CHAPTER I.

ON SELECTING FOOD AND DRINKS WITH REFERENCE TO HEALTH.

A work has recently been republished in this country, entitled, “_A Treatise on Food and Diet; by Dr. J. Pereira. Edited by Dr. Charles A. Lee_.” “The author of this work,” says Dr. Lee, “is well known throughout Europe and America, as one of the most learned, scientific, and practical men of the age;--a physician of great experience and accurate observation, and a highly successful writer. To the medical profession he is most favorably known as the author of the best work on the Materia Medica which has appeared in our language.”

This work contains the principles discovered by Leibig, Dûmas, and Brossingault, and applies them practically to the subject of the proper selection of food. All the opinions, expressed in what follows, are sanctioned by the above work, by Dr. Combe, and by most of the distinguished practitioners of our age and country.

In selecting food, with reference to health, the following principles must be borne in mind.

First, that there are _general rules_ in regard to healthful food and drink, which have been established, not by a few, but by thousands and thousands of experiments, through many ages, and in an immense variety of circumstances. It is these _great principles_, which must be the main dependance of every mother and housekeeper, to guide her in selecting healthful food and drinks for her children and family. These rules are furnished by medical writers and practitioners.

Secondly, there are occasional exceptions to these general rules, and when such occur, two errors should be avoided. One is, giving up all confidence in the deductions of a wide experience, established by extensive experiments, and assuming that we have no rules at all, and that every person must follow the guidance of mere appetite, or his own limited experience. The other is, making the exception into a general rule, and maintaining that every person must conform to it.

For example, it is found by general experience, that milk is a very safe and healthful article of food, and that alcoholic drinks are very unhealthful. But there are cases which seem to be exceptions to this rule; for some children never can eat milk without being made sick, and there are cases known where men have lived to a very advanced age and in perfect health, who have daily used alcoholic drinks, even to the point of intoxication.

Still, it is very unwise to throw away the general rule and say, that it is just as well for children to drink alcoholic drinks as to use milk,--and as unwise to claim that every person must give up the use of milk because a few are injured by it.

The true method is, to take the general rules obtained by abundant experience for our guide, and when any exceptions are found, to regard them _as exceptions_, which do not vacate the general rule, nor make it needful to conform all other cases to this exception.

It will be the object of what follows, to point out the _general rules_, which are to regulate in the selection of drinks and diet, leaving it to each individual to ascertain, by experiments, what are, and what are not the exceptions.

In the first place, then, it is a general rule that man needs a _variety_ of aliment, so that it is unfavorable to health to be confined to only one kind of food.

The various textures of the human body are composed of chemical compounds, which differ from each other, both as to ingredients, and as to modes of combination. It is true, that every portion of the body may be resolved to a few simple elements, of which oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen are the chief. But the bodily organs have not the power of forming all the various animal tissues from these simple elements. Instead of this, they must be introduced into the body in various complex and different combinations, as they exist in the forms of gluten, fibrine, albumen, caseine, and other animal and vegetable compounds.

Thus the sugar, starch, and oils, found in certain kinds of food, supply the carbon which sustain the combustion ever carried on in the lungs by the process of breathing, and which is the grand source of animal heat. On the contrary, the blood, muscles, skin, cartilages, and other parts of the body, are daily nourished and renewed, some by the _gluten_ contained in wheat, others by the _albumen_ of eggs, others by the _caseine_ of milk, and others by the _fibrine_ of animals. All these are found in a great variety of articles used as food. When received into the stomach, the organs of digestion and assimilation prepare, and then carry them, each to its own appropriate organ, and then the excreting organs throw off the surplus.

In order, then, to have every portion of the body properly developed, it is necessary to take such a variety of food, that from one source or another, every organ of the body shall be sustained by its appropriate nourishment. The experiments which prove this, have been conducted on a great scale, and the method and results are detailed in the work of Dr. Pereira.

This fact exhibits one cause of the craving, sometimes felt for certain kinds of food, which usually is the call of nature for some ingredient, that the daily round of aliment does not supply. The statistics furnished in the work of Dr. Pereira, from various armies, prisons, almshouses, and asylums, show, that, where many hundreds are fed on the same diet, the general health of the multitude is better sustained by a considerable variety and occasional changes, than by a more restricted selection. Experiments on dogs and other animals, also, have been tried on a large scale, which prove that there is _no_ kind of food, which, alone, will preserve full and perfect health; while every kind (except the food containing _gluten_, which is the chief ingredient of wheat and other bread-stuffs), when given exclusively, eventually destroys life. The exclusive use of wheat bread and potatoes, as found by experiment, will sustain life and health more perfectly, for a great length of time, than any other kinds of food.

The above fact is a striking exhibition of the beneficence of Providence, in providing such an immense variety of articles of food. And no less so is the instinct of appetite, which demands not only a variety, but is wearied with one unchanging round.

Having ascertained that it is needful to health, that a due variety of food should be secured, we next proceed to examine the principles that are to guide us in the selection.

