Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/817

* NUTHATCH. 695 NUTRITION. often during the winter, when its thrioe-repeatod querulous call, nee-nee-nee, is constantly heard; but in summer it is rather retiring. The nest is made in holes in trees, and the efjfjs, six to eight in number, are white, speckled with reddish and lilac. The other American species are the smaller red-breasted nuthatch {tSilla C'aiuiden- sis), the brown-headed nuthatch (Hilta pusilla) found in the Soiilli Atlantic and C!ulf States, and the Jiyf^mv mithatcb (Sitta pyijmiKd), found from the Itocky Mountains to the Pacific. The la.st two sjiecics are only fimr inches loiijj;. The red-breasted nuthatch is found throughout tem- perate North .merica, but is not nearly so com- mon as its white-breasted brother. The Euro- pean nuthatch (Hilia Europwa) is common in most parts of Kurope. If taken young, it is easily tamed, and becomes very familiar and amusing. Several other species are known in Asia and Africa. NUTMEG (ilE. nuimcmie, nutmeye, from ■nut + ntuge, OF. mugc. musk, from Lat. miuius, musk). The kernel of the fruit of several species of llyristica, of the natural order Myristieaceie, which contains about eighty species, all tropical trees or shrubs, natives of Asia, Madagascar, and America. The fruit is succulent. It opens like a capsule by two valves. The seed is nut-like, covered with a laciniated fleshy aril which ap- pears in commerce as mace. The species which furnish the greater part of the nutmegs of com- merce is Myristica fragrans, or nioschata. a tree about 25 feet in height, with oblong leaves, and axillary, few-flowered racemes ; the fruit, which is golden yellow when ripe, resembles a pear in size and appearance. The fleshy part of the fruit, which is rather hard, is of a peculiar con- sistence, resembling candied fruit, and it is often preserved and eaten as a sweetmeat. Nutmegs are now successfully cultivated in the East In- dies, Spice Islands. West Indies, and Brazil. Nutmegs are chiefly used as a spice. They yield, by expression, a j)eculiar yellow fat, called oil of mace (because of its color and flavor, it was generally supposed to be derived from mace), and by distillation is obtained an almost "colorless essential oil which has very fully the flavor of the nutmeg. In 1890 the United States im- ported nutmegs to the value of $5,'i4.340. Other species of Myristica yield iiutmegs which, though sometimes used, are of inferior quality. The fruits of several species of Lauracca^ also resemble nutmegs in their aro- matic and other properties, as the cotyledons of Nectan. See Colored Plate of Flavorino Pi.a.nt.s. NUTMEG-BIRD. A bird-dealer's name for one of the mynas (Munin punctvlata) . also known as the 'cowry-bird.' An East Indian fruit- ( nutmeg-) eating pigeon of the genus Myristici- vora is known as the 'nutmeg pigeon.' NUTMEG FLOWER. See Nioella. NUTMEG STATE. C'iinnccticit. See States, Popular Naiies of. NUTRIA. The local Spanish name in South .merica lor the coypu (q.v. ), also called 'ra- coonda,' and the trade name for its fur. NUTRITION (from Lat. nutrire, to nour- ish). The process by which living organisms appropriate, modify, and utilize the material.^ needful fur their existence, growth, and develop- ment. The ultimate appropriation of food takes place in the individual cell, which seems to have a gland-like power not only of attracting mate- rials from the blood, but of causing them to assume its structure and participate in its prop- erties. A necessary complement to the process of assimilation is that of excretion, which con- sists in the discarding of efl'ete matter — the prod- ucts of its own vital activity — by the cell. In modern terminology the assimilative or building up process is called anabolism ; the disassimila- tive or breaking down process is called katab- olism, and the sum of the two, metabolism. The blood is the medium through which nutritive materials are brought to the cells and excreted products are carried off. It is borne by the capillaries to the several tissues of the body and is the source from which they derive the mate- rials for their growth and development; and there is a direct relation between the vascularity of any part and the activity of the nutritive operations which take place in it. Thus in muscle, skin, and mucous membrane, and in nerve tissue, rapid decay and renovation are constantly going on, and in these tissues the capillaries are most abimdant; while in cartilage and bone, tendon and ligament, disintegration is comparatively slow, and the capillaries fewer. All the processes of development and growth are the results of the plastic or assimila- tive force by which living bodies are able to form themselves from dissimilar materials (as when an animal subsists on vegetables, or when a plant grows by appropriating the elements of water, carbonic acid, and ammonia) ; but they are the results of this force acting under differ- ent conditions. Development is the process by which each tissue or organ of a living body is first formed, or by which one, being already incompletely formed, is so changed in shape and composition as to be fitted for a function of a higher kind, or finally is advanced to the state in which it exists in the most perfect condition of the species. Growth, which commonly concurs with de- velopment, and continues after it, is properly mere increase of a part by the insertion or super- addition of materials similar to those of which it already consists. Nutrition, on the other hand, is the process by which the various parts are maintained in the same general conditions of form, size, and composition. In the elementary forms of animal and vege- table life, represented on the f)ne hand by the amteba and on the other by bacteria, the process of nutrition is a compar.atively simple one. They are surrounded by a material which they can use as food, and each individual cell, being fitted to digest and absorb, apjiropriates what it needs and rejects what it docs nut reipiire. In the higher animals, however, careful selection and a high degree of preparation and modification of the food is necessary; and these processes are carried