The value of good food : no. 3 of deposits in the Savings' Bank of Wisdom, made in behalf of working men and women.

Date:
[between 1850 and 1859?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The value of good food : no. 3 of deposits in the Savings' Bank of Wisdom, made in behalf of working men and women. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    But he makes his own steam, so that answer will not do. We must go farther than the steam to find the origin of his power. I will tell you where his strength comes from—it comes out of eoob. If you want that big fellow to work, you must feed him. Stop his food, and he will not do another stroke of labour. Give him nothing to eat, and his mighty arms will leave off their swinging, and his supple joints will grow motionless and stiff. And what is the food that the steam-engine con- sumes ? If we were to go round outside the engine- room of the yarn-spinning giant, we should see for ourselves what it is. Every now and then we should observe a huge mouth opened wide, and fresh supplies of nourishment shovelled into it by a sturdy attendant, and we should hear the giant roar hoarsely with satisfaction, as he swallowed morsel after morsel. The steam-engine eats black coal, and out of black coal gets its power. 'Nqw, as it is with that yarn-spinning giant, so it is also with your own living frame, my working friend. It matters not what your work is—whether you dig and plough in the fields, or hammer upon the anvil, or weave in the loom. The STUEiirGTH with which YOF PEEFORM YOUR LABOUR, COMES OUT OE THE FOOD YOU EAT; and if you are not duly fed, ^our limbs too will soon refuse to play, and ^our joints will become rigid and still. But your living frame, considered simply as a machine,—that is, as a complicated instrument, capable of performing labour when set to work,—is very much more wonderful even than the machinery of that surprising steam-giant. Tou can accomplish many many times more work than he could upon the same amount of food. Suppose that he were taken off from his usual yarn-spinning occupation, and were set to lift heavy weights instead. How much food do you think we should have to supply to him, if we wanted to get him to lift a block of stone, weigh-