length of time by carefully excluding  the air, although the tempera-
 ture be above 60° F.—L. 
WINE.
203
   " The wines of warm climates," says Liebig, " possess no smell; wines grown in France
 have it in a marked degree;  but in the wines from the Rhine the perfume is most intense.
 The kinds of grapes grown on the Rhine, which ripen very late, and  scarcely ever com-
 pletely, such as the Riessling and  Orleans, have the strongest perfume or bouquet, and
 contain, proportionally, a larger quantity of tartaric acid.  The earlier  grapes, such as the
 Rulander  and others,  contain a large proportion  of  alcohol, and are  similar to Spanish
 wines in their flavor, but they possess no bouquet.  The grapes grown at the Cape, from
 Riesslings transplanted from  the  Rhine, produce an excellent wine, which does not, how-
 ever, possess the aroma which distinguishes Rhenish  wine.  It is evident from these facts,
 that the acid of wines, and their  characteristic perfumes, have some connection, for they
 are always found together; and it can scarcely be doubted that the presence of the former
 exercises a certain influence  on the formation of the latter."*
   2. Alcohol.—The quantity of alcohol  in different wines has been already stated, (see p.
 76-77.)   Wines which contain a comparatively small quantity of it are denominated light
 wines; as Claret, Sauterne,  Hock, and Moselle;  while those which  are rich  in  it  are
 termed strong  or generous wines;  as Lissa, Port, Marsala, Madeira, and Sherry.  By
 keeping them in casks or bottles the quantity of alcohol  in them is modified.   Madeira
 and Sherry kept for a moderate term of years become somewhat stronger; the  sugar
 which they contained  becoming slowly converted into  alcohol, while  tartar is deposited.
 After a time, that is, when all the sugar has disappeared, the formation of alcohol ceases,
 and from this period the strength of the wine diminishes, partly by the evaporation of the
 spirit through the sides of the cask, and partly  by its  conversion into other  substances, as
 acetic acid.
   3.  Sugar.—This  is a constituent of many wines.   Those in  which it  is very  abundant
 are called sweet or luscious wines.  Tokay, Tent, Frontignac, Lunel, Rivesalte, Constantia,
 and Malmsey, are examples.   In these the process of fermentation has been arrested be-
 fore all the  sugar was decomposed.  Those wines, on  the other  hand, in  which all  the
 saccharine matter has  disappeared, are called dry.  Examples of this are frequently found
 in Sherry.
   4. Acids.—All wines are more or less acidulous, as  determined by litmus.  This has
 been in general attributed  to malic acid;  but Dumas thinks that the  presence of this acid
 in wine is  very  doubtful.   In  old  and spoiled wines,  as well  as in the wines of the  more
 northern countries, acetic acid is often found.  The brisk, frothing, sparkling or effervescent
 wines, as Champagne,  which have been bottled before fermentation is complete, though
 without its being arrested, owe their peculiar properties to carbonic acid retained  in  solu-
 tion under pressure.  Some wines, as Port, contain tannic acid, to which they owe their
 roughness and astringency. They derive this from the  husk,  and perhaps in part from
 the seeds, of the grape. The acidity of some wine depends on bitartrate of potash.
  5. Coloring matter.—All wines  contain more or less coloring matter;  but those which

  * The origin of the odoriferous  substances obtained in the fermentation of must, may be illustrated
 by some familiar examples.  During the fermentation of the Lesser Centaury plant, which possesses no
 smell, a true etherial oil is generated,  having an agreeable penetrating odor, exciting a pricking sensa-
 tion in the eyes, and a flow of tears.  The leaves of the tobacco plant possess little or no smell when
 fresh; but as soon as fermentation commences, they emit the characteristic smell of prepared tobacco
 and snuff.  Nicotine, which possesses  all the  properties of a  base, was not present before the fermen-
 tation, but generated during the process.  Arsenic and Arsenious acid are entirely inodorous in their
 natural state, but emit the odor of garlic during their oxidation.  The  oil of the berries of the elder-
tree, many kinds of oil of turpentine, and oil of lemons, possess  a smell only during their oxidation or de-
cay. The same is the  case with many blossoms; and the smell of musk, Geiger states, is due to its
gradual putrefaction.—L. 
204                         COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
 are prepared without the husk of the grape are pale, and are denominated white wines,—
 as Sherry, Madeira, and Bucellas.  But if the husk of the dark-colored grapes be present
 during fermentation, the wine acquires a deep color, and is called red wine.  By exposure
 to the sun, as well as by age, the color diminishes.
    6. Tartrates.—The most important saline constituent of wine is Tartar, (Bitartrate of
 Potash,) which deposits, along with coloring and extractive matters, both in the cork and
 bottle, constituting argol, the crust,  the  bees'  wing, &e.   The deposition augments with
 the formation of alcohol.  Tartrate of Lime is usually  found  along with tartar  in wine;
 and in the German wines, Berzelius mentions that there exists the Tartrate of Alumina
 and Potash.
    Wine, when  used in moderate quantities, as to the extent of two or three glasses daily,
 proves a very grateful, and to those who have been accustomed to it, an almost indispen-
 sable stimulant.  It quickens the action of the heart and blood-vessels, diffuses an agreea-
 ble warmth  through the system, promotes the different secretions, augments the muscular
 force and activity, excites the mental powers, and banishes unpleasant ideas and reflections.
    Many persons, who have during a considerable period of their lives accustomed them-
 selves to the daily but moderate use of wine, have attained a good old age; and it cannot,
 therefore, be denied, that the most perfect health is quite compatible with the moderate
 enjoyment of wine.
    It must  be admitted, I think, that wine  proves a  most valuable restorative when  the
 powers of the  body and mind have been  enfeebled  by fatigue.  Its daily use, therefore,
 is more adapted for those who lead  a life of great  activity,  or whose  occupations  are
 laborious, than for the indolent and sedentary.  To the former it proves  a very agreeable
 stimulus.  Taken after the fatigues of the day are  over, it assists in  recruiting the ex-
 hausted energies.
    But,  on the other hand, it cannot be denied'that'the most perfect health is compatible
 with total abstinence from wine ; and that the habitual  employment of it, especially by the
 indolent and sedentary, is calculated, in many instances, to prove injurious.  To a person
 in perfect health, and who has been unaccustomed to it, no possible benefit can accrue
  from commencing its use.   The preternatural excitement which, in these cases, it would
  occasion, must be  followed by a corresponding  degree of depression.   Even though no
  sensible injury may result therefrom, no  benefit can be expected to result.  The habit of
  using this stimulus creates a want for it;  and thus it often happens, that those who have
  accustomed themselves to the temperate use of wine, suffer when they are deprived of it.
  The "artificial states of the constitution," says Dr. Christison, "produced by the habits of
  civilized life, are supposed to render it, for some people, a necessary stimulant,  especially
  during exposure to unusual fatigue.  So  far do some carry this notion in the upper ranks
  of society,  as  to  follow the strange practice of allowing wine daily, and in considerable
  quantity, even to  young healthy children.  Very few constitutions of this kind really ex-
  ist among those who are willing to think they themselves possess it."
     Dr.  Paris asserts that " there exists no  evidence to prove that a temperate use of good
  wine, when taken at seasonable hours, has ever proved injurious to  healthy adults."   I
!  am by no  means  disposed to question the accuracy of this statement, since  he  has so
  qualified it, that, in' almost any case where  ill  effects  result  from the  use of wine,  they
  may be ascribed to the non-fulfilment of some of the conditions here mentioned : viz. the
   temperate use  of the wine,—the goodness of the liquor,—the seasonable time of taking it,—
   or the health  of the individual.   All I would assert is, that, for healthy individuals, wine
   is an  unnecessary article of diet.
     The actual  amount of injury which may be inflicted on the system by the use of wine
>= 
WINE.                                   205
depends on the quality and quantity of the liquid used, and on the greater or  less predis-
position to disease which may exist in the system.   Disorders of the digestive organs and
of the brain, gout, gravel, and dropsy, are the maladies most likely to be induced or ag-
gravated by the use of wine.  Intoxication, in its varied forms, is the effect of the excess-
ive use of it.
   Though the effects of wines depend, in the  main, on  the alcohol which these liquids
contain, yet they  differ from those of.ardent spirit in several  respects.   In the first place,
wine  possesses a tonic influence not observed after the use of spirit. Common experience
proves to every one that the stimulant influence of wine is slower in  its production and
subsidence than that of spirit.  On this account wine is employed as a tonic or corrobo-
rant in the convalescence after lingering diseases.   Secondly, the diseases induced by the
excessive indulgence in wine are  somewhat different from those caused by alcohol.  De-
lirium tremens, and diseased liver, are the common maladies of spirit-drinkers; whereas
these affections rarely, if indeed they ever, follow the use of wine merely.   But, on the
other hand, gravel and gout  are  frequent consequences  of habitual over-indulgence in
wine, while they much less frequently result from the use of spirit. Thirdly, while wine-
drinkers  are  frequently fat, lusty, and plethoric,^—spirit-drinkers are  generally thin and
emaciated, (see p. 27.)   Lastly, the intoxicating influence of wine is not  equal to that of
mixtures  of ardent spirit and water of corresponding strengths, nor proportionate, in dif-
ferent wines, to the relative quantities of  alcohol which they contain.  This will be ob-
vious from the following table, drawn  up from Mr. Brande's results, before quoted, (see
p. 76, et seq.:)—

   AVERAGE  QUANTITIES OF ARDENT SPIRIT AND OF WINE, CONTAINING FOUR
                   FLUID OUNCES OF ALCOHOL, (sp. gr. 0-825 at 60 F.)
      Brandy, about  ....   8 fluid ounces. I Claret......261 fluid ounces.
      Port Wine......181    ditto.    | Champagne.....  32   ditto.
 Now it appears from this table, that if the intoxicating power  of vinous liquids were in
 proportion to the spirit contained in them, that a pint of Port wine would  be almost equal
 to half a  pint of brandy, and that Claret would exceed Champagne in its influence over
 the nervous system: all of which we know not to be  the case.   It is, therefore, obvious,
that the action of the alcohol on the animal economy is modified in the wine by the water
 and vegetable matters with which it is either combined or mixed.
   Some doubt on this point has been recently expressed by Dr.  Christison, who observes,
 that  " wine is generally considered less  inebriating than  its equivalent alcohol, in any
 other shape.  And this fact has  been vaguely referred to its alcohol being in a peculiar
 state of combination, so as to be more easily digestible.  Notwithstanding," he adds, " the
general admission of this  peculiarity in the effects of wine, doubts may be entertained of
 the  doctrine  being  so unequivocal, or so generally applicable, as late authors on  wine
 have maintained; and I suspect it is founded, in part, on the mistaken notions that  have
 prevailed as to the alcoholic strength of wines, which has  been overrated by analysts,—
 and partly on a disregard of the influence of habit, which seems to render one species of
 alcoholic  fluid more digestible, or in some other way less stimulating, than another."
   I  am  inclined to  agree  with Dr. Christison in the belief that the alcoholic strength of
 wines has been overrated by analysts.  But I believe that the same has  been done with
 regard to the strength  of ardent  spirits, as ordinarily found in the shops-;  both brandy
 and  gin, but especially the latter,  being usually  sold considerably  below the  strength
 stated by Mr. Brande.   So that though the actual quantity of alcohol in  both wines and
 spirits may be overrated, yet the relative proportions  are probably correct, or nearly so; 
206                         COMPOUND  ALIMENTS.
 and the inferences which have been drawn as to the comparative effects of the alcohol
 contained in these liquid?, are, perhaps, not far from the truth.  It appears to me, there-
 fore, that the evidence of the  modifying influence exercised by the other ingredients
 of wine on the  alcohol  contained  therein,  is greater than Dr. Christison is disposed to
 admit
   Old wines, it is well known, are less intoxicating than new ones.  This  is usually as-
 cribed  to  the chemical  union which is ultimately effected between the alcohol and the
 water, by which the inebriating power of the spirit is lessened.  But  it is  probably  due,
 for the most part,  to the diminished alcoholic strength of the old  wine ;  for Dr. Christi-
 son's experiments  have shown that the alcoholic strength of wines does not increase with
 age, as many persons have supposed.
   The precise changes which the alcohol undergoes in wine are  at present but  imper-
 fectly known.  Dumas says that it doubtless passes gradually  into the state of ether by
 combining with the different acids contained or produced in  wine, and by  which its  ine-
 briating power must be diminished, or perhaps otherwise modified.  He also suggests that
 there may be different kinds of alcohol,  having a similar relation to each other that phos-
 phoric acid bears to pyrophosphoric acid ; and that thus the alcohol of old wines may be
•possessed of somewhat different properties to that of new  wines.
   It is obvious, therefore, that there is not a priori  any thing improbable  in the  opinion
 commonly entertained by connoisseurs in wine, that a brandied wine (i. e. wine  to which
 brandy has been added) is more intoxicating than  a non-hrandied  wine of equal  strength.
 The wine-growers of Bourgogne have long acted on this  principle.   In cold or rainy sea-
 sons, when the grape is deficient in sugar, and in  consequence  yields a  poor wine, they
 prefer adding sugar to the  must, instead of adding alcohol to the wine.  " Formerly," says
 Dumas, "it was supposed  that when wine was deficient in alcohol, this  ingredient, in
 proper quantity, might be added to  it  to  give the  proper quality. Now, however, who-
 ever considers the  phenomena of fermentation, will not hesitate to  admit that the addition
 of sugar to the must is a  very  different thing to the addition of spirit to the wine: for
 sugar, in fermenting,  produces a chemical movement in which all the  different materials
 of the must  concur."*
   In forming an opinion as to the kind of wine best fitted for dietetical use, we must con-
 sider the color, the alcoholic strength and intoxicating property, the sweetness, the nature
 and quantity of acid which it contains, and the age of the wine.   Red wines contain more
 extractive and coloring matters, (derived from the husk of the grape,) which are apt to
 disagree with some dyspeptics.  Strong wines are more likely to prove injurious than weak
 ones.   But the inebriating  quality of wine is not proportional to the quantity of contained
 alcohol.  Sweet wines are objectionable  in dyspeptic and some urinary diseases  ; as  dia-
 betes.  Acid wines are improper for rheumatic and gouty  subjects.   Old  wines  are, in

   * It is very possible that the  other ingredients contained in wine may modify, in some degree, the effects
 of the alcohol; but we believe that the difference in the intoxicating power of wine and that of the  ordi-
 nary mixtures of water with  the same proportion of alcohol, if such difference really exists, is owing
 more to the ultimate combination of the alcohol with the water in the former,than to  any peculiar effect
 of the other vegetable matters contained  in it. Mr. Brande states that when brandy and water are
 mixed and allowed to remain in combination for some time, the intoxicating power is not greater than that
 of wine containing an equivalent of brandy.  We know that a given quantity of brandy and water re-
 cently mixed, exerts a more intoxicating effect than if allowed to stand for some time.   It is probably ow-
 ing to the same fact that newly fermented wines, as above stated, are more powerfully intoxicating than
 old, alternation evidently, in both cases, causing the difference between them.   After all, we believe the
 difference is more apparent than real.—L. 
WINE.
207
 general, to be  preferred to new ones; for,  in the first place, their alcoholic strength is
 somewhat less; and, secondly, by keeping, wines deposit bitartrate of potash, and  color-
 ing and extractive matters,  which are apt to disagree  with some constitutions.  Liebig
 says, that minute  crystals of uric acid are deposited from the urine after the use of those
 wines in which the alkali necessary to retain the uric acid in solution is wanting; but
 that  this  is never  observed  from  the use of Rhenish  wines, which contain so much
 tartar.
   On the whole, I am inclined to think, that, of the stronger wines employed in England,
 good dry Sherry is best fitted for dietetical use.  It is devoid of the extractive and color-
 ing matters found in red wine, and is free both from  acid and sugar.  In general, how-
 ever, I think the lighter or weaker  wines  preferable; and of those commonly  used in
 England Claret appears to me the best.*
   1.  Sherry.—This  is made in Spain, near Xeres, and is exported from Cadiz.  "From
 the gradual mixture of wines of various ages," says Mr. Busby.f " no wine can be further
 from what may be called a  natural wine than  6herry."  Boiled must, (of the consistence
 of treacle, and having a similar flavor, but with a strong empyreumatic taste,) is employed
 to deepen  its color.  Amontillado, or Montillado, (a very dry kind of sherry,) is added to
 sherries which are deficient in the nutty flavor.   Being very light in color, it is also  used
 to reduce the color of sherries which are too high.  Brandy is added to sherry before it is
 shipped, but never in greater quantities than four or five per cent.
   Sherry varies considerably in the depth of its color ; and London wholesale dealers dis-
 tinguish five kinds, called respectively, very pale, pale, golden, brown, and very brown; and
 occasionally an extra very pale, and an extra very brown, are met with.   Some years since
 fashion  ran  on pale  sherries, and  to meet the  demand  the  wine-growers made  their
 wines from the grapes before they were quite ripe, and the consequence was, an inferior
 class of wines was exported ; and had the fashion continued, the characters of sherries
 would  have been greatly  altered.   But the inferior quality  of the pale sherries, thus
 produced, led to a  change  in the fashion, and now dark or brown sherries (colored as
 before stated) are run after.   It should, however, be remembered, that color is no crite-
 rion of the goodness of sherry.
   I have already  stated that of the stronger wines sherry is preferable for ordinary use,
 on account of its great freedom from acid, sugar, coloring, and extractive matters.   It is,
 therefore, the  least injurious  of the strong wines for gouty persons, as well as for those
 troubled with  acidity of stomach, and for the lithic acid diathesis.
   2. Port-Wine.—This is manufactured on the banks of the Douro, and is exported from
 Oporto.  It is made  from round black grapes, (see pp. 169-170,)  and owes  its color and
 astringency, when pure, to the husks and stalks of the grapes which are contained in the
 fermenting juice.
   To augment the strength  of this wine brandy is added to it.  In  Portugal the juice of
 the elderberry has been employed to augment the  color.  To such an extent was this at
 one time practised,  that the wine company of Portugal  rooted  out the elder-trees, and
 prohibited their growth in the wine district.  Kino, it is said, is  used to give roughness or
 astringency to Port-wine.
   Old Port-wine has a duller, browner, and paler tint than new wine, which has a more
 purplish, red or ruby tint, and a brighter though deeper color.  To detect the shades of
color, dealers use small silver dishes,  called tasters, having raised  bottoms, by the reflect-
ed light from which, the color of  the wine is readily perceived.  In order to imitate  age,

        * Appendix  16.         t Visit to the Vineyards of Spain and France.  Lond. 1834. 
208
COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
dealers sometimes add white Port-wine to the red kind ;  but I am informed that the crust
which is deposited is never good and firm.
  Port-wine belongs to the class of stronger wines.   It more frequently disagrees with in-
dividuals than sherry; but to this  statement many exceptions occur.  It is more apt to
disorder the head and the stomach, and to constipate the bowels, than sherry. It is popu-
larly supposed to be  more strengthening than the other kinds of wines ; and, according-
ly, is more  frequently resorted to as a medicine.  On account of its  astringency it is
particularly  adapted  for those  cases  which  are attended with a  relaxed condition of
the bowels.
  3. Madeira.—This wine,  the produce of the island  whose name it bears, is in general
somewhat stronger and  more acid than sherry.   Before  it  is shipped, brandy  is usually
added to it.   In order to improve its quality  it is  frequently  sent a voyage to the East
Indies.  Heat and agitation are probably the effective agents iii this improvement.  Ma-
deira is well adapted for old persons and debilitated constitutions, where its slight acidity
is not objectionable.  It is an excellent wine for invalids; but its acidity sometimes causes
it to disagree.
  4. Champagne.—This wine is called after the province of France of which it is the pro-
duce.  It is usually procured from a black grape.  The  Champagne wines are generally
divided into the white, and the red  or pink; and each of these again into the still and the
sparkling.  Of  the still Champagne that called Sillery is generally admitted to be the best.
In England, however, the  sparkling Champagne is usually preferred; and of this the
wine of  Ay is  considered  the  best; that which merely  creams on the  surface (demi-
mousseux) being more esteemed than the full-frothing, (grand-mousseux.)   The sparkling,
creaming, or frothing of these wines depends on the evolution of carbonic acid gas.
  If carbonic acid gas be condensed into ordinary white wine, it usually renders the lat-
ter turbid, owing to the precipitation of gliadine contained  in the wine.   But by  the pre-
vious addition of tannin (which precipitates the gliadine) this may be prevented.
  Champagne is an exhilarating wine, which speedily produces intoxication ; it also acts
as a diuretic.   It excites lively Tand agreeable feelings, and  is, in consequence, adapted for
hypochondriacal cases;  it is very apt, however, to occasion headache.  On account of its
effervescing property it is occasionally useful in allaying sickness and vomiting.   It is ob-
jectionable in gouty subjects.
  5. German Wines.—These are produced principally on  the banks of the Rhine and the
Moselle.   They are  light wines,  and remarkable, as I have already stated, for  their very
powerful bouquet, (see p. 203,) as well as for containing tartrate of alumina and potash,
(see p. 204.)  " A notion prevails that they are naturally acid ;  and the  inferior kinds, no
doubt, are so:  but this is not the constant character of the Rhine wines, which in good
years have  no  perceptible acidity to the taste, at least not  more than is  common to them
with the growths of warmer regions.  Their chief distinction is their  extreme dura-
bility."
   The Johannisberger stands at the head of the Rhine wines. It has a very choice flavor
and perfume, and is characterized by an almost total want of acidity.   Steinberger ranks
next; and after this follow; Rudesheimer, Hochheimer, &c.  In England the term Hock, (a
corruption of Hochheimer) is usually applied to the first growths  of the Rhine; while
the inferior Rhine wines are simply called Rhenish wines.
   Of the Moselle wines the  Scharlzberger is deservedly esteemed.
   The German wines of good quality, are, in general, light and wholesome ; though they
 are occasionally objectionable  on account of  their acidulous  character. They  prove
 diuretic  and slightly  aperient.  Liebig asserts  that crystals of uric acid are  never de- 
WINE.                                 209
posited from the urine under their use, on account of the tartar which they hold in solu-
tion.
  6. Claret Wines.—Under this name are generally included  the red wines of France,
which are produced in the districts adjoining Bourdeaux. The most esteemed are, Lafilte,
Latour, Chateau-Margaux, and Haut-Brion.  They are light and wholesome wines, and
well adapted for the table ; though in gouty and rheumatic subjects, and in some cases of
dyspepsia, they prove injurious by their acidity.
  7. Burgundy.—This wine enjoys the highest reputation on the continent.   It is stimu-
lant and somewhat astringent.  It is apt to occasion headache or indigestion.*
  Other intoxicating drinks.—Among European nations  alcohol is the basis of the ine-
briating drinks in ordinary use.  But by the Mahometan, and  other oriental nations,
Opium and Hemp are employed for producing intoxication.  The consideration of these,
however, scarcely falls within the scope of the present work ; and I must, therefore, re-
fer the reader to my Elements of Materia Medica for full details respecting the effects and
uses of these and other narcotic substances, (Tobacco for example,) which are used  as
inebriants.
                     3. CONDIMENTS, OR  SEASONING AGENTS.
  The name of Condiment is  usually  given to those substances which are taken with
foods for the immediate  purpose of improving their flavor.  But most of them serve other,
and much more important, purposes in the animal economy, than that of merely gratify-
ing the palate.  Most of them  are, in fact, alimentary substances—as Sugar, Oil or Fat,
and Vegetable Acids.  Common Salt, which by most dietetical writers is spoken of as if
it  were a  mere luxury,—as if its use were to gratify the palate merely,—is essential to
health and life, and is as much  an aliment or food as either bread or flesh.  " Without
salt, or some other mineral substance which  can be substituted for it, as chloride of potas-
sium, no solid substance could be taken into the system; nor, if it could  be taken into
the blood,  could the albumen there be retained in solution;  nor  could  the changes which
are requisite  for life take place in the  tissues; nor could any bile be formed.  As hy-
drochloric acid is  found in the stomach, and soda in the bile and blood, it  must be  sup-
posed that there exists some power in the body  by which the chloride  of sodium is de-
composed."f
  But all  the substances employed  as  condiments are not necessary to our existence;
and  accordingly they are not assimilated.  This is the case with  the aromatic and  pun-
gent condiments,  the volatile oil of which is, in many cases, thrown out of the system un-
changed ;  as in the case of Onions.   The purpose which these substances serve in the
animal economy is not very obvious; but it is probable that they promote the activity of
the assimilating organs, by  acting as  stimuli; and in some cases, perhaps, they may serve
to correct  the injurious qualities of the foods with  which they are taken.
  The following are the orders  of condiments usually admitted.   It will be seen that they
have been already noticed in other parts of this work:—
  1. Saline Condiments, (see Common Salt, p. 107.)
  2. Acidulous Condiments, (see Acetic Acid, p 72;  Citric Acid, p. 73; and Lemon Juice, p. 72.)
  3. Oily Condiments, (see the Fixed Oils, p. 80.)
  4. Saccharine Condiments, (see The Saccharine Alimentary Principle, p. 55.)
  5. Aromatic and Pungent Condiments, (see The Volatile or Essential Oils, p. 88.)

  * Appendix,  17.     t On Gravel, Calculus, and Gout, by H. Bence Jones, M. A., p. 46.  Lond. 1842.
14 
210                        COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
  Under the name of Sauces are used, at the table, mixtures of various condimentary and
alimentary substances.   Salt and spices  are essential ingredients of them, and vinegar
enters into the composition of several.  Ketchup, (made either from Mushrooms or Wal-
nuts,) Soy, and Essence of Anchovies, are the sauces in most frequent use.   These sub-
stances are  seldom employed in sufficient quantity to prove injurious  by  themselves;
tliough  by provoking  the appetite, and  thereby promoting the  use  of indigestible sub-
stances, they frequently prove indirectly injurious.  By invalids  and  convalescents they
should, therefore, be carefully avoided.
  " Condiments," says  Dr. Beaumont,*  " particularly those of the spicy kind, are non-
essential to  the  process of digestion, in a healthy state of the system.   They afford no
nutrition. Though they may assist the action of a debilitated stomach  for a time, their
continual use never fails to produce  an  indirect debility of that organ.  They affect it as
alcohol or other stimulants do—the present relief afforded is at the expense offuture suffer-
ing.  Salt and Vinegar are exceptions, and are not noxious to this charge, when used in
moderation.  They both assist in  digestion,—vinegar, by rendering muscular fibre more
tender—and  both together by producing a fluid having some analogy to  the gastric
juice."

  t Experiments and Observations  on the Gastric Juke and the Physiology of Digestion, p, 40. Edinb.
1838. 
PART   IL—OF   DIET,
   In this part of my work I propose to consider briefly the adaptation of aliment to the dif-
 ferent wants and conditions of human existence.  But as it involves the consideration of
 the digestibility  and nutritious quality of foods, as well as of the times best fitted for eating,
 I propose to offer a few remarks on  these subjects, before  proceeding to the examination
 of dietaries and  the dietetical treatment of diseases.

                    Chap. I.—Of the Digestibility of Food.

   The term assimilation, as used in its most general sense, by Dr. Prout, has been applied
 to those processes by which alimentary substances are converted into the organized tissues
 of the  body: primary assimilation comprising those concerned in the conversion of food
 into blood ;—secondary assimilation, those by which organized or living textures are formed
 from the blood, and afterwards redissolved and removed from the system.
   I need hardly explain  that digestion is one of the  primary assimilating processes.  It
 comprehends those changes effected  on the food in  the stomach and intestines; and is
 partly  a mechanical, but  principally a chemical process.   Dr. Prout speaks of it as being
 likewise a vitalizing process.
   Most of the well-ascertained changes effected in the food in the stomach can be produ-
 ced out of the body.  By digestion starch is converted into gum and sugar : oily or fatty
 bodies are  minutely divided, (not dissolved,) and formed into a kind of emulsion: protei-
 naceous substances (fibrine, albumen, caseine, and gluten) are  dissolved or liquefied in
 the stomach, and afterwards precipitated in the duodenum.  Now all  these processes
 can be imitated  out of the  body.  Thus fibrine  or coagulated albumen can be dissolved
 either in the gastric juice withdrawn  from the stomach, or in an artificial digestive liquor
 prepared by macerating the dried lining  membrane of the fourth stomach of the calf in
 water acidulated with hydrochloric acid, (see p. 35.)
  The saccharine matter, the emulsified oily or  fatty substances, and the finely divided
 or redissolved proteinaceous matters  are absorbed, and pass into the chyle.
  The formation or secretion of the matters necessary to produce the requisite chemical
 changes in the food, is, as  far as we  at present  know, a vital act.  To dissolve the pro-
 teinaceous compounds  two substances are required, an acid (hydrochloric) and a matter
 called  pepsine or chymosine.  According to Dumas,  the first softens these bodies  and
 causes them to swell up,—the second determines their liquefaction.
  Without  adopting the  fermentation hypothesis of digestion, to which I have already
 (see  p. 35)  offered  some objections, the  necessity of certain  agents in the  stomach to
 effect the solution or liquefaction of  the food is obvious;  and if  we admit that these are
 formed by the vital  powers, we can  readily comprehend how, in certain  morbid condi-
tions of the organism, the digestive agents  are altered in their nature, and the natural and
healthy process of digestion thereby deranged. 
212-                        COMPOUND  ALIMENTS.
   The digestibility of food is affected  by two classes of circumstances;—the one relating
 to the foods themselves, the other to those of the individual or the organism.
   1. Digestibility of food affected by circumstances relating to the foods themselves.—A variety
 of circumstances affect the facility with which different kinds of foods undergo digestion.
 Some foods are naturally more difficult of digestion than others.  This is especially the
 case with the oily or  fatty substances.  I have, however,  already fully  considered the
 subject, and I, therefore, beg to refer  my readers to the opinions before expressed, (see
 pp.  80-85.)
   " Vegetables," says Dr. Beaumont,  " are generally slower of digestion than meats and
 farinaceous substances, though they sometimes pass out of the stomach before them, in
- an undigested state.   Crude vegetables, by some law of the animal economy not well un-
 derstood, are allowed, even when the stomach is in a healthy state, sometimes to pass the
■pyloric orifice, while  other  food is  retained  there to  receive the  solvent  action of the
 gastric juice.  This  may depend upon  their comparative indigestibility ;  for it is well
 known that cathartic  medicines, various fruits, seeds, &c, which  operate as laxatives,
 are  not digested;  are incapable  of being retained in the  stomach; and pass rapidly
 through the intestinal tube."
   In digestion,  as  in all chemical  processes, cohesion  is  a force which  is opposed to
 molecular changes ; and the efficacy of various means of augmenting the digestibility of
 foods is ascribable to their influence in lessening this force.  The more easy digestibility
 of whipped or lightly-boiled eggs than in the same bodies when fried or hard-boiled is ex-
 plicable in this way, (see pp. 129 and 130.)
   Tenderness of fibre facilitates the digestive process; and therefore, all those circum-
 stances (see pp.  114-116) which  affect  the  texture of flesh, have an influence  over its
 digestibility.  Violent  muscular exertion immediately previous to the death of an animal
 renders its flesh  more tender ;  and thus  the meat of hunted animals is  more digestible
 than it would otherwise have  been.  It is not improbable that  the still more cruel prac-
 tices of bull-baiting  and whipping pigs to death, had their  origin in  some object  of this
 kind, (see p. 115.)
   Incipient decomposition promotes the tenderness and digestibility  of food.  Most per-
 sons are aware that fresh-killed meat is tougher than that which has been kept for some
 time, (see p. 115.)
   To these observations some apparent  objections exist.  The flesh of young animals, as
 I have  already stated, (see pp. 115-116,) is more tender  and  soluble than that of the
 adult animal; yet the latter is the more digestible.  Moreover, it might be supposed that
 liquid foods, on account of their lesser cohesion, would be more digestible than solid foods:
 yet such does not appear  to be the case.  "Solid food," says Dr.  Beaumont, "is  sooner
 disposed of by the stomach than fluid, and its nutritive principles are sooner carried into
 the circulation.  It has been observed, however, that the  exhaustion from abstinence is
 quicker removed by liquid than by solid aliment."
    Minuteness of division of solids is an important aid to digestion.  Thus potatoes, when
 so  far cooked as to be easily mashed, ar>, more easily digestible than when  cooked for a
 shorter period of time, so as to retain then form ; and for the same reason mealy potatoes
 are more digestible than waxy ones, (see pj. 181 and 182.)  It is obvious, also, that per-
 fect mastication, by effecting the minute division of food, must be an importaut aid to di-
  gestion ; and this fact cannot  be too strongly urged on dyspeptics : for if the food be im-
  perfectly chewed  and hastily swallowed,  greater difficulty is experienced in the  subse-
  quent operation of digestion.   To  the toothless,  therefore, artificial  teeth are important
  adjuvants to the gastric operations. 
'---—--------------=---------:-------;----            --                      =r

                             DIGESTIBILITY OF FOOD.                         213
   Nor is the process of insalivation, as affecting the digestibility of the food, to be over-
looked.  When food has been thoroughly intermixed with the saliva and mucus of the
mouth, it is more readily and speedily permeated and acted on by the gastric juice.  We
may draw an illustration of the use of the  saliva from the preparatory proceeding of the
operation of displacement by percolation.  In order to prepare a tincture of any medicinal
substance by percolation, the solid  material, first reduced to a moderately fine powder, is
moistened with a sufficiency of the solvent  to form a thick  pulp.  This preliminary ope-
ration—which is analogous to insalivation—facilitates the percolation of the remainder of
the liquid, while  it also assists its  solvent  action on the solid  material.  - If dry food be
hastily swallowed without being duly admixed with the  saliva and mucus of the mouth,
we instinctively desire drink to moisten the alimentary mass;  so that in this dry state it
does not appear to be so readily converted into  chyme;  and it is probable that chylifica-
tion, as weli as chymification, is checked by imperfect insalivation.
   The cookery of foods has for its  immediate object the gratification of the palate ; but it
can scarcely be doubted that  its  more  remote end  is the promotion  of digestion.  The
reader will scarcely  fail to  observe  that nearly every substance possessing  an  organized
texture, is, by civilized man, submitted  to some cooking process before it is employed as
food.   One point, therefore, attained by cooking, is  the more or less complete destruction
of organization.  Its effect, as I have before remarked, (see p.  114,) is not always to pro-
duce a chemical change in the  ultimate constitution of food, for it does  not appear that
roasting affects the  ultimate composition  of meat.  Boiling,  however, produces some
changes in the proximate composition of it, (see  p. 196,) and, in the case of the farinaceous
substances, serves to break or split  the starch grains, (see p. 62.)  Frying, of all culinary
operations, is the most obnoxious to the digestive function,  for reasons which I have
before explained, (see p. 83-84.)
   2. Digestibility of foods affected by circumstances relating to the individual or organism.—
The state of body and mind, idiosyncrasy or constitutional peculiarity, habit, the interval
that has elapsed since  the preceding meal, the  keenness of the appetite, the amount of
exercise taken either immediately  before or after  eating, and the quantity  of food swal-
lowed at one meal, are some of the circumstances relating to the individual, which affect
digestion.  Violent anger, for  example, disturbs this process, and, according to  Dr. Beau-
mont, gives rise to the appearance  of bile in the stomach.  In  febrile diathesis, with dry-
ness of mouth, thirst, accelerated  pulse, &c, very little or no gastric juice is secreted.
Under such circumstances, therefore, the propriety of withholding  food is very obvious :
if we  permit its use no nourishment  can be obtained from it, while its presence in the
stomach is a source  of irritation.  The idiosyncrasy of some constitutions with regard to
mutton has been alluded to, (see  p. 116.)
   Considerable discrepancy of opinion has existed with regard to the influence of repose
after eating.   By one class of writers on dietetics exercise is said to promote, by another
to retard,  digestion;  and both parties appeal to experience for  evidence in proof of their
position.  "From  numerous trials, I am persuaded," says Dr. Beaumont, "that moder-
ate exercise conduces considerably to  healthy and  rapid digestion.   The discovery was
the result of accident, and contrary to preconceived opinions."   Dr. Combe, on the other
hand, observes, " that active exercise immediately after a full meal, such  as is generally
taken for dinner, is  prejudicial to  its  digestion, seems to  me  to be proved by daily and
unequivocal experience, and I have often seen  patients  laboring under indigestion bene-
fited by refraining from it."
   It will, I think, be generally admitted, that after a full  meal the functions of the body
are more or less impaired, sluggishness is induced, and a tendency to repose experienced. 
214                         COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
 These effects are almost universal in the animal  kingdom.  We experience them in our
 own persons, and we witness them not only on our fellow-men, but on the inferior ani-
 mals.  The dog, when allowed to indulge  his natural instinct, lies down and sleeps after
 he has satisfied his appetite; and the Python or  Indian Boa, we are told, lies in a torpid
 state for three or four  weeks after gorging  itself with a goat
   These and many other analogous facts  are satisfactory to my mind that repose is nat-
 ural to animals  after a hearty meal;  and that the  practice  of taking the siesta, or  after-
 dinner sleep, is not injurious, if moderately indulged in.   It should, however, be followed
 by moderate exercise.   But  there are exceptions  to these  statements, and I  have met
 with some few persons who have asserted  that they find advantage in  using exercise im-
 mediately after dinner; but these form  exceptions  to the general rule.   After the earlier
 and lighter meals of the day, breakfast or luncheon, quietude or repose is neither desired
 nor required.
   I shall close these observations  on the digestibility of foods by subjoining Dr. Beaumont's
 table, showing the mean time of digestion of various articles of food, as ascertained by
 experiments on the Canadian, whose case  I have already had occasion  to refer to, (see
 p. 82.)  I may premise, however, that his  statements are by no means to  be implicitly
 adopted.  "The rapidity of digestion, as the author himself shows, varies greatly accord-
 ing to  the quantity eaten, the amount and  nature of the previous exercise, the interval
 of the preceding meal, the state  of health  and of the weather, and also the  state of the
 mind.   But in scarcely any of the  experiments have  these conditions been carefully
.noted.*

  * Experiments and Observations on  the  Gastric Juice and the Physiology of Digestion, by W. Beau-
 mont, M. D., Edinb., 1838.  Foot note, p. 37, by Dr. Combe. 
215
                                         TABLE

Showing the  Mean Time  of Digestion of the different Articles of Diet, naturally, in the
                        Stomach, and artificially in Phials, on a Bath.

The proportion of gastric juice to aliment, in artificial digestion, was generally calculated at one ounce of
  the  former to one drachm of the latter, the bath being kept as near as practicable at the natural tem-
  perature, 100° Fahrenheit, with frequent agitation.
	1 MEAN TIME OF CHYMIFICATION.			
ARTICLES OF DD3T				
	IN STOMACH.		IN PHIALS.	
	Preparation.	H. M.	Preparation.	H. M.
Rice - - - - -	Boiled	1		
Pigs' feet, soused	Boiled	1		
Tripe, soused ...	Boiled	1		
Eggs, whipped -	Raw	1 30	Whipped	4
Trout, salmon, fresh -	Boiled	1 30	Boiled	3 30
Trout, salmon, fresh -	Fried	1 30		
Soup, barley ...	Boiled	1 30		
Apples, sweet, mellow	Raw	1 30	Masticated	6 45
Venison steak -	Broiled	1 35		
Brains, animal - - -	Boiled	1 45	Boiled	4 30
Sago - - - - -	Boiled	1 45	Boiled	3 15
Tapioca - - - -	Boiled	2	Boded	3 20
Barley ....	Boiled	2		
Milk.....	Boiled	2	Boiled	4 15
Liver, beef's, fresh	Broiled	2	Cut fine	6 30
Eggs, fresh -	Raw	2	Raw	4 15
Codfish, cured dry	Boiled	2	Boiled	5
Apples, sour, mellow -	Raw	2	Masticated	8 30
Cabbage, with vinegar	Raw	2	Shaved	10 15
Milk.....	Raw	2 15	Raw	4 45
Eggs, fresh -	Roasted	2 15		
Turkey, wild -	Roasted	2 18		
Turkey, domestic	Boiled	2 25		
Gelatine -	Boiled	2 30	Boiled	4 45
Turkey, domestic	Roasted	2 30		
Goose, wild -	Roasted	2 30		
Pig, sucking . - -	Roasted	2 30		
Lamb, fresh ...	Broiled	2 30		
Hash, meat and vegetables -	Warmed	2 30		
Beans, pod ...	Boiled	2 30		
Cake, sponge -	Baked	2 30	Broken	6 16
Parsnips -	Boiled	2 30	Mashed	6 45
Potatoes, Irish -	Roasted	2 30		
Potatoes, Irish -	Baked	2 30		
Cabbage, head -	Raw	2 30	Masticated	12 30
Spinal marrow, animal	Boiled	2 40	Boiled	5 25
Chicken, full grown -	Fricasseed	2 45		
Custard -	Baked	2 45	Baked	6 30
Beef, with salt only	Boiled	2 45		9 30
Apples, sour, hard	Raw	2 50	Entire pieces	18
Oysters, fresh -	Raw	2 55	Raw, entire	7 30
Eggs, fresh -	Soft boiled	3	Soft boiled	6 30
Bass, striped, fresh	Broiled	3		
Beef, fresh, lean, rare -	Roasted	3	Roasted	
 
216 COMPOUND ALIMENTS.							
	ARTICLES OF DIET.		MEAN TIME OF CHYMIFICATION.				
			IN STOMACH.		IN PHIALS.		
			Preparation.	H. M.	Preparation.	H. M.	
	Beefsteak -	_	Broiled	3	Masticated	8 15	
	Pork, recently salted -	.	Raw	3	Raw	8 30	
	Pork, recently salted -	.	Stewed	3			
	Mutton, fresh	.	Broiled	3	Masticated	6 45	
	Vlutton, fresh	_	Boiled	3			
	Soup, bean ...	.	Boiled	3			
	Chicken soup	.	Boiled	3			
	Aponeurosis	.	Boiled	3	Boded	6 30	
	Dumpling, apple -	-	Boiled	3			
	3ake, corn	.	Baked	3			
	Dysters, fresh	.	Roasted	3 15			
	Pork, recently salted -	.	Broiled	3 15			
	Porksteak -	.	Broiled	3 15			
	Vlutton, fresh	.	Roasted	3 15			
	Bread, corn	_	Baked	3 15			
	Carrot, orange	.	Boiled	3 15	Mashed	6 15	
	Sausage, fresh	-	Broiled	3 20			
	Flounder, fresh -	.	Fried	3 30			
	Catfish, fresh	_	Fried	3 30			
	3ysters, fresh	_	Stewed	3 30	Stewed	8 25	
	Beef, fresh, lean, dry -	.	Roasted	3 30	Roasted	7 45	
	Beef, with mustard, &c.	-	Boiled	3 30			
	Butter ...	_	Melted	3 30			
	Cheese, old, strong	.	Raw	3 30	Masticated	7 15	
	Soup, mutton	.	Boiled	3 30			
	Oyster soup	.	Boiled	3 30			
	Bread, wheat, fresh	.	Baked	3 30	Masticated	4 30	
	Turnips, flat	.	Boiled	3 30			
	Potatoes, Irish	.	Boiled	3 30	Mashed	8 30	
	Eggs, fresh	.	Hard Boiled	3 30	Hard boiled	8	
	Eggs, fresh	.	Fried	3 30			
	Green corn and beans -	.	Boiled	3 45			
	Beets ...	.	Boiled	3 45			
	Salmons, salted -	.	Boiled	4	Boiled	7 45	
	Beef ....	.	Fried	4		12 30	
	Veal, fresh -	.	Broiled	4			
	Fowls, domestic -	.	Boiled	4	Masticated	6 30	
	Fowls, domestic -	.	Roasted	4			
	Ducks, domestic -	.	Roasted	4			
	Soup, beef, vegetables, anc bread ...	l|	Boiled	4			
	Heart, animal		Fried	4	Entire piece	13 30	
	Beef, old, hard, salted -	.	Boiled	4 15			
	Pork, recently salted -	.	Fried	4 15			
	Soup, marrow bones	.	Boiled	4 15			
	Cartilage -	.	Boiled	4 15	Masticated	10	
	Pork, recently salted -	.	Boiled	4 30	Masticated.	6 30	
	Veal, fresh -	.	Fried	4 30			
	Ducks, wild	.	Roasted	4 30			
	Suet, mutton	.	Boiled	4 30	Divided	10	
	Pork, fat and lean	.	Roasted	5 15			
	Tendon -	.	Boiled	5 30	Masticated	12 45	
	(Suet, beef, fresh -	-	Boiled	5 30	Entire piece	12	
J~							
 
NUTRITIVE QUALITIES OF FOOD.                217
ARTICLES OF DIET.	MEAN TIME OF CHYMIFICATION.			
	IN STOMACH.		IN PHIALS.	
	Preparation.	H. M.	Preparation.	H. M.
Beefsteak .... Beefsteak .... Beef..... Mutton, fresh ... Cream .... Cheese, old, strong Cheese, new, mild Oil, olive -Tendon -Cartilage -Bone, beef's, solid Bone, hog's, solid Parsnips -Parsnips -Carrot, orange -Carrot, orange -Potatoes, Irish -Cabbage -Peach, mellow -Peach, mellow -	Broiled Raw Boiled Broiled Boiled Raw Raw Boiled	4 30	Cut fine Cut fine Entire piece Unmasticated Raw Entire piece Divided Raw Entire piece Divided Entire piece Entire piece Entire piece Entire piece Entire piece Raw piece Entire piece Boiled Cut small Mashed	8 8 15 9 8 30 25 30 18 8 30 60 24 12 80 80 13 15 18 12 30 17 15 14 20 10 6
                Chap. II.—Of the Nutritive Qualities of Foods.

  In order to arrive at any accurate conclusions with respect to the relative nutritive
powers of different kinds of foods, it  is necessary, in the first place, to ascertain the
amount of water these  substances respectively contain; for it will be found that in this
respect the difference between different kinds of food is enormous.   Thus Turnips and
Cabbages contain somewhat more than 92  per cent, of water, or not quite 8 per cent, of
anhydrous or dry solid matter; while the Fixed Oils or Fats are  anhydrous, or nearly so.
  But of the anhydrous  or dry matter of foods the whole is not  necessarily nutritive.  I
have  already stated (p. 68)  that the ligneous or woody tissue of vegetable foods is indi-
gestible, and is evacuated with the faeces.  Moreover, the green resinous matter of plants,
called chlorophylle, does not possess alimentary properties, as I have before remarked, (see
p. 183.)  So that from the amount of anhydrous, or dry solid matter of ordinary vegetable
foods, we must deduct woody tissue and the coloring matter.
  Furthermore, it is doubtful whether some  of the substances which enter into the com-
position  of animal  foods are nutritive,  at least  under ordinary  circumstances; such as
pack-wax, (see p.  113,) and some of the membranous tissues which approximate to horny
matter in composition.
  Of the positively digestible  and nutritive matter of foods we must distinguish those
principles which are nitrogenized from such as are not. For whether the views of Liebig,
as to the exclusively nutritive quality of nitrogenized foods,  be or be not correct, it cannot
be doubted that the mode of nutrition of substances which are  devoid of nitrogen must 
218                         COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
be different from that of bodies which contain it, and whose ultimate composition is iden-
tical with that of the living tissues.
  The value of non-nitrogenized substances as  aliments is probably in proportion to the
quantity of carbon which they contain.   In this  point of view the oils and fats exceed all
other  foods of this class.
  Of the nitrogenized aliments, those which contain the largest amount of proteinaceous
principles (which are identical in ultimate  composition with our own flesh and blood) ex-
ceed all other foods in nutritive power.   I have  already (p. 27) mentioned Boussingault's
opinion, that the nutritive value of nitrogenized foods is in proportion to the quantity of
nitrogen entering into their composition ;  and I have pointed out some  objections to this
notion, (see pp. 28 and 162.)  I may further  add, that  if it were true, the gelatinous ali-
mentary principles must exceed the proteinaceous ones in nutritive power; a conclusion
not borne out by experience.
  In the following table, which I have drawn up from the best accessible sources, will be
found the per centage quantities of water,  anhydrous or dry  matter, carbon, and nitrogen,
contained in foods as we usually meet with them in commerce.  The numbers  contained
in the table  are not always the actual ones given by the authorities quoted; but  have
in most cases been obtained by calculation  from data furnished by the authors respectively

quoted.
                                     TABLE

Representing the Average Quantities of Dry Matter, Moisture, Carbon, and Nitrogen, in various
                          Alimentary Substances of commerce.
100 PARTS.
Solid or
  Dry
Matter.
 Water
or Mois-
  ture.
Carbon.   Nitrogen.
Authority.
Gum Arabic     ....
   Ditto        ....
Sugar Candy    ....
   Ditto        ....

English refined sugar .
Maple sugar     ....
Beetroot sugar   ....
East India moist sugar
Sugar of Narbonne honey .
Sugar from starch [Potato sugar ?]
Sugar of milk    ....
   Ditto    (crystallized) .
Manna sugar (Mannite)
   Ditto.....
Potato starch (commercially dried)
Fine Wheat starch
Arrow root.....
Almond oil.....
Olive oil    ....    .
Buttert     ......
Hog's lard.....
Mutton suet     ....
Wheat.....
Rye......
Oats......
Oatmeal.....
Bread (Rye)
   Ditto
Leguminous seeds
87-6
82-4
89-47
average
 ditto .
 ditto .
87-5
 82
 85-2
 81-8
100
100
100
100
100
 85-5
 83-4
 79-2
 93-4
 67-79
12-4
17-6
10-53
12-5
18
14-8
18-2
 0
 0
 0
 0
 0
14-5
16-6
20-8
 6-6
32-21
36-3
34-78
4209
42-85
41-5 to
42-5
421
421
40-88
36-36
36-2
400
40-46
33-7
39-85
36-44
37-5
36-4
77-403
77-50
65-6
79-098
78-996
39-415
33-530
40154

30-674
30.15
37-00
0
014
0
0

0

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.288

0
0
0
1-966
1-417
1-742
Prout.
Guerin.*
Peligot.
Prout.
Prout.

