New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-10-31
From the London Times, October ], ls'2.J
Waste Of Food.
A Substitute for Meat.

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substances used for food and with the pur-
poses they were severally supposed to fulfill.
He taught broadly that food might be divided
into three groups-the albuminous, OF which
flesh is the type; the oleaginous, or fatty;
and the saccharine, which includes the innu-
merable forms of starch which are capable OF
easy conversion into sugar. He taught that
the oleaginous matter eaten was partly stored
up in the economy as deposited fat, and partly
"burnt OFF, as fuel for the production of
animal heat. The saccharine matter was
entirely burnt of in the same way; and only
the albuminous was capable of being con-
verted into the solid tissues of the body, and
of replacing a daily waste of those tissues,
which was assumed to be considerable. The
albuminous group of substances were found
not only in animal food, but were largely
represented in the vegetable kingdom, espe-
cially by the gluten" of wheat and by sub
stances in which the pea and the bean family
were especially rich. Had it not been for
this, life, Baron Liebig thought, could not
have been maintained on vegetable food
alone and, as it was, vegetables presented
the necessary albuminous nutriment in forms
more complex, and less easy of application
to the repair of the body, than in the forms
furnished by the flesh of animals. Hence
the animal kingdom was held to fulfill the
office of digesting vegetable albumen, and,
by converting it into flesh, of increasing its
fitness to become the food of man. Under
the influence of these views, it was assumed
that large proportion of animal food was,
if not necessary, at least desirable for the
supply of waste; and that farinaceous and
oily matters were of little value except to
maintain temperature, and to confer upon
the whole quantity of a meal bulk favorable
to the digestive process. The progress OF
inquiry during late years has led, however,
to considerable divergence from these doc
trines. 1t is still held that only the album
nous material can be applied to the removal
ton of the body; but it is known that the
destruction of the body is far less in amount
than was supposed, and that great proper
ton of the albuminous food taken by hahitual
fesh-eaters is at least simply wasted, and is
often distinctly injurious. The fatty SUBJ
stances consumed are not merely ''depOs-
ited," but furnish an absolutely essential
ingredient to nearly every one of the tissues,
but especially to the brain, the nerves, and
the muscles. The saccharine group is not
subservient only, or mainly, to the prOduc-
ton of heat, but generally to the production
of force; and the vital actions of man, in
stead of being maintained at the expense Of
his solid structures, are maintained chiefly at
the expense of the force yielded by the de-
composition of the starchy and saccharine
matters which he consumes. 1t follows that
these two groups are now held to hold the
first place in nutritive value, and that the
albuminous food, although necessary in mod
crate quantity, is superfluous when that mod
crate quantity is exceeded. The conclusions
which result from scientific inquiry are thus
brought into perfect harmony with the teach
ings of experience. A diet of suitable vege-
table substances, with a sufficiency of fat,
will everywhere preserve life in a high degree
of vigor the vegetable food affOrding by its
gluten a sufficiency of material for tissue re-
pair and the fat being always essential. 1t
is the staple of food not only in the Polar
Regions, where quantity which would else
where be superfluous is required to counter
act the low external temperatures, but, with
the addition of rice, forms the subsistence of
multitudes who live under a tropical sun.
An exclusively animal dict, on the other
hand, is only possible for men whose restless
activity is comparable to that of the animal
carnivora, and, as was proved by cruel eX
pertinent once tried at Gobelins upon some
criminals, would under ordinary circumstances
prove fatal in the course of few days.
five apply these considerations to the or
binary dietary of English families, it will be
seen that our common practice is to waste
animal food by consuming far too much of it,
and to waste vegetable food by not availing
ourselves of its incXhaustiblc abundance and
infinite variety. We get our supplies of sac
charine and starchy substances chiefly from
bread, potatoes, and sugar, and we eat pulse
and other vegetables more as a luxury or a
relish than as a possible mainstay of exist
ence. Rice is scarcely employed for any pur-
the addition of some form of animal fat, and
occasionally rendered savory by a mOrsel of
curry, it constitutes the chief sustenance of
millions of people. Our Continental neigh
bors, and our Hindoo fellow-subjects, might
each give us a useful lesson in the simple art
of cconOmiZing our meat supplies by making
them 90 further than We do, and in the art
also, less simple, though even more import
ant, of using all the available forms of vege-
table food for their proper and legitimate pur-
poses. But another source of waste equally
to be regretted is to be found in the absence
of any trade organization for bringing tenn
porary abundance of some particular kind to
the doors of those who might consume it.
Heads of families who visit Billingsgate in
the early morning often tell their wondering
friends that on such and such day fish was
fabulously cheap, and recount their purchases
to envious ears. The people generally cam
not 90 to Billingsgate, and the ordinary fate
of glut of fish there is to perish and ulti-
mately to be condemned by an inspector of
markets as unfit for human food. The retail
sellers Of fish are supposed to be greatly
averse from any occasional cheapcning Of tho
commodity in which they deal, and to con-
slider it their interest to keep it as luxury
for the tables of the wealthy. Fish, how
ever, is as rich in albuminOus material as
flesh, and will fulfill all the purposes of flesh
in the physical economy. The waste conse-
qucnt upon a cheap day at Billingsgate, or
which occurs when great haul of some de-
scription of fish is used mainly for manure, is
such as would startle those who wrote it
down in pounds either Of weight or value.
The waste is little less serious which follows
upon the want of any organization for bring
ing the superfiuous garden stuff of the cOun-
try to the crowded populations of towns, or
which is produced by the owners of gardens
being themselves frequently ignorant of the
nutritive value of the products those gardens
yield. The remedy for these evils lies, to a
considerable extent, in the hands of those
who control the education of the country, and
especially the education of the great mass of
the people. The defects in our arrangements
for supply themselves are traccable primarily
to the absence of rational demand. 1t is
probably hopeless to expect the adult peas
ant or artisan to tolerate any change in his
mode of life, or to arrive at the perception
that he now despises-and by despising loses
cheap. palatable and abundant supplies of