s % # +*. y S .y - ° N c< Eating for Strength; OB, FOOD AND DIET IN THEIR RELATION TO HEALTH AND WORK, TOGETHER WITH SEVERAL HUNDRED RECIPES FOR WHOLE- SOME FOODS AND DRINKS. By M. L. HOLBROOK, M. D., PROFESSOR OP HYGIENE IN THE NEW YORK MEDICAL COLLEGE AND HoSv PITAL FOR WOMEN, EDITOR OF THE " HERALD OF HEALTH," AUTHOR OF "HYGIENE OF THE BRAIN," '* HOW TO STRENGTHEN THE MEMORY," "PARTURITION WITHOUT PAIN," ETC., ETC. New York: M. L. HOLBROOK & CO. CM * S 9 a ■Hi COPYRIGHT BY M. L. HOLBROOK, 1888. v> PREFACE. . In no period of the world's history has there ever been so deep an interest in the subject of foods as at the present. At no time since Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden has agriculture and horticulture been so perfect, and the human race supplied with so many choice and nourishing articles of diet. And, also, at no time have so many been engaged in laborious researches on the nature of that which we eat and its relations to health and work. It would almost seem as if the time had nearly arrived when mankind would eat to live, would feed themselves so as to nourish their bodies most per- fectly and render themselves capable of the most labor, and least liable to disease. The object of this volume is to present the most recent facts of science in a way to make them valuable for actual use in daily life. There is no doubt but man may double his capa- city for work and for enjoyment by improving his dietetic habits. Many have already done this, and multitudes more are only waiting for the knowledge which will help them to doit. A thorough understanding of the different divisions of food and their right relation to the needs of the body is necessary, and this has been fully stated. Several new features have been introduced. To meet the require ments of that constantly increasing class who have more and more desire to draw their nourishment from the vege- table kingdom, carefully prepared and elaborate tables have been arranged showing just how much of each particular food one needs to consume in order to provide the body with the required amount of proteids, carbo-hydrates and fats. PBEFACE. These tables have been especially prepared for this work and are full of interest as well as being of practical value. An- other interesting feature of the work relates to the cost of the different articles usually consumed, as for instance the cost of proteids, fats and carbo-hydrates in oatmeal, beef, mutton, corn, eggs, butter, cheese, beer, etc., etc. These tables are so arranged as to show at once which are the most economical articles for the table and which the most expensive, and will be of great value to all who would choose their food wisely, and also for those who desire to reduce the cost of living to a minimum and yet nourish themselves perfectly. The chapter on the use of the apple as a means of preserv* ing health and the one on the grape cure will, the author believes, meet a need long felt, as will also what has been said concerning the importance of the thorough mastication of our food. The subject of drinks has also been treafed fully, and a very large number of recipes for wholesome ones given. What has been said on this subject cannot fail to prove helpful to those who are in doubt on many points. The directions for feeding young and delicate children have in practice proved most satisfactory. The time is near when a knowledge of the principles of diet will be considered as important a part of our education as a knowledge of the multiplication table. That this little work may help to hasten this time is the sincere desire of the author. , M. L. H. CONTENTS. CHAPTER L The Uses of Food : 9 A Happy Illustration 11 CHAPTER II. Classification of Foods : 13 TheProteids 13 Fats 14 The Amyloids, or Carbo-Hydrates 20 Starch 20 Sugar 21 Mineral matter 23 Water 34 Amount of Water Required for Men and Women 34 Amount of Water Required for Animals 35 Amount Required for the Sick 35 Purity of Water £6 Distilled Water 33 Gaseous Food— The Atmosphere ST Accessory Foods 09 CHAPTER III The Daily Requirements of the Body 43 What is a Day's Work 43 How much the Heart does 44 Constituents of a Sufficient Diet 45 Average Diet of Farm Laborers 43 Diet According to Work done 43 Composition of the Body 51 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. Digestion 53 Mouth Digestion— Mastication 65 Stomach Digestion 53 Conditions of Perfect Digestion .- 57 Chewing Food Thoroughly 53 The Eat Your Food Slow Society 58 Conditions that Favor Digestion 59 CHAPTER V. The Sources of our Foods 61 A Practical Chapter from a Chemical Standpoint 66 Diet for Hard Work . .. 67 " " Light Work 67 Normal Weight in Proportion to Height— a Table 68 Table of Principal Foods showing quantities required of each to fur- nish an ounce of Proteids 69 Table of Principal Foods showing quantities required of each to fur- nish an ounce of Carbohydrates = 70 Table of Principal Foods showing quantities required of each to fur- nish an ounce of Fat , 71 CHAPTER VI. The Economy of Foods 75 Tables Showing the Relative Cost of Nutriment in Principal Foods 80 A Practical Lesson in Economy 88 How to Live Well at Small Expense 89 CHAPTER VII. Simplicity in Living — 93 Feeding Children 93 An Argument for Plain Living and High Thinking 91 How ouv Great Workers Live £4 CHAPTER VIII Food and Intemperance £3 Why People Want Stimulants • • • • U The Cook and Temperance 10J CHAPTER IX. Alimentary Products of the Vegetable Kingdom 102 Wheat : 102 A Beautiful Microscopic Object It4 CONTENTS. VI 1 Oats 105 The Most Strengthening Fool 10) The Cooking" of Oatmeal ... 109 Oatmeal Gruel and Milk Ill Barley 112 Eye H2 Indian Corn 113 Rice 115 Best Method of Preparing* Rice 113 Buckwheat 1 15 Peas, Beans and Lentils 117 Composition of Peas, Beans and Lsntils a Table 119 The Potato 120 The Sweet Potato 121 The Onion 122 Other Roots 122 The Cabbage 122 Spinach 123 Rhubarb 123 Celery.. 123 Asparagus. 123 Lettuce 124 Cress 124 CHAPTER X. Fruits: 125 The Apple, its Use and Healthf ulness 127 Grapes 132 The Nutritive Value of Grapes 133 Their Physiological Effects 134 The Grape Cure - - - 1C5 Methods of the Grape Cure 133 Choice of Grapes for the Grape Cure 142 Other Fruits 143 Nuts 144 CHAPTER XL Food for Different Ages, Conditions and Seasons— Diet in Infancy 145 Diet in Childhood and Youth 146 Diet for Working- Men— For the Brain-Worker 147 Diet in Old Ag*e 148 Diet in Training 149 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII Food in Various Diseases— In Dyspepsia 155 In Fevers 157 In Constipation 7 153 In Bright's Disease— Chronic Rheumatism 159 In Gout— Diabetes 161 In Diarrhea and Summer Complaints— Consumption 162 In Nervous Diseases 163 Diet in Cancer— Ulceration of the Stomach 164 For the Thin— Marasmus 165 For Inebriates 166 For Orphan Asylums, Prisons, etc 167 Pure Food 168 Climate and Seasons— Cookery 169 RECIPES. Soups 171 Porridges including Mushes : 174. Remarks, Rules and Recipes for Making Good Bread 175 To Cook Eggs • 187 Preparations of Cheese 189 Sandwiches 189 Cooking Vegetables 190 Pies and Pie Pastry 196 Custards • • 201 Puddings • 203 Cakes • 206 Molded Farinacea 208 Miscellaneous Dishes 239 Simple Beverages from Fruits . . . . \ 220 Lemonades .....»...; 221 Drinks from Various Substances. 333 Ices ••• .... 2£5 Milk • •■•• 226 Tea ••• 232 Cocoa 235 Chocolate 235 Methods of Preparing Tea, Coffee, Cocoa, etc. 236 CHAPTER I. THE USES OF FOOD. Why do human beings eat ? Why do all animals, from the simplest worm to the most civilized man, depend for life on food and drink ? Why does a child become hungry, and if deprived of food be- yond a certain time, become ravenous ? Why does a hard-working man enjoy his food so well, and de- mand so much of it ? Why do great men and pow- erful thinkers eat so abundantly ? Why so many millions of acres of land devoted to agriculture and horticulture ? Why so many more farmers produc- ing food than people of any other occupation ? It is because food is so necessary to life and health. What, then, are the uses which it performs ? 1. It furnishes material from which to construct the body. The child receives milk from its mother's breast, which increases its size, and a large body is the result. Farmers increase or diminish the weight of domestic animals, within a certain limit, by in- creasing or diminishing the food supplied to them. The development, within constitutional limits, to which a child may attain is, to some extent, de- pendent on the supply of food it receives and di- gests. Abundance of food, with plenty of air, exer- cise and sleep, insures a healthier growth than a scanty diet. 1* (9) 10 USES OF FOOD. 2. Another use of food is to replenish the loss that goes on in the body from its daily wear and tear. This waste varies with different persons, and with the amount of work done. Great workers wear out, use up daily several pounds of blood. New food is demanded to make good this loss. A month of sick- ness sometimes wastes away a third of the weight of the body ; but a hearty appetite and food restore it to its full size. There are men of powerful frames who, if they do hard work, rapidly lose many pounds of their bodily weight, and require much food to replace it. Small workers and lazy, idle people eat less ; and there are many corseted and inactive young women, and idle young men, who waste little of the tissue of the body,, and who eat little. It is not a bad sign to see healthy people eat heartily ; they must do it to work and live. 3. Another use of food is to maintain the heat of the body. So important is this, that it has been computed that four-fifths of our nutriment is used to maintain a bodily temperature of 98i degrees. In order to understand the heat-producing power of food, let any one go in cold weather without eating for a day and still continue exposing himself to the cold, and he will learn that food will warm his body more effectually than clothing or fire. 4. Still another very important use of food is to furnish force. This comes in no other way. When plants grow they store up the energy of the sun- shine, and. when we consume these plants this energy is transferred to our bodies. It is manifested in many ways. First, in the form of motion ; then in the form of sensation : feeling, seeing, hearing and thinking. Our ability to do any of these things A HAPPY ILLUSTRATION. 11 is conferred by food. The body has the peculiar power of abstracting its force from what we eat. Go without food, and all these functions of the- body gradually die away, and life becomes ex- tinct. To illustrate. Give a child a hickory bow and arrow. He bends the bow on its string, ad- justs the arrow and pulls the string back a few inches. Now what has he done ? He has stored up in the bow a part of the strength of his arm. But how did he get that strength ? The sunshine of last summer stored it up in the bread and potatoes he has eaten. His body has the power to unfasten this force and apply it to bending the bow. When he lets go of the string the arrow flies away, and that force is, so far as he is concerned, spent. The food we eat does for us what the coal does for the engine on the railroad track, it furnishes the motive power; only the body is a complicated living machine and can think and feel, which the engine cannot do. To recapitulate : we eat, then, to increase the size of the body; to supply the waste or loss by its daily wear and tear ; to maintain a proper degree of warmth and to supply the energy by which to do work. CHAPTER II. CLASSIFICATION OF FOODS. The classification of foods is quite simple. All the substances used come under one of the follow- ing divisions : 1/ Proteids, or albuminous foods. 2. Fats, sometimes called hydro-carbons. 3. Amyloids, or carbo-hydrates. 4. Mineral matter. 5. Water. 6. Gaseous food, or air. 7. Accessory foods, or condiments. THE PROTEIDS. The proteids are also known as albuminoids and nitrogenous substances. Their principle use is to construct and repair the active tissues of the body and to furnish material out of which to form the various digestive fluids, as the saliva of the mouth, the gastric juice of the stomach, the bile of the liver, and juices of the pancreas. The nerves, the muscles and the glands are composed of living mat- ter, of protoplasm, and cannot be built up, or the glands furnish their secretions without albuminous matter. Every structure in the body in which any form of force is manifested is mainly built up of (13) 14 CLASSIFICATION OF FOODS. these proteids. Muscular tissue is a good example; the brain cells are also examples. The proteids are complex ^bodies and contain car- bon, 53 parts; oxygen, 21; hydrogen, 7; nitrogen, 15, and sulphur 1. The proteids of the body have only a slight affinity for oxygen, and, consequently, are not readily consumed. They grow old in time and decay, but do not burn up. What is known as the protoplasm, or living matter of our bodies, is composed of proteids, and we all know how living matter resists decay and change. The principal sources of proteids are the muscu- lar parts of animals, eggs of which the white or albumen is almost a pure proteid, the gluten of grains, the casein or curd of .milk and the vegeta- ble casein of peas, beans and cereals. The proteids are digested in the stomach, this organ not digesting either starches or fats. Diges- tion makes them very soluble, and they are easily taken up through the walls of the digestive organs. In their soluble condition they are called peptones instead of proteids. If they were to remain soluble while in the blood there would be danger of their passing out through the kidneys, and so they are changed again to proteids in the blood. THE FATS. The fats are also called hydro-carbons. They con- [ tain some oxygen, but never enough to satisfy the affinities of the carbon and hydrogen. They are powerful generators of heat. An ounce of fat when burned produces about two and half times as much heat as dry starch or sugar. Some idea of its heat- ing properties may be gained by the fact that ten FAT AND ANIMAL HEAT. 15 grains of fat burned will raise the temperature of twenty-three pounds of water one degree. This would give sufficient force to raise 18.000 pounds one foot high. Their uses are to maintain ani- mal heat and to liberate force. The man who does a hard day's work, does so by virtue of the fact that he is, so far as his labor is concerned, a living engine. The muscles do not furnish the strength, they only transmit it. The engine does not furnish the power; that comes from the steam so highly charged with heat from the burn- ing fuel. Qu e of its uses is to prevent the loss of animal heat. \A thick layer of fat is very useful in dimin- ishing the chances of catching cold on exposure to drafts ; and where the coating of fat under the skin is deficient or absent we must use an additional quantity of warmer clothing. A fat person suffers less from the cold, other things being equal, than a lean one, and does not require so much flannel to keep him warm. In very cold latitudes a layer of fat under the skin is a useful protection ; but in hot climates it becomes oppressive, as we may see by observing corpulent persons or fat animals during the high heat of summer. In many animals, es- pecially those of tropical climates where the sum- mer heat is great, although the cold of winter may also be considerable, we find that fat, instead of being uniformly distributed over the body, is col- lected in masses in certain parts, as in the Brahmin bull of India, in the yak of Tartary, in the Ameri- can buffalo, as well as in the camel of Africa, on whose back a huge lump of fat is found. On a care- ful examination of these lumps of fat, especially in 16 CLASSIFICATION OF FOODS, a well fed camel, we find them firm and solid, pro- jecting upwards ; but at times it appears that they lose this firm solidity and: become limp, swinging from side to side and doubling up like a half empty bag. The cause of this is, we are told, that when ! their food is insufficient the hump becomes loose and flabby, a large proportion of fat having been ab sorbed. If the animal be kept without food for sev- eral days this protuberance almost entirely disap- pears. If the animal is well fed again the hump re- gains its former size. What has become of this fat? Some has undergone combustion to keep up heat, while the remainder may have been used to supply the waste of some organ of the body. The blood contains about one half of one per cent, of fat ; the muscles from three to four per cent., and the brain eight or nine per cent. The nerves contain much more, sometimes as high as 22 per cent. Its use is to form a layer around the conducting part to iso- late it. Fat may be supplied to the body in many ways, especially by fatty foods, starch and sugar. The two last are converted into fat within' the body. The fatty parts of the body are not always of the same quality. Those accustomed to the fattening of animals know that sometimes the fat on them is soft and poor, and at others pure and hard, depend- ing mainly upon the kind of food they have eaten Nurses understand that some foods stick fast, while others are fickle and easily squandered. It seems that fats laid on rapidly are not so permanent as those more slowly acquired. One of the causes of consumption is the insufficiency of fat in the body. Either the stomach does not digest enough, or the food may be deficient in it. fj)i\ Hughes Bennett DISLIKE FOR FATTY FOOD. 17 used to tell his students that a frequent cause of consumption was the high price of butter and the great abundance of pastry cooks. v The latter Dr. Bennett accused of causing consumption among the upper classes by disordering the digestion of young- girls with pies, pastry and other things that spoil their appetites for the more substantial articles of food. Many people have a strong dislike to fatty foods, and even some physicians have advocated that this was a natural instinct ; but the fact that there is in the body an arrangement for the diges- tion of fatty matter is a strong argument in favor of its use in a suitable amount. Dr. Brown says : " There are many children who refuse to eat a piece of fat meat. They will eat the lean, but cut off the fat, and submit to punishment rather than eat it. The instinct of the child is perfectly right, and its indications are not to be disregarded." Fat swal- lowed under compulsion generally disagrees with a child and makes it ill. The proper thing to do in such cases is to give it in some more agreeable form. Nuts contain a sufficient amount of oil ; and sweet fruits, abundant in sugar, may to some ex- tent supply its place. If a lump of butter is swallowed by itself it will very likely make one sick, but spread upon bread it can be taken without discomfort. The reason of this is plain : we get the oily substance in a finer state of subdivision, so that it is more easily digested. A lump of fat swallowed alone would melt in the stomach and float about there without being digest- ed, would begin to decompose and yield acrid bodies which would irritate the stomach and perhaps cause severe headache. When finely comminuted with 18 CLASSIFICATION OF FOODS. bread it forms a creamy mass, which passes quickly into the duodenum where it is digested. Many a child has been made sick by a piece of fat bacon swallowed with only a small piece of bread and a large piece of butter. Fatty foods are most useful in bronchitis, con- sumption and nervous diseases. Hard brain work uses up a great amount of force, and this is largely supplied by the consumption of the fats, starch and sugar. A well known English lawyer always takes a meal of some easily digested fatty food before making a great intellectual effort, and an English physician has found that in his intellectual work he is best sustained by considerable of the same ma- terial. We have seen that the nervous system contains much fat, and we may imagine that if the food is deficient in it the brain will suffer Very thin people are more likely to be nervous than fat ones ; and it is said that Bantingism; practiced to cure corpulency has caused many porsons to be- come very nervous. It does not follow because fat is necessary that people should eat all they can of it. It should be taken in reasonable quantities^ and always thoroughly comminuted and mixed with other foods which will divide it up into very small particles, else it may cause indigestion and pass out of the system unabsorbed. Good butter, cream, olive oil and nuts are rich in fat, and in a form most agreeable. Potatoes, corn-meal, oatmeal and nuts containing starch, are all fat producers. We once advised a boy who rejected every form of fat usually found on his mother's table, to eat freely of hickory nuts, and it proved to be very good FORMULA FOU FOOD. 19 advice for him. That popular nut, the peanut, which even many physicians condemn as indiges- tible, has been of like service to others. The chemical formula for fat is, carbon 10, hydro- gen 18, oxygen 1. Its original source is the vege- table kingdom, in which it abounds. Palm oil, olive oil, cottonseed oil, flax-seed oil, cocoanut oil, peanut oil, etc., are examples. Fat is a very concentrated fuel food, and is not in any way digested in either the mouth or stomach, but in the duodenum, where it is emulsionized, or broken up into very minute globules capable of be- ing passed through the absorbent vessels. Fat often disturbs delicate stomachs, and persons with such should choose the most agreeable kind. Fat frequently become rancid, and in this state is very injurious to the civilized stomach, causing dyspepsia, sick headache, heartburn, etc. Besides these important and principal functions of fat, it has minor uses in the processes of digestion, assimilation and nutrition, and, it is believed, in the formation of bile. Food digests more readily if a certain amount of fat is mixed with it. It also plays an important part in the formation of cells, blood corpuscles, and even the generation of blood. It is present in large quantities in the tubules of the nerves, insulating them so that the nervous force is not dissipated, but travels along the nerve to its center; and in all the nervous centers serving an important function there. The distribution of it in every tissue, and its ac- cumulation around certain organs, serves to fill up the cavities of the body and give roundness to the form, equalizing the external pressure diminishing 20 CLASSIFICATION OF FOODS. friction ; and, by its bad conducting property, re- taining animal heat. Fat, therefore, must ever be regarded as highly important to the physical devel- opment of the body, and any system of diet that excludes it is faulty and to be condemned. THE AMYLOIDS OR CARBO-HYDRATES. This class of foods is best represented by starch and sugar. They are called amyloids because this word, from the Greek, means resembling starch, They are also called carbo-hydrates because chemi- cally composed of carbon and water. The chemical formula for starch is carbon, 6 ; hydrogen, 10 ; oxygen, 5. That of sugar is slightly different ; cane sugar , being, carbon, 12; hydrogen, 11; oxy- gen, 11, and grape sugar being, carbon, 12; hydro- gen, 12, and oxygen, 12. STARCH. Starch and sugar have their origin in the veg- etable kingdom. Starch abounds in all the grains, in rice, in peas and beans, and in the common and sweet potato. It is also present in many other substances. Starch is insoluble in water, and this is a wise provision of nature; otherwise it would be easily dissolved by the rains and washed out of plants. In its insoluble state it is useless as a food, but during the process of digestion it is con- verted first into soluble dextrine, which has the same chemical formula as grape sugar, and a little later into grape sugar itself. The change takes place partly in the mouth by the action of the saliva during the process of mastication, but owing to the SUGAR. 21 acidity of the gastric juice of the stomach the digestion of starch ceases soon after it reaches this organ. After the food has been passed into the duo- denum, where the secretions are akaline, the diges- tion of its starch proceeds very rapidly until it has been completely converted into grape sugar, in which state it is soluble and easily absorbed. If the food has not been properly masticated and mixed with saliva in the mouth it is liable to embarrass the stomach and cause indigestion ; indeed this is one of the most fruitful sources of dyspepsia. On the other hand, if the food has been thoroughly masticated and allowed to remain in the mouth until it has been converted into a milk-like condi- tion, even raw and uncooked starch is so thor- oughly changed, as not to disturb the digestion of the albuminoids as it goes on in the stomach. It is well known that many persons are not able to digest the starch of bread. By toasting it, how- ever, the heat changes a portion of it into dextrine, in the same manner as the saliva does. A little more chewing would accomplish the same result. SUGARS. Sugars, although very different in their charac- ter and nature from starch, are all carbo-hydrates. Sugars may be divided into crystaline or cane and into glucose or grape sugar. The latter is the food of young plants, and is found in all young shoots. It does not need to be digested ; but it is believed that cane sugar is converted into grape sugar, or at least into invert sugar, in the alimentary canal. Experiments made by Sir William Eoberts, M. D., go to show that considerable cane sugar 22 CLASSIFICATION OF FOODS. in food taken into a healthy stomach does not re- tard digestion. 1 The carbo-hydrates form a most important part of our food and are contained in nearly everything we eat. They are fuel foods and supply animal heat. They are also, like fats, an important source of the force or strength of the body. HEATING POWER OF TEN GRAINS OF THE VARIOUS SUBSTANCES IN THEIR NATURAL STATE. Lbs. of water raised IS F. Grape sugar 8.42 Cane sugar . . . . ... . 8.61 Starch from Arrow-root . . . .10.06 Butter . . 18.60 Beef fat . ... . . . . . . 20.91 From this it will be seen that fat is more than twice as valuable a heat-producing agent as starch. There is also the same difference in the amount of work these substances will accomplish when burned, as the following table will show : MOTIVE POWER OF TEN GRAINS OF THE SUBSTANCE IN ITS NATURAL STATE. Lbs. lifted one foot high. Grape sugar . ... . . . 6,500 Cane sugar 6,647 Arrow-root ....... 7,766 Butter . . . . . . . 14,441 Beef fat . . . .... 16,142 MINERAL MATTER. We read in the Bible that God created man out of the dust of the earth. Whether this is to be in- terpreted literally or figuratively I leave to theolo- ONE ORGAN DIFFERS FROM ANOTHER. 23 gians to decide. For the scientist it has plainly a symbolical significance. The materials of which our bodies are composed are partly earthy, and it is not possible to think of them as composed with- out earthy substances. We call these constituents salts, and if they were not present in our food life could hardly be continued as at present. There is a very simple method by which any one can obtain the salts of any organism. We have but to burn that body and most of them remain as ashes. Whatever belongs to the organic world volatilizes in vapor and smoke. The same result is reached by the slow process of decomposition. The salts remain while the organic part of the organ- ism escapes into the atmosphere. Only a limited number of minerals take part in the formation of our bodies. Each organ has a com- position of its own. The same parts in different men and animals are of nearly the same composi- tion, but one organ differs from another in a slight degree. The bones, the hearts, the stomachs of all animals are nearly the same, but the composition of the heart and stomach in the same person differs. These facts prove the great importance of the mineral matter of our food. Had each organ the same composition a less variety of mineral matter wxmld suffice ; but as each demands a special salt for itself there must be considerable variety. In one organ is needed the salts of potash ; in another, those of soda or phosphorus. Another reason for variety is the fact that the processes of osmose and endosmose, or the exchange of fluids inside and outside the cells, depend largely on the fact that the constituents of the fluids on one side of 24 CLASSIFICATION OF FOODS. the walls of these structures differ from those on the other side. Without this difference no change, or scarcely any, would take place, and the growth and nutrition of each part would come to a stand- still for want of new and appropriate material. Professor Forster, of Munchen, has made a large number of experiments to discover the importance of mineral matter in our food. Two pigeons were taken for one experiment and fed on food contain- ing every other requisite : albumen, carbo-hydrates, etc., but entirely freed from all mineral matter. These pigeons took their food regularly, but soon lost all their liveliness and sat dumb and motion- less on the bars of their cages. After the tenth day they ate but little and lost in flesh. On the twenty- fourth day one of them had a fit, and both refused to eat. He then fed them by compulsion. One died on the twenty-sixth day by a return of the fit, and the other lived on to the thirty-first day, when it also had a fit from which it did not recover. An examination of the bodies of the pigeons revealed no traces of any disturbance of digestion. He then took a dog and fed him in the same man- ner. He soon showed signs of weariness, lay sad and dull in his corner, had sudden fits as of mad- ness, became weak and uncertain in his motions, trembled and showed signs of nervousness, became weaker and weaker till he could scarcely crawl, and still there was no disturbance in the digestion of his food. Another pigeon was taken and fed on food free from mineral matter by compulsion. It died in thirteen days, and yet an examination of its body showed that it had been well nourished and the EXPERIMENTS ON ANIMALS. 25 organs were sound. The food had apparently been well digested. The absence of mineral matter had not prevented digestion until after several days, but had caused death. The animals had all shown muscular weakness and trembling, and in one case a sort of paralysis, as if the spinal cord and brain had been affected. The nervous system suffered most; in- deed, it was apparent that the nervous weakness was caused by the absence of mineral salts, and we must from this look on them as necessary to excite and enliven the brain and nerves, and especially promote nutrition and secretion. We know that living a long time on pickled meat, salt pork or corned beef causes a sort of scurvy which is only cured by the use of fresh vegetables and fruit. Now, the brine used to preserve the flesh dissolves a considerable part of the mineral constituents of the meat which the fresh vegetables replace. Dr. Forster's investigations gave one other re- sult. He found that the animals fed by compulsion on food freed from its mineral matter died sooner than those not fed at all. The explanation he gives for this is, that if no food is given the body is nour- ished on itself, and, consequently, a supply of min- eral matter is obtained from the decompose^! flesh of the body ; but when nourished on food free from salts there is no demand from the body for albumen and carbo-hydrates, and so no mineral matter is received from its decomposition. The salts of our food are more necessary to the growing organ- ism than for the adult. They may be divided into two kinds — the fixed and the non-fixed. The for- mer includes those firmly united to the tissues of 28 CLASSIFICATION OF FOODS. the bones ; the latter those dissolved and circulating in the blood. The excess of salts does not make tissues richer in them, because this excess is excreted almost im- mediately, except, perhaps, in the case of persons advanced in years, whose powers of excretion are weakened and whose lime salts may accumulate in excess and cause harm. Let us now turn our attention to the salts which are found in our tissues. We find the following always present : potash, soda, lime, magnesia and iron. In part these minerals are in union with chlorine and in part with carbonic acid, but most- ly with phosphoric acid. In the bones the lime salts are more abundant and important. For the other organs the potash and soda salts are necessary. Especially important are the potash salts for the muscular tissues ; for the serum of the blood the soda salts are most important. In the blood corpuscles potash salts and iron are predomi- nant. Scarcely a trace of potash is round in the serum of the blood. These subtances are all de- rived from our food and drink ; the only 'one added artificially is chloride of sodium, or common salt. This, too, is found in the food, but, apparently, in quantities too small for the requirements of the system. The bones are built mainly of phosphate of lime, phosphate of magnesia and carbonate of lime ; the former constituting the principal part of their earthy constituents. The phosphoric acid and pot- ash are essential constituents of the fluids of the flesh and are dissolved in them. One may notice on cooked beef a white incrustation over its sur- EXPERIMENTS ON LAMBS. 27 face when it comes to the table. This is the phos- phate of magnesia, formed by a union of the phosphoric acid in the flesh with the lime and magnesia in the water in which the meat has been boiled. Phosphoric acid is the most abundant of all the minerals of the body, and it is also most abundant in the food of the vegetable-eating animals. Experiments have been made to discover if one salt might be substituted for another in the body, but without success. Three growing lambs were taken for this experiment. One was fed on food deficient in phosphoric acid, another on food defi- cient in lime, and a third w T as fed normally. The first two became emaciated and at the end of twenty- four days were near their end, when all three were slaughtered. There was no great difference in the composition of the bones of any of them, only this : those of the poorly fed animals were less rich in fat and less perfectly developed. In some parts of Germany no water is given to children until it has been boiled to kill the germs of any disease present. This practice has certain ad- vantages and certain disadvantages for the poor, where food is not abundant. The boiling water de- posits on the kettle its lime, and this is a loss of so much mineral matter. It kills the germs, which is beneficial. If the child is suitably fed no harm is done, but a positive benefit ; but if not well fed it is a loss to the bones to lose the lime in the w r ater. Pure, fresh water from springs does not contain germs, and if it is used there is no advantage in boiling it. This objection would not have any force in our country where food is so abundant. 