The choice of food / by Henry Simpson.

  • Simpson, Henry.
Date:
[between 1870 and 1879?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The choice of food / by Henry Simpson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    THE CHOICE OF FOOD. BY HENRY SIMPSON, M.D. LOND, Physician to the Manchester Royal Infirmary, &c. HE title of the lecture this evening is, The Choice of Food. It is desirable, however, in the first place, to consider some points which will by-and-by help us in our choice—such as the reasons why we require food, and the purposes which will be served by it. The whole of nature—by which I mean everything around us— may be divided into things that are living or have been living, and things that never had life. To the former class belong plants, from the giant tree to the living speck so small that a microscope of high power may be needed to show us its existence. In this class, likewise, all animal life is included, from man, who is placed at the head, to the little microscopic point of living jelly, which seems as simple in structure as the lowest form of vegetable life. Indeed, the line which separates animals from plants, though apparent enough a little way above the lowest forms of life, is made out with great difficulty as you descend the scale; and there are living forms which even now cannot be placed with certainty on one side or the other. All living things, and all things that have had life, belong to what is called sometimes the organic kingdom. Con- trasted with this there is the great mineral kingdom, the rocks and mountains composing the greatest part of the earth's surface. If you were asked to point out the chief general character which distinguishes the organic from the mineral or inorganic kingdoms, you would, I think, most likely say that change is the great feature of the one, while permanence and stability characterise the other. And this answer would be a fairly correct one, because change— incessant change—is characteristic of life, and permanence of inert mineral matter.