Vinegar and other vegetable acids are too much neglected by our handicraftsmen and soldiers. The Carthaginians are stated by Aristotle to have used vinegar as a substitute for wine during their campaigns ; and the recipes given by Cato for flavouring vinegar with fruits show that it was
in use among the labouring population in Italy.3. " Active " labourers are those who get through such an amount of work daily, exclusive of Sundays, as may be represented by a walk of 20 miles. In this class are soldiers during a campaign, letter carriers, and engineers employed on field work or as artisans. These habitually consume on the average about a fifth more nitrogenous food and twice as much fat as the last class, while the quantity of vegetable hydrocarbons is not augmented, except in the Royal Engineers.
The " hard labour diet " of convict prisons fairly represents what the authorities consider the minimum. It is the same as that already described as " industrial employment diet," with the following additions : barley, 1 oz. ; bread, 20 oz. ; shins for soup, 8 oz. : carrots, 1 oz. ; onions, ^ oz. ; turnips, 1 oz. It contains, however, 14 oz. less milk, and 1 oz. less " meat."
The nutritive value of the additions may be seen by Dr Pavy s alimentary analysis, which is as follows:—
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Weekly Additions. Nitro genous matter. Carbo hydrates. Fat. Mineral matter. Total water-free matter. Barley oz. i-ooo 20-000 8-000 1-000 O-oOO 1-000 0-063 1-620 1-688 0-013 0-006 0-012 0-743 10-280 V 145 0-036 0-072 0-024 0-320 0-320 0-002 0-020 0-460 2-072 o-oio 0-003 0-006 0-850 12-680 4-080 0-170 0-045 0-090 Bread Shins Carrots Onions Turnips Total water-free matter 3-402 11-276 0-666 0-571 17-915
From these totals must be deducted the articles cut off:—
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"Weekly Diminutions. Nitro genous matter. Carbo hydrates. Put. Mineral matter. Total water-free matter. Milk . 14-000 0-574 0-276 0728 0-546 0-154 0-112 0-030 1-960 0-460 Meat . rooo Total water-free matter 0-850 0-723 0-700 142 2-420
The same food is given summer and winter, though the demand must be greater to provide for the extra quantity of heat required to be produced in cold weather. But then the amount of work is diminished at the latter season by If hours, which is equivalent to an augmentation of the diet. The additions are more judicious than those made by the classes above mentioned who partly furnish their own food ; for bread and vegetables constitute a large portion of the convict ration, and the extra quantity of soup replaces the lost milk, without risk of the waste in cooking common when the uneducated deal with solid meat.
4. " Hard work " is that got through by English navvies, hard-worked weavers, and blacksmiths, &c, which is more earnest and intense than the enforced "hard labour " of the convict. It is difficult to obtain accurate information, but it would appear from Dr Playfair s esti mates that the customary addition to the diet is entirely in nitrogenous constituents. The higher their wages the more meat the men eat.
The, neglect of vegetables by the last two classes is in a physiological point of view imprudent, and possibly may be a contributing cause of an inordinate thirst for alcohol which impoverishes and degrades many among them. To satisfy their instinctive craving for a hydrocarbon, they take one convenient indeed in some respects, but of which any excess is unwholesome. The discovery already mentioned of the production of force from the assimilation of starch leads to a knowledge, opposed to old pre judices but supported by experience, that the raising of the energies to their full height of usefulness may be effected by vegetable food quite as well as by the more stimulating and more expensive animal nutriment, or by the more rapidly absorbed alcohol.
With regard to the tables quoted above in which ultimate analyses are used as data for dietetic rules, it must be noticed that their authors deprecate arguments being founded on any but the very broadest characters of the articles analyzed, Specimens, even when of the highest quality, differ strangely from one another. Season, soil, modes of culture, the variations of species, and many other little known influences come into play and prevent our taking the market names of eatables as representatives of a definite chemical constitution. And it may be added that ample scope should be allowed for the peculiarities of the individual and of his life-history. In the application of general rules some one must be trusted to relax or strain them when circumstances require, or failures of a fatal character may occasionally result, and more often a galling perversion of justice.
Estimates for the thrifty management of food-supply have usually reference to the feeding of others rather than to the calculation of a man s own dietary. Enough has been said on that point under the head of the influence of diet upon health, and if a person really wants to bring down the expense of feeding himself to the lowest point, he can readily rate himself under one of the classes enumerated above, and act accordingly. It may, however, be doubted whether it is wise to reduce the diet to the minimum which the work requires. The certain evils of an accidental deficiency or of a miscalculation are so serious that the danger outweighs the possible inconvenience of a slight excess. It were an unthrifty thrift indeed which imperilled vigour of mind and body to effect a pecuniary saving ; for there is no investment so remunerative as high health. A man need not consider that he is wasteful when he spends money upon making his bill of fare palatable and provocative of indulgence to the extent of moderate superfluity. Pleasure and prudence here walk hand in hand.
was born at Weimar, where he was brought up early to the profession of art by his father Johann George, then painter of miniatures to the court of the grand duke. Being sent to Dresden to perfect himself under the care of Alexander Thiele, he had the good fortune to finish in two hours, at the age of eighteen, a picture which attracted the attention of the king of Saxony. Augustus II. -was so pleased with Dietrich s readiness of hand that he gave him means to study abroad, and visit in succession the chief cities of Italy and the Netherlands. There he learnt to copy and to imitate masters of the previous century with a versatility truly surprising. Winckelmann. to whom he had been re commended, did not hesitate to call him the Raphael of landscape. Yet in this branch of his practice he merely imitated Salvator Rosa, Roos, and Everdingen. He was more successful in aping the style of Rembrandt, and numerous examples of this habit may be found in the galleries of St Petersburg, Vienna, and Dresden. At Dresden, indeed, there are pictures acknowledged to be his, bearing the fictitious dates of 163G and 1638, and the name of Rembrandt. Among Dietrich s cleverest repro ductions we may account that of Ostade s manner in the Itinerant Singers at the National Gallery. His skill in catching the character of the later masters of Holland is
shown in candle-light scenes, such as the Squirrel and the