It is found that the articles used for food and drink may be arranged in the following classes:—

First, articles that furnish no other stimulation to the animal functions than is secured by the fresh supply of nutrition. All food that nourishes the body, in one sense, may be called stimulating, inasmuch as it imparts renewed energies to the various bodily functions. In this sense even bread is a stimulant. But the more common idea attached to the word stimulant is, that it is a principle which imparts a speed and energy to the organs of the system above the ordinary point secured by perfect and appropriate nourishment. The first class, then, are those articles that serve to nourish and develop perfectly every animal function, but do not increase the strength and speed of organic action above the point of full nourishment. The bread-stuffs, vegetables, fruits, sugar, salt, acid drinks, and water are of this class.

Secondly, those articles, which serve to nourish perfectly all the animal system, and at the same time increase the strength and speed of all functional action. All animal food is of this class. All physiologists and medical men agree in the fact, that the pulse and all the organs of the body, are not only nourished, but are quickened in action by animal food, while speed and force are reduced by confining the diet to farinaceous, vegetable, and fruit diet.

Thirdly, those articles which impart no nourishment at all to the body, but act solely to stimulate all the organs to preternatural action. Alcoholic drinks, condiments, and aromatic oils are of this description.

Fourthly, articles that are neither nourishing nor stimulating, but pass out of the system entirely undigested and unassimilated. The bran of coarse bread is an example.

Fifthly, articles that, either from their nature or modes of combination and cooking, are difficult of digestion, unhealthful, and, of course, tend to weaken the organic powers by excessive or unnatural action. Animal oils, either cooked or rancid, and many articles badly cooked, are of this kind.

NOURISHING AND UNSTIMULATING FOOD.

The following presents a list of the articles which are found to be healthful and nourishing, and not stimulating, except as they supply the nourishment needed by the various bodily functions.

The first and most important of these are called the _farinaceous_ substances. Of these, wheat stands at the head, as the most nutritive, safe, and acceptable diet to all classes and in all circumstances. This can be used in the form of bread, every day, through a whole life, without cloying the appetite, and to an extent which can be said of no other food.

Wheat is prepared in several forms, the principal of which are the common Fine Wheat Flour, the Unbolted, or Graham Flour, and Macaroni, Vermicelli, and Cagliari Pastes. The last are flour paste prepared, or cut into various shapes and dried.

Wheat flour is made into bread of two kinds, the fermented, or spongy breads, and the unfermented, or hard breads.

The spongy breads are made by using either yeast, or the combination of an acid and alkali. In yeast bread, the fermentation of the particles of diffused yeast evolve carbonic acid. This expands the flour in a spongy form, in which it is retained by the tenacity of the gluten of the flour, until baking hardens it. Corn meal and some other bread-stuffs cannot be raised thus, because they do not contain gluten sufficient to hold the carbonic acid as it evolves.

When an alkali and acid are used to raise bread, their combination evolves carbonic acid by a more sudden process than the yeast fermentation. The lightness produced by eggs is owing to their adhesive porosity when beaten and mixed with flour and baked.

Bread is also made of rice, rye, Indian meal, and barley. These varieties of bread-stuffs are useful in various ways. In cases when persons are troubled with looseness of bowels, rice bread, rice gruel, and rice water for drink, prevent the necessity of resorting to medicine. In cases where the opposite difficulty exists, a diet of unbolted wheat, or rye mush with salt and molasses will remedy the evil. These articles also can, all of them, be formed into a great variety of combinations that are at once healthful, and acceptable to the palate.

The next class of healthful and unstimulating articles are the _amylaceous_, or _starchy_ articles of diet. Of these Sago, Tapioca, Arrow Root, and the Lichens, are those in most frequent use. These are nourishing and remarkably easy of digestion. They are very much used for invalids, and for young children when first weaned.

The next most valuable articles of food are the _vegetables_. Of these the Potato is at once the most healthful, and most universally relished. In the form of Starch, it makes, when cooked, a light and agreeable article for the sick, and is convenient to housekeepers as forming a fine _minute pudding_ to meet an emergency.

Of the great variety of vegetables that are furnished at market, or from our gardens, almost all are palatable and healthful to a stomach that is strong. Peas, Beans, Onions, and cooked Cabbage and Turnips, usually are not good for persons whose powers of digestion have been weakened.

The next most valuable articles of food are _the Fruits_. Almost all kinds of fruit, _when fully ripe_, are healthful to those who are not suffering from weakness of digestion. Grapes, Apples, Peaches, Strawberries, Raspberries, and Currants, are least likely to prove injurious. The skins and seeds of all fruits consist of woody matter, that is perfectly undigestible, and should never be taken in large quantities. It is the skins and seeds of the grape that make raisins so often injurious to young children. If the skins and stones can be removed, nothing can be found that is more safe and healthful, in moderate quantities, than raisins and grapes.

