Sharp County record., 1879-04-17
THE BEST OF HEALTH.


its sustenance, and How it Should be
Prepared.
From Review in the Brooklyn Eagle
The work done by the body, accord
ing to scientific definition, can be divid-
ed into three classes; internal work,
such as nervous energy required for
regulating the processes of the body,
intellectual requirements and the force
needed for digestion, and so FORTH
caloriic work, for the production of
heat to maintain the animal tempera-
ture; mechanical or muscular work.
The amount of force expended on each
of these departments varies with the in
dividual, but the force is the same.
From numerous calculations it is OBJ
served that the average amount OF force
daily expended by an adult weighing
$50 pounds is equivalent to lifting 3,4OO
tons one foot. This is divided thus:
Internal work, 200 tons calOrific work,
2,840; mechanical work, 800. 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 3l2 tons; turning winch
to 374 tons; walking mile on the level,
unlOaded, 1857 tons carrying aweight
of 60 pounds one mile on a level, "a 10
tons; thus the healthiest work man
can do is to work at manual labor in
the open air, so long as he keeps within
the expenditure of about 300 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 neceS-
sary to keep his body in good order.
EVERY ACTION OF THE BODY
is attended with chemical changes in
the composition 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 activity. 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 respira-
ton 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 vegetable form. Their latent
heat, derived from the sun, is restored
again when the carbon is burned in Oxy-
gen, and that is precisely what is effect
ed when we breathe, taking in oxygen
to burn up the carbon and sustain ami
NAL heat
Knowing precisely by what directions
force is expended, and also the proper
tions 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 he'greater part OF the force sup
piled is for generating heat, leaving
smaller amount to be divided between
the recuperation of nervous and muscu-
lar energy. Prof Frankland, by a Sc
ries of patient experiments, has taken
the different elements of our food and
combined them so as to yield the requis-
ite proportions of Serviceable force. He
has found that 1900 grains of dry albu-
men, 1850 grains of fat, and 1900
grains of starch, added together, yield
an aggregate of $3.50 foot tons or al
most the identical amount of force ex-
erted by the average adult who weighs
$50 pounds, namely 3,40OfoOt tons.
WHEN A MAN is IN TRAINING,
he is merely keeping his body in the
best possible condition, and the scien-
tifc 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
trainer who insisted upon dieting a sub
ject with large quantities of fatty mat
ter would have been considered insane.
Strangely enough, the experiments of
DR.. Frankland and others, including so
eminent physicist as Prof. Huxley,
pronounce in favor of eating q consid-
cradle allowance of fatty matter, which
the Olympian contestants took in the
form of roast pork. The tables laid
down for men in training nowadays,
therefore, abandon the largely al
luminous diet, and accept a far differ
ent one. In these tables we find some
curious corrections of old notions. For
instance, an ounce of lean beef, con-
tanning 10 grains of nitrogen and Ga of
carbon, furnishes 50 foot tons of ener-
gy; an ounce of oatmeal supplies 152
foot tons, an ounce of butter supplies
$50 foot tons, and an ounce of dried
bacon the largest amount of all-295
foot tons; an ounce of poultry furnish
ing but 81 and an ounce of sugar 275
foot tons. A diet of l pound of meat.
II pounds bread, l ounce of butter, Y
ounces of potatoes large, we'll
cooked ,mealy one-1 ounce of sugar and
9 ounces of milk, per diem, yield 3O1
grains Of nitrogen, 1880 of carbon, and
3,305 foot tons of energy. Here the
energy falls short, and the carbon is 100
grains short. Half an ounce of butter
or bacon added to it will make it exact
lv ri rht, for tho OrrootoSt op,ouDt IS