Analyses of Food Preparation.

Abstract

<h3>To the Editor of the Journal of the American Medical Associaton:</h3> Figures do not lie, but it is said that false inferences are occasionally drawn from skilful combinations of the cardinal numbers. Otherwise we would be unable to understand why it is that manufacturers of pepsin and other proprietary articles can prove so much in their own favor by means of expert analyses. For instance, we may cite a table containing an alleged analysis of various food preparations appearing in the Philadelphia<i>Medical and Surgical Reporter</i>, Vol. lxv, page 612, issue of October 17, 1891, which has been extensively copied. The skilful compiler of the table did not exhaust the possibilities in the way of calculations. For instance: The relative food value of bovinine and beef meal, taking fresh lean beef as the standard, which contains 70 per cent of water, and taking into account the difference in the