cubic centimetre when obliged to use a moderately wide tube.

At the time the article appeared I was about to leave for the Continent, and was unable to give any confirmatory experiments; I therefore take the present opportunity of supplying them. Since the use of the float requires that the measuring tube shall contain a short column of air or other gas, in order that the float may assume its equilibrium, it is scarcely necessary to add that its service is limited to the volumetric determination of those gases which do not require further treatment by reagents.

In my former communication I alluded to Dumas's method for the absolute determination of nitrogen, and singled out that gas as one to which the method then proposed could be easily applied.

In the experiments given below I have repeated, by way of illustration, one originally made by Wanklyn and Chapman, who showed, in a paper read before the Society in the early* part of the year 1866, that the hydrogen evolved by magnesium undergoing solution in dilute acid could be satisfactorily measured over water; and from the weight of the gas produced could be computed the percentage of real metal in the sample (Mg = 12 H=1). The graduated tube which served me in the following experiments was divided in fractions of a cubic centimetre, the volumes and weights corresponding to the marks being determined by successive cautious additions of a volume of distilled water at 16°, the weight of which had been carefully ascertained. The calibration was conducted as follows:-Into the inverted tube was put, by means of a pipette with a long stem, sufficient distilled water to reach a division of the scale. The pipette contained about 5 cubic centimetres. I next determined the weight of the water it was capable of delivering in a given length of time. At the end of twenty seconds it was free of all water which would leave it by running; droppings were not collected. The mean of ten weighings of this volume of water at 16° C., in grammes delivered in twenty seconds, was taken as the standard in the calibration. The readings were made by aid of a small telescope, the lowest level of the dark zone being considered † as the level of the water-column in the tube. The solution of the metal was effected in a small flask fitted with a caoutchouc stopper carrying a delivery-tube and small tap-funnel. The whole arrangement was filled with spring water before the evolution of gas took place, the acid being afterwards added by means of the funnel.

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The above experiments were not all made on the same day, as the different readings of the barometer testify. The accordance of the numbers obtained is, perhaps, as great as could be expected, when we reflect that hydrogen is not altogether insoluble in water, and, moreover, that the method adopted for calibrating the tube was not one having any special claim to precision, though its object was to afford a relation between the brass weights and the volume marks of the tube. Chorley, Lancashire.

NOTE ON THE

DETECTION OF PHOSPHATE OF LIME IN SUBNITRATE OF BISMUTH.

BY DR. REDWOOD.

In a brief notice I gave in the last number of the Pharmaceutical Journal of the "Adulteration of Subnitrate of Bismuth with Phosphate of Lime," I alluded to a test recently published by Mr. Roussin. I am informed by Messrs. Howard and Sons, of Stratford, that they have found this test fallacicus, as continued boiling causes a precipitate of bismuth itself when no phosphate is present. They suggest the following modification of the test, by which they say one-third of a grain of phosphate of lime is easily detected:

"To one part of the salt of bismuth dissolved in weak nitric acid add two parts of citric acid; dissolve

with the aid of a little water; add an excess of solution of ammonia, and boil. Any phosphate present will be thrown down with continuous boiling of the solution." Although absence from home prevents my adding my own experience on the subject, I am anxious, on the unquestionable authority of Messrs. Howard, at once to guard those who may have been induced to use Mr. Roussin's test against the erroneous conclusions to which it appears it may lead. In the cases referred to in my former note, I had obtained evidence of the adulteration indicated by other and perfectly trustworthy means before my attention was directed to Mr. Roussin's test.-Pharmaceutical Journal.

ON FOOD.*

BY DR. LETHEBY, M.A., M.B., &C.

(Continued from Am. Repr., Oct., 1868, page 194)

cording to the physiological wants of the system, a week's diet for an adult will only cost about 101d., and excepting split peas, which are of doubtful digestibility, there is nothing approaching it for economy.

Rice is the principal food of eastern and southern nations. It is extensively cultivated in India, China, South America, and the southern countries of Europe and it gives nourishment to not less than a hundred millions of persons. In this country, 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 our 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 paddy. The kinds which are most esteemed in this country are Carolina and Patna; but, according to Dr. Watson, there are many Indian varieties which are nearly equal to the American. The proportion of gluten in it is only

tritive Value.

