Another chapter is thus concluded, and with it I shall conclude my extracts from his writings.
"Some, perhaps, may controvert, nay, ridicule the doctrine laid down in these propositions. I shall neither reply to, nor be moved with any thing that shall be said against them. If they are of nature and truth, they will stand; if not, I consent they should come to nought. I have satisfied my own conscience—the rest belongs to Providence. Possibly time and bodily sufferings may justify them;—if not to this generation, perhaps to some succeeding one. I myself am convinced, by long and many repeated experience, of their justness and solidity. If what has been advocated through this whole treatise does not convince others, nothing I can add will be sufficient. I will leave only this reflection with my readers.
"All physicians, ancient and modern, allow that a milk and seed diet will totally cure before fifty, and infinitely alleviate after it, the consumption, the rheumatism, the scurvy, the gout—these highest, most mortal, most painful, and most obstinate distempers; and nothing is more certain in mathematics, than that which will cure the greater will certainly cure the lesser distempers."
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 |