note: project gutenberg also has an html version of this file which includes the original illustrations. see -h.htm or -h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/ / / / / / -h/ -h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/ / / / / / -h.zip) transcribers note: in this text, subscripted numbers are represented thus: _{ } human foods and their nutritive value by harry snyder, b.s. new york the macmillan company all rights reserved copyright, , by the macmillan company. set up and electrotyped. published november, . reprinted october, ; september, ; february, ; september, ; may, december, ; june, . norwood press j. s. cushing co.--berwick & smith co. norwood, mass., u.s.a. preface since instruction has been given at the university of minnesota, college of agriculture, on human foods and their nutritive value. with the development of the work, need has been felt for a text-book presenting in concise form the composition and physical properties of foods, and discussing some of the main factors which affect their nutritive value. to meet the need, this book has been prepared, primarily for the author's classroom. it aims to present some of the principles of human nutrition along with a study of the more common articles of food. it is believed that a better understanding of the subject of nutrition will suggest ways in which foods may be selected and utilized more intelligently, resulting not only in pecuniary saving, but also in greater efficiency of physical and mental effort. prominence is given in this work to those foods, as flour, bread, cereals, vegetables, meats, milk, dairy products, and fruits, that are most extensively used in the dietary, and to some of the physical, chemical, and bacteriological changes affecting digestibility and nutritive value which take place during their preparation for the table. dietary studies, comparative cost and value of foods, rational feeding of men, and experiments and laboratory practice form features of the work. some closely related topics, largely of a sanitary nature, as the effect upon food of household sanitation and storage, are also briefly discussed. references are given in case more extended information is desired on some of the subjects treated. while this book was prepared mainly for students who have taken a course in general chemistry, it has been the intention to present the topics in such a way as to be understood by the layman also. this work completes a series of text-books undertaken by the author over ten years ago, dealing with agricultural and industrial subjects: "chemistry of plant and animal life," "dairy chemistry," "soils and fertilizers," and "human foods and their nutritive value." it has been the aim in preparing these books to avoid as far as possible repetition, but at the same time to make each work sufficiently complete to permit its use as a text independent of the series. one of the greatest uses that science can serve is in its application to the household and the everyday affairs of life. too little attention is generally bestowed upon the study of foods in schools and colleges, and the author sincerely hopes the time will soon come when more prominence will be given to this subject, which is the oldest, most important, most neglected, and least understood of any that have a direct bearing upon the welfare of man. harry snyder. contents chapter i page general composition of foods water; dry matter; variations in weight of foods; ash; function of ash in plant life; organic matter; products of combustion of organic matter; classification of organic compounds; non-nitrogenous compounds; carbohydrates; cellulose; amount of cellulose in foods; crude fiber; starch; microscopic structure of starch; dextrin; food value of starch; sugar; pectose substances; nitrogen-free-extract; fats; fuel value of fats; iodine number of fats; glycerol content of fats; ether extract and crude fat; organic acids; dietetic value of organic acids; essential oils; mixed compounds; nutritive value of non-nitrogenous compounds; nitrogenous compounds; general composition; protein; sub-divisions of proteins; crude protein; food value of protein; albuminoids; amids and amines; alkaloids; general relationship of the nitrogenous compounds. chapter ii changes in composition of foods during cooking and preparation raw and cooked foods compared as to composition; chemical changes during cooking; general changes affecting cellulose, starch, sugar, pectin bodies, fats, proteids; effect of chemical changes on digestibility; physical changes during cooking; action of heat on animal and plant tissues; amount of heat required for cooking; bacteriological changes; insoluble ferments; soluble ferments; bacterial action necessary in preparation of some foods; injurious bacterial action; general relationship of chemical, physical, and bacteriological changes; esthetic value of foods; color of foods; natural and artificial colors; conditions under which use of chemicals in preparation of foods is justifiable. chapter iii vegetable foods general composition; potatoes; chemical and mechanical composition; uses of potatoes in dietary; sweet potatoes; carrots; parsnips; cabbage; cauliflower; beets; cucumbers; lettuce; onions; spinach; asparagus; melons; tomatoes; sweet corn; eggplant; squash; celery; dietetic value of vegetables; nutrient content of vegetables; sanitary condition of vegetables; miscellaneous compounds in vegetables; canned vegetables; edible portion and refuse of vegetables. chapter iv fruits, flavors and extracts general composition; food value; apples; oranges; lemons; grape fruit; strawberries; grapes; peaches; plums; olives; figs; dried fruits; uses of fruit in the dietary; canning and preservation of fruits; adulterated canned fruits; fruit flavors and extracts; synthetic preparation of flavors. chapter v sugars, molasses, syrup, honey, and confections composition of sugars; beet sugar; cane sugar; manufacture of sugar; sulphur dioxid and indigo, uses of, in sugar manufacture; commercial grades of sugar; sugar in the dietary; maple sugar; adulteration of sugar; dextrose sugars; inversion of sugars; molasses; syrups; adulteration of molasses; sorghum syrup; maple syrup; analysis of sugar; adulteration of syrups; honey; confections; coloring matter in candies; coal tar dyes; saccharine. chapter vi legumes and nuts general composition of legumes; beans; digestibility of beans; use of beans in the dietary; string beans; peas; canned peas; peanuts; general composition of nuts; chestnuts; the hickory nut; almonds; pistachio; cocoanuts; uses of nuts in the dietary. chapter vii milk and dairy products importance in the dietary; general composition; digestibility; sanitary condition of milk; certified milk; pasteurized milk; tyrotoxicon; color of milk; souring of milk; use of preservatives in milk; condensed milk; skim milk; cream; buttermilk; goat's milk; koumiss; prepared milks; human milk; adulteration of milk; composition of butter; digestibility of butter; adulteration of butter; general composition of cheese; digestibility; use in the dietary; cottage cheese; different kinds of cheese; adulteration of cheese; dairy products in the dietary. chapter viii meats and animal food products general composition; mineral matter; fat; protein; non-nitrogenous compounds; why meats vary in composition; amides; albuminoids; taste and flavor of meats; alkaloidal bodies in meats; ripening of meats in cold storage; beef; veal; mutton; pork; lard; texture and toughness of meat; influence of cooking upon the composition of meats; beef extracts; miscellaneous meat products; pickled meats; saltpeter in meats; smoked meats; poultry; fish; oysters, fattening of; shell fish; eggs, general composition; digestibility of eggs; use of eggs in the dietary; canned meats, general composition. chapter ix cereals preparation and cost of cereals; various grains used in making cereal products; cleanliness of; corn preparations; corn flour; use of corn in dietary; corn bread; oat preparations; cooking of oatmeal; wheat preparations; flour middlings; breakfast foods; digestibility of wheat preparations; barley preparations; rice preparations; predigested foods; the value of cereals in the dietary; phosphate content of cereals; phosphorus requirements of a ration; mechanical action of cereals upon digestion; cost and nutritive value of cereals. chapter x wheat flour use for bread making; winter and spring wheat flours; composition of wheat and flour; roller process of flour milling; grades of flour; types of flour; composition of flour; graham and entire wheat flours; composition of wheat offals; aging and curing of flour; macaroni flour; color; granulation; capacity of flour to absorb water; physical properties of gluten; gluten as a factor in bread making; unsoundness; comparative baking tests; bleaching; adulteration of flour; nutritive value of flour. chapter xi bread and bread making leavened and unleavened bread; changes during bread making; loss of dry matter during bread making; action of yeast; compressed yeast; dry yeast; production of carbon dioxid gas and alcohol; production of soluble carbohydrates; production of acids in bread making; volatile compounds produced during bread making; behavior of wheat proteids