The next articles of healthful unstimulating food are the _Saccharine substances_, Sugar, Molasses, and Honey. On this point, Dr. Pereira remarks, “The injurious effects which have been ascribed to sugar are more imaginary than real. The fondness of children for saccharine substances may be regarded as a natural instinct; since nature, by placing it in the mother’s milk, evidently intended it to form a part of their nourishment. Instead, therefore, of repressing this appetite for sugar, it ought rather to be gratified _in moderation_. The popular notion, of its having a tendency to injure the teeth, is totally unfounded. During the sugar season of the West Indies, every negro on the plantations, every animal, and even the dogs, grow fat. And no people on earth have finer teeth than the negroes of Jamaica. It is probable that this erroneous notion has been propagated by frugal housewives, in order to deter children from indulging in an expensive luxury. Sugar is readily digested by a healthy stomach. In dyspeptics, it is apt to give rise to flatulence and acidity of stomach.”

These remarks, without other considerations, may lead to erroneous conclusions. There is no doubt that both children and adults are often injured by the use of sugar, but it is not because it is unhealthful in its nature, but because it is used in excess or in an improper manner. In the “Domestic Economy,” pg. 105, it is shown that _highly concentrated_ food is not favorable to digestion, because it cannot be properly acted on by the muscular contractions of the stomach, and is not so minutely divided as to enable the gastric juice to act properly. Now Sugar, Candy, and the like, are highly concentrated nourishment, and should not be used except when mixed with other food. The reason, then, why children are injured by sugar is, that they eat it too frequently, in too large quantities, and unmixed with other food. A stick or two of pure candy, eaten with crackers or bread, never would injure any healthy child. It is too often the case, that candies are mixed with unhealthful coloring matter, or with nuts and other oily substances, that make them injurious.

The next article of healthful, unstimulating food, is _jellies_ and _preserved fruits_. As it has been shown that uncooked fruits and sugar are both healthful, it may not seem surprising that jellies and fruits cooked in sugar, when eaten moderately, with bread or crackers, are regarded as among the most nourishing and healthful of all aliments. When they prove injurious, it is owing either to the fact that they are taken alone, or with rich cream, or else are taken in too great quantities. Eaten moderately, as a part of a meal, they are safe and nourishing to all, except persons of poor digestion. Healthful stomachs need not be governed by rules demanded by the invalid, which has too often been attempted.

The preceding presents a vast variety of articles suitable for food, containing in abundance all the principles demanded for the perfect development of all the animal functions, and which physiologists and medical men unitedly allow to be healthful. These can be combined by the cook in an endless variety of agreeable dishes, involving no risk to a healthful stomach, when taken in proper quantities and in a proper time and manner.

NOURISHING AND STIMULATING FOOD.

The second general division of food, embraces articles which serve perfectly to nourish and develop every animal organ, but, at the same time, increase the speed and strength of all functional action beyond the point which is attained by the system, when fully and perfectly nourished by vegetables, fruits, and bread-stuffs. There is no dispute among physiologists and physicians as to the fact, that animal food produces chyle which is more stimulating to the various organs, than that which is formed from an exclusive vegetable diet. The only question debated is, whether this increase of stimulus is favorable, or unfavorable to health and long life.

Those who maintain that it is unfavorable, say, that all other things being equal, that machine must wear out the soonest which works the fastest; that, it is proved, both by analysis and by facts, that a vegetable diet contains every principle needed for the perfect development of the whole bodily system, as much so as animal food; and that the only difference is the _stimulation_ in the animal food, which makes the system work faster, and of course, wear out sooner.

To this it is replied, that the exact point of stimulation, which is most safe and healthful, cannot be determined, and that it is as correct to assume, that to be the proper medium, which is secured by a mixed diet, as to assume that the proper point is that, which is secured by an exclusive vegetable diet. Moreover, the fact that the teeth and digestive organs of man, which seem to be fitted both for vegetable and animal food, and the fact that the supplies of food on the earth make it needful to adopt sometimes animal, and sometimes vegetable diet, and sometimes a mixture of both, furnish an _à priori_ argument in favor of a mixed diet.

In deciding which kinds of animal food are most healthful, several particulars are to be regarded. The flesh of young animals is more tender than that of the old ones, but yet they usually are not so easily digested. Beef, and Mutton, and Venison, when tender, are considered the meats which are most easily digested, and best for weak stomachs. Venison is more stimulating than Beef and Mutton. These meats, when tough, are not so easily digested as when tender.

All meats are made more tender and digestible by hanging.

Solid meats, properly cooked, are more easily digested than soups and broths. For it is found that these liquids are never digested till the water is absorbed, leaving a solid mass more undigestible than was the solid meat. When useful to invalids, it is because they supply the loss of the withdrawn fluids of the body, but not because more easily digested. The white meats, such as Chicken and Veal, are best for invalids, because less stimulating than dark meats.

Liver contains so much oil that it is not good for invalids or dyspeptics.

The digestibility and healthfulness of meat depends very much upon the mode of cooking. Boiled meats are most easily digested, when _properly_ boiled. Roasting, broiling, and baking, are healthful modes of cooking, but _frying_ is a very pernicious mode of preparing meats, the reason of which will be explained hereafter.

Though there is a disagreement of opinion among practitioners and physiologists, as to the propriety of using any animal food, they are all agreed in regard to certain general principles that should regulate its use. They are as follows:--Less animal food should be used in warm climates than in cold, and less, also, in summer than in winter. The reason of this is, that heat is stimulating to the system, and as meat diet is also stimulating, when heat increases, meat, as a diet, should decrease, or fevers may ensue.

