FIRST SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION OF FOODSTUFF.

PROUT, WILLIAM. - COINING THE WORD "MERORGANIZED"

On the ultimate composition of simple alimentary substances; with some preliminary remarks on the analysis of organized bodies in general. Read June 14, 1827.

(London, W. Nicol, 1827). 4to. No wrappers as extracted from "Philosophical Transactions" 1827 - Part II. Pp. 355-388 a. 2 engraved plates. (a small dampstain to lower margin of plates). Text clean and fine.

First printing of this milestone paper, containing the first scientific classification of foodstuffs as carbonhydrates, fats, proteins, and water.

"The brilliant demonstration in 1824 that the gastric juices of animals contains hydrochloric acid appeared incredible to many of Prout's contemporaries. Yet in 1827 (in the paper offered) they readily adopted his classification of foodstuffs into water, saccharinous (carbonhydrates), oleagineous (fats), and albuminous (proteins). Although Prout promised detailled analyses of the three organic aliments, only those of the saccharinous class were published by him. As a vitalist, Prout maintained that organized bodies (which were composed from organic substances) contained "independent existing vital principles."Under the influence of these teleological agents, the four aliments were transformed into blood and tissues. Prout termed the process of digestion and blood formation "primary assimilation." "Secondary assimilation" (Liebig's "metamorphosis of tissues") included both the process of tissue formmation from blood and the destruction and removal of unwanted parts from the animal system. The absorption and removal of water from processed aliments were the principal chemical features of chylification and sanguification, respectively. Organization of processed aliments could not occur, however, without the presence and admixture of minute amounts of water or of elements other than carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. In 1827 Prout coined the word (in the paper offered) "merorganized" to denote the isomerism and vitalization of organic substances by the presence of these incidental materials."(DSB XI, p. 173). - Parkinson "Breakthroughs" 1827 C.

Order-nr.: 43174