in bread making; production of volatile nitrogenous compounds; oxidation of fat; influence of the addition of wheat starch and gluten to flour; composition of bread; use of skim milk and lard in bread making; influence of warm and cold flours in bread making; variations in the process of bread making; digestibility of bread; use of graham and entire wheat in the dietary; mineral content of white bread; comparative digestibility of new and old bread; different kinds of bread; toast. chapter xii baking powders general composition; cream of tartar powders; residue from cream of tartar baking powders; tartaric acid powders; phosphate baking powders; mineral and organic phosphates; phosphate residue; alum baking powders; residue from alum baking powders; objections urged against alum powders; action of baking powders and yeast compared; keeping qualities of baking powders; inspection of baking powders; fillers; home-made baking powders. chapter xiii vinegar, spices, and condiments vinegar; chemical changes during manufacture of vinegar; ferment action; materials used in preparation of vinegars; characteristics of a good vinegar; vinegar solids; acidity of vinegar; different kinds of vinegars; standards of purity; adulteration of vinegar; characteristics of spices; pepper; cayenne; mustard; ginger; cinnamon and cassia; cloves; allspice; nutmeg; adulteration of spices and condiments; essential oils of; uses of condiments in preparation of foods; action of condiments upon digestion; condiments and natural flavors. chapter xiv tea, coffee, chocolate, and cocoa tea; sources of tea supply; composition of tea; black tea and green tea; judging teas; adulteration of tea; food value and physiological properties of tea; composition of coffee; adulteration of coffee; chicory in coffee; glazing of coffee; cereal coffee substitutes; cocoa and chocolate preparations; composition of cocoa; chocolate; cocoa nibs; plain chocolate; sweet chocolate; cocoa butter; nutritive value of cocoa; adulteration of chocolate and cocoa; comparative composition of beverages. chapter xv the digestibility of food digestibility, how determined; completeness and ease of digestion process; example of digestion experiment; available nutrients; available energy; caloric value of foods; normal digestion and health; digestibility of animal foods; digestibility of vegetable foods; factors influencing digestion; combination of foods; amount of food; method of preparation of food; mechanical condition of foods; mastication; palatability of foods; physiological properties of foods; individuality; psychological factors. chapter xvi comparative cost and value of foods cost and nutrient content of foods; how to compare two foods as to nutritive value; cheap foods; expensive foods; nutrients procurable for a given sum; examples; comparing nutritive value of common foods at different prices; cost and value of nutrients. chapter xvii dietary studies object of dietary studies; wide and narrow rations; dietary standards; number of meals per day; mixed dietary desirable; animal and vegetable foods; economy of production; food habits; underfed families; cheap and expensive foods; food notions; dietary of two families compared; food in its relation to mental and physical vigor; dietary studies in public institutions. chapter xviii rational feeling of man object; human and animal feeding compared; standard rations; why tentative dietary standards; amounts of food consumed; average composition of foods; variations in composition of foods; example of a ration; calculations of balanced rations; requisites of a balanced ration; examples; calculations of rations for men at different kinds of labor. chapter xix water importance; impurities in water; mineral impurities; organic impurities; interpretation of a water analysis; natural purification of water; water in relation to health; improvement of waters; boiling of water; filtration; purification of water by addition of chemicals; ice; rain waters; waters of high and low purity; chemical changes which organic matter of water undergoes; bacterial content of water; mineral waters; materials for softening water; uses of; economic value of a pure water supply. chapter xx food as affected by household sanitation and storage injurious compounds in foods; nutrient content and sanitary condition of food; sources of contamination of food; unclean ways of handling food; sanitary inspection of food; infection from impure air; storage of food in cellars; respiration of vegetable cells; sunlight, pure water, and pure air as disinfectants; foods contaminated from leaky plumbing; utensils for storage of food; contamination from unclean dishcloths; refrigeration; chemical changes that take place in the refrigerator; soil; disposal of kitchen refuse; germ diseases spread by unsanitary conditions around dwellings due to contamination of food; general considerations; relation of food to health. chapter xxi laboratory practice object of laboratory practice; laboratory note-book and suggestions for laboratory practice; list of apparatus used; photograph of apparatus used; directions for weighing; directions for measuring; use of microscope; water in flour; water in butter; ash in flour; nitric acid test for nitrogenous organic matter; acidity of lemons; influence of heat on potato starch grains; influence of yeast on starch grains; mechanical composition of potatoes; pectose from apples; lemon extract; vanilla extract; testing olive oil for cotton seed oil; testing for coal tar dyes; determining the per cent of skin in beans; extraction of fat from peanuts; microscopic examination of milk; formaldehyde in cream or milk; gelatine in cream or milk; testing for oleomargarine; testing for watering or skimming of milk; boric acid in meat; microscopic examination of cereal starch grains; identification of commercial cereals; granulation and color of flour; capacity of flour to absorb water; acidity of flour; moist and dry gluten; gliadin from flour; bread-making test; microscopic examination of yeast; testing baking powders for alum; testing baking powders for phosphoric acid; testing baking powders for ammonia; vinegar solids; specific gravity of vinegar; acidity of vinegar; deportment of vinegar with reagents; testing mustard for turmeric; examination of tea leaves; action of iron compounds upon tannic acid; identification of coffee berries; detecting chicory in coffee; comparative amounts of soap necessary with hard and soft water; solvent action of water on lead; suspended matter in water; organic matter in water; deposition of lime by boiling water; qualitative tests for minerals in water; testing for nitrites in water. review questions references index human foods and their nutritive value chapter i general composition of foods . water.--all foods contain water. vegetables in their natural condition contain large amounts, often per cent, while in meats there is from to per cent or more. prepared cereal products, as flour, corn meal, and oatmeal, which are apparently dry, have from to per cent. in general the amount of water in a food varies with the mechanical structure and the conditions under which it has been prepared, and is an important factor in estimating the value, as the nutrients are often greatly decreased because of large amounts of water. the water in substances as flour and meal is mechanically held in combination with the fine particles and varies with the moisture content, or hydroscopicity, of the air. oftentimes foods gain or lose water to such an extent as to affect their weight; for example, one hundred pounds of flour containing per cent of water may be reduced in weight three pounds or more when stored in a dry place, or there may be an increase in weight from being stored in a damp place. in tables of analyses the results, unless otherwise stated, are usually given on the basis of the original material, or the dry substance. potatoes, for example, contain - / per cent of crude protein on the basis of per cent of water; or on a dry matter basis, that is, when the water is entirely eliminated, there is per cent of protein. the water of foods is determined by drying the weighed material in a water or air oven at a temperature of about ° c, until all of the moisture has been expelled in the form of steam, leaving the dry matter or material free from water.[ ] the determination of dry matter, while theoretically a simple process, is attended with many difficulties. substances which contain much fat may undergo oxidation during drying; volatile compounds, as essential oils, are expelled along with the moisture; and other changes may occur affecting the accuracy of the work. the last traces of moisture are removed with difficulty from a substance, being mechanically retained by the particles with great tenacity. when very accurate dry matter determinations are desired, the substance is dried in a vacuum oven, or in a desiccator over sulphuric acid, or in an atmosphere of some non-oxidizing gas, as hydrogen. . dry matter.