Fool) is a subject which has been already considered in the t•lk:lea DIET and FOOD AND DRINK. re arc, however, certain points connected with it which obviously fall within the domain of hygiene; PS, for example, (1) the quantity of the different kinds of food required for persons of different sexes and ages, and under varying conditions of life and climate; (2) the determination of the best articles of loud in tacit class, and whether they are in a, proper state for use. The first of these subjects is to a consider able degree 'discussed in the article DIET. The latest and probably the most accurate statements on this subject are those of Pettenkofer and Voit (quoted in Parkes's Sanitary Report of the Army for 1865); a strong average man requires, according to these physiol ogists, ,1.22 oz. of dry nitrogenous matters, 3.63 oz. of fat, and 13.3 oz. of carbohydrates. They also find that when the food is sufficient, the daily excretion of carbon from the lungs is 8.92 oz. or 3,902 grains. We may add that an average man, at moderate work, takes in 24 hours from .111 to of his own weight in solid and liquid food—viz., from 34 to 46 oz. of so-called solids, as bread. meat, etc.; and from 50 to 80 oz. of water. The ratio of the solid to the liquid food is generally 1 to 2, but may be 1 to 6. Great bodily exercise requires a greater increase of the solid than of the liquid food.
It may lie interesting to 'many readers to know the amount and nature of the daily diet of an English soldier* or-home service and the railway navvy: Soldier. Navvy.
Oz.
Oz.
Meat 12 Meat 13.7 Bread 21 ];read 28.5 Potatoes 16 Potatoes Other vegetables Other vegetables 0.57 Coffee 0.33 Butter 0.07 Tea 0.16 Cheese 1.7 Salt 0.25 Beer 37 Sugar 1.33 Coffee 0.5 Mill 3.23 Cocoa 1.1 Deputy-inspector-generals O'Flaherty and Taylor, and assistant-surgeon Spurway, published, in 1867, important articles on the diet of soldiers in the 7th volume of the Statistical, Sanitary, and Medical Reports for the year 1865, from which it would appear that, inter ilia, an addition to the fatty food would be expedient. For information on the Dietary of Workhouses and Prtsons, we must refer to Dr. E. Smith's admirable report on the former subject, and to Dr. Lankester's paper, "On Prison and Workhouse Diet aries," read before the health department of the social science congress at Belfast—an abstract of which may be found in the British _Medical Journal for Nov. 2, 1867. The whole subject of prison dietaries requires revision. While in some favored institutions the prisoners live in comparative luxury, in others the dietary scale is far too scanty. The Irish prisons are especially faulty in this respect; the daily expense of the food per reaching fourpence, anti in some jails being only twopence! At Waterford jail no food is allowed from 3 P.M. to 8 A.M., and in the Irish jails generally a pint of
skim milk constitutes the whole animal diet. It is understood that a commission has been issued to report upon this subject. The proper arrangement of diet for the sick is a matter of great difficulty. In hospitals fixed scales must, as a matter of convenience, be adopted; hut almost every special case requires a modification. For further informa tion on special diets the reader is referred to Moleschott's Physiologie der ffahrungsmittel (1860); to Dr. Doltell's useful Manual of Diet and Regimen; and to Dr. Smith's Practical Dktary for Families, Schools, and the Laboring Classes.
The diseases connected with food are so various that we can only notice the most important. Passing over those which arise from excess of food generally, or of one of its classes, with the remark, that a prolonged excess of allmminates gives rise to conges tion and enlargement of the liver, and a general state of plethora, while excess of starchy matters may possibly affect the muscular fibers of the heart and voluntary muscles, and certainly often renders the urine saccharine, we proceed to notice the diseases produced by the deficiency of food. The history of epidemic fevers in all ages and countries shows the close relation between famine and fever. The Irish famine of 1847-49 is now s matter of history. In those three years, no less than 579,721 cases were treated in the hospitals alone. Fleeing in despair, emigrants carried the germs of disease with them; cal the so-called ship fever which followed destroyed its thousands. Its malignity was most appalling.. In one vessel 329 out of 349 passengers caught the fever, and 117 died; and the mortality in Liverpool, induced by the contagion of the fever-stricken Irish who landed there, suddenly became the highest ever recorded in any modern town—the death-rate being raised to 70 per 1000. During the last three years. 1863-67, the death rate of this town was 86, 4'2, and 30. Dr. Mapother is of opinion that the introduction of the potato as an almost sole article of diet has been productive of much harm, in con sequence of the deficiency of that root in nitrogenous matters and in salts of lime and magnesia.* To this source he traces indigestion, consumption, seroftila, rickets, oph thalmia. and chronic rheumatism. The deprivation of starchy food, on the other band, can be borne for a long time if fat be given; but the simultaneous deprivations of fat and starch soon induces illness, though albuminates be supplied.