Another principle is, that the proportions of meat diet should depend somewhat on the constitution and circumstances. When a person is of full habit, or inclined to inflammatory attacks of any kind, the proportion of animal food should be much less than in other cases.

On the contrary, when there is a state of the system that demands gentle stimulus, an increase of meat diet is sometimes useful.

Persons subject to cutaneous eruptions are sometimes entirely cured by _long_ abstinence from animal food, and all kinds of oily substances.

FOOD THAT STIMULATES WITHOUT NOURISHING.

The articles which come under this head, are usually called _the condiments_. In regard to these, Dr. Pereira remarks,—

“The relish for flavoring, or seasoning ingredients, manifested by almost every person, would lead us to suppose that these substances serve some useful purpose beyond that of merely gratifying the palate. At present, however, we have no evidence that they do. They stimulate, but do not seem to nourish. The volatile oil they contain is absorbed, and then thrown out of the system, still possessing its characteristic odor.”

The articles used for food of this kind, are the _sweet herbs_ employed for seasoning, such as Thyme, Summer Savory, and the like, and the _spices_, such as Cloves, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Pepper, and Ginger. Mustard, Horseradish, Water Cresses, Garlic, and Onions, contain these stimulating oils, combined with some nourishing food.

“Condiments,” says Dr. Beaumont, “particularly those of a spicy kind, are non-essential to the process of digestion in a healthy state of the system. They afford no nutrition. Though they may assist the action of a debilitate stomach for a time, their continual use never fails to produce an indirect debility of that organ. They affect it as alcohol and other stimulants do--the _present_ relief afforded is at the expense of _future_ suffering. Salt and Vinegar are exceptions when used in moderation. They both assist in digestion, Vinegar by rendering muscular fibre more tender, and both together, by producing a fluid having some analogy to the gastric juice.”

FOOD THAT IS ENTIRELY UNDIGESTIBLE.

There is no kind of food used which consists exclusively of indigestible matter. But it often is the case, that a certain amount of indigestible matter is mixed with nourishing food, and serves, by its mechanical aid, to promote the healthful action of the stomach and bowels. This is the reason why unbolted flour is deemed more healthful than fine flour, and is consequently preferred for dyspeptics. But where there is too great a quantity of such indigestible matter, or where it is not properly combined with digestible food, it proves injurious and often dangerous. This is the case when the skins and seeds of fruits are swallowed, which always pass off entirely undigested.

FOOD THAT IS UNHEALTHFUL IN NATURE, OR MADE SO BY COOKING.

The most injurious food, of any in common use, is the _animal oils_, and articles cooked with them. On this subject, Dr. Pereira remarks:—“_Fixed oil_, or _fat_, is more difficult of digestion, and more obnoxious to the stomach, than any other alimentary principle. Indeed, in concealed forms, I believe it will be found to be the offending ingredient in nine-tenths of the dishes which disturb weak stomachs. Many dyspeptics who avoid fat meat, butter, and oil, unwittingly eat it in some concealed form. Liver, the yolk of eggs, and brains, such individuals should eschew, as they abound in oily matter.”

“The influence of heat on fatty substances effects chemical changes, whereby they are rendered more difficult of digestion, and more obnoxious to the stomach. Hence those culinary operations in which fat or oil is subjected to high temperatures, are objectionable.”

“Fixed oils give off, while boiling, carbonic acid, an inflammable vapor, and an acrid oil, called Acroleon, while the fatty acids of the oil are, in part, set free. It has always appeared to me that cooked butter proves more obnoxious to the stomach than cooked _Olive_ oil. This I ascribe to the facility with which, under the influence of heat, the acrid, volatile acids of butter are set free. The fat of salt pork and bacon is less injurious to some dyspeptics than fresh animal fats. This must depend on some change effected by curing.”

“In many dyspeptics, fat does not become properly chymified. It floats on the stomach in the form of an oily pellicle, becoming odorous, and sometimes highly rancid, and in this state excites heartburn, disagreeable nausea, eructations, and sometimes vomiting. It appears to me, that the greater tendency which some oily substances have than others to disturb the stomach, depends on the greater facility with which they evolve volatile, fatty acids, which are for the most part exceedingly acrid and irritating. The distressing feelings excited in many dyspeptics by mutton fat, butter, and fish oils, are, in this way, readily accounted for. Butter contains no less than three volatile, fatty acids, namely--the butyric, capric, and capröic. Fats, by exposure to the air, become rancid, and in this state are _exceedingly_ obnoxious to the digestive organs. Their injurious qualities depend on the presence of volatile acids, and in part also on non-acid substances.”

These statements show the reasons why the _fried_ food of all kinds is injurious. Fat is an unhealthful aliment, and when heated becomes still more so. This mode of cooking, then, should be given up by every housekeeper, who intends to take all reasonable means of preserving the health of her family. There are an abundance of other modes of preparing food, without resorting to one which involves danger, especially to children and invalids, whose powers of digestion are feeble.