--the dry matter of a food is a mechanical mixture of the various compounds, as starch, sugar, fat, protein, cellulose, and mineral matter, and is obtained by drying the material. succulent vegetable foods with per cent of water contain only per cent of dry matter, while in flour with per cent of water there is per cent, and in sugar per cent. the dry matter is obtained by subtracting the per cent of water from , and in foods it varies from per cent and less in some vegetables to per cent in sugar. [illustration: fig. .--apparatus used for the determination of dry matter and ash in foods. , desiccator; , muffle furnace for combustion of foods and obtaining ash; , water oven for drying food materials.] . ash.--the ash, or mineral matter, is that portion obtained by burning or igniting the dry matter at the lowest temperature necessary for complete combustion. the ash in vegetable foods ranges from to per cent and, together with the nitrogen, represents what was taken from the soil during growth. in animal bodies, the ash is present mainly in the bones, but there is also an appreciable amount, one per cent or more, in all the tissues. ash is exceedingly variable in composition, being composed of the various salts of potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, and iron, as sulphates, phosphates, chlorides, and silicates of these elements. there are also other elements in small amounts. in the plant economy these elements take an essential part and are requisite for the formation of plant tissue and the production in the leaves of the organic compounds which later are stored up in the seeds. some of the elements appear to be more necessary than others, and whenever withheld plant growth is restricted. the elements most essential for plant growth are potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, and sulphur.[ ] in the animal body minerals are derived, either directly or indirectly, from the vegetable foods consumed. the part which each of the mineral elements takes in animal nutrition is not well understood. some of the elements, as phosphorus and sulphur, are in organic combination with the nitrogenous compounds, as the nucleated albuminoids, which are very essential for animal life. in both plant and animal bodies, the mineral matter is present as mineral salts and organic combinations. it is held that the ash elements which are in organic combination are the forms mainly utilized for tissue construction. while it is not known just what part all the mineral elements take in animal nutrition, experiments show that in all ordinary mixed rations the amount of the different mineral elements is in excess of the demands of the body, and it is only in rare instances, as in cases of restricted diet, or convalescence from some disease, that special attention need be given to increasing the mineral content of the ration. an excess of mineral matter in foods is equally as objectionable as a scant amount, elimination of the excess entailing additional work on the body. the composition of the ash of different food materials varies widely, both in amount, and form of the individual elements. when for any reason it is necessary to increase the phosphates in a ration, milk and eggs do this to a greater extent than almost any other foods. common salt, or sodium chloride, is one of the most essential of the mineral constituents of the body. it is necessary for giving the blood its normal composition, furnishing acid and basic constituents for the production of the digestive fluids, and for the nutrition of the cells. while salt is a necessary food, in large amounts, as when the attempt is made to use sea water as a beverage, it acts as a poison, suggesting that a material may be both a food and a poison. when sodium chloride is entirely withheld from an animal, death from salt starvation ensues. many foods contain naturally small amounts of sodium chloride. . organic matter.--that portion of a food material which is converted into gaseous or volatile products during combustion is called the organic matter. it is a mechanical mixture of compounds made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulphur, and is composed of various individual organic compounds, as cellulose, starch, sugar, albumin, and fat. the amount in a food is determined by subtracting the ash and water from . the organic matter varies widely in composition; in some foods it is largely starch, as in potatoes and rice, while in others, as forage crops consumed by animals, cellulose predominates. the nature of the prevailing organic compound, as sugar or starch, determines the nutritive value of a food. each has a definite chemical composition capable of being expressed by a formula. considered collectively, the organic compounds are termed organic matter. when burned, the organic compounds are converted into gases, the carbon uniting with the oxygen of the air to form carbon dioxide, hydrogen to form water, sulphur to form sulphur dioxide, and the nitrogen to form oxides of nitrogen and ammonia. . classification of organic compounds.--all food materials are composed of a large number of organic compounds. for purposes of study these are divided into classes. the element nitrogen is taken as the basis of the division. compounds which contain this element are called nitrogenous, while those from which it is absent are called non-nitrogenous.[ ] the nitrogenous organic compounds are composed of the elements nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and sulphur, while the non-nitrogenous compounds are composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. in vegetable foods the non-nitrogenous compounds predominate, there being usually from six to twelve parts of non-nitrogenous to every one part of nitrogenous, while in animal foods the nitrogenous compounds are present in larger amount. non-nitrogenous compounds . occurrence.--the non-nitrogenous compounds of foods consist mainly of cellulose, starch, sugar, and fat. for purposes of study, they are divided into subdivisions, as carbohydrates, pectose substances or jellies, fats, organic acids, essential oils, and mixed compounds. in plants the carbohydrates predominate, while in animal tissue the fats are the chief non-nitrogenous constituents. . carbohydrates.--this term is applied to a class of compounds similar in general composition, but differing widely in structural composition and physical properties. carbohydrates make up the bulk of vegetable foods and, except in milk, are found only in traces in animal foods. they are all represented by the general formula ch_ n_ n, there being twice as many hydrogen as oxygen atoms, the hydrogen and oxygen being present in the same proportion as in water. as a class, the carbohydrates are neutral bodies, and, when burned, form carbon dioxide and water. [illustration: fig. .--cellular structure of plant cell.] . cellulose is the basis of the cell structure of plants, and is found in various physical forms in food materials.[ ] sometimes it is hard and dense, resisting digestive action and mechanically inclosing other nutrients and thus preventing their being available as food. in the earlier stages of plant growth a part of the cellulose is in chemical combination with water, forming hydrated cellulose, a portion of which undergoes digestion and produces heat and energy in the body. ordinarily, however, cellulose adds but little in the way of nutritive value, although it is often beneficial mechanically and imparts bulk to some foods otherwise too concentrated. the mechanical action of cellulose on the digestion of food is discussed in chapter xv. cellulose usually makes up a very small part of human food, less than per cent. in refined white flour there is less than . of a per cent; in oatmeal and cereal products from . to per cent, depending upon the extent to which the hulls are removed, and in vegetable foods from . to per cent. the cellulose content of foods is included in the crude fiber of the chemist's report. . starch occurs widely distributed in nature, particularly in the seeds, roots, and tubers of some plants. it is formed in the leaves of plants as a result of the joint action of chlorophyll and protoplasm, and is generally held by plant physiologists to be the first carbohydrate produced in the plant cell. starch is composed of a number of overlapping layers separated by starch cellulose; between these layers the true starch or amylose is found. starch from the various cereals and vegetables differs widely in mechanical structure; in wheat it is circular, in corn somewhat angular, and in parsnips exceedingly small, while potato starch granules are among the largest.