Maize, or Indian Corn, is one of the most extensively used grains in the world. It enters largely into the food of the inhabitants of America, Italy, Corsica, Spain, the South of France, and the Danubian Principalities. Since the famine in Ireland, it has there also become a common article of diet, especially when potatoes are dear; but its flavour is harsh and peculiar, and nothing but a scarcity of more agreeable 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 serve 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 making a sort of hasty pudding or thick porridge. 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 flavour, 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 flour 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 vital 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 ac

*The Cantor Lectures, delivered before the Society of Arts.

fact, one of 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 1 to 127, or nearly twice the amount in wheat. It is, therefore, a good adjunct to highly plastic foods, as ox-liver, poultry, veal, and fish, with all of which it goes well, especially in the savoury form of curry. Boiled with milk also, and dressed with egg, as rice pudding, it forms a substantial meal; but in no country is it eaten alone.

The Millets, called also Dhurra or Dhoora, are another kind of grain, and are derived from many species of plants, as sorghum, penicellaria, panicum, &c. Like rice, they are extesnively cultivated in India, Egypt, and the interior of Africa, where they are important articles of diet. They are a little more nutritious than rice: for they contain, on an average, about 9 per cent of nitrogenous matter, with 74 of starch and sugar, 26 of fat, and 23 of mineral matter. We have no experience of their nutritive properties in this country, except in feeding birds; but in India the grains are ground whole and made into bread.

The last of the grains of any importance is Quinoa, a species of chenopodium. It is hardly known in this country, although it is extensively cultivated and consumed on the high table-lands of Chili and Peru. Mr. Johnston has described it, and he says there are two varieties of it-the sweet and bitter-both of which grow at an elevation of 13,000 feet above the level of the sea, where barley and rye refuse to ripen. It is very nutritious, and approaches oatmeal in its chemical composition, the amount of gluten being about 19 per cent, the starch and sugar 60 per cent, and the fat 5.

The next class of farinaceous foods are the pulses, as peas, beans, and lentils of this country, and the dholls and grams of India. They are grown and eaten in all parts of the world, and are everywhere regarded as very nutritious when they can be digested. Nothing, however, but the most prolonged cooking will serve to help in this particular. As will be seen by reference to the tables, where the composition of peas, the type of all of them, is given, they are rich in nitrogenous matter, for peas and beans contain about 23 per cent, and lentils about 25; but the carbonaceous constituents amount to only 59 per cent, or 1 to 24. They are therefore, when eaten, invariably associated with fat. In India, the favourite pea (cajanus Indicus) is rubbed with oil before it is cooked. In Yucatan, and throughout the whole

of Central America, where black beans, called frijoles, are extensively used as food, they are well boiled in water, and eaten with pepper, salt, and pork. In this country, butter with peas, and fat bacon with beans, are inseparable companions. Lastly revalenta or ground lentils with cocoa, which contains over 50 per cent of fat, are mixed in a well-known fancy preparation. The nitrogenous matter of the pulses is not of the nature of gluten, but is more like casein, or the cheesy matter of milk, and it was named by Braconnot, its discoverer, legumine.

Other farinaceous foods, of little importance to us, are the meal of the edible chesnut, which is largely used by the peasants of Lombardy; the Manioc and Lotsa meal, which, Dr. Livingstone says, are the chief vegetable foods of the natives of some parts of South Africa; perhaps, also, the horse-chesnut and the acorn might be added to the list, for there is hope of their being easily freed from the bitter principle which now renders them useless.

