On food : four Cantor lectures, delivered before the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce / by H. Letheby.

  • Letheby, H. (Henry), 1816-1876.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On food : four Cantor lectures, delivered before the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce / by H. Letheby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ie cheapest article of diet, as may be seen by reference Table No. 4. Oatmeal and rj-e-bread were once the chief diet of the jrvants of the wealthy, and even now the former is used y 90 per cent, of the ag-ricultural labourers of England, nd by a still larger proportion of the Scotch. The grain I very rich in gluton and fat, and it contains a good uantity of susrar and starch, the microscopic form of rhich is remarkable. The Scotch meal is always prc- jrable to the English, on account of its liighcr nutritive ower. It is prepared hy grinding the kiln-di'iod grains, reviously deprived of theii- skins. The Scotch grind it ither coarsely as compared with the practice in England. Oatmeal is not nearly so white as wheaten flour, and i taste is peculiar, being at first sweet, then rough and itter. Like barley-meal, it cannot bo vesiculated into read, but it makes good cakes, and these may be either avened, as is the custom in Yorkshire, or unleavened, 1 in Scotland. The common method of cooking it, however, is by irring it into boiling water until it has the consistence ' hasty pudding, and in this manner porridcje is made; ut if it be afterwards boiled for a short time it makes cotch brose. In Ireland it is mixed with Indian meal, ad then stin-ed into boiling water, thus making the lixtiu-o called stirabout. The decorticated grain constitutes i/riln or groats, and hen these are crushed or bruised they go by the name ' Emden gront.% The sole use of them is for making ruel, a drink that seems to have been a favomite with ir forefathers; for in the London Gazette, for Friday, ngust 13, 169.5, there is an advertisement to the effect lat water-gruel was always ready at the Marine offee-house, in Birchin-lane, Cornhill, every morning cm six to eleven o'clock; and, it added, that as much I from four to five gallons of it were consumed there *uly. 'he husks of the grains are sold in Scotland under le name of seed.'!, anrt these, when steeped in water for few days, until they become a little sour, like stale rewers' grains, and then squeezed out, produce a liquid hich, when boiled down to the consistence of gruel, akes the food cviWoAflummerg or sowaim in Scotland, and Kan in South Wales. If it be boiled still more, luitU becomes as thick as jelly, it forms bndriim, or brwchaii I ifc IS nanied in Wales. Oatmeal is, no doubt, rather ird of digestion, and causes iiTitation of the bowels, here is a notion also that it produces heat and irritation ^the skin; and formerly, when sufficient care was not ken to remove the husk from the grain before it was _ound, it was not an uncommon occuiTence to find Iculi or concretions of phosphate of lime, mixed with e silky bnstles of the grain, in the alimentaiy canal. »mewhat similar concretions are found at the present ne in the bowels of horses that food too freely on bran CTains. The nutritive value of oatmeal is shown in ibles No. p and No. 4, and it will be noticed that ;hough It IS, weight for weight, more nutritive than leaten tloiu-, yet, considering its price, it is not so onomical. Rye meal is tlio chief food of northern nations, and IS once a common article of diet with ourselves It ^ dark-coloured and sour-tasting bread of the )rth of Europe. In this country it is rarely oaten mo, but IS mixed with about twice its bulk of wheaton forming what in many places is caUcd masliu, and hen made mto bread. The nutritive power of ryc- fhe nitrll''^' ^^'J.^* °[ •'^'1 Pi-oportion the nitrogenous to the carbonaceous constituents is Make or Indim, Corn is one of the most extensively 3d gi-ains in the world. It enters largely into the food ?h of IWo^ America, Italy, cUca, Spain. tS ffn^Jnl - r°' 'i'^'^*^ Banubian Principalities. Since vour 18 harsh and peculiar, and nothing but a scarcity of more agi-eeable food reconciles people to its use. The young grain called cob, is, however, more palatable, and forms, when boiled in milk, an American luxury, which takes the place of green peas. The farina is peculiar when examined under the microscope, and will thus servo to recognise it. Although the meal is rich in nitrogenous matter and fat, it does not make good bread. It is, therefore, either cooked by baking it into cakes, or by stirring it into boiling water, or boiling milk, as in the case of oatmeal, and thus malring a sort of hasty-pudding, or thick ponidge. This is the method of using it in Ireland, and it is flavoured with salt, or butter, or treacle. The favourite mess' called corn-lob by the Creoles of British Honduras, is prepared with milk in the same way. Indian meal mixed with maple sugar, and baked into cakes, formed, at one time, the chief article of diet of the almost extinct Delaware Indians. When deprived of its gluten, and harsh flavoiu-, by means of a weak solution of caustic soda, and then dried, it forms the expensive food called Oswego or corn flour, which is now largely used for puddings. Lastly, it is often mixed -with wheaten-floui* and baked into bread, but its harsh taste is never completely covered. The_ grain is said to cause disease when eaten for a long time, and without other meal—the symptoms being a scaly eruption upon the hands, great prostration of the ■^-ital powers, and death after a year or so, with extreme emaciation. These effects have been frequently observed among the peasants of Italy, who use the meal as their chief food, but I am not aware of any such effects having been seen in Ireland, where it is often the only article of diet. The nutritive power of Indian meal is very high, and, considering its price, it is almost, if not altogether, the cheapest food for the poor. Calculated according to the physiological wants of the sj-stem, a week's diet for an adult will only cost about lOJd., and excepting split- peas, which are of doubtful digestibility, there is nothing approaching it for economy. Mice is the principal food of eastern and southern nations. It is extensively cultivated in India, China, South America, and the southern countries of Eui-ope ; and it gives nourishment to not less than a hundred millions of persons. In this countrj--, however, it is rarely employed, except as an adjunct to other foods. Now and then, in times of scarcity, it is used in the place of potatoes. Perhaps 50 per cent, of oui- labouring classes use it in this manner. It is imported into this country in a decorticated or cleaned condition, but when it has the husk upon it, it is called imddg. The kinds which are most esteemed in this country are Carolina and Patna ; but according to Dr. Watson, tliere are many_ Indian varieties which arc nearly equal to the American. The proportion of gluten in it is only about ^'^^ ^^'''^y '^'^cecds 7. It is, in fact, one ot the least nitrogenous of all the cereals, and cannot be made into bread, unless it is mixed with wheaten-flour, as IS the custom in Paris, in making the best white bread. _ The proportion of nitrogenous to carbonaceous matter IS as I to 127, or ncariy twice tlie amount in wncat. It IS, therefore, a good adjunct to highly plastic ioods as ox-livcr, poultry, veal, and fish ; with all of wHich it goes well, especially in the savoury form of currij. Boiled with milk also, and dressed with egg, as ncc pudding, it forms a substantial meal; but in no country is it eaten alone. The Millets, called also Bhurra or Ithoora, are another kind of grain, and arc derived from many species of plants, as sorghum, pcnicellaria, panicum, &c. Like rice, they are extensively cultivated in India. Eg3T,t, and the 'PK^ ^^^J important articles of met. I hey are a httle more nutritious than rice: for they contain, on an average, about 9 per cent, of nitro- genous matter, with 74 of starch and sugar, 2-G of fat, and 2-3 ot nunoral matter. Wo have no experience of their nutntivo properties in this country, except in feed-