sufRcient at all for the maintenance of health and strength, were
at least inferior, and of different composition to the nutritive
particles of food derived from the flesh of animals. In our treat-
ment of this question, wo have little more to do than to quote the
undisputed conclusions of Baron Liebig upon this subject : —
“ Grain and other nutritive vegetables yield us,” says Liebig,
“not only in starch, sugar, and gum, the carbon which protects
our organs from the action of oxygen, and produces in the organ-
ism the heat which is essential to life, but also in the form of
vegetable fibrine, albumen, and caseine, our blood, from which
the other parts of our body are developed.”*
“ These important products of vegetation are especially abun-
dant in the seeds of the different kinds of ^ain, and of peas,
beans, and lentils ; in the roots and juices of what are commonly
called vegetables. They exist, however, in all plants without
exception, and in every part of plants in larger or smaller quan-
tity. ”t
“The chemical analysis of these three substances has led to
the very interesting result that they contain the same organic
elements, united in the same proportion by weight ; and what
is still more remarkable, that they are identical in composition
with the chief constituents of blood, animal fibrine, and albu-
men. They all three dissolve in concentrated muriatic acid
with the same deep purple colour, and even in their physical
characters, animal fibrine and albumen are in no respect different
from vegetable fibrine and albumen.
“Vegetable fibrine and animal fibrine, vegetable albumen
and animal albumen, hardly differ, even in form ; if these
principles be wanting in the food, the nutrition of the animal is
arrested ; and when they are present, the graminivorous animal
obtains in its food the very same principles on the presence of
which the nutrition of the carnivora entirely depends.”
Lastly, we quote : — “ Vegetables produce in their organism
the blood of all animals, for the carnivora, in consuming the
blood and flesh of the graminivora, consume, strictly speaking,
only the vegetable principles which have served for the nutrition
of the latter. ”j;
* “ Animal Chemistry, ” p. 77. t Ibid, p. 45.
I Ibid, pp. 47, 48.
INTRODUCTIOK.
11
Nothing could be more conclusive on the question at issue,
than the statements here presented as the unbiased decisions of
chemical research ; from which it is seen, that far from the nu-
triment found in the flesh of animals being peculiar, and superior
to that to be obtained from vegetable products, it is merely vege-
table nutriment — the proximate principles of vegetables, origin-
ating in the vegetable kingdom alone, whence they are transferred
to the flesh of animals ; and which, withorrt the process of feed-
ing animals for their flesh, could be derived simply and directly
Irom the products of the soil.
Page 7
Presented as published in 1891. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
sufficient at all for the maintenance of health and strength, were at least inferior, and of different composition to the nutritive particles of food derived from the flesh of animals. In our treatment of this question, we have little more to do than to quote the undisputed conclusions of Baron Liebig upon this subject : —
“ Grain and other nutritive vegetables yield us,” says Liebig, “not only in starch, sugar, and gum, the carbon which protects our organs from the action of oxygen, and produces in the organism the heat which is essential to life, but also in the form of vegetable fibrine, albumen, and caseine, our blood, from which the other parts of our body are developed.”*
“ These important products of vegetation are especially abundant in the seeds of the different kinds of grain, and of peas, beans, and lentils ; in the roots and juices of what are commonly called vegetables. They exist, however, in all plants without exception, and in every part of plants in larger or smaller quantity. ”t
“The chemical analysis of these three substances has led to the very interesting result that they contain the same organic elements, united in the same proportion by weight ; and what is still more remarkable, that they are identical in composition with the chief constituents of blood, animal fibrine, and albumen. They all three dissolve in concentrated muriatic acid with the same deep purple colour, and even in their physical characters, animal fibrine and albumen are in no respect different from vegetable fibrine and albumen.
“Vegetable fibrine and animal fibrine, vegetable albumen and animal albumen, hardly differ, even in form ; if these principles be wanting in the food, the nutrition of the animal is arrested ; and when they are present, the graminivorous animal obtains in its food the very same principles on the presence of which the nutrition of the carnivora entirely depends.”
Lastly, we quote : — “ Vegetables produce in their organism the blood of all animals, for the carnivora, in consuming the blood and flesh of the graminivora, consume, strictly speaking, only the vegetable principles which have served for the nutrition of the latter. ”j;
* “ Animal Chemistry, ” p. 77. t Ibid, p. 45.
I Ibid, pp. 47, 48.
Nothing could be more conclusive on the question at issue, than the statements here presented as the unbiased decisions of chemical research ; from which it is seen, that far from the nutriment found in the flesh of animals being peculiar, and superior to that to be obtained from vegetable products, it is merely vegetable nutriment — the proximate principles of vegetables, originating in the vegetable kingdom alone, whence they are transferred to the flesh of animals ; and which, without the process of feeding animals for their flesh, could be derived simply and directly Irom the products of the soil.