And last of this class of foods are the starches and arrow-roots, which are largely imported or prepared in this country. They are Bermuda, Jamaica, or West Indian arrow-roots, from maranta arundinacea; East Indian arrow-root, from various species of curcuma; Tousles-mois, from canna; Brazilian arrow-root, from jatropha manihot, which, when dried and partially cooked on hot plates, makes tapioca; and which, when baked in its whole condition, forms cassava bread; sago and sago-meal from the fruit of various species of sagus; Tahiti arrow-root, from a tacca; Portland arrow-root, from the tubers of an arum; and English arrow-root from potatoes. All these are obtained in the same way --namely, by crushing, or bruising, or rasping the root or other substance containing them, and after diffusing through water, allowing the starch or fæculoid matter to deposit; it is then collected on a cloth and dried. In this country, starches are obtained by soaking the grain in an alkaline liquor which dissolves the gluten, and then crushing between mills, straining to keep back the husk and cellulose, and then washing with water, and allowing the starch to subside. By this method of manufacture a quantity of gluten is obtained, which can be set free from the alkali by an acid and collected for food.

All the starches and arrow-roots are known by their microscopic characters, and although they have the same chemical composition and nutritive value, yet they are very different in their digestibility, for the true arrow-roots of the West Indies, as Bermuda and Jamaica, will often remain on the stomach of an invalid when the others will be rejected.

They contain no nitrogen, or but a trace of it, and therefore have no nitrogenous value, but they are useful for their carbonaceous properties; and they are best cooked by stirring them into boiling water or boiling milk, and then simmering for a minute or so.

The next class of vegetable foods are those which contain much water, and which may be called succulent vegetable foods, of which the potato is the most impor

tant.

Brought to us from America, in the seventeenth century, as a rarity, by Sir Walter Raleigh, it has gradually become an almost universal article of diet; for its advantages are so numerous that it will ever be a favourite food. It is, for example, easily cultivated, easily kept, easily cooked, and easily digested; besides which it requires but little flavouring matter, and never wearies the palate. It is therefore used in times of plenty

แ

by all classes of persons, and is often eaten in aantities that approach very nearly to the rice allowance of a hungry Hindoo. "In Ireland," says Dr. Edward Smith, 'when the season arrives and potatoes are plentiful, as much as 3 lbs. are consumed three times in a day by an adult. This, indeed, is the regular allowance, and an Irishman finds no difficulty in consuming his rations of 10 lbs. of potatoes daily." In England the farm labourrer consumes, on an average, hardly as much in a week. In Anglesea, however, potatoes are eaten twice a day, and the consumption is about 164 lbs. per adult weekly; and in Scotland the average allowance is 15 lbs. per head weekly.

The nutritive value of the potato is not great, for, in the first place, it contains only about 25 per cent of solid matter, and of this hardly 21 is nitrogenous. Potatoes are also deficient of fat, and therefore they require admixture with nourishing materials. They go well with meat and fish, and are considerably helped with a little dripping or butter; but the great adjunct is milk. In Ireland, potatoes and buttermilk are the principal diet, even in times of plenty.

Considering the cheapness of potatoes, they are a most economical food. At the price of a halfpenny a pound, as set down in table No. 4, it costs but two shillings and threepence a week to provide the carbon and nitrogen required by an adult; but when potatoes are cultivated upon cottage ground, by wife and children, as is the practice almost everywhere, as much as 7 lbs. can be easily obtained for a penny, and then the weekly diet would be rather less than eight-pence. At this price no vegetable food can compete with it.

Potatoes are best cooked in their skins, for the waste is then only about 3 per cent, or half an ounce in a pound; whereas, if they are peeled first, it is not less than 14 per cent, or from two to three ounces in a pound. The mealy varieties are more digestible than the close and waxy; in fact, when they are in this state, as is the case with new potatoes, and potatoes late in the season, which have begun to grow, they are best cooked by stewing them.

All succulent vegetables are endowed with antiscorbutic powers, but potatoes are especially renowned for this property. As far back as the year 1781, Sir Gilbert Blane, in his work on the "Diseases of the Fleet," alluded to the beneficial action of the potato in scurvy, and from that time to the present, its salutary powers had been repeatedly observed. The late Dr. Baly remarked, in his inquiries into the diseases of prisoners, that wherever potatoes were used scurvy was unknown; and it is the almost universal practice now to carry potatoes, fresh or preserved, in all ocean-going vessels, with the view of preventing scurvy.

