A brief guide to the Food Collection

by Bethnal Green Museum

Class I.—Alimentary or Necessary. Water.

The first and most essential constituent of food is water. Three fourths of the body is composed of water, and it is by the agency of water that all kinds of food are taken up into the system. Solid food contains large proportions of water, but, in proportion to the dryness of food, water should be added to it, in the form of some kind of beverage.

Quantities of Water in 100 Pounds of different kinds of solid food.
VegetableFood.
	lbs.		lbs.
Cabbage	92	Maize	14
Turnips	87	Peas	14
Carrots	86	Beans	14
Beetroot	83	Lentils	14
Parsnips	79	Buckwheat	14
Potatoes	75	Oatmeal	13
Bread	44	Rye	13
Flour	14	Rice	13
Barley Meal	14	Cocoa	5
AnimalFood.
Milk	86	Lamb	50
Eggs	80	Mutton	44
Fish	78	Cheese	40
Veal	62	Pork	38
Beef	50	Bacon	30

An imperial gallon of water weighs 10 pounds avoirdupois weight.

Water for dietetical purposes is obtained principally from three sources:—1. Rivers; 2. Surface wells; 3. Deep or Artesian wells. Water from all three sources contains saline or mineral matters in solution, and, provided they are not in quantities so large as to act injuriously on the system, water may become a source of supply of these constituents to the body. The best remedy for impure water is filtering, which may be done by passing the water through charcoal and sand. “A Poor Man’s Filter” is exhibited in the Museum, which can be very easily and cheaply constructed by using a common flower-pot, glazed inside, plugging the drainage hole (not too tightly) with a piece of clean sponge, then adding layers of animal charcoal, sand, and rather coarse gravel. Filters from the establishments of the Messrs. Lipscombe, the Messrs. Ransome, and the Carbon Filter Company are also exhibited. The passing water over iron has been found to have a remarkably purifying effect, and this has been patented by Dr. Medlock.

The organic impurities of water are best tested by the aid of the microscope, but, as an examination by this instrument requires much time, a ready method of obtaining a knowledge of the comparative organic impurity of waters is the addition of the permanganate of soda or potash. This salt, which gives to water a beautiful red colour, is easily decomposed by organic matters. When the same quantity of the permanganate is added to a series of waters containing organic matters, those which contain the least retain the most colour and vice versâ. Waters thus tested are exhibited in the Collection.

Water from the chalk or limestone is generally hard, arising from its holding in solution carbonate of lime, which, although insoluble in water, is dissolved by the agency of carbonic acid. By Clark’s softening process the carbonic acid is neutralized by lime, and the carbonate of lime is thus thrown down. Specimens are exhibited.

Water is frequently stored in leaden cisterns, and when free from carbonic and phosphoric acids it acts powerfully on lead. Thus distilled water becomes speedily tainted with lead, whilst Thames water and London surface well water act but slightly upon it. Specimens of these waters acting upon lead are exhibited in the Collection.

Salt.

Common Salt is a chloride of sodium, and exerts an extraordinary influence on animal as well as vegetable life. All marine animals and plants seem to have their existence determined by this substance. It enters into the composition of the human body, and all over the world man uses it, when he can obtain it, in its mineral form, as an addition to his food.

In Case 5 will be seen a collection of salt from various countries.

Minerals in Food.

In Case 4 are examples of some of the principal Mineral Substances, excepting water, in food. They are generally essential to proper nutrition. In the body of a man, weighing 154 lbs., there are about 8 lbs. of mineral matter. Different parts of the body show peculiar affection for particular ingredients to the exclusion of others. The mineral salts contained in plants and animals are indestructible by heat, hence they are called “ashes.”

It should be recollected, that in the boiling of food many of the mineral substances are dissolved out of it, and where the liquid that they are boiled in is not consumed such mineral matters are thrown away. This is the case with boiled meat and vegetables, and a constant use of such food may lead to injurious effects. The best corrective to such a diet is the use of uncooked fruit and vegetables. In this way the eating of ripe fruits, as apples, pears, gooseberries, &c., and salads, has a beneficial effect on the system.