Prout.
Prout.
Prout.
Prout.
Prout.
Prout.
Liebig.
Prout.
Liebig.
Dumas.
Prout.
Prout.
Saussure.
Saussure.
Berard.
Chevreul.
Chevreul.
Boussingault.
Boussingault.
Boussingault.
Christison.
Boeckmann.
Liebig.
Liebig.
* Guerin's analysis is that of what he calls Arabin.
t Butter usually contains about one sixth of its weight of buttermilk. 
NUTRITIVE QUALITIES  OF FOOD.
219
	Solid or	Water			
100 PARTS.	Dry Matter.	or Mois-ture.	Carbon.	Nitrogen.	Authority.
	84-0	160	35-743		Playfair.
Ditto (Poisjaunes) .	91-4	8-6	42-4	3-838	Boussingault.
Ditto.....	85-94	1406			Einhof.
	85-89	1411	38-24		Playfair.
Ditto (Broad or Windsor Bear	) 84-37	1563			Einhof.
	84-1	15-9	37-38		Playfair.
	24-1	75-9	10-604	0-3615	Boussingault.
Ditto (fresh) .	20-6	79-4		0-37	Boussingault.
Ditto (fresh) ...			12-2		Liebig.
Ditto (kept 10 months) .	23-2	76-8		0-28	Boussingault.
Cabbage ....	7-7	92-3		0-28	Boussingault.
	7-5	92-5	3-2175	01275	Boussingault.
	12-4	87-6		0-30	Boussingault.
Jerusalem Artichoke .	20-8	79-2	90	0-3328	Boussingault.
Apricot (ripe)	2513	74-87			Berard.
Greengage (ripe)	28-90	71-10			Berard.
Peach (ripe)	J9-76	80-24			Berard.
Cherries (ripe)	25-15	74-85			Berard.
Pear (ripe Jargonelle) .	1612	83-88			Berard.
Gooseberries (ripe)	18-90	81-10			Berard.
Smyrna Figs ...	8400	1600			Bley.
Cucumber (peeled)	2-86	9714			John.
Blood .....	2000	80-00	10-392	3014	Liebig.
Milk, Cow's	12-93	87-02		•• 1	
	8-35	91-65		••	O. Henri
" Woman's ...	12-02	87-98		•• \	and
" Goat's . .	13-20	86-80		■■ 1	Chevallier.
" Ewe's	14-38	85-62		•• J	
Butcher's meat, devoid of fat	26	74	13-6		Liebig.
" " with l-7th fat a	nd				
cellular tissue			21-75		Liebig.
" " including bones	as				
purchased	29	71			Liebig.
Fresh beef flesh .	25	75	12-957	3-752	Bceckmann.
Muscular flesh of Ox .	22-5	77-5			Schlossberger.
" Calf	I 20-3 to • > 21-8	79-7 to 78-2	1		Schlossberger.
" " Pigeon .	24-0	760			Schlossberger.
" " Chicken .	22-7	77-3			Schlossberger.
" " Carp and Troi	it				
(average)	19-7	80-3			Schlossberger.
" " Cod, Haddock	&				
Sole (averag	b) 20-0	80-0			Brande.
Egg, white of	20-0	800			Bostock.
" yolk of	46-23	53-77			Prout.
" dried and purified albumen	of		55-00	15-681	Scherer.
Calf's sweetbread	300	700			Morin.
	12-6	87-4			Pasquier.
	92-5	7-5			John.
Beef Tea ....	1-5625	98-4375			Christison.
Soup of the House of Arrest a	t				
Giessen			0-75		Liebig.
  In several parts of this work (see pp. 84, 87, 88, 91, 93,102,112, and 116) I have refer-
red to the statements contained in the Report made to the Academy of Sciences in Paris,
by the Gelatine Commission ;  and I, therefore, think it advisable to subjoin the conclusions
which Magendie, in the name of the Commission, has drawn from the facts detailed:—

  1. We cannot, by any known proceeding, extract from bones an aliment which, either alone or mixed
       with other substances, can  be substituted for meat.
  2. Gelatine, albumen, and fibrine, taken separately, nourish animals for a very limited period only, and
       in an incomplete manner.  In general they soon excite such an insurmountable disgust, that ani-
       mals die rather than partake of them.
  3. The same immediate principles artificially reunited, and rendered agreeably sapid by seasoning, are
       eaten more readily, and for a longer period, than the  same substances singly, but their ultimate 
220                          COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
    influence on nutrition is not better; for animals who take them, even  in considerable quantities,
    die ultimately with all the symptoms of complete inanition.
4. Muscular flesh, in which gelatine, albumen, and fibrine are united according to the laws of organic
    nature, and where they are associated with other matters, as fat, salts, &c, suffices, even in very
    small quantity, for complete and prolonged nutrition.
5. Raw bones have the same effect, but the quantity consumed in twenty-four hours ought not to be
    much greater than in the case of meat.
6. Every kind of preparation, such as decoction with water, the action of hydrochloric acid, and espe-
    cially the transformation into gelatine, diminishes, and, in some cases, seems even to destroy the
    nutritive quality of bones.
7. The Commission, however, does not wish at present to offer an opinion on the employment of gela-
    tine,  associated with other aliments, in the  nourishment of  man.  It believes that  direct experi-
    ment can alone illustrate this subject in a  definite manner.  It has  been  actively occupied with
    this subject, and the results will be published in the second and last part of this Report.
8. Gluten, from wheat or maize, alone satisfies complete and prolonged nutrition.
9. Fat, taken alone, sustains  life during some time, but the nutrition is imperfect and disordered. It
    accumulates in all the tissues, sometimes in the state of elaine (oleine) and of stearine, sometimes
    in the state of almost pure stearine.
                       Chap. III.—Of the Times of Eating.

   An  able writer (Dr. Combe) on Digestion and Dietetics, has very justly observed, that
" the grand rule in fixing the number  and periods of our meals, is, to proportion them to
the real wants of the system as modified by age, sex, health,  aud manner of life, and as indica-
ted by the true returns of appetite."
   The time required for the digestion of the food, by the healthy stomach, varies from one
to three or four hours; but hunger, or the desire to take  more food, is not usually expe-
rienced until some time after this viscus has disposed of its contents.  If fresh food  be
introduced into the stomach before that of the previous  meal has been digested, the pro-
cess of  digestion is disturbed.   The solution which Dr. Beaumont offers of this generally
admitted fact is, that more food is received into the stomach, in the aggregate, than the gastric
juice can dissolve.  But this explanation is by no means a satisfactory one.   It leads  to the
conclusion, that eating a little and often is not injurious, provided the total amount of food
taken  does not exceed that capable of being dissolved by the gastric juice.   General expe-
rience, however, is opposed to this practice; and it can scarcely be doubted that, in the
healthy  state of the system, the custom of eating moderately at more  prolonged intervals
is most natural to man.
   A variety of circumstances affect the length of the interval between each meal.  On
account of the greater activity of the organs of respiration, children  require  to be more
frequently fed than adults, and  they bear hunger  less easily.  For  the same reason, also,
persons who take much exercise, or labor hard, require  more frequent and copious meals
than the indolent and sedentary.  In the former the number of respirations is greater than
in the latter;  and, therefore, a  more  frequent supply of food  is required to supply the
necessary quantity  of carbon  and hydrogen to  be consumed in the lungs.   " A bird de-
prived of food," says Liebig, " dies on the third day, while a serpent, with its sluggish  re-
spiration, can  live without food three months qr longer."
   From experiments* made a few  years ago at the Zoological Gardens, it appears that

                 * See the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, No. xviii. p. 49. 
TIME OF EATING.                           221
carnivorous mammalia require one meal in twenty-four hours only, and that if fed more
frequently their health suffers.  It was found that when Leopards and Hyaenas were fed
with two meals daily they did  not continue in equally  good condition with those which
had  the same quantity of flesh daily in one meal only.  It further appears, that in one
instance (that of the Leopard)  the temper  changed for the worse;  and in another  in-
stance the habits were  altered as regarded exercise, a diminution of which, in  confined
animals, must be injurious to health.
  It cannot be doubted that the practice of having fixed periods for eating is more condu-
cive to health than eating at irregular intervals.   But it will be obvious, from the forego-
ing observations, that the periods should  vary for different classes of individuals. " So
strong is the tendency  to  periodicity  in the system," says Dr. Combe, "that the  appetite
returns at the accustomed hour, even after the mode of life, and consequently the wants
of the system, have undergone a change; and if not gratified, it again subsides.  Ulti-
mately, however, its calls become too urgent to admit of being a second time disregarded."
  The number of meals per day, and the intervals between them, must vary according
to several circumstances; but for adults it may be admitted, as a general rule, that three
meals at least  are essential to health, though  five are in frequent use;  viz.  breakfast,
luncheon, dinner, tea, and supper.   In public pauper establishments three only  are per-
mitted ;  viz. breakfast, dinner, and supper.
  1. Breakfast.—The system is more susceptible of the influence of morbific causes before
breakfast than at any other period of the day.  "It is well known," observes Dr. Combe,
" that the system is  more susceptible of infection, and of the influence of cold,  miasma,
and other morbid causes, in the morning before eating than at any other time ; and hence
it has become a point of duty with all naval and military commanders, especially in bad
climates, always to give their men breakfast before exposing them to morning dews and
other noxious influences.  Sir George Ballingall even mentions a regiment quartered at
Newcastle, in which typhus fever was very prevalent, and in which, of all the means
used to check its progress, nothing  proved so successful as an early breakfast of warm
coffee.   In aguish countries, also, experience has shown that the proportion of sick among
those who are exposed to the open air before getting any thing to eat, is infinitely greater
than among those who have been fortified by a comfortable breakfast."
  In some  constitutions, especially those  denominated delicate, much  exercise, either of
body or mind, before breakfast, operates injuriously; producing exhaustion, languor, and
unfitness for the ordinary occupations of the day.
  These facts show the  importance of breakfasting soon after rising and dressing; at
least in many cases.  I am  fully aware that there are numerous exceptions to this.  Some
persons not only suffer no injury from, but actually appear to be benefited by, active exer-
cise taken before breakfast; its effect being with them  to create or augment the  appetite.
But in others the effects are those which I have already stated.   I am satisfied,  from re-
peated observation, that in children disposed to spasmodic and other brain diseases, the
practice of making them  attend school for two hours  before breakfast is injurious; and I
fully agree, therefore, with  Dr. Combe, that in " boarding-schools for the young and grow-
ing, who require plenty of sustenance, and are often obliged to rise early, an early break-
fast is almost an indispensable  condition of health."  Epileptics, especially those  disposed
to morning attacks, should  invariably breakfast soon after rising.  I think I have seen the
fits brought on by neglecting this precaution.  For travellers a light breakfast before start-
ing is a great protection " against colds and subsequent fatigue or exhaustion."   Medical
men and others should not, if possible, expose themselves to the influence of infectious or
contagious disorders, as  fevers, &c, before breakfast, as the danger of infection then is 
222
COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
greatly enhanced.  For the same reason the practice  of making post-mortem examina-
tions and dissections before breakfast is to be condemned.
  2. Luncheon.—This  meal is admissible only when either the interval between the break-
fast and dinner is very prolonged, or when the quantity of food taken at breakfast is very
small.  The lower classes, as well as  the children of the higher classes, dine early, and
thus with them luncheon is unnecessary, and  accordingly is not usually taken.   Not so,
however, with adults of the middling  and higher classes.  With them, either from busi-
ness or other causes, the practice of dining late has become general; and with such lun-
cheon becomes a necessary meal.  It should  be taken about five hours after breakfast, and
though called by another name, it may be considered as a light dinner, taken to allay the
cravings of nature, but not entirely to destroy the appetite.
  3. Dinner.—" Supposing nine o'clock to be the hour of breakfast," observes Dr. Combe,
" the natural dinner-hour would be two o'clock;  and such, accordingly, is that sanction-
ed by the most extended experience, and which ought  to be adhered to by all whose oc-
cupations will admit of its observance, and who wish to enjoy the highest health of which
they are susceptible."   This  rule  is a very  good general one for adults, to which, how-
ever, exceptions oftentimes occur.  Digestion is a process which is not effected in the same
period of time in different individuals,—in some it is slow, in others rapid.   In the former
a longer interval between breakfast and dinner is necessary than in the latter.  A  variety
of other circumstances, such as the quantity  of food taken at breakfast, the occupation of
the individual, &c. &c, also affect the length  of the interval.
  Business and the customs of society have  led to the practice of dining late, which, as I
have already stated, involves the propriety of  taking the intermediate meal called luncheon.
  4. Tea.—The moderate use of tea or coffee, two or three hours after dinner, forms a
very agreeable and refreshing meal.
  5. Supper.—General experience is unfavorable to the use of much food at supper.  To
those who dine late, supper is an unnecessary meal; whereas to those who dine early, and
who take much active  exercise, or are  employed  in laborious work  after dinner, it is by
no means an unnecessary or unwholesome meal.   An empty stomach, under such  cir-
cumstances, will sometimes prove a most disagreeable preventive of sleep.*
                          Chap. IV.—On Dietaries,

  It will, I think, be generally admitted, that an accurate acquaintance with the quantity
and quality of food necessary to the  maintenance of human health and life, under dif-
ferent circumstances, is a matter of great interest to every one ; but it is more especially
so to statesmen, magistrates, naval and military officers, physicians and surgeons, govern-
ors of hospitals and other public institutions, and the guardians of the poor.   To them
are  intrusted the care and supervision of  the inhabitants of prisons, ships, garrisons,
armies, asylums, hospitals, and  poor-houses; and on their knowledge or ignorance de-
pends the health or disease—the life or the death—of a considerable portion of  the com-
munity.
  The Reports of the Inspectors of  Prisons have furnished abundant evidence of the
errors committed by magistrates in the  dieting of criminals.  Debility, diarrhoea, scurvy,
                               * Appendix, 18. 
DIETARIES.
223
and other evils known to be consequences of defective nutriment, have prevailed in many
of the prisons of this country to a serious and alarming extent   I  am fully aware of the
difficulty, in many cases, of determining the  cause or causes  of these evils, and I am
willing to admit that, possibly, in some of the instances in which defective nutriment has
alone been charged with the production of diseases of an  epidemic character, that other
morbific causes, either alone or concurrently with defective nutriment, may have  con-
tributed to the result.   But in some cases the cause of the evil is too clear and unequivo-
cal to admit of any doubt.   Take the case of the Lewes House of Correction.   The Inspec-
tors of Prisons* inform us, that " Scurvy  at one time prevailed in  the prison: by an
increase of the diet it disappeared.  The diet was  again diminished, and the scurvy again
appeared.   The diet was then permanently increased ; the scurvy again disappeared, and
has not since occurred."
   The actual quantity of  food  required for the support of human health and life is sub-
ject to considerable modification by  a variety of circumstances;  and, therefore, it is
quite impossible  to lay down a fixed rule, or to adopt any standard:  for  the quantity of
food which may be suited to the wants of one individual may be insufficient for another,
or too much for a third.  Age, sex, the amount and kind  of exercise and labor, the con-
stitution, the state of health, and the condition of life, are some of the modifying circum-
stances ; the agency of several of which is too obvious to require  comment.
   Captain Parry, f  in his Account of one of the Polar Expeditions,  states,  that experience
satisfied him that the following daily allowance was quite enough to  support his crew on
ship-board ;  that is, while performing the ordinary or regular ship  duties:—
                 Biscuit.......10 ounces.
                 Beef Pemmicant......9 ounces.
                 Sweetened Cocoa Powder ....    1 ounce.
                 Rum........1 gill.
                 Tobacco.......3 ounces per week.
But this quantity  was found to be by no means sufficient to support the strength of the
men during their harassing journey across the ice,  living constantly in the open  air, ex-
posed to the wet and cold for twelve hours a day, seldom enjoying  the luxury of a warm
meal, and having to perform very  severe labor.  Their strength became considerably im-
paired, owing to want of sufficient sustenance ;  and both Captain Parry and Mr. Bever-
ley, the surgeon, were of opinion, that in order to maintain the  strength of the men thus
employed for several weeks together, an addition would be requisite, of at least one third
more, to the provisions daily issued.^
  * Third Report of the Inspectors of Prisons.  Supplement to Part I. Home District, p. 94.  1838.
  t Narrative of an Attempt to reach the North Pole in boats fitted for the purpose, and attached to his ma-
jesty's ship Hecla, in the year 1827.  London, 1828.
  X Pemmican is prepared by drying large thin slices of  the lean  of the meat over the smoke of wood
fires, then pounding it, and, lastly, mixing it with about an equal weight of its own fat.  In this state it
is ready for use without further cooking.
  $ May not the loss  of strength have been partly owing to the habitual use  of rum and tobacco ?  Sir
John Ross states, that when on the same expedition to the  North Pole, he, with his crew, abandoned the
use of spirituous liquors " with the most gratifying results." The result  of his experiment he  gives as
follows:—
  " When men  under hard and steady labor  are given their usual allowance, a draught of grog, or a
dram, they become languid and faint, losing their strength  in reality, while they attribute that to the
continuance of their fatiguing exertions.  He who will make the  corresponding experiments on two
equal boats' crews, rowing in a heavy sea, will soon be convinced that the water-drinkers will far out-
do the others."—(Sir John Ross's " Arctic Expedition.")
  There  can  be no  doubt, however,  that the allowance of food was much too small to support the
strength.—L. 
224                          COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
  In framing prison dietaries, an important element for consideration is the amount and
nature of the labor to which the prisoners are subjected; those who are put to hard labor
requiring a greater quantity of food to enable them to support the augmented expenditure
of power.   Accordingly, in the dietaries framed by the Inspectors of Prisons, and adopted
by Sir James Graham, her majesty's Secretary of State for the Home Department, this
element has been kept in view.
  An opinion has of late prevailed that the condition of life, as regards liberty or imprison-
ment, is a  circumstance which modifies the quantity of food necessary  for the mainte-
nance  of  health.  On  this point I shall  quote  the opinion of one  of the Inspectors of
Prisons, in  his own words:—" In the construction of a dietary  for a House of Correction,
it is not unfrequently assumed that something less than what is the customary food of the
laboring population of the  vicinity should be sufficient for those in the degraded condition
of criminals.  Accordingly, in those agricultural  districts where meat forms but a very
small proportion of the ordinary food, less has been accorded, and in some instances none,
without consideration being given to the wide distinction between the  condition of the
freeman and the prisoner:—the one  enjoying purity of air, active  bodily and healthful
mental exercise, social intercourse, choice  and diversity of diet.  It is under such cir-
cumstances that the smallest modicum of animal  food proves sufficient for the preserva-
tion even of the most robust  health.   But reverse the situation: place the individual, as
an offender against the law, in a small, cold,  ill-ventilated cell; a prey to his own reflec-
tions, or, what is worse, with  his mind almost a vacuum, cut off from all  real social inter-
course, subjected to the irksome,  uninteresting labor of treading a wheel or picking oak-
um ; it is in this condition, I contend, that  the stimulus of  animal food  becomes indispen-
sable for his support against the inroads of low and debilitating diseases.  I scarcely re-
collect an instance of scurvy being prevalent in  a prison  but where it  might be distinctly
traced to a want of variety in the diet, and its deficiency in nutritive qualities."*
  That deprivation of liberty, with all its accompanying restrictions, exercises a depress-
ing influence on the mind, and through this on the body, cannot be for a moment doubted.
In this indirect way it becomes a means of affecting the  organic functions ;  and thus it
happens that an amount of nutriment, which, under the most  cheering circumstances, is
barely sufficient to sustain health, may prove, when conjoined with depressing mental in-
fluences, totally insufficient for the maintenance of health, and may be followed by scurvy
and other diseases known to be common consequences of defective sustenance.
   And here I may be permitted to remind my reader,  that  scurvy has  ever been a dis-
ease remarkable for the influence exercised over it by passions of the  mind.  In Lord
Anson's Voyage, we are told, " that whatever discouraged  the seamen, or  at any time
damped their hopes, never failed to  add new vigor to the  distemper; for it usually  killed
those who  were in the last stages of it, and  confined those to their hammocks who were
before capable of some kind of duty.   So  that it seemed as though alacrity of mind and
sanguine thoughts were  no contemptible  preservatives from  its fatal malignity."   Mr.
Ives, in his Journal, also gives an excellent illustration of the beneficial influence of men-
tal exhilaration on this disease ; for he states, " Upon the British fleet coming into the Bay
of Hieres,  (February, 1744,) our men understood that the enemy's  fleet and ours were
soon to engage.  There appeared not only in the healthy, but also in the sick, the highest
marks of satisfaction and pleasure, and these last mended  surprisingly daily, insomuch
that on the 11th of February, the day we engaged  the combined fleets  of France and
Spain, we  had  not above four or five but what were at their fighting quarters."   Dr.

   * Seventh Report of the Inspectors of Prisons.   II. Northern and Eastern District, p. iii.  London, 1842. 
DIETARIES.                             225
Lind* relates a still more striking  exemplification of the position here  contended for, as
having occurred at the siege of Breda in 1625.
  In the Dietaries for Prisons recently adopted by the  Secretary of State, the length of
imprisonment has, very properly as I conceive, been taken into consideration.  For if it
be admitted that imprisonment has an injurious influence over the  nutrition of the body,
it is obvious that the longer the period the more marked will be the effect.  Those, therefore,
who have to suffer prolonged terms of  imprisonment require to be better nourished than
those who are sentenced for shorter periods, in order to enable them the better to resist
the depressing  influences to which they  are, for a more lengthened term, to be subjected ;
and the consequences of which (viz. loss of health  and strength)  constitute "a punish-
ment not contemplated by law, and which it is unjust and cruel to inflict"!
  Observation  and experiment have fully  proved the  absolute necessity of considerable
variety  of food  for the  preservation of health and life ;  and there is nothing surprising in
this.  The body is made up of many principles, differing the one from the other in com-
position and chemical  properties;  and we  might d priori have presumed, that textures
which are  chemically different would require different  aliments for their nourishment.
The living body, as I have already stated  (see p. 3, et seq.,) has  no power of creating
elementary substances; and it is obvious, therefore,  that  the  system must be  supplied
with foods containing all the elements which enter into  its composition.  Moreover, it is
not sufficient to present animals with  these elements in their raw  or uncombined state ;
for the animal system has no power of  forming its organic constituents out of simple or
elementary bodies.  It  is capable of effecting a considerable number of combinations and
decompositions; but there is a limit to  its  chemical  powers.  It cannot form the organic
constituents of the tissues out of any  substances which may happen to contain the same
elements, but only out of those substances whose  composition  and properties are analo-
gous to,  or  identical with,  those of the principles of which the tissues are composed.
With the exception of cellular tissue and of membranes, of the brain and nerves, which
vegetables cannot  produce, Liebig denies  that the  animal organism has the power of
creating any of the organic principles which compose the animal tissues.
  Nitrogenized foods are necessary for the formation of tissues into the composition of
which  nitrogen enters.  Thus proteinaceous substances (fibrine, albumen, caseine, and
gluten) serve for the formation of muscle and of the  albuminous tissues, and, in the case
of infants nourished by milk alone, they  must also become food for  the gelatinous tissues
(cartilage, cellular tissue, membrane, the true skin, &c.)   But as the foods on which the
adult animal feeds, contain, or are capable of yielding, gelatine, it is probable  that the
gelatinous tissues are, in this case,  wholly or partially nourished from this source.
  Non-nitrogenized foods  serve several important  purposes in  the animal economy;
though  perhaps their ultimate  use is to act as fuel to be burnt in the  lungs, and thereby to
develop sufficient  heat  to  support the high temperature necessary  for  the manifestation
of vital power.  Oily or fatty substances, sugar, and the starchy or amylaceous substances,
serve this purpose.  They save the injurious and excessive action of oxygen on the tis-
sues of the body.   "By diminishing fin  amount of alkali in the blood, and by giving non-
nitrogenous food, the scurvy is cured, or prevented, in  consequence of such substances
being acted on  instead of the tissues of the body.  No other explanation can be given of
the benefit which  arises from vegetable acids, from  fresh  vegetables, from sugar, wine,

  * Treatise on the Scurvy.
  t Sir  J. R. G.  Graham, in a Circular Letter to the Chairmen of Quarter  Sessions, dated Jan. 27,
1843.
15 
226                        COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
beer, wort, treacle, potatoes, &c, all of which have been used with the best effects."*   Oily
or fatty substances are absorbed, and afterwards either laid up in cells, to be consumed at
some future time, or immediately burnt in the lungs to furnish heat.  According to Liebig,
saccharine and farinaceous substances also contribute to the formation of fat, though, as I
have before stated, Dumas denies this.
                          I. DIETARIES FOR CHILDREN.
  In children the function of nutrition is more active than in  adults.   They have not
merely to repair the  daily waste, that is, to renovate  their tissues, but to grow.   Their
functions of circulation and respiration are, therefore, more active than in after life ; and
they require food;  that is, substances to support the process of respiration, to be admin-
istered at shorter intervals.
  There is also another reason why in children the elements of respiration (non-nitroge-
nous foods)  are more necessary than in adults.   In the former the transformation or me-
tamorphosis of  the existing tissues  is less  intense than in the latter.  In an adult, who
neither gains nor loses in weight perceptibly from day to day, the nourishment and waste
of organized tissue are equally balanced;  but in the young the weight augments daily,
and, consequently, the nourishment must exceed the waste.  In order that this may take
place, the child  must be  supplied with  a  sufficient quantity of non-nitrogenous  food,
which, by yielding carbon  and  hydrogen  to be burnt in the lungs, protects the organized
tissues from the transformations consequent on the injurious action of oxygen.   " What
is wanting for these purposes an infinite wisdom has supplied  to the young animal in its
natural food.  The carbon and hydrogen of butter, and the carbon of the sugar of milk,
no part of either of which  can yield blood, fibrine, or albumen, are destined for the support
of the respiratory process, at an age when a greater  resistance is opposed to the meta-
morphosis  of existing organisms; or,  in other  words, to the production of  compounds
which in the adult state are produced in quantity amply sufficient  for the purpose  of
inspiration.  The young animal receives the constituents of its blood  in the caseine of the
milk.   A metamorphosis of existing organs goes on, for bile and urine  are secreted ; the
matter of the metamorphosed parts is given off in the  form of urine, of carbonic acid, and
of water; but the butter and sugar of milk also disappear;  they cannot be detected in the
faeces.  The butter and sugar are given  out in the form of carbonic acid and water, and
their conversion into oxidized products furnishes the clearest proof that far more oxygen
is absorbed than is required  to convert the carbon and hydrogen of the metamorphosed
tissues into  carbonic  acid  and water.  The change and metamorphosis of organized tis-
sues  going  on  in  the vital process  in the young animal, consequently yield, in a given
time,  much less carbon and  hydrogen, in  the form adapted for the respiratory process,
than  corresponds to  the oxygen taken up in  the lungs.  The  substance of its organized
parts would undergo a more rapid consumption, and would necessarily yield to the action
of oxygen, were not the deficiency of carbon and hydrogen supplied from another source."f
   Children, for the most  part, evince an almost instinctive fondness for sugar, which is
supplied to them in their mother's milk.  This perhaps is to be explained by the fact that
it is an element of respiration, and, therefore, is more necessary for them than adults, on
account of the  greater activity of their  function of respiration.   But  this fondness  for
sugar is  by no means universal  among children.  In very cold countries, substances
richer in carbon and hydrogen, and, therefore, yielding more heat by combustion, are pre-
ferred.   " In one of those late extravagant voyages  to  discover a northwest passage "

  * Mr. Bence Jones, On Gravel, Calculus, and Gout, p. 48. Lond.  1842.
   t Liebig's Animal Chemistry, pp. 68 and 69. 
DIETARIES  FOR CHILDREN.
227
says Sir Anthony Carlisle,* "the most northern race of mankind were found to be unac-
quainted with the taste of sweets, and their infants made very wry faces, and sputtered
out sugar with disgust; but the little urchins grinned with  ecstasy at the sight of a bit
of whale's blubber."
  The natural appetite I believe to be an index of the wants of the system; and ought,
therefore, to be consulted, to a certain extent, in the  dieting of children; and I believe
that parents commit a gross error who totally disregard it.  I have seen children refused
vegetable food, though they ardently desired it, because  they would not eat  what their
nurses supposed to be the proper proportion of animal food; and, on  the other hand, I
have known children denied animal  food, on the mistaken notion that it would be inju-
rious to them, though the digestive functions were active, and the appetite for meat most
keen.
  Arrow-root,  tapioca,  sago, potato-starch,  tous-les-mois, sugar,  butter, and other fatty
bodies, are elements of respiration, and if used in greater quantity than  is necessary for
combustion in the lungs, they  contribute to  the increase of fat; but they do not contain
the necessary ingredients for the growth of bone, cartilage, ligament, muscle,  membrane,
and cellular tissue.  For the latter purpose, nitrogenized food is necessary.  The caseine
or curd of milk is an aliment  of this kind, supplied by nature, for the use of mammals.
It is a proteinaceous substance, adapted  for  the growth of the organized tissues;  and is
accompanied by phosphate of lime, which is  necessary for the solidification of bone.  The
cereal grains (as wheat, barley, oats)  also yield most valuable nitrogenized foods for chil-
dren ; and of these, Hard's Farinaceous  Food, Semolina,  Groats, Oatmeal, &c., have been
already noticed.
  The uses of animal foods (meats)  have been so fully described, that any further refer-
ence to them is unnecessary here.
  Children  may be over fed or under fed.   Instances of the former, however, are  com-
paratively rare.  Of the ill consequences of defective  nutriment we have, unfortunately,
too many instances continually presented to our notice.  Irritable  bowels or diarrhoea,
tumid  abdomen, mesenteric disease, wasting, and fever, are the ordinary  and obvious
effects.f  They frequently follow the continued use of pea-soup and potato stews,—dishes
which are in common use at poor-houses and other establishments for  pauper children.
Scrofulous and strumous diseases, marasmus, rickets, distortions, and pot bellies, so com-
monly met with among children of the poor, are referrible, in part at least, to food defec-
tive either in quantity or quality,  or perhaps in both.  I think it will be found that  more
than two thirds of pauper children are  strumous.  They derive  this condition in  part,
perhaps, from hereditary tendency ; but partly also, as I believe, from defective nutriment
To the same cause also is ascribable their inferior development.  If the children in poor-
houses be examined, they will be found,  for the most part, smaller  and shorter for their
age, more frequently distorted, and more readily fatigued, than the children of the  mid-
dling and higher classes.
  Subjoined are  the dietaries of several of the principal metropolitan establishments  for
children:—                                 •

  * Practical Observations on the Preservation of Health, p. 73. London, 1838.
  ■f To this may be added Ophthalmia, formerly a very prevalent disease in the Almshouse and Orphan
Asylums of this city.—L. 
228
COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
1. FOUNDLING  HOSPITAL.
Breakfast
Dinner
      1. DIET FOR CHILDREN  UNDER NINE.

 Bread, 4 oz. Milk, half pint, boiled with an equal quantify of water.

 Monday .  . . 4 oz. uncooked Mutton  for roasting; 6 oz. Potatoes ;  2 oz. of Bread.
 Tuesday... 4 oz. of uncooked Beef to be boiled into soup, with li oz. of Rice ; 4
                 oz. of Bread.
 Wednesday Same as Monday.
 Thursday . . Same as Tuesday.
 Friday .... Same as Monday.
 Saturday.. . Rice Pudding (viz. milk £ pint, rice  3 oz., treacle  i oz.) and Suet
                 Pudding (viz. flour 71 oz. suet li oz. milk i of a pint) alternately.
„Sunday .... 4 oz. of uncooked Beef for roasting (cold;) 6 oz. of  Potatoes ; 2 oz.
                 of Bread.
Supper.....Bread, 4 oz.; i of a pint of Milk.
                    2. DIET FOR CHILDREN AT AND ABOVE NINE.

Breakfast ....  Bread 6 oz., Milk i pint, boiled with an equal quantity of water.

                  ' Monday ... 7 oz. of uncooked Mutton, for roasting; 10 oz. of Potatoes.
                   Tuesday... 7 oz. of uncooked Beef, to be boiled into soup; 4 oz. of Bread.
                   Wednesday Same  as Monday.
Dinner.....• Thursday . . Same as Tuesday.
                  j Friday .... Same as Monday.
                   Saturday. . . Rice Pudding, with Suet Pudding alternately.
                  [Sunday.... 7 oz. of uncooked Beef for roasting (cold;) with 10 oz. of Potatoes.
Supper.....Bread, 6 oz.; Butter, i oz.; Treacle alternate nights.
2.  ROYAL MILITARY ASYLUM, CHELSEA.

       (Boys of from 5 to 14 Years of Age.)
Breakfast
Dinner
Supper
Milk Pottage.  Milk, l-6th of a quart; Oatmeal, l-16th of a lb.; Bread, l-20th of
    a quartern loaf.
fSunday

 Tuesday . .
 Thursday. .
 Saturday . .
 Meat, 8 oz.; Potatoes, 12 oz.; Bread, l-20th qu. loaf.

- t>    ) [On Sunday the meat is  roast beef; on Tuesday and
 >  v,;.^ I  Thursday, stewed beef;  and on  Saturday,  stewed
 *  pint )  mutton.]
I Monday----) Pudding, Suet li oz.;  Flour, 6 oz.; Potatoes, 8 oz.; Beer, half a
Friday.....$     pint.

Wednesday . . Pea Soup,  1  gill;  Potatoes, 12 oz.; Bread,  l-20th of a quartern
                  loaf;  Beer, half a pint.
Daily.....
Sunday .. .
Tuesday . .
Thursday  .
Saturday . .

Monday. . .
Wednesday
Friday ....
. Bread, l-20th of a quartern loaf.

J-Cheese, li oz.; Beer, half a pint.

J          •


( Milk, half a pint.
N. B.—The Meat is estimated as taken from the butcher, including bone.

      A proportion of the very small children on 6 oz. of Meat. 
DIETARIES FOR  CHILDREN.
229
3.  NAVAL ASYLUM, GREENWICH.
Breakfast .   .
Dinner
1 pint Cocoa (i oz. cocoa, i oz. sugar, 1 gill milk;) 5 oz. Bread.
Sunday
f Roast Beef, 9i oz.
 f Tuesday    \ Potatoes, 8 oz.
 I Thursday    I ^read' ^i oz.
 I         >• • ■ [Beer, half pint.


A Friday7 W'.'] Suet PuddinS \ o^Fbur-Bread and Beer
as above.
 Wednesday  I Pea Soup (1 ^ of Peas)
           3  \ Potatoes, 8 oz.—Bread and Beer as above.

Saturday ... \ J^ *f£ \ Irish Stew-Bread and Beer.
Supper
Half pint Milk, and 5 oz. of Bread.
4. INFANT ORPHAN ASYLUM, DALSTON.
Breakfast  ....   Bread and Milk daily.

                    Monday .... Meat, or boiled Beef-steak Pudding.
                    Tuesday  . . . Mutton, (not over boiled,) Potatoes, and boiled Rice.
                    Wednesday . Cold Mutton, and Family Pudding.
Dinner.....■{ Thursday . . Roasted Legs of Mutton and Potatoes.
                    Friday . .  . . Cold Mutton, and Family Pudding.
                    Saturday . . . Roasted Beef, Potatoes, and Suet Pudding.
                   ^ Sunday .... Cold roasted  Beef, and mashed Potatoes.
                                Beverage—Toast-water.

Supper.....Bread and Butter, with Milk and Water.

  Children under three years  of age to have Beef Tea, or Mutton Broth, besides cold Meat, on Sundays
  Where the medical officers prescribe, Beer is substituted at dinner for Toast-water.
  Family Puddings to consist of dried Raisins, Apples, Rhubarb, &c. according to the season.
  Green Vegetables are occasionally introduced,  as circumstances require.
  The Bread to be of the best quality, and two days old before cut.
  The joints to consist of top sides of rounds of the best Ox Beef, weighing about 28 lbs., and legs of the
best Wether Mutton, weighing about 10 lbs. each.

                         As much as they like  to eat, within moderation.
5. MR. AUBIN'S ESTABLISHMENT AT NORWOOD, SURREY.
Breakfast  ....  Milk Porridge, with Bread in it.

                    Sunday . . ..1
                    Tuesday . . . [ Baked or Boiled Mutton or Beef, with Vegetables and Broth.
                    Thursday. ..)
Dinner.....-{ Monday.
                    Friday. .
> Soup
with Bread in it.
                    Saturday | Baked or Boiled Rice Puddine» with MUk and Su8ar-

Supper.....Bread and Butter, with Milk and Water.

  Children under 8 years not restricted to quantity,: those from 8 to 14 or 15 are allowed li pints Por-
ridge, 4 oz Bread, 5 oz. Meat, 1 lb  Potatoes, f pint Broth, li pints Soup, 16 oz. boiled Rice, 6 or 8 oz. of
Bread and Butter.  Those  under 7 years  of age to be  allowed Sago, Arrow-root, Milk, or any other
nourishment their tender age may require.
  Children, when ill, to  be dieted by the medical attendant.  Roast Veal or Pork to be allowed on
Easter and Whit-Sundays, and Roast Beef and Plum Pudding on Christmas day. 
230
COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
6 DIETARY FOR FOUNDLINGS  AND ORPHANS OF THE
            HOSPICE DES ENFANS TROUVES,
  AND THE LUNATIC AND  INFIRM  CHILDREN OF THE
         HOSPICES DES INCURABLES,* IN  PARIS.______
Division
 of THE
  Day.
Daily
Daily .,
Daily . ..
Breakfast
Dinner .. .<






Supper.. .







Daily






Breakfast .


Dinner ..




Supper   . i






Breakfast
Kind of Food.
          Class I.—Infants less than a Month old.

Milk..........
Vermicelli, Semolina, Wheaten or Rice Flour
Sugar..........

     Class II.—Infants from One to Twelve Months old,
                    or until weaning.
Milk........
White Bread.......
Vermicelli, Semolina, Wheaten or Rice Flour
Sugar........
      Class III.—Children from One to Two Years old.

White Bread.........
Soup or Milk  Porridge .     .    .    .
Meat  Broth for Soup, or Vegetable Broth for Soup
  Meat..........
or Dry Legumes (Haricots, Split-peas, Lentils)
or Fresh Vegetables (Cabbage, Turnips, Carrots) .
or Potatoes.........
or Rice..........
or Eggs..........
Dry Legumes........
or Fresh Vegetables   .......
or Potatoes.........
or Rice..........
  Prunes     .........
or Currant Jelly........
or Cheese.........
      Class IV.—Children from Two to Six Years old.

White Bread for Soup, for Boys and Girls  .

Middling Bread \ ^oy^ ';;;;.';
Wine for Boys and Girls......
  Jours Gras, (Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays,
                    and Thursdays.)

Vegetable Broth (Bouillon maigre) for Soup < p. Ya

Meat Broth (Boullion gras) for Soup \ 5°^

Boiled Meat j*^
Dry Legumes
or Fresh Vegetables
or Potatoes  .
or Rice .
  Cheese
or Prunes
or Raisind (Thick confection of Grapes)

          Jours Maigres (Fridays and Saturdays.)

Vegetable Broth for Soup \ (
Boys
Girls
quantity  allowed.
Unprepared.   Prepared.
10 d6cag.
 5 cent.
18 d6cag.
18 decag.
 3 decag.

 5 cent.
18 decag.
18 decag.
 3 decag.
 5 decag.
15 d6cag.
12 decag.
 6 cent.
24 decag.
24 decag.
 4 decag.

 8 decag.
30 cent.
 1 decag.
 3 decag.
50 cent.
 5 decag.
 3 decag.
 5 decag.
30 decag.
20 cent.
20 cent.
 7 decag.
10 cent.
12 cent.
18 cent.
15 cent.
 1 No.
10 cent.
12 cent
18 cent.
16 cent.
 7 cent.
 2 decag.
 3 decag.
10 decag.
30 decag.
26 decag.
10 cent.
30 cent.
20 cent.
30 cent.
20 cent.
 7 decag.
 6 decag.
12 cent.
16 cent.
24 cent.
20 cent.
 4 decag.
12 cent.
 5 decag.
30 cent.
-20 cent.
  * From the Regkment sur le Regime Alimentaire des Hopitaux et Hospices civils  de la VUle Paris ap-
proute par li M'nistre de VInterieur, le 30 Novembre, 1841.  Paris,  1841. 
DIETARIES FOR CHILDREN.                         231
TABLE  SIX.—Continued.
Division
 of THE
  Day.
quantity allowed.
Kind of Food.
Unprepared.
Dinner.
Daily...
Breakfast
Supper
Vegetable Broth for Soup I g?^

Dry  Legumes    .    .    .    .
or Fresh  Vegetables
or Potatoes.....
or Eggs......
Dry  Legumes    .
or Fresh  Vegetables
or Potatoes.....
or Rice......
   Cheese.....
or Prunes.....
or Raisine".....
Daily ....






Breakfast .


Dinner . . .





Supper . . .







Breakfast .



Dinner . . .






Supper . . .
    Class V.—Children from Six to Twelve Years old.

White Bread for Soup, for Boys and Girls  .
Middling Bread J *|oy8
Wine for Boys and Girls........

  Jours Gras (Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays,
                    and Thursdays.)

Vegetable Broth (BouUion maigre) for Soup j 5?Y8

Meat Broth (BouUion gras) for Soup j S0^8 -    "    *    '

Boiled Meat j *£    ;    •    ■    •"""•    \    \    ;

Dry Legumes.........
or Fresh Vegetables........
or Potatoes..........
or Rice     ..........
   Cheese..........
or Prunes   ..........
or Raisine (Thick confection of grapes)    ....

          Jours Maigres (Fridays and Saturdays.)


Vegetable Broth  for Soup | P^8......

Vegetable Broth  for Soup j q?^8......
Dry Legumes.........
or Fresh Vegetables........
or Potatoes..........
or Eggs...........
Dry Legumes.........
or Fresh Vegetables........
or Potatoes..........
or Rice...........
   Cheese..........
or Prunes..........
or Raisine..........
Class VI.—Children Twelve Years old and upwards.
White Bread for Soup, for Boys and Girls
Middling Bread j g?^B      ;    ;    ;
Wine for Boys and Girls
  Jours Gras (Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays,
                    and Thursdays.)

Vegetable Broth (BouUion maigre) for Soup j g0^8
12 cent.
50 decag.
50 decag.

 6 cent.
24 decag.
24 decag.
 4 decag.

 8 decag.
20 decag.
16 decag.
 8 cent.
30 decag.
30 decag.
 5 decag.

10 decag.
15 cent.
60 decag.
60 decag.

 8 cent.
30 decag.
50 decag.
 5 decag.

10 decag. 
232                           COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
TABLE SIX.—Continued.
Division
 of the
  Day.
Kind of Food.
quantity allowed.
Unprepared.   Prepared
Dinner . .
Supper
Breakfast ..
Dinner . ..«
Supper . . .1
Meat Broth (Bouillon gras) for Soup j Po^8 "

Boiled Meat •
             Boys
           .  Girls......
Dry Legumes.......
or Fresh Vegetables......
or Potatoes        .......
or Rice.......
  Cheese.........
or Prunes.........
or Raisine (Thick confection of grapes)

         Jours Maigres (Fridays and Saturdays.)
25 decag.
20 decag.
10 cent.
36 d6cag.
36 decag.
 6 decag.

12 decag.
Boys.
Girls.
Vegetable Broth for Soup

Vegetable Broth for Soup $ g°^gs
Dry Legumes
or Fresh Vegetables
or Potatoes  .
or Eggs .
Dry Legumes
or Fresh Vegetables
or Potatoes
or Rice .
   Cheese
or Prunes
or Raisine
18 cent.
70 decag.
70 d6cag.

10 cent.
36 decag.
36 decag.
 6 decag.

12 d6cag.
50 cent.
40 cent.
13 decag.
10 decag.
20 cent.
24 cent.
36 cent.
31) cent.
 6 decag.
18 cent.
 7 decag.
50 cent.
40 cent.
50 cent.
40 cent.
36 cent.
45 cent.
70 cent.
 2 No.
20 cent.
24 cent.
36 cent.
30 cent.
 6 decag.
18 cent.
 7 decag.
  V The abbreviation cent, means centilitre.  Thus, 50 centilitres are equal to i of a litre.  A centilitre is
equal to 2-nr fluid drachms (Apothecaries' measure;) while a litre is equal to 2y pVV pints (Apothecaries'
measure.)  The abbreviation decag. means decagrammes or 10 grammes, equal to 154y4q4q- troy grains.

                     7. MERCHANTS'  SEAMEN'S  ORPHAN  ASYLUM.
                             (Ages of Children from 7 to 15 Years.}
Breakfast
Dinner
  i lb Bread, i pint Milk.
 'Sunday ...."]
  Tuesday ...
  Wednesday   J-i lb. Meat, 6 oz. Potatoes, 41 oz. Flour.
  Thursday ..
■' Friday.....J
 Monday.
_ Saturday
Supper
:::!
17 lbs. Rice, boiled and divided among 90 children.
i lb. Bread.
              10 lbs. Peas in Soup, divided among 90 children.
i lb. Bread, 1 oz. Cheese.
                       2. DIETARY FOR THE NAVAL SERVICE*

  "The victualling of the Navy,"  says Dr. John Wilson.f " is as nearly as possible uni-
form throughout the service as circumstances will permit;  at sea it is almost entirely so ;
in harbor it varies more or less, according to the supplies of fresh  provisions procurable
in different places."
  In the  "Regulations  for His Majesty's  Service at  Sea," established by  the King in
Council, Jan. 1st, 1833, is contained the following scale of diet used in the Navy:__

  * Appendix, 19.
  t Statistical Reports of the Health of the Navy, for the Years 1830-1836.  South American, West Indian
and North American, Mediterranean and Peninsular Commands.  Ordered by the House of Commons to
be printed, March 24, 1840. 
NAVAL DIETARY.
233
  "There shall be allowed to every person serving in  His Majesty's ships the following quantities of
provisions :—viz:
                  Bread......   1  lb.       I       Fresh Meat......  1 lb. 1
                  Beer......   1  gallon.   |            and
                  Cocoa.....   1  oz.              Vegetables......  i lb. J
                  Sugar.....   li oz.              Tea...........  i oz.
  " When Fresh Meat and Vegetables are not issued, there shall be allowed in lieu thereof-
                  Salt Beef.. .   * lb. 1             I or Salt Pork  .. .  * lb.
                      and           5  alternately  ]    and
                  Flour......   i lb. J             ( Peas.........  i pint.
  " And weekly, whether Fresh or Salt Meat be issued—
                  Oatmeal ...   i pint.            Vinegar........  i pint.
"The following Scheme shows the proportion of Provisions with Salt Meat for each man for!4 days -.—
Days of ti!e Week.	Bread	Beer	Sugar	Cocoa	Tea	Beef	Pork	Flour	Peas	Oat- Vine-meal gar.	
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday	lb. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1	gall. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1	oz. li li li li li li li li li li li li li li	oz. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1	oz. 4	lb. i i * * * *	lb. i * * * *	lb. i i * * * i	pint 2 ■ A — i	5	
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday											
Proportion ) for 14 days $	14	14	21	14	3i	5i	Si-	5i	3i	1	1
" On the days on which Flour is ordered to be issued, Suet and Raisins or Currants may be substituted for a portion of Flour. 1 lb. of Raisins being considered equal to 1 lb. of Flour. *iK-°r«Ur,rantS • " \ «"to ditto i lb. of Suet . . . . S " In case it should be found necessary to alter any of the above species of Provisions, and to issue others as their substitutes, it is to be observed that— H lb. of Soft Bread 1 or 1 lb. of Rice ... )■ to be considered equal to 1 lb. of Biscuit. or 1 1 lb. of Flour ... J 1 pint of Wine . . I or [ is to be considered equal to 1 gallon of Beer* i pint of Spirits . . ) 1 oz. of Coffee . . I or > is to be considered equal to 1 oz. of Cocoa. i oz. of Tea . . . ) 1 lb. of Rice . . . "i or 1 pint of Calavancest > is to be considered equal to 1 pmt of Peas. or 1 pint of DholU . • J i lb. ef Butter . . is to be considered equal to 1 lb. of Cocoa. 2 lbs. of Cheese . . are to be considered equal to 1 lb of Cocoa. i lb. of onions . . ) or > is to be considered equal to 1 lb. of other Vegetables." 1 lb. of Leeks . . . )											
  * Half a pint of spirits is not equal to one gallon of beer, nor to one spoonful.  It contains no nutri-
ment, as we have shown elsewhere, but is a pure stimulant.—L.
  t Calavances, a kind of pulse.  According to Sir H. Sloane it is the Phaseolus spharrospermus.
  X DhoU or Dal is the split peas of India.  That which is obtained from Phaseolus radiatus is reckoned
the best kind. 
234                          COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
  "After fourteen days' use of salt food, lemon juice, with an additional allowance  of
sugar, is issued as an antiscorbutic."*
  From these statements it is obvious  that the  quantity  of food supplied to the Navy is
most ample, though not excessive.  The total weekly allowance, when either fresh or salt
meat is issued, is as follows:—
Bread    .   .
Meat
Vegetables
Flour .
Peas
Oatmeal [i pint say]
Sugar
Cocoa
      Total
Beer  .
Vinegar
Tea
Fresh Meat Diet.
    112 oz.
    112 oz.
     56 oz.
      0
      0 [1* pints say]
      5 oz.
     lOi oz.   .
      7 oz.
302i
7 gallons
 i pint
1* oz.  .
Salt Meat Diet.
   112 oz.
    84 oz.
    0
    42 oz.
    29* oz.
    5 oz.
    lOi oz.
    7oz.
290*
  7 gallons
   i pint
  Hoz.
  The substitution  of one kind of provision for another is an excellent arrangement, by
which considerable  variety of food, so necessary  for  the  preservation  of health, is ob-
tained.   A reasonable complaint, however, may be made with  regard to the scale of equi-
valents adopted.  It will be perceived that 8 oz. of fresh vegetables are considered equal
to 12 oz. of flour, or to half a  pint of peas:  whereas in reality at  least 86 oz. of fresh
vegetables are required to be equal to 12 oz. of wheat flour.f
  Dr. Wilson declares the naval rations to be both  abundant in quantity and excellent in
quality ;  and he adds that they contribute largely to the high degree of health now enjoyed
in the Royal Navy.
  The Water employed in the navy was formerly carried to sea in casks, and soon be-
came putrid and offensive owing  to  the  vegetable  admixture. The substitution of iron
tanks for casks has  remedied this evil; and the water can now be kept  for any length of
time without becoming offensive either to the  palate  or nose. The metal becomes oxi-
dized, and the oxide of iron thus formed mixes with the  water; but, by its weight and
insolubility, it soon  falls, at least for the  most part, to the  bottom; and should a small
portion remain suspended and be drank, it can have no injurious effect, but may possibly
prove beneficial.
  * Dr. J. Wilson's Statistical Reports.
  t In making the  above calculation, I have assumed that 100 parts of wheat flour contain 89 parts of
dry nutritive matter, and that 100 parts of fresh vegetables (potatoes, cabbage, carrots, and turnips) con-
tarn, on the average, only 1215 parts of dry nutritive matter.  For
100 parts of potatoes contain about
   "      cabbage      "
   "      turnips       "
   "      carrots     .  "
21 parts dry matter
 7-7      "
 7-5
12-4      "
                         Total......48 6
                         Average.....12-15
  If we calculate according to Boussingault's nitrogen scale of nutritive equivalents, (see p. 27-23,) about
105i  parts of fresh vegetables, (potatoes, cabbage, carrot, and turnips,) are equivalent to 12 parts of
wheat flour. 
DIETARY FOR TROOPS TO INDIA.                 235
  Subjoined are the Scale of Victualling for  Troops from England to India, as fixed by
the East India  Company; and the  Dietary for  Emigrants, as fixed by Her Majesty's
Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners :—

         SCALE OF VICTUALLING FOR TROOPS FROM ENGLAND TO INDIA.
For Two Days


For One Day

For Three Days


For One Day
 Beef,* Two Pieces, or
 Flour
 Suet
S Preserved Meat
{Rice ....
J Pork,* Three Pieces, or
{Peas
 Flour ....
 Suet
 Plums
For Seven Days <
'Mustard  .
 Biscuit
 Tea
 Sugar (crushed)
 Vinegar
 BestLondon Porter
16 lb.  ^
 51b.
 lib.
 61b.
 31b.
181b.
 5 Pints
 5 lb.
 *lb.
 li lb.
 i lb.
301b.
 1 lb.
 6 1b.
 3 Pints
42 Pintsj
For a Mess of Six Men
    per Week.
  Water at the rate of Seven Pints per man per day, for twenty weeks: this quantity
covers Wastage.  Lemon Juice at the  rate of One Quart per man for the Voyage out.
The allowance of Porter to be exclusive of Wastage.
  Fresh Beef or Mutton to be issued to  the Troops when procurable; li lb per man per
day, with Vegetables for the Soup, and Oatmeal.