28 CLASSIFICATION OF FOODS. Let us now look at the potash and soda salts. Potash is a very remarkable material; phosphate of potash is an essential constituent of the muscles and also of the blood corpuscles. In the serum of the blood, however, it is an abnormal constituent, causing paralysis of the heart, and frequently sud- den death. One may, without especial danger, take chlorate or carbonate of potash through the stcfcn- ach, as is often the case by prescriptions of phy- sicians. The same dose, or even a less one, how- ever, introduced directly into the circulation causes death. A dog has been killed instantly by the in- jection of only one decigramme of the chlorate of potash into an artery. Bunge experimented on dogs with flesh extract and found that, according to the size of the ani- mal, a dose of from 15 to 25 grammes was deadly. Now, 25 grammes of flesh extract contain 2.5 grammes of phosphate of potash, and 2.3 grammes of this substance given to a dog caused death, ac- companied by the same symptoms as with 25 grammes of flesh extract. Johannus Ranke says that potash is a substance which, if it accumulates in the flesh cells or nerve cells, causes irritation of the muscles and paralysis of the nerves. We find here a riddle. How is it that this material is a necessary constituent of the firm material of our bodies, but so deadly in the serum of our blood ? Dr. Bunge suggests that the potash and soda-salts de- compose each other, as is the case when mixed in the laboratory, and allowed to crystalyze, new com- pounds being formed, one being chloride of potas- sium and the other carbonate of soda. Another fact comes to light in this investigation^ WHY SALT IS NECESSARY. 29 that the plant-eating animals require more common ! salt than the flesh-eating ones. Some of them are so greedy for salt that they will travel long dis- 1 tances to salt licks in order to obtain it, which is never the case with carniverous animals. Now, if ! we compare the food of the flesh-eaters with that of the herbivora we find about the same amount of chloride of sodium (common salt), but the amount of potash salts in the food of vegetable- eating animals is from two to four times as great. Bunge suggests that the reason why the vegetable- eaters require more salt is to decompose or change the form of the great excess of potash salts, which we have seen may be very injurious ; or may not the potash draw so heavily on the chloride of sodium in the body as to make the addition of it in our food necessary in order to maintain the equilibrium of the body ? In order to test this question scientific- ally, Bunge made an experiment on himself. First, he ate food for five days with such exactness as to bring the excretion of the salts to a regular and constant amount. On the fifth day he added to his food eighteen grammes of phosphate of potash. Although he had not added any chloride of sodium there was not only an immediate increase of excre- tion of potash salts, but of soda salts also. Repeated experiments gave the same results. He estimated that by the addition of twelve grammes of potash salts to the food, nearly half of the soda salts of the blood would be extracted. This, he thinks, proved his hypothesis. Potash in small quantities with- draws from the body chlorine and sodium, or its oxide, soda, both constituents of common salt, and this requires the addition of it to our food. 30 CLASSIFICATION OF FOODS, We will now compare a few principal articles of food and see the relative amount of potash and soda salts therein ; and see, also, how deficient some of them are in soda, and how excessive is the potash in others, See the proportion in 100 grammes of the following articles : Potash Salts. Soda Salts. Rice . . 1.04 grammes. 0.028 grammes Apples . 10.6 ' 0.070 u Beans , 12. ' 0.16-0-18 u Strawberries 22. ' 4 0.20 u Wheat . 4.7-5.8 ' 0.14-0.32 (C Peas 6.-68 ' 0.19-0.30 u Hye . . 5 7-6.1 l 0.07-.0.45 tc Potatoes 20.28 1 0.32-0.58 t( Mother's Milk . 5.3-6 0.91-2.2 u Cow's Milk . 9.1-17 ' 1.1-10 11 From this it may be seen at a glance that all veg- etables contain less soda than milk; and they all contain, rice excepted, more potash than this arti- cle. If potash, as shown by Bunge, withdraws so- da from the body, it may be seen that the addition of common salt to the food poor in soda is a scien- tific necessity. "We also see why a babe nourished on fts mother's milk does not require the addition of common salt. Its food contains less potash salts and more soda salts than almost any other article of food. Liebig remarked that there seemed to be a popu- lar instinct to add more salt to those articles of food which were rich in starch, as, for instance, wheat meal, peas and beans, and it seems that these are the very ones which contain most potash. Let us now look at this subject from another standpoint. Assuming that only 100 grammes of albumen is necessary daily for the maintenance of the body, if we estimate the amount of potash con- SALT ON POTATOES. 31 tained in the different kinds of food necessary to furnish these salts, we would have the following : Rice . 1.24 grammes Potash. Wheat and Rye 2.-4.5 14 .4 Peas and Beans . . 4.5 u It Barley 4.9-5.39 tC ti Cow's Milk . . 4.4-4.7 u u Woman's Milk 4.8-5.3 it It Potatoes - 42. ' (4 u We have seen that rice is very deficient in potash and soda. One who nourished himself on it would never suffer from an excess of potash salts, for it would not withdraw from the body sodium and chlorine. And it may be remembered that rice food can be eaten and enjoyed without salt. Junghuhm states that whole nations of rice-eating people take this food without salt, and only with the addition of pepper. It is true that Europeans and Americans do not relish rice without this condiment. It is not a physiological necessity, however, but a habit which induces its use. On the other hand, how would it be with a per- son living on potatoes ? He would take daily forty- two grammes of potash, or over thirty times more than he who lived on rice. We said previously that twelve grammes of potash were sufficient to with- draw half the soda from the blood. How, then, with 42 grammes ? And in practice we know that large quantities of salt is a physiological necessity for those who live mainly on potatoes. In this connection it may be remarked that pot- ash salts in large quantities affect unfavorably the mucus membrane of the digestive tract, and es- pecially the stomach. Consequently, all those who 32 CLASSIFICATION OF FOODS. suffer from weakness of the stomach should avoid potatoes and substitute rice instead. Rice is also more easily digested than potatoes for other rea- sons. It contains less cellular, or woody and indi- gestible matter, enclosing the starch cells. One writer on food (Mulder) goes so far in his opposition to potatoes as an article of diet, as to de- clare it would be a blessing to the race to banish them from the planet and substitute rice. Dr. Bunge has collected facts concerning the use of salt among various people. He finds that those who live mainly on flesh, as hunters, fishermen and nomadic tribes, do not care for salt. Of the Samoy- den he says: "They know nothing of bread and but little of roots. Flesh and fish constitute their daily food. The use of salt is unknown though easi- ly attainable from the sea. The Tungusen eat no raw flesh, but cook it in fresh water and use no salt on it. The Dolganen and Juralkan, in North Sibe- ria, possess many salt mines, but they never use salt, unless as a medicine. Their food is fish and reindeer flesh." Wrange writes concerning the Tschuktschen : "Their food is flesh, and they use no salt, but have actual repugnance to it." Prof. Schwartz dwelt in the land of the Tungu- sen three years ; lived on the flesh of wild birds and reindeer without the addition of salt, and felt no need for it. There are tribes of flesh-eating men in both tro- pical India and Africa who use no salt; they even laugh at those who do use it. On the other hand, most of the native tribes of Africa cultivate the soil. Mungo Park says : " The AFRICAN CRAVING FOR SALT. 33 Mandigos breakfast early on a porridge made of meal and water, flavored with the rind of tamarind to give it relish. About two they eat a meal con- sisting of pudding made of corn meal, milk and vegetable butter. Their chief meal is eaten late at night, and consists of broth made with corn meal, wheat meal with vegetables, with sometimes a little flesh and vegetable butter. They are principally vegetarians/' Concerning salt, he says: "They have a great craving for it. If a child gets a piece of rock salt from a European it eats it as our chil- dren do sugar. The poor classes look upon a man who can afford salt as a rich man." Park's own experience was that he had a painful craving for salt which could not be described. On the west coast of Africa a man would sell his wife or child for salt. A war for a salt spring between different tribes is not uncommon. To them salt is no luxury, but a necessity. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that many persons who have adopted a wise, nutritious vegetable diet, consisting largely of nuts, fruit and grains, either partially or with, perhaps, eggs and milk, abstain from salt, as they believe, to advantage, and it is pretty certain that a major- ity of people consume far too much of it, more as a condiment than to meet physiological needs. Something yet has to be learned on this import- ant subject. Many of the facts and statements of this chapter are drawn from German sources, and especially from a little work entitled, "Die Modernen Prin- cipien der Ernahrung," nach v. Pettenkofer and Voit, von Dr. Aug. Guckerson, a most valuable little work, putting in popular language the scien- 2* 34: CLASSIFICATION OF FOODS. tific experiments of the most learned German stu- dents of man's food— a subject now attracting more attention than at any former time. WATER. Water is a liquid food. It constitutes a part of every tissue in an uncombined state, and a part of it chemically combined with the tissues, so that it cannot be driven off by evaporation. When water is taken into the system, it assists in building up the organs and repairing them when worn out. Water is the natural beverage of man. About eighty-seven per cent, of our bodies is water. It wastes with every breath and motion, and this waste must be restored with a fresh supply. It softens and holds in solution and suspension the solid part of our foods, so that it will flow in the veins and arteries. It maintains a proper bulk to both blood and tis- sues, rendering them mobile and soft instead of dry and hard. It holds in solution the waste matter of the body, and transports it out of the system. It takes up the waste heat of the body, and carries it away. It slacks our thirst, and cools the blood in warm weather. It may be the vehicle, taken hot, of carrying heat into the circulation after exposure to cold and damp. AMOUNT OF WATER REQUIRED FOR MEN AND WOMEN. An adult requires daily from three to six pints of water for nutrition. Not far from one-third of this AMOUNT OF WATER REQUIRED. 35 is contained in our food, and if much fruit is used, the amount required for drink is less. Women drink less than men, and children more in propor- tion to their bulk. During hot weather and when the exercise is very severe an additional supply is required. AMOUNT OF WATER REQUIRED FOR ANIMALS. Some experiments were made in English cavalry stables, in 1866, to determine the amount of water required, daily, for horses. It seemed from the report, that these animals vary in the quantity con- sumed as much as man; this variation depending upon the food, the weather, and the amount of exercise taken. If a horse is allowed free access to water at all times, he will drink on an average from six to ten gallons daily. Dr. Parks found a horse, sixteen hands high, whose work was to draw a carriage eight miles each day, fed on hay and corn, that drank seven and a half gallons per day. Some stabled caval- ry horses, used only enough for exercise, drank six and a half gallons daily, during the autumn months. In hot and dusty weather they required more. A cow or an ox, kept on dry food, will drink six or eight gallons daily; and a sheep or pig from one half a gallon to a gallon. In the Abyssinian Expedition, the daily expendi- ture for water for animals on ship-board was as fol- lows : Elephants, 25 gallons ; camels, 10 ; large ox- en, 6 ; small oxen, 5 ; mules and ponies, 5. AMOUNT REQUIRED FOR THE SICK. The sick require more water than the well, be- cause so much is needed for washing and bathing; 36 CLASSIFICATION OF FOODS. but no very accurate experiments have been made regarding the amount required for drinking pur- poses. It would probably be less than for active healthy persons. PURITY OF WATER. Perfectly pure water does not exist in nature. The nearest approach to it is distilled water. The best natural waters contain some salts of lime, magnesia, atmospheric air, carbonic acid, and other substgfcices, and many contain in solution, organic and inorganic matter enough to render their use objectionable. Water that contains much lime and magnesia is called hard water, and conveys to the blood substances which interfere with the most perfect action of the organs of the body. Water containing organic matter dissolved from vege- table and animal substances, or poisonous gases dissolved from the air, is a very dangerous drink, to be avoided under all circumstances. Water contaminated with malarial germs is a source of malarial fever, and it is a question if this disease is not caused by drinking water quite as often as by breathing the air of malarious districts. Water contaminated by matter from cesspools, privies and barn-yards is a common source of typhoid fever. There is no doubt but the unclean water about many farms and dairies spreads disease in healthy towns, and causes much loss of life. DISTILLED WATER. In diseases, distilled water may be an important aid to recovery. It can be made by the use of apparatus, which need not be troublesome or inconvenient. GASEOUS FOOD. 37 Druggists generally keep it for preparing medi- cines. Comparatively pure water may be made by boiling, cooling and straining it through a pan of charcoal, and keeping in a well-corked bottle in a cool, dark place. GASEOUS FO'OD. THE ATMOSPHERE. The atmosphere is the only gaseous food required by man ; and the necessity for its oxygen is absolute and continuous. The nitrogen of the atmosphere, so far as is known, plays only the part of a dilutent, and does not enter into any important chemical combination within the body. "When the mixed gases of the air are drawn into the lungs, a portion of the oxygen is absorbed by the blood, and, during the course of the circulation, unites chemically with the carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen of our food — forming chemical com- pounds, generally called carbonates, nitrates and hydrates. Some of these compounds go to form a part of the substance of the body; but the greater proportion of them, after producing heat, leave it as carbonic acid and water. From the stand point of a chemist, the living body is a great oxidizing machine, constantly burn- ing up its own substance. If the process of this combustion could be seen it would perhaps resemble the glow seen on the firefly in its nocturnal flight, but this we can only conjecture. It is a very safe statement to make that, so far as we know, every act of man, and each unconscious change within his body is accompanied by a consumption of oxy- o8 CLASSIFICATION OF FOODS. gen. The quantity of air consumed, when com- pared with the amount of other food, is very con- siderable — the average for adults being 360 cubic feet every day — about 2,000 gallons; which would weigh not far from twenty-five pounds. Though fresh air is abundant in nature and costs nothing, yet it cannot be doubted that a great num- ber of persons, especially sedentary ones and those who spend a large portion of their time in-doors, have their health injured, their working capacity diminished, and their length of days shortened by an insufficiency of air. They literally starve for this form of food. The amount of fresh air required hourly in tem- perate climates, from which to draw the amount required for actual consumption, has been variously estimated by hygienists. General Morin, of Paris, published some results of his own experiments and observations on this subject which are worth re- peating. Work-shops, prisons and theaters require 2,118 cubic feet hourly for each person; schools, 1,059 cubic feet; hospitals at ordinary times, 2,825 cubic feet; during operations, 4,236, and during epidemics 5,650 cubic feet. I am of the opinion that Morin's estimates are too low, and that not less than 7,000 cubic feet should be provided hourly for each person. This will keep the carbonic acid and other impurities which emanate from the body down to nearly the same amount as in out-of-door air. It has been found that in mines, if it is wished to keep up the energies of the workmen to their full capacity, not less than 100 cubic feet per minute for each man is necessary, and if the quantity be re- duced one third or one half there is a correspond- ACCESSORY FOODS. 39 ing falling off of the work done by the men. Ro- bert Stephenson is of the opinion that 100 cubic feet is not sufficient. The best physicians now agree that in fevers and contagious diseases the more complete exposure of the patients to the at- mosphere the better, and that fresh air is of more importance than medicine. I asked a young phy- sician connected with one of the hospitals, the other day, what was the latest method of treating pneumonia. He replied, "Exposure to cool fresh air; 75 and then he added, " We recently had thirty- four cases in one hospital, and lost but one." I asked if there was no danger in cold weather of in- jury from cold, and he said that under proper pre- cautions there was not the least danger. I can not go into any detailed account of the ques- tion of air and its purity, or of ventilation, here. The subject is treated elaborately in works on Hy- giene; but I may add, that the condition of the atmosphere varies with every hour of the day, with every change of temperature and pressure, with every change of wind and season, with every de- gree of latitude and longitude, and with all those multitudinous conditions constantly taking place on our globe; and I may also add that, notwith- standing the fact that Nature has supplied us with it in the greatest abundance, we need after all, to pay constant attention to its purity, to ventilation, and all those matters which will help us to receive it in abundance and purity. ACCESSORY FOODS. Accessory foods do not contain any appreciable amount of nourishment, but act as condiments, 40 CLASSIFICATION OF FOODS. stimulating the digestive organs, promoting the flow of saliva, gastric juice and other internal se- cretions, and increasing the peristaltic movement of the viscera. They are used to improve the taste of whatever is eaten, so as to make it more enjoy- able, or to stimulate the nervous system to an in-' creased activity. A few of the accessory foods may be mentioned : Tea and coffee ; every form of alcoholic beverage, as wine and beer ; spices of all sorts used in the culinary art, and vinegar, mustard, horseradish, pickles, etc., etc. Salt has generally been regarded as a condiment also ; but recent investigations go to show that while it possesses some of the proper- ties of this class of foods it is, in fact, to a certain extent, a food itself ; or, at least, its presence is a necessity in the blood. There is a marked difference of opinion on the value and usefulness of accessory foods between various authorities. Pettenkoff er says : "Acces- sory foods (Genussmittel) are true friends of man. They help the organism over many difficulties. I might compare them to the oil used to, lubricate machinery which, while it cannot be substituted for the steam power, causes every movement to go easier, without friction, and more smoothly than it otherwise would." But, on the other hand, many of our condiments may very justly be classed as drugs or medicines, and their habitual use by healthy persons, it re- quires but little intelligence to know, must be in- jurious. Their influence is mainly on the nervous system. ISTow, in a state of health, and especially with the young, the nervous system does not re- CONDIMENTS. 41 quire a spur constantly applied to make it do its work. When age advances, if the constitution has been injured, perhaps this rule might be relaxed. /vV". Mattieu Williams, in his admirable work upon the Chemistry of Cookery takes the same view that I do, and says : " Cayenne pepper may be selected as a typical example of a condiment. Mustard is a food and a condiment combined. This is the case with some others. Carry powders are a mixture of very potent condiments with more or less of farin- aceous materials and sulphur compounds, which, like the oil of mustard, onions, garlic, etc., may have a certain amount of nutritive value. The mere condiment is a stimulating drug, which does its work directly upon the inner lining of the stom- ach, exciting it to increased abnormal activity^/ /"****' The dyspeptic may obtain immediate relief by the use of cayenne pepper. Among the patent medicines is a pill of the very ominous name of its compounder — the chief constituent of which is cayenne. Great relief and temporary comfort are commonly obtained by using it as a dinner pill. If thus used, only as a temporary remedy for an acute and temporary or exceptional attack of indigestion, all is well ; but whether cayenne is taken in pills, or dusted over the food, or stewed with it in curries or otherwise, it is one of the most cruel of slow poi- sons when taken habitually. Thousands of poor wretches are crawling miserably towards their graves — the victims of the multitude of maladies of both mind and body, that are connected with chronic, incurable dyspepsia ; all brought about by the habitual use of cayenne and its condimental cousins. ) 42 CLASSIFICATION OF FOODS. ' The usual history of these victims is that they began by over-feeding, took to the condiment to force the stomach to do more than its healthful amount of work, using but a little at first^fThen the stomach became tolerant of this little and de- manded more, until at last inflammation, ulcera- tion, torpidity, and the final death of the digestive powers, accompanied by all of that long train of miseries to which I have referred.'^ This is strong language, but itrnas much truth in ity. It has always seemed to me that those condi- ments which are of a very stimulating, and, per- haps, of a poisonous nature, are not required, and if used to any great extent are positively injurious to the young and even to adults in good health, and that if our food is properly cooked, all its natural properties being preserved and brought out, the demands of the palate and of digestion would be sufficiently served to answer our natural require- ments. If the material of our food is not good, if the cooking is bad, we must conceal its disagreeable qualities by the use of condiments. Many eschew condiments entirely, and to mani- fest advantage. William Cullen Bryant, in a letter written for The Herald of Health, said: "Even with my food I do not take the usual condiments, such as pepper and the like.' 5 Other accessory foods, such as tea, coffee, etc.,, will be discussed in the chapter on drinks. CHAPTER III. THE DAILY REQUIREMENTS OF THE BODY. Before considering the daily requirements of our bodies it will be necessary to know what is expected of them, or what they are capable of accomplishing. To this end we need a mathematical form of ex- pression for the work which an average human be- ing is able to perform daily. To secure this we must first convert the various kinds of labor into a common unit. This unit, as has been agreed upon by physiologists, is a foot-ton, or 2000 pounds raised one foot high, The number of foot-tons which can be lifted daily would constitute a day's work. There are, however, two kinds of work done by the body : one is internal work, such as circulating the blood, respiration, secretion, digestion, and all other kinds of labor except muscular. The other kind is known as external work, concerning which Dr. Alexander Wynter Blythe, in a little book en- titled "Diet in its Relation to Health and Work," says : " The external work varies much. A country postman, 150 pounds in weight, walking his daily round of twenty miles, would do work equal to 353.4 foot-tons. Ordinary day laborers, such as we see on the road, probably average 350 foot-tons. In the case of a peddler, cited by Parks, who carried twem (43) 44 THE DAILY REQUIREMENTS OP THE BODY. ty-eight pounds on his back and walked twenty miles daily, the work was 419.5 foot-tons. "In Weston's feat of fifty miles a day, I have calculated his daily work to be no less than 793 foot-tons ; but this large number was exceeded in a former feat, in which he walked 317 miles in five days, which would give, approximately, 1,010 foot- tons daily. "A very hard day's work for most men is 400 foot- tons. At the other end of the scale stand sedentary occupations, for example : needlewomen, the ex- ternal work of which may fall as low as seventeen or eighteen foot-tons." The internal work done by the body can only be estimated approximately. The most reliable cal- culations have been made of the work of the heart. The left ventricle at each pulsation, in an average man, circulates about six ounces of blood. The right ventricle circulates the same quantity, but to a less distance ; and its labor has been esti- mated at about one-third of that of the left ventri- cle. According to nice calculations, the work of both ventricles amounts to about 435 foot-tons daily, which is more than the entire external work of an average laborer. Of the internal work done by other organs of the body we have no reliable data. The estimates given by different authorities as to the daily requirements of the body have an inter- est, though they are somewhat arbitrary. They are made to suit the average laboring man, whose diges- tion is good and who does a fair day's muscular work, and are no criterion for sedentary persons or for women. CONSTITUENTS OF A SUFFICIENT DIET. 45 According to Ranke a sufficient diet for the aver- age worker, estimated dry, should contain. about 1,543 grains, or 3.2 ounces of proteids, " 1,543 " " 3.2 " " fats, and 3,703 " " 7.88 " " carbohydrates. The amount of energy associated with each of those groups of food constituents is shown in the next table. 1,543 grains of albumen give 426,300 calories, * 1,543 " " fat " 906,900 " 3,703 " " starch " 938,880 u Total, 2,272,080 calories. Foster antt Voit make a more liberal and some- what different estimate of man's daily require- ments, as follows : Albumen 1,820 grains, 3.8 ounces, Fats 1,930 " 4 Carbohydrates 6,053 " 12.6 " The quantity of nitrogen and carbon in the above diet is as follows : Nitrogen . 282.40 grains. Carbon . . . .5,061 " The value of a diet containing this amount of the various constituents in energy is as follows : 1,820 grains albumen give 503,034 calories, 1,364 " fat " 801,699 " 5,053 " carbohydrates " 1,534,600 " Total, 2,839,333 calories. L Professor Gamgee, in his interesting work on "Food and Digestion/' gives in the following table the quantity of the different foods which a man *A calorie is the amount of heat required to raise one kilo- gramme of water one degree, Centigrade. 46 THE DAILY REQUIREMENTS OF THE BODY. would be required to eat in order to supply his system with the nitrogen and carbon specified in the last table quoted, as follows : 18*3 grammes of nitrogen — Cheese ..... 272 grammes, * Lean meat . . . . 538 " Wheaten flour ... 796 " Eggs (18) .... 905 Black bread .... 989 " Rice 1,868 " Milk 2,905 " Potatoes . 4,575 " Bacon . . . . s 4,796 Beer . . . . . 17,000 328 grammes of carbon = Bacon . . . . . 450 grammes* Wheaten flour ... ^ 824 " Rice 896 Cheese 1,160 " Black bread .... 1,346 " Eggs (43) . ... 2,231 " Lean meat .... 2,620 " Potatoes . . . . 3,124 " Milk . . . . . . 4,652 Beer . . . . . 13,160 These tables have no absolute value a§ guides to our daily diet, but are curiosities which will inter- est the reader, and they "indicate," continues Gam- gee, "how very limited are the substances which alone will supply the body with the proper quanti- ties which it requires of nitrogen and of carbon, and also of energy. Thus, whilst 538 grammes of meat are sufficient to supply all the proteid which the body requires, if meat alone composed the diet of ♦To convert grammes into avoir, ounces multiply by 0.0353. BLACK BREAD. 47 man there would be needed as much as 2,620 grammes to supply all the carbon required ; but no man could day after day consume such a great quantity of meat. Even milk, which contains all the various groups of food constituents, is not adapted to supply all the elements of a perfect diet in their proper proportions for an adult man ; for while all the nitrogen which the body needs could be afforded by the consumption of 2,905 grammes of milk, in order that the amount of carbon required should be obtained, the milk con- sumed would have to reach the enormous amount of 4,652 grammes, in other words, over ten English pounds. "It will be observed that there is only one article of diet in each of these tables, namely, black bread, which contains nitrogen and carbon in such pro- portions that a moderate weight of it is able to supply the wants of the economy for both these elements. From 1,300 to 1,400 grammes of black bread constitute, therefore, almost a standard diet, and it may be mentioned that upon this diet large numbers of men are able to live in health and to accomplish great labors. In some of the depart- ments in the south of France black bread consti- tutes almost the only food of a vigorous and labor- ious population." A recipe will be given for making this black bread in another department. While it contains the elements of an almost perfect nutrition it is very disagreeable to the taste and also difficult of digestion. Only those working in the open air can digest it. Dr. Edward Smith made inquiries into the food 48 THE DAILY REQUIREMENTS OF THE BODY. allowance of several hundred families in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, and constructed the following interesting tables : AVERAGE DAILY DIET OF FARM LABORERS IN GREAT BRITAIN. Dry Nitrogenous Dry Carbonaceous Matter. Matter. England .... 3.18 ozs. . . . 29.32 ozs. Wales .... 4.12 " . . 35.51 " Scotland . ' . . . 4.76 4< 36.30 4< Ireland . . . . 4.94 " , . . 34.26 " The carbonaceous matter in this table, as well as the following, is calculated as starch. Dr. Playfair has constructed a still more inter- esting table, giving the amount of nitrogenous and carbonaceous substances in ounces, in differ- ent amounts of labor : DAILY DIET ACCORDING TO WORK DONE. Flesh-formers. Fat. Starch and Sugar. Subsistence diet . . 2.0 ozs. 0.5 ozs. 12.0 ozs. Quietude ... 2.5 " 1.0 " 12.0 4C Moderate exercise . . 4.2 " 1.8 " 18.7 u Active labor . . 5.5 " 2.5 u ?0.0 u Hard work . . . 6.5 " 2.5 " 20.0 M These tables are all constructed from English and German data, where work of this kind has been done much more extensively than in our own coun- try. There are evidences, however, that American scientists will soon give us statistics of this sort of the most valuable kind. On this point Professor Atwater says : "I think that to fairly meet the demand of the average American laboring man (I mean the man whose labor is done with his muscles ; brain- work- LIBERAL RATIONS FOR HARD WORK. 49 ers who have little muscular exercise need less food, I suppose,) a more liberal allowance than Voit makes for laboring men in Germany is needed. The American " working-man " is better paid, has more and better food, and does more work than his European brother. I should be inclined to quan- tities more like the following for the nutrients in ^ the daily food of an average man doing manual work. Protein. Fat. Carbohydrates. /- For moderate work. | \ 125 grammes (4.4 ozs). 125 grammes. 400 grammes (14.4 ozs). For hard work. ^^i50 grammes 150 grammes. 400 grammes. "Men at very severe work may often need much more than the most liberal of these rations allows, while men, and especially women, of sedentary hab- its and elderly people are believed to usually require considerably less than the smallest figures indi- cate. "Statistics collected in the United States imply that the quantity of food consumed by many people whose occupations involve only light muscular labor approaches very near to the largest of these stand- ards, and often considerably exceeds it. Indeed, a large array of facts lately gathered very strongly support the teaching of physicians that the failure to fit the food to the demands of the body, and es- pecially the excessive consumption of certain kinds of food, are the sources of untold injury to health and happiness." Those who are fond of figures will be interested in Professor Huxley's general statistics of the body, as follows : s 50 THE DAILY REQUIREMENTS OF THE BODY. The average weight of the human body may be taken at 154 lbs. Such a body would be made up of lbs. Muscles and their appurtenances . . 68 Skeleton . . .... 24 Skin . . 