The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-01-18
Water Claims
~
Whole Earth

I
When chemistry that has revolution,
| lied the WORLD Esfmes to be Itself revo-
lut1onized, we are clearly face to face
with an event in the domain of SCI
| ence. When" Swa#er, the all -conquering
element of the terrestrial superfices,
takes new potency aforetime unsus-
pected by the laboratory sflarps, it is
time to ask Does water want the whole
earth? When all the alleged up to-
date food experts-with their percent
age Of albumenoids, fats and all the
rest OF it-are found to have been in
radical error in that they have disre-
garded the aqueous liquid as food,
we should say, an economical grounds,
pass on the wateri
Nothing less than an upheaval in the
inner circles of advanced food science
is foreshadowed by the latest inVesti-
cations anent the real nature of So
calIed food solids, such as sugar,
starch, glucose. These food products
| amer from one another, as we know,
,, only IN the proportion of water present.
Taklng the carbohydrates. "dyasdust,"
we md that only, of these, sugar has
the elements of water combined with
CARBON, IN the very proportions neces-
sary to form water-the largest amount
possible OF water producing com
pound (pulverulent water) in contact
with the great combustible carbon.
Thats sugar, an ideal food. Yet car
bon by itself is absolutely worthless as
a food. heterogeneous food becomes
supported of nutrition in a manner i'm 4
possible in case of pure nitrogen
which is not available as a food and
cannot be assimilated as such. Hydro
gen serves its purpose as a food only
when in combination. These three ele-
ments are constituent of food, and when
obtained by destruction of flesh and fat
are cited by food theorists as the basis
for calculating food values. Yet only
when combined with water. or by
means of Waterloo they become tissue
,, builders or heat=producers.
Later Investigations discredit the
prevailing view that water in food
substances is assolvent only or a vehi-
Gle to convey food to tissue and bone;
that as drink it's functions are to di-'
lutte the ftuidssWash impurity from the
blood, convey off WORKOUT tissues;
ana that it must not seriously be con-
sIdered as an integral part of food
Inc new water science favors the con-
cIuslon that the one thing that sup
ports life, governs life nourishes life.
tuteS the larger part of ali organic It's
Sues-must no longer be regarded as a
carrier or a solvent only; but that the
vltal1zed water of organized water
bearing foods, and the combined water
OF such foods, as carbohydrates and
rats, are the foundations of the real
! foods for tissues, afiliating other ma
| terlals such as nitrogen, carbon, hy-
| drogen, necessary in their field, but
| SUBJECT to the dominating agent, water.
| organic chemistry at present is defin-
| ed as the study of navigation of the
| carbon atom; the organic chemistry Of
/ the near future will see in al! organic
structures the varied r-uducts of the
! migration of the water molecule.
1 POSSIBLY the makers of food products
/ ofFthe nature will give less attention to
analytical values concerning dead ele-
ments and more to vitalized and vital
3zfF1gs structures in which available wa
ter is cQpspicuous. 1t behooves us per-
maps even now to ask if a close inquiry
into tfFeLWater mOlecule-the Vitalized
j Or easily. vitalized water molecule-and
its many shadings, may not open a
I field for the construction Of more ra-
| tional food products.
The truth seems to be that the ap-
4 parent contradiction in customary food
analysls-to the. effect that accepted
basis Of food val1e5> carbon, hydrogen,
I nitrogen, have by themselves no food
value atsall-is due to the fact that the
water with which, as food, they are
combined, is itself combined in an I'M
| told member of liquid organic struc-
lures that are as yet invisible, uncrys-
ltallized, ~unreachable to our senses as
organized bodies.
! consider the soups, custards,4 gela-
tine pies, f1eshes, fish and fruit of all
kinds, and even bread, which contain
! IN themselves enormous amounts Of
q N ncf kI,o
| OF their weight being water, and OBJ
serve the composition of the solid ma
teflals that remain after they are dried
These, too, are are found to be made
up OF elements that in themselves may
have been derived from water-frag-
ments' we may say they are, of broken
water molecules When any form of
| organic matter is perfectly dried,
considerable portion of the residue is
FOUND to be composed of elements that
might have been derived from, or sub
| sequently might be combined into wa
| ter. Take from lessicated tissues the
| element that might have come from
| water association, and comparatively
| speaking, we have but a small amount
| of residue.
We call water; driven off in the sun
| ply of fruit or food Of any kind, water
| Of separation May it not be rather
| the result of STRUCTURAL decomposition?
|
only change their structures as re-
| CARDS relationships of solid constitll-
| entS, but add thereto the qualities that
| combined water gives under conditions
| as yet obscure. The same is true of
| vegetables and fruits. Should we not
| look on such water, necessary as if is
| to life, digestion and tissue replace
| ment, as an integral part Of food in
| stead of simply carrier of food? 1t is
| indeed probable that the student If
dfetetfcs must soon broaden his field
and consider foods in their structural
entirety, rather than from their ANA
! 1ytical created ultimates The method
OF the analyst now is to first kill the
animal vegetable, then DESTROY the tis
sue, then disrupt the molecule. The
| final result gives him Inorganic eJe
mentS and a few characteristic chefni :
cal structures, on which he bases his
| table concerning food valuations. is
! this just, in the light of what we know
! of the province of vitalized structures
| as q whole; is it rational, in the light
of what we know concerning The
| worthlessness of chemical element IN
foods? Is it not more rational to ac
cept the view that's the exceptional
| value of albumen and other nutrients.
as typical foods, rests on the water
| compounds so nearly in accord with
tissues craving just such yitaIized
| water bearing structures
| These, the vital points raised by
| John Uri Lloyd before the Pharnacetl-
teal association in this CITY. are ma
terially reinforced by some broad gen
| civilizations. Water being the mall
may well be all jim all, of the organic.
Even in the inorganic We have the wa
ter of crystalization. AS this earth
stands today, geograp hicaIly, it is a
monument to the triumph of water