A guide to the food collection in the South Kensington Museum / by Edwin Lankester.

  • Lankester, Edwin, 1814-1874.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A guide to the food collection in the South Kensington Museum / by Edwin Lankester. 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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    that we may be said to moult or cast away our old body and get a new one every forty days. The materials for the food of man, and containing the above elements, are derived from the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. The vegetable kingdom, however, is the great source of food to man and animals, as it is in the cells of the plant that the elements undergo those chemical changes which fit them for food. The animal can only supply what it obtains from them, and the substances supplied by the animal kingdom as food are identical with those obtained from plants. To a certain extent the phy- siological action of food depends upon its chemical compo- sition, and in the following Classification of Food, according to which the museum is arranged, this fact- is recognized. CLASSIFICATION OF FOOD. Class I. Alimentary or Necessary. Group 1. Mineral: a, Water; b, Salt; c, Ashes of Plants and Animals. Group 2. Carbonaceous or Respiratory=Ileat-giving : a, Starch; b, Sugar ; i c, Fat. Group 3. Nitrogenous or Nutritious = Flesh-forming : a, Albumen ; b, Fibrine ; c, Caseine. Class II. Medicinal or Auxiliary. Group 1. Stimulants : a, Alcohol; b, Volatile Oils. ■on,v;,: . Group 2. Alteratives : a, Acids; b, Alkaloids.