              *  New India Beef and New India Pork of British curing.
QUANTITIES FOR EACH MAN PER DAY.
Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday
o	5	3	1	o Bu,	a V Oh	-3 <U	
oz. 21i 21i	oz. 6! 13i 65-	OZ. n 2 ii	oz. 4	oz. 16 16 16	pis. u V p- . H O C	lb. 1	lb.
lb.
lb.
s*
•5 c
  o
2S
pts.


  0)
39 Oj
OhOD
tt.

^s
53=3

So®
B O tJ
  N.B. Women receive the same rations as Men, and Children half the ration, with the
exception of Beer, half the ration only being allowed to Women.
  The Porter to be in Hogsheads when the number of Persons is under 120.
DAILY  MEALS.
Breakfast
Dinner
Supper  .
Biscuits, Tea and Sugar.
According to the above Scale.
Biscuits, Tea and Sugar. 
236                          COMPOUND  ALIMENTS.
                             DIETARY FOR EMIGRANTS.
The passengers to be in Messes of six or more, as the Surgeon may determine; and to be victualled ac-
                       cording to the following Scale, for one Adult:—
Days.	* 5 5 ft. * * * * *	•4-=3 lb.	±& o Oh i	-o V > .-> t- a Oh lb.	3 O lb.	.S '3 oz. 2 2 2 2	0) CO oz. li li li li	03 Pt.	6 s lb.	03 oz.	6 fa o O OZ. i 1 i	a bo 3 CO lb. i 4	aj 3 Ph OZ. 3 3	CD OS Qts. 3 3 3 3 3 3 3	O.C W" 03 Pt. 3 a> co is c '3, 03 O	-6 3 3 OZ. >, 3 0) a is o e 3 o H«	"3 CO oz. V !S GO V u o 0*
Sunday . . . Monday . . . Tuesday . . Wednesday . Thursday . . Friday . . . Saturday . .																	
* The Biscuit must not be of a more inferior description than the second quality of that article. t Prime new Irish East India Beef, and prime mess Pork. X During the first month li lbs. of potatoes may be substituted for i lb. of Rice. Women and Children of 14 years and upwards, to receive the same rations as Men ; Children from 7 to 14 to receive two thirds, and Children from 1 to 7 years of age to receive one half, of the above quantities. The Children between 1 and 7 shall, three times a week, receive 4oz. of Rice, or 3 oz. of Sago, each, in lieu of their salt Meat. Children under twelve months receive no rations. One pound of fresh Meat and one pound of soft Bread per adult, to be issued, with a suita-ble quantity of Vegetables, until one day after passing the Downs, and whenever opportunity shall offer, in lieu of the salt and preservad Meat, and of the Flour, Suet and Raisins, Rice and Peas.																	
3.  ARMY RATIONS.*
 The daily allowance to the Soldier in Great Britain is 1 lb. of Bread, and $ lb. of Meat, making
together 196 oz. of solid food weekly.  For this he pays a fixed sum  daily, viz. 6d. whatever
may be the market price ; any excess being  paid for by Government.  He  furnishes himself
with other provisions.
                            4. DIETARIES  FOR PAUPERS.
  It has been very properly stated by the Poor Law Commissioners, that in the dieting of the
inmates of workhouses, the object is to give them an adequate supply of wholesome food,
not superior in quantity or quality to that which the laboring classes in the respective
neighborhoods provide for themselves.
  To effect so desirable an object, the Commissioners, in their  Second Annual Report
(1836) have adopted six dietaries (numbered  from 1 to 6)  for  use in poorhouses;  and
we are  told that all of them have been employed in different parts of England, and have
been proved to be sufficient in quantity, and perfectly unexceptionable as  to the nature of
the provisions specified in each.
  * The U. States Army Ration, is, for each man, daily, 18 ounces of bread, and either 20 ounces of
beef, or three fourths of a pound of pork, but no vegetables.—This amounts to 266 oz. of solid food weekly,
when beef is allowed, or 210 oz. when pork is allowed.—L. 
DIETARIES FOR PAUPERS.                 237
1. DIETARY FOR ABLE-BODIED MEN AND WOMEN.
	BREAKFAST.		DINNER.				SUPPER.		
	Bread. Gruel.		Cooked Meat.	Pota-toes.	Soup.	Suet or Rice Pudd.ng.	Bread.	Cheese.	Broth.
Sunday . . 1 Men . . . Tuesday . . < Thursday . ( Women . . Monday . . ( Men . . . Wednesday . } Women . . Saturday . . ( Friday . . . J $™ien ".	OZ. 6 5 6 5 6 5	pints. 1* li li li	OZ. 5 5	lbs. i	pints. li li	OZ. 14 12	OZ. 6 5 6 5 6 5	OZ. 2 2 2 2	pints. li li
Old people of 60 years of age and upwards, may be allowed 1 oz.of tea, 5 oz. of butter, and 7 oz. of sugar, per week, in lieu of gruel for breakfast, if deemed expedient to make this change. Children under 9 years of age to be dieted at discretion; above 9, to be allowed the same quantities as women.									
2. GENERAL DIETARY FOR THE ABLE-BODIED.
	BREAKFAST.			DINNER.				SUPPER.		
	Bread.	Cheese.	Butter.	■o-ejS 5 = to	w £ to	Bread.	Cheese.	Bread.	Cheese.	Butter.
Sunday . . | $W Monday . . (Men . Wednesday . J Thursday . . j Women Saturday . . l_ Tuesday . . 5 Men . Friday . . . \ Women	OZ. 6 5 6 5 6 5	OZ. 1 1 1	OZ. i i	oz. 16 10	OZ. 16 10	OZ. 7 7	OZ. 1 1	OZ. 6 5 6 5 6 5	OZ. 1 1 1	OZ. i
Old people, being all 60 years of age and upwards :—The weekly addition of 1 oz. of tea, and milk or sugar; also an additional meat pudding dinner on Thursday in each week, in lieu of bread and cheese, to those for whose age and infirmities it may be deemed requisite. Children under 9 years of age :—Bread and milk for their breakfast and supper, or gruel when milk cannot be obtained; also such proportions of the dinner diet as may be requisite for their re-spective ages. * The vegetables are extra, and not included in the weight specified.										
 
'I            ~~                ------=
   238                    COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
3. DIETARY FOR ABLE-BODIED PAUPERS.
	BREAKFAST.		DINNER.					SUFPER.	
	Bread.	Gruel.	Cooked Meat.	Potatoes or other vegeta-bles.	Soup.	Bread.	Cheese.	Bread.	Cheese.
Kay (Men ... . Wednesday | JV(mm . . . Tuesday \1wZien '. '. '. Thursday \M^mm ; ; Saturday \%Zien \ \ .	OZ. 8 6 8 6 8 6 8 6	pints. li li li li li li li li	OZ. 8 6 Bacon. 5 4	lb. * *	pints. li li =	OZ. 7 6 6 5	OZ. 2 li	OZ. 6 5 6 5 6 5 6 5	OZ. li li li li li li li li
Old people of 60 years of age and upwards may be allowed 1 oz. of tea, 5 oz. of butter, and 7 oz. of sugar, per week, in lieu of gruel for breakfast, if deemed expedient to make this change. Children under 9 years of age to be dieted at discretion; above 9, to be allowed the same quantities as women.									
4. DIETARY FOR ABLE-BODIED PAUPERS OF BOTH SEXES.
	BREAKFAST.		DINNER.					SUPPER.	
	Bread.	Gruel.	Pickled Pork or Bacon with vege*bls.	Soup.	Bread.	Meat Pud-ding- with vegetables.	Rice or Suet Pud-ding- with vegetables.	Bread.	Cheese.
Tuesday 5#» Friday7 \Womm ■ • • Monday < Men .... Thursday \ Women . . . Tuesday j ^» \ \ .' Saturday \ ^en .' .' .'	oz. 8 6 8 6 8 6 8 6	pints. 1« li	OZ. 6 5	pints 2 li	oz. 6 5	oz. 12 10	oz. 12 10	oz. 6 5 6 5 6 5 6 5	oz. 2 li 2 li 2 li 2 li
The vegetables are not included in the weight specified, which is for the meat when cooked If it be thought desirable, i an ounce of butter may be given to the women, in heu of cheese for supper. Old people of 60 years of age and upwards may be allowed 1 oz. of tea, 5 oz. of butter, and 7 oz. of sugar, per week, in lieu of gruel for breakfast, if deemed expedient to make this change. Children under 9 years of age to be dieted at discretion: above 9, to be allowed the same quantities as women.									
 
DIETARIES FOR PAUPERS.                       239
5. DIETARY FOR ABLE-BODIED MEN AND WOMEN.
		BREAKFAST.		DINNER.						SUPPER.		
		Bread.	Gruel or Porridge	Cooked Meat.	Vegeta-bles.	Soup.	Boiled Rice or Suet Pudding	Bread.	Cheese.	Bread.	Potatoes.	Cheese.
Sunday 5 Men . Thursday \ Women Monday 5 Men . Friday ( Women T-^ay j Jg^ Wednesday 5 Men . Saturday ( Women		OZ. 7 6 7 6 7 6 7 6	pints. li li li li li li li li	oz. 5 5	* *	pts li li	OZ. 14 12	OZ. 7 6 7 6	OZ. 3 2	OZ. 7 6 7 6	lb. i i i i	OZ. li li li li
Old people of 60 years of age and upwards may be allowed 1 oz. of tea, 5 oz. of butter, and 7 oz. of sugar, per week, in lieu of gruel for breakfast, if deemed expedient to make this change. Children under 9 years of age to be dieted at discretion; above 9, to be allowed the same quan-tity as women.												
6. DIETARY FOR ABLE-BODIED PAUPERS.
	BREAKFAST.			DINNER.						SUPPER.			
	Bread.	Cheese.	Butter.	Boiled Meat.	Pota-toes.	Yeast Dump-ling.	Suet Dump-ling.	Bread.	Cheese.	Bread.	Cheese.	Butter.	Broth
Sunday {wZen * Wednesday 5 ^"J-Saturday {Womm Tuesday $ Men . Thursday } Women „ •, S Men . Friday J W(mm	OZ. 6 5 6 5 6 5 6 5	oz. 1 1 1 1	oz. i i i i	OZ. 4 4	OZ. 12 12	OZ. 5i 5i 11 11	OZ. 16 12	OZ. 6 6	OZ. 1 1	OZ. 6 5 6 5 6 5 6 5	OZ. 1 1 1	OZ. i ¥	pts. 1 1
Old people, being all 60 years of age and upwards:—The weekly addition of 1 oz. of tea, and milk or sugar, to those for whose age and infirmities it may be deemed requisite. Children under 9 years of age:—Bread and milk for their breakfast and supper, or gruel when milk cannot be obtained; also~ such prooortions of the dinner diet as may be requisite for their respective ages. [* 1 oi. butter ordered on Wednesdays for men. Is it a typographical error 1]													
  From these six dietaries each Board of Guardians of the Poor is required to select one
most suitable to the circumstances of each Union.
  It will be perceived that beer is not  permitted unless specially ordered by the surgeon,
and that the use of tea is confined to  the aged and  infirm.  In all cases the  sick to be
dieted as directed by the  medical officer. 
240
COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
The following table gives		a comparative view of these dietaries:							—			
	Dietary		Dietary		Dietary		Dietary		Dietary		Dietary	
	No. 1.		No. 2.		No. 3.		No. 4.		No. 5.		No. 6.	
		d c_		?§«		d a~		d c •		ss«		S Dfli
	d	£l2 > .P'P °	d	= 2 £	d 4)	£"5 P		a 45 o>	d		d HI	
Bread . . .. oz.	84	70	112	98	132	106	116	92	98	84	102	88
Cooked meat . . "	15	15	—	_	8	6	—	—	10	10	8	8
Potatoes . . . "	24	24	—	—	24	24	—	—	48	48	24	24
Suet or Rice Pud-> « ding . . > Cheese . . . "	14	12	32*	20*	—	_	24*	20*	14	12	16	12
	8	8	18	4	18i	16i	14	lOi	8.	8i	15	3
Meat Pudding with ) « vegetables! . >	-	-	16	10	-	-	12	10	-	—	—	—
Butter ..."											1	6
Bacon . . . "	—	—	—	—	5	4	6	5	—	—	—	—
Yeast dumpling . "											22	22
Vegetable . . "									24	24	—	—
Total ....	145	129	178	139	187*	156i	172	137i	202i	186i	188	163
Gruel . . pints	lOi	lOi	_	_	lOi	lOi	lOi	lOi	lOi	lOi	—	—
Soup . . . "	4i	4i	—	—	li	li	6	4i	3	3	—	—
Broth	4i	4i									2	2
Vegetables . . "	—	—	<!	i	— j	—	1	1	—	—	—	—
* Besides vegetables.												
t The vegetables are extn			i, and are not included in the weights specified.									
  The average weekly amount of solid food supplied by these dietaries is for men nearly
179 ounces, and for women about 152 ounces.
		. 129 oz.
" No. 2.	.178 . .	. 139
No. 3.	. 187i .	. 156i
" No. 4.	.172	. 137i
" No. 5.	. 202i .	. 186i
No. 6.	. 188	. 163
	1073	911i
Average	. 178 5-6	152 (about.)
  Now according to the result of the  Commissioners of Inquiry,* agricultural laborers
are unable to procure for themselves and families an average allowance of more than 122
oz. of solid food (principally bread) weekly; and if we assume that  the man consumes
140 ounces (say 134 bread  and 6 meat) as  his share,  it is evident  that his allowance
would not be equal to that of the above dietaries.
  The dietary marked No. 2 is that of twenty-six Unions of the county of Kent; and, at
a meeting of  the chairmen and vice-chairmen of all the twelve East Kent Unions, it was
unanimously  declared that  this dietary had  answered well, and  that no alteration in it
was desirable.f
  I have inquired at several workhouses  the  composition  of the suet-pudding, the soup,
and the gruel, used  in these establishments.   Subjoined are some of the answers which
I have received.
  1. Soup, (in use at the Wapping Workhouse.\)—Liquor in which 119 lbs. of meat have
  * See Mr. TuffnelPs report, in the Second Annual Report of the Poor Law Commissioners.
  t See Mr. TuffnelPs report, before cited.
  } For the above and some of the subsequent information respecting the Wapping Workhouse I am
indebted to Mrs. Megson, the very intelligent matron of that establishment. 
DIETARIES FOR PAUPERS.                        241
been boiled, Legs and Shins of Beef 42 lbs., Residual Cuttings of Meat 9£ lbs, Split-peas
40  lbs., Onions and Carrots 16  lbs., Oatmeal 6 lbs., Dripping 6 lbs., Pepper 3 oz., Salt 1
lb., and Crumbs of Bread 5 lbs.   This quantity is for 240 females, each having 1 pint,
(weighing about li lb.)
   A pint  and a half of the  soup prepared at the poorhouse of St. George's, Middlesex,
contains 6 ounces of meat and bone, (equal to about 4£ ounces solid meat,) 1-7th of a pint
of Peas, l-3d of an ounce of Groats, l-120th of an ounce of Pepper, l-15th of an ounce
of Salt, and l-25th of a pennyworth of Vegetables.
   2. Gruel, (in use at the Wapping Workhouse.)—Each pint of gruel contains 1\ oz. of
the best Berwick Oatmeal.
   3. Suet Puddings, (in use at the  Wapping Workhouse.)—Flour 1 lb., Suet \ lb., Water
13 oz.  These quantities yield, when boiled, full 2 lbs. of pudding.
   Mr. Gray, of the Stepney Union,  informs me that,—

  " lbs.          lbs.          lbs.                    lbs. oz.            lbs. oz.
    10 Flour with 2i  Suet and 11 Water lost in cooking 2   1 and yielded  21   7  pudding.
    10     "      2i           8              "      0   4      "      20 12    "
    10     "      2i    "      6              "      1  13      "      20   5

So that by making  the  puddings over stiff, that  is, with 6 oz. of water, 1  lb. 2 oz. more
were lost  (equal to about 5£ per cent.) than when made with  11 lbs. of water."

   Mr. Gray has also furnished me  with  the following curious information  respecting the
loss sustained in  cooking and  serving in  pauper establishments.*
A Table of the Consumption of Beet' and Mutton  in certain Metropolitan Workhouses, showing the
  " Number of Boilings," the " Average Weight of each Ration," and the " Total Loss" sustained in
  cooking and serving the same.
Number of Workhouses, and state of Cooking Apparatus.	Period of time over which the Con-sumption extends.	Number of boilings.	Average weight of each Ration.	Total consump-tion of heefiind mutton (inclu-ding loss.)	Total Loss' or waste in cook-ing and serv-ing.	Centesimal pro-portion of loss and waste to to-tal consumpt'n.
1 good 1 good 1 very good 1 good 2 good 1 trood 1 very good 2 good 1 good 1 very good 4 good 4 good 1 very good	15 months 15 months 15 months 15 months 3 months 3 months 3 months 3 months 3 months 3 months 3 months 3 months 2 years.	195 195 195 195 78 39 39 78 39 39 156 156 312	7 ounces 7 ounces 7 ounces 5 ounces 7 ounces 5 ounces 5i ounces 7 ounces 5 ounces 5i ounces 5i ounces 5i ounces 6 ounces	lbs. 3S554 34134 34550 24488 12689 8238 7341 121S1 8384 6743 24671 27633 58134	lbs. 12015 10523 10840 7956 3909 2504 2024 3811 2371 1952 7643 8214 16672	lbs. 3116 30 83 3133 32 48 30 81 30 39 27 57 3128 26 97 289 30 98 29 46 28 68
		1716		297990	90434	30 06
The  Ox-Beef was without bone, and consisted of Flanks, Leg of Mutton Pieces, Clods, and Briskets.
The  Mutton consisted of the Fore Quarters, weighing above 40 lbs.
  The loss sustained  in preparing and serving cooked meat, in large Public Institutions, is very great,
and may appear to the unpractised observer extraordinary; but there are so many sources from which
loss accrues, that the surprise would be soon removed by an attentive consideration of the subject.
  1st, The Cooking.—The quality of the meat will cause a difference of from 7 to 8  per cent.  The
want'of skill, inattention, or inadvertence, on the part of the Cook, will at times increase the loss very
greatly; for, in cooking large quantities, great and undivided attention is necessary to  produce the
article properly cooked.                       .         .
  2d, The Serving.—Great dispatch is necessary  in the serving.  Two persons, one to cut, the other
to weigh, will, on the average, have to serve 14 rations in two minutes.  So much to be done, and, from
necessity, in so short a period of time, requires some skill, and not a little practice, on the part of Carver
and Weigher, to keep within a moderate loss.   The following are  among the principal sources of loss:


                                     * Appendix, 20.

                                                                            ----------------------II
*
16 
the bone and fat of mutton—the outside and coarser parts of the beef—the evaporation and the running
off of the juices during carving.  To these must be added the drafts in weighing.
  The annexed Table shows the Consumption and Amount of Loss in several large Establishments,
and, I am of opinion, may be considered as something more than an  approximation to the truth.  It
extends over a sufficient period of time " to take in Meat of all the Seasons."  It was cooked in differ-
ent apparatus,  and served in the separate houses by careful and intelligent individuals.  The quantity
cooked, and the rations served at each house, was sufficient to have formed a good average ; but taken
in the aggregate, they give data for calculation seldom to be  met with.
  32 Boilings of Mutton.—-The parts cooked were the Fore  Quarters, weighing 40 lbs. the pair; the
contract price  7s. 5d. per stone, 14 lbs.
           Total quantity Cooked........3209 lbs.
           Loss sustained in Boiling........563 lbs.
           Centesimal Proportion of Loss to whole Quantity Cooked    .   17 5444 lbs.
           Maximum  Loss.........19 7 lbs.
           Minimum Loss..........143 lbs.
  64 Boilings of Beef—Parts: Brisket, thick and thin Flanks, Leg of Mutton Pieces, and Clods, the
whole free from bone; contract price 7s. 5d. per stone, 14 lbs.
           Total Quantity.Cooked........5772 lbs.
           Loss sustained in Boiling........1018 lbs.
           Centesimal Proportion of Loss to the whole Quantity Cooked     17 637 lbs.
           Maximum Loss..........21 lbs.
           Minimum Loss..........13 8 lbs.


                           5. DIETARIES FOR PRISONERS.
   I have already, (see p. 222,  et seq.,) offered some remarks on the peculiar circumstances
affecting the diet of persons confined in prisons.
   In January, 1843, the Inspectors of Prisons made a Report to the Secretary of State
relative to the system of Prison Discipline, &c, in which they state that,  with respect to
Dietaries, they have arrived at the following conclusions :—

   " 1. We have  framed  a  series of tables, according to the length of the imprisonment,
       the additional punishment of hard labor, and the sex of the prisoners; and, as far
        as  practicable, with regard also to the kind and degree of discipline enforced other
       than  hard  labor.
   2. These  dietaries are given  as the minimum of what we recommend for each class,
        without reference to  the local situations of the prisons, or to any peculiar circum-
        stances  which  may  render  an increase  necessary.  Such peculiarities may also
        render it  expedient, in  certain cases, to  substitute other kinds of food, (of an
        equivalent amount of nutriment,) for some of those included in the scale of diet.
   3. The principle  which  Ave are  of opinion ought to  be acted on in framing a scale of
        prison diet, and that  which we have endeavored to  carry into effect, as far as pos-
        sible, in the annexed scale, is, that that quantity  of food  should  be  given  in  all
        cases which  is sufficient, and not  more  than sufficient, to maintain health and
        strength, at the least possible cost; and that  while  due care should be exercised
        to  prevent extravagance or luxury hi a prison, the diet ought not to be made an
        instrument of punishment.
   4. In endeavoring to ascertain the precise quantities of food which ought to be allowed
        to different classes of prisoners, in accordance with  the foregoing principle, we have
        been guided by our own  experience, by the opinions of several prison  medical offi-
        cers  of long standing, and by the dietaries in use.
   5. We are of opinion that there ought always to be  three  meals each day in  prisons,
        and  that at least two of the three should be hot.
   6. That there  should be variety in the kinds of  food forming the diet, with occasional
        changes;  and that a considerable portion of the food  should be solid.
   7. That  in the selection of  the kinds  of food, it is  essential, for the maintenance of
        health, to  include substances which  are necessary for the  support of the various
        parts of the body.
   8. That  it  is  very  important to ascertain  that the water is pure and wholesome, and
        that  there is  an abundant supply.
    9. That prisoners should not be set to work immediately after any meal.
   10. That animal food should form part of the diet  of prisoners employed at hard  labor.
4 
DIETARIES FOR PRISONERS.                      243
  11.  That the attention of the medical officer should be directed to the scale of diet on
       which each prisoner is placed, and that he should have a discretionary power to
       increase or diminish the quantity of food with reference to the constitution and state
       of health of the particular prisoner.
  12.  That with  regard  to age, it is only  in  the extremes of youth and old age  that any
       distinction  of diet is advisable, and that the discretion of the medical officer should
       extend to these cases."

   It will be perceived that the conclusions which the Inspectors have arrived at accord with
 the principles which I have advocated in this  work.  The scale of diet which they recom-
 mend, and which has been adopted by the Secretary of State, is subjoined.
   It appears, however, that the Inspectors  were not unanimous as to  the dietaries ; and it
 is but fair, therefore, that the reader should be put in possession of the following Reasons
 of Dissent as to the Scales of Diet assigned by  Mr. F. Hill, one of the Inspectors:—

   " 1. There is at present  a great want of  information on the subject of diet generally,
       both as respects  the  real quantity of nutriment required for health under various
       circumstances, and  the best form in  which that nutriment can be given, as regards
       bulk, solidity, quantity of animal matter, and the necessary variety to supply all the
       wants of  the frame  for renewing  bone,  muscle, &c.  There  is but little certain
       knowledge also  respecting  the comparative quantity  of  nutriment  contained in
       substances of different  kinds, such  as  wheaten bread, meat, and potatoes.
   2. Owing  to the many  circumstances which affect the natural demand for food, such
       as age, sex,"constitution, state of health, kind and quantity of work, it is  difficult,
       under any  arrangement, to  determine what quantity of food any prisoner  ought to
       have;  and it  is impossible, in my  opinion, to classify prisoners for this purpose
       with any degree of  accuracy otherwise  than  by considering the case of each  pris-
       oner separately, which may be done by  laying down a few scales of diet, and then
       empowering those who must be best acquainted with  the case of each prisoner,
       viz. the Governor and Surgeon, to settle from time to time, subject to the control of
       the visiting justices, on what scale each prisoner  shall be placed.
         If a classification be made according to  any  one or two only of the disturbing
       causes, the rate of diet, if suited to the  wants of a portion of the class, will, in  my
       opinion, be  found insufficient for some and too much for  others, producing injury
       to health in both cases, and in one waste and extravagance also.
   3. While it is right to give prisoners such a quantity of food as  will keep  up robust
      health, it is important to allow nothing beyond what is really necessary ;  both be-
       cause excess of  food is injurious to health as well as deficiency, and because the
       motives to honest industry will be  weakened if any thing  like luxury be admitted
       into prisons.
   4. It having been declared as a principle that  the allowance  of food ought not to be
       made an instrument of punishment, and that that quantity of food should  be given
       which  is sufficient, and not  more than  sufficient, to maintain health and strength,
       I cannot see any ground for giving  less food to a prisoner who is employed at the
      same  kind of labor  as another prisoner, and otherwise similarly  circumstanced
      with him, except ihat he is to leave the  prison sooner, unless, as has been  alleged,
      the expectation of a long imprisonment has a depressing effect on  the  mind, and
      that effect can be counteracted, in its influence on the health, by a greater quantity of
      food.  Without inquiring into the  accuracy of the fact, as a general rule, I cannot
      agree to the inference from it.  I believe, on  the contrary, that a depressed state ot
      the  mind  weakens  the digestive powers, and makes them incapable of receiving
      even so much food as when the mind is cheerful."

   Sir James Graham, Her Majesty's Secretary of State  for the Home Department, in a
letter  to the Chairman of Quarter Sessions, dated 27th January, 1843, adopts the recom-
mendations of the Inspectors with regard to dietaries, and offers the following very proper
observations:—

         " I desire to call the especial attention of the magistracy to  those  rules which
      relate  to the Diet of Prisoners.  On the proper adjustment of this particular their 
244                           COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
       health mainly depends ;  and  I am convinced that the adoption of the proposed
       scales will prevent the recurrence of those complaints which have frequently been
       preferred, and in some instances justly preferred, against the prison authorities.  It
       is by no means intended that the precise articles of food specified in  the  dietaries
       should be  strictly adhered to in the table which you may adopt; other kinds of
       food, containing an equivalent amount of nutriment, may, with advantage, be  substi-
       tuted, when those articles which have been named are either difficult to be obtained
       in your neighborhood, or are considered not suited to  the  customs and habits of
       the prisoners ;  but that quantity of food must, in all cases, be given which is suffi-
       cient,  though not more than sufficient, to maintain health and strength at a mode-
       rate cost;  and, while due  care should be exercised  to prevent any approach to
       luxurious living in a prison, the diet ought on no account  to be  made an  instru-
       ment  of punishment. I have consulted not only the Prison Inspectors, but medi-
       cal men of the greatest eminence, possessing the advantage of long experience ; I
       have carefully revised the dietaries now in use; and I have come to the conclusion—
           lstly, That animal food should in all cases form part of the  diet of prisoners
             employed at hard labor.
           2dly, That a considerable portion of the food of every  prisoner should be
             solid ;  and,
           3dly, That there  should be variety in the kinds of food forming  the diet, and
             that occasional changes are necessary.
         The dietaries which I now offer for your adoption are framed on these principles,
       and are upheld by medical science, and by the recommendation of persons on  whose
       authority and knowledge reliance maybe placed, but they have been framed without
       reference to the local situations of particular prisons, or to any peculiar circumstances
       which may render an increase  necessary ; they are therefore proposed as the mini-
       mum amount which can  safely be afforded to prisoners without the risk of inflicting
       a punishment not contemplated by law, and which it is unjust and cruel to  inflict,
       namely, loss of health and strength through the inadequacy of the food supplied."

                DIETARIES  FOR PRISONS  IN ENGLAND AND WALES,
Recommended by  the Prison Inspectors, and ordered by her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Home
                                      Department.
                                   CLASS I.
    Prisoners confined for any term not exceeding three days:—
                             Males.                      Females.
         Breakfast  .   . 1 pint of Oatmeal gruel  .... 1 pint of Oatmeal gruel.
         Dinner .  .   . 1 lb. of Bread....... lib. of Bread.
         Supper ... 1 pint of Oatmeal gruel  .... 1 pint of Oatmeal gruel.

                                   CLASS II.
  Convicted prisoners for any term exceeding three days, and not exceeding fourteen days :—
                               Males.                           Females.
Breakfast        $  1 Pint  of °atmeal gruel;  6 oz. of) 1 pint of Oatmeal gruel; 6 oz. of
                \     Bread.....$    Bread.
Dinner   ....   12 oz. of Bread    .    .    .   .   6 oz. of Bread.
Suvver           $  1 P'nt  of °atmeal gruel;  6 oz. of > 1 pint of Oatmeal gruel; 6 oz. of
  FF           ' l     Bread.....$    Bread.
  Prisoners of this class, employed at hard labor, to have, in addition, 1 pint of Soup per week.

                                  CLASS III.
  Prisoners employed at hard labor for terms  exceeding fourteen days, but not more than six
weeks:—
                               Males.                          Females.
                  Breakfast.—I pint of Oatmeal gruel; ) 1 pint of Oatmeal gruel; 6 oz. of
                      8 oz. of Bread .    .    .   .  $    Bread.
Sunday and      $ Dinner.—I pint of Soup;   8 oz. of) , • f „f «„„„  a     ~n
Thursday  .  .  . }     Bread   .   .         .   .  $ * Pint of SouP i 6 oz. of Bread.
Tuesday and     ( 3 oz. of cooked Meat,  without bone;) 3 oz. of cooked Meat without bone •
Saturday  .  .  . (     8 oz. of Bread ; i lb. of Potatoes, $    6 oz. of Bread ; i lb. of Potatoes!
Monday,         ( 8 oz. of Bread ;  1 lb. of Potatoes, or ) 6 oz. of Bread ; 1 lb. of  Potatoes or
Wednesday, and        1 pint of Gruel, when  Potatoes [    1 pint of Gruel when Potatoes
Friday   .  .  .  . (     cannot be obtained .     .   .  )    cannot be obtained.
                  Supper.—Same as breakfast  .   .   Same as  breakfast. 
DIETARIES FOR  PRISONERS.
245
                                      CLASS IV.
  Prisoners employed at hard labor for terms exceeding six weeks, but not more  than three
months :—
                                 Males.                            Females.
                    Breakfast.—I pint of Oatmeal gruel;) 1 pint of Oatmeal gruel; 6 oz. of
                        8 oz. of Bread  ...    .  \    Bread.
Sunday,
Tuesday,
Thursday,
Saturday,  .   .
Monday,
Wednesday, and
Friday   .  .   .
Dinner.—3 oz. of cooked Meat, with-
    out bone ; i lb. of Potatoes ; 8oz.
    of Bread.....
3 oz. of cooked Meat, without bone;
    i lb. of Potatoes ;  6 oz. of Bread.
1 pint of Soup; 6 oz. of Bread.
  Same as breakfast.
Sunday,
Tuesday,
Thursday,
Saturday
Monday,
Wednesday,
Friday,   .
of
                  1 pint of Soup; 8 oz. of Bread
                  Supper.—Same as breakfast  .
                                    CLASS V.
Prisoners employed at hard labor for terms exceeding three months :—
                                Males.                            Females.
                  Breakfast.—1 pint of Oatmeal gruel; ) 1 pint of Oatmeal gruel; 6
                      6 oz. of Bread  .    .    .    .  $    Bread.
                  Dinner-i oz. of cooked Meat, with- j 3 Q%  f cooked Me    ith    bone

                      of Bread '               'J    * lb' of Potatoes; 6 oz' of Bread'
                 'Breakfast.—1 pint of Cocoa, made of) 1 pint of  Cocoa,  made  of i oz. of
                      i oz. of flaked cocoa or cocoa-I    flaked cocoa or cocoa-nibs, sweet-
                      nibs, sweetened with } oz. of mo-  j    ened  with i  oz. of molasses or
                      lasses or sugar; 6 oz. of Bread, J    sugar; 6 oz. of Bread.
                  Dinner.—1 pint of Soup;  1 lb. of Po- ) 1 pint of Soup ; i lb. of Potatoes; 6
                      tatoes;  6 oz. of Bread   .    .  )    oz.  of Bread.
                  Supper,  the  seven  days.—1 pint of) 1 pint of Oatmeal gruel; 6 oz. of
                      Oatmeal gruel; 6 oz. of Bread,  $    Bread.
                                    CLASS VI.
Convicted prisoners not employed at hard labor for periods exceeding fourteen days :—
                                Males.                            Females.
                  Breakfast.— 1 pint of Oatmeal gruel;) 1 pint of Oatmeal gruel; 6 oz. of
                      8 oz. of Bread  .    .    .    .  $
                  Dinner.—3 oz. of cooked Meat, with-
                      out bone; i lb. of Potatoes; 8 oz
                      of Bread.....
Sunday,
Tuesday,
Thursday,
Saturday
Monday,
Wednesday,
Friday
    Bread.

3 oz. of cooked Meat, without bone;
    i lb. Potatoes;  6 oz. of Bread.
11 pint of Soup; 8 oz. of Bread
1 pint of Soup ; 6 oz. of Bread.

Same as breakfast.
                    Supper.—Same as breakfast  .
                                      CLASS VII.
  Prisoners sentenced by Court to solitary confinement:—
                      Males.                                Females.
              The same as Class VI.                  The same as Class VI.
                                      CLASS VIII.
  Prisoners for examination, before trial, and misdemeanants of the first division, who do not main-
tain themselves:—
                      Males.                                Females.
              The same as Class IV.                  The same as Class IV.
                                      CLASS IX.
                                  DESTITUTE DEBTORS.
                      Males.                                Females.
              The same as Class IV.                  The same as Class IV.
                                       CLASS X.
  Prisoners under punishment for prison offences for terms not exceeding three days:—
                                 1 lb. of Bread per diem.

  Prisoners in close confinement for prison offences under the provisions of the 42d section of the

                                Males.                          Females.
      Breakfast   .  . 1 pint of Gruel; 8 oz. of Bread .  . 1 pint of Gruel;  6 oz.  of Bread.
      Dinner  .   .  . 8 oz. of Bread........6 oz. of Bread.
      Supper  ... 1 pint of Gruel; 8 oz. of Bread .  . 1 pint of Gruel; 6 oz. of Bread.

  Note.__The Soup to contain, per pint, 3 oz. of cooked meat, without bone, 3  oz. of potatoes, 1
oz. of barley, rice, or oatmeal, and 1 oz. of onions or leeks, with pepper and salt.   The Gruel, when
made in quantities exceeding 50 pints, to contain li oz. of oatmeal per pint, and 2  oz. per pint when
made in less quantities.  The Gruel on  alternate days to be sweetened with i oz. of molasses or
sugar, and seasoned with salt. 
246                           COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
  The following table gives a comparative view of the weekly quantity of food allowed to
prisoners confined for terms exceeding three days:—
	Class 2.		Class 3.		Class 4. Class 8. Class 9.		Class 5.		Class 6. Class 7.	
Bread .... 02. Cooked meat, oz. Potatoes ... 02.	Men. 163 0 0	Women. 126 0 0	Men. 168 6 64	Women. 126 6 64	Men. 163 12 32	Women. 126 12 32	Men. 126 16 112	Women. 126 12 56	Men. 168 12 32	Women. 126 12 32
Total solid food Gruel . . . pints Soup . . . pints Cocoa . . . pints	168 14 0 0	126 14 0 0	238 14 2 0	196 14 2 0	212 14 3 0	170 14 3 0	254 11 3 3	194 11 3 3	212 14 3 0	170 14 3 0
  These dietaries appear to me well calculated to carry into effect the principles laid down
by  the  Prison  Inspectors,  that the quantity of food  supplied  to prisoners should in all
cases be sufficient, and not more than sufficient, to maintain health and strength.
  They  have, however, been  objected to, on  the ground that the amount of food which
they supply  is greater than the hard-working, sober, and honest laborer can in general
obtain for himself and family; and, therefore, that they hold out rather a temptation than a
discouragement to crime.   Should such be their effect, it is greatly to be regretted ; but it
cannot form a valid ground for altering them.  For the question is, not what the  honest
laborer can obtain, but what is necessary for the prisoner ; and under this point  of view
it appears to me that there exists no just  ground of objection to  these  rates of diet.
The dietary for the fifth class, which has been especially objected to, as being indulgent if
not luxurious, allows an ample, but by no means an excessive, amount of food, when we
take into consideration  the  hard labor to which the prisoners  of this  class are subjected,
as well as their term of imprisonment, (see p. 224, et seq.)*

                           6. DIETARIES FOR THE SICK.
  In the treatment  of many  diseases, attention to diet is a  point of considerable impor-
tance ; and in none is it more necessary than in non-febrile disorders of the digestive and
urinary organs.  For in acute maladies, in which abstinence  or low diet is requisite, there
is usually no disposition to  take food : on the contrary, solids of all kinds  are generally
loathed ; and in such cases, therefore, there is little or no chance of any error of diet being
committed.  Dietetical regimen is more important in chronic diseases  of  the assimilating
organs, in which the appetite is unimpaired, or even increased,—since in  such  the patient
is  more  apt  to overstep the bounds of prudence by the employment of a diet improper,
either from the  quantity or  quality of the food  used.  In chronic local diseases, when the
constitution is  unimpaired, and  the appetite for food remains natural, I would, by no
means, advocate the adoption of a spare or low diet; since I believe that in such cases
the indulgence  of a moderate appetite for  plain food is attended with beneficial results.
From this statement, however, maladies affecting the organs  of assimilation must be fre-
quently  excepted.  "Natural instincts,"  justly observes Dr.  Billing,*  "are too often
thwarted: it is  much too common to put patients empirically on low diet;  and  patients
of the  higher classes—the better  educated—very often put themselves on low diet un-
necessarily.   So far as we may take natural instinct for a guide," he further observes,

                * Appendix, 21.                 t First Principles of Medicine. 
DIETARIES  FOR THE SICK.                    247
" we may assert, that when a patient can eat, he may be allowed to do so ; for if he  has
even a slight degree of fever, he cannot eat."
   Several diets, or kinds of dietetical regimen, are employed in the treatment of diseases.
The most important of these are the following :—
   1. Full, Common, or Meat Diet.—On many occasions where it is desirable to restore
or support the powers of the system, patients are permitted to satisfy their appetite for
plain vegetable and animal food.  In many indolent diseases,  in scrofula, in some affec-
tions of the nervous system, (as chorea and epilepsy,) and in the stage of convalescence
after acute maladies, &c, this kind  of diet is frequently directed.  In  these  cases beer
and, sometimes, wine are permitted; and spirit  is  occasionally  required.  In some  dis-
eases of, and in accidents occurring in, confirmed drunkards, it is frequently found inju-
rious to withhold the stimulus to  which the patient's system has been long accustomed ;
and thus wine, brandy, rum, or gin,  is ordered, according to circumstances.
   2. Animal Diet.—This  term is applied to a diet  composed  of animal  food, either ex-
clusively  or  principally.  The only  disease, in which a diet  exclusively of animal food  is
recommended,  is diabetes.   In this malady, strict abstinence  from vegetable substances  is
attended with the diminution of both the quantity, and the saccharine condition, of the
urine.   But it deserves especial notice that the amount, as well as the nature, of the food
taken in this  disease,  requires carefully attending to, as the craving for food is sometimes
apt to induce the patient to indulge  to an injurious extent.
   A considerable variety of food is  necessary for patients limited to  the exclusive use  of
animal diet, on account of the  loathing of the   same  substance  if  frequently repeated.
Butcher's  meat, bacon, poultry, game, fish, shell-fish,  cheese, eggs, sausages, and  brawn, are
allowed in private  practice. For common drink, water, beef-lea, or mutton broth, may be
sparingly  used.  Milk is generally permitted, but as it contains sugar, its use is not unob-
jectionable.
   By the use of animal food exclusively, the quantity of sugar in the  urine of diabetic pa-
tients is greatly reduced;  but I have never seen this secretion entirely  lose its saccha-
rine condition by even the most rigorous adoption of animal diet. In one case, recently
under my care in the London Hospital, the quantity of urine passed in twenty-four hours
was reduced  from  about  eleven, to three or four pints in the  twenty-four hours; but its
specific  gravity (1040 to 1045) and saccharine quality remained unaltered.  From whence,
it may be  asked, in such cases, is the sugar derived  1  Where the use of milk is permitted,
this perhaps is  in part the source of it.  I have,  however, found it, where neither milk nor
vegetable  food was employed ; and in  such cases the substances  which were used as
food, and from which  sweet or saccharine  matter is  known to be obtainable, were gelatine
and oil or fat.  But neither the sugar of gelatine (glycicoll) nor the sweet principle of oils
and fats (glycerine) is identical with the diabetic sugar, (glucose;)  and  we are unacquainted
with any means of  converting the two former into the latter substance.
   Patients, we are told, sometimes evince such an inordinate craving for vegetable food,
that it  is difficult,  if not impossible, to persevere for any considerable length  of time on
an exclusively  animal diet.  In the cases which have fallen under my  observation  this
has not been  the case.  I have several times met with patients  who  have objected  to
persevere with  this  diet, not on the above  ground, but simply because they became satis-
fied of  its inefficacy ; the  diminution in  the quantity  of urine not being attended with a
corresponding relief of the constitutional symptoms.
   In those diabetic  cases in which it is thought advisable to permit a limited  quantity  of
vegetable food,  in conjunction with animal diet, those vegetables should be selected which
are most highly ni:rogenized, and which are freest  from  sugar or substances  capable  of 
248                         COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
 being converted into saccharine  matter, as the starchy bodies.   These  conditions are
 best fulfilled by  the cruciferous plants,—as cabbage, greens, cauliflower, broccoli, watercress,
 and mustard and cress.   Sauerkraut, or fermented cabbage, (see p. 184,) is sometimes per-
 mitted.   The  aromatic condiments  (as sage, mint, marjoram, fennel, parsley, caraway, cin-
 namon, nutmegs, allspice, pepper,  mustard, &c.)  are, of course, unobjectionable, as far as
 sugar is concerned.  Fruits, especially  apples and pears, are highly objectionable, on ac-
 count of the saccharine and amylaceous matters which they usually contain.  For drink,
 Dr. Prout recommends sound porter in  preference to wine or spirits.
   Some practitioners, among whom Dr. Prout deserves to be especially mentioned, object
 to the exclusive use of animal food in diabetes; "but consider a  certain proportion of
farinaceous matters proper.  The recommendation of this admixture of farinaceous mat-
 ters is founded upon a fact already alluded to, and apparently well established, viz. that
 the assimilation of the saccharine  principle is one of the last functions that becomes ex-
 tinct in  animals.   The proportions of these two forms  of aliment must be varied accord-
 ing to the circumstances of the patient; and  particularly according to the degree in which
 he is able to assimilate albuminous, in  preference to  farinaceous,  matters; a point not
 difficult to be  determined by a little attention.  Of farinaceous matters, the high or strong,
 as the farina of wheat in the  shape  of bread, &c,  seem to be most  easily assimilated.
 The low kinds of farinaceous  matters, as arrow-root, potatoes, &c., (with the exception
 perhaps of rice,) seem to be reduced to a species of sugar, more difficult of assimilation
 than the sugar from wheat-flour, &c, and in general, therefore, should be avoided."*
   Gluten is a  nutritious vegetable  principle,  to the employment of which in diabetes no
 objection can  be raised;  and I have  already (see p. 150) had  occasion to  notice gluten
 bread, which has been made for the use of diabetic patients.
   3. Vegetable Diet.—The exclusive employment  of vegetable  food, in conjunction
 with the use of distilled water, has been recommended, by  Dr. Lambe.f as a remedy for
 cancer,  scrofula, consumption, asthma,  and other chronic diseases; but he has, I suspect,
 gained few, if any, proselytes  to his opinions and practice.
   4. Spare or Abstemious Diet.—The term spare or  abstemious diet is sometimes used to
 indicate the employment of vegetable substances principally, (not  exclusively.)   It gen-
 erally includes the use of the white-fish, (the flesh of which is less nourishing and stim-
 ulating  than butchers' meat, see p. 134,) sometimes  alternating with a  limited quantity of
 poultry or butchers' meat.  In plethoric habits,  where the appetite is  unimpaired, this
 diet is ordered in cases of threatened apoplexy, gout, &c.  By  its  adoption we diminish
 the quantity of nutritive  matter supplied to the system, while we keep the digestive organs
 actively employed.
   5. Fever Diet, (Thin Diet;  Spoon Diet; Slops.)—"In febrile diathesis," says Dr.
 Beaumont,* "very little or no gastric juice is secreted.  Hence the importance of with-
 holding food from the stomach in febrile complaints.   It can afford no  nourishment, but
 is actually a source of irritation to that organ ; and, consequently to the whole system."
 In another placef the same author observes,  " that drinks received are immediately ab-
 sorbed,  or otherwise disposed  of, none  remaining in the stomach ten  minutes after being
 swallowed.  Food taken in this condition of the  stomach remains undigested for twenty-

   * On the Nature and Treatment of Stomach and Urinary Diseases, p. 41. London, 1840.
   t Reports of the Effects of a Peculiar Regimen on Scirrhous Tumours and Cancerous Ulcers.  Lond.
 1809. Additional Reports on the Effects  of a Peculiar Regimen in cases of Cancer, Scrofula, Consumption,
 Asthma,  and other Chronic Diseases.  Lond.  1815.
   X Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice, &c, p. 132.       $ Op. supra cit. p. 99. 
DIETARIES FOR THE SICK.                      249
four or forty-eight hours, or more, increasing the derangement of the  whole alimentary
canal,  and aggravating the general symptoms of disease."
  These observations suggest the appropriate diet for febrile states of the system.  Foods
which require digestion are to be withheld :  indeed, they are  generally  loathed,—want of
appetite being one of the early symptoms of fever.  Aqueous drinks,  (commonly  called
diluents or  slops,)  however, are rapidly absorbed without undergoing digestion.   Tea,
toast-water, and barley-water, therefore,  may be taken ad libitum.  Of the  foods which
are most admissible when the patient  feels capable  of taking them, the saccharine  and
the amylaceous are the lightest and most appropriate.  Acidulous fruits and drinks some-
times  prove most  refreshing.  Saccharine  substances  are absorbed and  pass  into the
chyle,  and subsequently support the process of respiration, while amylaceous substances
yield sugar  in the stomach independently of the gastric juice, and probably by the  aid of
the saliva merely,  (see p. 62.)
  6. Low Diet.—In acute inflammation of important organs, and after serious accidents,
surgical operations, and parturition, patients in general are directed to  adopt a low diet,
consisting principally of liquid foods,  as gruel, broth, milk, tea, and barley-water, and a
moderate allowance of bread or biscuit, and light farinaceous  puddings.   The  effect of
low diet  on the blood is  similar to that of loss of blood ; namely, a  diminution of the
number of the blood disks.*
  7. Milk Diet.—Besides cow's milk, which constitutes the  principal article of food, this
diet includes the use of farinaceous  substances, (such as arrow-root, sago, and tapioca,)
bread,  and light puddings, (of rice, bread, or batter.)  Milk is ordered when we are desirous of
affording support to the system with the least possible stimulus or excitement.  It is well
adapted for inflammatory  diseases of the  chest, (phthisis especially,)  of  the alimentary
canal,  and of the bladder, when it  is considered expedient to  employ a  nutritious but not
stimulating  diet.  After hemorrhages, when the powers of the system have been greatly
exhausted, a milk  diet is frequently beneficial.  It has  also been  considered one of the
best means of preventing and of curing the gout.  It is a good diet also for many of the
diseases  of children,  especially those of a strumous or scrofulous nature. In  some of
the above-mentioned  maladies, where  the stomach is  weak and  irritable, cow's milk is
apt to  occasion vomiting and other unpleasant effects, in consequence of the butter which
it contains.  In such cases, skim-milk  or ass's milk may be advantageously substituted.
  8. Dry Diet.—In several  maladies it becomes necessary to restrict the quantity of
liquids used: as in valvular disease  of the heart, aortic aneurism, diabetes, and diuresis
with either  excess or deficiency of urea.  The first of these diseases  is incurable, and,
therefore, our object is its palliation.   One mode of attempting this is, to relieve the ob-
structed circulation by lessening the volume of blood ; and which may  be in some degree
effected by limiting the amount of drink.  In aneurism of the aorta we endeavor to lessen
the tension of, and to promote the  deposition of fibrine within,  the sac.  The indications
are in  part fulfilled by a dry  diet, by which fulness of vessels and thinness of the  blood
are lessened.  In diabetes, and also in diuresis, with either excess or deficiency of urea,
a most important part of the treatment is to diminish, as much as possible, the quantity
of fluids taken.
  I have said nothing of the  nature of the solid food which is used by those who adopt a
dry diet; because it is subject to considerable variation.  In some cases a generous, in
others  a spare, diet should accompany it.

