An argument on behalf of the primitive diet of man / [Frederic Richard Lees].

  • Lees, Frederic Richard, 1815-1897.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An argument on behalf of the primitive diet of man / [Frederic Richard Lees]. 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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    with cherries, figs, dates, mulberries, or other fruits which are abun- dant there. Now and then a little fish. “ Bo they ever use animal food ? Occasionally, I believe, the flesh of goats ; but I never saw them eating any other than the diet I have described. “ Bid they appear to eat more than the European workmen ?—About the same; if anything, more moderate as respects the quantity.” * This last remark is important: for instinct infallibly guides men to eat enough : so that these fine large-men find a somewhat less quan- tity of vegetal food, equal in satisfying power to a larger and more costly supply of flesh. Nature, like wisdom, is justified of her children. § 10. After all the noise we have heard about the necessity of fat- meat and tallow in low latitudes. Sir John Richardson, M.D., one of the Arctic voyagers, says “ that the servants of the Hudson’s Bay Company are now finding out by experience, that altho wheaten-bread. does not give them adequate support, bread composed of maize-flour [which contains 10 per cent of oily matter] answers every purpose 2|fts being fully equal in sustaining the capacity both for muscular exertion and for bearing cold to the 8&s of fat-meat of the ordinary ration. Let us here remind the medical world of a fact which it seems to have forgotten in its discussions on this topic, but one distinctly pro- ved in the experiments on Respiration by Boussingault, f viz. that the organism will not resorb that quantity of fat which is adequate for the restitution of the carbon consumed—showing that fat is an excep- tional food, required, as it is supplied, only in small quantities. A duck, for example, expired in one hour 1.25 grammes of carbon; but 0.84 of a gramme of fat is all that is resorbed, which contains only 0.7 of a gramme of carbon. But the carbo-hydrates are resorbed by the intestine as fast as Respiration can need them; and what is singu- lar, 5.26 parts of starch and 5.62 of sugar are resorbed in one hour, thus yielding the same value; the difference in absorption compensating the difference in composition. § 11. As respects individual experience in relation to mental power, philosophic thought, and moral character, the Vegetarian-system is interwoven with the History of Philosophy, Philanthropy, and Reli- gion. Pew c world-compelling men,’ as the Westminster Review observ- ed, have been its disciples: but many glorious, world-impressing, world- improving men! The laurels of its heroes are not crimsoned with blood. The amaranthine wreaths which encircle their brows, sparkle * The luxe-consumption of Flesh, which runs rapidly into decomposition in the system, is in itself much worse than excess of Vegetal-food. As Lehmann observes, “ large quantities of urea, far exceeding the normal mean, are excre- ted” (iii. p. 360). f Ann. de Chemie, 3 ser. T. 18. p. 444—78. E Turkish porters.