On food : four Cantor lectures, delivered before the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce / by H. Letheby.

Henry Letheby

Date:: 1868

Credit: On food : four Cantor lectures, delivered before the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce / by H. Letheby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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$Dietaries TO FunNisu A8 NEARLY as rossira-E 30,100 Grains of Cahdon and 1,400 Grains or Nitrogen pe Man Weekly—Women take One-tenth Less. Cost. Bread Flour for dumplings Oatmeal Peas Eico Sugar Treacle Butter Dripping Suet Meat ■without bone Herrings Bacon Skimmed milk Buttermilk Tea Coffee and cliicory Nutntive values. | ^'If^^ I Nitrogen Is. lljtl. Oz. 144 io 70 60 Grs. 28,031 1,409 2s. Ojd. Oz. 128 32 4 16 140 Grs. 29,748 1,291 2s. 3J(1. Oz. 100 16 io 4 8 60 80 Gi-s. 33,552 1,511 2s. 4 id. Oz. 160 32 8 70 Grs. 34,935 1,548 2s. Oil. Oz. 128 32 12 i 8 2 8 4 4 120 Grs. 32,998 1,859 2s. 71d. Oz. ICO 16 6 4 8 s 120 0-5 1 Grs. 33,248 1,609, 2s. 8id. Oz. 160 16 16 4 8 4 16 70 60 Grs, 36,499 1,674 2s. lOjd. Oz. 160 16 16 4 12 2 4 12 120 3s. Ijd. Oz. 192 16 8 8 8 4 4 8 *8 70 60 0-5 1 Grs. Grs. 36,402 41,519 1,638' 1,768 3s. SJ.: Oz. IGO 12 2 24 100 1 Grs. 36,3!; 1,62L they ought to be from l-3rd to l-4th less than the larger dietaries of men engaged in out-door labour. As regards the dietaries of children, it may be stated generally that the chief part of their food should be milk. Up to the age of nine or ten months it should, if possible, be the milk of woman, which is richer in sugar than cow's milk, and much less rich in caseine ; failing this, however, asses' milk is a good substitute, as it con- tains nearly the same amount of sugar and caseine as human milk. MM. 0. Henri and Chevalier have given these as the proportions of the several constituents in 100 parts of the milk of different animals:— Asses' milk. Woman's milk. Cow's milk. Goat's mUk. Ewe s milk. Sugar of milk .... Various salts .... 1-81 0-11 6-08 0-34 1-52 3-55 6-50 0-46 4-48 3- 13 4- 77 0-60 4-02 3-32 6-28 0-58 4-50 4-20 500 0-68 Water 8-34 91-66 12-02 87-98 12-98 87-02 13-20 86-80 14-38 85-62 Total 100-00 100-00 100-00 100-00 100-00 Cow's milk, therefore, diluted with about one-third its bulk of water, and sweetened with sugar, may be given to children; and up to nine or ten months no other food should be administered, for infants have not the power of digesting farinaceous or fibrinous substances. A child may take from two to tlirco pints of milk thus diluted daily. After ten months, and to about twenty months, fiirinaccous matters may bo mixed in gradually increasing quantities with the milk ; and they should be well cooked by first baking them, and then thoroughly dissolving them by boiling. After this age, and up to the third year, the quantity of well-cooked farinaceous matters may be still further increased, and given as puddings with a little egg. Bread and butter may also be eaten, and towards the end of the time the child will digest wcll-boiled potato, with a little gravy of meat. From the third to the fifth year a little meat may also be given, and at the end of the ninth year it may partake of the usual food of the family; but all along it should make use of a large proportion of milk, in the various forms 0 bread and milk, or milk puddings, with eggs. Aboui the tenth year a child will require about half as mucl food as a woman; and at the fourteenth year it will eati quite as much as a woman; in fact, the proportion of fooC' required by the child is much greater per pound weight of the body than that of adults, because it Ims to form iti tis sues and build up its several structures. Dr. Edwarff Smith calculates that the proportions of carbon anc nitrogen in the daily food at different ages should be about as follows:— Daily Proportions of Carbon and Nitrogen in thh Food at Different Ages, per Pound Weight or THE Body. Carbon. Nitrogen. grs. 69 6-78 At ten years of 48 2-81 At sixteen do. do 30 2-16 At adult life . 23 1-04 In middle age . 25 1-13 So that for its weight the infant requires three times a.' much carbonaceous food and six times as much nitro-.i genous as an adult. I The construction of dietaries for particular purpose? as for training, for developing muscular tissue, for pn ducing fat, or for reducing it, is beyond the sc' ■ these lectures ; but it may generally be sijid that training the object is to form muscular tissue, to . great endurance of action, and, at the same time, duco the weight of the bodj', it is accomplished by U. use of nitrogenous food, with but little fat or farinacoou- matter, and as little fluid as possible—so that musculo: tissue may take the place of fat and water; and b constant exercise, the endurance and strength of th muscular tissue is increased, and the proportion of -n-nti; in the tissues is reduced. King, in training, is sn i 11 have fcikcn for his breakfast two lean mutton-( i 'p^- somewhat under-done, with dry toast or stale bread. anJ a single cup of tea without sugar; for dinner, 1 lb. oi l\]h. of beef or mutton, with toast or stale bread, an ■ very little potato or other vegetable, and lialf-a-pint i • old ale, or a glass or t wo of sherry ; for tea a single cin of unsweetened tea with an egg and some dry toast; an^ i$