The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1879-04-09
THE BEST OF HEALTH.
How to Attain It And How to Preserve

From the Brooklyn Eagle.
The work done by the body, according
to scientific definition can be divided
into three classes: internal work, such
as nervous energy required for regulating
the processes Of the body, Intellectual re-
quirements and the force needed for di-
gestion, and so forth; calorifc work, fol
the production of heat to maintain the
animal temperature; mechanical or mus
cular work. The amount Of force ex-
pended on each Of these departments Va.
ries with the individual, but the force is
the same. From numerous calculations
it is observed that the average amount OF
force daily expended by an adult weigh
ing $50 pounds is equivalent to lifting
3,4OO tons one foot. This is divided
thus: Internal work, $50 tons; calorifc
work, 2,s4O tons; mechanical work, 300.
So that the amount of work man can do
a day is about equivalent to lifting 800
tons one foot. Eight hours pile driving
is equivalent to 312 tons; turning a
winch 374 tons; walking mile on the
level, unloaded, 1857 tons; carrying a
weight of 60 pounds one mile on the lev
ell, OATS tons; thus the healthiest work
a man can do is to work at manual labor
in the open air, so long as he keeps with
in the expenditure Of about 800 tons Of
force. Making allowance for the force
expended in various ways by human
being in ordinary business, therefore, he
ought to take walk of nine miles to
make up the amount of exercise necessa-
ry to keep his body in good order.
EVERY ACTION OF THE BODY
is attended with chemical changes in the
compositions Of its tissues, by which force
is released for thinking, and other nervous
exercise, for maintaining the temperature
Of the body, or for enduing it with activ-
ity. This force must be supplied as fast
as it is expended. and it is supplied in
latent form by the food we eat, and the
oxygen that every respiration takes into
the lungs. The food we eat consists Of
carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen, from
which certain amount of oxygen has
been taken as they passed through veg
etable form. Their latent heat, derived
from the SUN, is restored again when the
carbon is burned in oxygen, and that is
precisely what's effected when we breathe,
taking in oxygen, to burn up the carbon
and sustain animal heat.
Knowing precisely in what directions
force is expended, and also the proper
tons in which, they are directed, we
should of course endeavor to so conform
our diet to our necessities that there will
be no lack of force in any direction. By
far the greater part of the force supplied
is for generating heat, leaving smaller
amount to be divided between the re-
cuperation of nervous and muscular en-
e1gy. Prof. FARMLAND, by series OF
patient experiments, has taken the differ
ent elements of our food and combined
them so as to yield the requisite proper
tions of serviceable force. He has found
that 300 grains Of dry albumen, 1850
grams of fat and 1900 grains of starch,
added together, yield and aggregate of
$3.50 foot tons or almost the identical
amount of force exerted by the average
adult who weighs $50 pounds, namely
3,400 foot tons.
WHEN A MAN Is IN TRAINING,
he is merely keeping his body in the best
possible condition, and the scientific
trainers of to-day have gone back to the
very system INDUCED in by the Greeks
when preparing for the Olympic games.
Twenty-Five years ago the trainers who
insisted upon dieting SUBJ ect with large
quantities of fatty matter would have
been considered insane. Strangely
enough, the experiments of DR.. Frank
land and others including 50 eminent a
physicist as Pro. Huxley, pronounce in
favor of eating a considerable allowance
Of fatty matter, which the Olympian COD.
testants took in the form of roast pork.
The tables laid down for men in trainin2
nowadays, therefore abandon the largely
albuminous diet, and accept far differ
ent one. In these tables we find some
curious corrections of old notions. For
instance an ounce of lean beef, contain
ing ten grains of nitrogen and Ga of cor
bon, furnishes IS foot tons of energy; an
ounce, of oatmeal supplies 152 foot tons
an ounce of butter supplies $50 foot tons
and an ounce of dried bacon the largest
VI 0Al-SOO 1OOL tOuS1 dH ounce
Of poultry furnishing but 81 and an ounce
OF sugar 275 foot tons. A diet of one pound
OF meat, pound and quarter of bread
ounce Of butter, IL ounces of potatoes
about one large, well.cooked mealy one
II ounce of sugar and ounces of milk
per diem, yield 3o1 grains of nitrogen
$3.50 Of carbon, and 1906 foot tons Of
energy. Here the energy falls short
and the carbon is 100 grains short. Hal
IN ounce of butter or bacon added to !
will make it exactly right; for the great
est amount of energy with the least wea
and tear Of the vital organs is attaine,
when 300 grains of nitrogen and 400
grains Of carbon are taken into tn
stomach and reduced by the digestiv
organs. This is the standard diet for tn
average healthy man doing modcrat
amount of work. Labor, whether ments
or muscular, Of more than ordinaril
severe character, demands a larger SUI
ply of food, but the scientific liver wi
have his meals prepared to yield some
thing approximate to the standard abov