Patent foods and patent medicines : two lectures / by Robert hutchinson.

  • Hutchinson, Robert., Sir, 1871-1960.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Patent foods and patent medicines : two lectures / by Robert hutchinson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    tained in that small bulk the maximum of nutritious qualities, which was pleasant and stimulating to the appetite, which was easily digested, and which was cheap. That would be an ideal artificial food, and if ever that came to be invented it would be a sub- stance which would rightly demand our support and recommendation. But unfortunately the majority of artificial foods do not correspond to any one of those qualifications which I have set out. I propose to tell you very briefly how it is that they fail. Defects of Artificial Foods. (1) The first qualification is the power of stimu- lating appetite. Is there any artificial food of which you can say that it is a powerful stimulant of the appetite ? I think that there is only one group of which that is.true—namely, those foods which con- tain extractives of meat : these certainly stimulate the appetite and have been proved to do so by physiological experiment. By the introduction of meat extract into the mouth a powerful secretion of gastric juice is brought about and the desire for food is increased, but with that exception 1 think that there is no patent food of which one can say that in the promotion of appetite it can successfully compete with skilful sick-room cooking. (2) If one takes the question of difficulty in swallowing, are there any artificial foods more easily swallowed or chewed than any natural foods ? Here, again, there are very few which will answer to the demand, because the first necessity about a food which shall be easily swallowed is that it should be in a liquid form. We have no better ^00<^ than milk or suitably prepared gruels. If the patient cannot swallow such foods as these theie is certainly no artificial food which is likely