The choice of food / by Henry Simpson.

  • Henry Simpson
Date:
[between 1870 and 1879?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The choice of food / by Henry Simpson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    cium, magnesium, and iron, the last five being found as salts of soda, potash, lime, and iron; and there are some others I need scarcely mentioa These elements, variously combined, form com- pounds, some of which are inorganic and others organic INORGANIC COMPOUNDS. Of these I will only name a few. First there is water, which exists in so large a quantity in the body as to form two-thirds of its weight, so that if a man weighs 150 pounds you may reckon loo poimds as water. Then there are a large number of salts. Com- mon salt, which is called chloride of sodium, is the most abundant and most important of these; there are also chlorides of potas- sium and ammonium; there are phosphates of soda, potash,, lime, and magnesia; sulphates of soda and potash, &c ORGANIC -COMPOUNDS. These are divided into two great classes, the first of which contains Nitrogen. Of these I will mention the albuminous substances, which contain nitrogen, sulphur, and small quantities of phosphorus. The white of an egg is a good example of one variety of albume7i, and cheese may be taken to represent another nitrogenous body, which is called caseine. I may mentioa a third, fibrine, which is obtained in a stringy form when blood is whipped, as it is termed. The second great class of organic compounds is called Non- ntirogenous. It contains substances composed of carboia, hydrogen, and oxygen, variously arranged. Some of these are called carbo- hydrates, because the hydrogen and oxygen are combined with carbon in the same proportion as they exist in water. Then, too, we have fat existing in and forming an important part of the body. Now muscle—the lean flesh of an animal—contains nitrogen, while the pure fat does not As the body consists of mineral constituents, of water and saline matters, and of organic matters, both nitrogenous and non- nitrogenous, it follows that in order to supply the requirements of the body our food must consist of the same ingredients, or of aubstances which can be easily changed into them when submitted to. the process of digestion. It is desirable also that the food Mio,uld be of 5uch a nature that its digestion can be accomplished
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