166. The arrangements which different authors have proposed will be found to vary according to the particular theory by which each may have been influenced. The chemist investigates the composition of an aliment, and arranges it according to the proximate principles which predominate in its composition. The naturalist, on the other hand, merely considers to what division in his system each article of diet belongs, and assigns to it a corresponding place in his arrangement; while the empirical practitioner distributes the various kinds of food in an order which answers to his notions of their relative nutritive value, or to the supposed facility with which they are digested in the stomach. If there be any truth in our dietetic researches, or any natural affinity between the objects of our classification, the theory of the arrangement will be unimportant; for, however greatly the roads of our pursuit may vary, we must ultimately arrive at the same goal.

1 Norwegian unleavened bread consists of three parts of oatmeal, and one part of the sawdust of fir, and is said to be very wholesome.