Other succulent vegetables in common use, as turnips, parsnips, carrots, artichokes, onions, leeks, cauliflower, cabbages, and greens, have, among themselves, nearly the same nutritive value, but they are all much less nutritious than the potato, as will be seen by reference to the table No. 3; in fact, they do not contain more than from 9 to 17 per cent of solid matter, and of this only about 12 is nitrogenous. They are chiefly valuable for their antiscorbutic properties, and for their quality of flavouring insipid food and diluting strong ones.

Banana and bread-fruit are also valuable esculent foods, and are largely used in the tropics. The former contains about 27 per cent of solid matter, of nearly the same nutritive value as rice. About 63 lbs, of the fresh fruit, or 2 lbs. of the dry meal, with a quarter of a pound of salt meat or fish, is a common allowance for

NEWS

a labourer. The bread-fruit is largely eaten by the natives of the Indian Archipelago and of the Islands of the South Sea. There are several varieties of it which come into season at different times. It is very juicy, containing about 80 per cent of water, and is generally gathered before it is ripe, when the starch is in a mealy condition, and has not undergone change into sugar. The fresh fruit is cooked by peeling it, wrapping it in leaves, and baking it between hot stones. It then tastes like sweet bread; but much of the ripe fruit is preserved by peeling it, cutting it into slices, and packing it very closely in pits in the ground made watertight, and lined with banana leaves. After a while it undergoes a sort of fermentation, or, as we should call it from the smell, putrefaction, and the fruit settles into a mass, of the consistence of soft cheese. When it is required for use, it is well kneaded, wrapped in leaves, and baked, like the fresh fruit, between hot stones.

Ripe fruits, as apples, pears, peaches, pine-apples, oranges, &c., are not of much nutritive value, for they rarely contain above 13 per cent of solid matter, and this is of no more value than so much rice, but they have agreeable flavours, and serve the purpose of antiscorbutic drinks.

Marine Algo.-Everywhere along our coasts, there is abundance of comparatively nutritious food, which may, by a little management, be made palatable. I allude to our sea-weeds; and this Society has distinguished itself by its efforts to utilise this stock of now almost profitless food. Judging from the analysis of Dr. Davy and Dr. Apjohn, of Dublin, it would seem that when in a moderately dry condition sea-weeds contain from 18 to 26 per cent of water; and that the nitrogenous cònstituents amount to from 93 to 15 per cent, while the starchy matter and sugar average about 66 per cent. These results place sea-weeds among the most nutritious of vegetable substances; in fact, they are richer in nitrogenous matter than oatmeal or Indian corn.

The varieties of sea-weed at present used are the following:

Porphyra laciniata and vulgaris, called laver in England, stoke in Ireland, and slouk in Scotland.

Chondrus crispus, called carrageen or Irish moss, and also pearl-moss.

Laminaria digitata, known as sea girdle in England, tangle in Scotland, and red-ware in the Orkneys; and laminaria saccharina alaria esculenta, or bladder-lock, called also hen-ware and honey-ware by the Scotch.

Ulva latissima, or green laver.-Rhodomenia palmata, or dulse of Scotland.-These, with many others, are eaten by the coast inhabitants of this country and the Continent. In some parts of Scotland and Ireland they form a considerable portion of the diet of the poor.

To prepare them for food, they should first be steeped in water to remove saline matter; and in some cases a little carbonate of soda added to the water will remove the bitterness. They are then stewed in water or milk until they are tender and mucilaginous; and they are best flavoured with pepper and vinegar. Under the name of marine sauce, the lavers were once a luxury in London.

Sugar and Treacle.-Both of these are very generally consumed on account of their flavouring and fattening qualities. Dr. Edward Smith found that 98 per cent of in-door operatives partook of sugar, to the extent of 7 ozs. per adult weekly. 96 per cent of Scotch labourers use it, and 80 per cent of Irish. In Wales, also, it is commonly used to an average extent of 6 ozs. per adult weekly; but there is a marked difference in the rate of consumption in the northern and southern portions of the country. In North Wales, for example, the average amount per head is 11 ozs.; whereas, in South Wales it is only 3 ozs. The principal use of it is to sweeten tea.