The most common modes of preparing unhealthful food, is by frying food, and by furnishing _bread that is heavy, or sour, or so newly baked_, as to become clammy and indigestible when chewed. Though there are many stomachs that can for a long time take such food without trouble, it always is injurious to weak stomachs, and often renders a healthful stomach a weak one. A housekeeper that will always keep a supply of sweet, light bread on her table, and avoid oily dishes, oily cooking, and condiments, will double the chances of good health for her family.

Minuteness of division is a great aid to easy digestion. For this reason food should be well chewed before swallowing, not only to divide it minutely, but to mix it with the saliva, which aids in digestion.

The cooking of food, in most cases, does not alter its nature; it only renders it more tender, and thus more easily divided and digested.

When a person is feverish and loathes food, it should never be given, as the stomach has not sufficient gastric juice to secure its digestion. The practice of tempting the sick by favorite articles, should therefore be avoided.

LIQUID ALIMENTS, OR DRINKS.

“_Water_” says Dr. Pereira, “is probably the natural drink of all adults. It serves several important purposes in the animal economy:--firstly, it repairs the loss of the aqueous part of the blood, caused by evaporation, and the action of the secreting and exhaling organs; secondly, it is a solvent of various alimentary substances, and, therefore, assists the stomach in digestion, though, if taken in very large quantities, it may have an opposite effect, by diluting the gastric juice; thirdly, it is a nutritive agent, that is, it assists in the formation of the solid parts of the body.”

The health of communities and of individuals is often affected by the nature of the water used for drink, and it is therefore important to know how to secure pure and good water.

_Rain water_ is the purest of all water, purer than the best spring water. Of course every person who fears that the water used is the cause of any evil, can obtain that which is known to be pure and good. The cheapest mode of obtaining good rain water, is to have a large cistern dug in the vicinity of some large building, with conducting spouts. This can be lined with water lime, and the water thus obtained, when cooled with ice, is as pure as any that can be found.

A distinguished medical writer, Dr. Cheyne, remarking on the effects of foreign substances in water, states these facts:—

“At the Nottingham Assizes, July, 1836, it was proved on trial, at which I was a witness, that dysentery, in an aggravated form, was caused in cattle by the use of water contaminated with putrescent vegetable matter, produced by the refuse of a _starch_ manufactory. The fish were destroyed, and all the animals that drank of this water became seriously ill, and many died. It was shown, also, that the mortality was in proportion to the quantity of starch made at different times, and that when the putrescent matter (of the manufactory) was not allowed to pass to the brook, the fish and frogs returned, and the mortality ceased among the cattle.”

Dr. Barry, an English physician, states, that when the troops at Cork were supplied with water from the river Lee, which, in passing through the city, is rendered unfit for drinking by the influx from sewers, Mr. Bell suspected that a dysentery, prevailing at the time, arose from this cause. Upon assuming the care of the troops, he had a number of water carts to bring water from a spring, and did not allow the use of river water, and very shortly the dysentery disappeared.

Sir James McGregor states, that, at one time in the Spanish war, when during three months 20,000 dead bodies were interred at Ciudad Rodrigo, all those exposed to emanations from the soil, and who were obliged to use water from sunken wells, were affected by low malignant fevers, or dysenteries.

This shows that burying in large towns affects the health of the inhabitants, first by emanations from the soil, and secondly by poisoning the water percolating through that soil.

Many such facts as these, show the importance of keeping wells and cisterns from the drainings of sinks, barn-yards, and from decayed dead animals. And it is probable that much sickness in families and communities has been caused by neglecting to preserve the water pure, that is used for drink and cooking.

Water is sometimes rendered unhealthful by being conducted through lead pipes, or kept in lead reservoirs, or vessels. It is found that the purer the water, the more easily it is affected by the lead through which it passes. When the water has certain neutral salts in it, they are deposited on the surface of the lead, and thus protect from its poisonous influence. Immersing a very bright piece of lead for some hours in water, will show whether it is safe to use lead in conducting the water. If the lead is tarnished, it proves that the water exerts a solvent power, and that it is unsafe to employ lead in carrying the water.

The continued use of water containing lead, gives rise to the _lead cholic_, or _painter’s cholic_, and if the water is still drank, _palsy_ succeeds. One indication of this disease is a narrow leaden blue line on the edge of the gums of the front teeth.

The following are methods to be employed in purifying water:—

The most thorough and effectual way of obtaining perfectly pure water, from that which is noxious, is, to _distill_ it, collecting only the steam.

In cases where water is injured by the presence of animal or vegetable matter, _boiling_ sometimes removes much of the evil.

Two grains of powdered alum to every quart of water, will often serve to remove many impurities.

Filtering through fine sand and powdered charcoal, removes all animal and vegetable substances which are not held in chemical solution.

Sea water serves both as a cathartic and emetic, and the only mode of obtaining pure water from it is by distillation.

The impure water used often at sea, is owing wholly to the casks in which it is carried. When new, the water imbibes vegetable ingredients from the cask, which become putrid. Water, if carried to sea in iron casks, if good and pure, always continues so. Cistern water is often impure, when held in new wooden cisterns, owing to vegetable matter absorbed by the water.