[ ] the nature of starch can be determined largely from its mechanical structure as studied under the microscope. it is insoluble in cold water because of the protecting action of the cellular layer, but on being heated it undergoes both mechanical and chemical changes; the grains are partially ruptured by pressure due to the conversion into steam of the moisture held mechanically. the cooking of foods is beneficial from a mechanical point of view, as it results in partial disintegration of the starch masses, changing the structure so that the starch is more readily acted upon by the ferments of the digestive tract. at a temperature of about ° c. starch begins to undergo chemical change, resulting in the rearrangement of the atoms in the molecule with the production of dextrine and soluble carbohydrates. dextrine is formed on the crust of bread, or whenever potatoes or starchy foods are browned. at a still higher temperature starch is decomposed, with the liberation of water and production of compounds of higher carbon content. when heated in contact with water, it undergoes hydration changes; gelatinous-like products are formed, which are finally converted into a soluble condition. in cooking cereals, the hydration of the starch is one of the main physical and chemical changes that takes place, and it simply results in converting the material into such a form that other chemical changes may more readily occur. before starch becomes dextrose, hydration is necessary. if this is accomplished by cooking, it saves the body just so much energy in digestion. many foods owe their value largely to the starch. in cereals it is found to the extent of to per cent; in rice and potatoes in still larger amounts; and it is the chief constituent of many vegetables. when starch is digested, it is first changed to a soluble form and then gradually undergoes oxidation, resulting in the production of heat and energy, the same products--carbon dioxide and water--being formed as when starch is burned. starch is a valuable heat-producing nutrient; a pound yields calories. see chapter xv. . sugar.--sugars are widely distributed in nature, being found principally in the juices of the sugar cane, sugar beet, and sugar maple. they are divided into two large classes: the sucrose group and the dextrose group, the latter being produced from sucrose, starch, and other carbohydrates by inversion and allied chemical changes. because of the importance of sugar in the dietary, chapter v is devoted to the subject. . pectose substances are jelly-like bodies found in fruits and vegetables. they are closely related in chemical composition to the carbohydrates, into which form they are changed during digestion; and in nutrition they serve practically the same function. in the early stages of growth the pectin bodies are combined with organic acids, forming insoluble compounds, as the pectin in green apples. during the ripening of fruit and the cooking of vegetables, the pectin is changed to a more soluble and digestible condition. in food analysis, the pectin is usually included with the carbohydrates. . nitrogen-free-extract.--in discussing the composition of foods, the carbohydrates other then cellulose, as starch, sugar, and pectin, are grouped under the name of nitrogen-free-extract. methods of chemical analysis have not yet been sufficiently perfected to enable accurate and rapid determination to be made of all these individual carbohydrates, and hence they are grouped together as nitrogen-free-extract. as the name indicates, they are compounds which contain no nitrogen, and are extractives in the sense that they are soluble in dilute acid and alkaline solutions. the nitrogen-free-extract is determined indirectly, that is, by the method of difference. all the other constituents of a food, as water, ash, crude fiber (cellulose), crude protein, and ether extract, are determined; the total is subtracted from , and the difference is nitrogen-free-extract. in studying the nutritive value of foods, particular attention should be given to the nature of the nitrogen-free-extract, as in some instances it is composed of sugar and in others of starch, pectin, or pentosan (gum sugars). while all these compounds have practically the same fuel value, they differ in composition, structure, and the way in which they are acted upon by chemicals and digestive ferments.[ ] [illustration: fig. .--apparatus used for the determination of fat.] . fat.--fat is found mainly in the seeds of plants, but to some extent in the leaves and stems. it differs from starch in containing more carbon and less oxygen. in starch there is about per cent of carbon, while in fat there is per cent. hence it is that when fat is burned or undergoes combustion, it yields a larger amount of the products of combustion--carbon dioxid and water--than does starch. a gram of fat produces - / times as much heat as a gram of starch. fat is the most concentrated non-nitrogenous nutrient. as found in food materials, it is a mechanical mixture of various fats, among which are stearin, palmitin, and olein. stearin and palmitin are hard fats, crystalline in structure, and with a high melting point, while olein is a liquid. in addition to these three, there are also small amounts of other fats, as butyrin in butter, which give character or individuality to materials. there are a number of vegetable fats or oils which are used for food purposes and, when properly prepared and refined, have a high nutritive value. occasionally one fat of cheaper origin but not necessarily of lower nutritive value is substituted for another. the fats have definite physical and chemical properties which enable them to be readily distinguished, as iodine number, specific gravity, index of refraction, and heat of combustion. by iodine number is meant the percentage of iodine that will unite chemically with the fat. wheat oil has an iodine number of about , meaning that one pound of wheat oil will unite chemically with one pound of iodine. fats have a lower specific gravity than water, usually ranging from . to . , the specific gravity of a fat being fairly constant. all fats can be separated into glycerol and a fatty acid, glycerol or glycerine being common constituents, while each fat yields its own characteristic acid, as stearin, stearic acid; palmitin, palmitic acid; and olein, oleic acid. the fats are soluble in ether, chloroform, and benzine. in the chemical analysis of foods, they are separated with ether, and along with the fat, variable amounts of other substances are extracted, these extractive products usually being called "ether extract" or "crude fat."[ ] the ether extract of plant tissue contains in addition to fat appreciable amounts of cellulose, gums, coloring, and other materials. from cereal products the ether extract is largely fat, but in some instances lecithin and other nitrogenous fatty substances are present, while in animal food products, as milk and meat, the ether extract is nearly pure fat. . organic acids.--many vegetable foods contain small amounts of organic acids, as malic acid found in apples, citric in lemons, and tartaric in grapes. these give characteristic taste to foods, but have no direct nutritive value. they do not yield heat and energy as do starch, fat, and protein; they are, however, useful for imparting flavor and palatability, and it is believed they promote to some extent the digestion of foods with which they are combined by encouraging the secretion of the digestive fluids. many fruits and vegetables owe their dietetic value to the organic acids which they contain. in plants they are usually in chemical combination with the minerals, forming compounds as salts, or with the organic compounds, producing materials as acid proteins. in the plant economy they take an essential part in promoting growth and aiding the plant to secure by osmotic action its mineral food from the soil. organic acids are found to some extent in animal foods, as the various lactic acids of meat and milk. they are also formed in food materials as the result of ferment action. when seeds germinate, small amounts of carbohydrates are converted into organic acids. in general the organic acids are not to be considered as nutrients, but as food adjuncts, increasing palatability and promoting digestion. . essential oils.--essential or volatile oils differ from fats, or fixed oils, in chemical composition and physical properties.[ ] the essential oils are readily volatilized, leaving no permanent residue, while the fixed fats are practically non-volatile. various essential oils are present in small amounts in nearly all vegetable food materials, and the characteristic flavor of many fruits is due to them. it is these compounds which are used for flavoring purposes, as discussed in chapter iv. the amount in a food material is very small, usually only a few hundredths of a per cent. the essential oils have no direct food value, but indirectly, like the organic acids, they assist in promoting favorable digestive action, and are also valuable because they impart a pleasant taste. through poor methods of cooking and preparation, the essential oils are readily lost from some foods. . mixed compounds.--food materials frequently contain compounds which do not naturally fall into the five groups mentioned,--carbohydrates, pectose substances, fats, organic acids, and essential oils. the amount of such compounds is small, and they are classed as miscellaneous or mixed non-nitrogenous compounds. some of them may impart a negative value to the food, and there are others which have all the characteristics, as far as general composition is concerned, of the non-nitrogenous compounds, but contain nitrogen, although as a secondary rather than an essential constituent. . nutritive value of non-nitrogenous compounds.