10£ Fat 28 Brain 3 Thoracic viscera 2£ Abdominal viscera 11 147 lbs. Or of water . . . . . . .88 Solid matter . . . . . .66 The solids would consist of the elements oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur, silicon, chlorine, flourine, potassium, sodium, cal- cium (lithium), magnesium, iron (manganese, cop- per, lead), and may be arranged under the heads of PROTEIDS. AMYLOIDS. FATS. MINERALS. Such a body would lose in 24 hours — o*f water, about 40,000 grains, or 6 lbs. ; of other matters, about 14,500 grains, or over 2 lbs.; among which of car- bon 4,000 grains ; of nitrogen 300 grains ; of mineral matters, 400 grains; and would part, per diem, with as much heat as would raise 8,700 lbs. of water f rom 0° to 1° F., which is equivalent to 3,000 foot- tons. Such a body ought to do as much work as is equal to 450 foot-tons. The losses would occur through various organs, thus — by COMPOSITION OF THE BODY. 51 Water. Other Matter. N. C. grains. grains. grains. grains, Lungs . . 5,000 12,000 3,300 Kidneys . 23,000 1,000 250 140 Skin . . 10,000 700 10 100 Feces 2,000 80J 40 4G0 Total . . 40,000 14,500 300 4,000 The gains and losses of the body would be as fol- lows : grains. Creditor— Solid dry food . . . 8,000 Oxygen . . . . 10,000 Water 36,500 Total . . 54,500 grains. Debtor— Water 40,000 Other matter . . . 14,500 Total . . 54,500 Such a body would require for daily food, carbon 4,000 grains ; nitrogen 300 grains, which, with the other necessary elements, would be most conveni- ently disposed in grains. * Proteids 2,000 Amyloids . . . . . 4,400 Fats . . . . . . 1,200 Minerals 400 Water 36,500 Total . . 44,500 which, in turn, might be obtained, for instance, by means of those articles of food named below or an 52 THE DAILY REQUIREMENTS OF THE BODY, indefinite number of articles might be used from which to select them. grains. Lean beefsteaks .... 5,000 Bread 6,000 Milk 7,000 Potatoes 3,000 Butter, dripping, etc . . 600 Water 22,900 Total . . 44,500 The feces passed, per diem, would amount to about 2,800 grains, containing solid matter, 800 grains. CHAPTER IV. DIGESTION. Good digestion is at the base of perfect nutrition. The best food in the world, imperfectly digested, will not be so useful to the animal body as the poorest food well digested. But the digestion of no animal is quite perfect. If it were, then the excre- ment which passes away would not contain undi- gested substances. Now this is not the case. The excrements of all animals furnish food for multi- tudes of insects, and birds feed with avidity on the dung of grain-fed horses and cattle, as farmers well know. The fireman who shovels coal under the boiler of a steam engine knows full well that he must furnish an extra supply, above that theoreti- cally required. Hardly more than twenty-five per cent, of its real value is utilized by the best mechan- ism yet constructed by man. The remainder is un- consumed, going off in the form of minute parti- cles, or is lost in other ways. Man does better than this ; but we all consume more food than we should require if the digestive organs were capable of ex- tracting all its nutritive material. The following table shows the amount of differ- ent foods digested and undigested by man., as found (53) 54 DIGESTION. by very careful experiments made upon a healthy person, according to Blythe. Parts digested of 100 parts of the perfectly dried solid. Sugar 100-00 Hice . 96-00 Wheaten Bread . 95-00 Roast Meat . . 94-80 Hard boiled Eggs 94-75 Milk and Cheese (in the pro- portion of 2*4 : 1) 94-00 Cornflour 93-30 Milk and Cheese (in the pro- portion of 2 : 1) 93-20 Milk, 830 parts of fluid ~ 100 of solids . 91-00 Potatoes . . 90-60 Rye Bread 88-9 Milk and Cheese(equal parts of dry solids). 88-7 Black Bread 83-0 Carrots, Celery, Cabbage 70-0 Peas, Beans, etc. 52-4 Gelatin .... 50-0 Amount of solid food residue passing- av\ r ay f rom the body by the alimentary canal. O'OO 4*00 5-00 5-20 525 6-00 6-70 6-80 9-00 9-40 11-1 11-8 17-0 24-0 47*6 50-0 The various degrees of the digestibility of foods have been roughly estimated in the f olio wirig ways : 1. By experimenting in the laboratory— the ex- perimenter submitting different foods to the action of digestive juices at a temperature of about 100° F. for a specified time. 2. By experiments on living beings, in cases where an opening has been caused by accident or otherwise, revealing the processes of digestion to the naked eye; or by following the stages of stom- ach digestion and removing its contents at stated periods with a stomach pump. 3. By experiments on living animals, with an ar- MOUTH DIGESTION. 55 tificial opening into the stomach — a cruel process, but having some value. 4. By analyses of the food eaten and of the ex- crement which passes out of the body. The latter method is by far the most satisfactory, for it in- volves no unnatural condition. By it the food is subjected to all the processes of digestion, while in the other cases it is submitted to only a part of them. The foregoing table was estimated by this method. It does not follow, however, that foods which are not perfectly digested, or which may be difficult of digestion should never be eaten, any more than it follows that difficult work for brain or muscles should never be attempted. The organism acquires strength, under certain conditions, by doing labor Vvhich taxes it somewhat severely. From the table quoted it will be seen that sugar is the most perfectly digested of any of the articles mentioned ; and yet sugar alone would not consti- tute a safe diet. Peas and beans, on the other hand, are rarely perfectly digested, and yet they consti- tute important foods. The food in its passage along the digestive track is brought under the action of several digestive fluids, the products of the epithelial cells which con- stitute the mucous membrane, and of the glands, which belong to it. MOUTH DIGESTION. The first of these juices is the saliva secreted by the various glands connected with the mouth ; then comes the gastric juice of the stomach, the bile of the liver, the pancreatic juice of the pancreas, and 56 DIGESTION. other unimportant juices of the digestive track. These juices are poured upon the food, mingled with it, and produce such changes in its character that from being insoluble it becomes soluble, and so modified that if the digestion be perfect the soluble portion of what is eaten is passed into, and becomes a part of, the blood. Digestion begins in the mouth. During each twenty -four hours the salivary glands pour into this cavity, mainly during mastication, about three and a half pounds of saliva. It is alkaline in its reaction, and contains nearly half an ounce of solid matter, and less than a quarter of an ounce of ptya- line, which is its active principle. The saliva moistens and dilutes the food while the ptyaline acts on its starch, converting a portion of it into grape sugar. It is calculated that one part of ptyaline will convert 8,000 parts of starch into sugar. It produces no action on fat or albumen. Starch is unaffected by saliva unless the coat of the starch-cell is ruptured by boiling or by thorough mastication, so as to expose the starch to its influ- ence. STOMACH DIGESTION. The food passes from the mouth into the stomach, where it meets another digestive fluid, the gastric juice. A healthy stomach secretes from fourteen to twenty-five pounds of this juice daily, which con- tains less than half a pound of solid matter, and two-thirds of an ounce of pepsine, the active agent of digestion. The gastric juice is acid in its reaction, or exactly the opposite of the saliva. It puts an end for the CONDITIONS FAVORING DIGESTION. 57 time being to tlie digestion of starch, which had commenced in the mouth. It has no effect upon the grape or cane sugar of our food. It is also power- less to digest fats, consequently any oily matter in the stomach, also starch, remains unchanged. Any albuminous envelope surrounding a fat globule may be digested away, leaving the fatty portion free. Such mineral matter as is soluble in acids is, for the most part, dissolved in the gastric juice. Its chief characteristic is its power of dissolving proteid or albuminous matters, converting them into peptones, which can be taken up by the ab- sorbents of the digestive organs, and carried into the circulation. After the stomach has done all it can in the way of digesting the albuminous matter in our food, it is passed through the pyloric orifice at its end into the duodenum, in an acid condition. Here it meets, and is mingled with, two alkaline digestive fluids — first, the bile from the liver, and, second, the pancreatic juice from the pancreas. In a short time it is changed from an acid to an alkaline state. Any albuminous matter which was not completely digested in the stomach, and all the starchy mat- ters not completely digested in the mouth, have their digestion completed here, and the fatty por- tion of the food is changed into an emulsion, which fits it for being absorbed. Thus we see the main office of digestion is to render the solid matter of food soluble. The conditions of perfect digestion are several, and may be mentioned here. The first is perfect mastication. If this is not accomplished much of the food is not brought under the influence of the a* 58 DIGESTION. digestive juices and so is lost. Count Rumf ord cal- culated that one-fourth less food is required if it be perfectly masticated. The object of mastica- tion is to break up the particles into a condition in which the digestive juices can be brought into immediate contact with them. It has been stated that Mr. Gladstone is so im- pressed with the importance of perfect mastication that he makes a practice himself, and has taught his family to do the same, of giving each mouthful thirty -two bites — one for each tooth in a perfect mouth. It is no wonder that he is able to perform such an amount of intellectual labor. It is not easy to form the habit of chewing the food thoroughly after one has practiced eating rapidly for a few years, but by determined effort it may be done, as I have many times observed in persons who have consulted me on the hygienic treatment of their diseases. Several years ago, Prof. E. F. Bacon and myself, and a few other friends eating at the same table, formed a little club, under the name of " The Eat- Your-Food-Slow-Society." I was the honored president so long as the society existed, which was long enough for our individual purposes. We had a great deal of merriment on the subject of masti- cating food, and each member was fined every time he was caught eating rapidly. I think such socie- ties are much needed, and that they might be formed at every table. They would serve to call attention to the subject, and, finally, to aid in forming correct habits of eating. During digestion the contents of the stomach are kept in a constant state of gentle agitation by the CONVERSATION AT TABLE. 59 rythmic, circular, to-and-fro movement of this or- gan. This is, no doubt, facilitated by gymnastic exercises or deep breathing. Those who engage in out-of-door labor do not need to make special effort for keeping up the in- testinal movement; but sedentary persons, many invalids, and women who dress tightly about the waist often suffer much in health because the mus- cular movements of the digestive canal are feeble and inefficient. Digestion is favored by the proper selection of food, and by the right proportion of fats, carbo- hydrates, proteids and mineral matter. An excess or deficiency of either is injurious. By the best treatment of food as regards cooking, flavoring and serving. By proper variety of food, with occasional changes of diet. By moderate exercise, warmth and a genial state of mind. By good sleep. Persons who suffer from sleep- lessness lose their appetites, and their digestion be- comes impaired. Sleep, on the other hand, is pro- moted by good and suitable food. By pleasant social surroundings at the table, and by regularity in eating, with proper intervals be- tween meals. I am a great believer in light conversation at the table. A person who sits alone and eats in silence," cannot enjoy his food, nor digest it so thoroughly* as one who eats with agreeable people, and enters into the talk which ought to prevail ; but it should be light agreeable talk. Politics and theology, business and the trials and troubles of life should $0 DIGESTION. never be mentioned. Every meal should be a festi- val of cheerfulness and love. We say grace at the table, and this is right; but we should be filled with grace and beauty, then would the words we utter be something more than empty sounds. CHAPTER V. THE SOURCES OF OUR FOODS. Man derives his nourishment mainly from organ- ized matter ; plants theirs from unorganized. It is true that the former may, to a slight extent, be j nourished from inorganic material ; and it is also true that some vegetables, mainly the carnivorous plants, feed upon organic matter; but these excep- tions do not disprove the general rule. There are two sources of organized matter on which man feeds : one the animal kingdom, and one the vege- table kingdom. From the animal kingdom we ob- tain the proteids and the fats — the proteids in the form of lean meat and other tissues, and the fats in the form of fat meat. We also obtain mineral matter from animal food. The animal kingdom furnishes no carbohydrates. From the vegetable kingdom we obtain the proteids, the fats, the car- bohydrates and mineral food. There are also some intermediate products, name- ly, milk and eggs, which may be called animal products, though they are hardly animal foods, which serve as nourishment for man. The extent to which each of these sources of food are used varies greatly with race, climate and habit. (61) vt; 62 THE SOURCES OF OUR FOODS. In polar regions the main supply of food is animal from necessity, though vegetables are used so far as they can be obtained ; but so scarce are they that they may be considered more as luxuries, con- diments and medicines than foods. In temperate latitudes the vegetable world is the most important source of food, though animal food is also exten- sively consumed. In warm climates animal food is used still less, and by far the greater majority of the inhabitants never use any of it. Animal products are, however, used here to some extent, especially milk. Eggs are less used. I have only just received a letter from a Hindoo who states he does " not remember to have ever eaten an egg." In our own climate a majority of scientists and physiologists argue that a mixed diet is preferable, and that man is by nature and structure adapted to it. Why this is so it would be difficult to say. We know perfectly well that the vegetable kingdom supplies in rich abundance every element of our food. The fats of the vegetable world are quite as abundant as in the animal kingdom. The carbo-y hydrates are not to be found in the animal king-^ ^ dom at all; and even the proteids of the vegetable kingdom exist in as great abundance as in animal ^ food. Why, then, eat flesh ? There can be but one\ * excuse for it, and that is the force of habit for ages J In early times, when agriculture had not been developed, animal food was, no doubt, in temperate regions a necessity, as it is in cold regions now ; but this is not the case to-day. Every product of the vegetable kingdom, from almost all climes, can be had everywhere. There is no longer any excuse for the slaughter-house and the annual murdering PROFESSOR VOIT'S OPINION. 63 of millions of animals for sustenance. Many of these animals have been bred and perfected with the greatest care. They have received so much of our thought and labor that they have often become almost human, and are in some respects superior to many of the human race, so full of selfishness and cruelty, even at its best. It may be in making the changes from a mixed to a vegetable diet there would be some suffering and some mistakes, but science must come to our aid. It has always seemed to me that the help of the chemist and physiologist should be sought to aid us. Prof. Voit, one of the most eminent German phy- siologists, and who has made many important ex- periments on man and his food, recently declared : f** I see no reason why man, with well-chosen veg- etable food, needs to go to the animal kingdom for albuminous matter/^.' Most certainly if he does not need to go to the animal kingdom for albuminous matter ; he does not for fats ; and he would go in vain for carbohydrates. In order to get at something practical, I brought this subject to the attention of an able chemist, Mr. M. B. Manwaring, who has made the subject of food a special study, and asked him to take for his data the known requirements of the body as already given in a previous chapter, and make a table showing what vegetables would furnish the requisite material. His valuable contribution will appear at the close of this chapter. I am well aware that no sudden change in man's dietetic habits will be made, but it could be brought about gradually. Flesh once a day might be taken, or three or four times a week, as in the majority of 6-i THE SOURCES OF OUR FOODS. well-to-do families in Germany. Fish, eggs, oysters and milk might be retained, perhaps indefinitely. There is practically little or no cruelty in securing any of these ; not that they are absolutely neces- sary, but people think they are, and so long as they think so their thoughts must find expression in acts ; besides, this kind of animal food would an- swer the requirements of those who can not or will not under any circumstances altogether dispense with it. ^It is true that there are some difficulties in adopt- ing a fleshless diet. One is that the habits and cus- toms of society are not built upon a plan for it, and these are not easily changed^ A whole family cooking their own food would find little difficulty, providing they all agree; but a single member of it might have so much trouble as to discourage him unless he be unusually persistent^/^And then the style of cooking and the choice of foods would need to be changed. Our present dietetic habits are formed on the rude experience of generations, and they pretty nearly, on our best arranged tables, provide the requisite quantity of fats, carbohy- drates, proteids and salts ; but the moment flesh is omitted there would be a great deficiency of pro- teids, unless they be provided for in other articles of diet. It would be necessary to use, for instance, more oatmeal and bread made from whole-meal flour, also beans and peas — all very rich in pro- teids. This might interfere with the likes of many people whose nervous systems have been trained after the customs of ancestors not far removed from savages. > Then, again, the danger of enthusiasm without ENTHUSIASM WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE. 65 knowledge has to be counteracted. Men and wo- men often take hold of an idea and "run it into the ground." Some dietetic reformers have done this and paid the penalty ; others have found it un- satisfactory and gone to the other extreme. I be- lieve heartily in enthusiasm; it moves the world when nothing else will, and it especially moves it quickly without our waiting for the slow process of growth and the regular unfolding of the facul- ties. <6uf enthusiasm needs to be well balanced _ and kept on the right track by science, knowledge - and common sense, which is, after all, practical, every-day science, worked out by hard experience^ Still, notwithstanding all these difficulties, we \ might make more rapid progress by giving careful thought to this subject, as we do to other matters not nearly so important. s — ,^The advantages of man's return to nature cannot be estimated^ That he would become a better man jthere can be no doubt. The fear that his force of /^character and energy might be abated is hardly worth considering. ^In our climate, if well fed on ~the best vegetable foods, he would have energy i enough, but there would be, I am sure, far less of that restlessness and cruelty so often mistaken for energyyv (fi^s-^ •f-*~t****~tA i C^C^%*s<- That this reform in our dietetic habits, of which I have briefly spoken, is destined to grow, and sure to become a part of the struggle in our efforts for t human progress, as much as temperance or social economy, I have not the slightest doubt. I now have the pleasure of introducing Mr. M. B. Manwaring, previously mentioned, who, at my so-, licitation, contributes a very valuable chapter. 66 THE SOURCES OF OUR FOODS. A PRACTICAL CHAPTER FROM A CHEMICAL STANDPOINT. The investigations of scientists enable us to name with scientific certainty the classes of nutrients re- quired by all mankind under any and all conditions. The more recent determinations of physiological chemists also supply us with the necessary data by which to approximate relative proportions and quan- tities for a typical dietary, the degree of accuracy in any given case depending upon certain condi- tions approaching or departing from that state of things conveniently termed " average " — that ac- commodating adjustment of differences which in- cludes all, and yet paradoxically excludes the in- dividual. Because the individual is but one of a number constituting the average, there must needs be a greater or less modification of quantities, therefore, to a limited extent, each one must be "a law unto hiniself." The popular safeguard against deficiencies lies in the use of an indiscriminate . " mixed diet," but which carries with it the liability to excess, to say nothing about improper articles of food and misera- ble modes of cooking. Having for awhile practically applied the general teachings of science regarding foods, etc., there steps in another reliable adviser of a specific and more personal nature, viz., a normal appetite. That this may be secured, one should conform to the conditions of assimilation of nutrients and the functional expenditure of their appropriated ener- gy, otherwise the waste of food materials will de- feat his plans by rendering useless the quantity- NUTRIENTS REQUIRED. 67 estimates of table I. The foods should be properly- cooked, thoroughly insalivated, and taken at regu- lar intervals; with sufficient fresh air, exercise, sleep, etc. The following tables are intended to furnish a ready means of practically adjusting the propor- tions and quantities of nutrients needed in individ- ual cases, as also the weights of various foods, ex- cluding flesh, required to supply the several nutri- ents. TABLE I. If the approximate quantities of nutrients required daily by a man of average weight be reduced to the needs of a person supposed to weigh 100 pounds, we will have the following figures : Protein. Fats. Carbohydrates. \ i OUNCES. OUNCES. OUNCES. 3.5 3.5 9.5 or 3.5 1.67 14.7 3.0 3.0 9.5 or 3.0 1.5 14.7. r \ JW s 2.25 to 2.4 2.25 to 2.4 4.75 to 5.8 or 2.25 to 2.4 1.0 to 1.14 9.43 to 10.0 For hard work For light work For the sedentary and those below the average in health, age, etc. As this table is based on the general conditions specified, extraordinary exertion would demand larger quantities of food materials than the maxi- mum figures indicate; and, on the other hand, the invalid and those exceptionably below the average in any particular require less than the minimum quantities named, until better health demands in- creased quantities. The difficulties of fixing a standard dietary have already been referred to— the varying internal and 68 THE SOURCES OF OUE FOODS. external conditions have each a voice in the mat- ter; but we have endeavored to present a sliding scale, within limitations, which may serve as a general guide to those realizing that a proper diet- ary means not only quantity, but quality and rela- tive proportions ; who know the importance of a proper adjustment of foods, so that the supplies of each class will, as nearly as possible, equal the systemic wants — the waste and repair balancing each other — that disease may be avoided or cured by guarding against either extreme of a partially starvation diet or that of the gourmand. A person may be filled to repletion, and yet suffer from in- anition ; or may feel comparatively empty, and still be over-fed ; hence the common origin of most dis- eases. TABLE II. This table shows the relation between height and weight, or what a person of given height should weigh if in a normal condition. Height, Weight 5 feet inches = 115 av. lbs 5 " 1 4t 44 120 u 5 " 2 " 44 125 fct 5 " 3 " 4 - 130 u 5 " 4 " " 135 u 5 <• 5 44 44 140 \i 5 " 6 " "- 143 it 5 " 7 " 44 145 u 5 44 8 4t 44 148 (c 5 " 9 " 44 155 C( 5 " 10 " 44 160 u 5 " 11 44 165 u 6 " o ■«* 44 170 14 6 4V 1 " 4i 175 U 6 " 2 u 44 180 ic 6 " 3 44 4 ' 185 u 6 " 4 " 44 190 u IMPORTANT TABLES. 69 As will be observed in tables III, IV and V, only the first column of figures shows the number of ounces required, of a given food, to supply one ounce of the nutrient named at the head of the column ; the remaining columns give the quantities of the other two nutrients contained in the number of ounces designated in the first column. For ex- ample : upon referring to table III, it will be seen that to obtain 1 oz. of protein from cheese we must use 2.63 oz., which quantity also contains 0.24 oz. of carbohydrates and 0.184 oz. of fatty matters. In making use of these tables, consult the first column of table III to find the quantities necessary to furnish 1 oz. of protein ; the first column of table IV for 1 oz. of carbohydrates, and the first column of table V for 1 oz. of fatty matters. When the second and third columns show appreciable quanti- ties they should enter into the calculation. TABLE III. lav. oz. of Foods. Protein Carbohydrates Fats contained in : contained : contained, OUNCES. OUNCES. OUNCES. Cheese, skimmed milk , . 2.63 — (U4 = 0.184 Cheese, whole milk . 3.7 0.11 u 1.26 Lentils .... . 3.7 u 1.16 " 0.685 Beans .... 4.06 2.27 " 0.081 Pease .... . 4.17 2.45 14 0.075 Gluten of whole wheat 4.31 2.13 " 0.259 Flour, whole wheat, except ) K Q7 outer shell . . . j D,y ' " 3.94 " 0.119 Barley flour, whole 7.22 4.5 11 0.13 Oatmeal, common . 7.32 5.58 " 0.449 Corn (maize) 7.81 4.84 " 0.547 Flour, bolted . 8.2 5.62 " 0.098 Barley meal, common 8.51 6.04 u 0.145 70 THE SOURCES OF OUR FOODS. TABLE III. Continued. Foods. lav. oz. of Protein Carbohydrates Fats contained in : contained: contained: OUNCES. OUNCES. OUNCES. Buckwheat . . 8.77 n 5.17 14 0.228 Bread, bolted flour, made home -[ 9.09 44 5.0 41 0.182 Rye flour, common . 9.12 u 6.51 44 0.183 Rice . 14.3 u 11.11 44 0.073 Rye bread, common, made home - f 16.13 u 7.77 U 0.077 Pease, very young . 16.5 It 2.15 44 Cow's milk, skimmed . . 19.61 (4 1.27 41 Cow's buttermilk . 20.83 II 1.35 44 ' Cow's milk . ! . 21.05 u 0.84 41 0.737 Cabbage . 37.04 It 2. £6 44 Beans, very young . 49.02 II 2.94 44 Sago . . 100.0 14 82.0 41 — Butter . . - . 1C0.0 44 41 89.0 Turnips . . , . 100.0 44 7.0 44 Potato, available protein . 125.0 44 26.25 44 0.287 Sweet Potato, 143.0 TABLE IV 1 av. oz. < II 38.18 41 0.329 Foods. Carbohydrates Protein \. Fats contained ] n: contained : contained OUNCES. OUNCES. OUNCES Sago . . . . 1.22 = 0.0122 = Rice 1.29 1 0.09 44 0.000 Oatmeal, common • 1.31 4 0.179 44 0.08 Rye flour, common 1.4 4 0.153 44 0.028 Barley meal, common . .1.41 ' 0.165 44 0.024 Flour, bolted 1.46 \ 0.178 44 0.017 Flour, whole wheat outer shell , except ) t 53 ; 0.254 44 0.03 Barley flour, whole . . .1.6 1 0.221 44 .029 Corn (maize) . 1.61 ' 0.206 44 0.113 Buckwheat . 1.7 1 0.194 44 0.044 Pease ♦ . 1.7 4 0.41 ti 0.031 IMPORTANT TABLES. 71 TABLE IV. Continued. 1 av. oz. of Foods. Carbohydrates, contained in: OUNCES. Lentils 1.71 Beans 18 k< Bread, bolted flour, home-made 1.82 u Gluten of wheat, whole . 2.02 " Rye bread, common, home- ) AQ u made . . . . \ 2 08 Sweet potato c . . .3.75 " Potato 4.76 Pease, very young . , .7.67 " Cheese, skimmed milk . 11.11 " Cabbage . . . . .12.5 u Turnips 14.3 Cow's milk, skimmed . .15.38 " Cow's buttermilk . . . 15.38 " Beans, very young . . . 16.67 " Cow's milk .... 25.0 Cheese, whole milk . . .33.33 Protein contained : OUNCES. 0.46 0.444 0.2 0.468 0.129 0.252 0.033 0.465 4.222 0.337 0.143 0.784 0.738 0.34 1.188 9.0 Foods. Butter Cheese, whole milk . Cheese, skimmed milk . Corn (maize) Oatmeal, common . Gluten of whole wheat Cow's milk .... Buckwheat .... Bread, bolted flour, home- ) made .... J Rye flour, common . Flour, whole wheat, except [ outer shell ..•-..) TABLE V. 1 av. oz. of Fats contained in: OUNCES. . 1.123 = 2.941 l( . 14.3 14.3 . 16.525 4( . 28.57 " 38.401 " 50.0 50.0 50.0 Protein contained: OUNCES. - 0.0112 0.794 5.434 1.83 2.357 3.852 1.357 4 384 5.5 5.485 8.37 Fats contained: OUNCES. 0.032 0.036 0.036 0.121 0.01 0.009 0.011 0.778 0.875 11.33 Carbo- hydrates contained : OUNCES. 0.088 1.278 8.866 12.598 8.235 1.143 22.691 ■ 27.5 35 63 33.0 72 THE SOURCES OF OUR FOODS. TABLE V. Continued. Foods. Beans Lentils .... Pease Barley meal, common . Flour, bolted Rice Rye bread, common, home made . Potato .... Sweet potato . 1 av. oz. of Fats contained in : OUNCES. 50.0 . 54.05 " 55.556 c< . 58.48 " 83.33 " . 190.07 " " i 208. 33 " 435.00 " . 435.00 " Protein contained OUNCES. 12.325 14.593 13.833 6.871 10. 158 13.725 Carbo- hydrates contained; OUNCES. 41 28.0 " 31.543 u 32.608 hi 41.521 14 57.106 u 152.346 18.916 " 100.352 3.480 3.480 91.35 116.145 We have included in our tables the dairy pro- ducts, as milk is just over the line that divides vege- table and animal foods. Milk contains all the nutri- ents, and in such proportions that it is nearer a perfect food than any other of animal origin. "With bread or other starchy material it is an admirable food for adults. The whole wheat stands foremost as a nearly, if not quite, perfect food. Made into bread and eaten with milk or a little butter it is all that can be desired. Those, however, who prefer a strictly vegetarian dietary, can substitute olive or cottonseed oil and nuts (especially during cold weather) for butter and fat of meats — the latter is also represented by the starches, sugars and cellulose of vegetable products. Flesh has its counterpart in casein of pease, beans and lentils, gluten of wheat and fibrin of oatmeal. The cereals generally, or foods rich in protein, abound in all necessary mineral matter, largely in the form of phosphates — gluten of wheat, whole wheat flour, oatmeal and barley head the list. WEIGHING OUR FOOD. 73 Preference should be given to cereals that have been deprived of their outer shell, while retaining the bran coats. Gluten of wheat is one of the best articles of diet to aid in reducing excessive fatness. We fully expect to arouse the usual amount of prejudice against the unusual feature of letting the scales determine the amount of food to be taken. All we have to say in extenuation is that we sug- gest this mode as the scientific and only reliable method. To the one in a thousand who is as particular about correctness in the weight of food swallowed, as in weight purchased, we would advise, — until the eye and normal appetite are able to portion off quantities with tolerable accuracy, — that he makes a practical use of these tables, which require : 1. Weighing articles of food before and after cooking, until relative weights are ascertained. 2. Measuring the height of the person to find from table II what the weight ought to be. 3. Ascertaining from table I the quantity of each of the nutrients needed per day or meal, figured for what the weight of the person should be. 4. Adjusting from tables III, IV and V the re- quired quantities of an agreeable variety of foods, for every day of the week, sufficient to supply the needed nutrients. For bulk, or quantity without much nutriment, fruits are most useful. There can also be added such watery vegetables as salads, carrots, turnips, tomatoes, cauliflowers, potatoes, spinach, cabbages, beets, onions, parsnips, squash, pumpkins, etc. The importance of fruits as an adjunct to the foods 74 THE SOURCES OF OUR FOODS. rich in nutrients can hardly be overestimated. Among other advantages, the writer has found by actual trial that the vegetable acids are powerful solvents of legumin or vegetable casein. The foregoing tables include only good foods; and the character and proportions of their consti- tuents show how abundantly the vegetable king- dom furnishes all the nutrients, notwithstanding the popular notion that strength is dependent on a flesh diet. A word about beans. These are usually difficult to digest, but are so important a food that they can hardly be dispensed with. The outer coat or skin of the bean is the mischief maker, and should be removed for the same reason we peel a potato. To do this, previous to baking, after soaking the beans as usual over night or longer, rub them between the hands. A less troublesome plan is to boil the beans instead of baking them, and then rub them through a colander. /Beans should be cooked at least eight hours, and preferably longer,/ M. B. Manwaring. CHAPTER VI. THE ECOXOMT'OF FOODS. There is a true and a false economy in selecting our food. A true economy selects that which is most nourishing, most wholesome and best adapted to the bodily requirements. The question of ex- pense is a secondary matter. I have never taken much interest in any plan calculated to reduce the cost of our daily food to a minimum unless, at the same time, the idea of maintaining the health and strength were considered as paramount. If a man can be fed on a penny a day, and nourished so as to be capable of doing only 300 foot-tons of work, or two-thirds as much as a well-fed man, and if it costs a dollar to feed him so that he can accom- plish a full day's work of not less than 400 tons, then the latter food is most economical. It is, however, very fortunate that the most wholesome, nourishing and suitable foods are cheapest, so that a man must be very poor indeed to starve if he knows how to adapt means to ends in the daily rounds of his life. Most of us pay for flavors, delicacies or dainties more than we need to for abundant nourishment. If an article of diet does not suit our taste, no matter how wholesome and nourishing it is, we discard it for something less nutritious but more expensive. (75) 76 THE ECONOMY OF FOODS. The most economical food is that derived from the vegetable kingdom. The Greek peasant, a most frugal, hardy and industrious person, often capable of bearing great burdens, lives principally on bread, olive oil and fruit, the entire cost of which is rarely over four cents a day. The same is true of the Russian, Italian and Spanish peasants. Charles Darwin says in a letter on this subject : "I have always been astonished at the fact that the most extraordinary workers I ever saw, viz., the laborers in the mines of Chili, live exclusively on vegetable food, including many seeds of legu- minous plants," the whole expense of which could hardly have been over a few cents. It is very true that hard-working men, living much in the open air, can extract more nourish- ment from plain, coarse food than sedentary per- sons, whose powers of digestion have been weak- ened by debilitating habits ; but this does not alter the general fact that vegetable foods are cheaper than animal. I have asked Mr. M. B. Man waring, author of one of the preceding chapters, to calcu- late for me some tables showing the cost of protein, carbohydrates and fats in a few of our, principal articles of diet, in order that this subject may have a practical illustration. Tables VI, VII and VIII are the result of his studies. I preface them with his letter of explanation. Bayonne, N. half pint j* au Oysters, 3 ) cents per quart, — 1£ \ OA lb. solid \ "^ Cost of One Pound of Protein. $ cents. .287 .296 .2974 .312 .3783 .3881 .39 .396 .4341 .437 .4647 .486 .547 .5948 .839 " .93 1.037 1.094 1.882 2.855 3.79 TABLE VII. Costs of One Pound FOODS. Market Prices of per pound. Carbohydrates. $ cents. $ cents. Corn (Maize) 0286 .0286 Oatmeal, common .... .0343 - .03 Flour, bolted 0306 .0322 Pease 0427 .0388 4* 82 THE ECONOMY OF FOOD. TABLE VII.