Salads.

Although many things eaten as salads contain other constituents of food besides mineral matters their beneficial action in diet is due to the latter. The practice of eating salads is not so common in Europe as before the introduction of the potato, which, to a certain extent, supplies the same kind of mineral matters to the blood. The practice of eating salads is, nevertheless, to be highly commended; and many plants formerly much used might now be consumed in this way with much advantage. Plants thus used contain a larger quantity of mineral matter than vegetables which have been boiled in water. Various plants used as salads may be seen on the shelves, and are renewed from time to time.

Force-producers in Food.

In Case 4 may be seen the varieties of substances called “force-producers in food.”

Starch.

The substance called Starch is found very abundantly in the vegetable kingdom. Its presence was at one time regarded as characteristic of plants, but it has recently been found in animals. It occurs in the form of irregularly-shaped granules, which vary in size from the 1/400 to the 1/2000-th of an inch in diameter. These granules are simple or compound. They vary in shape and size in every species of plant, and are insoluble in water, but are easily diffused through it. On being mixed with water, and exposed to a temperature of 180°, the starch gelatinises, and, mixing with the water, thickens it. This occurs in the cooking of starch, and this property lies at the foundation of pudding making.

Starch is abundantly present in all the more common forms of vegetable diet. Is exists in a state of almost absolute purity in the substances known as arrowroot, tapioca, and sago. These substances from whatever source obtained, contain little or no nutritious or flesh-forming food, and, consequently, ought never to become the substantive diet of human beings. Many plants contain so large quantities of starch, and so small quantities of flesh-forming matter, that they ought only to be taken on account of their starch. Such are the potato and rice, in which the quantity of starch to flesh-forming matter is as 14 to 1, whilst in wheat it is only as 5 to 1. Potatoes and rice, therefore, can never form the staple article of the diet of the people of this country, who need a large quantity of force-producing matter in order to enable them to perform their work.

Starch is extensively used in the arts manufactures, and for domestic purposes. It is prepared for this purpose from the potato, wheat, rice, flour, and the coarser kinds of sago.

In Cases 6 and 16 is an extensive series of starches, sago, arrowroot, tapioca, &c. &c., from various parts of the world.

The following table gives the quantities of Starch in 100 parts of various kinds of food:—

Rice	74	Beans	36
Maize	60	Lentils	35
Wheat	59	Parsnips	17
Rye	51	Potatoes	15
Buckwheat	50	Mangel Wurzel	12
Bread	48	Carrots	11
Barley	48	Turnips	10
Oats	39	Cabbage	4
Peas	37

Sea-weeds used as Food.

Sea-weeds contain lichen starch, and are frequently used as food. Specimens may be seen in Case 7. In China the people are very fond of sea-weeds, and many kinds are collected and added to soups, or eaten alone with sauce. In times of scarcity the poorer inhabitants of the sea-shores of Europe have recourse to sea-weeds for a supply of food.

The Potato.

Although this plant contains but a small quantity of flesh and force-producing matter, it yields an abundance of starch and mineral matters in a condition which acts very beneficially on the human system, and its introduction into Europe has been of the greatest benefit to its teeming populations.

