Morning journal and courier., 1880-03-03
LOCAL NEWS.
ror other Local News See Second. .Pass,l
Sheffield Scientific School.

Sheffield Scientific School. The Annual Course or LectuHes-PrOR.
 ChiGtenden on ts NutrItiOn''-Alimen- tary PrincipIes-The Digestive Pro cess-FOOd and Drfnk-KHeat PrOdu. cers and Flesh Producers.
 MT. R. H. Chittenden, of the Sheffield Sci- entifc School, delivered the eighth in the an nual course of lectures given by the school at North Sheffield Hall last evening. The very instructive and thoughtful address was listened to with close attention and interest by large audience. Several Illustrative experiments were introduced. We give many of the more important features of the lecture in full as fol- lows:
 Although the subject which we are to con- slider this evening may be of a somewhat pro saic character, it should be one of particular interest to us all The history of life and all that pertains to it has been the subject of study from the remotest antiquity. The speaker alluded to the peculiar not to say lud- icrous views of Paracelsus "who as late as the 16th century attempted to explain the func- tions of life by continuation of chemical and cabalistic arts in which he attributed to the spirits and the planets direct action upon the body; the sun governing the action of the heart, the moon the brain, and any ir regularity or fright upon the part of the spirit producing disease" ''In the latter part of the 17th century all these existing views were revolutionized by Sylvius of Lydia, who sx- plained the functions of the body by fermen- tetion and effervescence, while the vital spir- it's, which, according to his views were entire ly material, were prepared in the brain by dis tillation. having much the properties of alco hol. While Sylvius of Lydia was establish ing the doctrines of life, Willis, of Great Britain, was establishing similar views and an additional theory, claiming that the vital force was produced in the heart by the union of salt and sulphur, which taking fire together pro duced in the burning the vital flame. With other reference to the former theories the speaker proceeded It was not until 1752 that Reaumur first discovered the solvent ton of the stomach juices on food, and there by removed one of the great obstacles to true understanding of the bodily functions. From that time to the present the science of phys1 ology has made rapid advances, and instead of dealing with vague and unreal theories, 1t has established it's principles on the firm basis of experiment, and in asking your attention this evening to consideration of some of the fea- lures of nutrition have facts and not theo- ries to present. The speaker now made plain the nature and object of nutrition and its life long necessity to existence, with the consequent expenditure of force, it's require ment for supplying the proper heat of the body, and securing the proper performance of the bodily functions; also it's necessity for supplying the tissues with matters which they may utilize for the solution of energy and the generation of heat. Further, where par ticular help was needed in particular part, as illustrated in the extra use of certain mus cles, nutrition played it's part in fitting those muscles for the strain upon them. Degener- ation and decay which are almost constantly taking place in different parts of the body noaIho ond EooI Srdi- vidual cell of some portions of the body has to & certain extent, according to prominent wri. ter, an independent life of it's own. It has also limited duration and so 8 constant replace ment takes place whereby the old gives place to the new, andin this perpetual reproduction every part produces tissue like itself whether bone, muscle or nerve, and in healthy nutri- ton adult is maintained for years with the same general outline of form and feature and perhaps of weight as well, while at the same time the particles which compose the different parts of the body are undergoing 8 continual process of decay and renewal, and such is the exactness of the production that the body is the same through life. So during the whole period of active life, @ demand for nutrition is created by every exertion of vital power, but more especially so by the evolution of nervous and muscular force. Under the name of food we include all those substances solid, liquid or gaseous, which are required for the nutrition of the body. Food is to nutrition what the fuel is to the action of the steam engine. A constant waste is going on which nutrition must repair.
 Proceeding, the speaker said: The mater ial of which the human body is composed consists of the clements which are written on the board before you, viz:
 Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen,
 Nitro gen, sulphur, ,Phosphorus,
 Chlorine, Sodium, Potassium,
 Calcium Magnesium, Iron,
 Fiuorne, Silicon.
 The first four exist in far larger quantity than any of the others, while those at the end of the list occur in very minute quantity, if, indeed, they are invariably present. It can certainly be doubted if they are essential in gredients.
 As food is the source from which the ele- ments of the body are derived, it follows that food must sustain all the elements which are there met with, and no article can satisfy the requirements of life that fails to comply with this condition.
 The chief elements of the various organic compounds built up by the agency of life, and therefore, contained in our bodies, and in the food we eat, the first six clements in our list. The speaker here added that carbon took pre- cedence over all the others, as being the ele- ment which occurs most extensively in organic nature, and next spoke regarding the pro- duction of food by the vegetable kingdom for animal subsistence. From the latter, the speaker said You will notice that animals and plants stand in direct antagonism to each other, as regards the results. Plants draw their food from the inorganic kingdom, and produce organic compounds; animals find their food in these organic compounds, and in applying them to purposes of life reconvert them into organic principles. In the appro- priation of organic matter as foods, plants ab- sorb carbonic acid and set free oxygen. An imals in their consumption of organic matter absorb oxygen and give out carbonic acid gas Thus animals and plants neutralize each oth- CTS effects upon surrounding matter, and there- by maintain state of uniformity.
 Though our food must contain all the ele- ments which have been mentioned, and con tain them in such proportion as to furnish the requisite amount of each to the system, it is not with these elements, as such, that we have to deal. It is only in state of combin- ation that these elements are of service to us as food, and as Pavy states, 'the combina tion must have been formed by the agency of 8 living organization"-th combination of these elements must in other words constitute an organic product.
 The lecture was now briefly devoted to con- sidering the alimentary principle in food, and the natural division of food into organic and inorganic, the latter consisting of water and various forms of saline matter, while the or gauic might be divided into compounds of which the element forms a constituent and compounds from which it is absent, viz, ni- trogsnous and non-nitrogenous compounds. Having considered and explained this subject definitely and that many ordinary articles of food were made up of mixture of differing alimentary principles, the speaker proceed ing, said:
 Having now spoken in a general way of nu- triton and the need which our bodies have for nutrient material, and having mentioned briefly the classes of substances which serve as this material, we come now to the princi- pal part of our subject, or what VIC may call nutrition proper description of the pro- cesses whereby the raw material becomes converted into 8 form capable of supplying the needs Of the body, from which the waste of the body may be supplied.
 The first act to which food is subjected is the mechanical division by the teeth; masti- cation having been performed the food is act ed upon by the saliva; which, containing only 5 parts in 1000 of solid matter, has among other ingredients peculiar constituent called ptyaline, to which thess peculiar properties of the blood are due.
 Saliva has no peculiar action on albuminous food or fats, but it's entire energy is expended on the carbo hydrates. These carbo hydrates, of which starch Is our most familiar exam pie, are in great use as food, being one of the .-;,. .asr Ia If