--the non-nitrogenous compounds, taken as a class, are incapable alone of sustaining life, because they do not contain any nitrogen, and this is necessary for producing proteid material in the animal body. they are valuable for the production of heat and energy, and when associated with the nitrogenous compounds, are capable of forming non-nitrogenous reserve tissue. it is equally impossible to sustain life for any prolonged period with the nitrogenous compounds alone. it is when these two classes are properly blended and naturally united in food materials that their main value is secured. for nutrition purposes they are mutually related and dependent. some food materials contain the nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous compounds blended in such proportion as to enable one food alone to practically sustain life, while in other cases it is necessary, in order to secure the best results in the feeding of animals and men, to combine different foods varying in their content of these two classes of compounds.[ ] nitrogenous compounds . general composition.--the nitrogenous compounds are more complex in composition than the non-nitrogenous. they are composed of a larger number of elements, united in different ways so as to form a much more complex molecular structure. foods contain numerous nitrogenous organic compounds, which, for purposes of study, are divided into four divisions,--proteids, albuminoids, amids, and alkaloids. in addition to these, there are other nitrogenous compounds which do not naturally fall into any one of the four divisions. [illustration: fig. .--apparatus used for determining total nitrogen and crude protein in foods. the material is digested in the flask ( ) with sulphuric acid and the organic nitrogen converted into ammonium sulphate, which is later liberated and distilled at , and the ammonia neutralized with standard acid ( ).] also in some foods there are small amounts of nitrogen in mineral forms, as nitrates and nitrites. . protein.--the term "protein" is applied to a large class of nitrogenous compounds resembling each other in general composition, but differing widely in structural composition. as a class, the proteins contain about per cent of nitrogen, per cent of carbon, from to per cent of hydrogen, per cent of oxygen, and less than per cent of sulphur. these elements are combined in a great variety of ways, forming various groups or radicals. in studying the protein molecule a large number of derivative products have been observed, as amid radicals, various hydrocarbons, fatty acids, and carbohydrate-like bodies.[ ] it would appear that in the chemical composition of the proteins there are all the constituents, or simpler products, of the non-nitrogenous compounds, and these are in chemical combination with amid radicals and nitrogen in various forms. the nitrogen of many proteids appears to be present in more than one form or radical. the proteids take an important part in life processes. they are found more extensively in animal than in plant bodies. the protoplasm of both the plant and animal cell is composed mainly of protein. proteids are divided into various subdivisions, as albumins, globulins, albuminates, proteoses and peptones, and insoluble proteids. in plant and animal foods a large amount of the protein is present as insoluble proteids; that is, they are not dissolved by solvents, as water and dilute salt solution. the albumins are soluble in water and coagulated by heat at a temperature of ° to ° f. whenever a food material is soaked in water, the albumin is removed and can then be coagulated by the action of heat, or of chemicals, as tannic acid, lead acetate, and salts of mercury. the globulins are proteids extracted from food materials by dilute salt solution after the removal of the albumins. globulins also are coagulated by heat and precipitated by chemicals. the amount of globulins in vegetable foods is small. in animal foods myosin in meat and vitellin, found in the yolk of the egg, and some of the proteids of the blood, are examples of globulins. albuminates are casein-like proteids found in both animal and vegetable foods. they are supposed to be proteins that are in feeble chemical combination with acid and alkaline compounds, and they are sometimes called acid and alkali proteids. some are precipitated from their solutions by acids and others by alkalies. peas and beans contain quite large amounts of a casein-like proteid called legumin. proteoses and peptones are proteins soluble in water, but not coagulated by heat. they are produced from other proteids by ferment action during the digestion of food and the germination of seeds, and are often due to the changes resulting from the action of the natural ferments or enzymes inherent in the food materials. as previously stated, the insoluble proteids are present in far the largest amount of any of the nitrogenous materials of foods. lean meat and the gluten of wheat and other grains are examples of the insoluble proteids. the various insoluble proteids from different food materials each has its own composition and distinctive chemical and physical properties, and from each a different class and percentage amount of derivative products are obtained.[ ] while in general it is held that the various proteins have practically the same nutritive value, it is possible that because differences in structural composition and the products formed during digestion there may exist notable differences in nutritive value. during digestion the insoluble proteids undergo an extended series of chemical changes. they are partially oxidized, and the nitrogenous portion of the molecule is eliminated mainly in the form of amids, as urea. the insoluble proteins constitute the main source of the nitrogenous food supply of both humans and animals. . crude protein.--in the analysis of foods, the term "crude protein" is used to designate the total nitrogenous compounds considered collectively; it is composed largely of protein, but also includes the amids, alkaloids, and albuminoids. "crude protein" and "total nitrogenous compounds" are practically synonymous terms. the various proteins all contain about per cent of nitrogen; that is, one part of nitrogen is equivalent to . parts of protein. in analyzing a food material, the total organic nitrogen is determined and the amount multiplied by . to obtain the crude protein. in some food materials, as cereals, the crude protein is largely pure protein, while in others, as potatoes, it is less than half pure protein, the larger portion being amids and other compounds. in comparing the crude protein content of one food with that of another, the nature of both proteids should be considered and also the amounts of non-proteid constituents. the factor . for calculating the protein equivalent of foods is not strictly applicable to all foods. for example, the proteids of wheat--gliadin and glutenin--contain over per cent of nitrogen, making the nitrogen factor about . instead of . . if wheat contains per cent of nitrogen, it is equivalent to . per cent of crude protein, using the factor . ; or to . , using the factor . . the nitrogen content of foods is absolute; the protein content is only relative.[ ] . food value of protein.--because of its complexity in composition, protein is capable of being used by the body in a greater variety of ways than starch, sugar, or fat. in addition to producing heat and energy, protein serves the unique function of furnishing material for the construction of new muscular tissue and the repair of that which is worn out. it is distinctly a tissue-building nutrient. it also enters into the composition of all the vital fluids of the body, as the blood, chyme, chyle, and the various digestive fluids. hence it is that protein is required as a nutrient by the animal body, and it cannot be produced from non-nitrogenous compounds. in vegetable bodies, the protein can be produced synthetically from amids, which in turn are formed from ammonium compounds. while protein is necessary in the ration, an excessive amount should be avoided. when there is more than is needed for functional purposes, it is used for heat and energy, and as foods rich in protein are usually the most expensive, an excess adds unnecessarily to the cost of the ration. excess of protein in the ration may also result in a diseased condition, due to imperfect elimination of the protein residual products from the body.[ ] . albuminoids differ from proteids in general composition and, to some extent, in nutritive value. they are found in animal bodies mainly in the connective tissue and in the skin, hair, and nails. some of the albuminoids, as nuclein, are equal in food value to protein, while others have a lower food value. in general, albuminoids are capable of conserving the protein of the body, and hence are called "protein sparers," but they cannot in every way enter into the composition of the body, as do the true proteins. . amids and amines.--these are nitrogenous compounds of simpler structure than the proteins and albuminoids. they are sometimes called compound ammonia in that they are derived from ammonia by the replacement of one of the hydrogen atoms with an organic radical. in plants, amids are intermediate compounds in the production of the proteids, and in some vegetables a large portion of the nitrogen is amids. in animal bodies amids are formed during oxidation, digestion, and disintegration of proteids. it is not definitely known whether or not a protein in the animal body when broken down into amid form can again be reconstructed into protein. the amids have a lower food value than the proteids and albuminoids. it is generally held that, to a certain extent, they are capable, when combined with proteids, of preventing rapid conversion of the body proteid into soluble form. when they are used in large amounts in a ration, they tend to hasten oxidation rather than conservation of the proteids. . alkaloids.