Dr. Lee remarks, “We are satisfied that impure water is more frequently the cause of disease than is generally supposed. It has been thought that decaying vegetable matter, received into the stomach, was innoxious, owing to the antiseptic properties of the gastric juice. But this opinion is evidently erroneous. An immense number of facts could be adduced, to show that this is the frequent cause of disease. The British army ‘Medical Reports,’ and our own Medical Journals, contain many facts of a similar kind. The fever which carried off so many of the United States Dragoons, on a visit to the Pawnees, was occasioned chiefly by drinking stagnant water, filled with animal and vegetable matter. We know that calculus diseases are most frequent in countries that abound in lime water.”

OTHER LIQUID ALIMENTS, OR DRINKS.

The other drinks in most common use are arranged thus,—

1. _The Mucilaginous, Farinaceous, or Saccharine drinks._

These are water chiefly, with substances slightly nutritive, softening, and soothing. _Toast water_, _Sugar water_, _Rice water_, _Barley water_, and the various _Gruels_, are of this kind.

2. _The Aromatic and Astringent drinks._

These include Tea, Coffee, Chicory, Chocolate, and Cocoa.

The following remarks on these drinks are taken from the work of Dr. Pereira.

“The peculiar flavor of _tea_ depends upon the _volatile oil_, which has the taste and smell of tea. Alone, it acts as a narcotic, but when combined (as in tea) with tannin, it acts as a diuretic and diaphoretic (i. e. to promote the flow of urine and perspiration). Its astringency, proved by its chemical properties, depends upon the presence of tannin. Of this quality we may beneficially avail ourselves in some cases of poisoning, as by poisonous mushrooms, by opium, or laudanum.”

“The peculiar influence of tea, especially the _green_ variety, over the nervous system, depends upon the vegetable oil referred to. The influence is analogous to that of foxglove; for both green tea and foxglove occasion watchfulness, and act as sedatives on the heart and bloodvessels. Strong green tea produces, on some constitutions, usually those popularly known as nervous, very severe effects. It gives rise to tremor, anxiety, sleeplessness, and most distressing feelings.”

“As a diluent and sedative, tea is well adapted to febrile and inflammatory disorders. To its sedative influence should be ascribed the relief of headache sometimes experienced.”

On this subject, Dr. Lee remarks, “_Green tea_ undoubtedly possesses very active medicinal properties; for a very strong decoction of it, or the extract, speedily destroys life in the inferior animals, even when given in very small doses. The strongly marked effects of tea upon persons of a highly nervous temperament, in causing wakefulness, tremors, palpitations, and other distressing feelings, prove, also, that it is an agent of considerable power. It not unfrequently occasions vertigo, and sick headache, together with a sinking sensation at the pit of the stomach, shortly after eating. It is also opposed to active nutrition, and should, therefore, be used with great moderation by those who are thin in flesh. From its astringent properties it often is useful in a relaxed state of bowels.”

“We are satisfied that _green_ tea does not, in any case, form a salubrious beverage to people in health, and should give place to milk, milk and water, black tea, milk and sugar, which, when taken tepid, form very agreeable and healthy drinks.”

_Coffee._ “The infusion, or decoction of coffee, forms a well known favorite beverage. Like tea, it diminishes the disposition to sleep, and hence it is often resorted to by those who desire nocturnal study. It may also be used to counteract the stupor induced by opium, alcoholic drinks, and other narcotics. In some constitutions it acts as a mild laxative, yet it is usually described as producing constipation. The immoderate use of coffee produces various nervous diseases, such as anxiety, tremor, disordered vision, palpitation, and feverishness.”

_Chicory, or Succory._ This is the roasted root of the Wild Endive, or Wild Succory. It is prepared like coffee, and some prefer its flavor to that of coffee.

_Chocolate._ This is prepared by roasting the seeds of the Cacoa, or Cocoa, then grinding them and forming them into cakes. “Chocolate, though devoid of the disagreeable qualities of tea and coffee, which disturb the nervous functions, yet is difficult of digestion, on account of the large quantity of oil which it contains, and is, therefore, very apt to disturb the stomach of dyspeptics.”

_Cocoa._ This is made of the nuts and husks of the cocoa, roasted and ground, and is somewhat less oily than chocolate, and being rather astringent, is adapted to looseness of the bowels. The _shells_ alone are often used to make a drink, which is less rich than the Cocoa, and especially adapted to weak digestive powers.

The seeds of the vegetable called Ochra, roasted and prepared like coffee, are said to equal it in flavor.

3. _Acidulous Drinks._

“The employment of vegetable _acid_, as an aliment, is necessary to health. It seems pretty clearly established, that complete and prolonged abstinence from succulent vegetables, or fruits, or their preserved juices, as articles of food, is a cause of scurvy.”

“Water, sharpened with vegetable acids, oftentimes proves a most refreshing beverage, allaying thirst, and moderating excessive heat. Various acids form cooling, refreshing, and antiscorbutic drinks, and are well adapted for hot seasons, and for febrile and inflammatory cases.”

