Food in health and disease / By I. Burney Yeo.

  • Isaac Burney Yeo
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Food in health and disease / By I. Burney Yeo. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    Food in IfnAL'i'ii- I I'arl I. in which they are planted. The orgamc substances in the soil consist chieliy of (lecomposm- vegetal)le matter, and these must be resolved by decomposition into carbonic acid and ammonia before they can be absorbed by plants. The annual, unable to construct or<ranic substances from inorganic mattery is depen- dent on the vegetable kingdom for Ins food. If we examine the chemical composition of those organic compounds prepared liy the vegetable world and which serve as food for animals, we find they consist chieliy of the following elements :—caibon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, and phosphorus. ^ Of these elements nitrogen is the nio.st nnpoitant as it is the essential element of all l^v^ng things; vital nhenoniena, the activity and change characteristic of all living things, are only found where this element ^ This has been well expressed by Parkes. structure in the body,” he says, “ m which any foim of energy is manifested (heat, mechanical motion. chemicaT^or electrical action, etc.) is nitrogenous. The nerves the muscles, the gland-cells, the fioating ^^lls in the Various liquids, the semen, and the ovarian ce are all nitrogenous. Even the non-cellulai UaSds passing out into the alimentary canal at various points” which have so great an action in nreparim? the fold in different ways, am not on y n tm-enous but the constancy of this implies the necessity of' the nitrogen in order that these actions We'strth^ert^^^^^^ the simpkst forms of vegetable life derive’their food S water alwapp^^^^^^ Trein, sufficing for their nutrff^ The^--^^