The potato is an herbaceous plant producing annual stems from an underground tuber or root-stock which is the part that is used as an article of food. It has white flowers and a green fruit, which, like all the plants of the order to which it belongs, contain a poisonous principle. The native country of the plant is South America. It has been found wild in various parts of Chili, and also near Monte Video, Lima, Quito, Santa Fe de Bogota, and in Mexico. Spain was the country in which this plant was first cultivated in Europe; from thence it extended into Italy. It was first grown in the British Islands by Sir Walter Raleigh in his garden at Youghal in Ireland, but it was not generally cultivated in Great Britain till the middle the last century. The only part of the plant employed as food is the tuber, which is a kind of underground stem. Upon this stem buds are formed which are called “eyes,” and from these, by cutting up the potato, the plant is propagated. The tubers of the wild potato are small in size, but by culture they may be very much enlarged. In this country many varieties of the potato are known under the names of “kidneys,” “rounds,” “reds,” “blues,” “whites,” &c. Many of these varieties are now disappearing, the “white,” “kidney,” and “round” potatoes being preferred to all others. The potato contains large quantities of water (75 per cent.), and less flesh and force-producing matters than any other plant cultivated for human food. It is therefore not adapted for consumption as a principal article of diet, and should only be employed as an addition to more nutritious kinds of food. It contains a variety of mineral matters, which also render it valuable as an article of diet. It has for many years been liable, in Europe, to a diseased condition, in which the water seems to be increased, and decomposition consequently readily sets in. The decayed parts are infested by a fungus, but this has not been shown to have anything to do with the production of the disease. Potatoes are largely employed in this country for the production of starch, which is used for a variety of purposes in the arts and manufactures. Potatoes are cooked in many ways, and all the varieties of food which can be obtained from the flour of the cerealia may be procured from the potato, as starch, macaroni, vermicelli, &c.

The analysis of the Potato may be seen in Case 8, as well as various preparations from it.

Rice.

This plant belongs to the natural order of grasses. It is a native of East India, and is extensively cultivated throughout Asia, in North and South Carolina, and other parts of the world. Although more largely consumed by the inhabitants of the world than any other grain, it contains less flesh and force-producing matter.

When employed in this country it should only be used as an adjunct to other kinds of food more rich in force-producers. Boiled, as an addition to meat, or in the form of pudding or curry, it may be judiciously employed, as a variety, especially in the food of the young.

Case 9 shows the analysis of rice, and many samples of the grain are exhibited in the Collection.

Sugar.

Sugar has a chemical composition very nearly resembling starch, but it differs in both chemical and physical properties. Sugar is soluble in water, whilst starch is only diffusible through it. Sugar undergoes the process of fermentation, which starch does not. Sugar has a sweet taste, while starch is almost tasteless. Starch is, however, convertible into sugar by the agency of nitrogenous substances. If starch is placed in contact with saliva a little time it becomes soluble, and gives the reactions of sugar; and it is probable that in this way starch itself becomes absorbed into the blood. Sugar, like starch, assumes various forms, and three of these are found in common articles of diet. These are cane sugar, grape sugar, and milk sugar.

The action of sugar on the system is identical with starch. As it is more readily absorbed into the blood than starch, it is better adapted as a force-producer for the young. Hence it is found supplied to the young in all the mammalia, in the milk secreted by their mothers. That it is adapted for the young is shown by the instinctive propensity children display to partake of this form of diet. Although adapted for children, the facility with which it decomposes renders it frequently injurious to adults.

Most plants contain sugar in their roots. But in some large quantities are deposited, as in the sugar beet, which is employed most extensively in France and on the continent of Europe for the supply of sugar for dietetical purposes. A series of specimens illustrating products from beet-root, including sugar, from Messieurs Serret, Hamoir, and Co., of Valenciennes, are exhibited in the Collection.

Sugar is the basis of all kinds of confectionery, specimens of which are exhibited by Messrs. Fortnum and Mason, of Piccadilly, in Case 111.

Samples of sugar are exhibited in Cases 17, 110, 112, and 113, some of which have obtained been from other plants than the sugar cane.

Fruits after being saturated with sugar are also preserved and kept dry. In Case 15 preserved fruits of various kinds are exhibited by Messrs. Fortnum and Mason. It is in this way that fruits are brought to this country which otherwise would not be seen on account of their perishing nature.

Treacle or Molasses is the uncrystallized portion of sugar which is separated by draining from the brown sugar.

Grape Sugar or Glucose is found in the fruits of plants, and is especially abundant in the grape. Grapes, when dried, are eaten on account of the glucose they contain. They are known in the shops under the name of “plums,” “raisins,” and “currants.” The latter word is a corruption of Corinth, the small grape yielding this, being cultivated in the vicinity of Corinth, on the classic soil of Greece.

