Carl von Voit

“ Indeed, if we feed a carnivorous animal on a small quantity of meat, with a large amount of fat and meat-extract, he loses his natural liveliness. The same theory holds good for man, when fed on vegetable diet and the extract of meat. His vigor is far less than when meat forms the basis of his food. But on the other hand, if we give to an herbivorous animal food rich in albuminoid principles, if, for instance, we give to a horse an abundance of oats, the result will be the same as when a carnivorous animal is given animal food. ”

“ If some men make an abusive use of food, we are not therefore to conclude that the proper course is to abstain altogether from food, any more than we should conclude, from the fact that the feasts of Lucullus are every day repeated, that therefore, instead of palatable food, whether animal or vegetable, one should eat only a tasteless mixture of albuminates, fat, starch, etc. There is danger of excess in every action we perform, but a man of sense will always respect the law which determines for him what is beneficial and what hurtful.—Revue Scientifique. ”

“ The residuum of meat which was given was not entirely deprived of its salts. There will always remain a small amount of phosphates. When, therefore, the organism is stinted in these salts, it daily parts with a small quantity of them through the excrement and the urine, but retains the greater part. The organs are tenacious of these salts. When we add salt to the food, it goes first into the blood, but it is not then immediately thrown off by the kidneys, etc. It is distributed through the system, and each one of the organs takes according to its wants. ”

“ In Western India, where rice is the chief food of the natives, they always add some element of food which is richer in azote. Those Italian laborers who come into Germany to work upon the railways always eat cheese with their staple food, maize. Other populations derive all their nutriment from 800 parts of bread and 100 of meat, besides potatoes and herrings. All these facts are in full accord with the experiment made on the dog, which lost weight on 800 parts of bread, or on the same with extract of meat, and finally died in convulsions. ”

“ What renders vegetable food harder to digest is the fact that the albuminoid substances, fatty matters, starch, etc., are there incased in a coating of cellulose, to break up which requires some time. On this account, the intestine of the herbivora is longer and more complicated than that of the carnivora. The latter digest but a small proportion of cellulose. The same holds good for man, except when he consumes young cellulose but little consolidated, as tender pulse, roots, or fruits. ”

“ There are, besides, many other influences which act upon digestion, but of which we commonly think little. In taking food we strive to combine various enjoyments, so that many organic manifestations may conspire together to promote the action of the digestive apparatus. The organ of smell is situated near that of taste. Those dishes which contain volatile elements are rather smelt than tasted. "We give an agreeable smell to some articles of food by adding to them others which are fragrant. ”

“ The presence of food produces the same effect. But there are other excitations which appear to act even more powerfully on the stomach. If we introduce a drop of alcohol or ether, or a solution of common salt, into the stomach of a living animal, the juice will flow from the glands, just as the same effect is produced by the thought of some savory dish. We may observe this when we offer a hungry dog a piece of meat. ”

“ Voit is far from condemning the use of vegetable substances for food; but he insists upon it that they must be combined with proper nutritive elements in assimilable form, in order to keep the body vigorous. These vegetable substances are deficient in albumen, and nothing can supply it better than flesh-meat. It is also advisable to substitute, for a part of the mass of starchy material, animal or vegetable fat. It is not denied but that one may sustain life on purely vegetable fare. ”

“ A stroke of the whip causes a horse to surmount an obstacle, before which he would have stood still without that stimulus; and yet the latter does not communicate to him any force; it only induces him to exert the force he already possessed. ”

“ Several condiments act upon the stomach, or on the intestine, after having first produced an agreeable sensation of taste. The excitation to which they give rise does not extend to the central organ, there to produce the same sensation. They are limited to the stomach and to the intestine, and serve to favor digestion and absorption. The gastric juice, we know, is not secreted continually, but only when there is something in the stomach. ”

“ The extract of meat belongs to the class of condiments. It first gratifies the palate, and then produces important results in the stomach. This is not due to the nutritive salts it contains, nor to any special effect it produces on absorption or nutrition. If an animal gets for food only extract of meat, it will succumb more quickly than if no food at all were given, as was demonstrated by Kemmerich in the case of a dog. ”

“ If a man consumes in a day 1,000 parts potatoes, 207 lentils, 40 bread and beer, he takes in 14.7 of nitrogen. Of the latter he gives out 7 by the kidneys, and 6.9 in 116 of dry excreta. The latter contain 24 per cent, of the dry food, and 47 per cent, of the nitrogen. But, when he takes in animal food, the same amount of azote and of starch in its respiratory equivalent of fat, i. e., 390 parts meat and 126 fat, he eliminates daily only 28.3 parts solid matter, with 2.6 of nitrogen ”

“ Haubner has stated that pigeons fed on grain, without lime, quickly die; but Voit has kept them on such food for a whole year. On food deprived of salts a pigeon can live for about thirty days.
When it is said that, without the nutritive salts, the residuum of meat, or any other kind of food, possesses no nutritive value whatsoever, the statement is true only in a certain sense, and as far as the duration of complete nutrition is concerned. Within a certain period of time, in the absence of the salts, the albuminates will cease to be assimilated, as also the fats and the hydrates of carbon. ”

“ The amount of work of which a man is capable depends very much upon his momentary disposition. With equal nutritive transformations, and with equal production of living force, the man who undertakes a work under favorable moral conditions will perform it more easily than another who happens to be oppressed and weighed down by some affliction. ”

