The Chemistry of Cookery

compared with the ‘mixed diet,’ we have 40 per cent. more of nitrogenous food, more than six and a half times as much carbo-hydrate in the form of starch, more than double the quantity of sugar, about 17 per cent. more of fat, and only a little less of salts (supplied by the salt which Rumford added). Thus the ‘mixed diet’ falls short in all the costly constituents, and only excels by its abundance of very cheap water. This analysis supplies the explanation of what has puzzled many inquirers, and encouraged some sneerers at this work of the great scientific philanthropist, viz. that he allowed less than five ounces of solids for each man’s dinner. He did so and found it sufficient, because he was supplying far more nutritious material than beef and potatoes; his five ounces was more satisfactory than a pound of beef and potatoes, three-fourths of which is water, for which water John Bull blindly pays a shilling or more per pound when he buys his prime steak. Rumford added the water at pump cost, and, by long boiling, caused some of it to unite with the solid materials (by the hydration I have described), and then served the combination in the form of porridge, raising each portion to 19¾ ounces. I might multiply such examples to prove the fallacy of the prevailing notions concerning the nutritive value of the ‘mixed diet,’ a fallacy which is merely an inherited epidemic, a baseless physical superstition. I will, however, just add one more example for comparison—viz. the Highlander’s porridge. The following is the composition of oatmeal—also from Pavy’s table: Water 15·00 Albumen 12·60 Starch 58·40 Sugar 5·40 Fat 5·60 Salts 3·00 Compare this with the beef and potatoes above, and it will be seen that it is _superior in every item excepting the water_. One hundred ounces of oatmeal contain 1·9 ounce more of albumen than is contained in 100 ounces of beef and potatoes mixed in equal proportions. The 100 ounces of oatmeal supplies 39·6 ounces more of carbo-hydrate (starch). The 100 ounces of oatmeal is superior to