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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    not one to be relied on. Of the use of gum by the Moors, Negroes, and Hottentots, we have but little detailed and satisfactory information. The evidence of the nutritive property of sugar will be hereafter stated; but I may here mention that it applies principally to the use of this substance in an impure state, in which it contains nitrogenous matter.* Moreover, it is probable that nitrogenized food is, in gen- eral, used in combination with sugar. 3. The third argument is, that the food of all animals, herbivorous and carnivorous, con- tains nitrogenized matters, identical in composition with the principal constituents of the blood and organized tissues of the animal body; and, therefore, the carbon of gum, sugar, and starch, and the carbon and hydrogen of the fats and oils, are not required for the production of blood. One of the most surprising facts for which we are indebted to the school of Giessen is, that vegetables contain organic principles identical in composition with animal fibrine, albumen, and caseine. They are not merely similar, observes Liebig, but absolutely identical, not only in having the same proportion of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitro- gen, which the animal principles contain, but also in possessing the same relative amount of sulphur, phosphorus, and phosphate of lime. Fibrine, albumen, and caseine, both animal and vegetable, dissolve in a solution of caustic potash. If, to the resulting liquid, acetic acid be added, the same precipitate is obtained, whichever of the above three principles has been employed. The substance thus precipitated has been called, by its discoverer, Mulder, proteine (from irpbiTciu—/ hold the first place) Its formula, according to Liebig, is C48 H3fi Nfi Ou-f Fibrine, albumen, and caseine, are compounds of proteine and sulphur, and, in the case of the two first of these bodies, of phosphorus also. ANIMAL. VEGETABLE. Fibrine . —Proteine -+- S -j- Ph. Albumen . =Proleine -f- S2 + Ph. Caseine . —Proteine -j- S Fibrine . =Proteine -f- S -j- Ph. Albumen . =Prohine -f- S2 -j- Ph. Caseine . —Proteine -j- S 11 Vegetable fibrine and animal fibrine, vegetable albumen and animal albumen, hardly differ, says Liebig, even in form; if these principles be wanting in the food, the nu- trition of the animal is arrested; and when they are present, the graminivorous animal obtains in its food the very same principles, on the presence of which the nutrition of the carnivora entirely depends. 4. The fourth argument is, that the quantity of nitrogenized food, which herbivorous ani- mals consume, is amply sufficient for the growth and development of their organs and for the supply of waste. We are indebted to BoussingaultJ for the demonstration of the truth of this statement, in the case of the cow and the horse. The following table is taken from his memoir : the numbers represent French grammes [1 gramme= 15-434 grs. troy.] * An amusing illustration of this has been furnished by Liebig with respect to the saccharine juice of maple trees, which he found to emit so much ammonia when mixed with lime, that suspicion was at first excited that some malicious wag had introduced urine into it, and, accordingly, the vessels, which hung upon the trees in order to collect the juice, were watched with great attention. t Dumas (Essai de Slatique Ckimique d«selres organises^. 56, 2mc ed. 1842,> gives the following as the formula for fibrine, albumen, and caseum : C4811 IST6 O'*. This is equal to 43 eq. Carbon, 6 eq. Ammo- nium and 15 eq. Water: he also states that the analyses made in Liebig's laboratory agree best with the following : C48 II35 N6 O15, which is equal to 48 eq. Carbon, 3 eq. Ammonium, 3 eq. Ammonia, and 15 eq. Water. % Ann. de Chim. et de Physique, t. Ixxi.