--in some plant bodies there are small amounts of nitrogenous compounds called alkaloids. they are not found to any appreciable extent in food plants. the alkaloids, like ammonia, are basic in character and unite with acids to form salts. many medicinal plants owe their value to the alkaloids which they contain. in animal bodies alkaloids are formed when the tissue undergoes fermentation changes, and also during disease, the products being known as ptomaines. alkaloids have no food value, but act physiologically as irritants on the nerve centers, making them useful from a medicinal rather than from a nutritive point of view. to medical and pharmaceutical students the alkaloids form a very important group of compounds. [illustration: fig. .--graphic composition of flour. , flour; , starch; , gluten; , water; , fat; , ash.] . general relationship of the nitrogenous compounds.--among the various subdivisions of the nitrogenous compounds there exists a relationship similar to that among the non-nitrogenous compounds. from proteids, amids and alkaloids may be formed, just as invert sugars and their products are formed from sucrose. although glucose products are derived from sucrose, it is not possible to reverse the process and obtain sucrose or cane sugar from starch. so it is with proteins, while the amid may be obtained from the proteid in animal nutrition, as far as known the process cannot be reversed and proteids be obtained from amids. in the construction of the protein molecule of plants, nitrogen is absorbed from the soil in soluble forms, as compounds of nitrates and nitrites and ammonium salts. these are converted, first, into amids and then into proteids. in the animal body just the reverse of this process takes place,--the protein of the food undergoes a series of changes, and is finally eliminated from the body as an amid, which in turn undergoes oxidation and nitrification, and is converted into nitrites, nitrates, and ammonium salts. these forms of nitrogen are then ready to begin again in plant and animal bodies the same cycle of changes. thus it is that nitrogen may enter a number of times into the composition of plant and animal tissues. nature is very economical in her use of this element.[ ] chapter ii changes in composition of foods during cooking and preparation . raw and cooked foods compared.--raw and cooked foods differ in chemical composition mainly in the content of water. the amount of nutrients on a dry matter basis is practically the same, but the structural composition is affected by cooking, and hence it is that a food prepared for the table often differs appreciably from the raw material. cooked meat, for example, has not the same percentage and structural composition as raw meat, although the difference in nutritive value between a given weight of each is not large. during cooking, foods are acted upon chemically, physically, and bacteriologically, and it is usually the joint action of these three agencies that brings about the desirable changes incident to their preparation for the table. . chemical changes during cooking.--each of the chemical compounds of which foods are composed is influenced to a greater or less extent by heat and modified in composition. the chemistry of cooking is mainly a study of the chemical changes that take place when compounds, as cellulose, starch, sugar, pectin, fat, and the various proteids, are subjected to the joint action of heat, moisture, air, and ferments. the changes which affect the cellulose are physical rather than chemical. a slight hydration of the cellular tissue, however, does take place. in human foods cellulose is not found to any appreciable extent. many vegetables, as potatoes, which are apparently composed of cellular substances, contain but little true cellulose. starch, as previously stated, undergoes hydration in the presence of water, and, at a temperature of ° c., is converted into dextrine. at a higher temperature disintegration of the starch molecule takes place, with the formation of carbon monoxid, carbon dioxid, and water, and the production of a residue richer in carbon than is starch. on account of the moisture, the temperature in many cooking operations is not sufficiently high for changes other than hydration and preliminary dextrinizing. in chapter xi is given a more extended account of the changes affecting starch which occur in bread making. during the cooking process sugars undergo inversion to a slight extent. that is, sucrose is converted into levulose and dextrose sugars. at a higher temperature, sugar is broken up into its constituents--water and carbon dioxide. the organic acids which many fruits and vegetables contain hasten the process of inversion. when sugar is subjected to dry heat, it becomes a brown, caramel-like material sometimes called barley sugar. during cooking, sugars are not altered in solubility or digestibility; starches, however, are changed to a more soluble form, and pectin--a jelly-like substance--is converted from a less to a more soluble condition, as stated in chapter i. changes incident to the cooking of fruits and vegetables rich in pectin, as in the making of jellies, are similar to those which take place in the last stages of ripening. the fats are acted upon to a considerable extent by heat. some of the vegetable oils undergo slight oxidation, resulting in decreased solubility in ether, but since there is no volatilization of the fatty matter, it is a change that does not materially affect the total fuel value of the food.[ ] there is a general tendency for the proteids to become less soluble by the action of heat, particularly the albumins and globulins. the protein molecule dissociates at a high temperature, with formation of volatile products, and therefore foods rich in protein should not be subjected to extreme heat, as losses of food value may result. during cooking, proteids undergo hydration, which is necessary and preliminary to digestion, and the heating need be carried only to this point, and not to the splitting up of the molecule. prolonged high temperature in the cooking of proteids and starches is unnecessary in order to induce the desired chemical changes. when these nutrients are hydrated, they are in a condition to undergo digestion, without the body being compelled to expend unnecessary energy in bringing about this preliminary change. hence it is that, while proper cooking does not materially affect the total digestibility of proteids or starches, it influences ease of digestion, as well as conserves available energy, thereby making more economical use of these nutrients. [illustration: fig. .--cells of a partially cooked potato. (after kÃ�nig.)] . physical changes.--the mechanical structure of foods is influenced by cooking to a greater extent than is the chemical composition. one of the chief objects of cooking is to bring the food into better mechanical condition for digestion.[ ] heat and water cause partial disintegration of both animal and vegetable tissues. the cell-cementing materials are weakened, and a softening of the tissues results. often the action extends still further in vegetable foods, resulting in disintegration of the individual starch granules. when foods are subjected to dry heat, the moisture they contain is converted into steam, which causes bursting of the tissues. a good example of this is the popping of corn. heat may result, too, in mechanical removal of some of the nutrients, as the fats, which are liquefied at temperatures ranging from ° to ° f. many foods which in the raw state contain quite large amounts of fat, lose a portion mechanically during cooking, as is the case with bacon when it is cut in thin slices and fried or baked until crisp. when foods are boiled, the natural juices being of somewhat different density from the water in which they are cooked, slight osmotic changes occur. there is a tendency toward equalization of the composition of the juices of the food and the water in which they are cooked. in order to achieve the best mechanical effects in cooking, high temperatures are not necessary, except at first for rupturing the tissues; softening of the tissues is best effected by prolonged and slow heat. at a higher temperature many of the volatile and essential oils are lost, while at lower temperatures these are retained and in some instances slightly developed. the cooking should be sufficiently prolonged and the temperature high enough to effectually disintegrate and soften all of the tissues, but not to cause extended chemical changes. [illustration: fig. .