Vegetable substances used for the food of man / [Edwin Lankester. Revised and partly rewritten].

  • Edwin Lankester
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vegetable substances used for the food of man / [Edwin Lankester. Revised and partly rewritten]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    body than either sugar or starch, and is therefore more capable of keeping up animal heat. It enters into the diet of man in many of the seeds which he eats, as also in the form of butter, and in fat meat, and the various dishes prepared from it. On account of its power of maintaining combustion, it is eaten largely by persons inhabiting the colder and more northern parts of the world. Although we have not referred to animal food, it will be seen from what we have said, that the flesh, that is, the muscles, blood-vessels, nerves, and other parts, are formed out of the nitrogenous secretions of plants, and it is by feeding on the flesh of other animals that some de- pend for their subsistence, as the whole of the Carnivora. Man’s digestive organs, structure, and habits adapt him for feeding on animals, and we find that animal food enters more or less into his diet throughout the whole world. The nitrogenous matters which he thus obtains must, however, be first procured by some animal from the vegetable kingdom, as the animal does not possess the power of forming in its own body these substances. Amongst the secretions of vegetables which are used by man in his food, there |ire some which do not appear to serve materially either in building up the fabric of his body or in maintaining heat in his frame. These have been called medicinal secretions* because they seem supplied rather to protect the frame from falling into disease than to contribute to any of the great functions of life. Examples of such substances are seen in the organic acids, which enter into the comjx)sition of the juices of most fruits ; the volatile oils, which form tho principal feature of our various spices; and the alkaloids, which are consumed in the form of tea, cofi’ee, chocolate, and Paraguay tea. In the following chairtcrs the various substances used as food b}' ?nan will be arranged according to the out- line here ])rescnted to tho reader. It would lx; quite • See Lankester’s ‘ Lectures on the Natural History of Plants yielding Food.’
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