The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-01-28
Nutritive Value of Food.


NutritiVe Value of Food.
In EUeTy Saturday, is the first paper from adj
vance sheets of Il series to be furnished by
Baron Liebig, "On the Nutritve Value of
Different Sorts of Food" We make a short
quotation:-
All the different sorts of food of man, as well
as OF animals, contain, without exception, sub
stances which are identical, or nearly identical,
with the albumen OF blood. This constitutes an
entire group of substances found in plants,
partly in solution III the juices, partly deposited
IN the seeds, and which are found In greatest
quantity in the cereals. The name given them
Is abumiuate. IN the nutrltivc process, albu-
men of the blood is formed from them; they
are also called constituent nutIltlve substances,
because they furnish the material tor the forma-
tion OF all the plastic parts of the body. From
other organic substances they are materially
distinguished, hayire an abundance OF nitrogen,
and by containing certain amount OF sulphur
The cheesy substance (Casen) of milk; syn
tonn, the principal component part OF the
MUSCLES; albumen, or that part of vegetable
aud animal Juices which is soluble in heat;
gluten Of the cereals; vegetable case'n in peas,
beans, and lentlls NegumeD), all belong to the
group Of albuminates.
The component parts OF human iood and OF
the fodder of animals which are free OF nitrogen,
such as fat starch, sugar, sugar OF milk, ETC.,
are applied in the vital process principally-apd
in part eXcUsiVely--for the generation OF
warmth. They have been named respiratory
substances or warmth-gen nerating substances.
The food OF men and animals contains, besides,
a third class OF nutritive substances, known as
nutritiye salts These are the substances which
remain in the form OF ashes when the articles of
food are burned; phosphorIc acid, potash, lime,
magnesla, iron, and common salt are their chief
clements
The albuminates and heat. giving substances
are quite incapable OF nourshiug and Of sustain
ing ie if the nutritive salts are not present and
co operating with them. Without the nutritive
salts they do not give nourishment. The idea
of perfect sort of food must be associated with
three conditions; it must contain a certain
quantity OF albuminates, and there must also
bea certain proportion of heat-giving substances
and of nutritlVe salts. We may accordingly
speak OF meat, milk, and bread, in which these
three conditions are united as being food; but
abuminates, starch, and nutritive salts are in
themselves not food; they are only nutritive
substances as indispensably necessary Tor the
vital process as air and water are, but each
alone quite incapable OF sus Gaining life.
In order that the muscular mass, or, what is
the same thing, in order that the working
powers Of an individual may be kept up, it is
absolutely necessary that in his daily food
quantity of albuminate be consumed sufficient
to make up for what is lost. greater amount
OF work is not to be attained, Tor q continual
tion, without greater amount OF food espe-
cially not without larger amount OF albumi-
nate, in the nourlshment taken. The badly fed
German workman wants in England and
America months diet, abounding in albumi-
mates, before he is able to compete with the
English OF American workman. We may
com mpute, without riskiug TO be far wrong, that
a workngman of lao pounds weight requires
for his sufficient nourishment 1870 grammes of
albuminate (4bS5 gIammes equal pound
English) daily.
The English navvies. who were sent out
during the Crimean war to make the Balaklaya
RallIoad, and who astonished both English and
French soldiers by the extraordinary amount of
work TREY performed consumed daily from $50
to l50 erammes OF albumina!e. The men in the
Munich breweries consume on an average 1876
grammes OF albuminate per day. The amount
OF albuminate in the Iations of the Bayarlan
Is soldier N a ia oh
I26 grammes, or OF. in dry state.
According to the work, it is not at all indif-
ferent In what form the working man enjoys
the albumiDates III his food; and in this respect
the place which meat holds among the food OF
man has not been sufficiently appreciated by
physiologists,
Meat contains the abuminates, which are the
flesh producers, i'm the most soluble form; II is
digested in the shortest time and for its transit
! tion into the blood the least amount of work IS
required. Indeed, the intestincs of carniVorou5
! ANIMALS are the shortest and most simple of any.
| The CarnlYorous animal bolts its food without
1t being necessary to reduce its size by mastica-
! tion. The smaller the quantity OF the albumi-
! mates in vegetables, the more complicated are
! the organs OF digestion of the animals which
! feed on them. With many, chewing and re-
| chewing is necessary, in order 10 separate the
food sufficiently for the extraction of the
| nutrltve parts,
Inasmuch as the effect of food depends on It's
| transformation into blood, it must be self
! evident that in given time the effect of the
! 1000 Is I'D pIOpOIlOn 10 lne ldplully Win WHICH
| its transmission from the intestnes TO the
blood vessels is effected. Experience shows
that with energetic work, for work TO be
| performed in the shortest time purely
! vegetable diet is not compatible.
For soldier, in time of peace, l2j grammes
| of albuminate are enough To maintain him in
! health, of which ouequarter must be in the
! form of meat; but in war time, with fanguiug
marches and laden with 60 pounds of clothing
and ammunition, he would, with such a diet,
succumb to the oyer-eXettion; he requires at
! least from lao to l48 grammes of albuminate,
! the half of which should be in the form OF
meat. Thus we may assume that under SINH
! lar circumstances, an army of soldiers whose
albuminate, oue-quarter of which only was in
the iorp of meat, would be beaten by an army
in which each man received las grammes OF
! albuminate, half of which was in the form of
meat; for the effect would be the same as If the
latter army had better weapons; its capacity for