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tions it is too expensive to be used chiefly for this purpose. Examples of protein are found in lean meat, peas, beans, lentils, etc. Fats and oils supply heat and energy. They also aid in digestion. The fat of meats often so carefully removed and ignored, butter, oils of vegetables, etc., may serve for furnishing the fat stored in the body or used as a source of heat. Of the meats, veal has the least fat, and pork the most. Cheese contains as much fat as it does protein. The greater the percentage of water found in animal foods, the less the amount of fat.

CARBOHYDRATES.

This group includes the starches, sugars, and gums, and similar chemical bodies, substances which, like fat, furnish heat and energy to the body. Carbohydrates contain no nitrogen whatever. Therefore, they cannot replace protein as a tissue builder. Carbohydrates and fat are needed by the body and the amount required is larger than the amount of protein. Carbohydrates supply heat and energy to the body the same as fats, but to a less degree. For the energy and heat needed for the body, about two and one-fourth pounds of starch and sugar equal a pound of fat. Fats and carbohydrates are often called energy yielders since they are used to keep the body warm and to enable it to perform work. Protein also furnishes energy. It is thus seen to serve a dual purpose.

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Neither would it supply the protein which is essential. The ordinary mixed diet, it is generally considered, contains a sufficient amount of ash constituent for the needs of the body.

REFUSE IN FOODS.

Foods have a varying proportion of refuse (portions unsuited for eating), from the 10 per cent. in a round of beef to the 50 per cent. of fish. Examples of refuse are found in bones of meat, oyster shells, apple cores, peach pits, orange skins, etc.

A large and necessary proportion of the weight of the body is made up of water, and water must be furnished to the system in foods and in beverages in order to keep up the supply. It is not usually taken into consideration as a nutrient. Ordinary foods contain water in juice or in particles too small to be seen. Some is always chemically combined with other constituents.

The balanced ration should contain the proportion of protein, carbohydrates, and fats which will produce the best results. Occupation, temperament, climate, personal peculiarities of digestion all vary to an extent which makes it impossible to form a fixed rule for all cases, although general averages have been adopted. The changes which food undergoes in the body are largely due to oxidation. Therefore, from the amount of heat which a food is capable of yielding may be estimated the amount of its value for work.

The standard of the heat production is the calorie, or the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of water 1° C. The standard amounts of the different nutritive constituents required daily by a man of average build and weight differ with various authorities so far as fat and carbohydrates are concerned, although the amount of protein is similar in all. The standard proposed by Prof. Atwater for a man at moderately active muscular work requires 125 grams protein, with fat and carbohydrates enough to make the energy value 3.400 calories.

No one article contains the different nu

tritive constituents in proper porportions nor do we consume our food in the form of pure protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Allowance must also be made for imperfect digestion and for waste, as for example, the potato pared before boiling, where there is a waste of about 35 per cent., and sirloin steak with a waste of 25 per cent.

[We consider Prof. Atwater's estimate excessive. People thrive on less than onehalf his 3.400 calories.-ED. GAZETTE.]

蛋蛋

THE AGE OF CRANKISM.

TRULY, says the Medical Brief, this is the age of crankism. Nothing is too preposterous for some people to believe it. The evolution of mind, like the evolution of other faculties, renders it peculiarly susceptible to diseases and errors. As a result we have isms of all kinds. Some of them are too absurd to entertain for a moment, were it not that they are propagated by a narrow, intense fanaticism, which is responsible for serious consequences. Now comes raw-foodism, with its tape worms, trichina, etc., to try the patience of the long-suffering.

A society has actually been organized in Chicago, consisting of twenty-three men and women, pledged to eat all of their food

raw.

Here is a specimen of their reasoning:

Mr. Taylor, in addressing the meeting, said: "No oak ever grew from a burned acorn; parched corn will never sprout when planted; roasted chestnuts never produced a chestnut tree, nor were peanuts ever grown from planting roasted peanuts. All that is life in anything is destroyed by fire."

We did not know before that food was planted in the stomach to germinate. We had an idea that it was the prayerful intention of physicians to prevent this, if possi

ble.

The following energetic resolution promises a great deal more than it can successfully tackle:

"Resolved, That it is our firm conviction

that man could live much longer, in proportion to the number of years required for his development, by eating raw food; ill-health would be the exception rather than the rule, and pestilence and contagious diseases would be wiped from the land. We believe children reared on uncooked foods will become giants physically and intellectually."

In bygone days, when men were too savage to cook their food, they were anything but a superior race. Pestilence and contagion were the rule, rather than the exception. Whole communities were wiped out. Delusions and hallucinations seized upon great bodies of men. The process of digestion was so slow, difficult and imperfect, men were stupid, sluggish, almost comatose, for hours afterwards. It was customary to defer eating when anything was on hand requiring a clear and ready brain. Prolonged periods of fasting were necessary for purification. Blood and skin diseases, especially smallpox, were extremely common and very severe. Immense paunches were the rule, and apoplexy an every-day affair.

