Introductory lecture delivered at the commencement of the winter session 1864-65, in the Medical School, Surgeons' Hall, Edinburgh / by Stevenson Macadam.

Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory lecture delivered at the commencement of the winter session 1864-65, in the Medical School, Surgeons' Hall, Edinburgh / by Stevenson Macadam. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    ami they preserve their health; so tliat tliese proportions may not be regarded as under the proper alloAvance. A mixed diet of veget<ible and animal matter is preferable, as the vegetable matter is generally deficient iu nitrogen, but contains an excess of carbon, and the animal matter has a deficiency of the carbon element and an excess of nitrogen ; so that when the vegetable and animal matters are conjoined, the proper proportions are obtained. Animal food, moreover, is readily assimilated, and hence, though dearer at first cost, yet is more valuable from the facility of its appropriation by the animal frame. Vegetable food, on the other hand, has an important influence in sustaining the animal system in a good, healthy condition ; and the benefits derivable from the liberal use of fresh vegetables and fruits in scurvy are well known. Tlie allowance of food in the British navy is from 31 to 35-^ oz. of dry food per day; of which about 26 oz. are vegetable, and the remainder is animal. The ordinary ration of a British soldier is J lb. of mutton or beef, 1 lb. of bread, 1 lb. of potatoes, and tea and cotfee for breakfast and supper. These quantities are regarded as barely sufficient for the wants of a recruit at hard work at drill, but suflicient for a corporal, who has less expenditure of muscular force, or for an old soldier who is leaving the ranks. In the military prisons in Ireland, tlie soldiers who are prisoners receive daily 8 oz. oatmeal, 8 oz. Indian corn meal, 8 oz. wheaten bread, and 1^ phit of milk; the whole being divided into three meals; and the healthiness of this diet is observable in the fact that, wliilst the mortality in the British army was at the rate of 17 in 1000, that in the military prisons in Ireland Avas only 2^ per 1000. The average proportional quantity of food consumed by various cla.sses of society has been reckoned as follows :— Agricultural labourers, . . . .122 Artisans, first class, . . . . .140 Paupers, . . . . . .150 Soldiers, . . . . . . 168 . Prisoners in jail, ..... 217 Convicts in hulks, or transported felons, . . 237 In the prisons of England the quality and nature of the diet varies .so much that the cost per head ranges from Is. 2d. to 5s. and even 7s. each week. In cornmon-sense cooking, when soup only is being prepared, the meat is put into the water when it is cold, and the whole is then gently warmed; Avliilst, Avhen the meat is required as well, it should be placed at first in hot water, which coagulates the exterior albuminous ingredients, and thus forms a skin or coating which retains the most of the nutritious elements. Even in the latter case, however, .some of the feeding rpialities of tlie meat ])ass into the .soup, anfl therefore the latter should be partaken of along with the meat. Till lately, the meat supplied to the soldiers of the British army was boiled, and the soup being thrown away, the
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