Treacle has more flavour than sugar, and it is also cheaper. It is, therefore, more largely employed; and that description of it properly called molasses, which is the draining from the raw or unrefined sugar-treacle being the drainings from refined sugar-is preferred on account of its stronger flavour, and is most usually sold for treacle. They go well with all descriptions of farinaceous food, as porridge, pudding, dumpling and bread.

Sugar contains from 4 to 10 per cent of moisture, and treacle about 23. The rest is carbonaceous matter, without nitrogen. They are, therefore, heat-producing and fattening agents, and their power, in these respects, is about the same as with starch. Whether they can produce disease when used in excess is a matter of doubt; but Dr.. Richardson declares that they cause blindness by creating opacity of the lens (cataract).

Animal Foods.-First on the list of these is milk, a liquid which contains all the elements of food required by the very young, and is therefore regarded as the type or standard of food.

In some countries, as Switzerland, it is the chief diet of the peasantry; and everywhere, if easily obtained, it is largely consumed. 76 per cent of the labouring classes of England make use of it; 83 per cent take it as buttermilk, and 53 per cent as skimmed-milk. In Wales, the average consumption of it by farm labourers is 4 pints per adult weekly-South Wales averaging only 3 pints, while in North Wales it is 7. In Scotland the consumption among the labouring classes is still larger, for it amounts to 6 pints per head weekly, and in Ireland it reaches 6 pints. Those who take least of it are the poor in-door operatives of London; the weavers of Spitalfields, for example, use only about 76 ozs. per head weekly, and those of Bethnal Green only a fraction above 14 ozs. per head. When examined under the microscope, milk is found to consist of myriads of little globules of butter floating in a clear liquid. On standing for a few hours the oily particles rise to the surface and form a cream, the proportion of which is the test of quality. Cow's milk is heavier than water in the proportion of from 1,030 or 1,032 to 1,000. Asses' milk is the lightest, for its gravity is only about 1,019; then comes human milk, 1,020; and, lastly, goat and ewes' milk, which is the heaviest of all, from 1,033 to 1,042.

16

cows' milk contains 14 per cent of solid matter, 4'1 of which are casein, 52 sugar, 39 butter, and o8 saline matter. The relations of nitrogenous to the carbonaceous is I to 2:2; but as fat is 24 times more powerful than starch, the relation may be said to be as I to 3.6.

When milk is heated to the boiling temperature, the casein is coagulated to some extent; and if the milk has stood before it is heated, so that the cream may rise, the coagulum includes the cream, and makes the so-called Devonshire or clotted cream.

Acids also coagulate the casein, and produce a curd, as in the making of cheese and curds and whey. Cream is rich in butter, as will be seen by reference to table No. 3. It contains 34 per cent of solid matter, 26.7 of which are butter, and its gravity is about 1,013. Skim-milk is the milk from which the cream has been removed. It contains only about half as much butter as new milk, and its gravity is about 1,037. In all other respects it is similar to new milk.

Buttermilk is the residue of the milk of cream from which the butter has been removed by churning. It is still poorer in fat than skim-milk, containing, in fact, only about half as much. Unless it is very fresh, it is generally a little acid, and frequently the acidity has gone so far as to set the milk into a kind of jelly.

The whey of milk is the opalescent liquor from which the curd has been removed in making cheese. Although not highly nutritious, it still holds a little casein in solution, as well as the sugar and saline matter of the milk. It is rarely used as food by the poor, but is given to pigs. In Switzerland, however, it is considered to have medicinal virtues, especially for the cure of chronic disorders of the abdominal organs, and the treatment, which is somewhat fashionable, goes by the name of cure de petit lait. There is a popular notion that the whey of milk is sudorific, and hence we have our wine whey, cream of tartar whey, alum whey, tamarind whey, &c., when | the milk has been curdled by these several sub

stances.

Cheese is the coagulated product of milk, obtained by the addition of rennet or a little vinegar. When cream is coagulated it makes cream cheese, which will hardly bear keeping, but must be eaten fresh. It contains about half its weight of butter, and a fifth of its weight only of curd.

When cream is added to new milk, and the mixture is curdled, it forms very rich cheese, as double Gloucester and Stilton.

When new milk alone is used the cheese is less rich, but still of high quality, as Cheddar.