Dried fruits of the grape-vine, presented by Messrs. Fortnum and Mason, Piccadilly, are exhibited in Case 14.

Honey, which is the stored food of the bee, contains both crystallizable and uncrystallizable grape sugar. The crystals of the former may be easily detected by the aid of a low power of the microscope. Samples of British honey, and honey from France, Russia, and other countries, may be seen in Cases 18.

Substances resembling Sugar, such as dextrin, gum, liquorice, manna, &c., are exhibited in Case 107. Among plants yielding sugar may be noted the Chinese sugar millet (Case 17), sweet potato (Case 8), turnips (Case 11), carrots (Case 11), and Jerusalem artichoke (Case 12), the analyses of which are exhibited.

Fat and Oil.

Under the names of oil, butter, fat, lard, suet, and grease, a substance is used largely as an article of food, which differs from starch and sugar in the absence of oxygen gas. The composition of these oleaginous substances may be represented as follows:—Carbon 11 parts; hydrogen 10 parts; oxygen 1 part.

Oil differs from the other carbonaceous substances in food in not only supplying materials for maintaining animal heat, but in forming a part of the tissues of the body called fat. The quantity consumed in animal food is very large, constituting frequently more than half of the bulk of the food consumed. It is also found very generally present in the vegetable substances used as food. Although essential as an article of diet in certain quantities, oil is less digestible than other kinds of food, and those foods which contain it in large quantities are generally indigestible. The principal source of oil used as food from the vegetable kingdom is the Olive. This plant is cultivated in the south of Europe. The part of the plant which contains the oil is the fruit. The seeds of most plants contain oil in addition to starch and other principles. Many seeds are used for obtaining oil for various purposes in the arts, as the poppy, rape, mustard, hemp, and flax seeds. In Case 20 is a collection of nuts and seeds containing oil commonly eaten as food. Case 21 contains the analysis of the coco-nut; and in the same Case that of an African bread called “Dika bread,” both of which illustrate food products containing an abundance of oil. The cocoa, or chocolate plant, is one of the most remarkable vegetable productions yielding oil, the seeds giving nearly 50 per cent. of a hard oil, or butter. See Case 53.

Flesh and Force-producers.

In Case 4 are shown those ingredients of food, which are capable of forming muscle or flesh. They are made use of in the human body partly for the construction of muscle, and partly for the production of mechanical force and heat. They are all nearly identical in their chemical composition.

1. Albumen, made from Eggs and from Blood. It forms about 7 parts in 100 of blood, and is always present in lymph and chyle. Liquid or soluble albumen, as shown in the white of egg, coagulates by heat and various chemical agents.

2. Albumen, as found in the juices of carrots, turnips, and cabbages, and obtained by boiling their juices. It is the same body as albumen from eggs.

3. Fibrin made by stirring blood with a rod. It is the basis of muscle or flesh. Flesh-fibrin probably bears the same relation to blood-fibrin as coagulated albumen does to soluble albumen.

4. Fibrin made from Wheat-flour. It is identical with the fibrin found in flesh, but not exactly the same as that found in blood, and is known as Gluten.

5. Casein prepared from milk, in which it is soluble, owing probably to a little alkali: when an acid is added, the Casein curdles or coagulates, and then is known as Cheese. In 100 parts of cows’ milk there are 3½ parts of Casein.

6. Casein or Legumin as found in peas, beans, lentils, coffee, &c. The Casein of Vegetables is now supposed by most chemists to be identical with the Casein or Cheese of Milk, but a few chemists still deny this. 100 parts of peas contain above 20 parts of Casein.

Eggs.

Eggs are very nutritious articles of food. They contain as much oil or fat and flesh and force-producing matter as butcher’s meat. The white is not, however, so digestible as the flesh of meat. They enter into the composition of puddings, cakes, buns, and other forms of diet. They are also eaten alone, boiled or fried, and are most digestible when least done.

