DR. GEOFFROY.
Dr. Geoffroy, a distinguished French physician and professor of chemistry and medicine in some of the institutions of France, flourished more than a hundred years ago. The bearing of the following extract will be readily seen. It is from the Memoirs of the Royal Academy for the year 1730; and I am indebted for it to the labors of Dr. Cheyne.
"M. Geoffroy has given a method for determining the proportion of nourishment or true matter of the flesh and blood, contained in any sort of food. He took a pound of meat that had been freed from the fat, bones, and cartilages, and boiled it for a determined time in a close vessel, with three pints of water; then, pouring off the liquor, he added the same quantity of water, boiling it again for the same time; and this operation he repeated several times, so that the last liquor appeared, both in smell and taste, to be little different from common water. Then, putting all the liquor together, and filtrating, to separate the too gross particles, he evaporated it over a slow fire, till it was brought to an extract of a pretty moderate consistence.
"This experiment was made upon several sorts of food, the result of which may be seen in the following table. The weights are in ounces, drachms, and grains; sixty grains to a drachm, and eight drachms to an ounce.
| Kind of Food. | Amount of Extract. | |||
| oz. | dr. | gr. | ||
| One lb. | Beef | 0. | 7. | 8. |
| " | Veal | 1. | 1. | 48. |
| " | Mutton | 1. | 3. | 16. |
| " | Lamb | 1. | 1. | 39. |
| " | Chicken | 1. | 4. | 34. |
| " | Pigeon | 1. | 0. | 12. |
| " | Pheasant | 1. | 2. | 8. |
| " | Partridge | 1. | 4. | 34. |
| " | Calves' Feet | 1. | 2. | 26. |
| " | Carp | 1. | 0. | 8. |
| " | Whey | 1. | 1. | 3. |
| " | Bread | 4. | 1. | 0. |
"The relative proportion of the nourishment will be as follows:
| Beef | 7 |
| Veal | 9 |
| Mutton | 11 |
| Lamb | 9 |
| Chicken | 12 |
| Pigeon | 8 |
| Pheasant | 10 |
| Partridge | 12 |
| Calves' Feet | 10 |
| Carp | 8 |
| Whey | 9 |
| Bread | 33 |
"From the foregoing decisive experiments it is evident that white, young, tender animal food, bread, milk, and vegetables are the best and most effectual substances for nutrition, accretion, and sweetening bad juices. They may not give so strong and durable mechanical force, because being easily and readily digestible, and quickly passing all the animal functions, so as to turn into good blood and muscular flesh, they are more transitory, fugitive, and of prompt secretion; yet they will perform all the animal functions more readily and pleasantly, with fewer resistances and less labor, and leave the party to exercise the rational and intellectual operations with pleasure and facility. They will leave Nature to its own original powers, prevent and cure diseases, and lengthen out life."
Now if this experiment proves what Dr. C. supposes in favor of the lighter meats and vegetables taken together, how much more does it prove for bread alone? For it cannot escape the eye of the least observing that this article, though placed last in the list of Dr. Geoffroy, is by far the highest in point of nutriment; nay, that it is about three times as high as any of the rest. I am not disposed to lay so much stress on these experiments as Dr. C. does; nevertheless, they prove something Connected with the more recent experiments of Messrs. Percy and Vauquelin and others, how strikingly do they establish one fact, at least, viz., that bread and the other farinaceous vegetables cannot possibly be wanting in nutriment; and how completely do they annihilate the old-fashioned doctrine—one which is still abroad and very extensively believed—that animal food is a great deal more nourishing than vegetable! No careful inquirer can doubt that bread, peas, beans, rice, etc., are twice as nutritious—to say the least—as flesh or fish.