Observations on the functional disorders of the kidneys, which give rise to the formation of urinary calculi : with remarks on their frequency in the county of Norfolk / by William England.

Date:
[1830]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the functional disorders of the kidneys, which give rise to the formation of urinary calculi : with remarks on their frequency in the county of Norfolk / by William England. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    for the cultivation of tlie potatoe, has unques- tionably, by aftbrding an easy means of support, tended, in an incalculable degree, to swell the numbers of the dense population. The use of wheat bread is almost unknown over extensive districts in that country ; and, when we behold the human race generally possessed of a finer and more perfect physical developement than falls to the lot of those who are natives of what are considered more highly favoured portions of the united kingdom, we have a just reason to con- clude, that the potatoe contains no inferior powers of aftbrding nutrition. Chemical analysis informs us, that the potatoe, although it contains a considerable portion of starch, which is the base of the saccharine principle, does not contain so much gluten as wheat-Hour: the latter proximate principle abounds in wheat, and, by its stimulating, and, as they are generally believed, nutritious powers, from their approximation to animal gluten, distinguishes this grain from all other known vegetable productions. The potatoe, though not containing so large a proportion of starch, has evidently, from ])Ossessing a paucity of gluten, a closer relation to Maranta arundina- cea (arrow root), Cycas circinalis (sago), latro- pha manihot (tapioca), and Orchis mascula (saloj)), than it has to the flour of the Cerealia.