  *  See Andral and  Gavarret's Recherches sur les Modifications de  Proportion de quelques Principes du
Sang.  Paris, 1842. 
250                             COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
  Subjoined are  the diet-tables of the Metropolitan  Hospitals for the Sick,* of the Royal
Ordnance Hospitals, and of the  Royal Navy Hospitals and Marine Infirmaries:—
1. LONDON HOSPITAL.
	COMMON DIET.	middle diet.	LOW DIET.	milk diet.
	12 oz. Bread.	1		
Per Day . . . . ]	1 pint Porter, Men. i pint do. Women.		8 oz. Bread.	12 oz. Bread.
Breakfast.....	Gruel.		Gruel.	Gruel.
r	8 oz. Beef, with Potatoes, thrice a week. 8 oz. Mutton, with	j The same, except ^. that 4 oz. of Meat		
	Potatoes, twice a week. 8 oz. Potatoes, and Soup, with Vege-tables, twice a	shall be given in-stead of 8 oz.	Broth.	1 pint Milk.
i	week.			
	1 pint of Broth.		Gruel or Broth.	1 pint Milk.
2.  ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S HOSPITAL.
			THIN OR FEVER	
r	COMMON DIET.	BROTH DIET.	DIET.	MILK DIET.
	Milk Porridge.		Milk Porridge.	Milk Porridge. 12 oz. Bread.
	12 oz. Bread.		12 oz. Bread.	
	6 oz. Mutt' or Beef		1 pint of Milk, with	2 pt Milk, with Ta-
	1 pt. Broth [with	Milk Porridge.	Tapioca, Arrow-	pioca, Arrow-root,
	Peas or Potatoes,	12 oz. Bread.	root, Sago, or	Sago, or Rice, as
	4 times a week.]	2 pints Broth.	Rice, as may be	maybe prescribed.
	2 pis. Beer, Mai.	1 pint Beer.	prescribed.	Barley-water.
	1 pint, Women.	1 oz. Butter.	Barley water.	1 oz. Butter.
	1 oz. Butter, twice			Bread Pudding, 3
.	a week.			times a week, when ordered.
3.  GUY'S HOSPITAL.
Diily . •
Full Diet.
14 oz. Bread.
li oz. Bu'ter.
1 quart Table
  Beer.
8oz. Meat when
  dressed.
Middle Diet.
12 oz. Bread.
li oz. Butter.
1 pt. Table Beer.
4 oz. Meat, when
  dressed, and
i pint Broth.
Low Diet.
12 oz. Bread.
1 oz. Butter.
Tea and Sugar.
Milk Diet.
12 oz. Bread.
1 oz. Butter.
2 pints milk.
Fever Diet.
6 oz. Bread.
1 oz. Butter.
Tea and Sugar.
Half a pound of Beef, (for Beef-tea,) or Arrow-
   root or Sago, when ordered.
For each diet, Gruel or Barley-water, as required.
  * In addition to the substances specified in the following Diet Tables of the Metropolitan Hospitals,
other articles (as chops, steaks, fish, wine, spirit, porter, &c.) are permitted, when specially ordered by the
medical officers.  These are denominated extras. 
DIETARIES FOR  THE SICK.                        251
4.  ST. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL.
Daily .  .  . .  \

Breakfast . . .
Dinner  . . .  -
Supper  ...  5
FULL DIET.
2  pints of  Beer; 14
   oz. of Bread.
Water Gruel.
i lb. of Beef, when dress-
 ed, twice a week ; 4
 oz. of E-itler. or 6 oz.
 of  Cheese,  thrice  a
 week; i lb. of Mut-
 ton,  when   boiled,
 thrice a week.
1 pint Broth, four times
 a week.
MILK DIET.
12 oz. of Bread.

1 pint of Milk.
1 pint  of  milk
  four  times  a
  week.
 Rice  Pudding
 thrice a week.
1 pint of Milk.
14 oz. of Bread
 2 pints of Beer.
Water Gruel.
4 oz.  of Butter,
  four   times  a
  week  ;   Rice
  Pudding and 4
  oz.  of Butter,
  three  times a
  week.
FEVER DIET.
12 oz. of Bread ;
 2 pints of Beer.
Water Gruel.
i of a lb. of Beef
  for tea.
5.  ST. GEORGE'S HOSPITAL.
Dinner .  <





Supper .  5
EXTRA DIET.
12 oz. Bread.
    Men.
2 pints Beer.
  Women.
li pts. Beer.
1 pint Tea,
i pint Milk.
12 oz. Meat,
  roasted
  (weighed
with the bone
 before it is
  dressed)
four days,—
 boiled three
 days,  i lb.
 Potatoes.
1 pint Gruel.
i pint Milk.
ORDINARY
  DIET.
12 oz. Bread.
1 pint Beer.
1 pint Tea.
i pint Milk.
One half the
meat  allow-
ed for extra
diet.
i lb. Potatoes
1 pint Gruel.
j pint Milk.
FISH DIET.
12 oz. Bread.
1 pint Tea.
i pint Milk.
4 oz. of plain
boiled  white
fish (as Whi-
ting, Plaice,
 Flounders,
or Haddock.)


1 pint Gruel.
i pint Milk.
FEVER DIET.
12 oz. Bread.
Barley Wa-
    ter
 ad libitum.

1 pint Tea.
i pint Milk.
Arrow-root,
&c, must be
specially di-
rected.
pint Tea.
pint Milk.
BROTH DIET.
12 oz. Bread.
1 pint Tea.
h pint Milk.
1 pt. Broth.
 6 oz.  light
  Pudding.
1 pint Gruel.
i pint Milk.
MILK  DIET.
12 oz. Bread.
1 pint Tea.
i pint Milk.

li pints Rice
 Milk four
   days.
i lb.  Bread
or Rice Pud-
 ding three
   days.

i pint Milk.
6.  WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL
					SPOON, OR	incurables'
	FULL DIET.	MIDDLE DIET.	LOW	DIET.	FEVER DIET.	DIET.
			Fired.	Ca-mal.		
Daily . . ■	14 oz. Bread.	10 oz. Bread.	i lb. Bread.	—	i lb. Bread.	* lb. Bread.
						h lb. Meat.
						£ lb. Potatoes.
						i pint Milk.
						1 pint Porter.
I	1 pint Milk	1 pint Milk	1 pint Tea,	—	1 pint Tea,	
Breakfast <	Porridge, or	Porridge, or	with Sugar and Milk.		with Sugar and Milk.	
I	Rice Gruel.	thin Gruel.				
f	i lb. Meat	i lb. Meat	No fixed Diet	1 pint of	Barley Wa-	
	roasted,	roasted,	for Dinner.	Broth, or i	ter.	
		boiled, or		lb. of Bread,		
Dinner . «	chops. i lb. of Pota-	chops. * lb. of Pota-		or Bice Pud-ding, or 1		
.	toes.	toes.		pint Beef		
				Tea, or a		
				Chop, or		
				Fish.		
(	1 pint Milk	1 pint Milk	1 pint Tea,	—	1 pint Tea,	
Supper . j	Porridge, or	Porridge, or	with Sugar		with Sugar and Milk.	
	Rice Gruel.	thin Gruel.	and Milk.			
 
252                     COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
7. MIDDLESEX HOSPITAL.
Daily . ■ ■ Breakfast Dinner . < Supper . }	DIjETA carnis, or meat diet.	D1MTA JUSCULI OR SOUP DIET.	DIjETA lactis or milk diet.	DliBTA SIMPLEX OR SIMPLE DIET.	CANCER DIET.
	12 oz. Bread. 1 pint Milk. Physicians' Patients. i lb. Potatoes, 4 oz. dressed meat (beef or mutton,) roast and boiled alter-nately, 4 days. 4 oz. Meat in Soup, 3 days. Surgeons' Patients. i lb. Potatoes, 4 oz. dressed meat (beef or mutton,) roast and boiled alter-nately. 1 pint Gruel alter-nately, with 1 pint of Barley-water.	12 oz. Bread. 1 pint Milk. 1 pint Soup, made with 4 oz. Beef, alter-nately with 1 pint of Broth with Barley. 1 pint Gruel.	12 oz. Bread. 1 pint Milk. i pint Milk with Rice Pudding, 4 days, and with Batter Pudding 3 days. i pint Milk, or 1 pint of Gruel.	6 oz. Bread. 1 pint Barley-water. 1 pint Gruel. 1 pint of Gruel or Barley-wa-ter.	12 oz. Bread. i lb. Meat. i lb. Potatoes. 1 pint Milk.
8. KING'S COLLEGE HOSPITAL.
Daily . . . • < Breakfast . . . \ Dinner . . ■ ■ i Supper . . . . <	FULL DIET.	MIDDLE DIET.	MILK DIET.	LOW DIET.	FEVER DIET.
	1 pint Beer, or i pint Porter. 14 oz. Bread. 1 pint Milk Porridge. i lb. Meat. i lb. Potatoes. 1 pint Milk Porridge.	14 oz. Bread. 1 pint Milk Porridge. i lb. Meat. 1 lb. Potatoes. 1 pint Milk Porridge.	1 lb. Bread. 1 pint Milk. 1 pint Milk. 1 pint Gruel.	8 oz. Bread. 1 pint Gruel. 1 pint Broth. 1 pint Milk Porridge.	1 pint Gruel. 2 pints Barley Water. lpintMilk Porridge.
9. DREADNOUGHT HOSPITAL SHLP.
Breakfast ■ ■ ■ \ Dinner . . . . < Supper ... <	FULL DIET.	ORDINARY DIET.	LOW DIET.	MILK DIET.	FEVER DIET.
	1 pint Tea. 1 lb. Bread. i lb. Meat. i lb. Potatoes. 2 pints Beer, (il ordered.) 1 pint Broth.	Ditto. Ditto. i lb. Meat. i lb. Potatoes. 1 pint Beer, (if ordered.) 1 pint Broth or Gruel.	Ditto. 1 lb. Bread. 1 pint of Beef Tea. 1 pint Gruel or Milk, (if ordered.)	Ditto. 1 lb. Bread. 1 pint Milk. 1 pint Milk.	Ditto. Gruel. Gruel or Bar-ley Water.
 
DIETARIES  FOR THE SICK.                       253
10. NORTH LONDON HOSPITAL.
Daily.......\ I	FULL DIET.	MIDDLE DIET.	LOW DIET.	MILK DIET.
	16 oz. Bread. i pint Milk. ^ lb. Meat andi lb. Potatoes 4 days. Ipint Soup or Ilice three days.	16 oz. Bread. i pint Milk. 1 pint Soup or Rice.	8 oz. Bread. ipint Milk. Oatmeal for Gruel.	17 oz. Bread. 2 pints Milk.
  Dr. Carpenter* observes that " there can  be  little doubt that, as a whole, the diet of
patients in English hospitals is  much too high, being far better than that to which the
same class of persons  is accustomed in health:  this is attended with injury to the pa-
tients, and with  increased  expense to the institution; and  it has further the injurious
effect of  tempting the  patients to stay  in the hospital  for  a longer time than is neces-
sary."
  Taking the dietaries of the metropolitan hospitals as fair samples of those of the English
hospitals generally, I am quite willing to  admit that the  full  diet of these establishments
is, in many cases, "better than that to which the same class  of persons is accustomed in
health;" but I by no means agree with Dr. Carpenter in his sweeping assertion that it is
" much too high."  That life may  be  supported on a more  restricted diet cannot be de-
nied ; but I agree with the Rev. Mr. Porteus, in his letterf to the citizens of Glasgow, that
" it is a difficult  matter  to ascertain what is necessary to preserve life," and  that "where-
ever the starving point lies, the managers of charity funds should endeavor to be above it."
  In framing dietaries for the public hospitals, it is  necessary to adapt them  to the wants
of the  average  of  the  patients.   No diet scale can be formed which will not be open to
objection in individual cases; but  I contend as a whole  the dietaries  of the  metropolitan
hospitals  are  unobjectionable.  To take  the hospital (London Hospital, Mile End) with
which I am connected,  as  an example, I may observe, that  it is much more common to
hear the patients complain of the insufficiency than of the superabundance of its full diet.
Many of them are strong, healthy men,  as  sailors, accustomed  to eat heartily, and who
have received some accident which has led to their admission into the hospital.  Others
are convalescents from long and  lingering illnesses, with depressed vital powers, which
require, not merely to be maintained, but to be renovated or raised te the healthy stand-
ard.  The rations  allowed  are  not, in general, greater, but oftentimes less,  than can be
eaten with appetite ; but should, in any  particular case, the quantity served out be more
than is requisite, it is the  duty  of the medical officer to place such patient on a  more
limited diet.
  The objection raised  by Dr. Carpenter to the diet of the English  hospitals, that it has
"the injurious effect of tempting the patients to stay  in the hospital for a longer time
than is necessary," would be valid, if these establishments were  compelled  to retain the
patients as long  as they are disposed to  stay ; but such is not the case.  They are dis-
charged by the  surgeon or physician, under whose care they have  been placed, as soon
as their state of health permits this to be  done with safety.J

     * Principles of Human Physiology, p. 384.
     f See Mr. Mott's report, in The Second Annual Report of the Poor Law  Commissioners.
     X Appendix, 22. 
254
COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
11. DIETARIES OF ROYAL NAVAL HOSPITALS AND MARINE  INFIRMARIES.
Bread .....	FULL.	HALF.		LOW.	FEVER.
	lib.	lib.		8oz. \	8 oz. or Sago 4 oz.
Beef or mutton . . . .	lib.	8oz.		0	0
Potatoes or greens ., ; .	lib.	8oz.		0	0
Herbs for broth ....	25 drachms	25 drachms		12i drachms	0
Barley . . -.....	14 ditto	14 ditto		7 ditto	0
Salt........	8 ditto	8 ditto		8 ditto	0
Vinegar . . . . . .	16 ditto	16 ditto		0	0
Tea ... .....	4 ditto	4 ditto		4 ditto	4 oz.
Sugar .......	16 ditto	16 ditto		16 ditto	20 ditto
Milk $ f?r *?.* • • • ■ ivuiK. Jfordiet ....	2-6ths of a pint	2-6ths of a pint		2-6ths of a pint	2-6ths of a pint
	0	0		1 ditto	i pint
Broth.......	1 pint	1 pint		i ditto	
tj„.,^ S Beer, (small . . House < or strong) . . .	2 pints li pints	li pints 1 pint			
( Wine I at Sur-	1 pint				
Foreign ] or < neon's					
( Porter ( discretion	li pints Such quantities				
Veal....... Fowls......-i Fish.......	in lieu of beef				
	or mutton as the medical of-				
	ficer may pre-				
1	scribe. At the discretion				
Rice or flour pudding . ■<	of the medical officer.				
Note.—Two drachms of souchong tea, 8 drachms of Muscovado sugar, and one-sixth of a pint of					
milk, to be allowed to each patient for a pint of tea morning and evening.					
The meat for the full and half diet is to be boiled together, with the 14 drachms of Scotch barley,					
8 drachms of onions, 1 drachm of parsley, and 16 drachms of cabbage, for every pint of broth ; or, at the discretion of the medical officers, 8 drachms of carrots, and 8 drachms of turnips, in lieu of the					
cabbage, which will make a sufficient quantity of good broth to allow a pint to each on full and					
half diet, and half a pint to each on low diet:—					
Rice Pudding.—Each to contain			Flour Pudding.—Each to contain		
Rice.....3 oz.			Flour . . . . 4 oz.		
Sugar Milk	. 1 oz.		Sugar . . . . 1 oz.		
	. i pint . 1 No.		Milk .... * pint. Eegs .... 1 No.		
Eggs					
Cinnamon .... 1 blade.			Ginger .... a few grains.		
12. ROYAL ORDNANCE HOSPITALS.
ESTABLISHED DIET TABLE.
Breakfast
Dinner   .  .
Supper
1 pint of Tea.
  1 pint of
Water Gruel.
 Bread i lb.
1 pint of tea.
1 pint of Tea.

Broth or > ,  .
Beef teaS  P
  Bread i lb.
  Meat i lb.
(to make broth)
Potatoes i lb.

1 pint of Rice
    Gruel.
1 pint of Milk
  Porridge.

  Meat i lb.
 Bread * lb.
 Broth 1 pint.
 Potatoes 1 lb.
1 pint of Rice
   Gruel.
1 pint of Milk
  Porridge.

 Meat  * lb.
 Bread 1 lb.
 Broth 1 pint.
 Potatoes i lb.
 Beer 1 pint.

 1 pint of Rice
   Gruel.
COMMON
DRINKS.
  Toast and
   Water.

 Acidulated
  drink or
  Cream of
  Tartar and
   Water.

Barley ) Wa-
or Rice >  ter. 
DIETARIES FOR THE  INSANE.                      255
ROYAL ORDNANCE  HOSPITALS— Continued.
 , ^he I-ever Diet is adapted to such cases as will not allow of any excitement from animal food, in
the shape of Broth or otherwise : extras, therefore, to this rate of Diet, are to be given with the same
view, except in cases of early convalescence from Febrile Diseases, and of such as are attended with
great debility.  The Bread is for Panado or Toast and Water.
  It is to be considered a  General Rule that extras are to be ordered  in addition  to the Fever Diet.
In particular cases, however, Rice or Bread Pudding, Sago, an increased quantity of Bread, or other
similar articles, may be added to the low diet.
  Milk Diet is to be formed by the substitution of one pint of Milk for Tea, eifher in the Fever or
  ^C  ifi' for Breakfast or Supper, or  both, at the discretion of the prescribing Medical Officer.
  the Meat mentioned in the three first classes of Diet is'to  be Beef and Mutton alternately;  and
the best pieces for makinsr Broth are to be selected.
  In  particular cases Coffee  may be ordered instead of Tea.
  As the Diet Table provides liberally for almost eveiy case of Disease that can occur in Hospital
Practice,  Medical Officers are strictly  to adhere  to it, unless very peculiar circumstances render a
deviation unavoidable.  The Diet ordered for Convalescents should  always be increased gradually,
and with  discrimination.
  The following proportions of Articles are to be allowed for those parts of the above-mentioned
Diet to which they belong:—
  Tea for one meal    .    .  Tea 1-6 ounce, Sugar i ounce, Milk i gill.
  Coffee     ....  Coffee i ounce, Sugar * ounce, Milk 1 gill.
  Milk Porridge  .     .    .  Oatmeal li ounce, Milk 1 gill, Salt 1-8 ounce.
  Rice Gruel     .     .    .  Rice li ounce, Sugar i ounce, Milk 1 gill.
  Water Gruel   .     .    .  Oatmeal li ounce, Sugar i ounce.
  Broth     ....  Oatmeal i ounce, BarFey i ounce, Salt i ounce.
  Sago for one allowance   . j SaS° * ounce Sugar i  ounce, Water * pint.^Wine may be added
    &                     J   at the discretion ol the Medical Officer.
  Rice Pudding            \ *^ce 2 ounces> Egg *>  Sugar 1 ounce, Milk i pint, Cinnamon 1
             °           ' (   scruple.
                          ( Bread (from the Man's  allowance) 2 ounces, Milk li gill, Egg 1, a
  Bread Pudding        .   J   little  Salt, and a few grains of Ginger, Butter i ounce, to smear
                          f   the inside of the basin.
                            7. DIETARIES  FOR THE INSANE.
   I have selected the diet tables of Hanwell Lunatic Asylum, Bethlem Hospital, and  St.
 Luke's Hospital, as examples of the dietaries of public establishments for the reception of
 the insane.
   It has been remarked by Dr. Conolly* that in all Lunatic Asylums " there are  patients
 who require food in much  greater  proportion than others; there are also some whose
 restlessness at  night seems  to  be  allayed by  food, although they do not complain of
 hunger.  The capriciousness of some patients respecting taking food is only to be over-
 come by temporary indulgence and little extra allowances.  Without this consideration a
 great amount  of discontent will occasionally prevail in the wards, particularly among the
 female patients;  and attention to this point is to them more important than the  applica-
 tion of medicine."
   The same writer in another placet observes that the cases of refusal of food by insane
 patients are  chiefly  of two  kinds :—" one, in which food is refused in consequence of
 some delusion, or some vow, or from mere obstinacy; the patient being in tolerable bodi-
 ly health, or certainly not incapable of digesting food;—another,  in which it is  utterly re-
 pugnant to a stomach in a high state of disorder."
   In the first description of cases, if all other means (such as varying the food, persuasion,
&c.,) "tried with the  utmost patience, fail, it is justifiable  and even necessary to introduce
food into  the stomach  by  artificial  means."  This  is  usually effected by the stomach
pump.  "In the second, the condition of the patient is entirely  different.  The  tongue is
red, or thickly coated ; the  bowels are disordered ; there is present a low kind of fever;
  * The  Report of  the Resident Physician  of the HanweU Lunatic Asylum, presented to  the Court of
 Quarter Sessions for Middlesex, at the Michaelmas Sessions, 1840.
  t The Third Report of the Resident Physician of the County of Middlesex Pauper Lunatic Asylum at
 HanweU, Oct. 1st, 1841. 
256                           COMPOUND  ALIMENTS.
the  brain is highly excited, and the patient almost too feeble to stand or walk except by
sudden and frantic.efforts.  His face is pale, the eyes are  sunk, and wild in their ex-
pression ;  and  the whole frame is  emaciated  to an  extreme degree.  All these are so
many sure  signs of death ensuing  on long-continued  disease of the brain, with all its
complications.  Nowhere  except in a Lunatic Asylum would such  signs  of sinking life
be  recorded  as the result of food  being refused.  The aversion to take  food arises, in
such cases, as  in cases of fever, from the general and terrible disorder of the system;
from a diseased condition of  the  stomach itself, among other organs, associated with a
brain disturbed to excess.  To force food into the enfeebled and dying stomach of  such
patients  would  not be sanctioned  by  any well-regulated  hospital,  or by any competent
physician; and  their  distinction ought not to  be  overlooked because they occur in an
hospital for the insane."

                        1. THE  HANWELL LUNATIC ASYLUM.
Breakfast
Dinner
Supper
Extras
Males.—Milk thickened with Oatmeal and Flour, 1 pint;  Bread, 6 ounces.
Females.—Bread, 5 ounces ; Butter, half an ounce ; Sugar, 4 ounces per week ;
    Tea, 1 pint.
Sunday .... ( Meat, 5 ounces, cooked.
Tuesday  . . . j Yeast Dumpling,'4 ounces.
Wednesday .1 Beer, half a pint.
Friday.....(. Vegetables.

Monday.... Upi^ S"UP-
Thursday...  Bread  6 oupces.
       *( Beer, half a pint.
            C Meat Pie Crust, 12 ounces.
Saturday . . .<   "   "  Meat, li ounces.
            ( Beer, half a pint.
Males.—Bread, 6 ounces; Cheese, 2 ounces ; Beer, half a pint.
Females.—Milk thickened with Oatmeal and Flour, 1 pint; Bread, 5 ounces.
To Workmen.—Out-door Workers to be allowed half a pint of Beer at 11 o'clock,
    A. M., and at 4 P. M., daily,  and 1 ounce  of Tea and 4 ounces of Sugar per
    week.
To Laundry Women, &c.—Laundry Women to be allowed half a pint of Beer at
    4 P. M., and together with Helpers, &c, 1 ounce of Tea and 4 ounces of Sugar
    per week, in lieu of the ordinary supper.
2. BETHLEM HOSPITAL.
Breakfast
 Gruel.
f Every day
 Sunday . .
 Tuesday
Dinner
Supper
Extras
Monday . . .
 Wednesday-

 Thursday. .
^Saturday . .
            . Table Beer.
             8 ounces cooked Meat.
             8 ounces Bread.
Friday.....( Vegetables.
             Baked Batter Pudding.
             4 ounces Bread.
             1 ounce Cheese, or i ounce Butter.
             Pea Soup, with Legs and Shins of Beef, 8 ounces Bread.  In the
                 summer  months, Baked Rice Pudding,  4 oz. Bread, 1 oz
                 Cheese, or i oz. Butter.
             Boiled Suet Puddings, 4 oz. Bread, 1 oz. Cheese, or i oz. Butter.
             Rice Milk, 8 oz. Bread,  2 oz. Cheese, or 1 oz. Butter.
8 ounces Bread, 2 ounces Cheese, or 1 ounce Butter.
Table Beer.
                   Mutton Broth, Beef Tea, Puddings, Fish, Meat, Eggs, Wine,
                       Strong Beer, &c. &c, or whatever may be ordered by
                       the medical officer.
                   8 oz. Roast Beef, 8 oz. Bread.   (Mem.—If it fall on an ordi-
                       nary Meat Day, the patients have a Meat Dinner on the
                       following day.)  A Mince Pie, 6d.
                   Plum Puddings, in addition to the ordinary dinner.
Good Friday......A Bunn, Id.
Easter Monday  . . .  . 8 oz. Roast Veal,  8 oz. Bread, Vegetables.
Whit Monday.....8 oz. Roast Veal, 8 oz. Bread, Vegetables.
  During the summer, about the month  of August, 6 oz. Bread, Bacon, Beans, 8 oz
Bread, 1 oz. Butter;  Fruit, consisting of Currants and Gooseberries.
  In the month of October, Apple Pies,  in addition to the ordinary dinner.
For the Sick . . .


Christmas Day.

New Year's Day. 
DIETARIES FOR PUERPERAL WOMEN.
257
3. ST. LUKE'S HOSPITAL.
Breakfast .
Dinner
Supper
 Males.—2 pints of Gruel, made of equal parts of Milk and Water, with 2 ounces of
     Bread.
 Females.—li pints of Gruel, with 2 ounces of Bread.
f Daily......Males.—1 pint Beer.  Females.—i pint Beer.

 Tuesday  ' ' ') Males.—I lb. cooked Meat; Vegetables ; 6 ounces Bread.
 Thursdav    / Females.—i lb. cooked Meat; Vegetables;  6 ounces Bread.
 Monday .... 4 Males.—2 pints Broth,* and 6 ounces of Bread.
 Friday.....( Females.—li pint Broth, and 6 ounces of Bread.
 Wednesdav  $ Moles.—1 pint Broth, 4 ounces Bread, i  lb. Baked Suet Pudding.
          •*  \ Females.—1 pint Broth, 4 ounces  Bread,  i lb. Pudding.
             ( Males.—2 pints Rice Milk, or 1 lb. Baked Rice Pudding, and 6 oz.
 Saturday . . . ]    Bread.
             ( Females.—li pint Rice Milk, or i lb. Pudding, and 6 oz. Bread.
 8 ounces Bread, and 2 ounces Cheese or Butter, or, on Wednesdays, 1 pint Broth
     and 8 ounces Bread.
 Males.—1 pint Beer.  Females.—i pint of Beer.
  * The Broth is made of the liquor of the preceding day's meat, with peas, &c, and 2 stones of fresh
meat, for every 50 patients.—(See Appendix 23.)
                     8. DIETARIES FOR PUERPERAL WOMEN.

The following are the dietaries employed at two Metropolitan Lying-in Hospitals:—

                    1. CITY OF LONDON LYING-IN HOSPITAL.
Breakfast.—Tea and Bread and Butter, ad libitum.
Dinner.—Broth or Gruel until the third day, after which Boiled Mutton and Broth.
Tea.—As Breakfast.
Supper.—Gruel until after the ninth day ; then Bread and Cheese and Beer.
  Should the patient be delicate she is allowed Wine, Fish, Light  Puddings, or any other thing she
may fancy.
  In cases  of disease the diet is under the direction of the medical officers.
  When the mother is prevented suckling, the child is suckled by some other patient, or is fed  with
Arrowroot, or a little of the Gruel prepared for the mother.
2. GENERAL LYING-IN HOSPITAL, WESTMINSTER.
  Dr. Rigby informs me that there is no peculiar dietary.  Gruel, with Bread and Butter and Tea,
is the chief diet for the first three days; then a  Little Broth or Light Pudding; so that by the fifth
day or so Meat is permitted.
  If the mother be unable to suckle, the infant is occasionally fed with Gruel, or equal parts of Milk
and Water, slightly sweetened.
 Chap. V.—On the Dietetical Regimen  suited for Disordered States of the
                                  Digestive Organs.

  In consequence of the great extent to which the preceding parts of this work have run
out,__an extent considerably greater than  was originally contemplated,—I am under the
necessity of compressing the subjects of this chapter into a much narrower compass than
was at first proposed.  Most of  them, however, have already been incidentally referred
to; and the principles, on which are founded the precepts, which I am about to lay down,
have been before sufficiently discussed.  The present chapter is, in fact, a condensed and
brief summary of some of the topics  already examined.  In order, therefore, to save repe-
17 
258                          COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
  tition, I shall put within brackets the pages at which the different points under examina-
  tion have been respectively considered.
    The subjects of the present chapter may be conveniently arranged under the following
  heads:—
                           1. Cookery of Foods.
                           2. Times of Eating.
                           3. Quantity of Food taken at one meal.
                           4. Conduct before, at, and after eating.
                           5. Nature and Quality of the Food eaten.

    1.  Cookery of Foods.—The influence of cookery on food I have  on several occasions
  already referred to, (see pp.  62, 92, 100,  101, 112, 114, 129, 136, 213, &c.)
    Foods  possessing  an organized texture, as animal flesh  and amylaceous substances,
  require to be cooked  previous to use, (see p. 213.)  To this statement the oyster is an
  exception, (see  p. 140;) the raw animal  being more  digestible than the cooked one.
  Apples, pears, and some other fruits, likewise form exceptions.
    By salting, smoking, and pickling, (see pp. 109 and 136,) the animal textures  become
  harder and more indigestible ; and foods thus prepared are, therefore, unfitted for the use
  of dyspeptics.   From this statement bacon must, in some cases, be  excepted ; as it occa-
  sionally proves more digestible than the  fresh fat, (see p. 84.)
    Sausages and cured meats  occasionally acquire deleterious qualities by keeping, (see
  p. 142.)
    The ordinary operations of the cook may be reduced  to five in  number; viz.  boiling,
  roasting, broiling, baking, and frying.
    Boiling is the operation by far the best suited  for the dyspeptic, the convalescent, and
  the sick.   In the case of vegetables, it effects the solution of gummy and saccharine sub-
  stances, and the  expulsion, wholly or partially, of volatile oil, (see p. 183 ;) while starch
  grains are ruptured and partially dissolved,  (see p.  62,) and albuminous and fibrinous
  liquids coagulated, (see  p. 181.)   The changes which it effects on animal flesh have al-
  ready been fully considered, (see pp. 196-197.)   Over-boiling proves injurious to  certain
  substances,  as to eggs, (see pp. 92 and 129,)—which are thereby hardened, and ren-
  dered difficult of digestion,—and to the  gelatinous foods, which become by it both less di-
  gestible and less nutritive, (see pp. 100 and 101.)  Boiling renders  potatoes more fit for
  use,  not merely by promoting their digestibility and nutritive power,  but also by extracting
  or destroying  noxious  matter in the tuber, (see p. 181.)  Over-boiling, however, though
  it may  promote  their  digestibility, probably lessens  their nutritive quality, (see  p. 182.)
  Foliaceous parts, as of cabbages, greens,  &c, require well boiling  to render them di-
  gestible.
    Roasting, next to boiling,  is the best method of preparing  food for dyspeptics.   It splits
  and  renders more or less soluble starch grains, and, therefore, serves to make some vege-
  tables more digestible and nutritive than they would be in the raw  state ; as apples, (see
  p. 168,)  and  potatoes.   It  also  coagulates the vegetable albumen.   It deprives flesh of
  part of its  water,  liquefies the fat, which thereby partially escapes  during the operation,
  coagulates the albumen, and corrugates  the fibrine.   It does not appear that it effects any
  change in the composition of the proteinaceous constituent of meat, (see p. 114.)   Roasted
  meat should be neither  over-done nor under-done.  It is a popular opinion that it is much
  more nourishing when  under-done ; but this is, probably, an error.   For the juice, which is
  more abundant in the under-dressed meat, is  almost entirely aqueous, and can  possess
  very slightly nutritive  qualities.  Moreover, by the prolonged roasting, the water  of the
  juice is evaporated, the nutritive matter almost  entirely remaini ng in the cooked meat;

1 
TIMES OF EATING.
259
the composition of the solid or dry matter of which i.=, as I have already stated, identical
with that of raw  meat.  So that well-done meat, probably, differs essentially from meat
under-dressed, in having a little less both of water and fat, while it has the additional  ad-
vantage of being more digestible.  By roasting, the gelatine is not  extracted, as in  the
operation of boiling.
  Broiling effects the same changes in meat  as  those produced  by roasting, but more
rapidly; so that while  the outside is scorched, the inside retains its juiciness.  Broiled
meat, like roasted  meat, is more  savory, though somewhat less  fitted for very delicate
stomachs, than boiled meat.  A well-broiled mutton chop, however, is, for the most part,
an unobjectionable  dish for the dyspeptic.
  Baking is a more objectionable process than any of the preceding. Though the gene-
ral  effects produced  by it are analogous to those of roasting and boiling, yet meat so
cooked is less fitted for delicate  stomachs  in consequence of being more impregnated
with empyreumatic oil.  From an experiment already related, (see p. 181,) it appears
that baked  potatoes  are less nutritive than boiled ones.  The dyspeptic will act  wisely
in  avoiding the use  of all baked foods,  except, perhaps, baked  amylaceous puddings,
as puddings made with sago, tapioca, arrow-root, rice, &c.
  Frying is of all culinary operations  the most objectionable ; fried foods being  more ob-
noxious to the digestive organs than foods prepared by any other methods.  The reason
of this I have already  explained,  (see p. 83.)  Invalids,  convalescents,  and  dyspeptics,
will, therefore, do  well to eschew this  method of cookery;  and abstain from the use of
eggs, omelettes, pancakes, fritters, fish, livers, and other dishes cooked by frying.
  2. Times of Eating.—I  have already fully discussed this topic, (see p. 220.)   It  is to
be  remembered that the practice  of eating a little and often is, for the most part, injuri-
ous ; and that the  adoption of fixed periods for taking food is much more conducive to
health than eating at  irregular times.   The length of the interval between the meals must,
however, be regulated by circumstances ; such as the rapidity of digestion, the age, the
amount  of fatigue or labor, &c.  In some persons, (as those of sluggish temperament,)
digestion is much  slower  than in others ; and  in such the intervals between the meals
ought to be more prolonged,  in  order that fresh food may not be introduced into the
stomach before that  of the previous meal has been  disposed of.  Children, old persons,
and those who are  engaged in laborious occupations, require food at  shorter intervals.
  Breakfast should in  general be taken soon after rising, for reasons already assigned,
(see p. 221.)   Dinner should follow at an interval of about five hours, more  or  less, ac-
cording to circumstances.  The practice of dining late is objectionable for  the dyspeptic ;
the most natural and  healthy dinner-time being about the middle of the day.   Luncheon
is admissible only where dinner is unavoidably late, or where fatigue has been endured.
Tea or a liquid meal may succeed dinner at an interval of three or four hours.   Supper
for those who dine late  is unnecessary.
  3. Quantity of Food taken at one Meal.—The quantity of food proper to be taken at one
meal can only be determined by the feelings of the patient, as it  varies in different indi-
viduals, and under different circumstances.   It is impossible, therefore,  to affix a stan-
dard  of weights or measures by which this can  be  ascertained.   On this point I cannot
do better than quote the following observations of Dr. Beaumont:—"There appears to be
a sense of perfect intelligence conveyed from the stomach to the encephalic centre, which,
in health, invariably dictates what quantity of aliment (responding to the sense of hunger
and its due satisfaction) is naturally required  for the purposes of life; and which, if no-
ticed and properly  attended to, would prove the  most salutary monitor of health, and ef-
fectual preventive of,  and restorative  from, disease.   It is not the sense of satiety, for  this 
260                          COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
  is beyond the point of healthful indulgence, and is Nature's earliest indication of an abuse
  and overburden of her powers to replenish the system.   It occurs immediately previous to
  this, and may be known by the pleasurable sensation of perfect satisfaction, ease, and qui-
  escence of body and mind.   It is when the  stomach says enough, and is distinguished from
  satiety by the difference of the sensations—the former feeling enough—the latter too much.
  The first is produced by the  timely reception into the stomach of proper aliment, in exact
  proportion to the requirements  of nature, for the  perfect digestion of which a definite
  quantity of gastric juice is furnished by the proper  gastric apparatus.   But  to effect this
  most agreeable of all sensations and conditions—the real  Elysian satisfaction of  the  rea-
  sonable epicure—timely  attention  must be paid to the  preliminary  processes, such as
  thorough mastication, and moderate or slow  deglutition.  These are indispensable to  the
  due and natural supply of the  stomach at the stated periods of alimentation ;  for if food
  be swallowed too fast, and pass into the stomach imperfectly masticated, too much is  re-
  ceived in a short time, and in too imperfect a state  of preparation, to  be disposed of by      J
  the gastric juice."
     4.  Conduct before, at, and after eating.—Excessive fatigue, whether mental or bodily, im-
  mediately before a meal, disturbs the digestive function.  The stomach  participates with '
  the other parts of the system in the exhaustion, and its function  is thereby impaired.   A
  little  rest before eating is, therefore, under such circumstances, desirable.  Hence the wis-
  dom  and  advantage "of appropriating half an hour to any light occupation, such as
  dressing, before sitting down to dinner."*
     While at meals eat slowly, masticate thoroughly, and cease as soon as a feeling of sat-
  isfaction is perceived.  Indulgence in the use of a variety of food  at  one meal  leads to
)' the overburdening of the stomach by provoking  the appetite beyond  its natural extent.
  This the dyspeptic should carefully avoid.
     I have already expressed my opinion of the propriety of repose after dinner, (see p. 213
  and 214.)  The Inspectors of  Prisons seem  to have been influenced by a similar opinion
  when they came to  the  conclusion " that  prisoners should  not  be set to work  immedi-
  ately after any meal," (see p. 242.)   But the after-dinner repose should be followed by
   moderate exercise.
     5.  Nature and Quality of the Food eaten.—I have already  remarked, (see  p. 110,)  that
   man is an omnivorous animal; that is, he requires both animal and vegetable  food.
     Several alimentary principles,  (fibrine, albumen, caseine, oil, and sugar,)  are found  in
   both animal and vegetable foods.  But the nutritive principles of animal foods, are inter-
   mixed with  a much smaller  proportion of non-nutritive substances  than those of vegetable
   foods.   Hence animal diet yields  a much larger amount of nourishment than vegetable diet.
     Vegetable food requires for its digestion more  time,  and probably greater power of the
   gastric organs, than animal food.  Moreover, it is more apt to create flatulency and aces-
   cency  than the latter.   "Its  digestibility is, however, dependent  upon the  same laws as
   those that  govern  the  solution of animal food  ; and it is facilitated by division and ten-
   derness."f
      " Bulk is, perhaps, nearly as  necessary to the articles of diet as the nutrient principle.
   They should be so  managed that one shall be in proportion to the  other.  Too highly nu-
   tritive diet is,  probably, as fatal to the prolongation of life and health as that  which con-
   tains an insufficient quantity of nutriment   It has been ascertained that carnivorous  ani-
    mals will not live on highly  concentrated food alone."}:  (See p.  219.)

         * Dr. Combe, The Physiology  of Digestion.  P. 260, 4th ed.
         t Dr. Beaumont, Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice, p.  27.  Edinb. ed. 1838.
         t Ibid. p. 31. 
                       NATURE AND QUALITY OF  FOOD.                   261

  According  to  Dr. Beaumont's observations, solid food is sooner digested than liquid
food.   Fluids holding proteinaceous substances  (albumen  or caseine)  in solution, as
milk  or raw egg, are coagulated in the stomach before they suffer the action of the gastric
juice, which subsequently redissolves them.  Solutions of gelatine, (as strong broths and
soups,) being unsusceptible  of coagulation, are not digested until they have acquired a
more solid consistence by the absorption of their more watery part.   These observations,
therefore,  suggest some  useful  practical applications.   Persons  with weak  stomachs
should not indulge in the copious use of liquid food.
  Acidity  of stomach arises  from the presence of acids derived, either from the gastric
vessels or from the food.  The latter is the only source of acidity which it will  be requi-
site for me to notice, and that so far only as may be necessary  to explain the  nature  of
alimentary substances which develop acid.
  Lactic acid, (see pp. 56 and 76,) is one of  the substances derived, in part at least, from
the food.   The alimentary principles which yield it are sugar, dextrine, (starch gum,) and
gum :* those which furnish it with the most facility are sugar of milk and dextrine.   The
.acidity of stomach which is produced in some dyspeptics  by saccharine substances,  arises
 from the development of lactic acid.  Milk also is apt to  disagree  with such individuals,
 not only  in  consequence of the difficult  digestibility of its fatty  constituent, (the  butter,)
 but also on  account of the conversion of its sugar into lactic acid.  Both bread and beer
 contain dextrine, and are the occasional sources of this acid.  The tendency which some
 farinaceous substances—as  oatmeal, (see pp. 76  and 155,)  and potato starch, (p. 65)—
 have to cause acidity of stomach, is owing, probably,  to  the  formation first of dextrine,
 and  afterwards of lactic acid.
    Some of the fatty acids are also produced in the stomach from the  food.  The volatile
 ones, (as butyric acid  from  butter,) are exceedingly obnoxious  to this organ.   The disa-
 greeable  sour and  rancid  eructations which sometimes  follow the use of fatty foods, es-
 pecially of melted butter, are due to the development of these acids.
    The difficult digestion of oils and fats I have on several occasions noticed, (see p. 84:)
 and to the remarks already offered on this subject I  must  refer  my reader for further
 information.  I  have expressed an opinion, (see p. 83,) that in cases where  these sub-
 stances prove obnoxious to  the stomach, it is in consequence of  the  evolution  of the
 oily  or fatty  acids.   In connection with this  opinion I may refer to some recent observa-
 tions of Dumas,f who has suggested that the separation  of the neutral  fats into an acid
 and  a base  is probably effected by a kind of fermentation, (which he denominates the fatty
fermentation,) set up by  an  albuminous substance, aided by the presence of air,  water, and