— Continued. FOODS. Market Prices per pound. $ cents. Rye Flour, common 0343 Flour, whole wheat except outer shell .04 Beans 0516 Buckwheat 043 Potato, 85 cents per bushel . . .0142 Sweet Potato, $1.35 per bushel . .027 Onions (bulbs) red, $1.35 per bushel .027 Lentils .10 Rice .08 Barley, whole (granulated) . . .09 Barley Flour, common . . . .10 Grluten of whole wheat . . . .11 Onions (bulbs) white, $2.13 per bushel .0426 Buttermilk, 4 cents per quart . .019 Sago 10 Apples, $2.00 per bbl 0171 Cheese, skimmed milk . . . .14 Cabbages .02 Cheese, whole milk 18 Cow's Milk, 8 cents per quart . .0381 Grapes, native . . . . .06 Lager Beer, 5 cents per glass of i-pint .10 Costs of One Pound of Carbohydrates. $ cents. .0354 .0389 .0476 .051 ^.0617 .0657 .0673 .0866 .0867 .0965 .1028 .1037 .1063 .1181 .119 .1242 .1443 .149 .1561 .1953 .218 1.427 TABLE VIII. FOODS. Market Prices per pound. $ cents. Corn (maize) .0286 Oatmeal, common . . . . .0343 Flour, bolted . . . . . .0306 Rye Flour, common . . . .0343 Flour, whole wheat except outer shell .04 Costs of One Pound of Fats. $ cents. .0492 .0507 .0553 .0608 .0666 TABLE VIII.— FATS. 83 TABLE VIII.— Continued. Costs of One Pound FOODS. Market Prices of per pound. Fats. $ cents. $ cents Pease 0427 .0666 Beans 0516 .0813 Buckwheat 043 .0854 Potato, 85 cents per bushel . . .0142 .107 Rice ....... .08 .148 Lentils . .10 .1484 Barley, whole (granulated) . . .09 .165 Barley Flour, common . . . .10 .1758 Mutton, very fat 125 .2325 Gluten of whole wheat ... .11 .1779 Cheese, skimmed milk . . . .14 .2474 Beef, fat 12 .255 Cheese, whole milk 18 .2676 Butter 30 .331 Cow's Milk, 8 cents per quart . . .0381 .335 Veal, fat . . . . . . .10 .3396 Mutton, moderately fat .10 .371 Beef, moderately fat .12 .3977 Veal, lean . . . . . . .10 .4318 Beef, lean 12 * .469 Codfish 08 .437 Eels 15 .72 Salmon 25 .89 Eggs, 9 7-10 without shell = 1 lb., ) 9Ai 1 rn7 30 cents per doz., . ... J '^ l 1 ' 0U ' Oysters, 30 cents per quart, = 1-J- } on Q ~ lb. solid ] •** 6 -*™ I have not deemed it necessary to enlarge these tables so as to have them include all articles used as food, interesting as it might have been. The reader can make similar calculations for himself if he wishes. I only desired to show that in practic- 84 THE ECONOMY OF FOOD. ing economy in food the true way is to use the best foods from the vegetable kingdom, and less meat, bearing in mind always that articles which contain a large amount of protein are needed to supply the deficiency caused by the use of less flesh. It will also be noticed that the mineral matter of our food has been omitted from the calculation. The omis- sion, however, can not have any perceptible effect on the expense of food, important as these salts are in nutrition. It should be borne in mind that while the consti- tuents of some of the foods are low in price, yet the quantity of them in a pound is so small that a sufficient amount to meet the requirements of the body could not be obtained without consuming more than the digestive organs could manage. This is seen conspicuously in the case of the potato. It would require nearly 23J pounds of this vegetable to furnish 3 ounces of protein — an amount sufficient for a person weighing 100 pounds and doing only moderate work. This would at the same time fur- nish seven or eight times as much carbohydrates as are required. Milk is another example. It would require several pounds of milk daily to supply the protein for a man doing only moderate work and weighing 150 pounds. This would also supply him with about two-thirds of the fat required, but not nearly enough of the carbohydrates. I ought, perhaps, to remark that writers on diet- etics tell us that animal food is more easily digested than vegetable, and also that more of it is absorbed in the digestive processes, and> consequently, there is less tax on the organs of digestion, and this should be considered in discussing the economy of any MEAT EATERS' DIGESTION. 85 food. There may be some truth in this, for those who have long habituated their stomachs to flesh, and who have debilitated them by sedentary and unhygienic habits; but for those who have lived in a more healthful and natural manner, I believe this objection has little or no force. The digestive organs, like all other organs of the body, are subject to the law of habit, and they do that most easily which they have been accustomed to do. Sir William Thompson says: "The meat eaters digestion is taxed with a far less quantity of solid food, but that very concentration in regard to quality entails on some stomachs an expenditure of force in digestion equal to that required by the vegetable eater to assimilate his much larger proportions." It must not be forgotten that economy of food is promoted by a right relation of the proportions be- tween its various constituents. Fats and starches cannot serve the purpose of protein. Protein, on the other hand, may take the place of the carbo- hydrates or fats, but only at a loss of 47 per cent, of the total amount transformed and used for pro- ducing heat. Something might be said of economy in food by saving rather than wasting. Very few know how much valuable material is thrown away. This is a fault of the rich and poor alike. Some years ago I asked a wealthy patient if he w^ould have an estimate made for me of the number of pounds of flesh used by each person in his family, including his servants. A few days later he brought me the statement that three pounds was about the amount purchased for each one; "but," he added, "I think two-thirds of it is wasted." The poor add to the expense of liv- 8G THE ECONOMY OF FOOD. ing because they purchase such small quantities at a time; because often from pride they choose the most expensive articles, and because they do not prepare it so as to make it all available to the system. It is poor economy to buy stale vegetables, even at a reduced price. Fresh flour, fresh fruits and other articles are more healthful and more nourish- ing than if old. Even before decay has actually set in there has been a molecular change in the consti- tuents of the food which renders it less nutritious. There is also a loss from cooking some things too much or too little, and both these evils must be avoided. I am certain that there is a loss of nutriment in cooking most of our fruits. The real value of them cannot be determined by chemical analyses. Some of their properties are so subtle as to elude our grasp, but we feel their effects when we take them into our systems in refreshment. They no doubt act largely through the nervous system, and may be electrical in their nature. Cooking destroys this. I do not say that these articles should never be cooked, but only that there is loss in cooking them, especially if we can eat them perfectly fresh and alive. The life and soul of fruits are lost in cooking. The child understands this. With what delight he looks on the apple, the pear, the peach, the grape ! How he longs to clutch them in his hands and to hurry them into his mouth ! If used rightly their value to him is inestimable. In urging a larger use of vegetable food I do not forget that most persons w T ho prepare food have given more attention to the preparation of animal substances than vegetable, and so as a matter of MATERIA ALIMENTARIA. 87 economy it will pay well to reverse this order and give vegetable foods more attention. Dr. B. W. Rich- ardson says on this subject: "Up to the present time so much more skill has been developed in the preparation of animal foods for the table than has been bestowed on vegetables that in order to give the vegetarian system the faintest chance a new school of cookery will have to be introduced in which there shall be taught not only modes of cook- ing, but the actual dietetic value of everything cooked and sent to the table." Sir James Paget estimates that the time lost in England and Wales yearly from sickness amounts to 20,000,000 weeks. This includes only losses of those between fifteen and sixty -five years of age, and does not include the trivial headaches and pains which do not keep one from his labor. If to this is added the sickness of those under fifteen and over sixty-five the loss becomes appalling. It is probably more in this country. It should not be forgotten that any food which promotes health and strength has in it an element of economy of the highest value. There can be no doubt but the waste of time and strength, and the expense of medical attendance which, in the aggre- gate, is an enormous sum every year, would be re- duced at least one half by choosing the best foods, and preparing them in the best manner. This can only be done by studying the subject as a science and as an art. Materia Medica i.s an important study- in all our medical schools. Materia Alimentaria) should be a still more important one for every hu- man being. Until this is the case economy of food, in its highest and best sense, will not be accom- plished. 88 THE ECONOMY OP EOOD. A PRACTICAL LESSON. As a practical illustration of economy in food, to- gether with improved health, I give the following letter, among many in my possession, not as a model for others, for I know well enough that no two persons are alike in their needs, but to illustrate ' a principle. The letter is from Mr. A. H. Frank, a well-known inventor and manufacturer, whose machines have a world-wide use. Mr. Frank's let- ter is so full of interest that I shall give it entire and in his own words. Buffalo, N. Y., March 21, 1888. Dr. M. L. Holbrook : Dear Sir — I am in receipt of your letter of the 20th inst., reminding me of my promise when in New York to write you something of my manner of liv- ing, its cost, etc. I have experimented considera- bly during the past six years. Previous to that time I ate a mixed diet, eating more or less flesh meats ; I ate very sparingly of pies and cakes. The last three or four years of my eating meat my stomach was very weak. The last year I could not eat a full or average meal. At the age of fifty-eight I was what you might call a pretty well used-up man. Six years ago last August I discarded all flesh meats and animal fats, and have since that time greatly improved in health. I have had no further trouble with my stomach, unless I am careless and -eat too much, which is the only thing I have to guard against, as I have such a good appetite three times a day every day in the year, and my food tastes so delicious that, unless I am very careful, I eat too much before I am aware of it. Tea and MR. FRANK'S LETTER. 89 coffee I place with tobacco and alcoholic drinks, and use none of them. I have not drunk a cup of tea since I was twelve years old, and never drank three cups of coffee in my life ; I am past sixty-four, have excellent health, can do fine work, or read without spectacles — never use them. I can do more work, either mental or physical, than on a mixed diet. I discarded butter and milk at the same time I did meat ; after about three years I backslid, so that I used milk for a while. It seemed to agree with me, but all the time I felt that it was degrad- ing to employ an old cow to eat for me, and wrong to rob the calves of what belonged to them, while I had an abundance of better food. I am free now, as I am weaned, and shall never eat it again. "When I once get my foot on a bad habit and make a pledge, or say I won't, it is for all time. I made several pledges over a half century since which have never been broken. I never drink at my meals, and sel- dom at any time, as it is often months at a time that I do not experience thirst. My principal food is fruit and bread with no salt with either; there is plenty of pure water in the fruit. I occasionally eat vegetables, which I salt a little ; I can't see that it makes any difference whether I eat salt or not. For three years I did not eat one ounce of salt. During that time I scarcely touched potatoes or other vegetables. JLJike them ; do not think them very bad, and as they are more palatable with salt I use it ; yet I think if I were to let them entirely alone and eat only the carrots, beans, peas and lentils, fruits and nuts, rich in vegetable oil, it would be quite as well. There is a great saving in living the way I do in 90 THE ECONOMY OF FOOD, cost of food and the labor required to prepare it. I can live on anywhere from two to twelve cents a day. I feel just as well and strong when I eat what I can buy for two or three cents at retail as when I pay ten cents, but it is plainer than I care to live. I have tried it and did two men's hard work, eat- ing nothing but one pound of corn a day. I felt just as well and could see no difference in my strength than when I ate a greater variety. One pound of wheat which costs less than two cents, and two pounds of apples, which cost still less (buy- ing by the barrel or bushel), are more than a day's rations. If I add pears and grapes it doubles or trebles the cost. If families would adopt this plain, simple mode of living, none need want for food, and the pleasure of eating would on the average be in- creased four-fold. The housewife would also be re- lieved of full four-fifths of her labor in the kitchen, and doctors' bills would soon be reduced nineteen- twentieths, if not entirely dispensed with, intem- perance banished from the land, and the average length of life doubled in two generations of time. There is not wealth enough in the State to hire me to eat and drink as do the average of mankind. I will now describe how I make gems . I weigh my flour and water, then I know just what I have, and there is no guesswork about it. I use one pound of the best unbolted wheat flour to one pound water ; I use a cast iron gem pan with eleven cups, which takes one pound of flour to fill. I heat the pan as hot as a quick oven will heat it ; I stir the flour and water thoroughly and fill the gem pan as quickly as I can and bake as fast as it will bake without burn- ing. If baked quickly they will be light. I have ANOTHER CASE, 91 made gems several hundreds of times in succession without having one heavy or soggy, If the pan is hot when filled and the oven hot, it forms a thin crust quickly which holds the air and steam, the expansion of which will make the gems light every time. In some instances I have had the gems burst with so much force as to jump out of the pan. A little salt can be used if preferred. I have stopped at my office long enough after the regular working hours to write what I have written. My day's work commences usually at 4.30 o'clock, A. M., and ends at 5.30, p. m., after which I drive two miles and care for my horse, and often do my cooking. I retire at nine o'clock. Yours very truly, A. H. Frank. I will extend this chapter to give one more case related by Met a Wellmer in Almonds and Raisins, for 1888. This writer says: "Ten years ago, in company with two gentlemen and a lady, I under- took a pedestrian tour to the banks of the lake of Geneva. In T., near Zurich, we visited a teacher, Mr. B. Arriving just at noon, when the family were about to dine, we were kindly invited to join their repast. But having just then sworn loyalty to the Pythagorean mode of life, we used only bread and fruit; and had already eaten our meal at eleven o'clock, under the shade of the green trees, in sight of the beautiful lake and the snow-capped heights. Round the table sat Mr. B. and his wife and six children ; the seventh, nine months old, was creep- ing, baby fashion, energetically on the floor. The meal consisted of cauliflower, roasted potatoes with cucumber salad, bread, fruit'and nuts. 92 THE ECONOMY OF FOOD. " After the meal was ended, Mr. B. accompanied us a short distance on our journey, and told us a little of his life's experience. ' I have lived/ he said, ' without animal food for more than eleven years, and in spite of my increasing family, I have saved enough money to buy the house in which I live and the garden surrounding it. Not one of those among my colleagues, who have had no inheritance, and have married for pure love, without gaining any dowry, possesses a house. My neighbors wonder at my success, and say I must have inherited money or won it in the lottery ; but the fact is, that my sole gain and inheritance consists in my method of liv- ing • whereas, with other people, all inheritance and gain is lost by going into their mouths and down their throats. Had I adopted this method twenty- one years ago, when I entered my profession, I might now have owned a villa, like the neighbor- ing merchants, and been able to let it to a tenant. But my savings increase year by year, and I have one advantage over some of my rich merchant friends, viz., that of perfect health, which they do not enjoy, living, as they do, contrary to the laws of nature. For eleven years neither doctor nor apothecary has had a penny of mine.'" CHAPTER VII. SIMPLICITY IN LIVING. Closely allied to economy in living is simplicity. In this respect we do not need to go to extremes. True simplicity .favors health, and in addition to it limits expense and saves the time wasted in the preparation of numberless complicated dishes. For children, simplicity is of the greatest im- portance whatever system of dietetics is adopted. This has been recognized the world over, even by the rich and by the learned. There can be no greater error in rearing a child than indulging its appetite in every sort of costly and unnatural viand. That its food should be nutritious and abundant no one denies. That its food should be appetizing and pleasing to its palate is self-evident ; but true luxu- ry may go hand in hand with simplicity. It is the good appetite that makes food taste sweet and gives enjoyment; without this nothing pleases. The same rule of simplicity applies to invalids as well as to children. They are often fed exclusively on milk, or are advised to eat largely of fruit, or brown bread, or baked potatoes and cream, or baked apples, or bread, milk and fruit, as the case may be. (93) 94 SIMPLICITY IN LIVING. But if simplicity is proper for the child and for the invalid, why is it not also for the strong ? It is. What examples of simplicity were those of Sidney Smith, whose society often attracted the wealthy to share his single dish ; of Isaac Newton, who lived in the plainest way when thinking out his greatest works; of Franklin in his early life; of William Wordsworth; of Socrates, who taught that "men should abstain from meats which might cause a man to eat who had no need for food, or to drink without thirst.'' His wife, like many before and since, expecting guests, had made, she feared, inadequate provision for them. He replied: "If they be honest men it will be enough ; if not, what need we care for them ?" These are cases of simple living but high thinking. "Read the lives of our great men," says Prof .J. B. Mayor, " read the story of their greatness ; read of Hannibal and St. Paul, of Luther and Newton, of Wesley and John How- ard, and you will find temperance (simplicity) at the root of all their virtues." The same author, whose own life is one of most beautiful simplicity, continues : "This, then, is my first argument fdr plain liv- ing: it is a mighty bond between class and class. It breaks down a wall of partition between us and saints of old ; it is the casting off a weight that we may start fair for the race set before us. In two ways we can make people better off : by adding to their means or taking from their wants. The poor cannot ape the diet of the rich without ruin; the rich may take to the diet of the poor with infinite gain to mind, body and estate. Whence come dis- eases? 'From the kitchen,' say Plato and Senaca WHENCE COME DISEASES? ^£^SsA_ and Milton. *Multos morbos multa ferctda feceriint, 1 So many dishes, so many diseases^ ' Do you wish for health/ asked Abernethy. 'Live on sixpence a day and earn it.' Many say to me, 'You must be strong to bear what you do ; living on 2d. a day, indeed ; for shame ! ' I tell them : ' Your feasts, where there are twenty or thirty dishes, with a chaos of some hundred ingredients, hot and cold, sweet and sour, and several sorts of wine — this has been my cross. To try experiments in simplicity and cheap living is a source of great amusement to me.' Senaca puts it neatly : 'at isn't the living on bread and water that is the happiness ; but the be- \ ing able to be happy even on bread and water/J "Supposing nothing was spent in London this next month on fleshmeat, tobacco, opium, strong drink, tea, coffee, drugs, spices or other poisons, what a surplus you would have ! You could have fruit with every meal, and set farmers to work planting orchards ; you could have fresh vegetables and treble the number of gardeners ; money to buy books and time and brains clear for reading them ; bakers might learn to provide genuine wholemeal bread, and every one might have bread to spare ; every child, and for that matter every man and woman too, could have a cup of milk with every meal. Then the whole army of adulterators who make things for sale and not for use, the gentry who deal in oleomargerine and butterine and all else that ends in ine, would fall on their knees, crying, ' Peccavimas, do teach us some honest trade; puffing and lies have lost the ear o' th' world.' Be- ing no longer enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is perdition, whose god is their belly, who mind 96 SIMPLICITY IN LIVING. earthly things, we should know that our citizenship is in heaven. Verily old Hesiod is right : ' The halt is more than the whole,' And remember another of his sayings: 'Well begun is half done.' Begin to-morrow morning, begin wisely, and you will never repent. Or if you must go once more to the school of experience, that mistress of fools, make an honest experiment. Next time you are asked to a great dinner, say : * My host is my friend ; he wishes me well ; he wouldn't give me poison if he knew it ; I am safe with him.' Eat and drink what- ever is offered whenever you have the chance ; and send for the doctor that night and next morning and the morning after that. Mark your own symp- toms and the doctor's report. Do the same another time, with one exception : fast the second day. You will learn two lessons : (1) Enough is better than a feast, for feasting is folly; (2) Fasting is no cunning trick of priestcraft, but the most power- ful and safest of all medicines. Having learnt yourself, begin to teach . y When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Issue flaming posters with a good clap-trap title. Fragments of science for the unscientific ! How to be healthy, wealthy and wise ! How to sup for a penny and rise next morning a wiser and a merrier man ! " There are benefits which come from simplicity which we can hardly estimate. The first is to woman. In most cases, how great are her cares; from early dawn to late at night she struggles and strives. How much of this struggling is to cook intricate dishes for her family and for her friends. "They expect," she says, "something more than a simple repast; they expect elaborately prepared BENEFITS OF SIMPLICITY IN FOOD. 9? food to tickle the palate and delight the eye." To some extent this is true, but it is not so true as many believe. Most persons feel themselves more than compensated when they eat with their friends if the food be simple and good, provided thought is stimulated and the spirits are enlivened and re- freshed. I have demonstrated this many times by giving simple but well-prepared and appetizing breakfasts without show or parade, and had my guests universally arise from the table with en- thusiastic words of praise over the delightful time they had had. I have known many others to do the same with similar results. On the other hand, how often have we all been pained when visiting friends, that so much of the time of the head of the house was given up to preparing food, which might have been dispensed with to the advantage of all. The other benefits are the invariably good appe- tite which comes from simplicity, the good diges- tion which comes from a well-treated stomach, the saving of time which can be devoted to higher pur- suits, and of money always needed for so many uses. Perhaps my readers will say, "Those who work must eat." To this I heartily agree, and I will quote a line from Prof. J. E. B. Mayor, M. A., who says: "I am bound to testify, having known Cambridge for thirty-six years, that the ordinary life of the men by whom the work of the University is done is simple in the extreme." So it has always been ; so it will always be. The world's workers live on wholesome, nourishing, but simple food. Even . Kaiser William, the German Emperor who died at ninety-one, would not eat the rich viands of his chief cook, but demanded the plainest fare. (5) CHAPTER VIII. FOOD AND INTEMPERANCE. There are a multitude of remedies for intemper- ance in drinking, some of which are advocated with a zeal which knows no bounds. In my opinion pro- gress in this direction must be largely the work of education and the diffusion of correct knowledge of the true value of life, and perfect control of all our faculties. When human beings have a good understanding of the great happiness which may come from perfect bodies and splendid health, and when they know that these conditions can only be secured by obedience to nature's laws of the body, then they will prize a knowledge of these laws and in some measure, at least, conform their conduct to them. And, now, what are the causes of intemperance, that hideous nightmare that darkens the lives of* so many of the children of the earth, that blights so many homes with a curse more terrible than an Egyptian plague. It is not possible here to go into this subject in all its fulness ; but a principal cause, intimately connected with our daily food, may be mentioned briefly. The craving for stimulants^ aside from the force of habit, hereditary and ac- quired, is, in a majority of cases, evidence of im- (98) THE CRAVING FOR STIMULANTS. 99 paired vitality and deficient nerve f orce, the result of defective nutrition, either from insufficient or badly prepared food, or from a breaking down of the digestive functions by indulgence in excess- ive and over-stimulating articles of diet. In either case the results are mal-nutrition and deficient nervous energy. If I am right in this statement, then the greatest foe to intemperance is the sani- tarian, and especially the sanitary cook who knows how to feed people perfectly, so as to nourish them completely. When a man is thoroughly well he is always hap- py. It matters little whether he be rich or poor, learned or unlearned, his spirits overflow, and he has buoyancy and joyousness to spare. He has such a fulness of life that existence becomes a de- light, and he thanks Heaven for it. What does such a person want of stimulants ? They actually depress him. On the other hand, those deficient of vitality, or those whose nervous systems are so starved that they do not give out sweet music with every breath; those who are poor spirited; those whose hands and feet are cold, or who are depressed and downcast and feel that they are forsaken ; those who have overworked or eaten too much, or gone without food and sleep, are the ones who are most likely to have cravings for drink. Who has not known even temperate people when in this con- dition to take a little wine or beer to lift themselves up for a moment to the level of the healthy man ? Men and women take to stimulants not only to overcome exhaustion, but to drive away sorrow and care, even to drive away dullness and stupidity; but would men and women be dull, exhausted 100 FOOD AND INTEMPERANCE. and stupid if they were full of animal vigor and overflowing- with strength ? So I repeat what I said before : That the greatest foe to intemperance is the _ sanitarian, the health reformer, and especially tho sanitary cook, who leads people into healthful habits of eating and drinking, of working and sleeping, of recreation and study. Every nutritious and healthful meal, neatly spread and partaken with thankfulness, is a tem- perance lesson. Every well-built house, with conve- niences for doing work easily and without waste of force, with well-arranged kitchen, bathrooms, sunny windows and good ventilation, is a temperance ser- mon. Every vegetable garden, rich with nutritious food, and every fruit farm abounding in luscious apples, grapes, peaches and pears is a foe to intem- perance. Every school where there is no over- crowding, where the brain is properly taken care of, so that it shall not be deranged, promotes tem- perance. On the other hand, everything that tends to lower human vitality: overwork, .. over-study, too little sleep, too little work, and especially bad food — all prolong the time when intemperance will produce its evil effects. Every bad cook who pre- pares unsavory, indigestible meals creates a demand for stimulants. Dr. Brunton, in a work of great originality and extensive research, on "The Physiology of Diges- tion," says what will be applauded by all: "Good cooking is one of the most effective means of stifling the craving for drink, which is the root of so much evil. Drink craving, in truth, depends as often as not on causes of a purely physical nature. Bad A STIMULUS TO TEMPERANCE. 101 cooking is one of the causes of unequal thirst, and the 'demand' thus created leads very naturally to a ' supply' in the shape of alcoholics. The mental phase of contentment which supervenes on the digestion of food which has been savory and well cooked is a powerful stimulus to temperance; just as the opposite condition of badly-cooked meals suggests a remedy in the shape of liquor, which is often consumed under such circumstances greatly in excess of any needs the body may, physiologic- ally, exhibit for alcohol. This is well seen in Swit- zerland, where, when the food is by no means of a savory kind, a glass of 'schnapps' is resorted to for the purpose of ' tempering' the meal, and of ren- dering it more appetizing. There is probably a mental effect produced by a pleasant, well-cooked meal, which affects the brain and nervous system in an appreciable manner, but one at the same time difficult to explain. Be this as it may, there seems no reason to doubt that good cookery and temper- ance are sworn allies ; carelessness in preparing food, and, it may be added, in feeding at large, is the equally stanch ally of intemperance and excess." CHAPTER IX. ALIMENTARY PRODUCTS OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. I will in this chapter consider some of the im- portant alimentary products of the vegetable king- dom. WHEAT. The most extensively used and most important is wheat. There are many varieties, differing somewhat in chemical composition, their general characteristics being the same. The outer portion of the berry is composed of an exceedingly dense, hard layer, very coherent, and of a woody , nature, It protects the valuable nutritious, starchy and nitrogenous material within. It is indigestible. Below this is a layer of albuminous or nitrogenous material, containing a trace of fat and considerable mineral matter. This layer has very high aliment- ary value; and by the older processes of milling was partly separated with the bran ; by the modern and improved method it is mostly saved, "A portion of the nitrogenous matter of this coat is known as cerealine, and has some value as a digestive fer- (102) COMPOSITION OF WHEAT. 103 ment, helping to change starch into dextrine. The central portion of the berry is composed mainly, but not altogether, of starch. Wheat is rarely used in its entire state as an arti- cle of food. There is, however, a growing tendency to the use of whole wheat, or at least to the use of all except the thinnest outer cuticle. There is no doubt that this would be a great advantage to most persons, both from the standpoint of health and nutrition. The " whole meal 5 ' from which nothing has been separated contains (as given by Blythe) the fol- lowing : Water 14.0 Nitrogenous substances, part of which is \ gluten, a portion of which cannot serve > 21.8 for nutrition ) Carbohydrates : Fat, 1.2 ; Starch, 59.7 . 60.9 Woody Fiber, Cellulose .... 1.7 Mineral matter 1.6 100.00 The white flour from which the bran has been seDarated has, according to this authority, the fol- lowing composition . Water 16.5 Gluten and other nitrogenous bodies . 8.59 Nitrogenous substances not albuminous . 