The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1869-01-06
Acknowledgements
AnImn, and ycgctabIo FOOD.


Animal and Vegetable Food.
Some psychologists and theorists ar
que in favor OF purely vegetable diet
as being the most wholesome for man,
while others insist that more or less
animal food is essential to preserve
him in the full vigor of health. A GER
tain amount OF carbon is necessary TO
promote the healthy action of the hui
man economy, but it is common
mistake 10 suppose that this is only to
be found in animal food. Everything
which generates heat in combustion.
contains carbon in that very proper
ton. Every blade of grass contains it,
and when dried into hay, it is one OF
the most inflammable of materials
The oily parts OF corn, though slower
to ignite, will burn longer, hence they
contain pore carbon. This is why cat
tie who are abundantly fed upon grass
and corn, grow fat so rapidly. They
take in an extra supply of fuel. The
chief difference between animal and
vegetable food is, however, in the
greater concentration of the carbon in
Vic III u4SLs Ao VI OIL VA VI VIC A40R
lander contains ninety per cent. of car
bon, while the melons and cucumbers
of the tropics contain hardly four per
cent. But as II constant supply of heat
must be generated in the system, in
exact proportion to the temperature OF
the atmosphere, so the food of man
must vary with the climate and with
49, i,,t Mt ~ nor hon II
cotains.
Man is so constituted that he can di-
gest the carbon either in the form of
vegetable or animal food. There are
many other forms in which he cannot
consume it. Anthracite coal contains
a high per centage of carbon, and the
diamond is pure carbon, yet a man
might die from hunger in the midst OF
them. Man is able to feed on greater
variety than any other animal. His
teeth are especially adapted, some of
them for animal aud some for vegeta.
BILE food. lie Gun live wholly upon
either, but which he should use in the
greater proportion depends on great
variety of circumstances. If man
sue, and therefore needs proportions
BILE supply of those materials that go to
form it. So, if the nervous system be
called greatly into exercise, it is held
that there will be II prOpOrtiOnably
greater amount of phosphorus thrown
from the system indicating the neces-
sity of food that shall contain IN album
~ nh
There are also constitutional differ
euccs that must, to a certain extent,
guide our choice OF food. a dyspeptic
person has but littlo appetite for food
containing much carbon; or, 1t he takes
it into his stomach, he cannot digest it.
Thus he will often be chilly while his
neighbors are sufficiently warm. The
supply of each chemical ingredient
must. be in proportion to the consump-
ton OF it, otherwise it will become not
only Valueless but hurtful. The sup
ply OF the nutritive and heat-prOducing
elements OF food are more rapidly and
fully secured from animal than from
vegetable sources. A hunter, living in
the saddle and chasing the buffalo In
the far West, can easily live on animal
TODD alone. But for persons sitting
quietly three-fourths of the time, this
would be highly injurious. The habits
of life ought in great measure to de-
eide the proportion. 1hOSe VINO I'VE
on vegetable diet may, under some
circumstances, live longer; those on
animal food moro intensely. To the
average of human constitutions in the
temperate regions, where neither ex-
cessive physical labor nor exclusive
sedentary employment exist, due
proportion of each will be usually
found most salutary.
In any case, sufficient Oxygen should
be taken into the system, or whatever
the amount of carbon it cannot be so
vitaliZed as to produce healthiul
heat in the body. The amount of air
taken into the lungs and carried into
all parts of the system in the blood, is
as necessary to the nutritive effects OF
the food as the food itself. Hence the
necessity Of abundance of pure air to
give tone and vigOr to the digestion.
In many cases ewhere the digestive
function is impaired the practice OF
habitually filling the lungs when in
the open air as full as possible and
slowly breathing it out again, will work
beneficial results. 1t not only affords
an additional supply of oxygen to aid
the vital functions at the moment, but
acts mechanically in expanding the
chest, thus giving more room for the
full and free play of the lungs in doing
their work at all times.