Report of lectures on the natural history of plants yielding food : with incidental remarks on the functions and disorders of the digestive organs / delivered by Edwin Lankester.

  • Lankester, Edwin, 1814-1874.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of lectures on the natural history of plants yielding food : with incidental remarks on the functions and disorders of the digestive organs / delivered by Edwin Lankester. 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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    be injurious to feed persons upon arrowroot entirely; yet little children were fed sometimes almost entirely on arrowroot. 'Irue tbey became fat, but never strong, and he believed that such prac- tice frequently led to tiie destiuction of their existence. Another substance, containing chiefly starch, was sago, and the plant which produces it is the Sagas Ramphii. It was also yielded by the Cycas revoluta. These cycadaceous plants were v?ry beau- tiful, from their stellate foliage branching from a point. Sago was yielded by the stem of the plant. The whole group of palms con- tained immense quantities of cellular tissue in their stems, consi- derably more than other plants, and the sago or starch matter collected in the cellular tissue of the palm, just as starch did in other plants. Some plants of the Sagus Kumphii yielded from 5001b. to 6001b. of sago. To collect it they fell the tree, and then, breaking it up into small portions, the tissue is submitted to nearly the same process for obtaining sago as the potato for starch, or the marantu for arrowroot. There were several kinds of sago, as sago meal, the common sago, pearl sago, &c., only differing in the mode in which they were prepared. Tapioca was another form of starch, all these things containing very little proteinaceous or nitrogenous matter. The Jatropha manihot, which yielded tapioca, belonged to a poisonous tribe of plants, the Euphorbiacea. When fresh it was a very viru- lent poison; which quality, however, was removed from it merely by the process of washing, not even heat being necessary. One advantage possessed by tapioca over the other forms of starch, was, that it formed a thick jelly under the influence of heat, and was consequently more adapted for puddings and thick foods, than any other kind of starch, and, perhaps, of all those starches, was the best adapted for the food of children, as it contained a small quantity of proteinaceous matter, which would act as a real nutri- ment. Many other articles he might mention as containing starch. That obtained from a kind of orchis (the 0. mascula) was used in London for making a common article of diet. So were several families of lichens, as the L. Islandicus, and some kinds of sea- weeds, as the Algce, to which the Carrageen moss belongs. Some who hai analysed these matters had given the principle obtained the name of lichenin ; and they had not, he believed, been able to find any nitrogenous matter in them; if so, it was difficult to account for the fact that the rein-deer, constantly living on Iceland moss, should support the wear and tear of great muscular motion ; it must have nitrogenous matter supplied to the system from some source. It was therefore probable that the L. Islandicus did contain protein. He had on the table a very curious form o(Alg<e, used as an article of food in considerable quantities by the Chinese, forming the nest of the Hirutidoesculenta. This swallow abounds in the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, from which islands these nests were col- lected in very considerable quantities, to enable the Chinese to indulge their taste for rare articles of diet. This could never have become a favourite food, but that the sea-weed contains a quantity of starchy matter, and probably of nitrogenous matter also, and it was eaten in great quantities by the more opulent