3.41 Carbohdyrates : Fat, 1.2; Starch, 69.G . 70.8 Mineral matter ...... .7 100.00 By glancing at the analyses it will be seen that wheat has one important defect. It is almost en- 104 ALIMENTARY PRODUCTS OF VEGETABLES. tirely deficient in fat ; but it contains a very large amount of carbohydrates and of albuminous matter. We add butter to bread to supply this fat. A BEAUTIFUL MICROSCOPIC OBJECT. A beautiful object for the microscope is a very thin section of this grain. Almost any person may prepare one by soaking a kernel in warm water until it becomes soft, and cutting it with a very sharp razor. The cuticle or bran, in two or three not very well defined layers, is outermost. Just under it is a layer of gluten cells, nearly square. The gluten granules are thickly packed within. They are darker colored than the starch cells, which lie immediately beneath and extend to the center. The latter are filled with shining starch granules of many sizes. Altogether it makes a very beautiful and interesting picture. Wheat is prepared in an almost endless variety of ways for food ; but in this place I will mention only one which is less known than others. In my boyhood days I was rather fond of experimenting on food products — a trait I have not entirely lost, else I never should have prepared this work. I said to my good mother, who always indulged me in my experiments, "Why can't wheat be boiled like rice and served with sugar and cream ? " She said, "Try it." So I took some nice white wheat, boiled it till thoroughly cooked, and served it up with cream and sugar, much to my own de- light and that of others. This is a very simple, cheap, nutritious and easily digested dish, the only danger being in eating it unmasticated. It requires for each mouthful the thirty-two Gladstonian bites. COMPOSITION OF OATS. 105 OATS. The oat, less used than wheat as a food for man, is in some respects its superior, for it contains con- siderable oil. Under the microscope its structure is seen to be similar. Prof. Blythe says : "The oat possesses all the constituents necessary for the maintenance of high bodily vigor, and is one of those complex foods that, especially with the ad- dition of a little fat, is capable of supporting life for an indefinite period. In the border forays of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the provisions carried by the Scotch was simply a bag of oatmeal."' For centuries it has been a prominent article of food among the Scotch ; and it is unfortunate that as its use is being largely extended in other civil- ized countries it is less used there, especially in the towns. The reason given for this is the desire of the young people to live as other people do, upon hot biscuit and fine bread, The injurious effects of this change can already be seen. The average composition of oats is given in the following table : Water 12.93 Nitrogenous matters analogous to gluten 9.78 Nitrogenous matters which do not serve \ ^05 for purposes of nutrition . . ) Fat , . . 6.04 Carbohydrates : Sugar, 2.22 ; Dextrine and ) ^ a<> Gum, 2.04 ; Starch, 51.17 ) Woody Fiber 10.83 Mineral matter 3.03 100.00 5* 106 ALIMENTARY PRODUCTS OF VEGETABLES. THE MOST STRENGTHENING FOOD. A German author, Dr. Winckler, writes as fol- lows concerning oats as a food for man : "Of a very powerful man we often and truly say : 'He has the strength of a horse/ 'He has a horse's nature/ or 'He can maintain himself against the strength of a horse/ The working power of a horse is so considerable that we measure the power of machinery by 'horse power/ Watt and Boulton measured the power of horses in the London breweries and found them capable of per- forming 33,000 foot pounds per minute. Whence does the horse derive his wonderful strength ? From oats. But the oat does not grow for the horse alone. Man can employ it for nourishment, and is able to prepare from it many delicious foods and drinks which render his body large and his strength en- during. "The old Germans, whose soldier-like forms and great bodily strength excited the astonishment of the Romans, lived chiefly upon oatmeal porridge, according to the positive evidence of Pliny. The oat was, therefore, the food of our forefathers, who evidently at some time brought it from their Asiatic homes. The Romans learned of the oat from the Germans and the Celts. The German races long maintained this as their original national food. In the eighteenth century we still find that the youth in many parts of Germany were brought up prin- cipally on oatmeal porridge. Now, unfortunately the potato is the daily food of the poor people, and only in Scotland is oatmeal the national dish. We all know that the Scottish Highlanders are the most THE OAT A FOOD OF THE FIRST RANK. 107 muscular men in all Europe, and the Scottish regi- ments form the flower of the British army. "That the oat is a food of the first rank one may know from its chemical composition. Its constitu- ents are mixed in such proportions as to form an almost ideal diet for the human body, as a compari- son of them with mother's milk, the original type of food, clearly shows. "The milk of a healthy woman contains in 1,000 grains, 110.16 grains of solid constituents, and in L these 110.16 grains we find 14 grains of nitrogenous*^ material, while in 100 grains of oatmeal there are 14.39 grains of the same. This remarkable agree- ment is confirmed by practice, for we can feed a suckling child with oatmeal gruel; and the best kinds of children's prepared foods made to replace the mother's milk consist mainly of oatmeal. "The constituents of the oat in starch amount to about 50 per cent. Its fatty matter is very consid- erable. Oats and corn surpass all other cereals in this respect. "Wheat contains only 1.8 per cent. ; rye, 2.25 per cent.; barley, 2.76 per cent.; while the oat contains 6.4 per cent, of fat. For this rea- son the oat is especially useful in cold climates, where a greater amount of fatty food is necessary. Very important also are the salts of the oat, con- sisting as they do of mineral substances, important for the blood and required by the tissues. In this regard the oat exceeds other grains. "In wheat there is from 1.4 to 1.9 per cent, of min- eral matter; rye contains 2 per cent.; barley, 3.1, and the oat 3.25 per cent. In 100 parts of the ash of the oat, according to Bibra, we find 19.24 of pot- ash; 2.24 of soda; 3. of lime; 6.03 of magnesia; 108 ALIMENTARY PRODUCTS OF VEGETABLES. 25.14 of phosphoric acid; 3.07 of sulphuric acid; .39 of silica acid; 1.66 of chloride of sodium, and .42 of oxide of iron. The oat has also a very fine aroma, which stimulates digestion. - Owners of horses well know how favorably it affects the appetite of those animals. Every food possesses an aroma to a cer- tain degree ; but that from the oat much surpasses the aroma of other grains. "Foods prepared from the oat prove to be a most certain means of strengthening the body when all other so-called strengthening foods leave us in the lurch. I know of no means of resurrecting a broken constitution so good as using oatmeal gruel freely ; and I know that weak persons in their ad- vance toward health and strength will thank me for this advice. " Lean and debilitated persons can often, and in the shortest time, "feed up." Pale-faced young women, and women debilitated from confinement, whom we constantly see growing worse under a diet of beef steak and beef tea, and wine and iron preparations, often become blooming as soon as they are properly nourished upon oatmeal broth and oat- meal soup, to which should be added an out-door life. It is also excellent for badly-developed children, more especially during those years devoted to school life — a period which makes extraordinary demands on the childish organization. In short, the oat, in its varied forms, is an invaluable source of strength for both the sound and the unsound. It requires the same thorough mastication as was mentioned for wheat, otherwise it will not be perfectly di- gested. Some people think that they cannot use THE COOKING OF OATMEAL. 109 oatmeal. Let them masticate it thoroughly, and they will very rarely find any difficulty from its use. THE COOKING OF OATMEAL. Scotch or Irish meal is best, because so perfectly clean and white ; but these take a longer time to cook than the American steam-cooked preparations, and are not to be had everywhere. If the former are used, then an hour and a half will be required to cook them perfectly, and perfect cooking is of the utmost importance. A pot lined with agate or granite should be used, of a size large enough to allow the meal to swell, which it does consider- ably. When the water boils up briskly stir the meal in slowly, using a wooden spoon. Do not let it boil over, as it is the best and creamiest part that foams at the top. About half a pound of meal is sufficient for four pints of water. Keep stirring it gently until the porridge has become moderately thick, when it may be set over a slower fire and cooked till it is done, remembering to stir it occa- sionally. It is best to leave the spoon in the pot, as this helps to prevent burning and spoiling the porridge. The degree of thickness will depend on circumstances. For hard-working men, and those with strong digestions it may be quite thick ; but for children and invalids less so. If steam-cooked cereals are used, it certainly is a great saving of time, though the flavor is not so fine nor the strength so great; the process is the same, only a little less water is required, and from twenty to thirty minutes are sufficient for prepar- ing them. When poured from the pot it should 110 ALIMENTARY PRODUCTS OF VEGETABLES. have a creamy appearance. It will thicken a little after it is taken out. The amount of salt required will depend on the taste. I prefer a small amount ; and if not enough is put in more may be added afterward. "A glassful of good new milk/' says Carodoc Granhim, "should accompany porridge; but the milk should not be poured on the warm porridge. The cold milk soddens the porridge, and the hot por- ridge impairs the flavor of the milk by making it neither hot nor cold. But a spoonful of hot por- ridge, dipped into the fresh cold milk, acquires a piquancy which the palate discriminates and rel- ishes ; for one can become an epicure in porridge." If any be left over it may be re-cooked with next morning's portion, breaking it into the hot water before stirring in the dry meal. This sec- ond cooking rather improves it than otherwise. Cold water should never be used for preparing oatmeal porridge if it is desired to bring out its best qualities. Some add a little brown sugar and butter to the oatmeal while cooking; but while this may increase its nourishing qualities I could never see that it improved the flavor. Oatmeal porridge is rather more difficult of diges- tion than wheat meal, and this has caused some physicians and others to exclaim against it. Where this is the case it is pretty good evidence that the digestive organs have lost their full power. The true remedy would be to restore their tone, and also at the same time to pay the strictest attention to mastication, so as to bring a large amount of saliva into it to act on its starch. Men may do heavy work on this food, and they GREAT FEAT IN RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION. Ill may go to their labor immediately after eating without injury, which is not the case with many foods. This was illustrated in the remarkable feat performed by the Great Western Railway Company in the summer of 1872. The rails of 500 miles of the road were changed from the broad to the nar- row gauge in two week's time. They were held down by nuts and bolts, and these had to be un- screwed and replaced after moving the heavy rails two feet. About 3,000 men were employed, and they worked from four in the morning till nine at night. To generate sufficient force, in addition to the bread, cheese, cocoa and bacon a pound and a half of oatmeal was served to each man daily. It was sprinkled with sugar, well cooked into a thin gruel in pots on stones close to their work, and taken as food and drink combined whenever they were thirsty. The men liked it exceedingly; no beer or alcohol was allowed. The work was fin- ished within the prescribed time, and not one man became sick or drunk. OATMEAL GRUEL AND MILK. Oatmeal gruel made from fine oat flour is a very strengthening food, often tolerated by the weakest stomach which will bear little else. Oatmeal milk is a healthful and nourishing drink made as follows : Put into a goblet or bowl a tablespoonful of oatmeal and a teaspoonful of sugar. Fill the bowl with boiling water, and stir it thoroughly till all the meal is dissolved that will. Then pour off the fluid part and drink hot or cold as is preferred. Oatmeal has certain stimulating qualities which are 112 ALIMENTARY PRODUCTS OF VEGETABLES. very remarkable. These are extracted and used as medicines by physicians. BARLEY. Barley is not much used for food, though pearl barley forms a constituent of many soups and broths, and barley flour makes a very digestible gruel for invalids. It is greatly improved in its taste for gruel by adding twenty-five per cent, of fresh finely-ground oatmeal flour. Its composition is as follows : Water . . 15.08 Digestible nitrogenous substances . . 9.79 Indigestible " " . 1.96 Fat 1.71 Carbohydrates . . . . . . 70.90 Woody Fiber ...... .11 Mineral matter .47 100.00 RYE. Rye forms an important article of food in many European countries, and in early times was much used in New England, but its place^has been largely taken by other grains. It is less nutritious and less palatable than wheat, has a darker color, and a slightly acid taste. On account of its somewhat laxative action it has considerable value in counter- acting obstinate constipation. The following is the best method of preparing it for this purpose : Clean your rye in fresh water, dry it, grind it coarsely in a coffee mill; wet up into a moderately stiff dough and roll out into a thin sheet, cut up into thin cakes and bake hard in a hot oven. One or two of INDIAN CORN. 113 these cakes broken into a teacup of boiling water "and taken before breakfast is an almost infallible remedy for constipation. These dry cakes will keep a long time in a cool, dry place. It is subject to a disease known as "spurred rye," the kernel of which is of a dark brown color, de- veloped enormously beyond the husk. This spurred rye is a dangerous poison, sometimes causing death. Its composition, as given by leading authorities, is as follows : Nitrogenous matter 8.0 Carbohydrates 73.2 Fatty matter 2.0 Saline matter 1.8 Water • . . 15.0 100.00 Composition of dried rye : Nitrogenous matter 12.50 Starch . . . . - . . . . 64.65 Dextrine, etc. 14.90 Fatty matter 2.25 Cellulose. 3.10 Mineral matter 2.60 100.00 INDIAN CORN 9 Indian corn is indigenous to America, and con- stituted an important article of food for the Indians before Columbus found his way here. It is also cultivated in Southern Europe and Africa. Like wheat it has an external woody layer for protec- tion, below which is a layer of gluten cells, and 114 ALIMENTARY PRODUCTS OF VEGETABLES. under these the starch cells, which are of peculiar shape, being smaller than the starch cells of wheat* and many-sided. Corn is quite extensively used for food in Mexico, in the Southern United States and to a considerable extent in the Northern States. It is very largely exported to Europe, and is, for- tunately, partially taking the place of the potato in Ireland. Its greatest use, however, is for feeding cattle and horses, and for fattening pigs. Under the most favorable conditions it takes three pounds six ounces of shelled corn to make a pound of pork. To accomplish this the hog must be kept quiet, clean, warm and comfortable. Corn fed in the ear makes on an average nine pounds of pork to one bushel of ears. If the ears are ground, cob and all, and fed uncooked, a bushel will make twelve pounds of pork. If the corn be ground and cooked, a bushel will make fifteen pounds of pork. By comparing the chemical constituents of one pound of pork with three pounds six ounces of shelled corn, it will hardly need the aid of a chem- ist to show that corn, as a food for man/besides being cheaper, contains much more nourishment and consequently there is great waste in feeding it to pigs to change it into food. Corn is rich in oil and in starch, but less rich in nitrogenous matter than wheat or oats. There are very many varieties, all differing in chemical composition, and especially in the, amount of oil, which sometimes falls as low as three per cent., and sometimes rises as high as nine percent. The oil of corn differs from animal oil in containing fatty acids. „ RICE. 115 Its average composition is given by Blythe in the following table : Water 17.10 Nutritive nitrogenous matter . . 10.91 Non-nutritive nitrogenous matter . . 1.89 Oil or Fat 7.00 Carbohydrates : Dextrine and Sugar, 1.5 ; j Starch, 59.0 ... . . . \ 60M Mineral matter 1.10 Cellulose ....... 1.50 100.00 RICE. Rice forms a chief article of food for about one- third of the human race, especially for those living in warm climates, for whom it is well adapted. It is extensively grown in some of the Southern States, and tha.t produced in South Carolina is equal, if not superior, to any in the world. Its chief constitu- ent is starch ; it contains almost no fat and but a comparatively small amount of nitrogenous sub- stance. The starch of rice is very superior in quality, and very easily digested, owing, perhaps, to the fact that the amount of woody matter around the cells is very small. Its deficiency in nitrogenous matter and oil renders it defective as a chief article of diet. It is possible that the small stature of many Hin- doos, who live largely upon rice, is owing partly to its lack in tissue-building material. It is well suited to invalids needing hydrocarbons and to the old, who require easily-digested foods, also as an adjunct to other foods it has value. Its whiteness when properly boiled makes it very beautiful. 116 ALIMENTARY PRODUCTS OF VEGETABLES. The following is its composition (Blythe) : Water 14.41 Nitrogenous substances .... 6.94 Fat - . .51 Starch 77.61 Woody Fiber ,08 Ash .45 100.00 BEST METHOD OF PREPARING RICE. Rice may be prepared in many ways, but I regard the following as the best : 1. — Boil it carefully, so not to break up the ker- nels, and eat with cream and sugar or milk, or with fruits in their season. In this form it is quickly digested. 2. — The most satisfactory pudding from it is made as follows : Take two teacups of rice, five quarts of milk and one cup of sugar • stir them to- gether in a pan and bake slowly for two or three hours. This will furnish sufficient for dessert for twenty persons, and is equally good, if not better, when it is cold. BUCKWHEAT. Buckwheat is highly nutritious and wholesome when properly prepared. Its composition is as fol- lows: Nitrogenous matter . . . . . 13.10 1 Starch, etc . 64.90 Fatty matter . . . . . ., . 3.00 Cellulose 3.50 Mineral matter ..'."'. . . . . 2.50 Water 13.00 100.00 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BEAN. 117 PEAS, BEANS AND LENTILS. The bean is a very important food, and it is des- tined to become much more extensively used than even now. There are many varieties, as there are of wheat and corn, with slight difference in their chemical constituents. The special characteristic of the bean, as com- pared with cereals, is a less amount of starch and a larger amount of nitrogenous matter. This ren- ders it an excellent substitute for flesh meat. All experience goes to show that it is a more satisfying vegetable product for hard-working men than al- most any other. In Catholic countries, especiall}^ France, where flesh food is less used, and where during Lent and on Fridays it is proscribed, legu- minous products are more extensively used than elsewhere. They are much used by the vegetarians of India and China, and in some of the provinces, especially in those parts where the people have the strongest and best developed bodies. In Japan the bean is made into a curd, a most nutritious article of diet, and the nearest approach in its chemical constituents to animal food of any of the vegetable foods. A very full account of the mode of preparing and using it was published by the United States Government in the consular re- ports for 1886. This curd is used in soup, croquetts and a hundred other ways, and is said to be well liked. It might to our advantage be introduced into this country, and so might the soy bean gen- erally used in Japan and China, which is richer in fat than our own beans. Its composition is given by Prof. Koch in his paper on " The Agricultural Chemistry of Japan," as follows : 118 ALIMENTARY PRODUCTS OF VEGETABLES. Water , 11.32 Mineral matter . . . . . 3.86 Fat o 20.89 Albuminoids ...... 37.75 Wood Fibre 2.00 Starch 24.08 Loss .10 100.00 The bean is more difficult of digestion than other vegetable products, and this is, perhaps, one reason why persons with weak powers of digestion are unable to use them. If, however, they be prop- erly prepared, thoroughly masticated, and instead of being eaten in large quantities once or twice a week are eaten in small amounts daily we should have less complaint of their indigestibility. Beans are more digestible when vinegar or some acid is added to them. Blythe, in his little work, "Diet in Belation to Health and Work," says: "To utilize the legu- minous foods to the best advantage, they require to be finely ground into meal and to be thoroughly cooked. An experiment by A. Strtimpell bears on this. Leguminous meal was made into cakes, with suitable mixtures of eggs, butter and milk, and eaten, and compared with the result of eating the same substance without grinding, but first soaking in water and then boiling. In the first case 91.8 per cent, of the nitrogen was absorbed; but in the second only 59.8, so that nearly one-half of the ' vegetable meat ' was wasted." COMPOSITION OP BEANS, ETC. 119 1 > 00 3 o o O O p o p p 4. P < CD 3 CD • 5 CD CD • < CD • • • CD • •-s O 3 crq CD B • 0Q CD B o p GO • o p w W 0Q P cr CO GO rt- P B Q B O CD CO CD GO M- o Ol H* H* rs S © to Ol CO H± to O JH- <* ^ o da ►H- to •■a CO p 00 CO to | 3 © *. b bi CO ►h- to CO S 1 H»- o p 00 -5 p HA to to H»- 1 S b 1— »- ►h- "to b CO co bo 3 ^ t> o o Ol C5 M- > HH- rH- P 1 H»- o CI to o $ 3 p b CO bi CO bo CO b to to to CO p bo CO b o CO hh- CO 00 M> M- o tl i— i p 00 CO to f 3 ^ H b b b b CO ►H- CO to S 3 H»- o Or to M- O ■n r* p to CO .^ M- to to to c& ^ H b 'ph- Or ^f 00 b? CO bi ?K ** o e solid, like the Trophy, and per- fectly ripe. As a substitute for fruit, they answer a good purpose. 19S RECIPES. Stewed Tomatoes.— Let the tomatoes be well ripened, scald them and remove the skins, cut into small pieces, put into a saucepan, with a little salt and butter, and cook till well done, but no longer. Pepper may be added, if agreeable. As a substitute for fruit, omit the pepper and sweeten. Tomatoes au Gratin.— Scald, peel and slice three large, ripe tomatoes; put into an oval two-quart tin a layer of the slices ; strew over these a layer of brown bread crumbs, add a pat of butter ; salt and pepper to taste, add another layer of sliced tomatoes, and so on until the tomatoes are used. Cover the top layer with a liberal amount of grated cheese, pour on a pint of hot water, and bake fifteen minutes. If too dry when done, add a little more water.— C. Broiled Tomatoes.— Select three large, fine tomatoes; split each in half; strew a little gem rusk crumbs over the cut part, brush a little butter over all, broil over a slow fire and serve with melted butter, salt, and a trifle only of pepper.— C. Note.— This manner of preparing tomatoes is indeed excellent. Toast slices of bread nice and brown, butter them a little, and lay on them the tomatoes ; put a teacupful of cream into the dish around them, and set in the oven a few minutes before taking to the table. Tomatoes should be sliced and boiled in their own juice without water. They should boil briskly. Twenty minutes suffices for a quart. If boiled much longer it injures their peculiar flavor. Season when ready to take up. Baked Tomatoes.— One quart of fresh, round tomatoes. Scald and peel carefully, so as not to break the tomato ; put in a deep dish, and season with a little salt and cayenne. Roll a teacupful of crackers and spread over the top ; cover lightly and bake in a quick oven half or three-quarters of an hour. Two or three lumps of butter, the size of a Lima bean, may be dropped into the dish just before dishing up. Slip them out carefully, the brown side up, or leave them in the baking dish . Large tomatoes may be stuffed with equal quantities of their pulp mixed with cracker crumbs. Bake, and serve hot. Scalloped Tomatoes.— Peel as many large, ripe, tomatoes as you wish to prepare ; cut them into slices a quai ter of an inch thick. Pack in a pud- ding dish first, a layer of tomatoes, then a thick layer of bread crumbs, salt, and a little white sugar and butter, then a layer of tomatoes, then bread crumbs, etc., till the dish is nearly full, having tomatoes last. Now, dust over pepper, a little sugar and butter, strew the top with bread crumbs, and bake {covered) half an hour; then remove the cover and bake brown, but be careful not to scorch. Green Corn on the Cob.— Remove the husks and silk from full grown ears of corn in which the milk is well developed. Put them into sufficient boiling water to cover. Boil gently in a covered kettle from twenty to thirty minutes, according to the age of the corn. Jt is better cooked by steam for half an hour. Corn which requires more than half an hour to cook is not good. Corn when cnt from the Coo. — Split the kernels of corn before re- moving- from Hie cob, and in cutting off, cut them several times through, RECIPES. 199 leaving a part on the cob to be scraped off, so as to make a fine mass of the whole. Take a pint of milk or cream, bring it to a boil, and put the corn in and boil slowly in a closed porcelain or tin vessel for ntteen or twenty min- utes, with very little salt ; or, which is better, steam it for half an hour. It will then be very rich and savory. Succotash.— For succotash, Lima beans are the best; the Agricultural stand second on the list. But any good variety of bush beans, which come earlier than these, makes an article by no means inferior. Shell the green beans, and boil them slowly in an abundance of water for one or two hours, being careful to keep them cohered with water while boiling. Cut an equal measure of well-grown com from the cob, as in the previous direct- ions; place it in a pan to steam, over the beans— if not provided with suitable steam apparatus. Add a little water to the corn, and stir it occa- sionally. Steam from twenty to thirty minutes, then add the corn to the beans, and simmer for half an hour. Stir often, and watch carefully so it will not burn. Season to suit the taste. A delicate succotash is made by scoring the rows of corn and scooping out the pulp with a case knife. Dried Sweet Corn.— Wash the quantity you wish to cook. Add two or three tinges as much water, and soak over night. In the morning place on the range or stove in a closed tin or porcelain vessel, where it will keep at the ssulding point for four or five hours. Do not let it boil a moment. Be equally careful to keep it hot. Add water, if necessary, and do not make it too thick. Season as you like with salt. Dried Green Peas.— Wash the peas, pour boiling soft water over them sufficient to cover. Let them stand over night. Stew them for several hours, or until they are soft and pulpy. Add boiling water occasionally, and keep them covered closely while cooking. Add half a cup of cream and a little salt, and boil ten minutes, then serve. Winter Succotash.— Take equal quantities of dried sweet corn and of dried green beans. Wash and soak them separately, over night, in warm water. Add more water, if necessary, in the morning. Boil the beans slowly for four or five hours, adding boiling water occasionally. Cook the corn as you would without the beans ; then add the corn to the beans, and cook slowly, only long enough to combine them well. This is an excellent article of food, if carefully prepared, although not equal to succotash in the summer . Season with cream and salt . Stewed Carrots. -One pound of carrots : one ounce of butter ; a quarter of an oan^e of parsley ; one teaspoonful of flour, and four tablespoonfuls of cream. About half boil the carrots, then scrape and slice them ; put them into a pan with half a teacupful of vegetable broth, or water; let, them simmer until quite tender, but not broken ; add the chopped parsley* and stir in the flour and butter, previously mixed ; let them simmer ten minutes longer, and serve immediately. Green Peas.— The most important part is to get the peas fresh from the vines. They iose their delicious flavor in a very short time after picking. > 200 RECIPES. Wash before shelling*, not after. Shell the peas, then select the tenderest pods, and put into just water enough to cover them, and after boiling ten or fifteen minutes, skim out the pods and put in the peas. Boil them slowly twenty minutes, trim with a little cream and salt. They should be boiled in so little waier that there will not be more than a half cupful left when they are cooked, and this should be seasoned and dished with the peas. Those who depend on the markets for peas, often find them insipid and tasteless, notwithstanding their care in selecting and cooking. Sometimes a spoonful of sugar will add to the flavor. Boiling the pods adds much to the richness and sweetness of the peas, but they should be skimmed out after cooking fifteen minutes. Boiled Cafohage.— Take off all the outside leaves from a head of white cabbage ; cut into quarters, and lay it for a few minutes in a panful of cold salted water. This will at once remove slugs or insects. Open the leaves, but do not break them from the stem. Shake them in the water and exam- ine carefully, then put into a kettle containing at least three quarts of boil- ing water. Cover the kettle and boil fast for three-quarters of an hour, or until it is thoroughly done, not a moment longer. Asparagus.— Kern ove the basswood binding ; cut off a little of the root- end of each sprout ; scrape off the white lough skin with a kitchen knife ; wash and drain ; tie in small bundles and boil, if possible, with the heads up- right and just out of the water. The steam from the water will cook the heads, which, if covered witu water, will drop into pieces before the root- ends are done; remove carefully from the water, cut away the string and serve on toast with melted butter or a plain salad dressing of oil, vinegar and salt. If the latter is used, toast is not necessary. Boiled asparagus may also be dressed with a white sauce made by cooking one tablespoonful of butter and one heaping tablespoonful of flour rubbed together in one half pint of new milk till it thickens. Salt to taste, and pour over the as- paragus laid upon toasted bread on a hot plate. String Beans.— Select beans neither too young nor too stale, and string carefully, then cut half a dozen together into pieces not more than an inch in length. Wash them and throw them into boiling salted water, and cook from one to three hours, or until tender, no longer. There should be little liquor left, which may be increased by adding half a cup of cream or new milk. Boil up once and serve, or simply season with butter and serve. Shelled Beans.— Wash and cook in boiling water till tender, which will vary in time from three-quarters of an hour to an hour. Season with but- ter, salt and half a cupful of rich milk or thin cream. Dried Beans.— Look over carefully, wash in two waters and soak eight hours, changing the water several times, and always using it lukewarm. Boil two hours or till soft, and dress with a little butter. If thrown into toiling water without soaking, they will require a longer time to boil, and the skins will not separate from the interior.of the bean, Beans without Fork.— Some families seem not to know that baked beans are delicious without pork, if properly cooked and seasoned. Boil a RECIPES. 201 pot of beans until they are cooked thoroughly soft, take half for one day's bean soup, and use the other half a few days later for baked beans. If the beans are old drop in a small lump or half-teaspoonful of soda. When this water boils, turn it off, and supply its place with cleau boiling water. After the beans have boiled in this an hour, we chauge the water again— some- times three times, but never after the beans have begun to come to pieces. Set them where they will not boil too hard, and cook them four or five hours, when they are well softened and separated. Then we stir into this soup salt, and a cup of cream if we have it ; if not, a tablespoonf ul or two of good butter. We take out half of the beans (if we have cocked enough for two meals) before seasoning the day's portion, and sometimes thin what is left for soup with hot water, and then put in the cream and salt, and boil and stir it all together. Whf n we bake the reserved portion, we pouritintoa large baking-dish or dripping-pan, stir in a spoonful of salt and a cup of cream, or creamy milk, and a bit of butter, and bake an hour. I cannot believe that any OL.e w ho tries it, would prefer "pork and beans" to this. The most common mistake in cooking beans is in cooking them too little. This is the cause of their flatulent tendency, and such a result may be prevented by thoroughly cooking. The frequent changing of the water takes away the strong flavor which is disagreeable to many. Butter, Beans and Onion Sauce.— Rub one large boiled onion through a seive. Take two ounces of butter, divide it into little balls, and roll them in flour ; put half an ounce in a small stew-pan, and when it begins to melt, whisk it rapidly to a cream, add another butter ball and whisk it until it as- similates with the first continue adding the butter in this way until all is used, then whisk in the onion pulp ; add a teaspoonful of lemon juice, and pour the sauce over a quart of boiled butter beans.— C. Succotash.