“ Thus, while the carnivorous animal, when fed with sufficient flesh-meat, passes but little excrementitious matter, while it traverses the entire intestinal tract within eighteen hours after a meal; the herbivorous animal, on the contrary, when fed abundantly with vegetable substances, often retains the food in the intestine a whole week; and a considerable portion of this food remains unused. The proportion which the solid excretions bear to the weight of the animal is, for a dog fed on meat, as 3 to 10,000; for man with mixed food, 5 to 10,000 ”

“ Vegetable food, it is well known, contains, as its essential nutritive elements, albuminates, or nitrogenous materials, fatty matter, and hydrates of carbon, with water and nutritive salts. Such food, therefore, has the same elements as animal food ”

“ The extractive elements of flesh-meat are the products of regressive change, and are not necessary for the constitution and formation of the organs; nor can they, when taken with food, add to the substance of those organs. ”

“ An agent acting upon the mucous membrane of the mouth, stomach, or intestine, may produce in the nervous system important effects as regards digestion, and yet we may have no sensation of this either through taste or through smell, its parts not entering into communication with the central organ of sensation. ”

“ The only conclusion the author insists upon in this first portion of his essay is, that the alimentation of man is always best secured, as regards azotic and fatty food, when the latter is got from animal matter, and oftentimes the elements in question cannot be derived from any other source. ”

“ The cellulose of hay and grass is of such quality that the human digestive apparatus cannot extract any of their nutritive elements. In order that we may utilize them, they must first be transformed by herbivora into their own substance. ”

“ As a consequence, the body is capable of but little work, notwithstanding the great quantity of potatoes taken in, and it is but ill provided with the means of resisting disease, owing to the excess of water in the organs. ”

“ Dishes to which we are unaccustomed we partake of with repugnance, and generally they cannot be retained. We also give to dishes agreeable forms, and set them on the table with some regard to their appearance, and this makes them "appetizing." If they are served up without any regard to such considerations, they excite only repugnance. ”

“ We are continually exposed to a multitude of excitations or influences from without. These give us sensations which are not alone agreeable, but also useful and necessary. Thus alone can we live. Though by many persons the limits of moderation are overstepped in seeking this kind of gratification, and they are made thus hurtful, it does not thence follow that they are to be avoided. ”

“ The principles of which we speak do not differ from one another chemically in their origin. It is only physiological experimentation, with the living being as the reactive agent, that can show these differing properties, as we have seen. ”

“ The quality of the food he takes may be told from the excreta. It is Liebig who said that you might make out the boundary-lines of those countries where the coarse brown bread of Westphalia is used, from certain indications found along the hedge-rows. An Irish laborer, according to Buckle, consumes daily 91⁄2 lbs. of potatoes, a weight too great for all the intestines to carry. These potatoes would contain of water 3,200 parts, dry albumen 70, and of non-nitrogenous substances 725. The latter quantity is far in excess of what is necessary to nourish a strong man ”

“ After a period of complete abstinence from salts, certain remarkable phenomena are to be observed in dogs. Though they may not decrease in weight, nor lose flesh or fat, they still become weak, dull, and lie down in a corner, languid and indifferent. ”

“ The salt only excites indirectly the increase of urine, by promoting the transformation of the albumen; and it may well be that, when the supply of salt is deficient, this transformation is similarly accelerated by other influences. Klein and Verson have not determined what are the necessary conditions for recognizing the action of any substance in this respect. We cannot tell whether or not the nitrogenous elements of the food, during their experiments, were a constant quantity, for they say "taking about 420 grammes of beef, etc." ”

“ It is enough for us to state, with Voit, that these experiments demonstrate the fact that a carnivorous animal can live on meat-residuum, provided that there be added to it the salts of meat and common salt. Still, these experiments do not answer the principal questions we have put, viz., How long can an adult organism live without salts? ”

“ Bischoff, more nitrogen was assimilated out of 302 parts of meat and 354 of starch, than out of 800 of bread, although in each case the quantity of albumen was equal. It is hence seen that it is the starch which gives the greater part of the rejected residue. It follows that carnivora and man living on vegetable food ought to evacuate the bowels twice a day; whereas, on an exclusive meat-diet, they might retain the intestinal contents for at least four days. ”

“ According to Salvatore Thomassi, the farmers of the rice-fields in Italy, who enjoy liberal fare, reach an advanced age, while the day-laborers who live on rice succumb prematurely to diseases caused by exhaustion. ”

“ J. Zörster made the experiments. The purpose was to sustain animal life as long as it was possible, on food very poor in salts. The animals experimented upon were never given albuminous substances alone, but always mixed with a sufficient quantity of non-nitrogenous elements, such as fat, starch, or sugar. The albuminate employed was the residuum of meat dried in the oven, pulverized, and then boiled three times in water. Cheese, also, deprived of the salts, was given. ”

“ The excitation of the organs of taste or of smelling produces, in certain determinate portions of the brain, corresponding agreeable sensations. The process is essentially the same in the case of sensations of hearing or of seeing. ”

“ On pushing the experiment still further, the animals invariably succumbed. If, however, instead of continuing the experiment, we give the dog the ordinary mixed food, he will commence gradually to recover his strength, and finally will be quite restored to health. ”