The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-02-04
HYDROCARBONS AS FOOD.
our FARM TOPICS FOR FEBRUARY,
A Valuable Paper by DIR. Pence of Moores-
viIIs-Farm and Garden Hints-Among
the POuItry-A Budget of Very
Valuable Recipes.

Throughout all the ages il has been
recognized as fact that the struggle Tor
existence begins with existence. This Is
not only true with the vegetable kingdom
but is equally true with regard TO the
animal kingdom.
Today we only have to do with the food
question as relates TO man, the highest
known type of animal life. Man is sub
ject TO three cOnditiOns-first, heredlty
second, his environment, or surround
ings, and third, to his correspondence, or
the things and influences with which he
comes in contact By heredity We UNI
derstand that which is transmitted to him
by his progenitors; this includes
the peculiar characteristics of his physi-
cal, mental and moral makeup; from the
color of his hair, the shape of his nose, TO
the smallest digit upon his foot. Mem
tally he may be illogical reasoner, a whim-
steal idiot, musical or an aesthetic phe
nomenon; morally, he may be fiend in
carnate, a saint OF light or a mongrel mix
ture OF the two. Now, all of these heredi-
tary conditions are evidently modified,
exaggerated, developed or debased, either
by process OF evolution or retro
erosion, and this depends very
much upon environment and correspond
ence. Among the more important OF
the conditions OF environment are climatic
influences and food supplements moral
or spiritual nature being modified largely
by his heredity and environment but is
developed by his correspondence, that is,
the influences surrounding him, and by a
projection of his own psychological be-
ing beyond himself, so that ne may come
into correspondence or contact with the
occult and invisible pewers in the realms
of the unknown, until the influences OF
the invisible shall como into a felt rela-
ton or correspondence with himself, and
this relation assures him that he Is in
close communion with Deity, thus de-
monstrating the only true ethical science.
All of these conditions are In such
close relation with the question of foods
that il is almost impossible to discuss
them separately, much less to select one
groupe of proximate principles and dis
cuss them intelligently. independent of
the other conditions. We will endeaver
to do so briefly with the hope that some
practical suggestion may be brought out
by the discussion.
The first proposition that presents itself
to us, is, what is food7 Food is the
pabulum or the chemical elements so
combined as to afford nourishment to or
ganic life. Plant life is an organized
being, originating from germ and nour-
ished solely by inorganic substances.
Although the difference between animal
and plant lie is perceptable in their
higher forms, IL is exceedingly difficult TO
distinguish the difference or to classify
them in some of their lower forms. Mo-
ton was for nerly regarded as belonging
only to animal life, but it is now known
that many plants of the lower forms are
endowed with motion, and thus far it Is
not known that animal life can subsist on
the inorganic materials only. Now TO I'M
derstand the question. what is organic
life? which constitutes the bulk of the
food for susjention of animal life, 1t will
be necessary to briefly review some of the
phases of plant life. The plant in its
rudlmentary form consists OF semi-tluid
substance called protoplasm, surrounded
by cell wall; this cell wall in chemical
constitution is a carbohydrate, known as
celiuiose, its composition being carbon,
oxygen and hydrogen. The contents of
this cell wall not only nave the above
chemical elements of celluiose, but have
also nitrogen and some other chemical
substances. 1t is therefore protine COM
pound receiving its pabulum sOley from the
inorganic matter with which II comes in
contact Ii would be highly interesting to
enter into the subject of how il is, that in
organic substances are appropriated by
the plant, so as to form organic matter
and thus become food for animal life,
which produces fats in the animal
which is a hydrO-carbon, but suffice it to
say, that the cell OF protaplaSm when
complete as cell, and although it may
not be larger than the 10000 of an inch
in diameter, it is capable of assimilating
its food /; il can decompOse carbonic acid.
4.
oxygen, and combined with other ele-
ments and form cellu ose and protoplasm,
and when its growth is attained repro
duction commences by dividing and SUBJ
dividing into two, four, eight or more
masses, around each of which is a cell
wall. Thus in simple microscopic cell
we have nutrition, growth and repro
duction. Animal life differs from plant
life in the fact that IL cannot live upon in
organic substances alone, but must also
assimilate organic matter that it may have
an existance, and while in some of the
lower forms of animal life, such as the
sponge and zoophites, there is not even a
rudimentary mouth or stomach they take
into their organisms organic matter by
absorption, but we will not press this part
of the subject farther. Leibig laid down
a broad rule dividing foods into two
CtaSStS. VI NUTRITIOUS OF pltsllC lOcu !,
(2) respiratory food, not forming the min
eral elements of food into a distinct class"
but Fothergill says that while there is
much to recommend in this division, plas-
tic forms OF food, TO a certain extent, are
respiratory foods, and that the hydro-car-
bons are also requisite to the formation
and building up of healthy and normal
tissues" Muscles, the very type OF plas-
tic food, contain hydro-carbonaceous
or respiratory food. Now let us
come to a different understanding as
to what is meant by the hydrogen
bOns. All of that group OF elementary
substances known as sugar, and resembling
each other in their chemical constitution,
being composed OF carbon, hydrogen and
oxygen alone, and we also find that those
elementary substances known rs fats are
composed of the same chemical elements,
carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.
but their chemical elements are
combined differently, in their molecular
polarization, so that, while the fats are
hydrocarbons, the sugars and starch are
carbohydrates. but when the sugars and
starches are taken into the system, and by
the chemical changes which take place
during the process of digestion, and are
stored up in the liver as giycagin, and by
their assimilation are changed into fats or
hydrocarbons, then, as we all know. they
produce heat and vital energy, hence these
all stand at the head OF the list as food in