— Boil the corn on the cob and cut off the kernels; add to a quart of them, one pint of lima beans ; put them in a sauce-pan, add one ounce of butter, salt and pepper to taste, and a pint of milk ; simmer ten minutes and serve. Succotash is an American dish ; the Narragansett In- dians called it Msickquatosh, or corn boiled whole. Cooper says : " The wise Huron is welcome ; he is come to eat his succo- tash with his brother of the lakes." The old fashioned New England succotash was made of equal parts of corn and small white beans. Cabbage with Mills.— Cut half of a solid head of cabbage fine as for slaw. Have a deep spider on the fire and hot. Put in your cabbage, pour over it a pint of boiling water, cover close, and cook ten or fifteen minutes; then pour off the water that remains, and add half a pint of rich milk. When the milk boils up, stir in a teaspoonful of flour moistened with a little cream or milk, a sprinkle of salt, and cook the flour a minute, then dish up. Those who usually find cabbage an unpleasantly indigestible article of food will be gratified with this mode of cooking it. It is quite like cauli- flower, and much cheaper. Dr. Everett's Choice.— Cut as much nice, clean cabbage as will fill a spider. Place it in this utensil, cover with a plate, and let it cook till done in the steam from its own juices. X 202 RECIPES. Stuffed New Onions* au Gratin.— Select onions of a uniform size, peel and cut a slice from the top of each. Remove a part of the center of each and chop it fine. Soak three ounces of bread crumbs, squeeze out the water from them and add the yolks of two eggs. Mix all together, and season with salt and very little mace. Stuff the onions with this; cover the tops of the onions with grated cheese and bake till brown.— C. Baked Onions.— This vegetable is excellent when scalded and baked whole. Sprinkle with a little salt and crumbs of bread. Again, onions may be scalloped in a buttered dish with alternate layers of bread crumbs, the whole moistened with new milk. Onions.— The unpleasant breath which eating this vegetable produces, is perhaps the greatest objection to its use, but still it is a very wholesome and desirable article of food for many, and hence should be brought on the table in the most attractive form. White onions, and those grown in the South, are least odorous and pungent. Take off the outside skin, cut off both ends close, and let them stand in cold water an hour, then drop them into a saucepan with two quarts of boiling water. Cover and boil fifteen minutes. Have a kettle of boiling water on the fire ready for use, pour off the water from the onions, and add as much more— be sure the water is boiling— and boil half an hour longer. Scald a cupful of rich milk, pour off the second water from the onions, add the milk and a little flour to thicken it. Salt to taste. Boil up a few minutes and serve the onions whole, or they may be cut in halves before cooking. Spinach -with Eggs.— Cleanse by washing in four or five waters, a half- peek of spinach ; bring to a boil two quarts of water with a table-spoonful ot salt (use either a porcelain-lined or copper sauce-pan, so as to keep the color of the spinach), throw in the spinach, and cover. When it is cooked, drain and sqeeze it well and chop fine. Put two ounces of the best butter in a saucepan, then the spinach, a little pepper and nutmeg. Boil two eggs hard, take off the shells, and cut them into quarters ; dish up the spinach and place the eggs around it. This dish should be served by itself, and, to make it more attractive, you can put some puff paste croutons around the bottom of the dish.— C. Celery, to Serve.— Cut off the root-end and green stalks, and plunge the white stalks in cold water. Wipe the stalks dry and put them on a glass dish, (oval shaped and curled up on the sides,) with the leaf ends outwards, strew over them a little tine cracked ice. These glass celery boats are the most appropriate receptacles for serving celery, as one can remove the celery from them, stalk by stalk, without scattering the remainder over the table. The tall celery glass has out lived its usefulness, ar d no loager appears on well-appointed tables-— C. Field Mushrooms for "Winter Use.— -Select the smallest of those gathered and wipe them free from grit. Put into a frying-pan a quarter of a pound of the very best butter. Add to it two whole cloves, a saltspoon- ful of salt, and a tablespoonful of lemon juice. When hot add a quart of the small mushrooms, toss them about in the butter for a moment only, then put them in jars; fill the top of each jar with an inch or two of the RECIPES. 203 butter and let it cool. Keep the jars in a cool place, and when the butter is quite firm add a top layer of salt. Cover to keep out dust.— C. Grr?en Corn.— Select ears of about the same degree of maturity ; remove all the outer husks, and turning" back the inner, remove the silk, then turn back the tender husks till over the ends of the cobs, and plunge into boil- ing-water. Cook from fifteen to twenty minutes, strip off the husk and serve on a platter under a folded napkin to retain the heat . Green Corn Fritters.— To every good- sized teacupful of green corn pulp, obtained by scoring and scraping the rows of kernels, beat in one tablespoonful of flour, one well-beaten egg and a saltspoonful of salt. Cook on a buttered griddle, like batter cakes. Canned Corn.— Favorite brands of sweet or evergreen corn are fre- quently ruined by over-cooking, which readers the corn tough. Heat it through over a gentle fire, and serve at once in a warm vegetable dish. Corn and Tomatoes.— Stew together equal quantities of tomatoes and sweet corn, fresh cut or scraped from the cob. They should cook at least forty minutes. Shortly before they are done, season with salt and butter. Green Corn Pudding.— Beat separately the yolks and whites of four eggs, and into the yolks stir the pulp grated or scraped from ten ears of juicy sweet corn, just mature enough to be palatable Beat in a dessert spoonful of softened butter, and then a quart of new milk, or, better stilb dispense with the butter and use part sweet cream and part milk. Add a dessert-spoonful of sugar, salt to taste, and then cut into the pudding, or stir in carefully the beaten whites of the eggs. Bake slowly for fifty min- utes and serve as a vegetable. Boiled Beets.— The tops of beets should never be cut off close to the head nor should the small roots be disturbed since the juice and richness of the vegetable will then escape. Cook in boiling water from one hour to three, according to the agj; remove the skin and slice. Serve with or without lemon juice. When young, serve hot with a trifle of butter. Boiled Parsnips.— Scrape or pare according to the age, split in two and plunge into salted boiling water. Cook till soft, which will be from half an hour till three times that length of time. When done slice them and serve, or slice and brown in the oven with bits of butter, or mash, season Trith cream, heat up again and serve. Stewed Carrots.— Wash and scrape, and soak in cold water an hour. Plunge in boiling water and cook a long time or till tender. Cut or chop them into dice and simmer them in the water in which they were boiled till they are soft; then drain and pour over them white sauce made with a pint of milk thickened with two tablespoonfuls of flour and two of butter, cooked together in a small saucepan and slightly salted. This white sauce will be found most convenient for the dressing of various vegetables. Boiled Turnips.— Turnips contain little nourishment, but they afford an agreeable flavoring when boiled and mashed with potatoes, one third as much of the former as the latter. They may be cooked by themselves by paring, cutting into cubes and boiling till tender. Then mash and season 204 RECIPES. with butter and pepper, or serve without mashing, but with the addition of a little white sauce. Salsify, or Oyster Plant.— Scrape the roots and throw them into cold water to keep them from turning black. Cut into pieces an inch long and stew in boiling salted water till soft. Pour over white sauce, and serve. Summer Squash.— Pare the squash, (unless they are very young,) cut into small pi ooes, and soak in cold water half an hour, and boil till thor- oughly tender. Drain through a colander, then through a cloth, mash smooth and season with butter and salt. Heat again, and serve. Stewed Cucumbers.— In a dearth of other vegetables, cucumbers can be made a palatable change. Cut lengthwise into thick strips or quarters those which are well-grown but have not yet turned yellow. Remove the seeds, pare and soak in cold water half an hour or still longer, Put them into boiling water slightly salted, and cook fifteen minutes, or until tender when pierced with a fork. Drain and pour over them a white sauce pre- viously cooked, heat up, dish and serve. Baked Turnips •—Boil good turnips half an hour, cut in thin slices and lay in a buttered pudding dish; strew them with fine t seasoned, bread- crumbs, turn over them a half -cupful of new milk and bake tili brown. Cauliflower au Gratin.— Trim off the outside leaves and put the head downward in a tin ; cover i t with water slightly salted and let it stand half an hour. Drain, wrap it up in a napkin ; cover with boiling water; add a little salt and boil until tender, using much care not to overcook it. Arrange in a dish, and serve with cream sauce.— C. "Winter Squash.— Split the squash and remove the center, then steam or bake till done, the latter giving the best result, as the squash is made dry and sweet. Bake on a dripping pan with the shell side down. Scrape out the soft part, mash, and season with butter and salt to taste. Macaroni.— Break the macaroni into small peices and boil till tender in salted water. Drain, and arrauge in a baking dish and pour over it a white sauce such as has been described. Stew cracker crumbs, moistened with milk on the top, and bake half an hour, Macaroni and Cheese.— Mix with the white sauce, which should be made quite thin, half a cup of grated cheese, and sprinkle a trifle with cracker crumbs over the top. Macaroni is also excellent when moistened in the baking dish with strained tomatoes, which gives it a fine flavor. Macaroni.— Divide two ounces of macaroni into three to four inch pieces; add two quarts of boiling water, salted, simmer twenty-five min- utes and drain. Put the macaroni in a saucepan, and add seasoned gravy or soup stock enough to prevent burning. iStrew over it an ounce of grated cheese; when the cheese is melted, turn it out on a hot dish, add a little more cheese, and serve.— C. Sweet Potato Soufflie.— Boil four medium-sized sweet potatoes. When done, peel and mash them. Beat up the yolks and whites of two eggs RECIPES 205 separately, add a gill of cream to the yolks, beat it into the potato (sea- soned with salt and pepper), and place it in the oven. Whisk the whites to a foam. Remove the pan from the oven, add the foam, replace it in the oven, and when delicately browned it is done. Stewed ©andelions.— Pick over carefully two quarts of dandelions' wash them thoroughly in several waters, cover with fresh water and let them stand overnight, wash them again and drain. Put them into a pot with wat?r enough to prevent burning, add a little salt, let them boil two hours, drain off all moisture and chop them fine. When wanted, heat a small piece of butter or a little oil in a pan, add a portion of the dandelions, heat gently, add a trifle of pepper and serve. They may be warmed over several times without deteriorating.— C. Egg Plant.— Pare and cut slices, half an inch thick, two or three egg plants, according to the size of your family, and put to soak in cold, salted water for two hours. This removes a black bitter juice, said to be un- healthful, certainly very disagreeable. Then press the slices between two plates, and wipe them on a clean cloth, then boil till soft enough to mash like turnips. Mash them smooth, add a few bread crumbs soaked in sweet cream, a little chopped parsley and salt, and a sprinkle of cayenne. Mix all thoroughly, pcur into a buttered baking dish, cover the top with bread crumbs and bake half an hour. Another Way to Serve Egg Plant.— The vegetable egg we think has been undervalued, more on account of its improper preparation than for its demerit— the saturating it in butter and lard being the greatest ob- jection. Wife has this season prepared as follows : Peel and then cut egg plant in slices ; add water enough to boil soft, and salt to suit taste. When soft pour off water and mash it ; make a batter of flour and eggs, mix the whole together, and bake like griddle-cake. When the proper quantities are mixed it will make a nice brown cake, with no grease, except to keep free from pan, and free from the strong, wild taste which is generally disliked. We think the egg plant is destined to become a more general article of food, especially among hygienists,— H> M. Eagle, Canliilower.— Soak the head two hours in cold salted watar, and boil till tender in plenty of water. Have the water boiling when you put in the vegetable. Pour off the water, and add a cup of cream or milk. Rub together a teaspoonful of butter and a large spoonful of flour. Stir into the milk, season as you like, and let all boil together and serve. Spina cli.— Wash carefully in plenty of cold salt and water, put it into a saucepan that will just hold it, put in some salt, and pour over it a pint of boiling water. Cover close, and cook in its own juices. Drain off all the water, and pour over it a gill of scalded cream or a little butter, and it is ready for the table. 206 RECIPES. SALADS. Salads are to be highly commended. They furnish a large amount of salt3 for the blood, too much neglected in our food, and of great import- ance. They are also cooling, appetizing, delicious. FRUIT SALADS. Transparent ©range Dressing. (Mrs. Ewing.) — To the juice of three oranges and one lemon, which should make half a pint, add four ouuces of sugar, and the white and yolk of one egg ; beat all together. If liked, a small portion of the grated peel oC both orange and lemons can be added. A jellied orange dressing may be made by adding to the above mixture before heating it, half an ounce of gelatine, soaked an hour in a gill of cold water. The above excellent dressing will be found fitted for various kinds of fruits, as for oranges and bananas sliced and arrayed in alternate layer3. The jellied dressing may be molded with layers of small or large fruit, or large fruit sliced and kept on ice till needed for the table. Salad of Mixed Friuts.— Put in the center of a dish a pineapple, pared, cored and sliced, yet retaining as near as possible its original shape. Peel, quarter and remove the seeds from four sweet oranges, and arrange them in a border around the pineapple. Select four fine bananas, peel and cut into slices lengthwise ; arrange these zig-zag fence fashion around the border of the dish. In the V-shaped spaces around the dish put tiny mounds of grapes of mixed colors. When complete, the dish is to be fin- ished by pouring over it a transparent dressing. -C. Pineappl© Salad.— Pare and dig out the eyes of a ripe pineapple ; take hold of the crown of the pineapple with the left hand, take a fork in the right hand, and with it tear the pineapple into shreds until the core is reached, which throw away. Arrange the shredded fruit lightly in a com- potier, add a liberal quantity of powdered sugar, a wineglass!" ul of lemon- ade or orangeade, or the juice of any acid fruit. Alternate layers of shredded pineapple and fresh cocoanut served with a sauce made of orange juice seasoned with sugar 13 excellent. VEGETABLE SALADS. Under this heading we may enumerate onions, radishes, dandelions, nast- urations, tomatoes, water cresses, cucumbers, cabbage and lettuce, all popular dishes when served cold, especially in midsummer. Whenever salads are unwholesome it is from an excess of dressing, or from dressings too elaborate and complex for the human stomach to endure, Sweet oil and lemon juice, simply, in moderate quantity, cannot be objectionable. Potato Salad.— Slice thinly eight or ten good-sized Irish potatoes (boiled and cold), chop finely one good-sized apple, one and a half small onions, rinse and chop the leaves of a largo handful of green parsley. % RECIPES. 207 Spread a layer of the potato in a chopping* tray, sprinkle liberally with salt, then half the parsley, apple and onions, then the rest of the potato, then more salt and the other half of the parsley, apple and onion ; pour half a teacup of sweet oil or melted butter over the whole, with a small cup of vinegar. Mix the whole carefully so as not to break the potatoes. Breakfast Salad. — Scald two ripe tomatoes, peel them, put them in cold water or fine ice to become cold; drain and either slice cr divide into sec- tions. Peel and slice very thin, one cucumber ; line a salad bowl with crisp lettuce leaves, add the tomatoes and cucumber, a teaspoonf ul of minced parsley, with a few blades of chives, and if possible add a few tarragon leaves. Over all pour a plain salad dressing of oil, vinegar and salt. Lettuce and Tomato Salad.— Take one head of the broad-leaved vari- ety of lettuce, examine each leaf, wipe them gently with a napkin and arrange them neatly in a salad-bowl. Plunge three tomatoes into hot water, take them out, peel them and cover them with fine ice ; when quite cold, slice, and neatly add the lettuce. Pour over all a plain salad dressing and serve. Cucumbers, peeled and sliced in cold water before serving, make a salad less wholesome than others, but palatable. Alternate layers of sliced cucumbers and tomatoes make a favorite summer salad. So do potatoes, chopped cabbage, chopped celery, also beets and radishes. Cold Slaw.— Take half a head of white cabbage, cut it into fine shreds, and put into a bowl or deep dish. Add the juice of a large lemon and two spoonfuls of cold water, and stir together ; then sift evenly over the cab- bage three or four tablespoonf uls of granulated sugar ; shake the dish so that the sugar may be diffused, but do not stir it again. Let it stand ten or fifteen minutes and then serve. Potato Salad.— Cut six or eight cold potatoes into even, thin slices, and put into a salad dish. Cut fine, and sprinkle over the potatoes a teaspoon- ful of parsley, and a little salt and cayenne. Stir half a teacupful of good cream until it is very smooth and foamy ; pour over the potatoes and mix carefully, so as not to break the slices. A little prepared mustard, and a few stalks of white celery chopped fine, is an addition. This is a good dish for a hearty lunch. PIES. Pies are wholesome or not as they are well or badly made. An apple pie can be so prepared as to be nearly or quite as simple as bread, butter and apple sauce. A whole meal may be made of it without injury to the health. On the other hand, it may be so prepared as to be unfit for any stomach. The model pie is, in our opinion, the apple pie. Peach pics are highly relished by many; but the peach loses its finest flavor by cooking,' whereas the apple is improved by this process. Most of the berries in their season make good pies. So does rice and eggs, and the custard pie is 208 RECIPES. not only delicious, but wholesome. The first thing 1 to be secured in a pie is good crust. In general terms, this should be thin, and -when well baked, tender. It should not be shortened with lard, but the best of cream, or in the absence of this, good butter. Delicate fruits are soon tainted with the shortening- of the crust.- Many in baking- pies use too much crust. The least that can be used the better the pie. The crust should be thin, the fruit good pie-apples, and a plentiful supply put between the crust. Where the two crusts meet on the edge of the dish, care should be taken to have the apples pressed out, so that there shall not be a wide strip of thick crust with no apple near them. An apple pie should be eaten just after it is cool. If eaten while hot, it is apt to go down only half masticated. After an apple pie is one day old it begins to grow stale, unless it is kept with great care. Soyer, the famous London pie-maker, thinks that if all the spoilt pies made in Lon- don one single Sunday were placed in a row beside a railway, it would take an express train an hour to pass them in review. Whoever will in- duce bakers to improve their methods of making them will be a public benefactor. The following receipts for pie pastry will be found excellent. They may be varied somewhat to suit individual tastes, provided only the general rules be kept in view. We commend the cream shortening as better than any other. Good Pie Criast.— A quart of flour will make two large pies. Sift the flour. Take a large, strong spoon, and stir into the flour one quarter of a pound of butter and a teaspoonful of yeast powder; then moisten with cold water— ice water if you have it— using just as little as will make the flour stick together. Sprinkle some of the shortened flour on the pie-board, and roll the crust large enough for the pie-pan ; dont try to make smooth edges until you have put in the filling and the upper crust ; then press the edges firmly together and cut off the rough edges with a knife. The secret of good, tender, plain pastry, is speedy work— not with too warm hands. Cream and Potato Pastry.— Six good sized potatoes, boiled and mashed, mealy and white, one cup of sweet cream, a half-teaspoonf ul of salt, and flour enough to make it stay together, and roll out. Work and handle as little as possible, and roll thicker than for common pastry. This is Mrs. Beecher's Recipe for "pastry and meat pies," and is exactly what a wholesome fruit pie needs. Light, tart apples, cut in thin slices, and filled into such a crust with atablespoonful of water and two of sugar added, and a top crust baked half an hour, will be good enough for an epi- cure. Mrs. Cox'S Method.— Pour sufficient boiling water upon wheat meal to make a stiff dough ; roll, without kneading, to any desired thickness, from an eighth to a half-inch. Note. — This makes a very tender crust, quite as much so as can be made in the ordinary way. It may be made of superfine flour, or rye meal, or a mixture of different kinds of flour. To have the crust tender, it must not be kneaded, but rolled but with plenty of meal on the board. RECIPES. 209 M&ttie Jones's Cream Pie Crust. — Take equal quantities of Graham flour, white flour, and Indian meal ; rab evenly together, and wet with very- thin, sweet cream. It should be rolled thin and baked in an oven as hot as for common pic-crust. Note. — This make3 excellent pastry if properly baked. Many patient3 have said to us that they didn't see how they ever again could relish the pastry in common use (this is so much sweeter and more palatable, to say nothing of its wholesomeness). Apple Pies. — Take nice, tart apples— Spitzenbergs are best, although pippins, greenings, russets, etc., are excellent. Slice them ; fill the under- crust an inch thick ; sprinkle over sugar ; add a spoonful or two of water ; cover with a thin crust, and bake three-fourths of an hour in a moderate oven. Another. — Peel and cut about two pounds of tart apples ; cut each into four peices, removing the cores ; then cut each quarter into two or three pieces, according to their size. Put half of them into a pie dish, slightly pressing them down ; put over them two ounces of brown sugar, making the apples form a kind of dome, the center being two inches higher than the sides ; add a small wine-glass of water ; cover the top with paste, anq bake in a moderate oven from half to three-quarters of an hour. Hock Apple Pie.— For a large pie-plate, two crackers (milk or soda), one egg, one cup of sugar, one of water, and the juice of one lemon ; add a pinch of salt, and spice with a nutmeg or the rind of the lemon. This is a tolerable counterfeit. Apple PwJIk. — Peel and core six tart apples, cook quickly with very little water ; cover cJose so as to make them white and free from lumps ; When done to a pu2, sprinkle over them two heaping spoonfuls of sugar, and stir smooth. Set to cool. Prepare your pastry. Beat the whites of three eggs to a stiU froth, stir in the apples and ill! the crust ; grate a little cinnamon or nutmeg over the top. No top crust. Eake in a quick oven, only long enough to cook the pastry. Apple Float.— A pint of stewed, well mashed apples ; whites of three eggs, four large spoonfuls of sugar, beaten until sfciH ; then add the apples and beat all together until still enough to stand alone. Fill a deep dish with rich cream or boiled soft custard, and pile the float on top. This is ex- cellent with other fruits in place of apples. Old Fashioned Apple Sauce.- "Fill a deep pudding-dish with coarsely- chopped sour apples, pour over them two cups of sugar dissolved in one cap of warm water. Eake very slowly two hours or more, when they will be found to be excellent. Bailed Apples.— Core and pare large, sour apples, till the cavities with sugar and arrange in a deep, earthorn pie-plate. Pour over them a half-cup full of hot water and bake in a quick oven. Arrange the apples in a dich, all but one, the softest of them all, and with a silver knife and fork remove the skin from this and mash the pulp, stirring it well into the juice left in the pan. Season with more sugar, if needed, a trifle of salt, and a half -tea- 210 RECIPES. spoonful of cinnamon. Put this over the apples and set it away in a cool place. A very toothsome dish. Old Style " Pan Doudy."- Cover the bottom of a quart pudding-dish or granitized pan, with sliced sour apples an inch thick. Over them, sprinkle a layer of cracker crumbs half that thickness. Continue to alter- nate apples and cracker, strewing* sugar over the fruit, until the dish is filled. Bake one hour, and eat with cream or any wholesome sauce. Apple Custard Pie.— Peel, core and stew sour apples in a very little water, and, when soft, rub through a colander. For each pie, beat three eggs, into which stir one-third of a cup of sugar and a trifle of butter, then beat in enough apple to fill a plain crust. Bake with only an under crust, Cocoannt or Chocolate Custard Pie.— Any simple custard made with four eggs to a quart of milk, can be seasoned with either chocolate or cocoanut. For the former, boil the chocolate with the milk, making it as rich as desired, and when cold, beat in the beaten eggs and sugar. For the latter, stir in the cocoanut when the boiled milk is nearly cold. Rhubarb Pie.— Cut the rhubarb, after peeling, into inch pieces and scald fifteen minutes in boiling water. Drain and fill the plate, covered with thin crust very full, and sprinkle over it a scant cup of sugar. Bake and eat soon after cooling. Pumpkin Pie.— Select a pumpkin which has a deep, rich color, and firm, close texture. Stew and sift in the ordinary manner; add as much boiling milk as will make it about one-third thicker than for common pumpkin pie. Sweeten with equal quantities of sugar and molasses, and bake about one hour in a hot oven. Note.— Those who will try this method will be surprised to find how de- licious a pie can be made without eggs, ginger or spices of any kind. The milk being turned boiling hot upon the pumpkin causes it to swell in bak- ing, so that it is as light and nice as though eggs had been used. Squash. Pie.— This is even superior to pumpkin, as it possesses a much richer, sweeter flavor, and is far preferable. It is made in precisely the same manner as pumpkin pie. Nothing surpassess these pies. Svreei Potato Pie.— Boil and sift through a colander, nice, ripe, sweet potatoes, add boiling milk, and make the same as pumpkin pie. Sweet Apple Pie. — Pare mellow, sweet apples, and grate them upon a grater. A very large grater is necessary for this purpose. Then proceed as for pumpkin pie. Note. — The last four recipes mentioned are from The Hygiene Cook Boo% by Mrs. M. M. Jones, a work of which thousands have been sold, and which has been republished in England. Rice Pie.— Take cold rice, cooked in milk ; add sufficient cream to make quite thin; mash it with a wooden or silver spoon till free from lumps. Beat up four eggs very light— yolks and whites separately ; sweeten to suit your taste, and pour in the eggs, the whites last; stir well, cover a deep cust ard or pumpkin pie-plate with pastry, pour in the rice and bake, but not lozis enough to make the custard watery. RECIPES. 211 * Rice pie should be made thick, and eaten when fresh, but not till after it is cold. Children are very fond of it, and may be allowed as much as they wish. Cranberry Pie.— Stew a few good, ripe, sweet apples; add an equal quantity of cranberries, and sweeten to taste. Cover a deep plate with a crust, and fill even full ; roll the upper crust, and cut in strips half an inch Wide and lay across the pie, leaving- the spaces diamond-shaped, and bake. Strawberry Pie.— Place the under crust upon a deep plate, and the upper one, cut just the right size, on a flat tin or sheet iron, prick to pre- vent blistering", and bake. Fill the deep dish while hot with sweetened strawberries, and cover with the flat crust. If the fruit is rather hard, replace in the oven till heated; if quite ripe, the crust will steam them sufficiently. Raspberry and blackberry pie may be made in the same manner. The flavor of these delicious berries, when quite ripe, is greatly injured by cooking; and they are also changed to a mass of little else than seeds and juice. Raspberry Pies may be prepared as above, and baked until the fruit is cooked, which takes only a few minutes. This method is much better than baking* the fruit with the crust, as the greater part of the juice is lost before the crust is cooked. Berry Tarts.— Cover gem-pans with crust, as if for little pies, and bake; when nearly done, fill up with berries and replace in the oven for a few minutes. Pie for Dyspeptics.— Four tablespoonfuls of oatmeal, one pint of water ; let it stand a few hours or until the meal is well swollen. Then add two large apples, pared and sliced, a little salt, one cup of sugar, one table- spoonful of flour. Mix all together and bake in a buttered pie-dish, and you have a most delicious pie, which may be eaten with safety by the sick or well. CUSTARDS. Almond Custard.— One pint of milk ; half a pint of cream ; one ounce and a half of sweet almonds; five yolks and two whites of eggs, and four ounces of white sugar. Boil the milk and cream and a small stick of cin- namon ; pour into a basin and when cool, take out the cinnamon ; set the milk on a slow fire, adding the sugar, the eggs, well beaten, and the al monds, blanched and chopped fine; stir on the fire till thick, but do not allow it to boil ; pour it Into a jug or bowl, stirring it frequently till cold*, and serve in custard glasses. Arrowroot Custard.— One ounce of arrowroot; three quarters of a pint of milk; three ounces of sugar, and four eggs. Mix the arrowroot with a quarter if a pint of cold milk, adding the eggs, well beaten, the sugar and a little almond-flavor; add half a pint of boiling milk, stirring constantly, and when cold serve in custard glasses. 212 RECIPES. Milk Custard. —One pint of new milk, one tablespoonful of flour, oca tablespoonful of thick cream, cinnamon, almond-flavor and sugar. Set the milk over the fire with a little cinnamon, stirring* it till quite hot, but not allowing it to boil. Mix the cinnamon and flour together, pour on the hot milk, stir well, adding the almond-flavor and sugar. Bake lightly, without crust, in a moderate oven. Another.— One quart of new milk, sugar and one stiok of cinnamon. Boil the cinnamon in a pan with the new milk, take the pan off the fire, and stir in the sugar. Bake in pie or pudding dishes lined with custard paste. The paste should be pricked with a fork, but not through to the dish, and partly baked before the custard is put in. Egg custard may be made in the same way, allowing five or six eggs, according to size, to a quart of new milk. Baked Custards.— One pint of cream, four eggs, cinnamon, almond- fiavor and three ounces of sugar. Boil the cream with a piece of cinna- mon, pour it into a basin, and when cold stir in the eggs, well beaten and strained, the sugar powdered, and a few drops of almond or vanilla flavor. Bake in small cups, in a cool oven. Plain Boiled Custards.— The same, without any condiments. One quart of new milk, the yolks of eight and the whites of four eggs, five ounces of sugar, quarter of a pint of cream, the rind of a lemon, and a small stick of cinnamon. Boil the milk with the cinnamon, sugar and the rind of the lemon, pared very thin; when the milk has boiled a few min- utes, pour it into a bowl ; beat the eggs, adding the cream, and mix well in the milk, then strain the whole into the pan, and set it on a slow fire, stir- ring constantly till near boiling; pour it into a jug, stirring it till nearly cold, and serve in custard glasses. Gooseberry Custards.— Three pints of green gooseberries, a quarter of a pound of sugar, four eggs and two tablespoonfuls of orange-flower water. Set the gooseberries in cold water over a slow fire, and simmer till soft ; then drain the water away, and rub them through a sieve; to a pint of the pulp add the eggs, the sugar and the orange-flower water ; set it over the fire, stirring constantly tili it becomes thick, and when cold serve in custard glasses. Lemon Custards.— Eight eggs, six ounces of sugar, two lemons, a tea- cupful of cream, one pint of boiling water and two tablespoonfuls of orange flower water. Beat the yolks of the eggs until quite frothy, pour on them the boiling water, stirring quickly all the time, add the sugar and the rind of the lemon, grated, stir it over a slow fire till thick, adding the cream and orange-flower water; when hot, stir in the lemon juice, pour it into a basin, stir it till nearly cold, and serve in custard glasses. Lemon Custards.— One large lemon, one quart of new milk, a quarter of a pound of white sugar, and seven eggs. Grate off the rind of the lemon, put it with the sugar in the milk, and boil a. quarter of an hour; strain and Jet it remain till cool, then stir in the eggs, well beaten and strained, leav- ing out three whites ; pour it into cups with half a teaspoonf ul of fresh RECIPES. 