When an eighth or a tenth of the cream has been taken off, it produces the quality of cheese which is most sought after, as single Gloucester, Chester, American, &c.

And when all the cream has been removed, and the skim-milk is curdled, it forms the poor cheese of Holland, Friesland, Suffolk, Somersetshire, and South Wales.

At first every variety of cheese is soft and comparatively tasteless, but by keeping they undergo change, and develop their flavours, when they are said to be ripe.

Analyses of two of the most important of them are shown on table No. 3, and it will be noticed that they contain from 56 to 64 per cent of solid matter, about half of which is curd. In skim-milk cheese the curd amounts to 44.8 per cent, and the fat to only 36; whereas, in Cheddar, the curd is only 28'4 per cent, and the fat 311. In nutritive power, therefore, especially in nitrogenous matter, cheese ranks high, and is a valuable article of diet; but there is a limit to its digestibility, and hence it cannot be taken in large quantity. Considering its price also, it is hardly so profitable as many other foods; although where good skim-milk cheese

can be purchased at from 24d. to 3d. per pound it forms, in small quantities at a time, a good adjunct to bread.

Meat.-There is hardly a class of individuals, however poor, who do not make a strong effort to obtain meat. It would seem, therefore, to be a necessary article of diet. In this metropolis the in-door operatives eat it to the extent of 148 ozs. per adult, weekly; 70 per cent of English farm labourers consume it, and to the extent of 16 ozs. per man weekly; 60 per cent of the Scotch; 30 of the Welsh; and 20 of the Irish. The Scotch, probably, have a larger allowance than the English, considering that braxy-mutton is the perquisite of the Scotch labourer; but the Welsh have only an average amount of 24 ozs. per adult weekly; and the Irish allowance is still less.

It is difficult to obtain accurate returns of the quantity of meat consumed in London; but if the computation of Dr. Winter be correct, it is not less than 30 ozs. per head weekly, or about 4 ozs. per day for every man, woman, and child. In Paris, according to M. Armand Husson, who has carefully collected the octroi returns, it is rather more than 49 ozs. per head weekly, or just 7 ozs. a day. We are not, therefore, such large meateaters as the French.

Butchers' meat differs very much in nutritive value according to the proportions of fat and lean; and there is a strong prejudice in favour of beef as the strongest kind of meat. In reality, however, the lean of all meat is of nearly the same nutritive power, provided it is digested; but in this respect there are large differences. The flavour also varies with the nature of the animal and with its mode of feeding. Pampas-pig, and indeed most wild swine, are horribly rank, but by proper feeding they become delicious. In store animals, the proportion of lean is always greater than the fat, and the solid matter does not amount to more than 28 or 29 per cent; not so, however, in fat animals, for then the fat is largely in excess of the lean, and the solid matters make up about half the total weight. The tendency, indeed, of the fattening process is to substitute fat for water in the carcass; and the quality of the meat depends on the intimate intermixture of fat with the muscular tissue. All animals are not alike in their method of depositing fat, for some put it upon the surface of the body, and others accumulate it among the viscera. The art of breeding and feeding stock is to overcome both of these tendencies, and at the same time to produce a fat which will not melt or boil away in cooking. Oily foods have always a tendency to make soft fat.

The average proportions of fat and lean in the offal and carcases of animals are shown in table No. VI. p. 247. No. 3 (page 79) exhibits the proportion of the principal nutritive constituents in ordinary joints of meat. Lean meat is evidently deficient of carbonaceous matter, and this is best supplied in bread or potato; but in fat meat, considering that the nutritive power of fat is twice and a half as great as that of starch or sugar, the carbonaceous matter is often in excess of the right proportion; it is remarkably so in pork, which will bear dilution with the flesh of rabbit, poultry, and veal.

The amount of bone in meat varies: it is rarely less than 8 per cent. In the neck and brisket of beef it is about io per cent, and in shins and legs of beef it amounts to one-third, or even half the total weight. The most economical parts are the round and thick flank, then the brisket and sticking-piece, and lastly the leg. In the case of mutton and pork, the leg is most profitable, and then the shoulder.