Yet it is gravely proposed to return to these barbarous dietetic practices. As a result, deaths from ptomain poisoning are enormously increased.

As soon as an animal dies, ordinary tissue metabolism is reversed. Instead of assimilation and repair, we have putrefaction of fluids and tissue break-down. The first step consists in the production of various ptomains just as poisonous as prussic acid, strychnin, atropin, daturin and other alkaloids. Injected into dogs, they produce the phenomena of poisoning and death.

Cold retards and heat checks these changes. An animal killed, drained of its blood, put on ice or hung up in a cold place until the animal heat is out, and then cooked thoroughly done, is tender, nutritious and easily digested.

But raw meat, rare beef, poultry, pork, etc., contain numerous sources of disease in an active state. A tuberculous taint, zymotic poisons, parastic germs, as tape worm, trichina, etc., to say nothing of various pto

mains, infest such meat, and infect the unfortunate victim of this last and worst food fad.

It was decided at the Chicago meeting to try to bring about the organization of similar raw-food societies throughout the country. Physicians, as guardians of the public health, must take a decided stand on this question. It would be infamous, with our superior knowledge of the deadly dangers involved in this raw-food folly, if we did not exert ourselves to teach the truth in the matter.

A nation can not prosper, except its men be sound and healthy. No man can be either healthy or sane who lives on raw food. The chances are that he will not "be" at all very long.

DIET IN NEURASTHENIA.

As is often the question in regard to taking certain medicines, the patient may be able to take milk even when he thinks it does not agree with him, but it is well to begin with small amounts, excluding for the time being all other food. In this way, in the course of a few days, the patient will find the milk very acceptable. The physician should be careful not to allow the patient to eat enough to keep him from being somewhat hungry all the time for the first two weeks. Cautiously his diet should be increased by the addition of small slices of rather stale bread, adding later on a small chop or steak in the middle of the day and a nicely boiled egg for breakfast. From this his diet is built up until he eats three good sized meals a day. According to the experience of Dercum, he regards the following dietary as the best: a breakfast of fruit, cracked wheat, one or two soft-boiled eggs, or a good-sized steak or several chops, bread and butter, and milk; a dinner of a good slice of roast beef, with vegetables and boiled rice (in place of potatoes). The supper to be preferred is a light meal of bread, butter, fruits, light pudding, and

milk. It will be noticed that in this dietary coffee, chocolate, tea, cocoa are absolutely omitted. Further, that malt extract, codliver oil, and beef tea (all recommended by others) are not used. His own studies of these cases have convinced him that soups, beef tea, and broths possess relatively little value, that they simply occupy space which can be otherwise given to milk, which certainly has a higher nutrient power. As the neurasthenic has generally exhausted the use of stimulants, coffee, tea and alcohol are objectionable. For the same reason, wine, beer and milk punches are not indicated.

WHEAT AS FOOD.

Wheat is as perfect a food as any one article can be. There is, perhaps, no one substance which, under long-continued use, meets the necessities of the body, but certainly wheat does if any one article can. Three classes of substances are required to nourish the body. First, the inorganic principles, such as salt, lime, potash, magnesia, iron, sulphur-these are found in vegetables and animal products. Second, nitrogenous principles in which nitrogen forms the chief element; and third, carbonaceous, or those in which carbon predominates. These three classes fulfil the different functions in the process of nutrition. One is as necessary as the other, though not needed in the same proportions. The inorganic substances, the salt, lime, potash, etc., enter into the organization of plants and into flesh in various proportions. The foods best fitted to nourish the body contain about fifteen parts of carbon to three of nitrogen; for every grain of nitrogen which is needed to build up the tissues of the body, fifteen grains of carbon are required. The tissues are built out of the carbonaceous foods. These represent the fuel, so to speak, which is burnt under our boilers, out of which the force comes to drive the machinery. The true food then is that which supplies about fifteen grains of carbon to one of nitrogen, together with some inorganic substance. Wheat represents the normal proportion much more

closely than lean meat, fat meat or butter. Eggs are a good type of organized food, as they contain both nitrogen and carbon. Milk is one of the perfect foods. We do not mean to say that we need all through life the same kind of food that is needed during the period of development, still, a perfect food may fairly be represented by milk and wheat, especially if the whole wheat is ground into meal.

THE FRUIT CURE.

The curative valve of fruit is becoming more and more insisted upon by those who make a study of dietetics. Grapes are recommended for the dyspeptic, the consumptive, the anemic, and for those with a tendency to gout and liver troubles. Plums, also, are said to be a cure for gouty and rheumatic tendencies. The acid fruits, especially lemons and oranges, are particularly good for stomach troubles and rheumatism.

It is not sufficient, say the advocates of the fruit cure, to eat a small quantity at breakfast or dinner. One should eat from two to eight pounds of grapes a day, or, if oranges are the curative agency, the number to be eaten in a day may vary from three to six.