--cells of raw potato, showing starch grains. (after kÃ�nig.)] there is often an unnecessarily large amount of heat lost through faulty construction of stoves and lack of judicious use of fuels, which greatly enhances the cost of preparing foods. ovens are frequently coated with deposits of soot; this causes the heat to be thrown out into the room or lost through the chimney, rather than utilized for heating the oven. in an ordinary cook stove it is estimated that less than per cent of the heat and energy of the fuel is actually employed in bringing about physical and chemical changes incident to cooking.[ ] . bacteriological changes.--the bacterial organisms of foods are destroyed in the cooking, provided a temperature of ° f. is reached and maintained for several minutes. the interior of foods rarely reaches a temperature above ° f., because of the water they contain which is not completely removed below °. one of the chief objects in cooking food is to render it sterile. not only do bacteria become innocuous through cooking, but various parasites, as trichina and tapeworm, are destroyed, although some organisms can live at a comparatively high temperature. cooked foods are easily re-inoculated, in some cases more readily than fresh foods, because they are in a more disintegrated condition. in many instances bacteria are of material assistance in the preparation of foods, as in bread making, butter making, curing of cheese, and ripening of meat. all the chemical compounds of which foods are composed are subject to fermentation, each compound being acted upon by its special ferment body. those which convert the proteids into soluble form, as the peptonizing ferments, have no action upon the carbohydrates. a cycle of bacteriological changes often takes place in a food material, one class of ferments working until their products accumulate to such an extent as to prevent their further activity, and then the process is taken up by others, as they find the conditions favorable for development. this change of bacterial flora in food materials is akin to the changes in the vegetation occupying soils. in each case, there is a constant struggle for possession. bacteria take a much more important part in the preparation of foods than is generally considered. as a result of their workings, various chemical products, as organic acids and aromatic compounds, are produced. the organic acids chemically unite with the nutrients of foods, changing their composition and physical properties. man is, to a great extent, dependent upon bacterial action. plant life also is dependent upon the bacterial changes which take place in the soil and in the plant tissues. the stirring of seeds into activity is apparently due to enzymes or soluble ferments which are inherent in the seed. a study of the bacteriological changes which foods undergo in their preparation and digestion more properly belongs to the subject of bacteriology, and in this work only brief mention is made of some of the more important parts which microörganisms take in the preparation of foods. . insoluble ferments.--insoluble ferments are minute, plant-like bodies of definite form and structure, and can be studied only with the microscope.[ ] they are developed from spores or seeds, or from the splitting or budding of the parent cells. under suitable conditions they multiply rapidly, deriving the energy for their life processes from the chemical changes which they induce. for example, in the souring of milk the milk sugar is changed by the lactic acid ferments into lactic acid. in causing chemical changes, the ferment gives none of its own material to the reacting substance. these ferment bodies undergo life processes similar to plants of a higher order. [illustration: fig. .--lactic acid bacteria, much enlarged. (after russell.)] all foods contain bacteria or ferments. in fact, it is impossible for a food stored and prepared under ordinary conditions, unless it has been specially treated, to be free from them. some of them are useful, some are injurious, while others are capable of producing disease. the objectionable bacteria are usually destroyed by the joint action of sunlight, pure air, and water. . soluble ferments.--many plant and animal cells have the power of secreting substances soluble in water and capable of producing fermentation changes; to these the term "soluble ferments," or "enzymes," is applied. these ferments have not a cell structure like the organized ferments. when germinated seed, as malted barley, is extracted, a soluble and highly nitrogenous substance, called the diastase ferment, is secured that changes starch into soluble forms. the soluble ferments induce chemical change by causing molecular disturbance or splitting up of the organic compounds, resulting in the production of derivative products. they take an important part in animal and plant nutrition, as by their action insoluble compounds are brought into a soluble condition so they can be utilized for nutritive purposes. in many instances ferment changes are due to the joint action of soluble and insoluble ferments. the insoluble ferment secretes an enzyme which induces a chemical change, modified by the further action of the soluble ferment. many of the enzymes carry on their work at a low temperature, as in the curing of meat and cheese in cold storage.[ ] . general relationship of chemical, physical, and bacteriological changes.--it cannot be said that the beneficial results derived from the cooking of foods are due to either chemical, physical, or bacteriological change alone, but to the joint action of the three. in order to secure a chemical change, a physical change must often precede, and a bacteriological change cannot take place without causing a change in chemical composition; the three are closely related and interdependent. . esthetic value of foods.--foods should be not only of good physical texture and contain the requisite nutrients, but they should also be pleasing to the eye and served in the most attractive manner. some foods owe a part of their commercial value to color, and when they are lacking in natural color they are not consumed with a relish. there is no objection to the addition of coloring matter to foods, provided it is of a non-injurious character and does not affect the amount of nutrients, and that its presence and the kind of coloring material are made known. some foods contain objectionable colors which are eliminated during the process of manufacture, as in the case of sugar and flour. as far as removal of coloring matter from foods during refining is concerned, there can be no objection, so long as no injurious reagents or chemicals are retained, as the removal of the color in no way affects the nutritive value or permits fraud, but necessitates higher purification and refining. the use of chemicals and reagents in the preparation and refining of foods is considered permissible in all cases where the reagents are removed by subsequent processes. in the food decisions of the united states department of agriculture, it is stated: "not excluded under this provision are substances properly used in the preparation of food products for clarification or refining and eliminated in the further process of manufacture." [ ] chapter iii vegetable foods . general composition.--vegetable foods, with the exception of cereals, legumes, and nuts, contain a smaller percentage of protein than animal food products. they vary widely in composition and nutritive value; in some, starch predominates, while in others, sugar, cellulose, and pectin bodies are most abundant. the general term "vegetable foods" is used in this work to include roots, tubers, garden vegetables, cereals, legumes, and all prepared foods of vegetable origin. . potatoes contain about per cent of water and per cent of dry matter, the larger portion being starch. there is but little nitrogenous material in the potato, only . per cent, of which about half is in the form of proteids. there are ten parts of non-nitrogenous substance to every one part of nitrogenous; or, in other words, the potato has a wide nutritive ratio, and as an article of diet needs to be supplemented with foods rich in protein. the mineral matter, cellular tissue, and fat in potatoes are small in amount, as are also the organic acids. mechanically considered, the potato is composed of three parts,--outer skin, inner skin, and flesh. the layer immediately beneath the outer skin is slightly colored, and is designated the fibro-vascular layer. the outer and inner skins combined make up about per cent of the weight of the potato. [illustration: fig. .--transverse section of potato. (after cowden and bussard.) _a_, skin; _b_, cortical layer; _c_, outer medullary layer; _d_, inner medullary layer.] a large portion of the protein of the potato is albumin, which is soluble in water. when potatoes are peeled, cut in small pieces, and soaked in water for several hours before boiling, per cent of the crude protein, or total nitrogenous material, is extracted, rendering the product less valuable as food. when potatoes are placed directly in boiling water, the losses of nitrogenous compounds are reduced to about per cent, and, when the skins are not removed, to per cent. digestion experiments show that per cent of the starch and per cent of the protein are digested.