   * The organic principles capable of yielding lactic acid have a composition analogous to that of the acid
 itself: that is, they consist of carbon and water, (or its elements.)
                                                    Atoms.       Atoms.
                Lactic acid......12 carbon  -4- 10 water.
                Starch.......12 carbon  — 10 water.
                Dextrine.......12 carbon  -4- 10 water.
Cane sugar......12 carbon
Gum........12 carbon -4-11 water.
11 water.
12  water.
14  water.
               Sugar of milk......12 carbon
               Grape sugar......12 carbon
  But in order to convert them into this acid, or, in other words, to effect what has been termed the lactic
fermentation, the presence of an organic nitrogenized substance, which has been modified by exposure to
the air, is necessary.  Its influence is that of a kind of ferment.  Diastase, caseine,  and animal mem-
brane, (as that of the stomach,) when they have been exposed to the air, act as ferments. Acccording
to Boutron and Fremy,  (Journ. de Pharm. t. xxvii. 1841,) mannite and viscid matter are not always simul-
taneously developed with lactic acid, as  stated by some other chemists, (see ante, p. 56.)
   t Traite de Chimie applique' aux Arts, t. vi.  1843 
262                          COMPOUND ALIMENTS.
a  certain temperature.   Thus  the  facility  with which butter becomes rancid depends on
the presence of caseine ; from which it is necessary to separate  it in order to its preser-
vation.   This is usually  effected  by fusion.  The acid properties which the fats some-
times acquire in the  stomach may  arise from their  having undergone some analogous
change ; and Dumas suggests that  the influence of pepsine on the fats should be ex-
amined.
   New  bread,  rolls, fancy bread,  cakes, (especially  rich plum-cakes,) and hot buttered
toast, should be carefully avoided by the dyspeptic.   Good loaf bread, when a day old, is
in general unobjectionable : it  may be taken either in the form of dry toast, or, in some
cases, thinly covered with butter.  When the ordinary loaf bread disagrees with the pa-
tient, Dodson's  unfermented  bread, (see p. 152,) may be tried.  Biscuits, on account of
their compactness, are slow of  digestion, though  they sometimes suit  dyspeptics  better
than fermented bread.  Pastry,  suet, and yeast pudding, and pancake, are totally unfit for
those troubled with a delicate stomach, (see p. 153.)
   Of butcher's meat, mutton and beef are best fitted  for the dyspeptic.   They should be
cooked by boiling, roasting, or broiling;  and moderately well dressed.   With  some per-
sons, however,  mutton is apt to disagree, (see p. 116  ;) with others I have occasionally
found beef to disagree.  The young meats  (lamb and veal) are less adapted for persons
troubled with indigestion, being both less indigestible and nutritive  than the older meats.
Veal is further  objectionable on  account of  the melted butter  and stuffing usually eaten
with it   Pork should be  avoided by dyspeptics ; but pickled pork and bacon are, in gen-
eral, less objectionable than fresh pork, (see p. 84.)
   Venison is one of the most digestible of meats, (see p. 115;)  but  it is too savory and
stimulating for  convalescents.   The flesh of the rabbit is light, and easy of digestion.
   Of birds, the white-fleshed, as the common fowl, are best fitted  for dyspeptics and in-
valids, on account  of their meat  being readily digestible, moderately nutritious, and not
too stimulating.  They  are best cooked by boiling,  and should be  eaten without melted
butter.  Game,  as the pheasant and partridge, is  richer and more stimulating.   The
aquatic  birds, as the  duck and goose, are  more difficult of digestion on account of their
flesh being permeated with fat;  and they are, therefore, unfit for weak stomachs.
   The white fish (as the  sole and whiting)  form light and easily digestible articles of food,
and are well adapted for  the use of dyspeptics, invalids, and convalescents.   They should
be cooked by boiling, and eaten  without melted butter.  Salmon, eels, herrings, and sprats
abound  in oil, and on that account  are objectionable.   Cured fish of  all kinds are unfit for
persons with a  delicate stomach.
   Shell-fish, with the exception of the  oyster, are difficult of digestion,  and should be
avoided by the  dyspeptic.
   Mealy potatoes, when well boiled, are readily digestible ; and, in general, are  an  unob-
jectionable article of food. The cabbage tribe is somewhat uncertain : when sufficiently
cooked it is frequently taken by  dyspeptics without any inconvenience ; but at other times
it proves indigestible, and occasions flatulence.  Peas and beans, especially when old, are
difficult of digestion, and apt to cause flatulence.
   The  oily  seeds,  as the walnut, the  filbert,  and  the almond, are highly indigestible
foods.
   Of the fleshy fruits, the grape is the safest.   Apples and pears should be roasted  before
use.  Oranges, when quite ripe, seldom prove injurious; unripe  ones, however, are apt
to gripe.
   For drink, simple water or toast  water is  unobjectionable.  In many  cases the limited
use of weak table ale is unattended with ill  effects, (see p. 200.)  Malt liquor of all  kinds, 
NATURE AND QUALITY OF FOOD.                   263
in some instances, proves injurious,  creating flatulence and acidity, and otherwise dis-
turbing the digestive functions.  In such cases a small quantity of sherry wine  may  be
substituted.   Dr. Paris states, that, in some cases of dyspepsia, wine and beer equally dis-
agree with the stomach, producing acidity and other distressing symptoms; and  in such,
he observes, " very weak spirit may, perhaps, be taken with advantage."  To the accu-
racy of this  observation I can  bear  testimony, having repeatedly found the substitution
of a weak spirit preferable to fermented liquids.
  A weak infusion of black tea rarely proves injurious,  (see p. 192 et. seq.)  Coffee, em-
ployed moderately, is, in general, a wholesome beverage, (see p. 193 et. seq.)   Chocolate
and  cocoa are  objectionable in some cases, on account of their oily ingredient,  (see pp.
194 and 195.)  But to all these statements exceptions occasionally are met with.
  I have already stated, (see p. 209,) that many of the substances called condiments are,
in fact aliments ; and as such their dietetical properties have already been alluded to.
But the hot and pungent condiments, such as pepper, cayenne, mustard, &c, as well as
the ingredients  of some of the sauces, cannot be regarded as alimentary.  They act as
stimulants to the stomach, and though, when used very moderately, they may not prove
injurious, it  can  scarcely be  doubted  that their free  employment must be hurtful to the
dyspeptic, not only by provoking the appetite beyond its natural limit, but also by  exciting
the stomach itself.  On this subject, however, I have  already offered some remarks, to
which the reader is referred, (see p. 210.)
  I do not think it necessary to enter  further into the digestible properties of aliments,
and their suitability to the dyspeptic, as these subjects have been already fully discussed
in previous parts of this work. 
u 
APPENDIX.
                                   (A.)—Page 10.
                                ALIMENTIVENESS.
  The best-informed physiologists of the present day admit, with  our author, the exist-
ence of an organ of Alimentiveness, or Organ of the Appetite for Food, though they are not
exactly agreed as to its precise location.  The far-reaching sagacity of Gall perceived that
the appetite  for food is an instinct not referrible to any of the recognised principles of
mind, and therefore must be a primitive power, and, like the other faculties and instincts,
must owe  its existence  and exercise  to some definite portion of cerebral matter.  Dr.
Hoppe of Copenhagen followed up the suggestion of Gall, and showed very conclusively,
that, besides the nerves of the stomach and palate, an affection of which gives rise to the
sensations of hunger and thirst, there must also be an organ in the brains of animals  for
the instinct of nutrition, (taking nourishment for the preservation  of life,)  which incites
them to the sensual enjoyments of the palate, and the activity of which is independent of
hunger and thirst.  "How," says he, "should the mere sense  of hunger, more than any
other disagreeable or painful sensation, make the animal desire food, the necessity of such
not being known to him by experience 1  This could only be effected by instinct, because,
either an instinct, i. e. the immediate impulse of an organ, or else  experience and reflec-
tion, are  the causes of all actions."  Hunger and thirst are, therefore, to be discriminated
from the  desire of food called appetite; the former being an  affection of the nerves of
the stomach and palate, caused by deficiency of necessary supply ; but appetite is an  ac-
tivity of a fundamental instinct, which has in the brain an organ  analogous to those  of
the other faculties and instincts.   Mr. George Combe, during his late  visit to the United
States, spoke as follows, in one of his lectures, in relation to this subject:—
  " Observations  made by various individuals have proved that there is in man an organ
of appetite for  food, situated in the zygomatic fossa.  The stomach is to this organ what
the eye is to the sense of seeing.   Cut off the communication between it and the brain, and
the appetite  will  be  lost.  A dog was kept without food till he was ravenous with hun-
ger ;  the pneumogastric nerve was then divided, and the sensation left him at once.   A
number of cases  have occurred in which a gluttonous appetite existed during  life, and
these convolutions were  found, after death, ulcerated.   Dr. Caldwell  thinks  the  burning
desire of the drunkard to arise from disease of this organ, and recommends it to be treated
with bleeding, cold water, quiet, and attention to diet.
  " That this is the organ of alimentiveness has been confirmed by Vimont, and since com-
ing to this country I have seen two strong proofs of it in the collection of Dr. Morton  of
Philadelphia ; one, the skull of a Dutch admiral who died at Java in consequence of ex-
cessive eating, in' which the organ  is  very much developed ; but it  is still larger in the
skull of a  convict of New South Wales, who inveigled seven people into  the woods  at
various times, murdered and ate them."
  Mr. Combe gives many examples of enormous eating, and refers them all to an inordi-
nate development  of the organ of " Alimentiveness,"  which he considers as fully estab-
lished. 
266
APPENDIX.
                                   (B.)—Page 11.
             EFFECT OF CARBONACEOUS FOOD IN WARM CLIMATES.
  Dr. Pereira truly remarks, that the "frequent occurrence of disease among Europeans,
who reside in tropical countries, is probably in part owing to their continued employment
of a dietetical system fitted for colder climates."  It is one of the functions of the liver to
eliminate carbon and hydrogen from the blood, in the form of cholesterine and resin of the
bile, and we know that carbon is also  separated from the blood in the lungs, and by the
skin.  It is  given off by respiration combined with oxygen, but when separated by the
liver, it is still in the oxydizable state.  Tiedemann  and Gmelin, as well as Auteiireith and
other^physiologists, have directed  attention to a vicarious action  in  the functions of the
lungs and liver, respecting which Muller remarks, that " although it does not appear that
the size of the liver is, throughout the animal  kingdom, in the inverse ratio of the size of
the respiratory organs, yet pathological observations  are  certainly in favor of the exist-
ence of such a relation."   Carbonic acid is also separated  in connection with lactic acid,
lactate of ammonia, and muriate of ammonia,  from the skin.
  Dr. Crawford  proved by experiment, that less carbonic acid was evolved in proportion
to the height of the temperature ; and it is fully established that the function of the lungs
is rendered  inefficient by the rarefaction of the air by the heat.  Supposing the function
of the skin to remain the same, it is evident that there must be an increased excretion of
carbon from the  liver, to preserve  the blood in that state of purity which is compatible
with the due preservation  of health.  Accordingly Tiedemann and Gmelin maintain that
the increased secretion of  bile in tropical countries is required  to  compensate for the di-
minished purification of blood in the lungs.
  Dr. Edwards also found that less carbonic acid was evolved in summer than in winter;
and Dr. Prout and Dr. Fyfe found  that the quantity of the same was  diminished by vege-
table diet.
  These, however, are but part of the facts connected  with this subject.  The state  of the
dew-point or the hygrometric condition of the air, has an immense  influence upon  the
quantity of  carbonic acid eliminated  both from the skin and lungs.   From some experi-
ments which we instituted several  months since, we satisfied ourselves that this condition
of the atmosphere has far  more to  do in effecting changes in the relative  proportions of
the various  constituents of the blood, and hence in the promotion of health, or the causa-
tion of disease, than the temperature, to which so much has  been attributed.  When the
air is nearly saturated with moisture, causing that kind of weather called close or sultry,
there is a languor of the mind,  a debility of the muscular system, together with a duski-
ness of the skin, which proves that  the blood is not properly decarbonized and oxygenated.
These effects may be illustrated by the influence of the Sirocco, which is an excessively
damp wind, or in other words, a wind with a high dew-point*
  It required but a single  step to connect these facts with  the  production of disease in
tropical climates, especially affections of the liver and abdominal organs.  That there was
something more than high temperature, or what  is vaguely termed malaria, involved in
their causation, was very evident; for in addition to a multitude of other facts which  might
be mentioned, Mr. Stevens states that in the West  Indies  the inhabitants of the smallest
islands, which are the driest and hottest, are not subject to diseases  of the liver and in-
creased secretion of  bile.  Mr.  Hopkins has endeavored to  identify  malaria with a high
dew-point, but they are essentially distinct.  No one can doubt the existence in  some lo-
calities of a poisonous miasm in the atmosphere, which gives rise  to  disease.  A high
* London and Edinburgh Phil. Mag., Feb., 1839. 
APPENDIX.
237
dew-point, or an atmosphere saturated with moisture, doubtless gives efficiency to this
agent by checking its  elimination from  the system, but it acts chiefly by preventing the
separation of carbon by cutaneous  and pulmonary transpiration, thus throwing double
duty upon the liver, and often greater than  it can duly discharge.  Hence arise conges-
tions of this organ, and of the  abdominal viscera, whose  venous blood it receives;  and
hence follow dysenteries, cholera-morbus, fevers, and a long catalogue of tropical diseases.
  We  now  see  the importance, in  tropical  climates, of cutting off animal  food, which
abounds in carbon, and living upon a moderate allowance of mild vegetable diet.   We
know several persons who have resided for  many years,  on the most  sickly portions of
the African coast, in the enjoyment of perfect health, by confining themselves to vegeta-
ble  food, chiefly rice, and avoiding alcoholic liquors.  Gen. Sheldon, of Massachusetts,
a vegetable-eater, lived several years in the most sickly parts of the Southern United
States, with an entire immunity from disease, and he states, that in his opinion, man may
enjoy perfect health in any locality, provided his dietetic and other habits are correct.
                                   (C.)—Page 19.
                                  ANIMAL FOOD.
  Many facts could be  adduced  to prove that an exclusive diet of animal  flesh is am-
ply sufficient for healthy nutrition.  Sir Francis Head relates some interesting particulars
respecting the Gauchos, inhabitants of the Pampas, in South America, which  have an im-
portant bearing on this question.  After stating that they often continue on horseback day
after  day, galloping over their boundless plains, under a  burning sun, and performing
labors almost of an incredible description, he remarks:  " As the constant food of the Gau-
chos is beef and water, his constitution is so strong, that he is able to endure great fatigue,
and the distances he will ride, and  the number of hours he will remain on horseback,
would hardly be credited."  Sir Francis Head also brings his own personal experience in
proof of the correctness of the above statement.
  " When I first crossed the Pampas," he remarks, " I went with a carriage, and although
I had been accustomed to riding all my life, I could not at all ride with the Peons, (drivers
of the carriage,) and after galloping five or six hours, was obliged to get into the carriage ;
but after I had been riding for three or four months, and had lived upon  beef and water,
I found myself in a certain condition, which  I can only describe by saying that I felt no
exertion could kill me.   For a week I could daily be upon my horse before sunrise, could
ride till two or three hours after sunset, and  have really tired out ten or twelve horses.
This will explain the immense distances which people in South America  are said to ride,
which I am confident could only be done on beef and water."—(Rough Notes, <Scc, by Sir
Francis Head, p. 29.)
  There are numerous  facts of a similar kind which  might be quoted, but the fact that
an exclusive diet of animal food  is fully sufficient to sustain the physical powers, is too
well established to need further proof.
                                   (D.)—Page 26.
                    ALCOHOL AS A SOURCE OF ANIMAL HEAT.
  It is a matter of common observation, that alcohol escapes from the lungs in considera-
ble quantity in expiration, soon after it has been taken into the stomach, and we may be
permitted to doubt whether the negative  experiments  which  have hitherto been perform-
ed to ascertain  its existence in the perspiration, urine, and intestinal secretions, are suffi- 
268                                APPENDIX.
cient to justify the conclusion of its absence  from these  fluids.  From the strong attrac-
tion which alcohol has for water, there can be no doubt that it combines with this fluid
in the substance of all the tissues which it penetrates, circulating as it does through every
part of the system, and penetrating to every fibre.  Dr. John Percy, a late graduate of the
University of Edinburgh, states, in his Prize Essay, (London, 1839,) that after poisoning
dogs with alcohol, he has obtained it from distilling portions of the brain, urine, bile, and
liver.   There are  numerous cases on record, where alcohol has been detected in the ven-
tricles of the brain, as proved by inflammability as well as by the sense of smell.  (See Hare
on the Stomach, <f-c, pp. 293,  169,  170;  Edin. Med.  Journal, vol. xi. p. 293; Bacchus, p.
303, &c.)
  Magendie detected  spirit in the blood.  In the experiments above  alluded  to, of Dr.
Percy, a greater amount of alcohol was obtained from portions of the brain, than from an
equal weight of lung, liver, or any other organ.  The Reviewer of Liebig's Animal Chem-
istry  (British and  Foreign Medical Review, No. 28, 1842) seems to think that this fact
may  possibly explain the specific action of alcohol on the nervous system.
  Moreover, Millet, (Mem. Acad. Science, pour 1777, pp. 221,  360,) Trousset, Jurine, and
others, have shown, by their experiments, that carbonic acid is given off by the skin, and
oxygen absorbed, as in the lungs.  Jurine not only established the general fact, but he
examined the quantity of effect which  is produced  under the various circumstances to
which the body is exposed, either as influenced by external agents, or as connected with
the different states of the constitution ; and he seemed to have proved  that the amount
of carbonic acid was in exact  proportion to  the activity  of the circulation, and the other
functions  depending on it.  In confirmation  of this doctrine, it is admitted on  all  hands,
that  in cold-blooded animals the skin possesses the power of acting  upon the air.  In
some of the lower tribes the lungs are entirely wanting, yet they generate carbonic acid,
and consume oxygen, like the most perfect animals; and Bostock remarks that in ovipa-
rous quadrupeds, which are  furnisned with  lungs, the effect  produced upon the  air by
the external surface of the body, is nearly equal to that of the pulmonary cavities.—(Phys.
p. 190, vol. 2.)  If carbonic acid, then, be  given off by the skin, which is now generally
admitted, then we may with equal probability suppose that the oxygen of the air, combining
with  the  elements of alcohol  in the extreme capillaries, has  produced it; and hence it
follows, that we have equal evidence that the elements of alcohol, in the form of carbonic
acid, escape from the skin, as that they are eliminated through the lungs. If it be objected that
carbonic acid is given off from  the skin as a secretion, it may be replied, that there is no
satisfactory proof that such  is  not the case  in the lungs also.  The fact is, that both the
skin and  lungs give out water, carbonic acid, and saline and  animal substances, through
the operation of physico-vital laws, and there can be no question that alcohol is given off
in like manner.  But if we suppose, with Liebig, that the elements of alcohol combine
with  oxygen, throughout  the  various textures of the body, we are not then  obliged to
prove the absorption of oxygen from the skin, and we may assume that the carbonic acid
and  hydrogen, which escape from the cutaneous surface, owe their origin to similar causes
as when given off from the lungs.  The suggestion, therefore, that alcohol is burnt in the
lungs, giving off  carbonic acid and water, and serving to support the temperature of the
body, must be regarded as imperfectly established, if not contrary to positive observations.
Moreover, the opinion is advanced by Liebig, in his  Agricultural Chemistry, (Am. ed., p.
 113,) that "alcohol, and the  volatile oils  which are incapable of being assimilated,  are
exhaled through the lungs, and not through the skin."
   But admitting that Liebig's present hypothesis is true, does the moderate use of alcohol
 serve to  protect the system against  the effects of cold, and  is such  use therefore to be 
APPENDIX.
269
recommended 1  Liebig assumes that the oxygen of the arterial blood has a stronger attrac-
tion for the elements of alcohol  than for the matter of the tissues, and hence that the use
of alcohol puts a speedy limit to  the  change of matter  throughout  certain parts of the
body, the  arterial blood becoming venous, without the substance of the muscles taking
any share in the transformation.   "Now we observe," he  remarks,  "that the develop-
ment of heat in the body, after the use of wine, increases rather than diminishes, without
the manifestation of a corresponding amount of mechanical force.  A moderate quantity
of wine, in women  and  children unaccustomed to its use,  produces a diminution of the
force necessary for voluntary motions.   Weariness, feebleness in the limbs, and drowsiness,
plainly show that the force available for mechanical purposes, in other words, the change
of matter, has been diminished."
   If this  suggestion be well founded, then  certainly we may conclude, that a slight in-
crease of  animal temperature would  be dearly purchased  at the expense of weariness,
muscular  weakness, and drowsiness,  which must necessarily follow the use of alcoholic
drinks, on Liebig's hypothesis.  Indeed, his own views and reasonings  inevitably lead to
the conclusion, that animal heat  and  strength will be best  supported by such articles of
food as those which, by the conversion of their elements into the matter of the tissues, supply
the loss occasioned by molecular changes, while at the same time  they preserve the usual
degree of animal temperature.  Alcohol is not one of these; but they belong to that class
of highly nitrogenized compounds, which are fully described in the present work.
   The opinion, that alcohol is  useful in northern climates as a preservative against the
effects of exposure to cold  and  fatigue, we hold to be a popular error, and contrary to ex-
perience.  This agent excites the circulation temporarily, but this is quickly succeeded
by a  sense of lassitude  and depression.  By its use the system is deprived of that self-
resisting power, with which it appears to  be endowed  for extraordinary occasions, and
soon sinks under the depressing influence of cold.  The testimony of the Rev. W. Scores-
by, before the Committee of the House of Commons in 1834, is conclusive on this subject.
" My principal experience," says he, " has been in severely cold climates, and there it is ob-
servable that there is a very pernicious effect in the reaction after the use  of ardent spirits."
" I did not use them myself, and I  was better, I conceive, without the use  of them."  " I am
well assured that such beverages as tea and coffee, or I doubt not milk  and water, are in
every way superior both for comfort  and health, for persons exposed to the weather, or
other severity.  Spirits are decidedly injurious  in cold  climates.  The men who have
been assisted by such stimulus, have  been the first who were rendered  incapable of duty.
They became perfectly  stupid,  skulked  into different parts of the ship  to get out of the
way, and were generally found asleep.  In the case of a storm, or other  sudden difficulty,
I should most decidedly prefer the water-drinkers to those who were  under the influence
of any stimulant."
   Sir John Ross also testifies to the same effect.   Having,  when in the arctic regions, in
his own  person experienced  the beneficial  effects of abstaining wholly from  spirituous
drinks, he proposed to  his men  that they should try the  same experiment, which was
done with the most gratifying results.  He sums up the result of his observations in the
following  remarks: " When men under hard and steady labor are given their usual allow-
ance or draught of grog, or a dram, they become languid and faint losing their strength in
reality, while they attribute that to tin? continuance of their fatiguing exertions.  He who
will make the corresponding experiments on two equal boats' crews, rowing in a heavy
sea, will soon be convinced that the water-drinkers will far  outdo the others."
   " There cannot be a greater error," says Dr. Rush, " than  to suppose that  spirituous
liquors lessen the  effects of cold on the body.  On the contrary, they always render the 
270                                   APPENDIX.
body more liable to be affected and injured by cold.  The temporary warmth they produce
is always succeeded by chilliness."—Med. Inquiries.
  Numerous facts have  been collected within a few  years past to prove that, even in
cases of extreme suffering and exposure, the use  of alcoholic drinks may not be advan-
tageous.
  Two or three facts on this point are all that our space will permit us to give.   " In
the winter of 1798, a vessel was wrecked on an island  off the  coast of Massachusetts;
there were seven persons on board :  five of them resolved  to quit  the ship during the
night and seek shelter on shore.  To prepare for the attempt, four of them drank a quan-
tity of spirits, the fifth drank none.  They all leaped into the water :  one was drowned be-
fore he reached the shore; the other four came to land, and, in a deep snow and piercing
cold, directed their course to a distant light.   All that drank spirits  failed,  and stopped,
and froze, one after another ;  the man that drank none reached the house, and about two
years ago was still alive."—(Bacchus, p. 341.)
  " A few years ago a brig from Russia, laden with iron, ran aground upon a sand-bank
near Newport, R. I.   The master  was  desirous to unload and get her  off;  the  weather,
however, was extremely cold, and none could be found to undertake the task, as the ves-
sel was at a distance from the shore, covered with ice, and exposed to the full effect of
the wind and cold.   An  individual, a packet-master  of Newport,  who  abstained  from
the use of spirituous liquors, at length engaged to unload  the brig, and procure his  men
to do the work.  Six men  were employed  in the hold, which was  full of water.  They
began the work with the free but temperate  use of ardent spirits, supposing they would
need it then if ever ; but  after two hours labor they all gave out, chilled through.  After
having refreshed and warmed themselves, they proceeded to make another attempt, using
only cider through the day.  They  now succeeded better, but  still suffered much  from
the effects of the cold.  On the second day the men consented to follow the direction of
their employer,  and  drank nothing but milk  porridge, made rich, and taken  as hot as the
stomach would bear it.  Although the weather was equally as severe as  before, they were,
after this change in  their  diet, enabled to continue their work from four to seven hours at
a time, and then came up from it not at all chilled.  With this simple beverage,  handed
round every half hour, they continued their  work from day to day, with not one drop  of
intoxicating liquor, until the iron was all handed out and brought on shore.  Not one  of
them had a finger frozen."—(Bacchus, p. 340.)
  In the winter of 1825, two vessels were coming into the harbor of New York during
an extremely inclement night,  the temperature being several degrees below the freezing
point.  The captain of one of the vessels supplied his crew with warm alcoholic drinks
during their exposure, while that of  the other  dealt out nothing but hot  coffee to his  men.
The result was, that on arriving the  next morning, a large proportion of the crew of the
former vessel were severely frost-bitten, while that of the latter wholly escaped, not a sin-
gle man having suffered any injury from the  cold.  These facts  were  published in the
New York  papers at the time, and are doubtless within the recollection of many of our
readers.  For numerous  facts of a similar kind, see " Bacchus," Am. edit. chap. xvi.
  As to the ordinary and dietetic use of spirituous drinks, we fully coincide  in the follow-
ing opinion of Prof.  A. T. Thomson:—
  " It may  reasonably be asked, of what benefit is even the  temperate use of ardent
spirits to a healthful individual, who requires no additional excitement either of his men-
tal or his corporeal energies?   To this question no satisfactory reply can be offered ; and
notwithstanding the universal propensity of the human species  for  intoxication, and the
ingenuity exercised  in obtaining means to effect it, yet ardent spirits  can be justly regard- 
APPENDIX.
271
ed in no other point of view than  as  either a medicine or a poison."—(Thomson, Mat.
Med,, vol. 2, p. 124.)
                                  (E.)—Page 27.
                FORMATION OF FAT FROM SUGAR AND STARCH.
  That sugar is highly nutritive, is shown by  a variety  of facts.  " During the  sugar
season in the West Indies,"  says Wright,  (Med. Plants of Jamaica,) " every negro on
the plantations, and every animal, even the dogs, grow fat."   The  remark, however, of
Liebig, that " fat does not exist in maize ready formed," has been shown by Dumas to be
incorrect.
                   Views of Dumas as to the  Production of Fat.
  At  a meeting of the Academy of Sciences, at Paris, on the 24th of October, 1842, M.
Dumas stated, " that he and M. Payen had been for some time engaged in calculating the
fattening power of maize.  Agriculturists," he added,  "have  known for some time that
a bushel of maize, weighing from  22 to 24 pounds, furnishes two pounds of oil.
  "Accurate experiments have informed us  that maize contains, in truth, nine per cent.
of a yellow oil, 100 grammes  = three ounces and a half, which I have now the honor to
lay before the Academy; so  that, in  eating 26 pounds of maize, a goose receives 2 34
pounds of fatty matter.  It is not astonishing, therefore, that  the animal should furnish
3858 pounds, when we reckon that which it  contained originally.  Hay contains,  in the
state usually furnished to cattle, about 2 per cent, of fatty matter.
   " Our experiments  prove that  cattle whilst fattening, and milch-cows, always contain
less fat than the elements which they have consumed.   With  respect to the latter, how-
ever, the butter represents very nearly the proportion  of fatty principle contained  in the
food of the cow;  at least, so far as those elements are concerned which we have at pres-
ent studied.
   " Agricultural observations and chemical analyses agree in proving that the milch-cow
is the  most accurate and  most economical- means  of extracting the azotized and fatty
matters which are contained in pasturages."—(Comptes Rend.  Oct. 24, 1842.)
                             Liebig's Reply to Dumas.
   Since the  publication  of the above, Prof. Liebig has communicated a paper  to the
Chemical Society, which is published in the "London and Edinburgh Philosophical Jour-
nal" for July, 1843,  from which we make the  following extracts:—
   "According to my statement, the  fat originates from the non-nitrogenous constituents
of the food; let us suppose from sugar, then this must have undergone a chemical
change in conformity with my proposition.   The  formation of wax from honey,  which
contains none, in the body of the bee, of which, from  the  experiments of M. Grundlach
of Cassel, there can be no doubt, appears to remove every objection to the possibility of
such an action taking place.  I never had the least idea of  defending in  my book the
opinion, or even of  expressing it,  that the fat which was taken in the food of animals did
not contribute to increase the quantity of fat  in their bodies; but I was not aware  of any
supply of butter in the grass  which  is daily consumed by cows, or  of tallow, of lard, or
goose-fat in potatoes, barley, and oats ; in  the analyses of these substances as at present
given, they contain only waxy substances, and that in such small quantity, that I consider
the formation of fat could not be attributed to it.
   " These ideas concerning  the origin of fat in animal bodies took a new direction from 
272
APPENDIX.
a note which M. Dumas appended in the Annales de Chimie, (New Series, vol. iv. p. 208,)
to my treatise on the nitrogenous food of the vegetable kingdom; in this note M. Dumas
says, 'M. Liebig is of opinion that graminivorous  animals produce fat out of sugar  and
starch, while MM. Dumas and Boussingault consider it as a fixed rule, that animals, of what-
ever kind, produce neither fat.nor any other alimentary substance;  that they receive
from the vegetable kingdom all their aliments, whether it be sugar, starch, or fat'
  " Were the proposition of M. Liebig founded upon  fact, the general  formula of  chem-
ical equivalents of both  kingdoms, as defined by MM. Dumas and Boussingault,  would
be false.   But the Commission on Gelatine has dispelled all doubt that the animals which
eat fat are the only ones in which fat is found to accumulate in the tissues."
  " The  origin  of fatty compounds  in  animal bodies has, through  this note, become a
question of dispute.
  " The food which, according to the experience of physicians, has  a  decided influence
in the formation of fat  in animal  bodies, is  that which is richest in starch,  sugar,  and
other substances of a similar constitution.
  " Rice, Indian corn, beans, peas, linseed, potatoes, beets, are used in husbandry in large
quantities with  great effect  for fattening, that is, for  the  increase of flesh and fat   In
Bavaria beer is used as  a stimulating food for the increase of fat.
  " Whether much or little importance may  be  ascribed  to  the  universal experience of
husbandry, it is certain that animals which are fed  upon these  different  substances, under
certain conditions, (abundance of food, little  exercise, high temperature, &c.,) after some
time become  much fatter than before.  This fat proceeds from the food.  Rice, peas,  and
beans, have been carefully analyzed by different chemists.  Braconnot  found in Carolina
rice 0-13 per cent, of oil, in Piedmont  rice, 0-25 per cent; Vogel found in rice 1-05 per
cent
  " According to these  analyses, the organism received from  1,000 lbs. of Carolina rice
1-3 lbs.,  or 2-5 lbs., according to Vogel, 10J lbs. of fat.
  " Peas contain, according to Braconnot, 1'20 of a substance  soluble in  ether, which he
calls leaf-green,  (chlorophyll.)  The bean of the Phaseolus vulgaris, according  to the same
chemist, contains 0-70 of fat, soluble in ether; from  linseed 1*3 per cent
  "For  every 1,000 lbs. of peas or beans, the organism receives, according to  Braconnot,
12 lbs., according to  Fresenius, 21 lbs. of fat, and from as many beans, only 7  lbs. of
fat.
  " Beer, as far as I am aware of, contains no fat.  Fresenius  obtained from  the pulp of
the beet-root 067 per cent, of a substance soluble in ether.
  " According to further direct examinations made in  our laboratory, 1,000 parts of dried
potatoes gave 3-05 parts of a substance  soluble  in  ether.  This  substance possessed all
the properties of resin or wax; we will, however, assume that potatoes contain T^7 of
their weight of  fat.   Three one-year-old pigs, fattened with 1,000 lbs. peas and 6,825 lbs.
potatoes, fresh boiled, which are equal to 1638 lbs.  of dried potatoes, increased in weight
in 13 weeks from 80 to 90 lbs. each.  A  fully fattened pig averages  in weight from 160
lbs. to 170 lbs., and  after killing the  fat  weighs from 50 lbs. to 55 lbs.  The  three  pigs
have consumed  21 lbs. of  fat, contained  in the 1,000 lbs. peas, and 6 lbs. in the 1,638 lbs.
of potatoes ;  together, therefore, 27 lbs.   Their  bodies, however, contained  from 150 lbs.
to 165 lbs. of fat.  There  is  an increase of from  123 to 135 lbs. more fat than the food
contained. A pig one  year old weighs from 75 lbs. to 80 lbs.;  suppose it to contain 18
lbs. of fat, there still remains, leaving entirely out of the question the matters soluble in
ether contained  in the  excrements, 69 lbs. to 74 lbs. of fat;  the  production of which in
the organization cannot be doubted, and  whose formation remains to be  accounted for. 
APPENDIX.                               273
   " M. Boussingault's examinations concerning the influence of food on the quantity and
composition of the milk of the cow, furnish other more important grounds for the opinion
that animals  produce fat out of certain food, which is neither fat itself, nor contains
fat."—(Annul, de Chim. el de Phys. v. 71, p. 65.)
   "M. Boussingault's experiments correspond with universal experience, and I believe are
to be relied upon ;  it is, therefore, the more inconceivable to me that he has placed him-
self by the side  of those who support the opposite opinion.
   "A cow was fed  at Bechelbrunn during eleven days upon daily rations of 38 kilo-
grammes of potatoes, and therefore in eleven days upon 418 kil., also 375 kil. chopped
straw ;  in eleven  days, 41-25 kil.   In  these eleven days she gave  5461 litres of milk,
which contained 2284 gram, of butter.   As 418 kil. of fresh potatoes are equal  to 96'97
kil. of dry potatoes,  (potatoes contain, according to M. Boussingault, 768 water, and 23-2
solid matter,) further, as 1000 gram, potatoes  contain only 3 05 gram, of soluble matter,
and the straw, according  to experiments  made here, contains only 0-832 per cent, of a
substance soluble in ether, (a crystalline wax,) the  cow had, therefore, in eleven days
consumed 291 -4- 343 gram. = 634 gram, of substance,  soluble  in ether.   There was
contained in  this milk, however, 2284 gram, of fat.
   "In another case, in a  trial carried on in winter, the daily rations of the cow were for a
long time 15 kil. of potatoes and 7£ kil. of hay.  The quantity  of milk amounted  in six
days to 64-92 litres.   These 6492 litres of milk contained 3116 gram, of butter.  In six
days the cow consumed 90 kil. of fresh potatoes, equal to 1988 of dried ; in the same time
45 kil. of hay were consumed.  Suppose that the 1988 kil. of potatoes supplied  to the
cow contained 60  gram, of fat, the other 3056 gram, of butter must have originated from
the 45 kil. of hay.  According to this, hay must contain nearly 7 per cent of fat.  This is
easily ascertained by experiment.
   " From hay of the best quality, in the state in which it is consumed  by the cows, 1-56
per cent, of a substance  soluble was  obtained in the Giessen laboratory.  Taking the
hay to  contain  1-56  per  cent, of butter, the 45  kil. of hay  could supply the cow with
only  6*91 gram.; there remains, therefore, to discover  whence  the other 23*65  gram.
of butter originated, which M. Boussingault found  in the milk.  In  a note which  M.
Dumas has appended to  a communication of M.  Romanet (Comptes Rendus de VAcad.
des Sciences,  24  Oct.) the  following remarks are made:—
   "'Hay contains,  in the state in which it is consumed  by the cow, nearly 2 per cent, of
fatty matter.  We will show that the ox which is fattened, and the milch-cow, furnish a
smaller quantity of fatty material than the fodder contains.   As regards the milch-cow in
particular, the butter in  the milk corresponds  very nearly with the  quantity  of fatty
material contained in its food;  at  least, as far as in that of the food we have yet studied,
namely, hay and Indian corn, which last the cow does not usually obtain as food.'
   " After the  foregoing facts, which I could considerably  multiply, it will be very difficult
for MM. Dumas  and Payen to prove that the cow, for instance,  furnishes from  the fatty
matter contained in the  food only  the  corresponding  quantity  of butter.  The  proof of
the supposition, besides, that animals receive the fat in their food in the same state as it
is found  in their bodies, is  impossible.   Nothing  is easier  to decide than the  question
whether or not the butter which the cow produces is  contained  as butter in the hay.
   " Hay  gives,  after  exhaustion by ether, a green solution, and  on evaporation a  green
residue, with a strong agreeable smell  of hay, which  possesses no properties character-
istic of fatty substances.   This green residue consists of various  substances, of  which
one is of a waxy or resinous nature, known under the name of  chlorophylle ;  another in-
gredient of the same crystallizes from a concentrated ethereal solution in minute lamina?,

"                                        "    18 
274                                  APPENDIX.
and  is the crystalline wax which Proust  obtained from plums  and cherries, from  the
leaves of cabbages, from a species of Iris, and from grasses, and which is probably iden-
tical with the wax that Aveguin collected in such  large quantities from the leaves of the
sugar-cane.  M. Dumas has analyzed this substance, and found it to differ, both in com-
position and properties, from any of the known  fats ; in consequence of which  he  felt
justified in giving the name cerosine to this substance.   M. Fresenius obtained, by  means
of ether, from straw, and M. Jagle, of Strasburg, from the fresh plant, Fumaria Officinalis,
by means  of alcohol, a crystalline wax, very similar to cerosine.  The occurrence of wax
in the vegetable kingdom is very extensive, generally accompanied by chlorophylle.
  "Margaric or stearic acid, the principal  ingredient of the  fat of animals,  is neither
found in the seeds of corn, nor in herbs, nor in roots, which serve as food.  It is evident
that if the ingredients of the food soluble in ether are convertible into fat, margarine and
stearine must be formed out of wax or chlorophylle."
  M. Liebig then goes on to prove, that the chlorophylle is given out from the body un-
changed ;  and that the excrements of the cow contain as much of the substances soluble
in ether as has been  consumed in the food, and consequently  that these articles can
have no share in producing butter; but that this is produced from the other ingredients
of the food.  M. Liebig states that this opinion of Dumas is a  necessary consequence of
the exclusive hypothesis, that animals produce in  their organism no substances serving
as food, but that they receive all sustenance, whether sugar, starch, or fat, from the vege-
table kingdom.  These distinguished chemists, however, agree in relation  to the sub-
stances  which serve for the formation of blood.
  " In regard to the principle of M. Dumas," says Liebig,  "that the organism of an ani-
mal is not  able to produce any substance serving  as  food, it is equivalent to saying that
the organism produces nothing, but transforms it; that no combination takes place in its
body, when the materials are not present by  means of which the metamorphosis originates.
Thus the formation of  sugar of milk in the bodies of carnivorous  animals cannot take
place, for dog's milk, according to Simon, contains no sugar of milk.  Thus  also fat can-
not be produced  in their organism, because, besides fat, they do not consume  any non-
nitrogenous food.  But starch, gum, and sugar contain, even with their large quantity  of
oxygen, all the ingredients of fatty bodies; and the formation of butter in the body of the
cow, and of wax in that of the bee, leave hardly  any  doubt that sugar, starch, gum, or
pectine, furnish the carbon for the formation of the butter or of the wax.
   " It is further certain that the brain, the nerves, the blood, the fasces, and the yellow of
the egg contain a substance in considerable quantity,  with a  far smaller proportion of
oxygen than the known fatty acids, a substance which has not hitherto been found in the
food of graminivorous  animals.  The formation of cholesterine from fat cannot be sup-
posed without a  separation of oxygen or of carbonic acid and water; it must be derived
from a substance far richer in oxygen, in consequence  of a process of decomposition  or
metamorphosis,  which, applied to the case  of starch or sugar, explains their conversion
into fat in the simplest manner."—(Ed. and Lond. Phil.  Mag., July, 1843, p. 25-6.)
                                  (F.)—Page 28.
                   USES OF FAT IN THE ANIMAL ECONOMY.
  The hypothesis  of Liebig, that fat  does  not serve  for the renovation of any of the
animal tissues, requires further proof.  Muller states that the use of the fat consists part-
ly in contributing to preserve the proportions of the external form,  and partly in protect- 
APPENDIX.                                275
ing the internal parts, by virtue of its being a bad conductor of caloric; but that  it also
serves as a deposit of nutriment, which, during fasting, and also during wasting of the
body, is again easily dissolved by  being united with other animal matters, or by being con-
verted into a saponaceous state, and having thus again entered the circulation, is  applied
to the formation of other organic compounds.  When food is withheld, as in the case of
hybernating animals, fat is absorbed and carried into the blood, where it exists in a free
state, and we have detected it under these circumstances in considerable quantity ; in one
instance it abounded to that extent, as to give the blood the appearance of milk, on stand-
ing a few minutes. We also have observed the same phenomenon in a patient laboring
under violent hepatic disease.  In a few cases we have found fat in a fluid state  effused
into the abdominal cavity; also into the intestinal canal, where death had been occasioned
by inflammation of some of the abdominal viscera.  The experiments of Dumas seem to
prove that fat exists to some extent ready formed in the food, that it is absorbed by the chy-
liferous vessels and carried into the blood, and thence deposited in the cellular tissue, as well
as in every part of the animal economy, in small quantity.  But all blood contains more
or less fat; generally about 5 per cent.   Prout has described oil or fat as one of the three
great staminal principles from which all organized bodies  are essentially constituted, and
states that it exists, under  an infinite variety  of forms,  both in vegetables and animals.
 Elliotson also remarks, that "vegetables contain fatty substances, volatile as well as fixed."
 (Physiology,  p.  302, vol. 1.)  The same  author remarks, that "fat nourishes  the  body,
 when food cannot be procured or cannot be assimilated."   Although it may not be capa-
 ble of demonstration, we have no doubt of the correctness of Prout's assertion, that fat
 may be converted into most, if not all,  of the matters necessary for the existence of ani-
 mal bodies.   Though  it contains no nitrogen, is it not  possible that this may be obtained
 from the decomposition of the tissues, and  thus, by recombining with the elements of fat
 form not only the excretory matters, but also the substance of the solid  tissues?  There
 are some facts  which render it  probable that  alcohol,  under some circumstances, forms
 fat.  Spirit drinkers, it is well known, are not invariably lean; some of them, though un-
 able to take  or retain  but very small quantities of food, being exceedingly fat  and cor-
 pulent  We lately  noticed  this, particularly  in the case of a notorious gin-drunkard,
 whose appetite and digestive powers had  long since failed him;  but  in whose cellular
 membrane we found, on post-mortem examination, a deposit of fat nearly two inches in
 thickness.
    When we consider that the composition of human fat  is,
                       Carb.  .   . 79      Hyd.  . .  11      Oxygen  .  .  9 per cent.
       and of Alcohol     «    .   . 52       «   . .  13         «    .  . 34   "
 it may be difficult,  perhaps, to  conceive how such a transformation of elements takes
 place • but yet if we adopt the opinion that fat is ever formed in  the system, out of the
 elementary principles contained  in different articles of food, it is as easy to conceive how
 it may be produced from alcohol, as from other substances, whose  chemical composition
 bears no closer resemblance to fat than that of alcohol does.  We have no doubt that, by
 the present researches of Liebig and his  followers, this and  other kindred subjects will
 soon be better understood.

                                    (F 2.)—Page 34.
                                 IRON IN  THE BLOOD.
    The remark of Scherer, quoted by our author, that the presence of iron is not necessary
  to the color of the blood, is undoubtedly erroneous.   Berzelius found that the ashes of 
276                               APPENDIX.
the coloring  matter  amount to  1\ or 1£ per cent,  of the weight of the dried coloring
matter, and, in the blood  of the calf, to 2-2 per cent.  For example, from 400 grains of
dried coloring matter, he obtained five grains of ashes, which were composed of
                Oxide of iron.........   500
                Sulphate of iron........75
                Subphosphate of lime.......60
                Pure lime.........200
                Carbonic acid and loss.......16-5
                                                              1000

  The average  result of  Berzelius's  experiments is, that the coloring matter contains
rather more than one half per cent of its weight of metallic iron.  According to Lecannu,
however, the ashes of the red  pure coloring matter obtained by his new process from
human blood contain 10 per  cent, of oxide of iron.
  Now Engelhardt has shown that a solution of the coloring matter of the blood in water,
when impregnated with sulphureted hydrogen, after a time loses its color, becoming  first
violet, then green.  This is exactly the effect which the  same gas has  on iron, and the
experiment therefore, seems to prove that this metal contributes to the production of the
red color.   (Muller.)   As iron is not extracted from the blood by muriatic  and other acids,
which have a great affinity for metallic oxides, but none for the metals themselves, Ber-
zelius considers it probable that the iron exists in the blood in the metallic state, and not
in the state  of an oxide, although, as Muller remarks, there is no analogous instance
known  of a quinary  combination of a  metal with nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen,  and
oxygen.
  Mr. Rose, however, agrees with  Liebig in opinion, that  the  iron exists in the blood as
an  oxide, combined with  animal matter, and has detailed  a series of experiments (Pog-
gendorfs Ann. vii. 81) to prove that such is the fact.  Chemists are, therefore, divided
in opinion on this point: as facts appear to be equally balanced on either  side, further
researches are  perhaps needed  before the  question can be considered  as fully settled.
Gmelino pposes the view that the red color of the blood is principally  owing to iron, but
admits that it exists  in the  metallic state, combined with nitrogen, carbon, oxygen,  and
hydrogen in the coloring matter.
                                  (G.)—Page 36.
                    SALT AS A CONSTITUENT OF THE BLOOD.
  Liebig has well remarked, that the presence of free muriatic acid in the  stomach, and
that  of  soda in the blood, prove, beyond all doubt, the necessity of common salt for the
organic  processes; but the quantities of soda required by animals of different classes to •
support the vital processes are very unequal.
  " If we suppose," he adds, " that a  given  amount of blood, considered as a compound
of soda, passes in the body of a carnivorous  animal, in consequence of the change of mat-
ter, into a new compound  of soda, namely, the bile, we must assume, that in the normal
condition of health, the proportion of soda in the blood is amply sufficient to form bile
with the products of transformation.  The soda which has been used in the  vital pro-
cesses, and any excess of soda, must be expelled in the form of a salt, after being sepa-
rated from the blood by the kidneys.
  " Now if it be true that, in the body of an herbivorous animal, a much larger quantity of
bile is produced than corresponds to the  amount of blood formed or transformed in  the
vital processes—if the greater part of the bile in this case proceeds from the non-azotized 
APPENDIX.                               27T
constituents of the food, then the soda of the blood, which has been formed into organized
tissue, (assimilated or metamorphosed,) cannot possibly suffice for the supply of the daily
secretion of bile.  The soda, therefore, of the bile of the herbivora must be supplied  di-
rectly in the food : their organism must possess the power of applying directly to the lor-
mation of bile all the compounds of soda present in the food, and decomposable by the
organic process.  All the soda of the animal body evidently proceeds from  the  food, but
the food of the carnivora contains, at most, only  the amount of soda necessary to the
formation of blood ;  and  in most  cases, among  animals of this class, we  may assume
that only as much soda as corresponds to the proportion employed  to form the blood, .s
expelled in the urine. When the carnivora obtain in  their food as much soda as suffices
for the  production of their blood, an equal amount is  excreted in their urine ; when  the
food contains less,  a part of that which would  otherwise be excreted is stained by  he
organism.   All these statements are  unequivocally confirmed by the composition of the
          these different  classes  of animals."-(See  Liebig's  Organic  Chemistry, PP.
urine  in
163, 4, 5.)
                                 (H.)—Page 39.
                   WATER AS AN ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLE.
  It has been abundantly shown by Liebig, that water contributes to the greater part of


180 181  &c )   The spirit of dietetical reform has, however, been carried so far of late,
180, 181, &c;   ine  P              abstinence, have questioned whether  even  water
"sryt -  ai: —gly set'to worl to seuie  it b, expels in
2r own persons   Mr. Alcott states that he has succeeded  in abstaining entirely frnm
drk for tnore than a year, and during the whole period has  not expenenced foe  sensa-
?   JTh hat more than two or three times, and  then  after  copious  perspiration from
™k gfo hotTeate. But during this whole period his diet consisted "holly 0 vege
TbL  dnefly of a succulent kind, and it is probable that he swallowed as much flu d m
teform as he would have done had he lived as people generally do   Others have tried
this lotm as ne w                                       description they seldom felt
^rVZZTSlZtTZL^ of Blumenbach, that "although thirs, is a
Itent  lesfte.  d ink appears not very necessary to life and health; for many  warm-
blooded animal^mice,."ails, parrots, &c.-do no. drink at all; and some individuals of
blooded animat                     ^       th withou, ,ast,ng liquids. -
LtTmfn. ns a memler of foe Academy of Toulese who never thirsted, and passe
  tl  months of the  hottest summer without  drinking; and a woman who  passed 40
 whole  month, ol the                                ^  ^ fluM ^^ ,aken „„„
 days without hqu.ds o^.hirs■  ™°a*   f        6         ^ as ft appears  by aM.
 the system  in  24 hooj by a hea  J              conlai   on an ^^ about 5.6ths

 %£X%^^£« L ^ °f fluid dai,y-which i6  sufficient for
 alTb\dCndmu0s,,hbsSenmin considerable quantity in some  form, will no. be  doubted
   That fluid must ne xaKei                                      gk]n  and }    m
  .tan  we reflect that the average >™£^f ^    ma„ers which cannot be rc.
  24 hours is about 40 ounces  nd «ta t  this en                  ]ffis regularly supplied
  h^fo^r" UqSX al^ or drink, the  blood would speed!,, become so 
278                                APPENDIX.
thick  as  to be unfit for circulation, as in Asiatic cholera.   The absence of thirst shows
conclusively that the amount of fluid circulating in the vessels is sufficient  for the wants
of the economy ; for Dupuytren found by his experiments that thirst could be allayed by
injecting milk, whey, water, and other fluids into the veins.  But though the desire for
liquids is in general an indication of their propriety, yet care should be taken not to drink
largely during or immediately  after  eating, as thereby the gastric juice becomes too much
diluted, and the process of digestion  materially disturbed.   By the same cause, the  mu-
cous membrane becomes too much  relaxed,  its secretions changed, and  the stomach too
much distended to act  upon the food with  advantage.  " Experience," says Dr. Combe,
"proves that a moderate quantity of  liquid  during a meal is beneficial; and if we drink
little at a time, the  risk of exceeding the proper limit will be very small.  Dyspeptics,
however, ought to be on their guard against taking too much, as they are apt to be misled
by uneasy sensations in the region  of the stomach, which are  relieved for  the  moment,
but afterwards aggravated, by the  free  dilution of the food.  Those, also, who live well,
and are in the habit of taking wine  daily, whether  the  system  requires it or not,  often fall
into the error of excessive indulgence in liquids, to mitigate the thirst and irritability which
the unnecessary use of stimulus never fails to induce,  especially at night.  The continual
dilution, however, adds to the mischief, by increasing the debility of the stomach, and, as
pointed out in the chapter on Thirst, the only effectual remedy is to adapt the diet and
regimen to the real  wants of the constitution.  Except in disease, a continually recurring
thirst must proceed from mismanagement, and it is to  be satisfied by an  improved and
rational regimen, and not by  oceans  of fluid, which  only weaken the stomach still more,
and aggravate the craving they are meant to cure."
                                   (I.)—page 49.
                   IMPURE WATER AS A SOURCE OF DISEASE.
  We are satisfied that impure water is more frequently a cause of disease than is gene-
rally supposed.   It has been thought that decaying vegetable matter, when received into
the stomach, was entirely innoxious,  the antiseptic properties of the gastric  fluid cor-
recting all its injurious properties, and making that bland and innocent, which, if intro-
duced into the system in any other manner, would be productive of disease and death.
But  this opinion is evidently erroneous, for, in addition  to  the cases mentioned by our
author, an immense number of facts could be adduced to show that this is the frequent
cause of disease.  The British Army " Medical Reports" abound with such instances,
and our Medical Journals contain many facts of a similar kind.  The fever which carried
off so many of the United States mounted dragoons, a few years since, while on a visit
to the Pawnee settlements,  was believed to have been occasioned chiefly by  drinking
stagnant water, filled with decaying vegetable and animal matter.  Dr. Paris  states that
" it would be highly dangerous to deny the morbid tendency of water that holds putres-
cent animal or vegetable matter in solution, or which abounds in  mineral impregnation."
We know that  calculous affections are most  frequent in countries in which the water
abounds  in lime, and the same author informs us that "hard  water has a tendency to
produce disease in the spleen "of certain animals,  especially the sheep."  Galen ascribes
the Elephantiasis of Egypt  to the impure water of the Nile; an opinion which has been
adopted by Lucretius—
                    " Est elephas morbus, qui propter flumina Nili,
                     Gignitur JEgypto in Medio."— 
APPENDIX.
279
                                   (K.)—Page 52.
                   MINERAL WATERS OF THE UNITED STATES.
  No country in the world abounds in a greater variety of mineral waters than the United
States; and as they are now resorted to by all classes, not only for medicinal but dietetical
purposes, it is proper to notice them somewhat in detail.  The most  celebrated mineral
waters in our country are those of Saratoga, and of these, the Congress water maintains
the pre-eminence.   There are other waters whose medicinal properties equal, if they do
not surpass, those of this famous  spring; but  there are  certainly  none which  combine,
with these, so many  properties of a delightful beverage, causing them to be sought after
and drunk by all classes of people, for no other purpose than simply to gratify the palate
or to allay the thirst.  It is somewhat remarkable  that although this water possesses ac-
tive medicinal qualities, yet that,  except in  diseases attended  with inflammatory action,
it  seldom, if ever, occasions any unpleasant  consequences.   When  drunk, however, in
very large quantities, as it often is by persons who are  in the habit  of visiting the Springs,
even  to the extent of 30 or  40 tumblers before breakfast, it often causes serious  if not
dangerous effects, and in no case can such  immense quantities of fluid be imbibed with-
out doing more or less injury.   Even five or six tumblers, which is the minimum  quan-
tity drunk before breakfast, is  too  much for invalids generally to use, or for people in
health, though many  seem to drink a much larger quantity with impunity.  Dr. Steel re-
marks,  that  " from  one to three pints of the water, taken in the  morning before eating,
usually operates freely  as a cathartic, and at the same  time has a most powerful effect in
increasing the ordinary secretions of the kidneys;  but its operation, like that of all other
medicines, is much influenced by the condition of the  stomach and bowels at the time of
receiving it, as well as by the state of the system generally.
  " It is a cathartic possessing evidently interesting and important qualities, and as such, it is
recommended and used in all those chronic diseases where cathartics and gentle aperients
are indicated; and such are its peculiar effects, when judiciously administered, that it may
be persevered in for almost any length of time, and a daily increased evacuation from the
bowels produced, without debilitating the alimentary canal, or in  any way impairing the
digestive  powers of the stomach; but, on the contrary,  the spirits, appetite, and general
health will be improved and invigorated."
  Dr. Steel recommends that about three  pints  should be taken an hour or two before
breakfast in the morning, and  followed by a proper share of exercise,  in order to produce
a cathartic effect; but where it would require more, he advises to  add a tea-spoonful or
two of Epsom salts to the first tumbler.  It should not be drunk at all during the remain-
der of the day by those who wish to experience the full benefit of its  use ; and  the same
writer, who, from a long residence at the Springs, had  abundant experience on the sub-
ject, remarks, that " it would be much better for those whose  complaints render  them fit
subjects for its administration,  if the fountain should be locked up and no one suffered to
approach it after the hour of nine or ten in the morning."
  One gallon of this water, according to the same writer, contains as follows :—

                Chloride of sodium......3850  grains.
                Hydriodate of soda......     3-5  grains.
                Bi-carbonate of soda......8982 grains.
                Bi carbonate of magnesia.....95 778 grains.
                Carbonate of iron......     5075 grains.
                Silex.........     I'5  &&ms-
                Hydro-bromate of potash, a trace.
                                                         597-943 
               Carbonic acid gas.....311 cubic inches.
               Atmospheric air      .....     7 cubic inches.

               Gaseous contents.....318 cubic inches.


                           IODINE SPRING, SARATOGA.

