On food : its varieties, chemical composition, nutritive value, comparative digestibility, physiological functions and uses, preparation, culinary treatment, preservation, adulteration, etc. : being the substance of four Cantor lectures, delivered before the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, in the months of January and February, 1868 / by H. Letheby.

  • Henry Letheby
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On food : its varieties, chemical composition, nutritive value, comparative digestibility, physiological functions and uses, preparation, culinary treatment, preservation, adulteration, etc. : being the substance of four Cantor lectures, delivered before the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, in the months of January and February, 1868 / 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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    These are the results of inquiries into the dietaries of many hundreds of families, the proportions being com- puted as for adults ; but it is very probable, as Dr. Smith remarks, that the nourishment obtained by the labourer himself is somewhat above the average. This, in fact, is confirmed by the more extensive investigations of Dr. Lyon Playfair, who concludes, from a large series of observations, that the following may be regarded as the average proportions of the several constituents of food in > the daily dietary of an adult man under different circum- stances of existence :— Table XVIII. Daily Diet according to Work Done. Carbonaceous. Daily Diets for Flesh- former. Fat. Starch and. Suga] Nitro- r. genous. Calculated as Starch. ozs. ozs. ozs. ozs. ozs. Subsistence only 20 0-5 12-0 = 2-0 + 13 3 Quietude . 2-5 1-0 12-0 = 2-5 + 14-5 Moderate exercise 4-2 1-8 187 — 4*2 + 23-2 Active labour . 5‘5 2-5 20-0 5-5 + 26-3 Hard work . . 6 5 2-5 20-0 = 6-5 + 26-3 These conclusions accord pretty well with the determi- nations of Pettenkofer and Voit, who say that an adult requires daily, when at work, 5.22 ozs. of nitrogenous matter and 22-38 of carbonaceous (calculated as starch).. A Bavarian wood-cutter, according to Liebig, receives from his employer, when he goes after breakfast on a Monday into the forest, 3*4 lbs. of dripping, and y8 lbs. of meal, and 4-5 lbs. of bread. He comes home on Saturday evening to supper. This quantity of food is therefore, sufficient for five daysand it represents a daily supply of 4*31 ozs. of dry nitrogenous matter ( = 290 grains of nitrogen), and 49*91 ozs. of carbona- neous, calculated as starch (=9704 grains of carbon). A Russian peasant, whose yearly rations are accu- rately apportioned, has an average daily ration con-