A healthy condition of the body depends upon a perfect balance of foods taken. There are many other factors entering into the question, but this feature must not be forgotten. Few people there are who can keep healthy without fruit.

A MAN'S WORD.

THE greatest liar on earth tells the truth to his doctor. The most truthful man alive is tempted to lie to the Assessor.-San Francisco Bulletin.

The latter statement is no doubt true, but unless death is staring him in the face, the liar or the man who will not lie about anything else will lie to his doctor.

EXPERIMENT WITH LIGHT IN THE TREATMENT OF PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS.*

BY ROBERT F. WILLIAMS, M.A., M.D.,
Richmond, Va.

Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, Medical College of Virginia.

My interest in light as a therapeutic agent was first stimulated eighteen months ago by the excellent results that I witnessed from the use of the arc-light bath, with electricity, in a case of locomotor ataxia of several years' standing, and in a case of chronic articular rheumatism, where locomotion was almost lost.

In the beginning of my experiments with light my apparatus consisted of an arc-light bath. This was a cabinet lined with reflectors, in which the patient sat with the head out. In front and behind the patient were placed arc lamps of ordinary power, adjusted with a long arc, so as to develop the violet ray. The temperature of this cabinet in a direct line between the lights was about 105° F. In other parts of the cabinet the temperature was about 97°. Here the patient (nude) was exposed to the rays from one-half an hour to one hour.

The immediate result of the bath was an increase of body temperature from one to two and a half degrees, in spite of profuse sweating, which occurred usually in five to fifteen minutes. The pulse rate was increased and the tension softened. Though sweating was profuse, patients on lying down in a cooling-room invariably expressed themselves as feeling refreshed, though often tired when entering the bath. Other evidence of increased combustion than the rise of temperature was an increase of urea. In all of the early cases treated by this method I had a blood count made, and in all cases in which the count was less than normal a second count was made after two weeks' treatment, which showed in the different cases from twenty-five to forty

*Read before the Richmond Academy of Medicine ad Surgery, June 25, 1902.

per cent. increase in the red blood cells. The white blood cells were also increased. though not by so great a percentage.

In connection with the arc-light bath I used ozone, generated by fine electrical sparks from a high-tension coil. This was arranged in a small cabinet, in which the patient sat from five to fifteen minutes. I also used the high-tension current directly on the body. These cases were mostly neurasthenia and anemia, though I also treated two cases of locomotor ataxia. My results with the ataxia were negative, but in the nervous and anemic cases quite satisfactory. The case which I especially wish to report is that of a young man, who gave the following history:

Age, 22 years; occupation for several years past, attendant at a soda-water fountain. He was sent to me in April, 1901, for treatment for gastric catarrh. He gave a history of mild neurasthenia for the previous several years. He also had several times trouble of the middle ear. He responded well to the treatment, and in a couple of months his stomach was in good condition, and his nervous symptoms showed improvement.

About the middle of September he began to feel bad and have a little continuing fever. On September 16th he consulted Dr. Frank M. Reade, who made a diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis, and attended him until my return to the city, on September 25th last. His fever was continuous, running as high as 103°. He had some night sweats, some cough, and lost a good deal of flesh. Physical examination showed only a thickening of the pleura at the base. of the left lung. On September 29th, we had the sputum examined, and the bacilli were found. There was, however, no history of tuberculosis in the family. He was put on increasing doses of cod liver oil and sent to the country, where he stayed for a month. On his return, the sweats had ceased, and he had gained seventeen pounds; but the cough had increased, and, though morning temperature had disap

peared, he was running an evening temperature of 100° to 101°.

Physical examination made November 18th, on his return, showed the following: At the apex of the left lung and in the interscapular region dulness, fremitus equal to right lung, increased vocal resonance, whispered speech, broncho-vesicular breathing, prolonged expiratory sound, click at the end of forced inspiration, or, in other words, typical signs of consolidation of an area nearly the size of one's hand. The base of the left ng showed dulness to the level of the ninth rib in the scapular line, extending to the front. Sounds of auscultation were diminished over this area. Deep breathing, commanded in the course of examination, invariably caused paroxysms of coughing, which lasted several minutes. These findings were verified by Dr. E. G. Williams and Dr. Frank M. Reade.

Treatment was then begun, consisting of arc-light baths of thirty to forty minutes' duration; ozone inhalations, which at first could be given only five or six minutes, as in that time it produced severe coughing, but which was increased until at the end of a month he could take it twenty minutes or longer without causing paroxysms. For the local stimulating effect I passed a current from the high-tension coil directly through diseased area for twenty minutes.

This treatment was daily. All medication was stopped, his occupation was changed, and he became a collector, under orders to walk at least five miles a day in all kinds of weather. He was also directed to sleep with his windows wide open.

After two days' treatment his temperature became normal and remained so continually. At the end of a month physical examination was again made by Dr. Reade and myself. We thought there was some diminution in the dulness and fremitus over the affected area, but of this we could not be sure. The click on forced inspiration had disappeared, and coughing was not excited at all by this effort. His appetitie was excellent.

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