 One gallon of the water contains—

               Chloride of soda.....        187 grains.
               Carbonate of magnesia.....75 grains.
               Carbonate of lime.....         26 grains.
               Carbonate of soda......2 grains.
               Carbonate of iron......      1 gram-
               Iodine     ........      3-5 grains.

                                                           294-5 solid contents.

               Carbonic acid gas.....336 cubic inches.
               Atmospheric air  .                 •          4 cubic inches.

                                                       340 gaseous contents.
                                                                         (Emmons.)

                          SANS  SOUCI SPRING, BALLSTON  SPA.

  A wine gallon contains of—

                Chloride of sodium......1437 grains.
                Bicarbonate of soda.....12-6 grains.
                Carbonate oflime......43-4 grains.
                Carbonate of iron......      5-95 grains.
                Hydriodate of soda......      1'3 grain.
                Silica........      1  grams.

                              Total.....247-15 grains
                                                                       (Steel.)

  The Salt Sulphur Springs of Virginia contain sulphate of lime,  sulphate of magnesia,

sulphate of soda, carbonate  of lime, carbonate of magnesia, chloride of sodium, chloride

of magnesium, chloride  of calcium, iodine, sulpho-hydrate  of sodium  and  magnesium,

sulphur  in combination  with  a peculiar organic matter, per-oxide of iron, sulphureted

hydrogen,  nitrogen, oxygen, carbonic acid, &c.
  The White Sulphur Water of  Greenbriar county, Va., contains in one  quart—

                 Carbonate of lime......12  grains,
                 Sulphate of magnesia......5 grains.
                 Sulphate of lime.......2 grains.
                 Muriate of lime.......H  grains.
                 Iron.........1  grain.
                 Sulphur (precipitated)......      i  grain.
                 Sulphureted hydrogen
                 Carbonic acid

                                                              2U grains.

   For further information on the mineral waters of the United States, see Bell " On Baths

 and Mineral Waters."
                                     (L.)-p. 57.

                             PURIFICATION OF SUGAR.

  It is a well-known fact, that many vegetable substances undergo important alterations
in their chemical constitution  and medicinal properties, if they be exposed for a long time
to a heat of 212° ;  and  hence, in the preparation of extracts and inspissated juices of
plants, forms of apparatus are sometimes employed in which the evaporation  is carried
on in close vessels connected  with an air-pump, and in which a partial vacuum, measured 
APPENDIX.
281
by a barometer-gauge, may be established.   This principle  of evaporation at low tem-
peratures, by removal of the atmospheric pressure, was formerly introduced with much
advantage  into the manufacture of sugar, as the true crystallizable sugar is converted
into the uncrystallizable sugar (treacle) with great rapidity at  the temperature of bailing
sirup, and  is hence, to a great extent, lost to the manufacturer.  By later improvements,
however, in the mode of applying  heat, the necessity of evaporating the sirup in vacuo
has been completely obviated.  To  refine sugar, it is redissolved, and the  liquor, having
been  cautiously evaporated to  the necessary degree, is poured into  cones of unglazed
earthenware, which are  placed  on  their summits, the orifice in which is  stopped by a
plug.  When,  by cooling, the sirup has  crystallized, during which the mass is contin-
ually stirred about to render the crystals very minute and close, the plug below is re-
moved, and the colored liquid drains out; the last portions of  it being removed by laying
a sponge moistened with some spirit, or with a clear sirup, on the sugar at the base of the
cone, and allowing the pure liquid to filter through.  If a strong sirup be laid aside  in a
warm place, it crystallizes in very beautiful oblique rhombs,  which constitute  the sugar-
candy of commerce.

                                    (M.)—p. 66.
                         FARINACEOUS FOOD IN DISEASE.
   Most of the farinaceous articles enumerated under the head of "The Amylaceous Ali-
 mentary Principle" are composed in a great degree of starch,  which, we are told, is con-
 verted, by digestion, into gum and  sugar, the latter being probably absorbed.  Though we
 have been in the habit, for many years, of using these articles in our practice, in most cases
 of disease, and especially in derangement of the  digestive organs, we have latterly seen
 much reason to doubt whether they are as well  adapted for the  treatment of  many cases
 in  which they are usually prescribed, as a preparation of animal food.  In cases of Cholera
 Infantum,  for example, a jelly prepared from the sounds of the cod, or from Russia isinglass,
 or calves'  feet answers far  better than any kind of farinaceous food, which passes the ali-
 mentary canal, apparently, entirely undigested. The same is true in some forms of dyspepsia.
 This, however, is in accordance  with the well-known fact, that  animal food  is of easier
 digestion than vegetable, as it requires less change to assimilate it to the wants of the system.
                                    (N.)—p. 68.
                          STARCH IN WOOD AND BARK.
  In times of great scarcity, and where famine threatens, it is well to know how to pre-
pare a nutritious substance, which may go under the name of bread, from -the beech and
other woods destitute of turpentine.  According to Prof. Autenreith, every thing soluble
in water is first removed by frequent maceration and boiling; the wood is then to be
reduced to a  minute state of division, not merely into fine fibres, but actual powder; and
after  being repeatedly subjected to heat in  an oven, is ground in the usual manner of
corn.  Wood thus prepared acquires the smell and taste of corn-flour.  It is, however,
never quite white.   It agrees with corn-flour in not fermenting without the addition  of
leaven, and in this case some leaven of corn-flour is found to answer best.  With this it
forms a perfectly uniform and spongy bread; and  when thoroughly baked, and has much
crust, it is by no means unpalatable.  Wood flour, also, boiled in water, forms a thick,
tough, trembling jelly, which  is very nutritious, (Bell.)  Dr. Turner states that fungin
is nutritious in a  high  degree, and yields  nitrogen gas when digested  in dilute nitric
acid.   Its composition would seem to be very analogous to animal substances. 
282                                APPENDIX.
                                  (O.)—Page 72.
                    THE ACIDULOUS ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLE.
  The propriety of admitting  the existence of an acidulous  alimentary  principle may
perhaps admit of doubt.  If it be said that vegetable acid is contained in our food,  it may
be replied that lime, potash, and other inorganic elements, are likewise contained in it, and,
as far as  we can judge, are as  essential to the maintenance of health.  That it has  al-
ways been used by man, and is contained in many of the fruits employed by him as food,
is not conclusive, because the first may be said of narcotic substances, and the  latter of
organic principles,  not alimentary.  We  speak now of pure acetic acid.   Vinegar, as it
exists in  the shops, contains gum, starch, sugar, gluten, &c, and  therefore is  strictly en-
titled to rank among  alimentary substances.  Chloride of soda, in  the form  of common
salt  appears to be  as necessary for the preservation of health as vegetable  acid,  which
in the northern latitudes cannot be obtained, at least during a greater portion of the year.
Indeed, it may well be doubted whether there are any facts which would warrant the be-
lief that in cold climates acids  are necessary to health; while in tropical countries, the
abundant supply which nature has furnished in the fruits and vegetables, seems to  justify
the belief that under  such circumstances they perform an important office in the animal
economy, perhaps  as condiments.  The fact, moreover, that pure  vegetable acids " suffer
no chemical change in the system, except combining with a base," would seem to  weigh
against the opinion that they are alimentary principles.  The absence of acids in  our food
will not necessarily produce scurvy, provided the other conditions of health are present
especially pure  air, and a due proportion of vegetable and animal food.
                                  (P.)—Page 72.
                                    VINEGAR.
  In the United States, vinegar is chiefly made from cider.  In families it is made from
cider which has become too sour,  and from the daily remains of the family consumption.
These are put into a barrel, standing in a warm place, along with some good vinegar, or
with what is called the mother of  vinegar, and which  seems  to act as a ferment.  It re-
quires generally several weeks to  form strong vinegar.  When made on a large scale from
cider, the liquor is placed in barrels, with their bung-holes open, which are exposed  dur-
ing the summer to the heat of the sun.  Perfect acetification requires about two years.  The
progress of the fermentation, however, must be watched, and, as soon as perfect vinegar has
formed, it should be racked off into  clean barrels.  Without this precaution, the acetous
fermentation would be followed by the putrefactive,  and the vinegar be spoiled.  Early
cider is not so good for conversion into vinegar as the late, in consequence of the abun-
dance of malic acid which the former contains; for, as is  well known, the malic acid is
not the subject-matter of the acetous fermentation, but the alcohol which it contains  as a
vinous liquor.
  Vinegar may be clarified, without injuring its aroma, by throwing  about a tumbler-full
of boiled milk into from 50 to 60 wine gallons of the liquid,  and stirring the  mixture.
This operation has the effect, at the same time, of rendering red vinegar pale.
  Vinegar is also sometimes made in New 'England from the sap  of the sugar maple.
Chaptal states, that if two pints of brandy be carefully mixed with about four drachms of
yeast and a little starch, there will be produced an extremely strong  vinegar, which  will
begin to form about the fifteenth day.  Vinegar may also be made by  means of the starch 
APPENDIX.                                 283
and ferment without the alcoholic liquor ; but in this case the process will be longer, and
the product much weaker.
  The acetous fermentation is not always necessary for the production of acetic acid.
Sugar, for example, mixed with water in which the gluten of wheat has fermented, will
be converted into vinegar without access of air, and without  any appearance of fermen-
tation.  Beer and cider, if long kept, become sour, although the air be carefully excluded,
and  an infusion of malt becomes acid in a few days under the same circumstances,
(Bache.)  Vinegar is sometimes adulterated with sulphuric, muriatic, or nitric  acid. Sul-
phuric acid may be detected by acetate of baryta, which throws down sulphate of baryta,
distinguishable from the malate and tartrate of the same base by its insolubility in nitric acid.
Muriatic acid is shown by a precipitate being  formed by nitrate of silver, insoluble in
nitric acid, but perfectly soluble in water of ammonia.  To detect nitric acid, add a little
common salt, saturate by adding  carbonate of potassa, and evaporate to dryness.  Upon
the dry residue pour equal parts of sulphuric acid and water, through which some gold-
leaf has been diffused,  and boil the mixture.  If nitric acid be present, nitro-muriatic acid
will be generated, in consequence of the  decomposition of the common salt, and the gold-
leaf  will be dissolved.
                                    (Q.)-p. 76.
                    THE ALCOHOLIC  ALIMENTARY PRINCIPLE.
  It may be  doubted whether any substance can properly be called an alimentary prin-
ciple, which, if introduced into the system, is not capable in some degree of nourishing it,
and repairing its losses.
  Liebig remarks, that " if we hold that  increase of mass in the animal body, the develop-
ment of its organs,  and the supply of waste,—that all this is dependent on the blood, that
is, on the ingredients of the blood, then only those substances can properly be called nu-
tritious, or considered as food, which are capable of conversion into blood."  If we follow
this definition, then it is pretty evident that alcohol cannot be admitted to be an alimentary
principle ;  for  most  certain  is it that it  contains nothing adapted to the formation of
blood, or which is  essential  to the constitution of the organized tissues.   But  then its
chemical composition  resembles  that of  other non-nitrogenized  substances which  are
recognised as food, as fat, starch, gum, and sugar; may it not then serve, like them, as an
element of respiration, according to Liebig's hypothesis?  It may not be an easy matter to
prove that it  does not, and yet we are inclined to believe that the statement of Liebig, that
it is not given off by any of the secretions or  excretions, remains yet to be proved.   More-
over, the doctrine that the non-nitrogenized substances serve onlyzs elements of respiration,
can, as yet, be regarded in no other light than that of an hypothesis.
  In Liebig's " Organic Chemistry of Agriculture," p. 290, we are told that " the direct
formation of carbonic acid  is the last stage of its oxidation,  and  that it is preceded by a
series of changes, the last of which is a complete combustion  of the hydrogen. Aldehyde,
acetic acid, formic acid, oxalic acid, and  carbonic acid form a connected chain of products,
arising from the oxidation of alcohol; and the successive changes which this fluid expe-
riences from  the action of oxygen may be readily traced in them."  If this be so, then it
would appear  that  all these substances must, after alcohol is drunk, be found  in the
system ;  a supposition which is far from being probable.
  We believe that facts will hardly sustain  these views,  which seem to have been lately
adopted  in order to support a new hypothesis.  Dr. Percy, of Edinburgh, (see Appen-
dix D.,) has  detected alcohol in the blood, the urine, the bile, and in the substance of 
284                               APPENDIX.
most of the organs : Magendie has also detected it in the blood.  From the strong odor
of alcohol in the breath after this substance has been drunk, there can be little doubt that
a very large proportion of it is given off by pulmonary exhalation, though under some
circumstances,  as  we have  suggested  in another place, a part of it may, perhaps, be
converted into fat.
  That animal heat is promoted to any extent by the combustion of alcohol in the lungs
we think still more questionable, for experience has proved that, other things being equal,
a person will perish sooner when exposed  to severe cold, if he uses alcoholic drinks,
than if he  entirely abstains  from them.  For proof of this, we refer to facts contained in
the 16th chapter of " Bacchus," some of which will be found in another part  of this Ap-
pendix, (D.)  There is, it is true, a popular delusion on  this subject, for  if "coachmen
and others take alcoholic drinks in cold weather to keep them warm," they also take them
in hot weather to keep them  cool; but  in neither case can  the  custom be quoted as an
argument in favor  of such use, or of the justness  of  the views on which such use is
founded.
                                   (R,)—p. 78.
              CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOL IN THE UNITED STATES.
  A great  change has taken  place within a few years past in relation to the  drinking
habits of the people of the United States;  and if the signs of the times are  not entirely
deceptive, we may venture the belief that the period is not far remote when the common
use of intoxicating drinks as a beverage, will be entirely unknown.  The need of such a
reform will be perceived from the statement of a few facts.  In 1830, there were over
72,000,000 gallons of ardent spirits consumed in  the United States, by a population of
not quite 13,000,000, which would give five and a half gallons for each individual, with-
out taking into the account wine, beer, or cider.  The quantity of wine  consumed during
the same year was about 3,000,000 gallons.   In 1840, the amount of home-spirits con-
sumed was about 36,343,000 gallons ; of foreign spirits, 2,500,000; and of wines, 4,000,000
gallons; making a total of 42,843,000 gallons, which is a reduction in  ten  years of over
57 per cent.  Within the last three  years the reduction has gone on with still greater
rapidity.
                                  (S.)—Page 80.
                              AMERICAN LIQUEURS.
  A great variety of Liqueurs is manufactured in this city from rectified whiskey, sugar,
and essential oils, and  drunk  in confectionery shops and  other  similar establishments.
The greatest proportion of these fascinating liquors is consumed by females, who would
think it highly ungenteel, if not decidedly vulgar, to be seen drinking gin or brandy ; and
yet the effects of the former are quite  as  pernicious.  Some of the flavoring ingredients
are also poisonous, as the oil of bitter almonds, &c.; and we have known many instances
where  the  health was  entirely ruined by their use, and the  foundation laid  for fatal
diseases.
                                  (T.)—Fage 87.
                                    BUTTER.
  Dr. Bell  states, (on "Regimen,"  cj-c, p. 286,)  that during a period of four years, up-
wards of 600,000 pounds of butter have been, on an average, exported annually from the 
APPENDIX.                                285
United States to the West Indies and South America.  For exportation to hot climates, it
should  be  clarified before  being salted.   For this purpose it is put into a lipped vessel
and placed in another of water, which is to be gradually heated till the butter is melted.
It is  to be  kept melted for some time,  to allow its albuminous or caseous particles to
settle ; the clear melted butter is then to  be poured off from the dregs, and  when suffi-
ciently cooled it is salted.   This clarified butter is paler than  the fresh, and it acquires
nearly the consistence  of  tallow.   The best butter  in the New York market is made at   j
Goshen, in the  state of New York.  The average produce per cow of the  butter  dairies
is estimated at 168 pounds a year.  To preserve butter, it should be packed close in a clean
scalded firkin, and covered over with strong brine, in which a small  quantity of saltpetre
is dissolved.
                                   (UO—Page 89.
                        ADULTERATION OF VOLATILE OILS.
  The volatile oils are often adulterated with fixed oils, resinous substances, or alcohol.
The fixed oils may be discovered by the permanent stain which they leave on paper when
exposed to heat, while that from volatile oil is entirely dissipated.  Fixed oils and resins
may be detected by distillation, which leaves them behind.   If  alcohol be present, the oil
becomes milky when agitated with water, and after the separation of the liquids, the wa-
ter occupies more space, and the oil less, than before.   Sometimes oils of little value are
mixed with  those  more  costly.  In this  case, the taste  and smell are the best means of
detecting the fraud.—(Wood df Bache.)
                                   (V.)—Page 94.
                               POISONOUS CHEESE.
  In  several instances we have known cheese, sold by our grocers, produce poisonous
effects, without any peculiarity in its appearance, taste, or smell, to indicate such a prop-
erty.  The symptoms produced by it were those which attend a violent attack of cholera
morbus, indicating severe gastro-enteritic irritation.  In  one case, several  families who
purchased portions of the same cheese were attacked during the same night, after eating
small quantities  of it with their supper, and in some of them the effects lasted  for some
days.  They all, however, eventually  recovered.  Dr. Christison, who has  thoroughly
investigated this subject, remarks, that in some of the  poisonous cheeses noticed, " the
curd, before being salted, is left for some time in a heap to ferment, in consequence of which
it becomes sour, and afterwards ripens faster.   But if the  milk  has been  curdled  with
vinegar__if the acid liquor formed while  it ferments is not carefully drained off—if the
fermentation is allowed to go too far—if too little salt was used to  preserve the curd, or if
flour  has been  mixed  with the  curd, the subsequent ripening or decaying of the cheese
follows a peculiar course, and a considerable excess of caseic acid is formed, as well as
some sebacic acid."—(Christisonon Poisons.)
L_ 
286
APPENDIX.
                             (W.)—Page 108.
            SALT MANUFACTURE IN THE UNITED STATES.

Table showing the relative strength of the different brines from which salt is
                   manufactured in  the United Stales.
          At  Nantucket,  350 gallons of sea-water give a bushel of salt.
          Boon's Lick, (Missouri,)  450  gallons brine give    do.
Conemaugh, (Penn.,)	300	do.	do.
Shawneetown, (Illinois,)	280	do.	do.
Jackeon, (Ohio,)	213	do.	do.
Lookhart's, (Miss.,)	189	do.	do.
Shawneetown, (2d Saline,)	123	do.	do.
St. Catherine's, (U. C.)	120	do.	do.
Zanesville, (Ohio,)	95	do.	do.
Kenawha, (Va.,)	75	do.	do.
Grand River, (Arkansas,)	80	do.	do.
Illinois River, (do.,)	80	do.	do.
Muskingum, (Ohio,)	50	do.	do.
Onondaga, (N. Y.,)	41 to 45	do.	do.
  The quantity of salt manufactured in the United States in 1829 was 3,804,229 bushels,
of which the Onondaga springs furnished 1,291,220 bushels.  In 1835 the amount of salt
made from these springs  was 2,222,694 bushels.  The amount of brine raised from the
Saline wells at Syracuse, Salina, Liverpool, and Geddes is 44,760 gallons in an  hour, or
1,074,240 gallons in 24 hours.  This  would give a total of 322,272,000 gallons  of brine
annually, and  allowing fifty gallons of brine to a bushel of salt, would yield 6,445,400
bushels.  Upwards of 7,000,000 bushels  of salt are annually manufactured in the United
States ; 2,000,000 of these at the Kenawha springs.
  The quantity of salt annually  consumed by each  individual in France has been esti-
mated at 19£ pounds, and in England 22 pounds, which would require a total of 161,000
tons.  The United  States import salt to the amount  of about 1,000,000 dollars annually.
From the increasing demand for American  salted provisions abroad, there is no doubt
that a much larger amount will hereafter be required.
                                 (X.)—Page 111.
                             IS MAN OMNIVOROUS?
  The physical organization of man proves that he is  destined  for a mixed kind  of
aliment  His organs of mastication hold an intermediate place between those of the car-
nivorous and herbivorous animal;  twelve of the teeth, namely, the canine and lesser mola-
res, corresponding to those of the former, and twenty,—the incisors and larger molares,—
to those of the latter.  If wre regard the organs of digestion, we also find that he holds a
medium place between the carnivorous  and herbivorous  tribes, though more closely ap-
proximating the latter.  In the former, we  find the intestinal canal very short,—in the
latter very long ; with a large caecum, and pouched colon.  If, however, we consider the
length of the canal, in reference to that of the body, excluding  the limbs, we shall find that
it bears, in man, the proportion of 12 to 1;  which is somewhat greater than exists in the
simiec or ape tribe;  but  then if we regard its capacity, we shall  find that it is much less
in the former.   This organization  was doubtless designed by'infinite wisdom, to enable
man to inhabit every part of our globe; which he evidently could not have done,  had he
been created to subsist on animal or vegetable food alone.   In  the following very judicious
remarks of Dr. Dunglison, we fully coincide:—
  " Although man is so organized as to be adapted for living  on both animal and vegeta- 
APPENDIX.                             287
ble substances, it  is not  indispensable  that he should be enabled to obtain both.  In the
frozen regions of  the north, vegetable food fails him ;  whilst in the torrid regions, animal
food, if it can be  obtained in due quantity, is not relished.  Accordingly, we find nations
and  tribes  which subsist on animal  food almost exclusively, and others  by which an
animal diet is rarely, if at all, employed.
  "It is in temperate climes that man is truly omnivorous.  The products of both animal
and vegetable life are there in due abundance, and equally laid under contribution.  But
even  in  these climes, the young of the human family are, in  the earliest period of their
existence, wholly  carnivorous, that is, so long as they are restricted to the breast; and
there is no doubt  whatever, that if from infancy man, in the temperate regions, were con-
fined to an animal banquet it would be entirely in accordance  with his nature, and would
probably  develop  his mental and corporeal energies  to  as great a degree as the mixed
nutriment on which he  usually subsists.  The same may be said of an exclusively vege-
table diet which  some,  indeed,  suppose to have been  his original food,  and, as we have
seen, to be most in accordance  with his nature.
  " These remarks, however, apply only to the case in which the animal or the vegeta-
ble substance has  been  employed exclusively from birth, or until the system has become
habituated  to it.   It is  far otherwise if we lay aside  our mixed nutriment, and restrict
ourselves wholly  to  the products of the one or the other kingdom.  Scurvy supervenes,
whether  the restriction be to the vegetable or to the animal—certain experiments instituted
by Magendie show clearly that  omnivorous man,—omnivorous, that is,  from nature  and
habit—requires variety of articles of diet. This  he lays down as an important hygienic
precept  but it is of course inapplicable to those tribes  that have been accustomed  from
birth to  supply the wants of the body by a diet exclusively animal or vegetable."—(Hu-
man Physiology, vol. 1, p. 213.)
                                  (Y.)—Page 121.
           MILK AS AFFECTED BY THE DIET AND REGIMEN OF COWS.
  A greater portion of  the milk with which the inhabitants of New York have been sup-
plied for many years past, has been obtained from cows fed on distillery slops, and crowded
together in large numbers in filthy pens, without any regard  to ventilation or cleanliness.
Thus shut up, without proper exercise or pure air, the milk  is necessarily diseased, and
is the cause of extensive mortality among young children and infants.  Besides these un-
healthy slops, decayed vegetables, and the sour and putrid offals and remnants of kitchens,
are gathered up for the food of these animals; the consequence of which is, that they
become diseased, and the lactescent secretion partakes of the  same impure and unhealthy
character.  A very valuable work on milk, by R. M. Hartley, Esq., of New York, was
published in 1842, in which  this subject is treated in a very masterly and scientific man-
ner.  To this, the reader is  referred for a vast fund of information, not elsewhere  to be
found.  From this work we gather, that when  public attention was first called to this
subject, about the year 1830, there were 500 dairies in the vicinity of the cities  of  New
York  and Brooklyn, averaging about 20 cows each, and the whole number, excepting five
or six, that were  supplied with  brewers' grains, were fed on distillery slops.  Some of
these  distilleries convert from 700 to 1,000 bushels of grain into whiskey daily, and sup-
ply slop for at least 2,000 cows, besides fattening some hundreds of swine on the premises.
  The cows are kept  upon  this refuse fluid, called slop, because it  yields more milk at a
cheaper rate than any other kind  of food.  When the cows become so much diseased as 
288                                APPENDIX.
to be no longer profitable for the dairy, they are sent to the cattle market, and their place
supplied by fresh stock.   Although the physicians of New York have testified, in a body,
to the extreme unhealthiness of such milk to young children, and although the newspa-
pers have teemed with  articles, calling public attention  to the subject, people, generally,
are very indifferent to what kind of milk they use in  their families; and  the public au-
thorities have not  deemed the matter of sufficient consequence to give it the slightest
notice.  We have  inspectors of flour, of leather, of tobacco, of meat, fresh and salted, of
fish, and almost every other article of merchandise, but for milk, which is the chief article
of sustenance to  the young, no inspection is provided; and  to judge  from  the  apathy
hitherto displayed  in relation to it, we have no good reason to expect such a salutary
regulation.
  The following Tables show the  Specific Gravity, Characteristics, and per  centage of
Cream and Curd, by measure, contained in different Samples of Milk.
        TABLE I.
MILK OF COUNTRY DAIRIES.
SAMPLES OF MILK.	SPE. GRAV.	CHARACTERISTICS.	PER CENT. OF CREAM	PER CENT. OF CURD.
Number 1	1030	Alkaline	10	12
2	1029	"	10	11
3	1028	cc	9	9
4	1026	((	8	9
5	1027	cc	8	10
" 6	1026	Acid	7	9
          TABLE II.
MILK OF DISTILLERY-SLOP DAIRIES.
SAMPLES OF MILK.	SPE. GRAV.	CHARACTERISTICS.	PER CENT. OF CREAM	PER CENT. OF CURD.
Number 7	1013	Acid	3i	4
8	1013		31	5
" 9	1015		4	4
10	1016		5	5
11	1016		4i	5
12	1024		6	8
                                     REMARKS.
  These results show, that while country milk is alkaline, slop-milk is acid, and contains,
moreover, less than half the nourishment of that which is produced from grasses and other
natural  food.  Again, the  nutrient properties of milk consist chiefly of oil and albumen;
but so deficient is slop-milk of these essential elements, that  it  is incapable of producing
butter or cheese.  Mr. Hartley remarks, that "a coagulum of sufficient  consistence and
cohesiveness for  cheese-making cannot be obtained  from it; and while  the milk of one
good cow, properly managed, will afford one pound of butter  daily, the milk of the largest
dairy  that is fed  on slop  alone will  not by the ordinary process of churning, yield one
ounce.  It is true, that when  the milk is set to cream, a thin white pellicle or scum rises
to the surface; but when churned it does not collect and coalesce so as to compose butter,
but, by the agitation, is diffused through the liquid in the form of froth.  If then it were
pure,  and  possessed no deleterious properties, it does not afford the nourishment that is 
APPENDIX.                                289
requisite for the growth and sustenance of a child."—In addition to this, the slop-milk is
often drugged, and always diluted.
  In 1838, it was  computed that 750,000 quarts per day, or 27,375,000 quarts of milk
per annum, were consumed in the cities of New York and Brooklyn, with a daily deficiency
of 10,000 quarts, which could not be supplied, even with the aid of water; as the dilution
was already carried as far as the mixture, if it bare the appellation of milk, would warrant.
At that time, the price averaged about six cents per quart, which would produce the an-
nual sum of $1,642,250 for milk for these cities.   It has also been estimated that  the price
of butter, which was then 25 cts. per lb., did not yield the farmers of Dutchess  and Put-
nam 1J cts. per quart for  their milk, with the loss of their  labor to make it and send it to
market, which may be reckoned at 2 cts. per lb.
  There is now supplied to the city of New York, by the  New York and Erie  Railroad
alone, which is extended to  Middletown, 25,000 quarts of pure milk daily, besides cream
in considerable quantities, butter, cheese, &c.;  but the supply is far from being equal to
the demand.  As  milk does not now yield the  farmer one cent per quart, when made into
butter  at present  prices,  there can be no  doubt that when the facilities for transporting
it to the city are increased, it will be furnished pure at 2 or 3 cents  per quart to our citi-
zens.   About i of  one per cent will  be a remuneration  to the railway to carry it from 74
to 100 miles.  At  one cent per quart, good  lands situated  near a railroad, within 100
miles of the city, will be worth 100 dollars per  acre to furnish milk to this city.
                                    (l.)-p. 131.
                     EDIBLE TURTLE IN THE UNITED STATES.
  We shall notice a few of the edible  Turtle in the United States, with some particulars
relative to each species.
  1. The salt  water Terrapin  (Emys paluslris) is much prized by epicures, and  is found
exclusively in  salt or brackish  streams near the sea-shore.  They bury themselves in the
mud during the winter, from which they are taken  in great numbers, and are then very
fat   This is a small turtle,  about 5 inches in length, and is found along the whole Atlan-
tic coast.
  2. The Painted Tortoise  (Emys picta) is found in every part of this state, and occa-
sionally eaten, although not much esteemed.  3.  The Broad Terrapin, (Emys insculpta,)
and, 4. The Red-bellied Terrapin, (Emys rubriventris,) are eaten to some extent, especially
the  latter, which are brought  to our markets from  New Jersey,  where they abound in
running streams.  5. The Geographic Tortoise (Emys geographica) is occasionally used
as food, and its flesh is represented as very palatable.  6. The Snapping Turtle (Chelonura
Serpentina) is  one of our largest turtles,  (about 12 inches in length,) and common to every
part of the state ; its eggs and  flesh are equally prized for food,  and are considered very
nutritious and savory.   The  larger  and older  animals  have  a strong,  musky flavor,
which renders them unpalatable.  This  species sometimes goes under the name of
Loggerhead, Alligator Turtle, and Coula.  Its food is frogs, fishes, snakes, &c.
  7. The Soft-Shelled Turtle (Tridnyx ferox) is found in some parts of this state, and is
held in  high esteem as a wholesome  and nutritious article of food.  They feed on fish
and the smaller  aquatic reptiles.  8.  The  Green Turtle  (Chelonia Mydas) is well known
to the epicure for its delicious  steaks,  and the savory soup which it affords.   This species
abounds on the  coast of Florida, where it deposits  eggs in the  sand, which are hatched
19 
290
APPENDIX.
by the heat of the sun in the course of two or three weeks.  It occasionally, is met with
on the  shores of Long Island, (Dekay,) and not unfrequently off Sandy Hook,  and near
Coney Island.   They are generally brought to our Atlantic cities from the Gallipagos, and
other Islands in the Gulf of Mexico.
                                 (2.)—Page 134.
                     EDIBLE FISH IN THE UNITED STATES.
  There is perhaps no  country on  the globe which abounds with  a greater variety of
edible fish of excellent quality than the United States.   The most important of these are,
the American Cod, (Morrhua Americana,) Mackerel,  (Scomber vernalis,)  Shad, (Alosa
prastabilis,) Salmon,  Salmon Trout,  (Salmo confinis,) Brook  Trout,  Herring,  Black
Bass, Striped Bass, Halibut,  Perch, Dace,  Pike,  Porgee, Black Fish, <Src.   Dr. Dekay,
in his late most  excellent work on the " Fishes of New York," enumerates 440 species
of fishes, comprised under 153 genera, and 32 families, of which 294 species belong to
the State of New York.
  The mackerel is a very valuable fish, appearing on our coast in the months of May and
June.   On the coast of  Massachusetts, where the fishery is most productive, more than
200 vessels are sometimes engaged in this business ;  and according to Dr. Storer, in 1837,
234,059 barrels were taken, equal in value to 1,639,042 dollars.  The extent of the  Cod
fishery in the U. States may be learned from the following facts.  In the year 1836, 561
vessels  were employed from towns along  the  coast of Massachusetts, having  crews
amountingto 3,816 men.   In the following season, 510,554 quintals* were taken, producing
the sum of $1,569,517.  In the year 1840,-the tonnage of all the vessels engaged  in the
Cod fisheries in the U. States amounted to 76,025 tons,f which, at the usual rate of 6
men to  25 tons, would give a total of more than 18,000 men and boys employed.   This
fishery is generally carried on in small open boats and schooners ; the fish generally bring
about 4 cents a pound. From  the liver of this species,  as well as from sharks, mackerel,
and other species, an  oil is obtained by exposing it to putrefaction in the sun, which is
consumed in the manufacture of leather.  The  cod-liver is now coming  into pretty ex-
tensive  use as a medicine.
  The American Shad, which is different from the Shad of Europe,  is a highly valuable
fish, which visits the coasts and rivers of the U. States annually—appearing at Charleston,
S. C, in January, later at Norfolk, in the Hudson  river in April,  and in  Connecticut
river in May.  Those which  ascend the Connecticut are more cylindrical in shape than
those taken in the  Hudson, and are covered with mucus, giving them a slimy feel.  They
are considered superior  in quality to all other shad.  They ascend the Hudson 150 miles
to spawn, and return poor  and unfit to eat, the latter part of May.  They are sold from
8 to 15 dollars per thousand, according to their abundance.  Dr. Dekay states, that "from
information derived from various sources, he has no doubt, that along the course of the
Hudson river, there is a capital invested, in the shad fishery alone, of nearly half a million
of dollars."
   The Lake Trout, Lake Salmon,  or Salmon Trout, is a much esteemed fish, occurring in
the northern lakes of this state.  Its average weight is from 8 to 10 pounds, but some
weigh 30 or more.  They frequent the deepest water,  and  are taken with the  hook;
5 cwt  being sometimes caught in the course of a few  days.  Its price, when salted, is
  * 100 quintals are computed to contain 3,500 fish.
  t The tonnage engaged in the mackerel fishery was 23,267 tons, and in the whale  fishery 136,926
tons. 
APPENDIX.
about ten cents per pound; but when fresh, it sells from twelve to  14 cents, and when
transported to our principal cities, at 20 or 25 cents a pound.   This fish constitutes a
favorite dish at the tables of our large hotels ; but Dr. Dekay says, " it appears to him to
have all the coarseness of the halibut, without its flavor."
  The American Smelt is a very beautiful and savory little fish, named from its peculiar
smell, which resembles that of cucumbers.   It comes to us from the  North, in November
and December, abounding in our salt-water streams,  and is sold  by measure in  our
markets.  They are  derived chiefly  from the small streams emptying into Long Island
Sound, and from the Hackensack and Passaic rivers, in New Jersey.  It varies from the
European species, but is probably not inferior in quality.  There are many other species
which well deserve notice, but our limits forbid.
                                  (3.)—Page 139.
                            CRUSTACEANS FOR FOOD.
  The crustaceans belong chiefly to the Cancer or Crab family, and those most generally
eaten are the lobster, shrimp, and prawn.
  Crabs and lobsters abound in our markets, and are considered by many as delicious
aliments;  they are, however,  of difficult digestion, and often occasion violent attacks of
cholera morbus.
  " Lobsters," says Dr. Paris, " are certainly nutritive, but are  extremely  indigestible;
and  such  has been their effect upon certain stomachs, as to  have excited a  suspicion of
their containing some poisonous principle) they have been known to occasion pain in the
throat, and besides eruptions  on the skin, to extend their morbid influence to the pro-
duction of pains in the stomach, and affections of the joints.  As found in the London
market, they are  generally underboiled, with a view to their better keeping; and in that
case  they are highly indigestible.  The same observations  apply to the crab.  Shrimps
are a species of sea-crab, which vary in their color and size, and are considered easier of
digestion than the preceding articles."—(Pan's on Diet, p. 112.)
  In the truth of these remarks we fully coincide.
                                  (4.)—Page  142.
                      ON MOLLUSCOUS ANIMALS FOR FOOD.
  Of these, the oyster and the different varieties of the clam are the principal.  The green
color of the oyster is generally occasioned by vegetating germs of marine conferva; and
fuci, and not to being laid on coppery beds, as has been supposed by some.  Violent ef-
fects are occasionally produced by eating oysters, but  this happens for the most part
when eaten in too large a quantity, or out of their proper season.  The oyster casts its
spawn in the month  of May, after which they are sick and unfit for food; but in  July
they begin to improve, and in August they are perfectly sound.  Hence the origin of the
old saying, that an oyster is never good except when there is an R in the month.  Oys-
ters are very abundant on the Atlantic coast, from New York to Florida, and of an excel-
lent quality.  There is no article of food more prized by the epicure.
  The mussel, which was formerly eaten to considerable extent and then went mostly out
of use, is again in considerable demand as an article of food.  Some  people consider the
dark part,  which  is the heart, to  be poisonous, and  therefore  remove  it before eating 
292                               APPENDIX.
them.  This is, however, a mistaken notion.  We have certainly known mussels produce
poisonous symptoms oftener  than  any other kind of food, and in many instances, too,
where they were neither stale nor tainted, so that we have been inclined to think that,
under some circumstances, an absolute poison may be generated.  The symptoms, as
they have come under our own  observation, have not always been similar;  but, gener-
ally, they have been those which characterize violent derangement of the stomach and
bowels.   There were present in one instance, where a family of eight persons were most
violently affected by eating them, cardialgia, pain in the stomach and bowels, nausea and
vomiting, cramps,  heat  and  constriction of the  mouth and throat, a prickly sensation
in the hands, difficulty of swallowing and speaking, numbness about the mouth, extending
to the arms, with  great debility and prostration.   One of the  persons  thus  affected, a
healthy man of40, died; the others  all recovered.  It is now well ascertained that  the
poisonous principle in these cases is  not  copper, as  was once supposed, nor is it prob-
able that it is owing to  changes induced by decay.  By some it has been attributed to
idiosyncrasy, and this may have been the case in some instances, as we know  individuals
who can  eat no kind of fish without being violently affected.   " A  relation of mine," says
Christison, " for many years  could  not take a few mouthfuls of salmon, trout, herring,
turbot, halibut, or lobster, without being attacked in a few minutes or  hours with violent
vomiting ; yet at an early period of life he could  eat them  all with impunity, and  at all
times he has  eaten, without  injury, cod,  ling, haddock, whiting,  flounder, oyster, and
mussels."  Some   ascribe  their poisonous qualities  to disease  in the  fish, while  M.
Lamouroux conjectures that the  poison may be a  particular species of Medusa.   In  the
present state of knowledge on the subject, we are entirely ignorant in what the poisonous
principle  may  reside.  It is, however, necessary to be extremely cautious in  eating this
kind of food, and during the hot months of summer it should be entirely prohibited.
                                 (5.)_page 145.
                    DECAYED ANIMAL  SUBSTANCES AS FOOD.
  It is not an uncommon circumstance in this city to meet with cases of poisoning from
eating smoked beef, which has  been imperfectly cured.  During  the  last year, about 40
cases of this kind occurred in a particular neighborhood, and were all traced to a lot of
smoked beef, sold at a certain grocery.  The symptoms closely resembled  those already
mentioned, as  produced by poisonous fish, and were, no doubt, occasioned by the  meat
having partially undergone putrefaction, but not sufficiently so  as to offend the sense of
smell or taste.   It is well known that  in Germany,  cheese, a particular kind of sausage,
and bacon, acquire dangerous properties in this manner, as noticed by our author.  Dr.
Kerner considers that the poison is a compound one, consisting of fatty acid, analogous to
the sebacic, and of a volatile principle.  Buchner has also isolated a fatty acid from poisonous
sausages,  which he calls Botulinic acid, and which produces all the effects  of the article
from which it is extracted.   Some have supposed that the  deleterious  properties of the
smoked beef above mentioned  were owing to overdriving the cattle, and that, to prevent
the occurrence of such cases, there should be an inspector appointed, whose  duty it should
be to examine carefully all cattle before they are slaughtered.  We are, however, left to
surmise what  are the signs  by which we are to tell whether cattle have been injured by
overheating, and their beef unfit to be eaten. 
APPENDIX.                              293
                                   (6.)—Page 146.
                                      WHEAT.
   Wheat is cultivated very generally over the United States, though it may be called the
bread-corn of the people of the Northern and Eastern States.  Indian corn is consumed in
larger quantities at the South and West, although wheat also constitutes no small part of
the bread-stuffs. The quantum of Indian corn raised in the United States annually is about
360 millions of bushels, while that of wheat is about 85 millions of bushels ; a large amount
of the former is, however,  consumed by horses and other stock.  Dr. Bell  estimates that
65 millions of bushels are consumed  by the people of the United States annually, or less
than  four bushels per individual, while he allows eight bushels per individual of bread-
corn yearly.  Considering that this constitutes the chief bread-corn among the slave popu-
lation, as well as in some of the free states, this estimate is probably not too largj.  In
1838, the quantity of wheat flour exported from the  United States was 448,161 barrels,
and of wheat, 6,291 bushels;  while in 1790, there were  1,124,458 bushels of wheat, and
724,623 barrels  of flour exported.   The annual average of wheat exported during those
periods was 209,666 bushels, and of flour, 877,000 barrels.  The exports of wheat from
Pennsylvania alone, 100 years ago, were greater than from the whole United States in
1838, and but two years during the  last  twenty-five give a larger  export  of this article
than Pennsylvania alone  sixty years ago.  These facts show that the home consumption
has vastly increased, and that  the true way of furnishing a market for the article is, to
encourage the arts and manufactures among ourselves.
  The best flour in the New York market comes from the state of Ohio, and is in great
request among bakers, generally commanding half a dollar a barrel  more than  any other
kind of flour.  The southern flour is of a darker color, and not so marketable ; but as it
contains more gluten, it generally makes a lighter bread.  Flour is  subject to inspection
in our market but the inspector's brand is far from being an infallible proof  of good qual-
ity.  The name of the mill  where the flour is manufactured is usually stamped upon the
barrel, and this often leads to deception, by purchasing up those barrels which bear the most
celebrated brands, and  replenishing  them with an inferior article.   Flour from the same
manufactory  is,  however, found to  vary greatly in quality in  different years.  This is
owing to a variety of causes, some of which are not well understood.  Where wheat is
cultivated after  wheat for several years on the same  soil, we know that it  exhausts the
ground of alkalies, especially the silicate of potash, to which its  strength of  stalk is due,
and its growth is consequently arrested.  This is the reason why land in the older states
will not produce wheat without frequent manuring;  but this cause does  not probably
affect the quality of what  is raised.
                                  (7.)—Page  150.
                                 BREAD MAKING.
  From a  variety of experiments, we are satisfied no  good bread can be made except
from good flour, fermented in the usual manner with good yeast.  If it  is well kneaded
with pure water, seasoned with a little salt raised with fine yeast and baked sufficiently,
at a proper heat, the bread must necessarily be good.   If there is a  deficiency in any of
these particulars, the bread will be poor.  Some are in the habit of using leaven, made
by mixing flour and water into a paste, and exposing it to heat, when it undergoes partial
fermentation, and will act as leaven when  mixed with fresh  dough.  But the bread is
more liable to become sour than when yeast is used.  We have tried to raise dough with
muriatic acid and magnesia, after the manner described by our author, but the bread has 
294                                APPENDIX.
always been tough and heavy, and of an unpleasant flavor.  We  doubt whether, as a
general rule, the plan will ever succeed, though it  possibly may in  the  hands of a few
who have experimented pretty extensively.  Where acetous fermentation has taken place
in the dough, we know no objection to adding a little carbonate of magnesia to the flour,
which will correct the evil.  Where the flour  is of an indifferent quality, from 20 to 30
(if very bad, 40) grains of magnesia to a pound of flour will greatly improve the bread,
without producing  any evil consequences.  The reason why Indian corn  and other grains,
which consist chiefly of starch, are incapable of making bread,  is that  they contain no
gluten.   "Wheat  flour paste," as  Dr. Ure has well-remarked, "is merely  a viscid and
elastic tissue  of  gluten, the interstices of  which are filled with  starch, albumen, and
sugar."
                                  (8.)—Page 160.
                                       RICE.
  "If we  desire," says Dr. Bell,  "to know the  various fashions of preparing it for ali-
ment, so as to please the palate  without loss of its nutritive properties, we ought to con-
sult the records of Indo-Chinese cookery.  A common  dish with the people of the East
is kicheri, or rice boiled and dressed with lentils or with small beans.   Rice  torrefied, and
the central part of the grains exposed, and pressed in,to a kind of cake before the grains
become dry, may be preserved for a length of time, ready for immediate use.  The com-
mon and simplest form of preparation is  by boiling the  rice in a moderate quantity  of
water until it becomes softened, and the liquid  white and slightly consistent.  This is
congee, as familiar to the Hindoos as porridge to the Irish, polenta to the Italians, or mush
to the Americans.  Rice-eaters  are content with this simple food, slightly seasoned with
some aromatic or spice; they drink water, and are ignorant of that multiplicity of animal
aliments which become so frequently a cause of  disease to Europeans and  Anglo-Amer-
icans."—(Bell on Regimen, dfc, p. 148.)
                                  (9.)—Page 166.
                                   THE PEACH.
  The peach, though a native of Persia, flourishes well in many parts of the United States,
especially the western portions.  By the Romans it was  carried into Italy, and thence
into France, though, according  to  Columella,  it was thought  to  possess deleterious
qualities when first introduced  into  the Roman  Empire, which Mr. Knight attributes to
their containing a large portion of prussic acid.  The peach was introduced'into England
about the middle of the 16th century ; but, owing to the climate, it is there chiefly a wall
fruit.   The best peaches in France are raised at Montreuil, a village near Paris.
  So abundant is the peach in  many parts of our country, that it has been extensively em-
ployed in thefmiddle, southern, and western states in the manufacture of brandy ;  but this
practice is now going but of use, as it is found that it is far  more profitable to dry peaches
for the purpose of making pies, &c.  The best way of drying peaches is to have a small
house  provided with a stove, and drawers in the sides of the  house lathed at their bot-
toms with void intervals.  The peaches  should  be  ripe and cut in two, not peeled, and
laid in a single layer on  the  laths, with their skins downward, to save  the juice.  On
shoving  in the drawer, they are soon dried by the hot air produced by the stove.   In this
way great quantities may  successively, in a single season, be prepared with  a very little 
APPENDIX.
295
expense in the preparation of the building and in fuel.  The peach is cultivated very ex-
tensively in many  parts  of New Jersey, for the New  York and Philadelphia  markets,
some orchards producing 10,000 bushels annually.   Owing, however, to its liability of be-
ing injured by frost, &c, it is rather an uncertain crop.
  There are about 70 distinct  varieties of the peach,  including free-stones and cling-
stones, cultivated in this country and Europe, of which 36 exist in the U. States.  Of the
Nectarine there are about twenty varieties, though the  French  consider  this as only a
variety of the peach, and  not a distinct species.   Twelve varieties of the Nectarine are
supplied by our Florists and Horticulturists.
                                   (10.)—Page  171.
                                     THE VINE.
  It is a very common opinion, but one which we believe to be unsustained by facts, that
wine-growing countries are the most temperate ones.  Dr. Bell quotes  from Dupin, and
a French Medical Journal, the following quantities of alcoholic drinks consumed in France
in the year 1830:—
                Wine.........611,466,000 gallons.
                Cider.........234,121,000
                Beer.........124,030,000   «
                Brandy from wine.......15,074,000   "
                Brandy from cider, cherries, grains, and potatoes .      2,890,800   "
                 Alcoholic drinks of all kinds     ....    987,551,800
  This is  at the rate of 42 gallons per individual for the whole population of France.
The sum total of alcohol in the above drinks is 86,570,870 gallons, or 2J gallons for each
individual.   The  excise duties  on beer in France in 1824 amounted to 9,252,300 francs,
or 1,800,000  dollars.  Dr. Bell states, that, from  personal observation,  he has convinced
himself that  "drunkenness is becoming, and has in many parts of France become, as
much a national vice as it was, and still, alas! greatly  is, in the  United States and  the
British  Empire."   M. Villerme, the statistical writer,  states that " drunkenness  is  the
greatest curse of the laboring classes of France."  (" The position of the American Tem-
perance Societies is founded on just  grounds, viz., that entire abstinence from intoxicating
liquors is the only certain remedy  against intemperance.")   (Annal. d'Hygiene, v.  xxii.)
The same views in relation to  the intemperance  of France are held by M. Perier, Mr.
Bulwer, and  other standard writers.  We have in another place said a few words  in re-
lation to the  different intoxicating power of alcoholic liquors of equivalent strength, and
suggested an explanaion of the phenomenon.
  We are happy to find that our view of the subject is maintained by Prof. Brande, in a
late  lecture  delivered in the Theatre of the Royal Institution,  and  published  in  the
" Medical Times" of June 17, 1843.  In  this he remarks : " To  account for the different
intoxicating power of different liquors, and especially for the difference in the effects of
wine and spirituous liquors of equivalent strength,  we must, in the first place, recollect
that wine has never passed through the still; that in it the alcohol  and water are  at  all
events in perfect combination, and the acid and other matters of the wine may also miti-
gate its effects.  Whereas, if I mix  a  pint of brandy with a pint of water, and  imme-
diately proceed to drink  it, that mutual penetration of the alcoholic and  aqueous particles,
to which I have already  alluded, has not had time to take place; the mixture, therefore,
is more heating to the palate, and more powerful  in its effects upon the nerves of  the
stomach than if it were a true combination.  But we can  put the truth of this opinion to 
296                                APPENDIX.
a better test; for if I distill a bottle of sherry till about three fourths have passed over, and then
add a fourth of water to the distilled product so as to make up the original volume of the
wine, I shall find that this product is more heating and inebriating than the original wine,
and that I leave in the still or retort a quantity of extractive, acid, and other matter, which
materially affected the flavor and effects of the sherry.  It is  to such causes that I think
we may satisfactorily refer the different effects of genuine wine, and of its equivalent  in
diluted alcohol; hence, too, the febriferous, heating, and dyspeptic effects of bad, brandied,
adulterated, and made wines,  and of the trash which is produced under the name of wine
at ordinary tavern dinners.  Some chemists have suggested  the probability of the non-
existence of ready-formed alcohol in wine, and have supposed  that the alcohol is generated
by the action of heat, and is altogether a product of distillation ;  but  inasmuch as I can
obtain the same quantity of alcohol by distilling wines at very  low as at  very high  tem-
peratures, and as I can get the full compliment  of alcohol from the stronger wines by the
action of carbonate of potash, which  abstracts  water and separates alcohol without any
distillation or other interference of heat, we must not allow those  who indulge in excess
of wine to lay any such flattering unction  to their souls, or to  use any  such argument  in
opposition to the tee-totallers."—(Prof. Brande, L. Med. Times, p. 180, vol. viii.)
                                 (11.)—Page 182.
               POTATOES A PREVENTIVE AND CURE FOR SCURVY.
  Much  has been said of late, in France and England, of the value of this vegetable in
the prevention and cure of scorbutic disease, administered  several times a day in its raw
state, but scraped  sufficiently fine to make it digestible.  It seems to have  been  amply
tested  among the seamen of the French navy.   In the United States army, this is no
new remedy in scorbutus.  Thus, in the first quarter of 1821, there were sixteen cases
reported  at Fort Crawford, Prairie du Chien, of which two terminated fatally.   The medi-
cal officer, in his report, according to the " statistics of the United States Army," speaking
of the employment of uraw potatoes and vinegar," says : "I selected four or five of the
worst cases,  which had  received no alleviation from the use  of the  nitre  and vine-
gar, and directed each one to eat,  per day,  a common soup-plate full of the potato,
sliced down in a sufficient quantity of vinegar.   It had an immediate effect on the stomach,
which  recovered  its natural  vigor;  the bowels became regular, the  pains abated, the
stricture  of the tendons was overcome, the ulcers put on a healthy aspect, and in  a few
days the patient  found himself in a happy state of convalescence."—(The  New York
Journal of Medicine for July, edited by S. Forry, M. D.)
  That health may be maintained  on a diet composed chiefly of potatoes, is fully demon-
strated by the results of the following

