A treatise on food and diet : with observations on the dietetical regimen suited for disordered states of the digestive organs : and an account of the dietaries of some of the principal metropolitan and other establishments for paupers, lunatics, criminals, children, the sick, &c / by Jonathan Pereira ; edited by Charles A. Lee.

  • Jonathan Pereira
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on food and diet : with observations on the dietetical regimen suited for disordered states of the digestive organs : and an account of the dietaries of some of the principal metropolitan and other establishments for paupers, lunatics, criminals, children, the sick, &c / by Jonathan Pereira ; edited by Charles A. Lee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    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. Avoird upois Food weight Avoird upois weight Kinds of Food. of of Carbon lbs. oz. grs. lbs. oz. grs. Ordinary meat, containing l-7th of fat and cellular tissue 1 306 4 186 66 9 397-5 Fat or Lard 3 13 304-5 3 1 1561 Lentils 3 10 412 1 Peas . 12 12 161 11 10 131-2 Beans 15 0 76 i Potatoes 1093 2 357 133 5 374-2 Bread .... 1923 9 214-5 603 15 300-5 Total for 855 men for one day 3358 5 398-5 818 11 46 Average for one man for one day .... 1 3 14 370-5 '0 15 140 In addition to the above, the 855 men consumed, Of Green Vegetables (Cabbages, Greens, Turnips, &c.) 192 Of Sourkrout Of Onions, Leeks, Celery, &c Total for 855 men for one day Average for one man for one day . lb. 192 oz. 15 ere- 15 110 2 325 26 11 203-5 326 6 55 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 Butter Beer Brandy . 3 3-10 oz. 3-4 oz. & 33 1-3 grs. 5-10 pint 1-10 pint Avoirdupois weight. 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 faeces and the urine, and shall exclude from our calcula- * Liebig, Animal Chemistry, or Organic Chemistry in its Applications to Physiology and Patholosv edited by Dr. W. Gregory, p. 14. Lond. 1842. gy'