213 butter, melted, in each cup; set them in water and bake in a moderate oven ; color them when done by holding' a hot salamander over, and servi cold, with sugar sifted on the top. Raspfeerry Costards — One pint of cream or new milk, three-quarters of a pint of raspberry juice and half a pound of white sugar. Boil the cream., dissolve the sugar in the raspberry juice; mix it with the boiling cream, stirring- till quite thick, and serve in custard glasses. Rice Cusiards.— One ounce and a half of ground rice ; three ounces of loaf sugar and one pint of new milk. Boil the rice in the milk, adding the sugar and a piece of cinnamon ; pour it into custard cups, in which a little fresh butter has been melted, and bake in a slow oven. VaniJla Custards.— One stick of vanilla, one pint and a half of new milk, half a pint of cream, quarter of a pound of white sugar, and seven yolks and four whites of eggs. Cat the vanilla into slips, boil in the milk a quarter of an hour, adding the sugar; strain and let it remain till cool, then stir in the eggs, well beaten ; pour it into cups with half a teaspoon- ful of fresh butter, melted, in each cup, set them in water, bake in a moderate oven ; color them when done by holding a hot salamander over, and serve cold, with sugar sifted en the tcp. White Custards.— One pint of cream, three ounces of sugar, the whites of four eggs, and one tablespoonlul of orange-flower water. Boii the cream with a blade of mace, let it simmer for about Ave minutes, and then take it off the fire and add the sugar ; beiit the whites of the eggs to a com- plete froth, put them into the cream, set it on the fire again, and let it boii gently, stirring constantly until it becomes thick; take it off the fire, add the orange-flower water or a few drops of almond-flavor, and serve in cus- tard glasses. Corn Meal Custard.— Beat up three eggs and add to them a quart of milk and an ounce each of butter and sugar; mix, and add gradually a quarter of a pound of fine, white corn meal, and flavor with nutmeg. Pour into custard cups and boil or steam ten minutes, then put them into the oven long enough to brown on top.— -C. Cold Custard.— Wet a saucepan with cold water to prevent the milk that will be scalded in it from burning. Pour out the water and put in a quart of milk ; boil and partly cool. Beat up the yolks of six eg^s, and add three ounces of sugar and a saltspoonful of salt; mix thoroughly and add the lukewarm milk. Stir and pour the custard into a porcelain or doubie saucepan, and stir while on the range until of the consistency of cream, strain, when almost cold, and flavor if desired. Pour the custard into cups, and place on ice until wanted. After the eggs and cream have com- bined, it must not be allowed to boil, or it will curdle.— C. Tapioca Custard.— Pick over carefully and wash, one quarter-pound of small grain tapioca. Add to it a quart of boiling miik, two salt spoonfuls of salt, and boil slowly an hour and a half ; stir frequently ; when done, allow it to cool a little. Beat five eggs thoroughly, and add to them, three ounces of sugar, an ounce of butter, and a dash of nutmeg. Gradually add 214 RECIPES. the tapioca, letting 1 the whole come to a boiling* point ; pour into cups or a mold, and serve hot or ice cold, as may be preferred. Note.— Custards are both wnolesome and nutritious, especially for the old, and those with feeble stomachs, and for those recovering- from sick- ness. They supply the waste of nerve-tissue better than meats or vege- tables. The custard pie is made by baking* the custard in an appropriate crust. PUDDINGS. Rice Pudding.— One cup of fresh, whole rice ; nine cupf uls of new milk, and one cup of sugar. W^sh the rice thoroughly, put into a stone or earthen pan, and bake in a moderate oven three hours. Stir it two or three times during the tirst hour ; do not increase the heat of the oven after the milk begins to simmer; be careful not to scorch or blister ; a light cover toward the last will be better. Set to cool undisturbed. It is best eaten cold. Raisins may be added, if desired. Another.— One teacupf ul of rice, picked and washed ; three quarts of new milk; one cup of white sugar, and one cup of raisins. Bake three hours in a moderate oven; stir it occasionally for two hours ; then leave it to brown over. This makes a delicious pudding, plain and simple. Another.— Wash two ounces of rice in two waters, then drain and add three half-pints of milk, an ounce of sugar, a little salt and a dash of nut- meg ; let it stand three quarters of an hour, then bake in a moderate oven until delicately brown. Cold Rice Pudding.— Beat the whites and yolks. of six eggs separately; add four ounces of sugar, a little flavoring and salt to the yolks, and add eo id boiled rice enough to make a stiff batter. Beat in the whisked whites ; pour the mixture into cups, set them in a pan partly filled with hot water, place on the range for half an hour, then put the pan ana puddings in the oven, and bake forty minutes. When cold surround them with ice. A rich, cold, custard sauce may be served with them.— C. Bread Pndding.— To one loaf of bread, well grated, pour one quart of boiled milk or cream, three eggs, a small cupful of white sugar, flavor to the taste (mace is a very good flavor), and bake an hour. If the boiled milk is poured upon pieces of stale bread and left standing two hours, they can be mashed and freed from lumps with the hand before putting in tho eggs. Dried currants, that have been well washed and swelled in luke- warm water, or raisins, will be a good addition to this pudding. If made with crackers i t will be still more delicate. Cold sauce may be eaten with it or fruit sauce, if no fruit is put into the pudding. Bread and Bulter Pudding.— Select a loaf of stale brown bread. Do not remove the crust. Cut the loaf in thin slices and butter them, half fill RECIPES. 215 a pudding-dish with them and fill up with a boiled custard, put the dish in a pan part full of water, and let it remain on top of the range an hour and a half, then put it in the oven to brown slightly, "When done serve with a sauce made as follows: Half a pint of cream, two ounces of butter, a heaping tablespoonfu of flour, and a tabiespoonful of sugar. Let it come to a boil, then place on the back of the range. When lukewarm, whisk into it slowly the yolk of one egg well beaten ; warm it slightly, and serve.— C Bread and Fruit Pudding.— Trim off the crust from a quantity of dry bread and grate the remaining white part of it, add to a pint of it one quart of hot boiled milk, two ounces of butter, four ounces of sugar, half a teaspoonful of salt and a heaping saltspoonful of mixed ground spice. When cool whisk into it four well-beaten egg3. Peel and slice a dozen fine, firm peaches, add to them the mixture, pour it into a bread or deep pudding mold, place it in a pot of hot water and steam three hours. Serve either hot or cold, and with an egg or cream sauce, flavored with lemon or vanilla. Canned fruits of all kinds may be used when fresh fruits cannot be obtained.— C. Spanish Fruit Pudding.— Line a baking-dish with a light puff paste, add a layer of shredded pineapple and cover it with powdered sugar ; add a layer of sweet oranges sliced, strew over them a thin layer of sugar; next add a layer of sliced bananas with sugar strewn over them. Repeat the process until the dish is full. Cover the dish with a light puff paste and bake to a delicate brown.— C. Cold Apple Pudding.— Sift one pint of Graham flour, add one quarter of a teaspoonful of salt. Beat the whites and yolks of four eggs separ_ ately, add the yolks and half a pint of rich cream, a pint of strained apple sauce, six ounces of sugar, a pinch of cinnamon, and beat in the whites of the eggs. Pour into a very deep pan, or, better still, a deep mold, which place in a pan partly full of hot water; let it simmer on the back of the range for three-quarters of an hour, then put pan and pudding in the oven for about the same length of time. When done, it may be served hot or packed in ice and served cold with a cream sauce.— C. Cold Scotch Pndding.— Soak a pint of grated oatmeal crackers in one and a half pints of milk ; beat the yolks qi three eggs with a heaping table- spoonful of powdered sugar, a saltspoonful of salt, and the grated rind of a lemon ; mix with the soaked crackers. Beat the whites of the eggs with a tabiespoonful of powdered sugar, whibk into the mixture, pour into small molds (a little over half full) and set them in a pan containing warm water, place on top of range half an hour, then put the pan in the oven and bake for forty-five minutes.— C. Cocoannt Pudding.— To one fresh cocoanut, grated fine, add four ounces of sugar, half a saltspoonful of nutmeg and a saltspoonful of salt. Beat thoroughly the yolks of five eggs, add to them four ounces of fresh butter, and whisk all the ingredients until they become a creamy mass. Pour into a buttered pudding-dish and bake thirty minutes. Prepared cocoanut may be used if the fresh cocoanut is not at hand. 216 RECIPES. Spanish Apple Pudding.— Cover the "bottom of a pudding-dish with a light puff paste and Jay on it a layer of thin slices of apples, strew over them a tablespoonful of sugar and a saltspoonful of ground cinnamon, another layer of sliced apples sprinkled with a tablespoonful of sugar and a saltspoonful of ground cloves, another layer of apples, sugar and a salt- spoonful of grated nutmeg. Cover with a top crust with a hole in its center. Mix together a gill of white grape vinegar and two ounces of sugar, pour it in the hole and bake thirty minutes.— G. Jelly Pnddings.— Scald one large cup of rich milk, or milk and sweet cream together, and pour over two cups of very finely rolled biscuit or bread crumbs. Beat until cold, then stir in the beaten yolks of four eggs, sweetened with two large spoonfuls of sugar. Then stir in the beaten whites and fill large cups half full of the batter. Bake in a quick oven half an hour. When done, invert each pudding on a dessert plate, and with a sharp knife make an incision in the side, in which insert a liberal spoonful of jelly or peach preserve, or any other favorite preparation of fruit. Eat warm— not hot— with sweetened cream. Orange Sponge.— Squeeze the juice and pulp of three oranges into a bowl, add the juice of half a lemon, three ounces of sugar, one and a half pints of cold water; lei it come to a boil, then strain. Dissolve two table- spoonfuls of corn starch in a little cold water, rub it smooth and add it to the strained juices, then let it toil fifteen minutes to cook the corn starch. Then set it aside, and when cold piace it in the ice box to become quite cold. Beat up the whites of three eggs to a foam, whip it into the corn starch and it is ready for use.— C Lemon Pudding.— Moisten half a pint of fine farina with a gill of cold milk, add to it a pint of hot milk and st»r well. Add a saltspoonful of salt and two ounces of butter, stir until quite smooth and thick, and allow it to become cold. Beat together four eggs, six ounces of sugar, the grated rind and juice of two lemons, and. a dash of ground cinnamon; stir into this mixture the cold farina, a small quantity at a time, then pour into a buttered pudding-dksh and bake forty minutes.- C. Chocolate Pudding.— Add one ounce of grated chocolate to a quart of miik, boil thoroughly, flavor with vanilla, set aside to cool, stir in the yolks of six eggs, well beaten, b-,ke in a buttered pudding-dish until it stiffens like custard. Beat the whites of six eggs with a tablespoonful of pow- dered sugar to a stiff froth, spread over the top of the pudding, return to the oven and brown quickly.— C. Steamed Peach Pndding.— Sift together one pint of flour, two heap- ing teaspoonfuls of baking powder, aud two s^ltspoonfuls of salt. Boat together the yolks of two eggs with three ounces of sugar and half a pint of milk, add this to the flour. Beat the whites of the eggs to a froth and add it also. Cut six nice peaches, dredge them with flour, and add to the mixture, pour into a buttered pudding mold and steam two a half hours. Send to table with cream sauce— C, RECIPES. 217 Peach. Meringue.— Peel six ripe peaches, split or cut them in halves, and remove the stones. Beat half a pint of rich cream in a bowl sur- rounded with ice until it is three times its original quantity. Dredge the peaches with sugar. Beat the whites of four eggs until very stiff and add four ounces of powdered sugar gradually. Cover an oven board with white paper and drop the beaten eggs on it by tablespoonfuls ; place them over the range for ha]f an hour, then brown slightly in a slow oven, remove the soft part when they are cold and put half a peach in the cavity. Place mound3 of whipped cream on top, and serve. The meringues may be filled with the cream, and half a peach placed in the center.— C. Apple and Tapioca Pudding.— Put a teacupful of tapioca into a quart of warm water before breakfast; set it where it will keep warm for three hours; stir it from the bottom once or twice and keep covered. Pare and cut in thin slices five or six nice tart apples, and lay them in the bottom of the pudding-dish ; add a heaped cupful of sugar, dissolved in hot water, to the tapioca ; stir well together, and pour over the apples ; bake slowly for two hours. To be eaten with whipped cream flavored with a little lemon or orange. Good either hot or cold. Graham Gem Pudding. — Take six cold gems— yesterday's baking; break them into small pieces, and pour over them one pint of cold water, cover and let them soften for an hour, then add a pint and a half of new milk, a handful of seeded raisins or currants, one beaten egg t and one tea- spoonful of baking powder. Mix half a cup of sugar and the baking pow- der thoroughly together, before putting them with the other ingredients. Stir together well and quickly, butter the pudding-dish with cold, sweet butter, and bake in a quick oven three-fourths of an hour. Steamed Graham Pudding.— Sour milk or fresh buttermilk, five cup- f uls, brown sugar, two cups, butter, half a cup, two teaspoonf uls of soda, two eggs, half a pound of seeded dates. Graham flour enough to make a thin batter. The dates should be chopped fine and rolled in flour before they are put into the batter. Steam for three hours. Make a sauce of milk and corn starch, or eat with good cream. Apple and Bread Pudding.— Break and rub bread fine, peel and chop good, sweetish apples— sweet apples keep their place and take a little longer to cook ; butter a pudding dish and put a layer of apples an inch deep, then a layer of crumbs not quite so thick, then another layer of apples, alternating, till the dish is full, bread being last. A little butter may be added to each layer of bread, or a tablespoonful of cream sprinkled over each. Or, better still, dissolve one cupful of sugar in one of hot water, add a dessert-spoonful of butter, pour over the pudding and let it soak half an hour, cover with a tin and bake thirty minutes. Serve with sweet sauce or cream. Cherry Pudding.— One quart of scalded milk, one pint of cornmeal, half a pint of Graham flour, or a little less of fine flour, four eggs well beaten, a teaspoonful of baking powder, and a pint of ripe cherries ; wash and pick out the imperfect cherries, leave the seeds in, drain off all the 218 RECIPES. water, and roll the cherries, while damp, in some of the flour. Stir all to* gether, put in a pudding-mold or bag-, and boil two hours. To be eaten with sugar and cream. The late black cherries are the best for this pud- ding; they are not so juicy, retain their shape, and diffuse a rich purple tint around them, which makes the pudding handsome for the table. Poor Man's Pudding.— One cup of flour, one cup of cornmeal, one tablespoonful of baking powder -mixed well with the meal and flour, two cups of rich milk, one cup of molasses, one cup of currants washed and rolled in flour, one tablespoonful of butter rubbed evenly and cold into the pudding-mold. Mix the ingredients well together, put into the mold and boil three hours. Be careful to keep the pudding -mold upright in the boiling kettle. Bo not allow the water to stop boiling at any time, or to boil over the top of the mold, as it is almost impossible to have the lid so close that water will not get in and quite spoil the pudding. When done, turn the pudding out of the mold into a broad platter and serve hot with cream sauce. Cottage Puddings.— One-half cup of sugar, one egg, one cupful of cream, one pint of flour, one heaping teaspoonful of baking powder. Bake in a cake pan, To be eaten with a hot, sweet sauce, or with cold cream. ♦ Cold Cottage Pudding.— Sift together half a pound of flour, two tea- spoonfuls of baking-powder, and a heaping saltspoonf ul of salt. Beat two eggs and add to them four ounces of sugar, three tablespoonfuls of creamed butter and two gills of milk. Add the mixture to the flour, pour into small molds and bake half an hour. When cool, place them on ice until wanted, and serve with a cream sauce.— C. Graham Birdsnest Pudding. — This pudding is made by laying in a deep dish nice quartered apples, and pouring over them a thin batter made of flour, one teacup of sour cream, and about one-third of a teaspoon- ful of soda. Water may be used for wetting if a tablespoonful of melted butter is used for shortening. Bake in a moderate oven till the apples are thoroughly cooked. Tapioca Custard Pudding.— Soak two tablespoonfuls of tapioca over night in cold water ; when ready to make custard, boil one quart of milk, and while boiling add beaten yolks of three eggs, three-fourths of a cup of sugar, and the tapioca ; turn in the dish you wish to serve it in ; have the beaten whites ready, sweetened a little and spread over top ; put in oven and just brown a little. Eat cold. Delmonico Pudding.— Three tablespoonfuls of corn starch, one quart of boiling milk, three eggs, whites and yolks separated. Mix yolks with corn starch, and add milk gradually. Let it boii. Beat whites to a stiff froth, sweeten. Put corn starch in pudding-dish, cover with frosting and set in oven to brown. To be eaten cold Nice Cheap Pudding.— One quart of milk, four tablespoonfuls of flour, four eggs, six tablespoonfuls of sugar, nutmeg. Steam three-fourths of an hour. % RECIPES. 219 Sago Pudding.— One dozen tart apples, one and a half cups of sago, soak the sago till soft, peel and core the apples, and place in a dish, fill the apples with sugar, pour the sago over, and bake till the apples are cooked. Sago Birdsnest Pudding*— This pudding is made by laying quartered fresh apples, or stewed dried ones, in a pan till about half full, and pour- ing over them the sago, prepared as for a thin mush then bake in a moder- ate oven till the apples are cooked, say an hour or more, according to the the size of the pudding. Indian Padding.— Two small teacups of cornmeal, half a cupful of superfine flour, one cup of syrup, half a teaspoonfui of salt. Scald three quarts of milk, and stir into the above. Let it stand half an hour, stir it again. Bake quickly until it boils, then slowly about two hours. Plain Indian Pudding.— Take two quarts of new milk, one cupful of yellow Indian meal, haif a cupful of molasses and a teaspoonfui of ginger and the same amount of salt. Take out one cupful of the milk and stir to- gether the remainder of the ingredients to boil. Cook thoroughly, stirring to prevent burning. Put in an oiled pudding-dish, with or without a cupful of raisins. After baking half an hour, stir up from the bottom and pour in the cupful of cold milk, which makes a delicious whey. It should be good enough to eat with sauce, and is excellent cold or warm. « Everyday " Pudding 1 .— Half a loaf of stale home-made brown bread soaked in a quart of milk ; four eggs ; four tablespoonf uls of Hour ; a little fruit, dried or fresh, is a great addition. Steam or boil three-fourths of an hour. Serve with the following sauce : Butter, sugar and water, thickened with a little corn starch, and flavored with lemon juice and rind. j ,V ' A. Simple Cornmeal Pudding.— Stir into a quart of boiling milk the -^jebites of two eggs, three heaping spoonfuls of meal and half a cup of sugar well beaten together. Cook five minutes, Stirling constantly ; remove from the fire and add the whites, beaten to a stiff froth. Pour into a pudding dish and bake one hour in a moderate oven. Serve with cream and sugar. Batter Pudding.— Take half a pound of flour ; one pint of milk; two eggs and one teaspoonfui of baking powder. Rub the baking powder quite smooth ; mix it well with the flour, then stir in nearly half of the milk, and beat it perfectly smooth ; add the remainder of the milk and the eggs, well beaten ; boil the pudding one and a half hours in a buttered basin, and serve with sweet sauce ; or put it in a buttered dish, and bake it in a quick oven. Baked Batter Pudding, with Fruit.— Take a half-pound of flour; one pint of milk ; the yolks of four, and the whites of two eggs, and half a teaspoonfui of baking powder. Rub the powder till smooth, mixing it well with the flour, and as much milk as will make it a stiff batter ; heat it till quite smooth, then add the remainder of the milk and the eggs, well beaten, with the flour, and as much milk as will make it a stiff batter ; beat it till quite smooth, then add the remainder of the milk, and the eggs, well 220 RECIPES. beaten. Put some apples, cut as for a pie, into a buttered dish, pour th? batter over, and bake in a moderately hot oven. Damsons, currant^ gooseberries, or rhubarb may be used in the same way. CAKES. Cake is good and wholesome when it is plain and simple. It is bad when it is too rich and compounded of too many ingredients. It may be eaten freely like bread in the former case. Children are fond of cake. It ought to be so made that they can eat of it without injury to digestion. Al- ways have the family cake made of the best coarse flour. Most of the fol- lowing- recipes are such as have been used in our Institution for years ; a few are favorites at other institutions. All may be varied to suit indi- vidual tastes, keeping in mind simplicity and healthf ulness. For Forty or Fifty Cookies. — Four cups of sugar, one cup of butter, two cups of sour milk, two teaspoonfuls of baking powder, and brown flour sufficient to let the dough be rolled thin. Work them but little, and bake in a quick oven. Cup Cake for Seventy-live or Eighty.— Four cups of sugar (white), one of butter, four eggs; rub these together, then add three teacups of sweet milk, ten teaspoonfuls of baking powder, mixed with the Vhole meal flour, of which use sufficient to make all into a stiff batter. Brop Cakes.— Put six well-beaten eggs into a pint of thick cream, add a little salt, and make it into a thick batter with flour. Bake it in rings or in small cups fifteen or twenty minutes. The same may be made with Graham flour. Delicious Corn Cake Gems.— One quart of cornmeal ; two quarts of sweet milk ; two heaped teaspoonfuls of cream yeast, and two eggs. Bake in a quick oven. Strawberry Sfiortcake.— To a quart of flour (enough for two cakes), put three heaping spoonfuls of baking powder. Sift together thoroughly and rub in one ounce of butter. Wet with a pint of sweet milk, using a spoon. The mixture will be somewhat softer than common pie-crust. Do not try to mold or roll out the dough. Spread it on tin pie-plates by pat- ting with the hand. It should be about an inch in thickness. Bake slowly at first until the cakes have had time to rise, then increase the heat and expect them to be done within twenty-five minutes. Split the cakes hot from the oven, spread the halves with butter, and cover them with the fruit, previously sweetened. Place one on the other (the upper half is re- versed, of course,) or each on a plate by itself. It is a good rule to sugar your strawberries before you begin to make your cake, and if they are large, or not very ripe, it is best to cut them in two, or mash them a little. Don't calculate for tbese cakes standing on the stove hearth a minute. They should be served like griddle-cake— no time lost between the oven and the table. Observe these rules and you will have a dish as dainty as Izaak Walton's Baked Fish, of which he said, " It is too good for any but RECIPES. 221 very honest people." When strawberries are gone, red raspberries are very nice in their place. White currants are also very much liked as a substitute, and peach shortcake is hardly surpassed by the strawberry it- self, if the peaches are first-rate. All these fruits should be prepared by sweetening" an hour or two before wanted. Peach Shortcake.— Prepare the shortcake as for strawberry. Peel and slice the peaches, arrange the slices with sugar as fast as peeled, and ar- range in the unual manner in layers on top of the shortcake. The top layer should be covered with a whipped cream to make it more palatable.— C. Ornn^e Cake.— Two cups of sugar, the yolks of five eggs and whites of four, half a cupful cf water, two cups of flour, one teaspoonful of baking- powder, and the juice and grated rind of one orange. Spread and bake on tin pie-plates. This quantity should cover six plates. Make a jelly by beating the white of one egg to a froth, and adding to it three-quarters of a pound of powdered sugar, and the grated rind and juice of another orange. Spread the jelly on the cakes and lay them one above another in three tiers- Almond Cake.— Blanch and pound in a mortar eight ounces of sweet and one ounce of bitter almonds; add a few drops of rose water or white of egg every few minutes to prevent oiling; add six tablespoonfuls of flour and work it thoroughly with the mixture. Gradually add a quarter pound of creamed butter ; beat the mixture constantly while preparing the cake, or it will be heavy. Put a buttered paper inside of a buttered tin, pour in the mixture, and bake in a quick oven ; cover the cake with paper if the oven is too hot.— C- Cotoanut Cake.— Three fourths of a pint of powdered sugar, one ounce of butter, half a pint of grated cocoanut, one pint of flour, one tablespoon- ful of baking powder and milk enough to make a stiif batter. Mix, and bake in buttered pans ; sprinkle dry cocoanut on top.— C. Raisin Cake.— Beat well three eggs, to which add one cup of sugar and one cup of butter. After these ingredients are well beaten, stir in a half- cup of milk, and lastly, the whole meal flour which has been sifted with two teaspoonfuls of baking powder, and into which has been stirred one heaping cupful of chopped and seeded raisins. This will prevent the fruit falling to the bottom.— C. White Cake.— ^ream together one cup of sugar and half a cup of but- ter, to which stir in first, the beaten yolks of two eggs, then the beaten whites, and lastly, two cups of flour into which has been sifted a heaping teaspoonful of baking powder. At the last, £.dd flavoring of half a tea- spoon of vanilla or lemon. This cake can be varied, each time making a new variety. It may we baked in shallow tins as jelly cake or Washington pie, or, with the addition of a large cup of stoned raisins to the flour, it be- comes fruit cake. Delicate Cake.— When making cocoanut-custard use the whites of the eggs as follows : One cup of white sugar ; five tablespoonfuls of butter ; the whites of six eggs ; one teacup of sweet milk ; three cups of prepared 222 RECIPES. flour, or to the same quantity of common flour add one teaspoonful of soda, and two of cream of tartar sifted in the flour. Flavor with orange, lemon or vanilla. Note. — So says Mrs. Beecher : " We would substitute a cupful of sweet, rich cream, instead of the milk and butter. Also, baking- powder instead of prepared flour, or soda and cream of tartar." We give in this connection a recipe for cocoanut custard, as the two can be more economically made at the same baking. Cocoanut Custard.— One pound of grated cocoanut ; cne pint of rich milk, and six ounces of sugar. Beat the yolks of six eggs and stir them into the milk with the nut and sugar. Put into a f aritia-kettle or small pail which you can set in a kettle of boiling water. Stir all the time till very smooth and thick ; as soon as it comes to a boil take off and pour into cups. Ground Rice-Ca Ike. —Break five eggs into a stew pan, which place in another, containing hot water; whip the eggs for ten minutes till very light ; mix in by degrees, half a pound of ground rice ; six ounces of pow- dered sugar; beat it well. Any flavor may bs introduced. Pour into a buttered pan and bake half an hour. MOLDED FARINACEA. Arrowroot.— Take four ounces of arrowroot, one quart of new milk, and four ounces of white sugar. Set a pint and a half of milk on the fire, adding the sugar; when boiling, put in the arrowroot, previously mixed till per- fectly smooth with half a pint of cold milk, and stir constantly till it has boiled three minutes; and pour it into a mold previously dipped in cold water. Barley.— Six ounces of Scotch barley; three pints and a half of water, and six ounces of sugar. Steep the barley twelve hours ; drain it, and pour the water, boiling, upon it; stew quickly in the oven in an earthenware j r, covered, till perfectly soft, and all the water is absorbed ; when about half enough boiled, add the sugar, and a few drops of pure lemon juice; pour it into a mold, and let it stand to set. When boiled quickly, the above quantity requires two hours and a half, and is a much better color than when it is longer in preparation. Molded Sago.— Take five tablespoonfuls of sago ; one fourth pound of sugar, and a little pure lemon juice. Steep the sago a quarter of an hour in half a pint of cold water. Pour on it one and a half pints of boiling- water, and boil the whole in an earthen vessel in the oven about one hour, occasionally stirring it. Pour into molds or basins, and let it stand. When cold, turn it out, and serve with stewed fruit. RECIPES. 223 Sago with Fruit.— Take four ounces of sago; half & pint of raspberry and currant juice (strained;, and six ounces of Joaf sugar. Wash the sago and steep it one hour in cold water ; strain off the water ; add the juice and boil gently a short time, stirring it occasionally, and adding the sugar, when clear, pour it into a mold; let it stand twelve hoars, and pour it on a flat dish. Tapioca.— Take three ounces of tapioca, two ounces of ground rice, one pint and a half of milk, and eight drops of almond-flavor. Wash the tapi- oca in water two or three times ; mix with the ground rice ; add half a pint of cold milk, and let it remain thirty minutes, then add the remainder of the milk, and simmer it half an hour, stirring well the whole time ; add the almond-flavor, and pour it into a mold previously dipped in cold water. Cracked Wheat.— For a quart of the cracked grain have two quarts of water boiling in a smooth iron pot over a quick fire; stir in the wheat slowly; boil fast and stir constantly for the first half hour of cooking, or until it begins to thicken and "pop up;" then lift from the quick fire and place the pot where the wheat will cook slowly an hour longer. Keep it covered closely, stir now and then, and be careful not to let it burn at the bottom. Wheat cooked thus is much sweeter and richer than when left to soak and simmer for hours, as many think necessary. White wheat cooes the easiest. When ready to dish out, have your molds moistened with coid water, cover lightly, and set in a cool place. A handful of raisins added to the wheat is a good addition. Eat warm or cold, with milk and sugar, or fruit. Cold Oatmeal and Cre a m.— Farinaceous foods ore absolutely neces- sary during all seasons of the year, but in hot weather they are more ac- ceptable if prepared the night b fore and placed on ice until wanted. Remember that imported oatmeal requires from one to two hours steady cooking to make it suitable, while the prepared or partly cooked oatmeal c.in be made ready for use in from fifteen to twenty minutes, besides hav- ing other advantages. If the former is used, proceed as follows: Stir gradually into two quarts of boiling water, slightly salted, a pound of oat- meal ; boil steadily, care being used not to let it burn, which it is liable to do, as the water evaporates rapidly. While hot pour it into an oatmeal dish; and when cool placD on ice. The next morning, loosen the edjies with a knife and turn it out. It may be eaten with cream, sugar or milk, as may be preferred . - C. Apricots with. Rice.— Wash a pint of rice thoroughly, scald it with hot water, drain and cool ; add to the rice a quart of rich milk, a quarter of a pound of sugar and a saltspoonful of salt ; simmer gently an hour. When done, beat it with a wooden spoon. Wet an oval mold with water, press t>.e rice into it and keep on ice until wanted. Cut a dozen apricots in h. lives, remove the stones and boil the apricots in a syrup made of a pound of sugar, a pint of water, and the juice of two lemons. Turn the rice on a glass dish, arrange the apricots around it, pour the syrup over all (when cold} and serve.— C. 224 RECIPES. Apples with Rice.— Wash a pint of rice thoroughly ; scald it with hot •water, drain and cool ; add to the rice a quart of rich milk, a quarter of a pound of sugar, and a saltspoonf ul of salt ; simmer gently an hour. When clone beat it with a wooden spoon. Wet an ova! mold with water; press the rice in it, and keep on ice until wanted. Peel, quarter and core five fine apples; put them in a stew pan with three half pints of water, tnree cloves, two slices of lemon, and half a pound of sugar (dissolve the sugar in the water first) ; simmer until the apples are tender but will not break when removed from the pan. When done let them cool, then arrange them around the rice which has been turned out of the mold, and turn the syrup over the rice.— C. A Nice Strawberry Dessert.