                   " Experiment at the Glasgow Bridewell" in 1840.
  Breakfast.—Eight ounces of oatmeal made into porridge, with a pint of buttermilk.
  Dinner.—Three pounds of boiled potatoes with salt
  Supper.—Five ounces of oatmeal made into porridge, with half a pint of buttermilk.
  Ten prisoners,  five  men and five boys, were placed upon this diet, having been pre-
viously examined relative to their health, and weighed.  They were employed in light
work, and  under  sentence of confinement for  two months.  At the beginning of the ex-
periment eight were  in good health, and two in indifferent health ; at the end,  all were in
good health, and they had, on an average, gained more than four pounds each in weight 
APPENDIX.                                297
only one  prisoner, a  man, having lost in weight  The greatest gain was  nine pounds
four ounces, and was made by one of the men ; the prisoner who was reduced in weight
had lost five pounds two ounces.  Cost, including cooking, 2|d.  It was found by experi-
ment, that baked  potatoes were far less nourishing than boiled, the  prisoners losing, on
an  average, 1$ pounds weight, instead of gaining, though in all other respects  the  diet
was the same as in the former experiment.   The addition of a quarter of a pound of meat
to the diet did not add to their weight; on the contrary, the prisoners  lost, on an average,
li pounds.  The results were not more satisfactory when the quantity of meat  was in-
creased to half a pound at dinner.   In an experiment upon the same number of persons,
the diet consisted as follows:—
  Breakfast.—Two pounds of potatoes boiled.
  Dinner.—Three pounds of potatoes boiled.
   Supper.—One pound of potatoes boiled.
  At the beginning of the experiment, eight were in  good health, and two  in indifferent
health; at the end, the  eight continued in good health, and the two who had been in in-
different health had improved.   There was, on an average, a gain in  weight of nearly 3i
pounds per prisoner, the greatest gain being 8i pounds.   Only two  lost  in weight, and
the quantity in each case was trifling.  The prisoners  all expressed  themselves  satisfied
with this diet, and regretted the change back again to the ordinary diet.   On the whole,
these experiments  prove that prisoners may be kept in good condition  at a very mode-
rate expense, the cost not exceeding 6d. per day, when fed as  above.  Indeed, we know,
from an  experiment conducted on a still larger scale in Ireland, that potatoes and milk,
with a little oatmeal, are sufficient for healthy nutrition.—(" Fifth Report  of the Inspectors
of Prisons of Scotland," tf-c, by Frederick Hill, 1840.)
                                  (12.)— Page 192.
                                       TEA.
  If the researches of Liebig with respect to Theine  and Caffeine are deemed worthy of
credit,* then tea cannot be regarded, as it generally has been, simply as a narcotic, without
possessing any useful qualities whatever.  "Ifan infusion of tea," says  Liebig,  "contain
no more than  the l-10th  of a grain of caffeine, still, if it contribute, in point of fact, to the
formation of bile, the action, even of such a quantity, cannot be looked upon as a nullity ;
neither can it be denied that in the case of an excess of non-azotized food, and a deficiency
of motion, which is required to cause the change of matter in the tissues,  and thus to yield
the nitrogenized product which enters into the composition of the bile ; that in such  a
condition  the  health may be benefited by the use  of compounds which are capable of
supplying the  place of the nitrogenized product produced in the healthy state of the body,
and essential to the production of an important  element of respiration.  In a  chemical
sense—and it  is this  alone which the preceding remarks are intended to show—caffeine
and  theine are, in virtue of their composition, better adapted to this purpose than all
other nitrogenized vegetable principles."—Organic Chemistry, p. 182.
  Green  Tea undoubtedly possesses very active medicinal properties; for a  very strong
decoction  of it, or the extract, speedily  destroys life in the inferior animals, even when
given in very  small doses.   This has been repeatedly tested by experiment in  this city,
and  may, therefore, be taken as an undoubted fact   The strongly-marked effects of tea
  * His hypothesis is, that theine and caffeine, (which are identical,) with the addition of oxygen and the
elements of water, yield taurine, the nitrogenized compound peculiar to the bile. 
298
APPENDIX.
upon persons of a highly nervous temperament, in causing wakefulness, tremors, palpi-
tations, and other distressing  feelings, prove, also, that  it is  an agent  of considerable
power, and  should  not be used to  any great extent by persons of such a habit.  It not
unfrequently occasions vertigo and sick-headache, together with a sinking sensation at the
pit of the stomach, shortly after eating.  It is also opposed to an active nutrition, and should,
therefore, be used with great moderation by those who  are very thin in flesh.  From its
astringent properties, it is often useful in a relaxed condition  of the bowels, and from its
pleasurable, exhilirating effects, it is  often recommended to  the studious, the sedentary,
and those affected  with  low  spirits and indigestion.  We  are, however, satisfied that
green  tea does not, in any case, form a salubrious beverage to persons in health, and should
give place to milk,  milk and water,  black tea, milk and sugar, which, taken tepid, form
very agreeable and healthy drinks.
                                 (13.)—Page 193.
                                      COFFEE.
  The following encomium  upon coffee, is  said to have been  written by Abd-al-Kader
Anasari DJezeri Hanbali, son of Mohammed.  It  was translated from the Arabic, and
published in a German Journal, in 1834.
  " O Coffee ! thou dispellest the cares of the great; thou bringest back those who wan-
der from the paths of knowledge.  Coffee  is the beverage of the people of God, and the
cordial of his servants who thirst for wisdom.  When coffee  is infused into the bowl, it
exhales the odor of musk, and is of the color of ink.  The truth is not known except to
the wise, who drink it from the foaming coffee-cup.  God has  deprived  fools of coffee,
who with invincible obstinacy condemn it as  injurious.
  " Coffee is our gold, and in the  place of  its libations we are in the  enjoyment  of the
best and noblest society.  Coffee is even as  innocent a drink as the purest milk, from
which it is only distinguished by its color.  Tarry with thy coffee in the place of its pre-
paration, and the good God will hover over thee and participate in his feast.  There the
graces of the saloon, the luxury of life, the society  of friends,  all furnish a picture of the
abode of happiness.
  "Every care  vanishes when  the  cup-bearer presents the delicious chalice.   It will
circulate fleetly through  thy veins, and will not rankle there : if thou doubtest'this, con-
template the youth  and beauty of those who drink it.  Grief cannot  exist where it
grows ; sorrow humbles itself in obedience before its powers.
  " Coffee is the drink of God's people ; in it is health.  Let this be the answer to those
who doubt its qualities.  In it will we  drown our adversities, and in its fire consume our
sorrows.  Whoever  has once seen the blissful chalice, will  scorn the wine-cup.  Glori-
ous drink! thy color  is the seal of purity, and reason proclaims it genuine.  Drink with
confidence, and regard not the prattle  of fools, who  condemn without foundation."
   In contrast with this high-wrought eulogy of this favorite article, may be placed the
abuse of some late ultra  dietetical reformers, who, in their zeal to bring man back to the
Antediluvian beverage,  proscribe every thing in the shape of fluid, with the exception
of milk and  water.   We should, however, consider that cordials or stimulants  are, at
least, occasionally useful, and that, whether useful or not,  mankind always  have, and
probably always will, make use of them.  But of all those which have hitherto been in-
troduced, none perhaps, combine so many excellent with so few evil qualities, as  that of
coffee.  To  moderately nutritive properties, it adds those of a  mild and cordial stimulant 
APPENDIX.                                299
without producing those peculiar  narcotic  effects which so often accompany the use of
strong green tea.   We are persuaded  that it is not wise to wholly proscribe coffee, as it
is eminently useful to those who are trying  to wean themselves from the use of alcoholic
stimulants, and if employed of moderate strength, with  milk and sugar, it cannot becon-
sidered injurious as a common beverage.
                                    (14.)—Page 199.
                                  ALCOHOL IN BEER.
  According to Christison, Edinburgh Ale contains 7-35 per cent, alcohol, or 16-15 per cent.
by volume of proof spirit.
  According  to Brande, London  Ale contains 6A per cent, of alcohol,  or 13 percent, of
proof spirit; porter, 4£ per cent, alcohol, or 8£ per cent, proof spirit   Small beer, 1$ per cent
alcohol, 2£ per cent, proof spirit.  According to Dr. L. C. Beck, Albany Ale in barrels con-
tains 7-38 per cent, alcohol, or 14-76 per cent, proof spirit,  while that in bottles has 10-67 per
cent, alcohol, or 21-34 per cent, proof spirit.  The word "spirit," in the above extract from
Dr. Ure, evidently stands for alcohol, and not proof spirit, as is generally understood.*
                                    (15.)—Page 200.
                                    MALT LIQUORS.
  Much attention has been devoted in the United States, for the last twenty years, to an
investigation of the dietetical and medicinal effects of distilled and fermented liquors, and
it is proper to state that a majority of the medical profession, it is believed, have adopted
the opinion, that in health such drinks are not only useless, but in general injurious.
  Malt liquors have not been excepted from  the condemnation which has been passed on
all the others; and the discovery of the very general, if not  universal, adulteration prac-
tised  in their manufacture, as well as the common employment of the most filthy water,

  * We have found, by evaporating North River Ale over a sand-balh, that it yields about 816 grains of
solid extractive matter to the pint, or one eleventh of the whole weight.  This is  equivalent to nine
ounces of solid matter to the gallon.  The loss sustained by the process of malting and brewing may be
estimated thus :—
            100 lbs. of good barley, taken in its ordinary state of moisture   .    100 lbs.
            Loss of matter by the process of malting, 8 per cent.   ...      8  "
            Loss sustained by brewing   .     .    .    ...   .    .    67  "
            Total loss of soluble matter........75 per cent.
  In barley, hordein and starch constitute the largest proportion, sugar and gum being in small quantity;
but by the process of malting, the hordein is chiefly converted into starch and sugar, the latter of which
by fermentation is changed into alcohol, and a portion of the former into gum.  The changes effected by
malting may readily be understood from the following table of Proust.   (An. de Chim. et de Ph. v.)
                                      In 100 parts of barley.      In 100 parts of malt.
                 Resin.....1.....
                 Gum
                  Sugar
                 Gluten  .
                  Starch  .
                  Hordein
  Previous to fermentation, one  quart of strong ale has been calculated to yield about three ounces of
solid matter.  In the condition of Sweet wort, it yields not less than six ounces.  Every pound weight of
solid matter decomposed by fermentation  is found to yield half a pound of alcohol of the sp. gr. 0825.
The gum, which constitutes the chief portion of the solid matter in malt liquors, possesses comparatively
but slightly nutritious properties.
 4  .    .    .    .    .15
 5.....15
 3.....1
32.....56
55.....12 
300                                APPENDIX.
have tended to increase the prejudice under which they previously labored.  The conse-
quence has been, that the use of these  drinks has very much diminished.  The opinion »
of Dr. Franklin also, previously alluded to, has had no little weight in convincing Ameri-
cans that malt  liquor is  not so " nutritious" a beverage as it is supposed to be in Great
Britain;  moreover, that its stimulating qualities  are by no  means desirable in health, or
advantageous to laboring men.  When a journeyman  printer in London, he  informs us
that he endeavored to convince his fellow-workmen that " the bodily strength furnished by
the beer  could only be in proportion to  the solid part of the  barley dissolved in the water
of which the beer was composed; and  that there was a'larger portion of flour in a penny
loaf;  and that, consequently, if they ate the loaf, and drank a pint of water with it, they would
derive more strength from it than from a pint of beer." In proof of the  correctness of
this position,  Dr. Franklin states as follows—" On my entrance I worked at first as press-
man,  conceiving that I had  need of bodily exercise, to which I had been accustomed in
America.  I drank nothing but water.  The other workmen, to the number of about fifty,
were  great drinkers of beer.  I carried  occasionally a  large  form of letters in each hand,
up and  down stairs, while the rest  employed both hands to carry one.   They were sur-
prised to see by this and many other examples, that the American aquatic, as they used
to call me, was stronger than those who drank porter."
   The  general opinion, therefore, of the medical profession as well  as  others,  in this
country, seems to be, that malt liquors  are more deleterious in their effects on the system
than  ardent spirits;  and in  the  correctness of this opinion we are inclined  to coincide.
They certainly stupify the brain, render the blood too viscid, load the cellular tissue with fat,
and so modify the vital cohesion of the solids, as to render wounds extremely difficult to heal,
and accidents which in water-drinkers would be attended with little or no danger, very cer-
tainly fatal.  Sir Astley Cooper notices this fact in his lectures.  Old Dr. Cheyne adverts to
the innutritious property of the extract contained in malt liquors, as follows:—" As to malt
liquors, they are not much in use, excepting small beer, with any but mechanics and fox-
hunters.  The French very justly call  them barley soup.  I  am well satisfied that a weak
stomach can as readily and with less pain digest pork and pea-soup as Yorkshire or Not-
tingham ale.  They make excellent bird-lime, and when simmered some time over a gen-
tle fire, make the most sticking and the best plaster for old strains that can be contrived."
 (Essay on Health and Long  Life," p. 60, 9th ed.)
   It is very questionable whether the daily use of the hop alone will be found serviceable
 to persons in health, as bitters, when  regularly used, impair the  functions  of digestion.
 Dr. A. T. Thompson remarks, that " as appetite and digestion are  promoted by the opera-
 tion of tonics on the stomach itself, it  may appear singular that their frequent and long-
 continued use, is generally  followed by a loss of tone, but such is really the case.   Now,
 as about one ounce of hops are generally allowed in brewing to  a gallon of beer, or two
 pounds to the barrel, he who  drinks  two  quarts of malt liquor daily, swallows  not less
 than half an ounce of hops, in addition to nearly half a pint of alcohol, to say nothing of
 the  danger  of being  poisoned  by  other drugs.   Professor Mussey's experience on this
 point is valuable.   " At the age of twenty years," he remarks,  " while occupied during the
 hay  season upon my father's farm, I drank hop-beer for about three weeks, but was in-
 duced  to discontinue it on account of a peculiar organic weakness as well as a diminution
 of the   general strength, which I attributed to  that beverage.  The local disorder imme-
 diately  subsided, and  in about  two weeks from the time of ceasing to drink the beer my
 strength was restored."
    The  adulteration of malt liquors has been carried in the United States to a very great
  extent as we  have no laws as in Great Britain to prevent such practices. Perhaps viler 
APPENDIX.
301
compounds  under the name of drinks, were never manufactured than such as were in
general use in this country a few years ago, and to some extent even at the present time.
By an improved method of analysis, discovered by Professor Mapes of this city, a variety
of samples, from nearly a  dozen different breweries, were found to have been extensively
adulterated with  Cocculus Indicus or Nux Vomica; at which, however, none were sur-
prised who were  acquainted with the effects which these  liquors produced  upon those
who were in the habit of using them.
  The sale of drugs to brewers is a regular and by no means unprofitable part of the
trade;  and the extent to  which this has been carried on would  not  be believed, should
we  state merely the facts which have come within our own knowledge.  Repeated at-
tempts have been made to induce the legislature of this state to institute an inquiry into
the  mode of  manufacturing beer, but as many  of our legislators are engaged in the
business, such a proceeding would be evidently unconstitutional.  The only remedy against
the  evil is to abstain entirely from the use of malt liquors, a practice which we are happy
to know  is now nearly universal.

          Dr.  S. B. Woodward, of Worcester, (Mass.) on Malt  Liquors.
  " With respect to ale as it was originally prepared by the English brewers, it was a safe
and wholesome beverage,  very proper as a mild cordial, where an article of the kind was
needed.  For a long time the English ale was manufactured from barley, malt, and yeast
only, which  made a delicious beer of less strength than cider, and hardly greater than the
common domestic beer of private manufacture.  After a while, the hop was added, which
gave bitterness and an exhilarating quality to ale,  that it did not before possess.  The in-
troduction of the hop was complained of at that time by the lovers of pure ale.  One of
the oldest English writers on the subject, Mr. Andrew Boorde, says, 'that those who put
any other ingredients than barley, malt, and yeast into the  ale,  sophisticated the labor.
Without hops, &c.,' he continues,  ' ale is the natural  drink of an Englishman, but with
them, it  is the natural drink of a Dutchman ; but  of late is much used in England, to the
great  detriment  of many Englishmen.'  'There existed,' says Dr. Paris, 'for a long
time, strong prejudices against hops, which were considered a pernicious weed.  But re-
cently they are considered an essential ingredient  in English ale.'
  " More recently still, other drugs, highly narcotic, and much more dangerous, have been
added to the  ingredients  of ale, such as quassia  wood, oil of vitriol,  India berry, opium,
hemlock, nux vomica, grains of Paradise, &c.  Such is the extent to which this practice
has been carried in England, that the  British parliament passed laws imposing severe
penalties for selling  or using such  drugs.  The following is an extract from one  of these
laws :—
   "' No druggist vender of, or dealer in drugs, or chemist, or other person, shall sell or
deliver to any  licensed brewer,  dealer in or retailer of beer, knowing  them to be such, or
shall sell or deliver to any pers:n  on account of, or  in  trust  for, any  such brewer, dealer
or  retailer, any liquor called  by the name of or sold as coloring, from whatever material
the same may be made, or any material or preparation  other than unground  brown malt,
for  the  darkening the color of worts or beer, or any  molasses, vitriol,  honey,  quassia,
coculus  indicus, grains of Paradise, Guinea pepper or opium, or any extract or preparation
of  molasses, or any article or preparation to be used in worts or beer, for or as a substi-
tute for  malt or hops; and if any druggist shall  offend in  any of these particulars, such
preparation, &c shall be forfeited, and  may be seized  by  any officer of excise,  and the
person so offending  shall forfeiture hundred pounds.'
   " For  violating this and similar acts of parliament, the following prosecutions were made 
302                                APPENDIX.
in London  alone.   'During seven  years,'says Mr. Allain, 'there  were  twenty-nine
druggists and grocers prosecuted  and fined for supplying these illegal ingredients to the
brewer.  In the period of three years, nineteen persons who dealt in the article were
fined for adulterating their liquors.  In six years, fifty brewers were prosecuted for using
such articles in their establishments, and mixing their liquors in an illegal manner.'
  "The author of a practical treatise on brewing, published in England, has the following
remarks.  Speaking of these illegal ingredients, he observes, ' that however pernicious
or disagreeable  they  may appear, he has always found them necessary in the brewing of
porter, &c, and he  thinks  they must  invariably  be used by those who wish to continue
the taste, flavor,  and appearance of the beer, and he could never produce the present flavored
article without  them.'  Thus showing that all the  beer approved of by connoisseurs in
England, has a  mixture of these poisonous ingredients notwithstanding the severity of the
penalty.
  " If such practices are common in England, where these heavy penalties are imposed,
and  this unceasing vigilance exercised to  detect and  punish such frauds,  what may we
suppose to be the practice in this country, where we have no laws on the subject, and
no inspection of the vast quantities of these liquors issuing from our manufactories ?  The
individual who  values health will prefer to dispense with the use of ale and porter,  rather
than risk the  danger that may come to him from these impurities, even should he have
no apprehensions from  their intoxicating qualities.  And yet it should not be disguised;
that all the malt liquors do contain sufficient alcohpl to produce drunkenness.
  "Dr. Johnson, of London, says  of them, 'They are a prolific source of disease;' he
therefore is opposed to their use, and declares ' that  the beer-bibber has little reason to
exult over the dram-drinker.'
  "' Malt liquors,' says Doctor McNish, of Glasgow, ' under which title we include all
kinds of porter  and ales, produce the worst species of drunkenness, as, in addition to the
intoxicating.principle, some noxious ingredients are usually added, for the purpose of pre-
serving them  and giving them a better taste: after being swallowed, fixed air is copiously
liberated, and the digestion of delicate stomachs materially impaired.  The effects of
malt liquors on the  body,'  he continues, 'if not so immediately rapid  as those of ardent
spirits, are more stupifying, more  lasting, and less  easily removed.  The most dreadful
effects on the whole are brought on by spirits, but drunkenness from malt liquors is most
suddenly fatal.'
  " Whether  we consider it in reference to health, to its influence upon the  mind and the
feelings, no advantage whatever is gained by substituting wine or other fermented liquors
(especially as usually prepared  and adulterated) for alcohol in any of the  forms of dis-
tilled spirits."

                       Nux  Vomica and Cocculus  Indicus.
  These poisonous drugs are imported into this  country in large quantities, and chiefly
purchased by brewers for the manufacture of beer.  The amount annually imported can-
not be accurately ascertained, though it is very great;  there is reason, however, to believe
that it has been considerably diminished within the last few years.
  The  following table shows the amount of  these articles imported into England, and en-
tered for home consumption, for the years 1829, '30, '31, '32, and '33;  together with the
amount of duties received  in each year, and the rate of said duties.   (Instead of  seven
shillings sterling, the English price, the price of these articles here averages  about eight
cents.) 
APPENDIX.                               303
ARTICLES.	Years.	Quantities entered for Home Con-sumption.	Amount of Duty received thereon.	Rales of Duty charged.
	1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833	Us. 6,862 1,528 2,547 1,477 4,142 value. £2 7 0 8 lb. 12 Lbs. 1,118 2,471 3,541 3,663 4,559 13,035 18,093 8,722 15,738 40,411	£ s. d. 621 4 2 191 0 0 280 7 3 194 12 6 517 15 0 1 15 3 4 7 6 139 15 0 308 17 6 443 12 6 457 17 6 569 19 5 1,303 10 0 1,809 16 0 872 4 0 1,C73 16 0 3,191 2 2	1 r2s. 6d. per pound. J j. £75 per cwt. ad valorem. J do. or 10s. per pound. J. 2s. 6d. per pound. J V2s. per pound.
r Extract of Nux Vomica . ... < r Paradise and Guinea grains <				
WILLIAM IRVING, Inspector-General of Imports and Exports. Inspector-General's Office, Custom House,) London, 27th June, 1834. S				
  The following are a few out of a large number of instances of the prosecution and con-
viction of English brewers, between the  years  1813 and 1819, for receiving and using
illegal ingredients in brewing:—
  Richard Gardner, for using adulterating ingredients, £100.
  Stephen Webb, and another, for using adulterating ingredients and mixing strong and
table beer, £500.
  Henry Wyatt, brewer, do., verdict £400.
  Philip Blake and others, do., verdict £250.
  John Swain, do., verdict £200.
  John Gray, do., £300 and costs.
  Richard Bowman, for using liquid in bladder, supposed to be extract of cocculus indicus,
£100 and costs.
  S. Stephens, for do., £50.
  James Rogers, do., £220 and costs.
  George Moore, for using coloring, £300 and costs.
  Webb & Ball, for using ginger, Guinea pepper, and brown  powder, (name unknown,)
1st, £100, 2d, £500.
  Henry Clark, for using molasses, £150.
  Kewell & Burrows, for using cocculus indicus, multum, &c, £100.
  Alatson & Abrahams, for using cocculus, multum and porter flavor, &c, £630.
   Swain & Sewel, for using cocculus, Guinea opium, &c, £200.
  John Gray,  for using ginger, hartshorn shavings, and molasses, £300.
   Mr. Betteley, for using wormwood, coriander seed, and Spanish juice, £200.
   Convictions  of druggists, for the sale of adulterating ingredients, have been numerous
in England, but notwithstanding the heavy penalties, the occupation of brewers' druggist 
304                                 APPENDIX.
is  still carried on, and  becoming an extensive business.   We shall  give but a single
instance:—
                            1817.—Josiah Nibbs, Surrey.
     Multum........84 lbs.  |   Honey.........180 lbs.
     Cocculus Indicus.....12 lbs.  |   Spanish juice........46 lbs.
     Coloring........  4 galls. I   Orange powder  .     .    ...  17 lbs.
     Hartshorn shavings   '.  .  .  . 14 lbs.     Ginger.........     56 lbs.
                                   Penalty, £300.
  But if these articles are constantly used, the question may be, asked, why there are no
more convictions]   Perhaps the following item of evidence, given by an excise officer,
Mr. Wells, on an examination before  a Committee of the House of Commons, may throw
some light on the subject.  He stated that the " adulterating ingredients were not kept on
the premises, but in the brewer's house, and that the brewer had a very large jacket,
made expressly  for that purpose, with very large  pockets, and that on brewing mornings
he would  take his pockets full of the  different ingredients.   Witness supposed  that such
a man's jacket,  similar to what he had described, would carry quite sufficient for any
brewery in England, as to cocculus indicus."
                                  (16).—Page 207.
                                      WINE.
  To the very excellent and judicious remarks of Dr. Pereira, respecting the dietetical
and medicinal uses of wine, there needs but little to be added.  Those who wish for further
details upon the subject, may consult our American edition of " Bacchus," passim.  We
may, however, be permitted to offer a few considerations.
  It has been proved by abundant experience, that  those who  have been accustomed to
the daily moderate or immoderate use of wine, as well of other alcoholic stimulants, may
not only omit their use  with safety, but with very great benefit.  The effects of wine, as
described by our author, prove that it is a valuable  stimulant, and a highly useful medi-
cine in some states of the system ; but  these very facts show very conclusively that it is
not a proper agent to be drank habitually in a state of health.   Some wine-drinkers, it is
true, have  lived  to a good old age ;  and  so  also have some  persons who resided  in
malarious districts of country, but these facts do not prove that wine or malaria are con-
genial to the human constitution; they  indeed constitute exceptions to a general law of
an opposite character.
  As, however, it is a very common  opinion  that it is dangerous to break off suddenly
from  the  use of stimulating drinks, the following  facts  may  assist in  correcting this
erroneous opinion.
  In 1833, Mr. Dwight, the Secretary of the Prison Discipline Society, reported that in the
Maine State Prison, where no person is allowed to drink  any kind of  stimulating liquor,
" no prisoner had died from a natural cause since the organization of  the prison," (about
three  years.)  " An important experiment," he remarks, " has been made in this prison, of
the effect on health  of cutting off habitual drunkards at once  from the use of spirituous
liquors in every form, and  confining  them  to cold water.  It has been  found  invariably
beneficial.   They soon renewed their  youth, and a more hale,  healthy, muscular body of
men cannot be found in prison,  or out of prison,  than the cold-water convicts in  the
quarry of the Maine  prison.  It is an experiment, also, to  show that  hard labor can be
performed on good food and cold water.  As evidence of this, it is only necessary to see
these men handle rocks." 
APPENDIX.                              305
  From the State Prison in New Hampshire, it is reported, by the same agent that " the
same valuable experiment has been made, as  in Maine, concerning the effect of cutting
off  drunkards from the use of ardent spirit, and with the same results."  In the  report
from the Vermont Prison, it is also stated  that the same valuable experiment has been
made in Vermont, as in New Hampshire and  Maine, of the effect of  cutting off habitual
drunkards from the use of ardent spirit, and with the same delightful results with regard
to health.   The subjects of such treatment  renew their health directly."  In the prison at
Sing Sing, in this state, this truth is confirmed by a still more decisive experiment.  The
keeper says " the men neither suffer nor  die from abstinence,  though they have been
formerly intemperate ;  nor is  there any want of ability  to  work hard all the time, on
wholesome food and good water."  From the Auburn Prison, where there are on an average
not less than 450 convicts, the keeper reports that "they are strictly prohibited the use
of ardent  spirit and tobacco,  except as a medicine, and it has been found invariably that
the most besotted drunkards  have never suffered in  their health from that course, but
almost as uniformly their health has been improved."  The account given by Dr. Wood-
ward, of the  experiment  in the State Prison of Connecticut,  shows the same salutary
results.—(Second Annual Report of the Prison Discipline Society, 1827.)
   To this we may  add, that since  the above report was written,  from which these  ex-
tracts are made, thousands of drunkards,  and tens of thousands of immoderate drinkers
of alcoholic liquors  in the U. States and Great Britain, have suddenly abstained from their
use and  in nearly  every instance  with perfect safety.  If then it be true, as these facts
 abundantly show, that the sudden withdrawal of ardent spirits may be practised with entire
 impunity, no one certainly ought to doubt that those accustomed to the use of the milder
 stimulant—wine-rmy discontinue its use with safety and advantage.
   « To persons in health," says Dr. Pereira, in his " Elements of Mater.a Med.ca,   the
 dietetical employment of wine is either useless or pernicious."  In general, we are com-
 pelled  to maintain  that it is both.   Dr. Beaumont, in  his experiments upon St.  Martin,
 found  that wines, as well as distilled spirits,  invariably interfered with the regularity and
 completeness of digestion, and always produced morbid changes in  the  mucous mem-
 brane of the stomach, although not always connected with  unpleasant feelings or dimin-
 ished appetite.  But if wine does not aid- digestion, it certainly does not enable a person o
 endure more fatigue or incur greater exposures of temperature and weather than he could
 otherwisTd .   The following remarks of  Dr. Bell, of Philadelphia, doubtless express the
  t  u h on this point   " The recorded experience of men in all situations and climates, under
  a 1 kinds of labor  and exposure,  prove that abstinence from  alcoholic liquors gives m-
  c eased  ability to go through the labors of the farm and the workshop, to resist heat and
   o d and to encounter hardships on sea and land, beyond what has ever been done under
   hfunnatural excitement of alcohol, followed, as it always is, by depression and  debility
  f not  by fever  and other disease,  The  observations of naval and military surgeons and
  lf not  by lever^a             uniformly to the same  purport, and their testimony is ad-
  ~Z i"rS oUf spirits! or of alcoholic drinks generally, to men in the
  army  and navy."-(" On Regimen," p. 359.)

                                   (17.)—Page 209.
                             ADULTERATION OF WINES.
                                        SHERRY.
     Mr McCulloch remark, that "perhaps no wine is so much adulterated "Sherry^
  A^„ he observes, "When Madeira  was a fashionable wme  m England, every sort of 
306                                APPENDIX.
deception was practised with respect to it, and large quantities of spurious trash were dis-
posed of for the genuine vintage of the island.  This naturally brought the wine into dis-
repute, so that Sherry has been for several years the fashionable white wine.   It is diffi-
cult, however, to imagine that adulteration was  ever practised  to a greater extent upon
Madeira than is now practised upon Sherry."  Redding (" On Wines") states that " Sherry
of the brown  kind, and of low price, when imported,  is mingled with  Cape wines and
cheap  brandy, the washings  of brandy casks, sugar-candy, bitter  almonds, and  similar
preparations; while the color, if too great for Pale Sherry, is taken out by the addition of a
small quantity of lamb's blood, and then passed off for the best Sherry, by one class of
wine-sellers and advertisers.  The softness of good Sherry is closely imitated."
  The basis of the Pale Sherries sold in our market, is  Brown Sherry, which may gener-
ally  be purchased at a lower price ; to this is  added  Cape, Brandy Cowe, Extract of
Almond Cake, Cherry Laurel Water, Gum Benzoin,  and Lamb's Blood, and sometimes
Raisin  Wine.   Large vats are employed, in which these ingredients, in their proper pro-
portions are  placed, and the result is,  that eight butts of high-priced Pale Sherry  are
manufactured out of four butts of low-priced Brown, at a profit of some five hundred per
cent.; and if bottled, the profit is vastly greater.

                                    PORT WINE.
  A large proportion of the Port wine drank in this country, is a purely fictitious  article.
But much of it is  manufactured from a red wine  imported from Marseilles and Bordeaux,
at about 40 cents  a gallon, called French Port, which is made into " first-rate" Oporto by
adding burnt  sugar, or a decoction of Brazil  wood, and a portion of alcohol: sometimes
it is mixed with real  Port, affording a very large  profit to the dealer.  Besides this, cheap
red wines are imported from Spain, Portugal, and the Cape, which  are readily disguised
and sold for real Port.   In mixing and adulterating, a variety of articles are used, such as
Salt of Tartar, Red Sanders, Gum Dragon, Berry-Dye, Juice of Elder Berries, Cider, Burnt
Sugar, &c.
  But a very small portion of wine professedly exported from Oporto as pure Port wine,
is really the produce of that country.
  This will appear from an examination of the following Table of Exports from  Oporto to
the  Channel Islands, with the Imports from the Channel Islands to London.
                             Pipes Exported from Oporto           Imported from the Channel
                              to the Channel Islands.                Islands to London.
           1826......38.......293
           1827......99.......99
           1828......73.......75
           1829......0.......90
           1830......0.......147
           1831......0 .......143
           1832......0.......363
           1833......0........862

   According to the custom-house books of Oporto, for  the year  1812, 135 pipes  and 20
hogshead of wine were shipped for Guernsey.  In the same year  there were landed at
the London docks alone, 2,545 pipes and 162 hogsheads from that island, reported to be
Port wine—(Henderson on Modern Wines.)  Morewood states that one half the  Port and
5-6ths of the white wines consumed in  London are the produce  of the home presses.
   It is often supposed by the ignorant, that if wine can be purchased with the custom-
house mark on the cask, and from under the custom-house key, there can be no question
as  to  the genuineness  of the article.   This is,  however, a great mistake, as the above
table will show.  The following extract from a letter of an agent of the Oporto Company, 
APPENDIX.                               307
in defence of the practice of adulterating this kind of wine, will throw much light on the
subject.
  " The English merchants knew that the first-rate wine of the factory had become ex-
cellent ; but they wished it to exceed the limits which  nature had assigned to it, and that
when drank, it should feel like liquid fire in the stomach ; that it should burn like inflamed
gunpowder; that it should have the tint of ink ; that it should be like the sugar of Brazil
in sweetness, and like the spices of India in aromatic flavor.   They began by recommend-
ing, by way of secret, that it was proper to dash it with brandy in the fermentation to give it
strength, and with elder berries or the rind of the grape  to give it color; and as the persons
who held the prescription found the wine  increase in  price, and  the  English merchants
still complaining of a want of strength, color, and maturity in the  article supplied, the
recipe was propagated until the wines became a mere confusion of mixtures."

                                     MADEIRA.
  Good Madeira wine is rarely to be obtained; the greater portion of what goes under
that name being a fictitious article.  A cheap Vidonia or Teneriffe wine is mixed with a
small portion of common dry Port, Mountain, and Cape wine, which  is  fined and reduced
to the proper color by Lamb's Blood, or Charcoal, and sold readily for "London Madeira,"
or "Old London  Particular."   Whether "East India"  or  "West India" Madeira  has
ever seen those countries is extremely problematical.   The only satisfactory proof in such
a case, is to  journey with them.
                                    CHAMPAGNE.
  In England, Champagne wine, so  called, is often prepared from the juice of the Goose-
berry.  We  are  told  (Reece's  " Monthly Gazelle of Health," 1829)  that a  company of
Frenchmen  contracted with some  farmers in Herefordshire for a considerable quantity of
the fresh juice of certain pears, immediately on expression, and before fermentation had
commenced; from which they made an excellent brisk wine, resembling the finest spark-
ling Champagne, and not to be distinguished from it.  Other acid  fruits have also been
employed for the same purpose.  In this Country, the best Newark cider has been in great
demand for the manufacture  of  Champagne wines.  The  price of Champagne varies
here from twenty shillings to thirteen dollars per dozen.  If it be true, as Mr. Busby states,
that genuine Champagne is never sent out of France at less than three francs or 60 cents
a bottle, we  must  conclude that a large portion of the wine sold in the United States
under  that name  cannot be genuine.  This, however, may be a mistake on the part of
Mr. Busby,  as the  author of the  " Wine and  Spirit Adulterator Unmasked," states  that
the poorest kind of Champagne may be purchased at about twelve francs per dozen.   It
is, however, a  fact of general notoriety that much  of the Champagne drank in this coun-
try is a fictitious article,  and not a small portion of it is adulterated with lead.  We have
detected this metal, in different samples, in quantities sufficient to exert highly dangerous
effects  upon the system.   It is to this circumstance that  the English writer above quoted
refers,  when he observes, " It has  been remarked by French physicians, as they have  oc-
casionally been called in to attend English patients, that in most cases the indisposition
of our countrymen, when they are  in France, can be ascribed only to the Champagne
which  they drink, and which, owing to the avidity with which the English people indulge
themselves in  its consumption, is not only more frequently, than otherwise, supplied  to
them of an indifferent kind, but of a  sort possessing properties which have the most per-
nicious and injurious tendency possible to the constitution."  He then goes on to speak
of lead as a common ingredient in low priced Champagne wines of that country.   Who- 
308
APPENDIX.
ever, therefore, are in the habit of drinking Champagne, should be very particular as to
the quality of the article.
                                      CLARET.
  There is perhaps no kind of wine more often  adulterated than claret.  Vintners' and
grocers' books  abound with recipes for making it of the most approved taste and color.
In general, it is made  by mixing a portion  of Spanish Red wine, and Rough Cider, with a
quantity of inferior Claret, a color being previously added to the cider  by means of the
Berry-Dye or Tincture of Brazil-wood, or Poke Berries, or Syrup made of Damson plums,
sugar, and wine, and may be manufactured at a maximum expense of about two cents a
bottle.   Even much of the wine which is imported as Claret, is nothing more  than a
compound of the refuse of various  inferior French wines, mixed with  French cider, to
which a portion of brandy  and coloring material is added.   It is prepared in large vats,
whence it is racked off into casks or drawn off into bottles and shipped to its destination.
Much of it is what is called "third  quality" wine,  which is obtained  by retreading the re-
mains of the grapes  in the  vat (after  having already twice undergone this process)  by
the occasional addition of large quantities of water, which, by washing the pulp of the
fruit becomes impregnated with some portion of vinosity.
  In tasting this kind  of wine we have often been reminded of a stanza in an old song—
                     " One glass of drink, I got by chance,
                      'Twas Claret when it was in France;
                         But now from it moche wider.
                      I think a man might make as good
                      With green Crabbes,  boiled in Brazil-wood,
                         And half a pint of cider."
                                  (18.)—Page 222.
                    MODE OF LIVING IN THE UNITED STATES.
  Americans, it is said by foreign travellers, eat faster, if not more, than any other  nation
on  the  civilized globe.   From Capt  Hall down  to Dickens, the  complaint  has con-
stantly been, that in dining in public (we hear no complaints of private dinner parties)
they have hardly had time to finish their  soup, before they find themselves alone, and in
the way of the servants.  We  believe that this charge will apply only  to our large hotels
in cities, where the guests are chiefly transient persons, merchants and others, visiting  the
city on business, and who have not a moment to spare in which to accomplish the work
they have laid out.  We know houses of this  sort in this city, where the average time of
sitting at table at dinner is fifteen  minutes.   But we have no doubt that the same haste
is exhibited at the dining-tables in  the  commercial hotels of Liverpool, and most other
commercial places.  The practice  itself is a highly pernicious one, leading, as  it does, to
indigestion, and  the usual evils which follow  in its  train.  Healthy digestion is only com-
patible with perfect mastication and insalivation.   These are impracticable where there
is much haste in eating.   In private families we suppose there is as much deliberation in
eating among us, as in Great Britain or any other nation.
   We folly agree in the following remarks of  the late Dr. Avery on the mode of living in
the United States: " As a people, we eat far too much hearty food ; that is, we take in
more rich nutriment than we require, and the  consequence is, our system becomes over-
loaded and oppressed, our organs are  clogged in the performance  of their several func-
tions, the  circulating fluids become too thick  and  stimulating,'and  the  proneness to
derangements and diseased action greatly increased.  Hence  arises a large proportion of 
APPENDIX.                               309
the inflammatory and febrile diseases among us.  Hence  it is that copious blood-letting
and  active medicines are so much more required in America than in most other coun-
tries—a fact  admitted by all those physicians whose opportunities of observation have
enabled them to form a correct opinion on the subject."—(The Dyspeptic's Monitor, p. 74.)
                                   (19.)—Page 232.
               DIETARIES FOR CHILDREN IN THE UNITED STATES.
  The dietaries of orphan asylums  and other  establishments for children in the United
States are  very similar, and  generally do not vary essentially from the mode of living
adopted in  respectable private families.  Milk is generally substituted for tea and coffee,
and allowed morning and evening, with bread and molasses.  Meat is usually furnished
for dinner,  with vegetables, either daily or four times a week at least  Plain molasses or
sugar-cakes twice a week at supper.   Rice, puddings, vegetables, and fruit are also freely
allowed.
  For some years past there has been a controversy going on in relation to the best diet-
aries for children, and some experiments have  been  tried, in order to ascertain, if possi-
ble, whether, as a general rule, animal or vegetable food  is best adapted for their health
and nourishment.   The vegetable-eaters  claim that the results are on  their side of the
question, while the supporters of animal food are quite as positive that they have the best
of the argument. Without undertaking to decide  the question, though our  own opinion
is in favor of a mixed diet, we shall give an  account of an  experiment, made in the Or-
phan Asylum of Albany, as first published in the Northampton Courier:
  The institution was established about the close  of the year 1829, or  the  beginning of
the year 1830.   Shortly after  its  establishment it contained 70 children,  and subsequently
many more.  For the first three years the diet of the inmates consisted of fine bread,
rice, Indian puddings, potatoes and other vegetables, and fruit with milk; to which was
added flesh or  flesh soup, once a day.  Considerable attention was  also paid to bathing
and  cleanliness, and to  clothing, air, and exercise.  Bathing, however, was  performed in
a perfect manner  only once  in three weeks.  Many were received in  poor health, and
not a few continued sickly.
  In the fall of 1833 the diet and regimen of the inmates were materially changed.  Daily
ablution of the whole body, in  the use of  the cold  shower or  sponge bath, or, in cases of
special disease, the  tepid bath, was one of the first steps taken;  then the fine bread was
laid  aside  for that  made  of  unbolted wheat  meal, and soon after flesh and flesh soups
were wholly banished; and thus they continued to advance, till in  about  three months
more they  had come fully upon the vegetable system, and had adopted reformed habits
in regard to sleeping, air,  clothing, exercise, &c.  They continued on this course till Au-
gust,  1836, when the results were  as follow :—During the first three years in which the
old system was  followed,  from four to six children were continually on the sick list, and
sometimes  more.  A physician was needed once, twice, or three times a week, uniformly,
and deaths were frequent. During this whole period there were between thirty and forty
deaths.   After the new system was fairly adopted, the nursery was soon entirely vacated,
and  the  services of the nurse and  physician no longer  needed, and for more than two
years no case  of sickness or death took place.  In the succeeding twelve months there
were  three  deaths, but  they were  new inmates, and were diseased when admitted, and
two  of them were  idiots.   The Report  of the  Managers  says,  " Under this system of
dietetics the health  of the children has not only been preserved, but those who came to 
310                                APPENDIX.
the asylum weakly have become healthy and  strong,  and greatly increased in  activity,
cheerfulness,  and  happiness."   The Superintendents also state, that "since the new
regimen has been fully adopted, there has been a remarkable increase of health, strength,
activity, vivacity, cheerfulness, and contentment among the children.   The change  of
temper is very great.  They have become less turbulent, irritable, peevish, and discon-
tented, and far more manageable, gentle, peaceable, and  kind  to  each other."  One  of
them further adds, " There has been a great increase in their mental activity and power;
the quickness and acumen of their perception, the vigor of their apprehension, and the
power of their retention daily astonish me."

                                     Remarks.
  In relation  to  the above experiment, we may remark that the results appear to us to
be owing more to the  changes made in the general regimen, air, cleanliness, bathing, ex-
ercise, &c, than  to the substitution of vegetable for animal food.  In order to be satisfac-
tory, the experiment should have been conducted with reference to the diet alone.  As it
is, we do not see how it can  be quoted,  as it has been, as furnishing satisfactory evidence
of the superiority of vegetable over animal diet.  We  have often known the same.im-
provement take place among children in private families by the daily use of the shower
bath, without  making any alteration in thein. manner  of living.  The  experiment, how-
ever, is  a very valuable  one, as  it shows the great advantages which flow from a well-
regulated system of air, exercise, and bathing.
  In proof of the correctness of our opinion that the favorable results in this institution
were not owing to  a change  of diet, we may refer to a similar experiment in a school in
Germany, as'contained in the "American AnnaTs of Education" for August, 1836.  Here
meat was allowed, though the food is stated to  have consisted chiefly of bread and other
vegetables, fruits and milk; but cold bathing was practised daily.  The results, as stated
by the teacher, were as follows:
  " I am at present the foster-father of nearly seventy young people,  who  were born in
all the varieties of climate from Lisbon to Moscow, and whose  early education was  neces-
sarily very different.   These young men are all healthy; not  a single  eruption is  visible
on their faces; and three years  often pass during which not a single one of them is con-
fined to his bed:  and in the twenty years that I have been engaged in this institution, not
one pupil has died.  Yet I am no physician.  During the first ten years of my residence
here, no  physician entered my house; and not  till the number  of my pupils was very
much increased, and I grew anxious not to  overlook  any thing in regard to them, did I
begin to seek  at all for medical advice.  It is the  mode of treating the young men here
which is the cause of their superior health; and this is the reason why death has not yet
entered  our doors.  Should we  ever  deviate  from our present principles—should we
approach  nearer the mode  of living common  in wealthy families—we should soon be
obliged  to establish  in our  institution,  as they do in others, medicine-chests, nurser-
ies, &.C."
  In individual  cases, after  children have acquired their first teeth, we have  seen  no
advantages follow from  confining them exclusively to vegetable diet, except in disease;
but, on the contrary, we have known great improvement, especially  among  the  children
of the  poor, from  a more liberal allowance of animal food, and we doubt  not  that the
dietaries of children should be formed on this principle.
  P. S.  Since writing the above, we have conversed with one of the  founders and princi-
pal managers of the Albany "Orphan Asylum," and find that  the change in  the  health
of the  children could not with propriety be attributed to the substitution of vegetable for 
APPENDIX.
311
animal food.   During the first few years after the establishment of the institution, it was
located in a poorly ventilated building, in one of the most  crowded streets in the city of
Albany, where fresh air and proper exercise were out of the question, and cleanliness
was next to impossible.  At the commencement of the experiment above-mentioned, the
children  were removed into a  large, commodious, and exceedingly well ventilated build-
ing, situated out of the city, and in one of the  most delightful spots in the neighborhood
of Albany.  In addition to cold bathing, every morning  the children were required to
take an  abundance of exercise—were confined but three or four hours daily in school,
instead of  six or seven, and were, moreover, allowed  meat occasionally, though the prin-
cipal part of the diet consisted of milk, potatoes, Indian mush, and a plenty of good bread.