These drinks are prepared by dissolving vegetable acids or acidulous salts in water, sweetening and flavoring it. Also, by decoctions of acid fruits, which promote secretions in the alimentary canal, and act as laxatives.

The carbonated or effervescing drinks belong to this class. They owe their sparkling briskness to carbonic acid gas confined in the liquid.

4. _Drinks containing Gelatine and Osmazome._

_Gelatine_ is that part of animal and vegetable matter that forms jelly.

_Osmazome_ is that principle in meats which impart their flavor.

Beef Tea, Mutton, Veal, and Chicken Broths are the principal drinks of this description, and usually are prepared for invalids.

5. _Emulsive, or Milky Drinks._

_Animal milk_ is the principal drink of this class, and as this is the aliment of a large portion of young children, the necessity of guarding against abuses connected with the supplies furnished should be generally known.

A great portion of the milk furnished in New York and other large cities, is obtained from cows _fed on distillery slops_, and crowded in filthy pens, without regard to ventilation or cleanliness. Thus deprived of pure air and exercise, and fed with unhealthy food, their milk becomes diseased, and is the cause of extensive mortality among young children. Many cows, also, are fed on decayed vegetables, and the sour and putrid offals of kitchens, and these, also, become thus diseased.

A work on this subject, by R. M. Hartly, Esq., of New York, has been published, which contains these facts. Of five hundred dairies near New York and Brooklyn, all, except five or six, feed their cows on distillery slops. And the reason is, that it yields more milk at a cheaper rate than any other food. But it soon destroys the health of the animals, and after most of their fluids are, by this process, changed to unhealthy milk, and the cows become diseased, they are sent to a cattle market and a new supply obtained.

The physicians in New York, in a body, have testified to the unhealthiness of this practice, but as yet no inspectors have been secured to preserve the public from this danger, while the great mass of the people are ignorant or negligent on the subject. Chemists have analyzed this unhealthful milk, and find that, while pure milk is alkaline, slop milk is acid, and also contains less than half the nourishment contained in pure milk. Scarcely any cream rises on slop milk, and what does collect can never be turned into butter; but, by churning, only changes to froth. We have inspectors of flour, meat, fish, and most other food, and every town and city supplied by milk carts ought to have inspectors of milk; and where this is not done, every mistress of a family should narrowly watch her supplies of milk, and ascertain the mode in which the cows are fed.

In cases where children, or adults, find that milk troubles the stomach, it is often owing to its _richness_, and water should then be mixed with it. Infants generally require diluted milk, a little sweetened, as cow’s milk is, when good, considerably richer than mother’s milk. The fact that oil is placed among the articles most difficult to digest, shows the mistake of many, who give diluted cream instead of milk, supposing it to be better for infants. In all ordinary cases, where an infant is deprived of the mother’s nourishment, the milk of a new milch cow, diluted with one-third, or one-fourth water, and sweetened a little with white sugar, is the safest substitute. Sometimes oat-meal gruel, or arrowroot, are found to agree better with the child’s peculiar constitution.

6. _Alcoholic Drinks._

Beer, Wine, Cider, and Distilled Liquors, are the chief of the alcoholic drinks.

“To persons in health,” says Dr. Pereira, in his “Elements of Materia Medica,” “the dietical employment of wine is either useless or pernicious.“ Dr. Beaumont, in his celebrated experiments on St. Martin,[1] found that wines, as well as distilled spirits, invariably interfered with the regularity and completeness of digestion, and always produced morbid changes in the mucous membrane of the stomach. And this, too, was the case when neither unpleasant feelings nor diminished appetite indicated such an effect.

[1] This case of St. Martin’s referred to, was that of a soldier, who by a gun shot, had an opening made into his stomach, which healed up, leaving so large an orifice, that all the process of digestion could be examined, after he was restored to perfect health.

Dr. Bell, of Philadelphia, remarks thus: “The recorded experience of men in all situations and climates, under all kinds of labor and exposure, prove that abstinence from alcoholic drinks gives increased ability to go through the labors of the farm and the workshop, to resist heat and cold, to encounter hardships on sea and land, beyond what has ever been done under the unnatural excitement of alcohol, followed, as it is, by depression and debility, if not by fever and disease. The observation and testimony of naval and military surgeons and commanders are adverse to the issue of alcoholic drinks to men in the army and navy.”

The reports from all our chief state prisons also prove that intemperate men can be instantly deprived of all alcoholic drinks, not only without danger, but with an immediate improvement of the health.

Wine is often useful as a medicine, under the direction of a physician, but its stimulating, alcoholic principle, makes it an improper agent to be drank in health. The same is true of cider and strong beer. Some wine, beer, and cider drinkers do, by the force of a good constitution, live to a good old age, and so do some persons, also, who live in districts infected by a malaria, which destroys the health and life of thousands. But these _exceptions_ do not prove that either wine, or malaria are favorable to health, or long life. They are only exceptions to a general rule.

Meantime, the general rule is established by an incredible amount of experience and testimony, that alcoholic drinks, _in no cases_, are needed by those in health, and that the indulgence in drinking them awakens a gnawing thirst and longing for them, that leads the vast majority of those who use them, to disease, debility, poverty, folly, crime, and death.