— A nice dessert is made by filling coffee- cups loosely with strawberries, and pouring over them Graham-flour mush ; or instead, thicken sweet boiling milk to a consistency which is thin enough to fill the interstices between the berries, and yet thick enough to be firm when cool. Turn out and serve up, with cream and sugar. RECIPES FOR WHOLESOME AND DELICIOUS DRINKS. The necessity of providing varied wholesome and delicious beverages is quite as important as the provision of nutritious foods. Indeed, by such means the cause of temperance may be promoted quite as well as by any other method. Of course, water is the beverage which nature supplies in the greatest abundr _ice, and when pure and sparkling from spring or well, it is a perfect drink- Water for drinking purposes should be soft, well aerated, and free from all micro-organisms or solutions of animal or veget- able matter. Pure water promotes health in a remarkable manner, and it can rarely be indulged in by sick or well to their injury. That which con- tains the germs of disease, or sewerage, or impurities of various kinds, is a most dangerous drink. It is believed by many that the drinking of ice water is injurious. No doubt the taking of a large quantity of very cold water into the stomach wiaen one is overheated or exhausted, or when one does not generate heat rapidly and abundantly, is injurious. Such may, with advantage, use hot water. But moderately cold water, if pure, is a wholesome drink for healthy persons of all ages. The degree of temperature most suitable i3 that of deep well or spring water. Those who live in cities and are obliged to use the water provided, which in summer is quite warm, need not fear using sufficient pure ice to make its temperature such as will be agree- able. Ice water need not necessarily be as cold as the ice itself. The purity of the ice is as important as the purity of the water irseif. Water may be purified first by boiling. This kills any micro-organism in it, drives off poisonous gases, if there be any, and causes a considerable RECIPES. 225 part of the Carbonate of Lime in it to be deposited. To remove visible or mechanical impurities, only good niters should be used, but it is import- ant that they be kept cleau, otherwise about as much harm as good will result. Third, by distillation, which renders the water practically pure, soft, and free from all poisons. It may be aerated after distilling and cooled with ice. Fourth, by adding three or four drops of Sesqui- chloride of Iron to a gallon, and letting it stand a few hours in a large glass vessel. Not more than this should be added. The iron coagulates all organisms and other albuminous matter in the water aad falls to the bottom in a thick dark sediment carrying them with it. The iron does not remove the hardness, but the water otherwise is remarkably pure. Water at Meals.— Many hygienists object to drinking water at meals. If it is taken simply to wash down the food and thereby save the trouble of chewing it, this practice can only be condemned ; but no other harm can come from the drinking of pure water at meals. The idea, that it weakensi by dilution, the gastric juice, is not true. As the fluids of the food and the products of digestion are rapidly absorbed or passed on to the duoden- um, the addition of a small amount of soft water actually favors digestion, rather than retards it. So, a glass of water at the end of a meal, and an- other a half hour or so later, will often prove very beneficial. I will give here some results of recent labratory studies on the effects of temperature on digestion, which have a practical value. The normal tem- perature of the stomach is about 100°. It may be heightened or lowered slightly and temporarily by hot or cold drinks. At about 54°, digestion with pepsin practically ceases. A pint of ice water, if taken into the stom- ach during a meal, would reduce the temperature in a not very vigorous person so that at least a half hour's time, and perhaps more, would be re- quired to restore it. During this time digestion would not cease, but would go on more tardily than it ought to . Some experiments in artificial digestion show that at a temperature of 122° to 130° F. the digestion of albu- menoids proceeds at its maximum rate. Above 130° the rate diminishes, and at 145° it ceases altogether. Artificial digestion is about four times slower at 102° than at 105° F. From this we may infer that if the same law prevails in the stomach, hot water taken at meal times, would, slightly at least, facilitate digestion, and there is little doubt but that this is the case in delicate, bloodless persons whose powers of manufacturing heat are small. This may, to some extent, explain why hot drinks at meal-time are so universally sought by a large class of persons. The hot water cure for dyspepsia and many nervous diseases has its explanation here. As a gen- eral rule, people take their heartiest meal after their day's work is done. In the morning the stomach is weak, the mouth tastes badly and the appetite is capricious. A glass of hot water,taken a half-hour before breakfast, stim- ulates it, washes away the accumulated mucuous, and, raising the tempera- ture of the stomach above the normal, makes the gastric juice more active and digestion better. If the person, however, is strong, a glass of pure, soft, cold spring water will be quite as beneficial and act as a tonic, like a cold bath on the skin, and a good reaction after it. Which is prefer- 226 RECIPES. able must be decided by circumstances. For Set on the ice for immediate use, or heat and seal in cans. Pineapple ad e.— Pare and chop into small pieces one very ripe pine- apple ; put it in a pitcher and sprinkle with sufficient white sugar to make it palatable. Pour on boiling water, the quantity depending on the size of the pineapple, and set it on ice. Strain, add more sugar if needed, and serve cold. Raspberry Vinegar.— Over one quart of fresh raspberries in a stone vessel, pour a quart of good cider vinegar. At the end of two days, strain out the fruit and pour the vinegar over fresh berries, let it stand and strain again. To every pint of juice add a pound and a half of sugar. Use fresh, or seal in cans for summer drinks, or for flavoring. Strawberries or black- berries may be used in the same way. A Drink from Canned Strawberries.— A very delicious drink may be made from canned strawberries, water and sugar, when fresh fruit cannot be obtained. Blackberry Drink.— A delicious drink is made by stewing a pound of ripe blackberries in a quart of water, adding sufficient sugar to make the drink palatable, and pouring off the fluid. The berries may be eaten separ- ately • An equally pleasant drink may be made by stewing dried black- berries, and adding sugar to make it sufficiently sweet. The amount of •water and sugar may be decided bv the taste. Raspberry Drink.— Take fine red, ripe raspberries, crush them in a Sieve t and press out the juice, to each pint of which add a pint of syrup RECIPES. 231 made by boiling a pound of sugar in a pint of water, the scum being re- moved. When the syrup and juice are mixed, boil slowly for an hour, cool, bottle, cork and seal. When wanted, dilute with water to the right con- sistency. A delicious drink is quickly and cheaply made by stewing dried raspberries in water, adding sugar to make the drink palatable. It can be made of fresh berries by crushing them in a bowl, and adding sugar and water to taste. Children are fond of drinks made in this way, and the variety is almost endless. Cherry Drink.— Mash twelve or fifteen large sour cherries, stones and all, in a goblet, pour on water till the glass is two-thirds full; add loaf- sugar sufficient to suit the taste. This is a cooling summer beverage, and an excellent diuretic. Plum Water.— Pour over half a pound of plums and a quarter of an ounce of ginger (if approved), two quarts of water ; boil till pulped, strain, boil again, skim well, and bottle for use. Keep cool. Gooseberry Water.— Gooseberries, served in the same way, make a good drink. The proportions are: gooseberries, one pound; water, one gallon ; ginger, one-half ounce; sugar, three- fourths of a pound. Mixed Cur rant ade.— Mash one pound of ripe red currants with half a pound of ripe red raspberries ; add a half pound of sugar and a gallon of cold water. Let it settle, and it is ready for use. If it is desirable to bottle it, strain. Dried currants and dried raspberries may be used, and so may currant jelly, when more convenient. Pure Currantade.— Press the juice from ripe currants, strain, add to each pint of the juice a pound of best white sugar ; add cold water to taste. Dried currants may be used, and the drink made at all seasons of the year. Mild Ginger Beer.— To six gallons of pure soft water put eight pounds of loaf sugar, the whites of three eggs, well beaten, and three ounces of best ginger. Powder the ginger finely, and mix with a little water before adding it to the mass. Boil gently for three fourths of an hour, removing meantime the scum that rises to the surface. Let it cool, add the juice of three large lemons and a tablespoonf ul of yeast. Now put it in a cask and bung it very tightly, and let it stand for about ten days, when it will be fit to use. Rhubarb Tea.— Boil two pounds of rhubarb stalks well sliced, for an hour in a quart of water, strain into a pitcher, add the 3uice of one lemon, and sugar to taste after it is cold. Apple Tea.— Peel, core, and quarter two pounds of apples, boil for half an hour in a quart of water, strain the liquor into a pitcher, add the juice of one lemon and loaf sugar to taste. Dried apples may be used. Dried Apple Barley Water.— Boil one pound of clean dried apples in one gallon of water for an hour. Boil a quarter of a pound of pearl barley one hour. Strain off the juice of the apples, add the barley water, put it into uncorked bottles, and keep for use in a cool place. Apple Water.— Cut come very tart apples fine, pour over them boiling 232 RECIPES. water, and let them simmer gently for half an hour. Strain off the liquor and sweeten to taste. Fig Water.— Boil a quarter of a pound of best preserved figs with a half ounce of ginger in two quarts of water. When reduced to a pulp, strain off and bottle for use. Barley "Water.— Boil half a teacupful of the very best pearl barley in a quart of water till it is smooth, then strain it off into a mug, add the juice of a large lemon and loaf-sugar to the taste. The barley water should be strained through muslin before adding the lemon juice. Toast and Water, -Fill a quart pitcher with boiling water. Drop into it a slice of bread toasted very brown. Let it stand till cold. Remember, drop the bread in instead of pouring the water over it, otherwise it will be cloudy instead of clear. Fruit Juices.— The juice of the apple and pear, says Mr. Knight, may be used to great advantage in preparing beverages. He has frequently, he says, reduced it by boiling to the consistence of a weak jelly, in which state it has remained several years without the slightest apparent change, though intentionally exposed to variation of temperature. A large quantity of inspissated juice will take up but little space, and the addition of a few spoonfuls to a quart of water would at any time form a delicious, whole- some, refreshing drink, free from all intoxicating properties. Its cheap- ness would be greatly in its favor. On sea voyages it would be a great luxury. Capillaire.— Take fourteen pounds of sugar, break into it six eggs with the shells. Stir into it gradually three quarts of water. Set it over the fire and boil it, taking off the scum until only a light froth rises. Add one gill of orange-flower water, and two or three drops of vanilla ; strain through a jelly-bag, and when cold, bottle it, corking tightly. A wine glass in a tumbler of water is very refreshing. You may add to it slices of lemon, pineapple, crushed currants, or strawberries, as suits the taste and sea- son. Eau Sucre.— Water, with sufficient sugar to make it sweet, is a common beverage in France, and there considered very wholesome and refreshing. Ladies generally take it before bed time, for their complexions. Grape Drink.— This is one of the most delicious and refreshing drinks ever devised by thirsty mortals. It is made of nearly ripe grapes pounded, loaf-sugar, and water. It is strained until it becomes of the palest straw- colored amber, and then frozen. Delicious drinks may be made from grapes by stewing them with sugar and water. Grape Jam.— Pure grape jam pressed from the grapes and put on ice to cool, makes a very wholesome and nourishing drink. A couple of glasses of it, taken daily through the grape season, would be a mild form of the grape-cure, and benefit very many invalids. Grape growers often complain that they cannot dispose of their grape crops to be eaten, and consequently it must be made into wine to save it. RECIPES. 233 But one man in New York who sells grape juice during the season tells me the demand is so great that the entire surplus grape crop of the whole country might be disposed of this way," easily. ICES. Cream Sherbet.— Put the yolk of six eggs and a dessert-spoonful of orange-flower water into two quarts of cream . Boil it up once in a covered stew pan, then strain it. Add three-fourths of a pound of fine loaf-sugar and stir till dissolved. When cold set ii in ice, or freeze same as ice cream. Lemon Sherbet.— Dissolve a pound and a half of loaf-sugar in a quart of waler, take nine large lemons, wipe them clean, cut each in halves, squeeze them so as to get out both juice and some of the essence of the peel, stir into it the sugared water, strain and freeze the same as ice cream. Strawberry Sherbet.— Take one pound of best ripe strawberries, crush them to a smooth mass, then add three pints of water, the juice of one lemon, and a table-spoonful of orange-flower water. Let this stand three or four hours. Then put into another basin a pound of best refined sugar, stretch over it a cloth or napkin, and strain on the sugar and berries, squeezing out the juice as much as possible. Stir until the sugar is dis- solved, then strain again, and set on ice an hour before serving, in small tumblers. MILK. Milk is the natural food and drink of the young of all animals. It is secreted by a gland provided for the purpose by nature, directly from the serum of the blood, brought to the epithelia by the capillary vessels. Milk varies in composition, according to the breed of the animals, the season of the year, and the food they eat. The specific gravity of milk ranges from 1029 to 1033. Tt rarely goes much above this. Its average composition is as follows, with slight variations : Fat - - - - Caseine and Albumen Sugar - Ash - - - ■ Water - 3-50 4-75 4-00 .TO 88. C7 WOMAN. 40.1 7. CO 2.1 GOAT. 6.11 3-98 4.68 .79 84.48 234 RECIPES. Milk drawn in the afternoon is slightly richer than that drawn in the morning, and that drawn at the last of the milking is richer than that first drawn. Milk, while a suitable food for babes, is not sufficient for adults who work hard. Invalids may, however, be greatly benefited by using it. For them it should be taken as fresh from the cow as possible, and before it has had time to cool. The sugar in milk does not pass readily into alcoholic fermentation, as grape sugar does. Milk always curdles in the stomach, the whey consisting mainly of water, sugar, and mineral matter is quickly absorbed into the blood, and the gastric juice acting on the curd, reduces it to a fluid which is called a peptone, liberating the fat globules which were imprisoned in it. 'j hese coalesce and are passed on to the duodenum, where any undigested curd is digested, and the fat emulsionized. The dangers in the use of milk are the following : If the cow is unhealthy, the milk partakes of her disease. If she has consumption, as many cows do, her milk may convey its germs to the p3r3on drinking it, providing he is weakly, or takes them so abundant- ly that they cannot be digested before leaving the stomach. This dan- ger has no doubt been underestimated . Milk may take up and multiply the germs of contagious diseases, as scarlet fever, typhoid fever, etc., and be the means of causing them in the persons who drink it. Several epidemics have been traced to this source, and no doubt many others have been over- looked. If any person with contagious disease is employed about a dairy, it is a crime to allow the milk to be sold and used by innocent persons. As in the use of water, so in the use of milk, great care is necessary to procure that which is pure. Mothers who do not furnish sufficient milk for their babes may increase it by preparing a gruel from oatmeal and barley flours, mixed in the propor- tion of one-third of the former to two-thirds of the latter, with equal parts of milk and water, and drinking it freely two or three times a day. As soon as the child is three or four months old, it may take oatmeal cream in addition to the mother's milk, if this be insufficient. Oat Meal Cream.— One of my correspondents writes the following letter concerning oatmeal cream: " v\ hen my baby was five months old, for the sake of my own health, I weaned him from the breast. 1 gave him cream and water, with a little sugar. In two weeks' time his bowels were so constipated that I fully real- ized that some change must be made in his food. I, therefore, made oatmeal gruel by boiling oatmeal in about twice the usual quantity of water for an hour and a half or two hours. When properly cooked, I poured it through a fine sieve. The part which passed through was, when cold, of the consistency of jelly. Then, in a quart cup, I mixed one half pint of thin cream and oatmeal gruel— about one gill of each— added one teaspoon- ful of white sugar, and filled the measure nearly full of bciling water. This food he relished, and in everyway it agreed with him ; and if there ever was a child that grew any faster than mine did when fed with o itmeai and milk, I think it would be a wonder. People would say: ; Kow your RECIPES. 235 baby grows/ and in the same breath (when I told what his food was), would say: * Why. you'll starve him!' But by putting in less water I found it was too hearty, causing hirn to vomit: and once in possession of the key to my child's health nothing turned me aside. "My child is now a year aud a half old, his rood is three parts milk and one part gruel. He is very large, strong and active, has twelve teeth, weighs thirty pounds, and in all the time has not lost an ounce of flesh, even at the most trying time— warm weather. * k That I am enthusiastic in regard to oatmeal milk should not seem strange, and I wish, that, of the many mothers throughout the land, those who find it necessary to provide other than the natural food for their chil- dren, would try my recipe. They would find doctor's visits few and far between " Buttermilk.— Buttermilk is with many a favorite drink. I have found it to agree with persons of a feeble digestion when other foods did not. It contains much nourishment, as the following table from Pavy, shows : Nitrogenous matter 4.1 Fatty matter 0.7 Lactine 6.4 Salts 0.8 Water 88.0 Buttermilk is well adapted to the corpulent, on account of the small amount of fat in it, and is a favorite remedy with some for Diabetes. TEA, 1. Tea is not nutritious. The milk and sugar put into the cup to give it flavor are foods. 2. Nearly all teas, whatever their price or name, are about of equal value, so far as their physiological effects are concerned. The higher priced sorts have, however, a much more delicate flavor, and for this reasou, are pre- ferred. 3. Tea should, when used, be weighed rather than measured, as some kinds weigh more to the teaspoonful than others. Oolong, for instance, weighs 40 grains to the teaspoonful, Congou weighs 87, and Gunpowder tea weighs 125. THE EFFECTS OF TEA, 1. Tea increases the amount of carbonic acid expired from the lungs. 2, It increases the volume of air inspired, but not the rapidity of respir- ation, consequently it must increase the depth of breathing. 236 PRECIPES. 3. Tea produces perspiration, especially if taken quite hot. 4. Tea excites to increased action the muscular system. 5. Tea powerfully excites the nervous system. The points enumerated accord with the experience of tea- drinkers, and if the subject were dropped here, the impression would be very favora- ble to the use of this beverage. There is, however, another matter to be considered. It has been found that tea is not nutritious, and that it actually increases the waste of the system. From this it may be inferred that tea is not a good drink for those who are dyspeptic and nervous, or those in which the waste of tissue is already more rapid than the supply. Dr. Ed- ward Smith puts it in this way : ** Tea increases waste, since it promotes the transformation of food without supplying any nutriment, and increases the loss of heat without supplying fuel. It is, therefore, specially adapted to those who eat too much, when the processes of assimilation should be quickened, but is less adapted to the poor, the ill-fed, and during fasting." Dr. Smith says, tea produces : 1. A sense of wakefulness. 2. Clearness of mind and activity of thought and imagination. 3. Increased disposition to make exertion. 4. Keaction, with a sense of exhaustion following the preceding effects and in proportion to them. Analysis of Tea.— The active principle of tea is a substance called theine. One hundred parts of tea contain : Volatile oil Chlorophyi Wax Resin Gum Tannin Theine Extractive matter Coloring matter. . . Albumen Wood fiber ... . . . . Hyson. Green. 0-79 2 22 28 2-22 8 53 17-80 1-08 22'80 2360 300 17-08 Congou. Black. 1 3 7 12 3 21 19 2 283 The Effecis of Tea on Digestion. The effects of tea on digestion have been very carefully studied by Sir William Roberts, M. D., F. R. S., and the results arrived at are exceedingly important. Tea retards in a marked manner salivary digestion, or the di- gestion of starch. Taking 4 minutes as the normal time for digesting RECIPES. 237 starch in a digestine mixture free from tea, one per cent, of tea, it required 8 minutes, with 2 per cent. 30 minutes, with 3 per cent. 50 minutes, with 5 per cent. 180 minutes, and with 10 per cent, there was no digestion of the starch. The cause of the inhibition of starch digestion by tea is due entirely to its tannin, of which good tea contains a large amount. The tannin exists in two states, a free and a fixed state. A large portion of it is in the free state, in which it is as soluble as sugar, and no matter how short a time it is steeped, this free tannin is dissolved. The fixed tannin remains in the leaves even after a long steeping. To minimize the effects of tea on starch digestion, it should be taken weak and at the end of the meal, after the conversion of the starch has been completed. The effects of tea on the digestion of albumen by the gastric juice, has been carefully studied. If we take 100 minutes as the time for the normal gastric digestion of albumen under fixed laboratory conditions, then 10 per cent, of tea at 5 per cent, strength, delays it only 15 minutes; but, if 20 per cent, of tea be used, thea digestion will be delayed 40 minutes. There was no difference in the effects of the tea, whether steeped 2, 3, 5, or 30 minutes. Taking tea at the last part of the meal does not prevent its retarding effects on the digestion of albumen. These experiments, of course, were made in the laboratory, where the processes of nature were closely imitated, but in the stomach they would be modified by the rapid absorption of the tea into the circulation. From what is now known, tea, if taken strong, cannot fail to be a prolific source of indigestion, and also the many headaches with which so many civilized human beings are tormented. PRACTICAL HINTS CONCERNING XHE USE OF" TEA, 1. Whoever uses tea should use it weak and in moderation. 2. It should be taken during the last part of a meal, so as not to interfere with the digestion of the starch, but not before eating, or between meals, or on an empty stomach. 3. Those who suffer with weak nerves, should not use tea. 4. Those who are troubled with inability to sleep at night, should not use tea, except in the morning. 5- Brain workers should not goad their brains to overwork by the use of tea. 6. Dyspeptics should avoid its use. 7. Children should not use it. 8. The overworked and underfed should not use tea. 9. It is better without milk and sugar. 10. Its use should be at once abandoned when harm comes from it 9 238 RECIPES. Tea Drunkards.— One word seems necessary in regard to tea drunkards. Their number is legion ; they are of both sexes, but there are more women than men. Instead of using it in moderation, or as an occasional bever- age, they take it three or more times a day, in quantities that are incom- patible with health . They are as much slaves to the teapot as the drunkard is to his bottle. They are tea drunkards. Tea, in anything but modera- tion, is a poison capable of ruining the stomach, enfeebling and disordering the heart's action, shattering the nerves, and ruining the health. A tea drunkard may be denned as one who drinks strong tea several times a day, who depends on it instead of food and rest for strength, and who cannot go without it without bringing on distressing symptoms. COFFEE. 0*80 Caffeine Caff etannate of Caffeine and Potassium 3"50 to 5*00 Ash... 6*70 Viscid and Aromatic Oils 0*003 The active principle of coffee is called caffeine. It composition is as follows : Cellulose 34*00 Water 12*00 Fat 10*00to 13*00 Glucose, dextrine and organic acids ... 15*50 Legumen, Cusein and other nitrogenous substances 13*00 Caffeine is analogous to theine in composition. Coffee produces effects very similar to tea, and the. same general rules are applicable for its use. It, like tea, powerfully effects the respiration, in- creasing the quantity of carbonic acid expired and air inspired. Coffee differs from tea in its effects by increasing the rate of respiration but not its depth, and by increasing the rate of pulsation, and diminishing the action of the skin. Those who suffer with a dry skin, palpitation of the heart, or other forms of heart disease, are particularly liable to harm from the continued use of coffee. It is more suited to the wants of the poor and debilitated than tea, and it is more appropriate for the breakfast meal than afterwards. Its effects on digestion have been experimentally and carefully tested by Sir William Roberts, with the following results: One per cent, of coffee, 5 per cent, strength, 4 minutes being the normal time, retards salivary digestion 4 minutes. Up to 20 per cent, there was no more retardation in the digestion of starch than this, showing that it has much less retarding effect than tea. The effects, however, on gastric digestion were not different from those of tea, as has been stated pre- viously. The strong black coffee given at the end of the meal with all elaborate din- ners, and especially in French restaurants to promote digestion, in labora- RECIPES. 239 tory experiments actually retards it. If there is any reason why the same effects are not produced in the stomach, they are at present unknown. COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. Cocoa and chocolate have, for their active principle, theobromine, a sub- stance very similar in its effects to caffeine and theine. The formula for theabromine isC7. H8. N4. 02. The analysis of the cacao bean gives in 100 parts : Theobromine 0.56 Cacao , 6.61 Cacao butter 36.97 Gluten 3.20 Starch.... 0.55 Gum 0.69 Extractive matter 4.14 Humicacid 7.25 Woody Matter 30.00 Salts 3.00 Water 6.01 Dr. Edward Smith says of cocoa : " Its action is less exciting- to the ner- vous system than tea or coffee, and at the same time it contains a much larger portion of nutritive material. Boiled in milk, it may produce a most agreeable and nutritious food, and for very many persons is greatly to be preferred to tea or coffee." Cocoa affects salivary or starch digestion in the same way that coffee does, or only slightly ; of equal strength its effects on gastric digestion are about the same as tea and coffee, but as it is rarely used so strong as these drinks, its general effect upon digestion is only slight. Cocoa is a very rich drink, and, if taken continuously, produces heavi- ness and dullness, consequently it is better when such effects are noticed, to cease using it for a time. APPENDIX. TABLE I. Blythe. Percentage Composition of Various Animal Flesh or Meat. Water. Nitro- genous sub- stances. Fat. Nitrogen free ex- tractive matter. Ash. Bacon fat, salted and dried ( minimum . Beef, (fat) ■] maximum . ( mean . minimum maximum mean Beef, (moder- ately fat) Beef, (lean) Mutton minimum maximum ; mean Fowl . . . Hare .... Kidney, (Sheep's). . ( very fat 1 moderately fat Pig's Liver .... ( minimum . Pork, (fat) -J maximum ( mean ( minimum Pork, flean) -j maximum ( mean. Tripe .... i (lean) . Eggs, (hen's) Egg albumen (white) . Egg, yelk of (yellow) 13*9 3249 73-50 54-76 68*50 78-00 72*25 75-21 78-16 76*71 70*82 74*16 78-60 47*91 74-79 72*37 40-27 54-63 47*40 69-32 76-14 72-18 67*1 72*31 78*82 73'67 86-49 50.79 9-0 74.1 10-87 5-80 19-94 56 11 26*93 27 23 16-99 100 25-03 986 21*39 519 20*18 061 22*17 346 20-61 150 22-65 311 233 23*34 113 019 16*56 3 33 021 14-80 36 39 005 1811 5'77 18-65 566 181 1255 28-03 16-58 46 71 14-54 3734 17*32 373 24*47 11-77 19*91 681 13-3 17 1 18*88 7 41 0-07 19-86 0-82 12-55 035 1T67 025 16-24 3175 013 30 075 153 108 075 20.2 117 114 120 118 109 118 130 085 1 33 1-51 047 107 0-72 098 164 110 2-50 1-33 050 112 059 1-09 24:2 APPENDIX. TABLE II. Percentage Composition of Fish. — — Water. Nitro- genous sub- stances. Fat. Nitro- gen free and ex- tractive matter. 1 | Ash. i 1 Codfish .... 77*50 1850 3-00 J -oo Eels . . 79*91 13-57 5*02 0*£9 1*13 Gudgeon .... 76'89 17*37 268 3*44 f fresh . 80-71 10-11 711 2*07 Herrings \ salted . 47*12 18*97 16*67 17-31 L smoked 69-13 21*12 8-51 1-24 Lamprey .... 51*21 20*18 25 59 1*61 1*41 ( fresh . Mackerel < ( salted 68*27 48*43 23*42 20*82 6*76 14*10 0*38 1-55 16*27 Oyster .... 89*69 4*95 0*37 2*62 2'37 Pike 77*37 19*86 0*79 1-60 0*38 Salmon .... 71*50 1875 6*22 295 0*08 Sardine (preserved) 51*77 22*30 221 23*72 Skate 73*79 24*03 0*47 T71 Sole 86*14 11*94 0*25 0*45 1-22 Sprat , 59*89 22*73 1594 0*98 0-46 Whiting .... 82*95 15*09 0*38 0*50 1*08 APPENDIX. 243 TABLE III. Percentage Composition of Milk, Cheese and other Dairy Products. Casein ""■ """■""" Water. and albumen Fat. Milk- sugar. Ash. Milk 87*55 3-41 3 64 469 071 Skim milk 90*11 3-37 046 5*34 0*72 Cream .... 28-58 14.} 67 6J 2-25 0x2 ( 1-77 / Devonshire cream . 28-68 405 65-C1 -j (La «*tic > 0*49 acid 32) ) Buttermilk - . 90-62 3-78 125 338 f Milk' 065 Condensed milk (pre- j j sugar served with the addi- V 24-42 1033 902 J 12-64 j (Cane " 1*93 tion of cane sugar) . ) suQ^ar 1 Condensed milk (without I any addition) . . ) 48-59 17*81 15*67 I. 41*66 J 253 3500 Butter .... 1414 0*86 8311 0-70 1*19 Butterine . . . 1--01 0*74 82-03 5-22 CHEESE. 1. Soft Cheeses. Fromage de Brie 51*87 18-80 24*83 500 Camembert 51-30 19-00 21-50 3-50 4*70 Roquefort (fresh) . 11-84 85-43 1 85 | Lactic acid 88 [ 11*84 American cheese . 22*59 87-20 35-41 480 Cheddar cheese 27-83 44*47 24*04 366 Dunlop cheese 33-46 25-87 31*86 3*81 Gloucester (single) . 2141 49- 12 25*88 4-09 Stilton (fresh) 32-18 2431 37-36 2*22 3*93 Gruycre .... 34*68 3141 28*93 1-13 3*85 Gorgonzola . 43*56 24-17 27 95 4*32 Parmesan . • 27.56 44 08 1595 6*69 5*72 m cheese . 48-02 3265 8*41 6*80 4*12 2U APPENDIX, TABLE IV. Percentage Composition of Various Flours and Leguminous Meals. Nitro- Water. genous sub- stances. Fat. • Starch, &c. Woody- fibre. Ash. 1. Meal. Barley meal 15-06 11-75 171 70-90 o-ii 047 Buckwheat meal . 1427 9-28 189 72-46 0*89 121 Maize Oatmeal . 10*46 15*50 6.11 63-67 2*24 202 Bye meal . 14*24 10*97 195 69*74 1-62 148 Wh eaten flour (fine) 14-86 8' 91 111 74*18 0-33 061 " " (seconds) 12*18 11-27 122 73*65 0-84 0*84 2. Starch. . Arrowroot 16*52 C-88 82*41 019 Maize starch . 11-90 2*37 85*30 43 Sago ... 12*89 0-81 86-11 019 Tapioca . 133 0*63 85*95 012 Wheat starch . 11-30 1-12 87-05 53 Macaroni (stars) . 14*01 8-69 032 76*49 49 M (pipe) 1586 8-19 29 75*06 60 3. Leguminous Seeds. Beans (fresh & green) 86-10 4-67 030 6-eo 1-69 064 " (dried) . 14-84 23-66 1 63 49-25 7*47 315 Peas (green) . 80-49 575 050 10.86 1-60 80 " (dried) . 14-31 22-63 172 53'24 5*45 265 " (shelled) . 1273 21-12 0*82 60*94 2-64 1-75 Pea meal (dried) . 8*12 28-10 297 50-17 1 a 1 ' 20 ' 1 •< Sugar f I 6-82 J 54-78 8*02 255 Kidney beans . 88-36 2'77 14 1-14 057 Lentils . 12-51 24 81 185 3-58 247 Millet . . . 11.26 11*29 3 56 67-33 4-25 231 APPENDIX. TABLE V. Pekcentage Composition of Succulent Vegetables. Water o » © s Fat. Carbohydrates. Woody fibre. Sugar. O 1 C20 Ash. 1* Hi Asparagus 9333 1-98 0*28 0-40 2-34 1-14 0*54 Beet i common • 1 sugar . 87'88 1-07 011 6*55 2-43 1-02 0*94 83 91 2-08 O'll 9*31 2-41 1-14 1-04 Cabbages 89-97 1*89 0*20 2-29 2-58 1-84 1-23 Carrots 87-05 1-04 0*21 6*74 2-60 1-46 0*90 C "^ & • . 81-57 4-64 0*79 1*26 7-87 1-41 2*46 89-57 0-88 0-34 0-62 5-94 1-24 1*41 Cauliflower . 90*39 2*53 0-38 1*27 3*74 0-87 0*82 f dried and { Chicory^ roasted f 10 69 6*29 1-52 15*54 55-00 6*11 4*85 I fresh . 75 69 1*01 0*49 3*44 17*62 0-97 0*78 Cucumber 95 60 1*02 0*09 0*95 1-33 0*62 0*39 Gar lick (leaves and I stalks • J 90-82 2-10 0*44 0-81 3-74 1-27 0*83 Horse-radish • 76-72 2*73 0-35 15 89 2*78 1*53 Lettuce • • 94-33 1-41 0*31 2-19 0*73 1-03 Onions (bulbs) . 6466 6*76 0*06 26-31 0*77 1-44 Parsley • 85-05 366 0-22 0'75 6*69 1-45 1-68 Potatoes . 75-77 1-79 0*16 20*56 0-75 0*97 Radishes 9334 1*23 0*15 0-88 2-91 0*75 0*74 Savoys 87-09 3*31 0-71 1-29 4-73 1-23 1*64 Spinach . 90 26 3*15 0*54 0-08 3*26 0-77 1-94 Turnips 85-01 2*95 0.22 0*40 8*45 1*76 1-21 Water-melon 95 21 1-06 0-60 0-27 1-16 1-07 0-63 246 APPENDIX. TABLE VI. Percentage Composition of Fruits. Cellu- lose and seeds Almonds Apple . Apricot . Bilberry , Blackberry Chestnut . Cherry . + Cocoa nut, solid part Currant, . Damson Figs (as sold) Filberts Gooseberries Grapes Mulberries Oranges Peach Pears . Plums 6-5G 1 296 1*98 031 5*27 0'82 12-29 1-02 5'21 0'48 1'61 172 6-07 073 ? 1*55 0-72 0.71 r 0-42 0*53 0-49 0-69 31 0C6 Raisins Raspberries . Strawberries • Walnuts * ■ .. • " * The free acid which gives the .sourness to fruits lis different ; in Mtennt fruits. The chief free acid of the ^^.V^VUim^ ^gS^SsaSSlemoiiB. ttSff^tSSSSSSmWSSE Vh. acidity is due to a m «al°ut r iX^ nitrogen-free extractive matters 6-78, ash 1U per cent. 681 * O * ' * . / ^ . . ■ Hi 1 HM i HfflwHi WMW rub 1 HHH \Ng\ Bj IBSH