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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    I)oiled meat was alone given in the rations. This system of robbing the meat of much of its strength lias been done away witli, and the establishment of a school of cookery at Aldershot has done much, and will still do more, to place the cooking for the army on a satis- factory footing. I trust that the medical men of the army will keep pace in the science of the soldiers' food with the military cook in the practice of that important and necessary art. Bad cooking undoubtedly leads to much waste of useful material; whilst good cooking may be regarded as a saving of the necessaries of life. Recently, much public attention has been directed to the plan of reducing corpulent personages, known as the Banting system. There can be no doubt that the plan has been successful in giving the necessary relief to many persons, but I am strongly of opinion that there is great cause for the protest which Dr Edward Smith has made in regard to the adoption of this plan by all and sundry of our more corpulent brethren, and the necessity for caution being observed in adopting the system, except under medical supervision. The true cure for corpulence is a restriction in the absolute quantity of food, more than in the relative proportions of the con- stituents. The abstraction of starch, sugar, and such like heat- producing or carbon elements, and the supplying of flesh-forming or nitrogen elements in their stead, can only lead to an unnatural diet, which loads the system with a superabundance of the flesh-forming or nitrogen elements. In the diet of a large number of prisons, Mr Chadwick has ob- served a curious anomaly in regard to the effect of an increased amount of stimulating food. Out of 104 prison returns, he contrasts the health of the prisoners in relation to the quantity and expense of the diet. Thus— Food Cost per Sick per week in ounces. head in per week. 100. 188 Ifs. lOid. 3 213 2s. 4id. 18 228 3s. 2d. 23J Deaths in 1000. 20 prisons, lowest diet, 188 Is. lO^d. 3 U 20 „ medium diet, 213 2s. 4id. 18 3 20 „ highest diet, 228 3s. 2d. 23J 4 Augmentations of food, therefore, are apparently mischievous, and where the diet does not exhibit satisfactory results, recourse should be had to variety of food rather than to increased quantity. In so simple a matter as the condition in which food should be partaken of, there is even a difference of opinion.^ The high condi- tion in which game is often eaten in this countiy is open to question in a health point of view, as there can be no chemical difference be- tween a putrefying grouse or black cock and a putrefying leg of mutton or roast of beef. The inhabitants of the Faroe Islands con- sume their meat in a decayed state, and conclude their meal by a tit-bit of flesh, fowl or fish, which is full of live maggots. The Faroese are very subject to intestinal complaints. Another important matter which claims special attention at the
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