HEALTH AND DISEASE. INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF TOO MUCH ANIMAL FOOD.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 301, 7 September 1860, Page 3

HEALTH AND DISEASE. INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF TOO MUCH ANIMAL FOOD.

In the absence of any accredited organ in Sydney, for the diffusion of intelligence connected with the medical profession, or the publication of such facts, relative to health and disease, as it would be useful t to chronicle and interesting to know,'it .will not, we hope, be deemed out of place for us to give at times in the columns of this journal, such information on matters connected with physiology, pathology, and other kindred subjects as may be found scattered through various channels of information devoted to the diffusion of surgical and medical knowledge. We shall aim rather to collect and popularise for the general reader that which has already been given to the world in a more scientific or technical shape than to attempt the task or assume the function of imparting knowledge of a strictly professional character. It would' be alike out of place arid foreign to the object of a daily journal, to devote its columns to matters which in many cases from their very nature are unfitted for any but professional readers. But there are an immense number of facts of a highly interesting and most useful character connected with health and disease, the knowledge of which could not fail to be of the utmost benefit to the general reader, and which could be made known to the public in no other way so efficiently as through the columns of a widely circulated journal. The influences of food, of climate, and of soil, the three great physical agents by which the human race is most.powerfully -operated on, are very little understood by the great mass of the people. Facts and theories which bear directly or indirectly on either of those important matters have been too much neglected by the people generally, and regarded as interesting only to the medical student. The first-named of these agents—Food, is in many respects the most important, seeing that it is to a great extent within the control of man, not only collectively but individually; although in a certain degree, the three physical powers named are dependent on each other. That is to say, to quote a late popular writer, " there is a very close connection between the climate of a country and the food which will ordinarily be grown in that country ; while, at the same time, the food is itself influenced by the soil which produces it, as also by the state, of the atmosphere." To this it might be added, we think with truth, that the food produced in the greatest abundance, or which the soil and climate in any country are suited to produce in the greatest abundance, is precisely the sort of food most suitable to the wants of the inhabitants of that country. In other words nature has catered for the welfare of man by providing in every country for the production of that particular kind of food best qualified to sustain his life and recruit his energies as an inhabitant of that country. Thus, for instance, in India, the great heat of the climate brings into play that law of nature by virtue of which the ordinary food—that which is most easy of production—is of an oxygenous, rather than of a carbonaceous, character. The great heat of the climate obliges the people to derive their diet not from the animal, but the vegetable world; that is, from a source which is mainly suited to repairing the waste of the tissues of the body, and not to supporting or increasing the animal heat. ." From the earliest period the most general food in India has been rice, which is the most nutritive of all the cereali, and which yield to the laborer an average return of at least sixty-fold." And again if we turn from Asia to Africa we shall see that the same law prevails, although modified, as might have been expected by difference in soil and climate. "What rice is to Asia, dates are to Africa. The date palm is found in every country from the Tigris to the Atlantic, and it supplies millions of human beings with their daily food." All the most important constituents found in rice, are also found in dates. The principle of the nutriment f.hey contain, is the same in both. The starch of the Indian vegetable is the sugar of the Egyptian. They are both eminently Qualified to support life in hot climates, and in hot climates alone are they found. . If we turn from hot to cold climates, we find that Nature is equally provident. The food best suited to support life in cold climates, is highly carbonaceous. This we-. £tt once see is precisely the sort of food most easily obtainable, and the colder the climate, the more highly carbonaceous does the food which is the produce of that climate become. We see in the case of the. Laplanders, the Esquimaux, and other dwellers in high latitudes, that their food

almost of necessity (ionsisti. of animal matters of the most gross and fatty character. Whale-blubber and fish-oils-are their common diet. This diet, which consis.s principally :of those chemical constituents which go to supply animal heat—in other words, is rich in carbon—is the only diet which would support life in such a climate. Here rice or dates would be quite incapable of supplying the enormous waste of carbon occasioned by the severity of the tempera-, ture. ;■•'■■•■'■' - : The knowledge of these facts' and the inferences to be derived from them can, or at least ought, to be turned to account in seeking in this .country for the causes of disease; and their abuse ought to be taken into consideration in estimating the rate of mortality amongst us. Have we in Australia—seeing that we or our fathers were the denizens, of a country whose average temperature is considerably lower than that of this colony—made such a change in our food as the difference of climate would render necessary if we wish to preserve our health ? Most persons will, we think, readily acknowledge that we.havenotdoneso. The change, 'indeed, is altogether in the wrong direction. The food of the great mass of the people .is decidedly of a more carbonaceous quality than they had been accustomed to in a colder climate. It is more highly stimulative, and from that cause perhaps gives a greater degree of temporary energy to the character; but it vyould be by no means difficult to prove that this energy is imparted at the expense of a premature old age and a shortened life. It is a wide and deeply interesting inquiry, how far an excessive indulgence in animal food is chargeable with the low state of the , public health which confessedly at present prevails. The facts disclosed in this journal relative to the Benevolent Asylum and the frightful state of mortality there, should awaken inquiry. Our strong impression is, that the diet given there, consisting as it does, very largely, of animal food, and that of one particular kind, has more to do with the unhealthiness of that institution than any other cause, or, probably, than all other causes put together. The want of a medical journal in this colony in which this and kindred subjects could be discussed by those qualified by experience and professional training to do justice to such a question will, we are sure, be a sufficient excuse, if any were needed, for our venturing to touch on such a subject. Our aim is not so much to impart knowledge as to awaken inquiry. It may not be amiss, as closely connected with the foregoing remarks, to glance at the character of the class of diseases which an undue indulgence in animal food tends to engender. These are for the most part connected originally with disturbances in the action of the liver. The principal business of the liver in the animal economy is to carry off the superfluous carbon, which it accomplishes by secreting bile, a highly carbonised fluid. The connection between this process and the respiratory functions is remarkable. The liver and lungs are in a great degree compensatory. That is to say, when one organ is small and sluggish the other is frequently large and active ; and it is highly probable that what is left undone by one will have to be accomplished by the other. We thus see that the evil of overtaxing one organ—the liver—by throwing on it an amount of work, in decarbonising or throwing off the animal heat, which it is incapable of performing, does not end with a disarrangement of the functions of that organ merely, but tends to injure the lungs as well. This brings us to the conclusion that highly carbonised food has a tendency to overtax the lungs as well as the liver. The connection between a highly-carbonised diet and the. respiratory functions is no crude hypothesis, but a scientific theory, and is not only in accordance with chemical truth, but with the general scheme of the animal economy. This connection between animal food and the functions of the liver and the lungs, it is highly important to keep in view if we wish to adapt ourselves to the altered conditions of climate, under which we find ourselves placed as compared with our progenitors in Britain. The subject is an extensive one, and to pursue it into its various ramifications is beyond the scope of the course we wish to follow. We wish to suggest rather than to teach: to point out a cause which probably exerts a much greater influence on our sanitary condition than is generally supposed. If our observations shall happily lead to the subject being taken up by those who are qualified to investigate it, and to speak authoritatively on the matter, our object will be answered.— Sydney Empire. ' . . ■