The egg of the domestic fowl is usually eaten, but those of other birds are frequently employed as food. The eggs of the woodcock, plover, and other small birds, are esteemed a luxury. Those of the duck and goose have a strong flavour, and those of sea-fowl are fishy. The eggs of the turkey are rich in flavour, whilst those of the guinea-hen have a very delicate flavour. All birds’ eggs may be eaten with impunity. The eggs of the crocodile, and other oviparous reptiles, are eaten in some parts of the world.

In Case 61 is a collection of the Eggs of domestic poultry and some other birds, together with the analysis of Hen’s Eggs.

The Flesh and Force-producers are most abundant in those plants which yield the substantive food of man. These plants belong principally to the group of cereal grasses, as wheat, oats, barley, &c., and leguminous plants, as peas, beans, lentils, &c. Of these the most important is wheat. At the western end of the gallery are shown samples of many cultivated varieties of wheat, oats, barley, rye, and maize, in the straw, and in grain.

The Flesh and Force-producers exist also in large quantities in milk, and in the flesh of vertebrate animals, divided into mammals, birds, fishes, and reptiles.

Wheat.

The wheat plant is grown all over the world, but flourishes mostly between the parallels of 25 and 60 degrees of latitude. It is more abundant in the northern than in the southern hemisphere.

The varieties of wheat cultivated in Europe may be divided into those whose flowers produce awns, and those without these appendages, or bearded and beardless wheats. The fruits or seeds of these varieties are red or white, hence a further subdivision takes place into red or white, bearded or beardless, wheats. Amongst the red bearded varieties is the fingered Egyptian or Mummy Wheat, which presents the peculiarity of several branches bearing fruits proceeding from its central stalk. Wheat is also called hard and soft according to its consistence, and winter and spring as it is sown at those seasons of the year. The red varieties yield the largest amount of grain, but the white the whitest flour.

Wheat is preferred to the other cereal grasses as an article of food on account of its containing a larger quantity of flesh-forming matters. The flour also may be rendered very white by separating it from the husks, or bran, and the fruit is much more easily separated from the chaff than is the case with the other cereals. The proportion of flesh and force-producing to those of force-producers only, is more nearly adjusted to the requirements of the system in wheat than in any other food. Hence, probably, its very general use as an article of food amongst the populations of the hardest working nations in the world.

In Case 26 is an analysis of the various constituents found in a pound of wheaten flour.

The chemical analysis of barley, buckwheat, maize, millet, oats, rye, and rice may be inspected in the respective cases.

Bread.

The most common as well as the most important form in which wheaten flour is consumed as food is bread. In Case 25, which may be called the “Bread Case,” the constituent ingredients, with their respective quantities used in making bread, are exhibited. There are three methods of making bread, the ordinary or fermented process, the unfermented process, and that employed in making aërated bread. Bread is either vesiculated or unvesiculated, the latter is called unleavened bread, and consists of bread, and of such preparations of flour as are known by the names of biscuits, cakes, &c. of which two cases of samples are shown by Messrs. Peek, Frean, and Co. of London, and J. W. Mackie and Sons of Edinburgh. For other details concerning bread the visitor is referred to the printed labels in the case.

Animal Food or Flesh.

According to the classification of the Food Collection, Flesh is placed next to Wheat and other cereals in Group 3, which includes nitrogenous substances capable of producing both flesh and force.

Animal food is composed of the same materials as vegetable food. It is formed of the same elements, and presents the same proximate principles. It contains water and mineral matters of the same kind as plants. Its force-producing substances appear in the form of fat, and its flesh and force-producing substances in the form of fibrin and albumen.

Milk.

Of all animal foods milk is the most important, as it may be regarded as the type of human food. Case 55 contains an analysis of cow’s milk, human milk, and asses milk, and is accompanied with explanatory labels.

Milk is preserved in various ways, so that it may be taken on long voyages or otherwise employed as a diet where living animals cannot be kept to produce it. It is preserved both in a liquid and solid state. The latter mode of preparation appears to have the advantage.

