The physiology of digestion, considered with relation to the principles of dietetics / by Andrew Combe.
- Andrew Combe
- Date:
- 1860
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The physiology of digestion, considered with relation to the principles of dietetics / by Andrew Combe. Source: Wellcome Collection.
165/224 page 141
![not only all Us recently-acquired, but also one-fifth of its original weight. Two table-fpoonfuh of soup made from horsc-Jlesli, containing, of course, the sapid and odorous principles, were then added to fourteen of the gelatine- soup twice a-day, and formed with the bread into a soft paste. This slight addition of four table-spoonfuls in twenty-four hours of the meat-soup, dilFering from the other only in its sapid and odorous principles, sufficed completely to restore the animal. From the very first meal there was an in- crease of weiglit, rapid growth com- menced, and in twenty-five days the dog had gained considerably more than its original weight, and was in the enjoyment of vigorous health and strength. These remarljable results shew how great a difference of dietetic properties may arise from even the slightest change of chemical composi- tion, and bow necessary it is to have recourse on all occasions to actual ob- servation before deducing general con- clusions from a2)2'arent analogies of nature. From the whole of his experiments, M. Edwards infers— 1. That gelatine alone is insufficient for alimentation : 2. That although insufficient, it is not unwholesome : 3. That gelatine con- tributes to alimentation, and is suffi- cient to sustain it when it is mixed with a due proportion of other pro- ducts, which would themselves prove insufficient if given alone: 4. That gelatine, e.'ctracted from bones, being identical with that extracted from other parts—and bones being riclier in gelatine than other tissues, and able to afi'ord two-thirds of their weight of it—there is an incontestable advan- tage in maliing them serve for nutri- tion in the form of soup, jellies, jiastc, &c.; always, however, talking care to provide a proper admixture of tlie other priiici])les in which thcgelatine- Boup is defective : 5. That, to render gclatinc-?oup equal in nutritive and digestible- qualities to that prepared from meat alone, it is sufficient to mix one-fnurth a/innot-soupiuilh ilirce-foiirlli.i of r/elatine-yo'ij'; and that, in fact, no difference is perceptible between soup thus prepared and that made solely from meat: 6. That, in preparing soup in this way, the great advantage remains, that, while the soup itself is equally nourishing with meat-soup, three-fourths of the meat which would be required for the latter by the com- mon process of malving soup, are saved and made useful in another way, as by roasting, &c. : 7. That jellies ought al- ways to be associated with some other principles to render them both nutri- tive and digestible.* From these results it may be infer- red, that the practice followed in most of our 2)risons and charitable institu- tions, of making soup from ox-heads, bones, and the coarser pieces of meat, is judicious as regards both wholesome- ness and economy ; because, while the bones, especially if brolien into frag- ments, yield a large quantity of nutri- tious gelatine, tlie meat attached to them is quite sufficient to supply the required proportion of the more vola- tile principles. The additional ad- mixture of barley and other vegetables also increases the digestibility and nu- tritive power of the soup.f Albuminous aliments, or those in which albumen predominates, are at once easily digestible and very nour- ishing. Albumen itself is found in the blood, the muscles, and various other parts; but it exists nearly pure in the white of eggs. In its liquid state it is colourless and transparent, witliout smell, and with little taste. It coagu- lates or becomes firm by boiling or heat, and is more digestible the nearer it approaches to the liquid state. Of this we have a familiar proof in the superior digestibility of soft over hard- boiled eggs. Albuminous aliments arc highly nu- tritious without being so stimulating as fibrinous meats, and hence arc very suitable to excitable nervous constitu- tions, and during convalescence from diseases characterised by excitement * T,on<l<•.^■ouvcaux I'lCnionsrt'IIygii'^Mc. 2cIoilitlon, vol.11., |.. 71. t Ilv rcriTi-lnr to imps l.ni.llio rwi.lor wMl sen llml tlnTpaanimwhlcliliavcliiTiiliriMiBliI roi wnril lo prove Bclndiic Intuilrltloiii-, iiiiglit bo npiJUea wUh ciiual rotco to albumen or flbiiii.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20404542_0165.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