                          NEW YORK ORPHAN ASYLUM.
Breakfast......Bread and molasses, with a cup of milk, or milk and water.
Dinner
 Monday .  .
 Tuesday .
 Wednesday
 Thursday
 Friday . .  ,
 Saturday
, Sunday .
Supper
S Indian mush, with milk or molasses.  Other
     vegetables.
. Soup and vegetables, bread, &c.
 SMeat, hashed with potatoes, and other vege-
     tables.
. Indian mush, or rice and molasses, or milk.
{ Mashed  fish and potatoes, (generally cod,
(     fresh or salt.)
. Soup, &c, as on Tuesday.
. Cold roast beef and vegetables.
                        On Sunday, bread
$ Bread and milk, or bread and molasses
(    and butter, or gingerbread.
                                      Remarks.
  There are 108 boys and 52 girls in the institution.  Beef is the meat chiefly used.  On
Tuesdays and Saturdays  sixty pounds  of best quality of rounds of beef are purchased,
making one hundred and twenty pounds weekly.  On Saturdays the meat is boiled suffi-
ciently for soup, then roasted and set aside  to  be  eaten cold on Sunday.   The bread is
baked in the institution.   Four and a half barrels of flour are used per week, and half a
barrel of Indian meal.   About 425 bushels of potatoes annually.  Three cows are kept
on  the  premises, and a small quantity of milk is purchased, amounting to  about fifteen
dollars annually.  Milk is allowed night and  morning, and once  a week for dinner.  The
children are  kept in school  six  hours a day, and bathe in tepid water every Saturday.
The deaths have averaged about two and a half annually.   The children are allowed to
eat what they want within moderation.  Though the children appear satisfied with their
diet, yet they have  not  that florid  and healthy appearance which is characteristic  of
rugged health.  We believe that if meat were allowed daily  in moderate quantity, it
would be an  improvement in their system of diet;  and if required  to take more exercise,
it would doubtless contribute to their health.   The  ophthalmia, which  was formerly very
prevalent in the institution, (and probably caused by want of ventilation and cleanliness,
with  perhaps too low a diet,) is now almost unknown. 
r~
312                                APPENDIX.
DIETARY OF THE NEW YORK PROTESTANT HALF-ORPHAN ASYLUM.
Dinner
        ( Monday—Bean-soup with bread.
         Tuesday—Mutton soup, with vegetables, (potatoes, turnips, carrots,) bread.
         Wednesday—Mutton, hashed  with potatoes and rice ; clam-soup, during the summer
                      months, with potatoes and rice ; or bulls of flour boiled, with rice.
         Thursday—Beef-soup, with vegetables and bread.
         Fiiday—Beef, hashed with potatoes and rice, bread.
         Saturday—Bread and butter, or rice.
         Sunday—Cold corned beef and bread, except during the summer months, when crack-
                      ers and cheese are substituted for salt meat, which was found to produce
                      bowel complaints.
D   7 * , S Bread and milk for the smaller children; bread with molasses, or sugar, or  honey for
Breakfast }             ^ larger ones
Supper .  Plain bread, except on Sunday night, when gingerbread is allowed.
  Remarks.—The number of inmates ranges from 154 to 180;  ages from 3 to 9 years.
22 quarts of milk are furnished daily, at 5£ cents per quart.   Once a week the children
are bathed  in cold Croton water, except during the hot months, when the larger children
are taken to the cold salt-water bath in the river.  They remain in school six hours per
day.  50 lbs. of mutton are  purchased twice a week, and 50  lbs. of beef, ditto.   Occa-
sionally codfish and potatoes, and fruit in its season, are furnished.
                                  (20.)—Page 241.
                      AMERICAN DIETARIES  FOR PAUPERS.
  There can be no doubt that American paupers fare better, as it respects their diet, than
those of any other nation on the globe.   A comparison of the Tables which we shall give
below, with those of Great Britain, contained in the body of the work, will show  a great
superiority in favor of the former.   Gruel,  which forms with bread the breakfast of Eng-
lish paupers, is seldom, if ever, seen in our Almshouses; but  in  place  of it, tea  or  cof-
fee, milk or milk-porridge and  bread, and in  some of them bread, and butter ad libitum,
within moderation.  Indeed, there  is generally no restriction as to quantity, with the ex-
ception of meat:  of which, in some establishments, nearly a pound is  allowed for  dinner.
The effect of this generous mode of living,  though highly favorable to health, is  expen-
sive, and  renders an Almshouse residence, especially during the winter, quite  desirable
to a large class of our city poor. Accordingly, applications for admission are overwhelm-
ingly numerous during the fall months; and where admission cannot be secured, in-
stances  are by no means unfrequent where  petty-larceny or some other offence is commit-
ted, for  the very purpose of being sentenced six months, the usual period for such  crimes,
to the Penitentiary,  where the mode of living does not  materially  differ from that of the
Almshouse.  The whole Almshouse  system in  our  country  requires  a radical change,
and we  are happy to learn that R.  M. Hartley, Esq., the late most able and efficient Agent
of the New York City Temperance Society, is engaged in  collecting  facts, and devising
plans for improving the moral,  social, and physical condition of our poor population.   To
this gentleman we are indebted for much of the. information which we give on this  subject.
         DIETARY  OF THE BOSTON ALMSHOUSE, AND HOUSE OF INDUSTRY.
   Dinners.—Sunday, boiled rice and  molasses; Monday, beans,  baked or  stewed,  and
pork;  Tuesday,  beef  and soup, vegetables and wheat bread;  Wednesday, baked beef,
vegetables and wheat bread;  Thursday, beef and soup, vegetables and bread;  Friday,
 salt fish, vegetables and  bread ; Saturday, beef and soup, vegetables and bread.
   Breakfasts.—Tea or coffee, and white bread ;  suppers, chocolate and white bread.  The 
APPENDIX.                               313
diet of the sick is regulated by the medical attendants.  The number of children in the
house for the past year has been about 200, which deducted from the average number of
inmates, 571, leaves 371 consumers of meat, without making any deduction for the sick
in the hospital.  350 lbs. of best beef four times a week, at 4 cents per lb.
  The allowance of meat for each ward is weighed  off according to the number of per-
sons, and ratably distributed among them.  The bread, which contains  a small quantity
of Indian, is baked in the establishment.  Excepting meat, there is no restriction as to
the quantity of food.  " No rebellions," says Dr. Smith, " are to  be apprehended in the
Boston Almshouse, like that  which lately occurred  in the Poorhouse in Liverpool—be-
cause the appetite is satisfied.  A  story is abroad of an Irish pauper,  at South Boston,
who wrote home, advising his relatives to come out  to this establishment immediately, as
they had meat twice a week.  We regard the  moral and dietetic regulations of the city's
institutions for prisoners and paupers as superior to those of all other cities or towns in
the United States."

                             BALTIMORE ALMSHOUSE.
  The following is the general diet of the paupers :—
  For Breakfast—Bread, and rye coffee sweetened with molasses ; for Supper, bread, and
tea sweetened with sugar.
  Dinner—On Monday, beef  and soup ;  Tuesday, mush and molasses; Wednesday and
Thursday, beef and soup; Friday, herring, mush and molasses, or hommony ; Saturday,
beef and soup ; and on Sunday, pork and vegetables.
  Eight oz. of beef, or five oz. of pork is allowed each pauper on the days animal food is
furnished; and to each laboring pauper, twenty oz. of bread ; and to all others over one
year old, sixteen oz. of bread per diem.
  The diet of the sick is regulated by the physicians.

                   PROVIDENCE ALMSHOUSE, RHODE ISLAND.
  The diet of the inmates is as follows :
  For Breakfast—Coffee, bread and butter, one morning, and alternately milk or milk-
porridge and  bread.
  For Supper—Tea,  bread and butter one night, and alternately milk or milk-porridge
and bread.
  For  Dinner—Sunday, flour or Indian pudding and molasses ;  Monday, baked beef or
pork ;  Tuesday and Thursday, soup ;  Wednesday,  fresh  meat,  baked or roasted ; Fri-
day, pork and beans ;  Saturday, salt fish and potatoes.
  Brown bread is used by all  except the sick.

                             ALBANY ALMSHOUSE.
  The general  diet of the paupers consists of bread and bohea tea sweetened with mo-
lasses, for breakfast; soup five days in the week, and fish and potatoes two days in the
week for dinner; mush and milk, or mush and molasses, for supper.

                       BELLEVUE ALMSHOUSE NEW YORK.
  The diet in this Institution is as follows :—For breakfast, bread and tea, the tea sweeten-
ed with molasses, and  a little milk.  For dinner, on alternate days, meat and soup: of
beef, 17 lbs. are allowed for 15 rations ; of pork, three fourths of a pound to each person,
and about one pound of bread with potatoes; on the other days, mush and molasses
with bread.   For supper, the same as breakfast.  A  woman with a child, is allowed one 
314                               APPENDIX.
and a half pounds of bread per diem, for both.  Each woman is allowed half a pint of
milk per day, and a pound of tea per month.   The bread made of wheat flour is baked
at the establishment

                    BLOCKLEY ALMSHOUSE, PHILADELPHIA.
  In this Institution the general diet of the inmates is as follows:—
  Every day for breakfast—Coffee, half rye, half imported.  Every  day for  supper—
Chocolate or tea ; both at breakfast and supper as much good wheat bread is allowed as
they can eat.
  Dinner.—On  Sunday, soup ;  Monday, half a pound of beef, of which  the soup was
made on Sunday;  Tuesday, hash,  made of the  fragments of beef;  Wednesday, mush
and molasses.   Working men receiving in addition  thereto, half a pound  of meat or
soup;  Thursday, the same as Sunday, Friday as Tuesday, and Saturday as Wednesday.
Besides, potatoes or wheat bread are allowed every day for dinner.
  The diet of the sick is entirely regulated by their medical attendants.  No pork is used
in the establishment.
                               (21.)—Page 246.
                        DIET IN AMERICAN PRISONS.
  The common allowance of food in our  Penitentiaries is equivalent to one  pound of
meat, one pound of bread, and one  pound of vegetables, per day.  In some of them it
varies from this, but it is generally equivalent to it.  The food  is generally wholesome
and  well prepared.  The opinion has prevailed that the convicts in our Penitentiaries
have loo much food, and of a better quality than they ought to receive.  This, however, is
a mistake, as  proved by further investigation.  " In  the Milbank Penitentiary in Great
Britain," says Mr. Dwight, the agent of the  Prison Discipline Society, " an experiment
has been made on man, as to the quantity of food necessary to keep him alive.   In such
extensive establishments, a step once taken may lead to fatal consequences before  it  can
be retraced.  In this establishment near London, the advocates of a severe discipline  de-
manded a reduction of the diet of the prisoners, and a calculation was made,  about  the
close of the year 1822, to ascertain how little food would sustain  human life.  There was
at that time in the prison about 800 convicts, and their diet was reduced to half a pound
of bread per day, and the soup made of ox-heads, in the proportion of one ox-head to one
hundred males, and the same to one hundred and twenty females.  A general decay of
health was apparent, but the scurvy did not appear till January, 1843.  The cases of dis-
ease  increased rapidly, and on  the 28th of February one hundred and eighteen were
sick, and on the tenth of April, more than four hundred.  It was found, on inquiry,  that
the meat of an ox-head weighed only eight pounds, which being divided among one hun-
dred, allows only one ounce and a quarter to each prisoner.   To this diet the College of
Physicians, after long delay, ascribed the  production of the disease. It became necessary
at length, to  remove every  prisoner from  the establishment, which was done, and the
whole was purified.  In consequence of this sickness, the House of Commons resolved
to  give  to the future inmates a full and nutritive diet, as to quality and amount.  This
 experiment on human life  may be of great use on this side of the Atlantic,  by  pre-
 venting  a  severity, as dangerous to life as excessive  indulgence is injurious to morals.
 The experiment shows that eight ounces of bread, and one and a quarter of meat, cannot
 sustain life; it does not show, however, that three pounds of food per day are necessary 
APPENDIX.                             315
to life and health, and it may still be a question of great importance, whether the Milbank
Penitentiary was  not  in one extreme, and the Penitentiaries in the United States in the
other ; so that the subject is still open for consideration and experiment, though it is ap-
parent from the experiment at Milbank, that it should be conducted with great  discretion
when human life  is at stake."

     Experiment at Lamberton, New Jersey, in relation to the Food of Prisoners.
  An experiment was  made  a few years since upon the prisoners at Lamberton, New
Jersey, confined in solitary cells, by reducing the allowance of food.  The men  on whom
the experiment was tried, were confined the whole term of their sentence in solitary cells.
Some of them had been confined eighteen months, and some two years.   Their  allowance
of food was only half the allowance of the men who were employed in the shops, and the
allowance  of the  men  in the shops was only half a  pound  of meat, together with one
pound of bread, one gill of molasses, and about half a pound  of vegetables per day.   It
is stated by the agent of the " Prison Discipline Society," that this reduced  allowance had no
injurious effect upon the health.  " They appeared," says the Report," as well, at least, as
any class of prisoners who have been visited in this country; and the  keeper, who has been
thirteen years in  the institution, stated, that  the effect of solitary confinement, with this
diet, had been very good ; and that the prisoners all left the cells with a strong determina-
tion never to return to them, and no  one had yet returned, nor did he believe that any one
ever would return.  If he was correct in this opinion—and there was every thing  in the ap-
pearance and conversation of the prisoners in the cells to induce the belief that he was cor-
rect—then this mode of punishment, with a reduced allowance  of food, is much better
than where one  half or one  third  of the whole number of prisoners are committed a
second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth time, which is the fact in several  Penitentiaries in the
United States, where the men  are fed abundantly."  We may be permitted to  express a
doubt, in opposition to  the apparent  result of the above experiment, that where food is
withheld to that extent  as to amount to punishment, the health of the prisoners must ne-
cessarily suffer in a greater or  less degree.
  To illustrate the dietary  systems  in our  prisons, we give the following, out of a large
number  which we might present  as they will serve to show  sufficiently the mode  of
living in these establishments.

                   DIETARY OF THE NEW YORK CITY PRISON.
             f  Monday—Mush and Molasses.
               Tuesday—Beef with soup and bread.
             I  Wednesday—Mush and molasses.
Dinner  .    ■{  Thursday—Fresh boiled beef, with soup and bread.
             1  Friday—Mush and Molasses.
             |  Saturday—Fresh beef, and soup with bread.
             [_  Sunday—Mush and molasses.
Breakfast  .     Coffee, with molasses boiled in it, and bread.
  Remarks.—No other meat than beef is furnished, and this consists of hocks and the
coarser parts.   It is estimated that one half the weight of the beef consists of bone;  on
the days, therefore, on which meat is allowed, a sufficient quantity is purchased to  al-
low one pound exclusive of waste, to each prisoner.  If more is asked for, it  is allowed.
There are but two meals a day, the first at 9 a.m.   Dinner at half-past two p.m., (no sup-
per.)  The coffee is half rye and half coffee,  (cheapest kind.)   The  bread is made of
an  inferior kind of flour;  looks a good deal  like Graham bread, and is baked at the
Almshouse.   No potatoes or other vegetables  are furnished during about half the year, 
316                                APPENDIX.
say from March to October, and the soup is made  during the  whole of this time from
beef alone, or with (occasionally) crumbs of bread boiled in it  The number of prisoners
ranges from 130 to 180, the average being about 150.  The cells are small and  poorly
ventilated.   In consequence of recent complaints, the Commissioners of the Almshouse
are making arrangements to furnish the prisoners with potatoes and rice.
                         BOSTON HOUSE OF CORRECTION.
       The diet consists of the following materials, viz :—
           18 oz. No. 1 beef, or 12 oz. pork, and 20 oz. bread per diem.
            1 pint black tea for breakfast, and another pint for supper.
           2i bushels of potatoes  for 100 rations.
            1 quart of salt for       "    "
           2 oz. black pepper,   "   "    "
  Soup is occasionally given, with bread and potatoes. 1,610 lbs. of beef, at 41 cents per lb. has been the
weekly allowance.  The average number of inmates is 291.
  Instead of meat each day, boiled fresh beef is now allowed three days in each week;
beef soup, three days ; and one day, baked beef.   The allowance of meat now furnished,
is 18 lbs. beef daily of the first quality, for 300  prisoners.   The bread contains a small
quantity of Indian, and  is of the best quality.   If prisoners ask for more bread than the
regular allowance, it is  given  them.  It is, however, part of an individual's punishment
for disobedience of orders, to be  shortened  in the allowance of food.   These facts are ob-
tained from that excellent periodical, the " Boston Medical and  Physical Journal," and are
accompanied by the following remarks of the able editor, Dr. Smith.
  " All  experience  teaches that  men  can be easily governed when they are well fed.
The hungry are prompted, by  the goadings of an empty stomach, to the worst acts in the
history of our race.   It is a sad mistake that the convicts in many of the Penitentiaries of
this country are kept at that exciting point of hunger, which changes man into a devil in
feeling,  and a brute in conduct."
                                  (22.—Page 253.)
                    DIETARY OF THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL.
  For dinner, on  Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays,  and Saturdays, beef soup, with beef
and potatoes and  bread.   On  Mondays, Wednesdays, and  Fridays,  mutton  soup, with
mutton, potatoes, and bread.   On Mondays, boiled rice, with  one gill of molasses.   For
breakfast and supper, bread and black tea ; 1 ounce of tea to  every six, and a pint of milk
to every 8 patients.
                                     REMARKS.
  The above is the general diet of the patients at this establishment, including about two
thirds of the number.   Special diet is  directed by the attending physicians, and adapted
to the circumstances of each particular case.  Eggs, milk, oysters in their season, crack-
ers, chickens, &c, are  allowed, together with porter, wine, &c.  About 78 quarts of milk
are daily used, and about two  dozen of eggs; 2 being allowed  to a patient. The number
of chickens consumed, averages only about 2 daily.  Little or no butter, and no cheese
is allowed.   100 lbs. of beef are furnished three  times  weekly ; and  100 lbs.  of mutton,
three days also.  This will give but half a pound of meat daily, for six days in the week,.
without any allowance for waste.   The following  are the amounts of some of the articles
of food annually used in the establishment with their cost.
Beef   ....   35,178 lbs.
Mutton ....   16,214  "
Pork       .    .    .    2,181  "
Poultry .
Fish.......
Flour   ....     397 barrels
$2,085-22
   763-56
   106-86
   96-00
   8100
 2,323-37 
APPENDIX.                               317
Meal .... 2,463 lbs.				$56.00
Rice			6,804 " ...	210.35
Crackers				25.42
Potatoes			1,008 bushels	237.71
Vegetables				62.81
Butter			3,023 lbs.	485.05
Fruit				61.54
Cheese			100 lbs.	10.47
Molasses			734 gals.	160.10
Vinegar			7 bbls.	22.75
Tea			1,510 lbs.	747.33
Sugar			12,636 " ...	772.78
Coffee			1,289 "...	147.25
				38.49
Milk			31,139 quarts .	1,481.75
Spices				17.60
Salt			18 sacks, 3 bushels .	37.42
Yeast .				20.74
Liquors and Wines				158.30
Porter .			297 dozen .	184.75
  The patients are allowed to eat ad libitum, within moderation.  About one third pay for
their board, either in whole or in  part;  but in either case, their fare is the same, unless
it is furnished from out the house.  The principal objections to the dietary of this Hospital
are the want of variety in the food, which is often of great benefit in the treatment of the
sick, and the small allowance of meat.   It is a question worthy of consideration, whether
the dietary classification, adopted in  most of the British  Hospitals, would  not be an im-
provement in the present system.  We  do not mean by  this, to  recommend the plan of
dealing out portions of food by weight;  this may be done in  an individual  case, perhaps,
like that of Cornaro, where an individual has no control over himself, but it can never be
introduced to advantage among a considerable number of men.  Peas, beans, and other
vegetables might be added to the  present list, and a more liberal allowance of fruit, in
its season, would be highly desirable.
                                  (23.)—Page 257.
              DIETARIES FOR THE INSANE IN THE UNITED STATES.
  Much attention has been paid in this country to the effects of diet in the treatment of
insanity,  and  the results of experiments in  different institutions  show  that a plentiful
allowance of animal and vegetable food, of the most wholesome and digestible kind, is re-
quired.   The adoption of a liberal diet is not only free, in such cases, from any exciting
or too stimulant influence, but appears to calm the irritation which previously existed.
Of course, no rules as to  diet can be laid down, which are not subject to modification
under particular circumstances, according to the peculiarity of the case and  the state of
the constitution.  The great success of the late Dr. Todd, in the treatment of the insane
at the Connecticut Retreat, at Hartford, was doubtless owing in a great degree to a highly
nourishing diet, conjoined with a tonic  course of medicine.
                           BOSTON LUNATIC HOSPITAL.
  Diet.—Beef soup, twice a week; baked beef, twice a week; corned beef,  (cold,) once
a week;  salt fish, once a week; beans and  pork, once a week.  250 lbs. of beef, at 5$
cents per lb., is the weekly allowance.   Average number of inmates, 103.
  In the matter of diet for the patients, a very liberal one has hitherto been allowed, upon
the ground of its importance  as a part of curative treatment  But in view of the fact
that a great proportion of the  present inmates are hopelessly  insane paupers, the Board
of Supervision have concluded that no good  reason exists  for a distinction  in diet from 
318        •                        APPENDIX.
that of the House of Industry.  They have accordingly suggested  the expediency of

equalizing the two, which the Superintendent is about to do.

                                 LUNATIC  ASYLUM.

                        MANHATTANVILLE, (NEW YORK  ISLAND.)
Meat, hashed with potatoes, or cold, with bread and butter, coffee, milk, and
  sugar.
             S Roast meat—beef, mutton or lamb, with vegetables, rice, flour,
                bread, or fruit puddings.

             < Soup, with rice or Indian mush—pastry on Wednesday.

               Corn beef—with potatoes and other vegetables, pudding, &c.
             < Boiled  fish, (either fresh or salted cod, fresh  halibut, shad,
             \  mackerel, &c, in their season.)
               Cold meat, with warm vegetables, pastry, cheese.
Bread and butter, tea or milk—molasses gingerbread on Wednesday—sugar cakes
  on Sunday evening—cheese do.
'Monday
 Tuesday
 Wednesday
 Saturday
 Thursday

 Friday .

 Sunday.
  The above articles are of the very best quality, and allowed  ad libitum.  Seven cows

are kept on the premises, and  the milk, which, with what  is bought, amounts to eighty

quarts per day, is all used in the establishment.   The pastry and puddings are made ex-

actly as in the best private families.   There is a great abundance of fruit on the premises,

such as cherries, strawberries, currants, blackberries, &c, which are freely allowed to the

patients  in their season.  No difference is made in the diet of males and females.   Break-

fast, in summer, is at half-past 6 o'clock; dinner at 12;  tea at  half-past 6.  In  winter,

tea is at 6 and  breakfast at 7.   The  number of patients in the institution is about 100.

The other inmates, including officers, servants, farmers, and attendants, amount to 50.

  The following abstract of the amount of provisions used in  the establishment  during

the month of June, 1843, is copied from the Steward's Register:

 3981 lbs. of Bread, or 833 Loaves.
  415  " of Butter.
   63  " of Cheese.
   72  " of Black Tea.
  757  " Brown (Porto Rico) Sugar.
   76  " Refined White Sugar.
  458  " Flour, (for Pastry.)
   63  " Rice.
  150  " Laguira Coffee.
   84 Bushels Potatoes.
   40 Bunches Salad.
   59 Mackerel.
   10 Quarts White Beans.

  From the above it will be seen  that the diet does not differ much from that of a well-

ordered respectable private family.
   8 Bushels Beets.
  18 lbs. Barley.
   7 Gallons Molasses.
  11 Gallons Vinegar.
  41 Bushels Spinage.
3271 lbs. Meat, (about  2-3ds beef—l-3d  Lamb,
      Veal, &c.)
 100 Dozen Eggs.
 For Mustard, Pepper, and Spices, about $56 an-
   nually.
 Beer and Wine as prescribed by the Physician.
 Tobacco, (for Smoking, Chewing, and Snuffing,)
   to the amount of $6  50 per month. 
INDEX.
                                          Page
                      A.

Abstemious diet......248
Acid, acetic......        72
  "   "   conversion of, into carbonic acid
              and water    .  _  .     .   .  ■   15
  "  benzoic, conversion of,  into hippuric
         acid    .    .    .    .     •     .22
  "  caffeic      .    .    .    .     .     .193
  "  carbonic, quantity of, produced in the
         system......7
  "  cerebric......117
' "  choleic......107
  "  citric.......73
  "  hippuric    .    .    •    .     •     .22
  "  hydrocyanic or prussic     .     •     •  164
  "  lactic or milk     .    .    .     •     75,76
  "  malic.......^5
  "  of tartar......74
  "  oxalic.......75
  "  pectic.......69
  "  pyroligneous.....73
  "  tannic.......76
  "  tanno-caffeic.....193
  "  tartaric          .    .    •          •   74
  "    "    conversion of, into carbonic acid
                and water  ....   15
  "  uric, conversion of, into urea    .     •   40
Acidity of stomach, causes of    .    .     .261
Acidulated drops  .     .        •    •        7o
Acidulous alimentary principle, the        •   71
Acroleine or  acroleon  .    .    •         •   83
Agricultural  laborers, average quantity of
    food of.......240
Air, vital.......I4
Albumen, animal  .     .    .         •     .91
    "     composition of, according to Du-
              mas      .    ...    •     .20
    "     composition of, according to Mul-
              2er.....33
    "     vegetable.....96
Alcohol           •     •        ■    •     -76
   "    action of, on the liver    .    .     .26
   "    obtained in bread-making     .     .  147
   "    an element of respiration     .     .   25
AlcohoUc alimentary principle, the   .     .   76
Ale           ...••••  200
  " Indian pale......200
  " table.......2°0
Algae, or sea-weeds.....187
Alimentary principle, the aqueous     .     .   <J8
     "     principles  .    •    •    •     ;.
     «         "     containing an excess of
                        oxygen      .     •   13
     «         "     containing an excess of
                        hydrogen   .     .   12
     "         "     relative proportion of
                        carbon and oxygen
                        in     ...   14
     »         "     relative  quantity of hy-
                        drogen and oxygen
                         in      ...   12
                                         Page
Alimentary principles, whose oxygen and
    hydrogen are in the same ratio as in wa-
    ter  .     .    .     .    ...    .    .12
Alimentiveness, or the propensity to eat and
    drink.......10
Aliments, compound   .    .    .    .  ~  .  HO
    "    derived from flowerless plants    .  186
    "    proper       .....  110
    "    simple  ;.....38
                                        .  110
                                        .   74
                                        .   89
                                        .  163
                                        .   18
                                           20
                                        .  207
Dlid
Alkali, concrete  acidulated
Allspice      ....
Almonds, sweet and bitter  .
Ammonia, in the atmosphere
     "       maple juice
Amontillado
Amygdalin   .......  164
Amylaceous alimentary principle     .    .   59
Animal diet      ......247
   "   substances, diseased and decayed  .  142
Anthiarin     .    .     .    .     -    .    .28
Antiscorbutic acids.....71
      "      lemon juice   ....  172
      "      potatoes      .     .    .  180,182
      "      sweetwort    ....  157
Aponeuroses of mammals   .     .    .    .113
Apples       .......168
Apple tea.......195
Apricot.......165
Arabine, (soluble gum)     ....   53
Army rations     ....*.  236
Arrack or rack   .     .    .     ...    .79
Arrow-root, common or West Indian      .   65
      "     East Indian    ....   65
            English.....180
            Portland       ....   66
      "     Tahiti.....65
Arsenic in bones       .....3
Artesian wells    .     .    .     .    •    .46
Artichoke, the garden      .     .    .    .185
     "     the Jerusalem   .     .     .    .178
Asafcetida.......32
Asparagine  ......  183, 191
Asparagus.......183
Azote, see nitrogen.

                      B.
Baccate or berried fruits					168
Baking .					259
Bark-bread, (barkbrdd)					68
Barley ....					156
" bread					156
" meal					156
" patent					156
" pearl " Scotch					15b
					156
" water					156
" compound					157
Batatas					17s
Bean, broad					162
" garden					162
 
320
INDEX.
                                          Page
Bean, kidney......162
  "   scarlet......162
  "   Windsor......162
Beef-bro e or kale-brose     .    .    .     .155
Beefflesh.......114
  'J  tea     .......  197
Beer.........199
Beer-finings.......105
Beer-topers and  spirit-tipplers, difference be-
    tween   .......27
Bees........27
Beet-root.......178
Bile,  assists  the chymification of oils  and
    fats      .......83
Birds........126
  "  eggs of......128
  "  fat of.......123
  "  the aquatic......127
  "  the dark-fleshed.....127
  "  the rapacious.....127
  "  the white-fleshed.....126
  "  viscera of......127
Biscuit meal       ......150
   "   powder......150
Biscuits, Abernethy.....151
   "    buttered......151
   "    captains'      .....150
   "sea       ......150
   "    York......151
Blood........118
  "   corpuscles......34
Bodies, organized or living, chemical elements
          of.......2
   "   simple or undecompounded    .     .    1
Boiling........258
   "   loss of weight in     .    .    .     .241
Bones......         .112
Bone-black   .....         .4
Bracotte.......121
Brandy      .......78
   "   burnt......78
   "   mixture......78
Bread.....              .  147
  "   adulteration of            ...  148
  "   barley       ......156
  "   black.......149
  "   brown.......63
  "   compressed......150
  "   Dodson's patent.....152
  "   fancy.......150
  "   gluten......150
  "   loaf.......147
  "   new.......149
  "oat.......154
  "   piled or flaky         ....  148
  "   pudding......153
  "   formula for unfermented    .     .     .  152
  "   patent unfermented    .    .     .     .151
  "   ship........150
  "   unfermented or unleavened      .     .150
  "   wheat.......147
Breads, of the light and elastic  (spongy) un-
    fermented     ......151
Breakfast.......221
Bright's farina......180
Broccoli.......184
Broiling.......259
Broths and soups......196
Browning.......53
Buds and young  shoots.....183
Burgundy wine......209
Butchers'meat......113
Butter........86
   "  cause of its becoming rancid    .     .  262
   "  milk.......125
                                          Page
                      c.

Cabbage.......184
   "    lettuces......185
Cacao   ...'.....   194
Caffeine......         .   193
Cagliari paste.......146
Cakes, plum, &c.....•    .   153
   "   Dodson's unfermented     .     .    .153
Calavances.......233
Calfium........36
Calf's sweetbread......117
Callipash and callipee.....130
Caramel........58
Carbon........3
  "    hydrates of.....12
Carbonic acid,  production of, in the system
    .......7, 14, 26,  &c.
Carrageen, or Irish moss     .     .     .    .187
Carrageenin......71,  187
Carrot........178
Caseine, animal •......93
   "     composition of, according to Dumas    20
   "     quantity of, in milk ....    93
   "     vegetable.....96
Caseum........93
Cassada or cassava bread    ....    64
Cartilages of mammals.....113
Cauliflower, the......184
Caviare.....,            137
Celery........32
Cellular tissue of mammals   .     .    .    .113
Cereal grains .......145
Cerebric acid.......117
Ceylon or Jafna moss.....187
Champagne  .......   208
Charcoal, vegetable.....4
Cheese......         .93
Cherry, the......166, 78
Chestnut.......163
Chicken.......126
        broth......197
Chicory or  succory.....193
Chloride of sodium......107
    "      potassium.....37
Chlorine ...*....    35
Chlorophylle.......183
Chocolate.......194
Choleic acid.......107
Chondrin.......100
Chymosine.......211
Chymous mass of the dog, composition of   .   23
Cinnamon.......89
Citron, the.......173
Claret wines.......209
Clay, eaten as a luxury.....4
Climates, cold, remarks on        .    .    .8
Cloves........89
Cocoa   .    .......195
  "nib.......194
Cod........134
 "  liver oil.......136
 "  sounds   .......   106
Cockles........142
Cocote........121
Coffee........192
  "   Dunn's essence of     ...       193
Collin or colla......99
Condiments or seasoning agents  .    .     .  209
Constipation,  diet for        .    .    .68,  168
Cooked meat, loss in preparing and serving  .  241
Cookery.......213,258
Cooking, loss  in......241
Corinths, or currants.....171
Corn......         '  J44 
INDEX.
321
                                          Page
Corstorphin cream......125
Cos lettuces.....;     .  185
Crawfish, the sea......139
Cows' heels.....           107
Crab......1     !  139
Cranberry, the......169
Cream........120
  "    clotted or Devonshire.     .    .     .125
Creatine........113
Cremes......."     .   80
Crustaceans....."     .138
Cucumber    .     .         ....  173
Cucurbitaceous fruits.....173
Curacoa........80
Curd......"    \     .93
Cure de raisins    .     .    .     .    .     .171
Cures de petit lait......125
Currants, red and black     .     .    .     .169
Currant juice.......169
Currants or corinths.....171

                      D.

Dal.........233
Date........167
Densham's farinaceous food ....  147
Dextrine......199,200
Dholl........233
Diabetes, diet for......247
Diamond, the.......3
Diastaste.......157
Didym........1
Diet........211
   "  abstemious......248
   "  animal.......247
   "  common     ......  247
   "dry......41,249
   "  fever.......248
   "fish......134,251
   "  for diabetic patients    ....  247
   "full.......247
   "  lent.......134
   "low.......249
   "  meat.......247
   "  milk.......249
   "  spare.......248
   "  spoon.......248
   »  thin.......248
   "  vegetable......248
Dietaries.......222
         for children.....226
   "      " emigrants.....236
   "       " paupers.....236
   "       "    "    comparative view of   .  240
   "       " prisoners.....242
   "       " puerperal women     .   .    .  257
   "       " the insane      ....  255
   »       " the sick.....246
   "       " troops for India ....  235
   «       prison.....224,243
 Dietary for foundlings in Paris   .    .    .  230
   "      " orphans in Paris ....  230
   "     of Bethlem  Hospital .    .   .    .256
   "     of Dreadnought Hospital ship .    .  252
   "    of City of London Lying-in Hospital  257
   "     of the Foundling Hospital     .    .  228
   "     of the General Lying-in Hospital   .  257
   "     of Guy's Hospital        .   .    .250
   "     of Hanwell Lunatic Asylum  .    .  256
   "    of the Infant Orphan Asylum .    .  232
   "     of King's College Hospital   .    .  252
   "     of the London Hospital  .   .    .250
   "    of Marine Infirmaries     .    .    •  254
   "     of the Merchant's  Seamen's Orphan
           Asylum.....232
                                         Page
Dietary of the Middlesex Hospital     .    .  252
  "    of Naval Hospitals  ....  254
  "    of the Naval Asylum     .         .  229
  "    of North London Hospital     .    .  252
  "    of the  Norwood Establishment for
          Children.....229
  "    of the Royal Military Asylum .    .  228
  "    of Royal Ordnance Hospitals .    .  254
  "    of Soldiers.....236
  "    of St. Bartholomew's Hospital .    .  250
  "    of St. George's Hospital  .    .    .251
  "    of St. Luke's Hospital    .    .    .  257
  "    of St. Thomas's Hospital .         .  251
  "    of the Naval service     .    .    .  232
  "    of Westminster Hospital .    .    .251
Digestion.......211
   "     Liebig's hypothesis of  .    .    .   35
   "        "    objections to       .    .35
Dinner........222
Drinks.......189,262
  "   acidulous......195
  "   alcoholic and other intoxicating  .
  "   aromatic  or astringent ....
  "   containing gelatine and osmazone
  "   emulsive or milky   ....
  "   mucilaginous, farinaceous, or saccha-
        rine .......
       or liquid  aliments     .    .   *  •
Duck
198
189
196
197

189
189
127
E.
Eating, times of.....220,259
      repose after     ....  213, 260
  "   conduct before, at, and after    .    .  260
Eels........134
Eggs........128
  "  cannot support life     ....   23
  "  fixed constituents of    ...    .  129
  "flip........130
  "  white or glaire of.....128
  "  yolk of.......129
Elaterin........28
Elderberry.......169
Elements, chemical.....1
Endive, the.......185
Entophyta.......45
Entozoa........45
Ergotism.......158
Etserio........176

                      F.

Farina, fossil.......4
Fats     .        ......261
  "  animal.......87
Fattening.......27
Farinaceous food for infants  .    .    .   147, 180
    "      or starchy substances     .    .   59
Fecula........62
Fermentation, digestive .    .    .        35,211
     "       fatty.....261
     "       lactic.....261
     "       panary   .    .    .          147
     "       viscous.....56
Fems    .    .......186
Ferrotypes.......34
Ferruginous compounds     .    .    .    .110
Fibrine, animal.......91
   "    composition of, according to Dumas   20
   "    composition of, according to Mulder   33
   "    vegetable.....%
Fig, the.......175
Fish, diet......134,251
  "  methods of preserving      .        .136
21 
322
INDEX.
                                           Page
 Fish milt of.......133
   "  poison.......143
   "  poisonous species of    .    .     .    .135
   "  the roe or ovary of     .  $  .     .    .  137
   "  the viscera of.....136
 Fishes.......131, 132
 Fixed oils.......80
 Flesh   .     .    .    .     .    .     .    .113
   "  and  blood  of animals, composition of
         the     ......114
   "  tenderness of.....114
 Flounder, the......134
sftour, wheaten......146
 Fluorine.......37
 Flummery.......155
 Food consumed by and  excretions of a horse
     in 24 hours, table of     ....   21
 Food, digestibility of.....211
   "    .  .do.     affected by circumstances
                  relating to the foods them-
                  selves    ....  212
 Foods, animal.....Ill, 261
   "   bulk of......260
   "   chemical elements of     ...    1
   "   digestibility of,  affected by circum-
           stances relating to the individual
          or organism.....213
   "   nature and quality of     ...   260
   "   nitrogenized     .         ...   16
   "   quantity _of, at a  meal     .     .    .   259
   "   refusal of, by lunatics     .         .   255
   "   solid and liquid       .    .     .    .   261
   "   the nutritive qualities of   .     .    .217
   "   vegetable  .         ...   143,260
 Fowl........126
 Fruits, aurantiaceous
   "   cucurbitaceous
   "   drupaceous or  stone
   "   leguminous
Frying
Fumet  .
Fungi or mushrooms
Fungin .
Fur of tea-kettles
 .  171
 .  173
 .  165
 .  165
 .  174
83, 259
 .  127
 •  188
 .   68
 .   43
G.
Garlic
Gastric juice  .
Gelatine altered by heat
    "   Commission,  experiments
            the French
    "   common
    "   dry and hard
    "   French
    "   from elastic tissues
    "   Nelson's patent opaque
    "   pale English machine-cut
    "   sugar
Gelatinous alimentary principle
     "     substances
Gin
Ginger beer  .
Gingerbread
Globules of the blood
Glue
Gluten   .
   "  Beccaria's   .
   "  bread
   "  pure
Glutinous matter   .
Glycicoll
Goose
  "  fattening of
          183
           35
          100
made by
      102, 219
           99
          106
          106
          100
          106
          106
          103
           99
          100
           79
          196
          151
           33
          100
           96
           97
           99
           96
           97
      103, 247
          127
           27
natives of the
  Page
11, 128
 .  169
Goose, fatty liver of
Gooseberries
Gormandizing powers of the
    Arctic Regions
Gourds   .
Grape, the
   "   juice   .
   "   sugar
   "     "   not detected in the blood
Greens   .
Grenetine
Groats
Gruel
  "   used at Poorhouses
Gums
Gum Arabic lozenges
  "   pastes, (pates)
  "   said to support life
  "   water
Gypsum, eaten
    "    in water

                      H.
Haddock, the......133
Hard's farinaceous food      ....  147
Haricot........175
Hartshorn.......106
Hazel-nut.......163
Hemp, Indian.......209
Herring      .......134
Hippuric acid, formation of, in the system   .   23
Horse, food consumed by. and excretions of     21
Hydrogen......
  9
173
169
170
 55
 23
184
106
154
154
241
 53
 54
 54
 19
 54
 37
 47
11
I.
Iceland moss
Ichthyophagi
Imperial
Indian corn starch
Indigestion, diet for
Insane, dietaries for
Iron
Isinglass
    "   varieties of
 .  186
 .  131
- .   75
 .  180
 .  257
 .  255
33, 110
 .  103
 .  104
Jams
Jargonelle, the
Jellies, fruit
Jelly, calf's foot
   "  isinglass
   "  vegetable
Jerusalem artichoke
 .   70
 .  167
 .   70
 .  101
100,101
 .   69
 .  178
                      K.

Ketchup.......210
Kidney      .......118
King's cup.......172
Kirschenwasser......80
Lactalbumen
Lactic acid
Lactometer
Lactucarium
Laver
Leaves and leafstalks
Leeks
Legumine
Leguminous fruits ;  legumes or pods
.   93
56,76
  121
  185
  187
  183
  183
   96
  174 
INDEX.
323
                                          Page
Lemonade......172,76
          iced......172
Lemon and Kali       .....74
   "   juice      .......   172
   "    "  artificial.....74
Lemons.......172
Lentils      .    .    .    .    .     .    .162
Lettuce leaves......185
   "    opium    -. ■   •    .    .     .    •   185
Lichenin, or feculoid.....66
Lichens.......186
Liebig's plastic elements of nutrition  .    .   16
    "   elements of respiration  ...   16
Ligaments of mammals    ....   113
Ligneous alimentary principle, the     .    .   66
Lignine; woody fibre      ....   66
Lime.......36,109
  " phosphate  ....     36,57, 109
  " sulphate.....37,47
Limpets.......142
Liqueurs and compounds   ....   80
Liquid aliments, or drinks       .     .    .   188
Liquorice.......58
Liver, fatty,  of the goose    .    .     .       128
   "   the  frequency of diseases of the, in
     tropical climates.....11
Lobster, the.......139
Luncheon.......222
M.
Macaroni.......146
Madeira.......208
Magnesium      ......37
Maize, or Indian com       ....   60
Malt........157
  "  liquor       ......  198
Mammals.......Ill
          fat of......113
    "     muscles, or flesh of               113
Mannacroup     ....'..  146
Mannite.......56
Maraschino di zara.....80
Marmalade.......71
Marrow.......87
   "    the vegetable      ....  174
Meat, black      ......114
  "   butchers'......113
  "   diet.......247
  "   salted      ......109
  "   white      ......114
Melon, the.......174
   "    the water.....174
Milk   .    •.....119,120
  "  almond......19"
  "  and  lime water.....124
  "  animal      ......198
  "  artificial asses'.....12j
  "  asses'.......125
  "  cocoa-nut......198
  "  cows'.......119
  "  cream of......120
  "  diet.......249
  "  ewes'   .......  125
  "  goats'.......125
  "  quantity of cream in cows'       .    .  122
  "  skimmed......120
  "  supplied to the London Hospital      .  1-2
Molasses and treacle.....58
Molkencuren......126
Mollusks.......lj~
Morel, common       .     ..   .     •    •  188
Moss, carrageen, or Irish    .    .     .    •  187
  "   Ceylon, or Jaffna    '.    .     .    •  1°«
Mucilage.......^
                                         Page
Mucilaginous, or gummy alimentary princi-
    ple, the      ......•*{
Mulberry, the......175
Muscle       .......HI
Muscular flesh......m
Mushroom, field or cultivated    .         .188
Mussel, the.......142
Mussels and oysters, deleterious effects of    140
Mustard.......32
    "   and cress.....185
Mutton, occasional ill effects of      .    •  H6
Mutton broth     .    .    .    .    ...  197
N
Nectarine, the
Nitrogen, or azote
    "    generation of
Nitrogenized foods
Non-nitrogenized foods
Nutmeg
Nutritive equivalents
Nutritious farina
 ,  166
..   15
 .   18
 .   16
19,225
o.
Oats......
Oat-bread, unfermented
Oatmeal.....
Oatmeal porridge
Obesity, mode of promoting
Oil, Florence     ....
  " Gallipoli     ....
  " Genoa       ....
  " Lucca   .....
  "• olive, or sweet
  " Provence    ....
  " Sicily.....
  " Spanish ...
  " sweet, droppings of
Oilsj essential or volatile
  "  fixed    .    .    .
Oily alimentary principle, the
Oleaginous aliments
Olive......
  "  pickled     ....
Onion......
Opium......
Orange      .
   "   the Seville
   "   juice     ....
Organic tissues   ....
Orgeat       .    .  t .
Osmazone.....
Ox, liver of the   ....
Oxalic acid      ....
Oxygen     .    .    .   .    .
   "    consumption of in respiration
Ovster, the.....
113.
 27
180
154
154
154
155
 27
 86
 86
 86
 86
 85
 85
 86
 88
 80
 80
 80
167
167
183
209
171
173
173
100
193
196
118
 75
 13
  7
140
Packwax
Panada      ;
Pancakes
Parsley
Pastry  .
Pates de foies gras
Peas
 .  113
 .  154
 .  153
89,248
 .  153
11,128
 .  162
Peach, the.......166
Pearl moss   .    .    .    .    .    .    .  187
Pectine      .    .    .    .    . *  .    .69
Pectinaceous alimentary principle, the    .   69
Pemmican.......223
Pepones.......173 
324
INDEX.
                                          Page
Pepper........_  89
Pepsine......35,211
Periwinkles.......142
Petit-toes.......107
Phosphates, earthy     .     .    .      36,57,109
Phosphorus......29,30
Pilchards.....,  •     •  1«
Pineapple.......175
Picrotoxine.......*8
Plaice, the.......134
Plum, the.......166
Polenta      .......161
Pomaceous fruits, or apples   ....  167
Porridge.......155
Port-wine.......207
Porter........201
Potash.........37
   "   quadroxolate of      ....   75
   "   salts.......110
Potassium.......37
Potato flour.......180
   "   starch......65
   "the.......178
Potatoes, quantity of starch yielded by      .  180
    "    cause dropsy.....19
Powders, ginger-beer.....74
     "    soda......74
     "    Seidlitz      .....75
Prawns and shrimps.....139
Preserves.......59
Prison diet, dissent of Mr. Hill respecting   .  243
   "    "  observations of the Secretary of
              State on     ....  243
   "   Inspectors, conclusions    .    .    . 242
Prisoners, weekly allowance of food to     .  246
Proteine......20,89
Proteinaceous alimentary principle    .    .  89
       "       principles, animal      .    .  91
       "           "      vegetable   .    .  95
Prunes........166
Pudding, black
    "    bread
    "    flour
    "    rice,
    "    sago
    "    suet
Putrescent matter, ill effects of
Pyrrhin      ....
118
154
254
254
 63
241
 43
 42
a
Quina........28
Quince, the.......168



Rabhit........114
Raisine      .......231
Raisins........171
Raspberry, the
Ratafias
Rations, army
Receptacles and bracts
Rennet
Reptiles
Respiration
Rhubarb
Rice
  "  mucilage of
  "  spirit
Ricotta
Roasted flesh
Roasting
Roe     ...
  "  hard
Roe, soft
Rolls, hot
Roots, subterraneous stems
Rum
Rusks   .
Rye
  " bread
  " ergot of
  " pottage
S
    176
 .   80
 .   236
 .   185
 .   124
 .   130
      7
 .   185
 .   158
 .   160
 .    79
 .   121
 .   114
213,253
 .  137
133, 137
Saccharine alimentary principle
Sago, pearl and brown
  "  meal
Salep
Saline alimentary principle
Salmon, the
Salt, common
  "  of sorel
Salted meat
Salts, potash
Sauces   .
Savoy, the
Scallops
Scurvy   .
Seeds
  "   leguminous
  "   mealy or farinaceous
  "   of cupulifera?
  "   oily
Semolina
Serai
Shallots
Sheeps' trotters
Sherry
Shrimps
Size
Slops
Smelts
Snails
Snow
Societies, teetotal
     "     temperance
Soda powders
  "  water, bottled
  "     "   Webb's
Sodium
   "   chloride of, conversion of
           chloric acid and soda
Solanina
Sole, the
Sorosis
Souchy, water
Soujee
Soup for prisoners
  "  used at poorhouses
 Soups
 Sourkrout or Sauerkraut
 Sowins, or Sowans
 Spare diet
 Spinage  .
 Spirit
   "  weak, as a drink
 Sponge   .
 Sprats
 Starch   .
   "   potato
   "   rice
 Stems
 Stir-about
 Strawberry, the
 Stuff, used by bakers
 Suet puddings, formulae for
   "     "     used at poorhouses
and tubers
173,
   Pag«
133, 133
    149
    177
     79
    150
    157
    157
    158
    157
 .   55
 .   63
 .   63
 .   66
 .  107
  .  134
107, 109
 .   75
108, 109
  .  110
 .  210
  .  184
  .  142
182, 244
144, 155
 .  161
 .  144
 .  163
  .  163
 .  146
  .  121
 .  183
  .  107
  .  207
  .  139
  .  100
  .  248
  .  132
  .  142
  .   42
  .   26
  .   26
  .   74
  .  195
  .  195
  .   36
into hydro-
101.
     41
  .  180
  .  134
  .  175
  .  134
  .  146
  .  246
  .  240
112, 196
  .  184
  .  155
  .  248
  .  185
  25,76
  .  262
  .  148
  .  134
  .   59
  .   65
  .   66
  .  185
  .  155
  .  176
  .  148
  .  241
  .  241 
                                          Page
Succory or chicory.....193
Sugar an element of respiration   .         .   23
  "   boiled.....         .53
  "   brown.......57
  "   burnt.......58
  "   candy.......57
  "   cannot support life     ....   19
  "   crystal......57
  "   liquorice......58
  "   potato       ......57
  "   purified or refined     ....   57
Sulphur........31
Sulphureted hydrogen of water   ...   45
Supper........222
Sweetwort.......157
Sweetbread.......119
Syconus.......175
Syrup of almonds......198
  "   of orgeat    .    .    .    .     .    .191

                      T.

Tasters, wine.......207
Tamarind, the......174
Tapioca........64
Tea.......189,222
Tench, the.......138
Tendons of mammals.....113
Theine........190
Theobromine......194, 195
Tickor........66
Tickhur........66
Toast water.......189
Tops and bottoms......150
Tous-les-mois......65
Tripe........118
  "  de roche......186
Truffle, common......188
Turbot, the.......133
Turnips      .......177
Turnip-tops.......185
Turtle   .   .         .....   130

                      u.

Universal sanative breakfast beverage .    .   180

                      V.

Veal........115
  "  broth.......197
Vegetable albumen.....96
     "    aliments.....144
     "     caseine     .....96
          diet......248
     "     " best adapted for divers  .    .    14
     "    fibrine......96
Venison........116
Vermicelli.......146
Victualling of troops for India    .    .    .  235
Vinegar........71
    "   common......72
    "   distilled......73
    "   malt.......72
    "   pickling......72
    "   proof......72
    "    white......72
    "   wood......72
Viscera of quadrupeds.....116

                      w.

Water........39
   "  as a dietetical remedy ....   41
                                          Page

Water barley.......15j>
  "   common, purification of    .    .     •   50
  «      "    tests of the usual impurities
                in.....49
  "   cress   .   .-.....1^>
  "   impregnated with lead     ...   47
  "   lake.......49
  "   marsh.......4,
  «   of the Dead Sea.....ol
  "   preservation of, at sea ....  234
  "   Prof. Clark's patent for     ...   50
  "rain.......4J
  "   river.......42
  "   sea.......51
  "   snow.......42
  "   spring.......42
  "   Thames....."    o
  "   toast       ......189
  »   well.......4<j
  "    "  of London   .    .    .    .    .44
Waters, carbonated or acidulous  ...   52
   "        "     chalybeates  .    .    .   52
   "    common......41
   "    distilled......52
   "    mineral......52
   "    of Bath and Bristol  ....   52
   "    chalybeate or ferruginous    .    .   52
   "    Malvern......52
   "    of Cheshire.....52
   "     " Cheltenham.....52
   "     " Geyser and Reikum  ...   52
   "     " Harrowgate.....52
         " Teplitz.....52
   "     " Isle of Wight    ....   52
   "     " the Thames and Colne, table of
             the solid constituents of .    .43
   "     " Tunbridge Wells     ...   52
   "     purging saline      .    .     .    .52
   "     saline......52
   "     sulphated chalybeates  ...   52
   "     sulphureous or hepatic  ...   52
   "     the alkaline.....52
   "      " brine......52
   "      " calcareous.....52
   "      " siliceous.....52
Wheat......        .145
Wheaten bread......147
Wheaten flour......146
Whelks........142
Whey........124
  "   alum.......124
  "   cream of tartar.....124
  "   mustard......124
  "   rennet.......124
  "   tamarind......124
  "   white wine......124
Whitebait.......131
Whiting, the      ......133
Whiskey.......79
Wine........201
Wines, bouquet of......202
       Burgundy......209
   "    Champagne.....203
   ••     claret.......209
   "     German......208»
   "    Madeira......208
   "    port.......207
   "     sherry......207
z.
Zeiger
Zymome
121
 97 
 
 
 
.a"
J   1 
»?
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
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