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

ence. When ~wa+er, the aII-conquering
element of the terrestrial superfices,
| takes new potency aforetime unsus-
| pected by the laboratory sharps, it is
time to ask, Does water want the whole
earth? When all the alleged up-to-
date food experts-with their percent
age or 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 a 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
called food solids, such as sugar,
starch, glucose. These food products
differ from one another, as we know,
only IN the proportion of water present.
Taklng the carbohydrates, "dyasdust,"
we ind 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 a water producing COM
pound (pulverulent water) in contact
With the great combustible carbon
THAT'S sugar, an ideal food. Yet car
bon by itself is absolutely worthless as
a food. heterogeneous food becomes a
supported of nutrition in manner i'm
possible in case of pure nitrogen
which is not available as food and
cannot be assimilated as such. Hydro
gen serves its purpose as a food only
when in combination. These three eIe-
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 water do they become tissue
, builders or heat-producers.
Later investigations discredit the
prevailing view that water in food
substances is a solvent only or a Vehi-
Gle to convey food to tissue and bone;
that as drink its functions are to di-'
| lutte the fluids, wash impurity from the
blood, convey off worn-ou tissues;
ana that 1T must not seriously be con-
sIdered as an integral part of food
! The new water science faVors the con-
clus1on that the one thing that sup
ports life, governs life, nourishes life
| That feeds all structures, that cOnsti-
! tuteS the larger part of all organic It's
Sues-must no longer be regarded as a
carrier or a solvent only; but that the
Vltallzed water Of organized water
| OCoNA 1OOuSy anu the cOnlD1noQ water
| OF SUCH foods, as carbohydrates and
/ rats, are the foundations of the real
! FOODS for tissues, affiliating other ma
! .teflalS 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
I the near future will see in all organic
structures the varied f'-uducts of the
migration of the water molecule.
/ Possibly the makers of food products
I ofSthe Tuture will give less attention to
analytical values concerning dead ele-
ments and more to vitalized and vital
ring structures in which available wa
ter is cQpspicuOus. 1t behooves us per-
| haps even now to ask if a close inquiry
| into theSHWater mOlecule-the VitaIfzed
! or easily vitalized water molecule-and
| It's many shadings, may not open a
Held for the construction OF more ra-
/ tional food products.
The truth seems to be that the ap-
parent contradiction in customary food
| analysis-tO the effect that accented
basis of food value carbon, hydrogen,
| nitrogen, have by themselves no food
value ateall-is due to the fact that the
water with which, as food. thew are
| combined, is itself combined in an I'M
| told member Of liquid organic struc-
lures that are as yet invisible, uncrys-
l@ta1llzed, ~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
water in most cases the larger share
| OF their weight being water and OBJ
| serve the composition of the solid ma
| terials that remain after they are dried.
| Ihese, too. are are found to be made
| up of elements that in themselves NAV
nave been derived from Water-frae-
| 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
| sequentiy might be combined into wa
| ter. Take from dessicated tissues the
! element that might have come from
! water, dissertation, and comparatively
| speaking, we have but a small amount
| of residue.
| We call water driven off in the sup
| ply of fruit or food of any kind. water
| OF separation May 1t not be rather
! the result OF structural decOmposifion2
In the cooking of dry foods we not
| only change their structures as re-
| CARDS relationships of solid constitu-
| 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 II il
to life, digestion and tissue replace
| ment, as an integral part of food in
| stead of simply a carrier Of food? If is
| indeed probable that the student of
dfeteticS must soon broaden his field
and consider foods in their structural
| entirety, rather than from their ana
! lytical created ultimates The method
| of the analyst now is to first kin the
animal vegetable, then destroy the tis-
| sue, then disrupt the moIecule. The
| final result gives him Inorganic eIe-
mentS and a few characteristics eheY1i-
| 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 a 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 vitalized
| water-bearing structures?
These, the vital points raised by
John Uri Lloyd before the Pharmaceu-
teal association in this city, are ma
terialIy reinforced by some broad gen-
may well be all 4in-all, of the organic.
| Even in the inOr$ anic We have the wa
ter of cryStaliZation. AS this earth
stands today, raplicaIly, it is a
monument to the triumph of water
over fire, over superheated steam, over
titanic aggregations of atmospheric
gases in appalling disQuietude, unrest
and rebellion, during that grand old
azoic aeon, when cosmic 'Iightings
darted through fhe zimmerman gloom