* * * * *

In this detail of the various drinks that may be used by man, we find that _pure water_ is always satisfying, safe, and sufficient. We find that acid and effervescing drinks, so acceptable in hot weather, are also demanded by the system, and are safe and healthful. We find that milk and broths are also healthful and nourishing.

Black tea, also, when taken weak and not above blood heat, is a perfectly safe and agreeable warm drink.

Chocolate and cocoa are nourishing and safe to persons who can bear the oil they contain; and shells are perfectly healthful and safe to all.

In the vast variety of drinks provided for man, we find very few that are not safe and healthful. Green tea and coffee, as ordinarily used, are very injurious to very many constitutions. They contain but very little nourishment, except what is added by the milk and sugar, and training a family of children to love them (for no child loves them till trained to do it) is making it probable that all of them will be less healthful and comfortable, and certain that some will be great sufferers. Training children to drink tea and coffee is as unreasonable and unchristian, as training them to drink foxglove and opium would be--the only difference is, that in one case it is customary, and the other it is not; and custom makes a practice appear less foolish and sinful.

There is no need, at this period of the world, to point out the wickedness and folly of training children to love alcoholic drinks.

In regard to the use of green tea and coffee, one suggestion will be offered. These are drinks which contain very little nourishment, and their effect is to stimulate the nervous system without nourishing it. They are, also, usually drank hot, and heat also is a stimulant to the nerves of the mouth, teeth, throat, and stomach, inducing consequent reacting debility. For it is the unvarying law of the nervous system, that the reacting debility is always in exact proportion to the degree of stimulation.

It is in vain to expect that the great multitudes, who have been accustomed, from childhood, to drink hot tea and coffee, once, twice, and sometimes thrice a day, will give up such a favorite practice. But it is hoped that some may be induced to modify their course, by reducing the _strength_ and the _heat_ of their daily potations. It will be found by housekeepers that, if _once a month_ the daily quantity of tea, or coffee is _slightly_ reduced, the taste will imperceptibly accommodate; and that, in the course of six or eight months, the habits of a family, by these slight monthly variations, may be changed so as that, eventually, they will love weak tea and coffee as much as they once loved the strong.

Young housekeepers, who are just beginning to rear a family of children, will perhaps permit one plea for the young beings, whose fate in life so much depends on their physical training. It is the weak and delicate children who are the sufferers, where the habits of a family lead them to love stimulating drinks. The strong and healthy children may escape unharmed, the whole evil falls on those, who are least able to bear it. Oh mother, save the weak lambs of your fold! Save them from those untold agonies that result from rasped and debilitated nerves, worn out by unhealthful stimulus! And set before your household the Divine injunction--“We, then, that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.”

In regard to the selection of food, a housekeeper can have small excuse for ever risking the health of her family by providing unhealthy food, or cooking it in an unhealthful manner. Innumerable dishes, and enough to furnish a new variety for every day of the year, can be made of food that is safe and healthful, and cooked in a healthful manner.

_Avoid condiments, fats, and food cooked in fats, and always provide light and sweet yeast bread_, is the rule which shuts out almost everything that is pernicious to health, and leaves an immense variety from which to select what is both healthful and grateful to the palate.

There are some directions in regard to times and manner of taking food, that are given more at large, with the reasons for them, in the “Domestic Economy,” but which will briefly be referred to, because so important.

Eating _too fast_ is unhealthful, because the food is not properly masticated, or mixed with the saliva, nor has the stomach sufficient time to perform its office on the last portion swallowed before another enters.

Eating _too often_ is unhealthful, because it is weakening and injurious to mix fresh food with that which is partly digested, and because the stomach needs rest after the labor of digesting a meal. In grown persons four or five hours should intervene between each meal. Children, who are growing fast, need a luncheon of simple bread between meals.

Eating _too much_ is unhealthful, because the stomach can properly digest only that amount which is needed to nourish the system. The rest is thrown off undigested, or crowded into parts of the system where it is injurious.

Eating food when _too hot_ is injurious, as weakening the nerves of the teeth and stomach by the stimulus of heat.

Eating _highly seasoned food_ is unhealthful, because it stimulates too much, provokes the appetite too much, and often is indigestible.

_Badly cooked_ food is unhealthful, because it is indigestible, and in other ways injurious.

_Excessive fatigue_ weakens the power of digestion, and in such cases, a meal should be delayed till a little rest is gained.

_Bathing_ should never follow a meal, as it withdraws the blood and nervous vigor demanded for digestion, from the stomach to the skin.

_Violent exercise_ should not follow a full meal, as that also withdraws the blood and nervous energies from the stomach to the muscles.

_Water_, and other drinks, should never be taken in large quantities, either with, or immediately after a meal, as they dilute the gastric juice, and tend to prevent perfect digestion. But it is proper to drink a moderate quantity of liquid while eating.

Where there is a strong constitution and much exercise in the open air, children and adults may sometimes violate these and all other laws of health, and yet remain strong and well.

But all, and especially those, who have delicate constitutions, and are deprived of fresh air and exercise, will have health and strength increased and prolonged by attending to these rules.