Butter is formed from cream by the process of “churning.” The casein is held in solution in the milk by the aid of certain salts; when these are removed by acids the casein coagulates, and forms “curds.” When the curd is removed with the butter and pressed it forms cheese. The best and highest-priced cheeses are those in which there is most butter. The casein without the butter is hard and indigestible.

The Flesh of Animals.

At the western end of the gallery over the upright cases containing wheat, barley, oats, maize, &c., are arranged some selected heads of oxen in illustration of the principal breeds in this country.

The Case, 56, is specially devoted to the composition of one pound of beef, mutton, pork, veal, lamb, and fowl. Wax models represent the substances, and each analysis is accompanied with descriptive printed labels.

In Case 70 are seen mounted specimens of the varieties of hares and rabbits indigenous to the United Kingdom.

The flesh of birds, fish, and reptiles is also represented in the Collection.

Cases 63 and 64 contain mounted examples of the varieties of pheasant successfully introduced into Great Britain, and a series of grouse, ptarmigan, capercailzie, &c., as representing the game birds of that family.

Fish is represented in the Collection by mounted specimens of the commoner kinds of fish brought to market, and by the analysis of a pound of salmon, mackerel, sole, conger eel, herring, and pike.

Fish yield a larger number of species used as food by man than either birds or quadrupeds. There are but few fishes caught in the fresh waters and seas of Great Britain that may not be eaten with impunity. In some countries the only animal food known is fish. The flesh of fish contains less oil or fat, and a larger quantity of mineral matters than the flesh of birds or mammals. The digestibility of fish is not so great as that of butcher’s meat; hence, generally, it is not so nutritious as the flesh of birds or quadrupeds. Fish is undoubtedly a valuable as well as an agreeable article of diet, and should, where possible, be introduced into all dietaries.

In connexion with fish the collection illustrating Economic Fish Culture, mainly belonging to, and superintended by, Mr. Frank Buckland, Her Majesty’s Inspector of Salmon Fisheries, should not be left unmentioned, although not forming a part of the Food Collection in the Branch Museum at Bethnal Green. This collection illustrates the science of breeding salmon, trout, and other fish by artificial means. It also includes a large number of casts of different kinds of fish, and a series of nets and other apparatus used in the legal and illegal capture of fish. At present it is exhibited in the arcades on the western side of the Royal Horticultural Gardens at South Kensington. During the period of the International Exhibition it is not accessible except to visitors to the Exhibition; but when the Exhibition is not going on, visitors can see the Museum of Economic Fish Culture under the rules and regulations which govern the South Kensington Museum, with which it is officially connected as an addition to the Food Collection.

Lobsters, crabs, prawns, and shrimps, are exhibited in the collection in illustration of the edible animals belonging to the crustacea; and of molluscous animals, embracing the shell fish of the rivers and oceans, examples of the oyster, scallop, whelk, periwinkle, common snail, and Roman snail, are shown. (See Cases 59 and 60.)

Of reptiles, but few are eaten in this country as food. Their flesh is, however, white and delicate, and rich in gelatin and fat. No accurate analysis seems to have been published of the flesh of these animals. The flesh of the green turtle is consumed in considerable quantity, and of it the famous turtle soup is made. The common and edible frog are eaten on the continent; and the land tortoise, common on the coast of the Mediterranean, is eaten by the inhabitants of Italy and the Levant. The flesh of the crocodile, alligator, and iguana, is also consumed in the countries where such creatures abound.

Peas, Beans, and Cheese.

These substances are next in the order of classification by reason of the large quantity of a flesh and force-producing substance contained in them called casein. The casein of vegetables is now supposed by most chemists to be identical with the casein or cheese of milk. The constituents or ingredients in one pound of peas, and in one pound of beans, are shown in Cases 30 and 31. The visitor may examine a collection of beans from various foreign countries arranged in the Cases at the western end of the Collection.

Lentils are shown in Case 30. By examining the analysis of this extremely nutritious product, the large proportion of casein is at once perceived.