[ ] compared with other foods, potatoes are often a cheap source of non-nitrogenous nutrients. if used in excessive amounts, however, they have a tendency to make the ration unbalanced and too bulky. mechanical composition of the potato ================================================ |per cent unpeeled potatoes | . outer, or true skin | . inner skin, or fibro-vascular layer[a] | . flesh | . ================================================ chemical composition of the potato ================================================================ | | | | carbohydrates |-----|-------|---|------------------------ |water| crude |fat|nitrogen-free-| | | |protein| | extract |fiber|ash | % | % | % | % | % |% ---------------------|-----|-------|---|--------------|-----|--- outer, or true skin | . | . | . | .| | . inner skin, or | | | | | | fibro-vascular | | | | | | layer | . | . | . | . | . | . flesh | . | . | . | . | . | . average of | | | | | | american analyses[b]| . | . | . | .| | . average of | | | | | | european analyses[c]| . | . | . | . | . | . ================================================================ [footnote a: including a small amount of flesh.] [footnote b: from an unpublished compilation of analyses of american food products.] [footnote c: könig, "chemie der nahrungs-und genussmittel," d ed., ii, p. .] . sweet potatoes contain more dry matter than white potatoes, the difference being due mainly to the presence of about per cent of sugar. there is approximately the same starch content, but more fat, protein, and fiber. as a food, they supply a large amount of non-nitrogenous nutrients. . carrots contain about half as much dry matter as potatoes, and half of the dry matter is sugar, nearly equally divided between sucrose and levulose, or fruit sugar. like the potato, carrots have some organic acids and a relatively small amount of proteids. in carrots and milk there is practically the same per cent of water. the nutrients in each, however, differ both as to kind and proportion. experiments with the cooking of carrots show that if a large amount of water is used, per cent or more of the nutrients, particularly of the more soluble sugar and albumin, are extracted and lost in the drain waters.[ ] the color of the carrot is due to the non-nitrogenous compound carrotin, c_{ }h_{ }. carrots are valuable in a ration not because of the nutrients they supply, but for the palatability and the mechanical action which the vegetable fiber exerts upon the process of digestion. . parsnips contain more solid matter than beets or carrots, of which to per cent is starch. the starch grains are very small, being only about one twentieth the size of the potato starch grains. there is per cent of sugar and an appreciable amount of fat, more than in any other of the vegetables of this class, and seven times as much as in the potato. the mineral matter is of somewhat different nature from that in potatoes; in parsnips one half is potash and one quarter phosphoric acid, while in potatoes three quarters are potash and one fifth phosphoric acid. . cabbage contains very little dry matter, usually less than per cent. it is proportionally richer in nitrogenous compounds than many vegetables, as about two of the ten parts of dry matter are crude protein, which makes the nutritive ratio one to five. during cooking to per cent of the nutrients are extracted. cabbage imparts to the ration bulk but comparatively little nutritive material. it is a valuable food adjunct, particularly used raw, as in a salad, when it is easily digested and retains all of the nutrients.[ ] [illustration: fig. .--graphic composition of cabbage.] . cauliflower has much the same general composition as cabbage, from which it differs mainly in mechanical structure. . beets.--the garden beet contains a little more protein than carrots, but otherwise has about the same general composition, and the statements made in regard to the losses of nutrients in the cooking of carrots and to their use in the dietary apply also to beets. . cucumbers contain about per cent of dry matter. the amount of nutrients is so small as to scarcely allow them to be considered a food. they are, however, a valuable food adjunct, as they impart palatability. . lettuce contains about per cent of solids, of which . is protein and . starch and sugar. while low in nutrients, it is high in dietetic value, because of the chlorophyll which it contains. it has been suggested that it is valuable, too, for supplying iron in an organic form, as there is iron chemically combined with the chlorophyll. . onions are aromatic bulbs, valuable for condimental rather than nutritive purposes. they contain essential and volatile oils, which impart characteristic odor and flavor. in the onion there are about . per cent of protein and . per cent of non-nitrogenous material. onions are often useful in stimulating the digestive tract to action. . spinach is a valuable food, not to be classed merely as a relish. its composition is interesting; for, although there is per cent water, and less than per cent dry matter, it still possesses high food value. spinach contains . per cent crude protein, or about one part to every four parts of carbohydrates. in potatoes, turnips, and beets there are ten or more parts of carbohydrates to every one part of protein. . asparagus is composed largely of water, about per cent. the dry matter, however, is richer in protein than that of many vegetables. asparagus contains, too, an amid compound, asparagin, which gives some of the characteristics to the vegetable. . melons.--melons contain from to per cent of dry matter, the larger portion of which is sugar and allied carbohydrates. the flavor is due to small amounts of essential oils and to organic acids associated with the sugars. melons possess condimental rather than nutritive value. [illustration: fig. .--graphic composition of tomato.] . tomatoes.--the tomato belongs to the night-shade family, and for this reason was long looked upon with suspicion. it was first used for ornamental purposes and was called "love-apple." gradually, as the idea of its poisonous nature became dispelled, it grew more and more popular as a food, until now in the united states it is one of the most common garden vegetables. it contains per cent of dry matter, per cent of which is sucrose, dextrose, and levulose. it also contains some malic acid, and a small amount of proteids, amids, cellulose, and coloring material. in the canning of tomatoes, if too much of the juice is excluded, a large part of the nutritive material is lost, as the sugars and albumins are all soluble and readily removed.[ ] if the seeds are objectionable, they may be removed by straining and the juice added to the fleshy portion. the product then has a higher nutritive value than if the juice had been discarded with the seeds. . sweet corn.--fresh, soft, green, sweet corn contains about per cent of water. the dry matter is half starch and one quarter sugar. the protein content makes up nearly per cent, a larger proportional amount than is found in the ripened corn, due to the fact that the proteids are deposited in the early stages of growth and the carbohydrates mainly in the last stages. sweet corn is a vegetable of high nutritive value and palatability. . eggplant contains a high per cent of water,-- per cent. the principal nutrients are starch and sugar, which make up about half the weight of the dry matter. it does not itself supply a large amount of nutrients, but the way in which it is prepared, by combination with butter, bread crumbs, and eggs, makes it a nutritious and palatable dish, the food value being derived mainly from the materials with which it is combined, the eggplant giving the flavor and palatability. . squash and pumpkin.--squash has much the same general composition and food value as beets and carrots, although it belongs to a different family. pumpkins contain less dry matter than squash. the dry matter of both is composed largely of starch and sugar and, like many other of the vegetables, they are often combined with food materials containing a large amount of nutrients, as in pumpkin and squash pies, where the food value is derived mainly from the milk, sugar, eggs, flour, and butter or other shortening used. . celery.--the dry matter of celery is comparatively rich in nitrogenous material, although the amount is small, and the larger proportion is in non-proteid form. when grown on rich soil, celery may contain an appreciable quantity of nitrates and nitrites, which have not been converted into amids and proteids. the supposed medicinal value is probably due to the nitrites which are generally present. celery is valuable from a dietetic rather than a nutritive point of view. . sanitary condition of vegetables.--the conditions under which vegetables are grown have much to do with their value, particularly from a sanitary point of view. uncooked vegetables often cause the spread of diseases, particularly those, as cholera and typhoid, affecting the digestive tract. particles of dirt containing the disease-producing organisms adhere to the uncooked vegetable and find their way into the digestive tract, where the bacteria undergo incubation. when sewage has been used for fertilizing the land, as in sewage irrigation, the vegetables are unsound from a sanitary point of view. such vegetables should be thoroughly cleaned and also well cooked, in order to render them sterile. vegetables to be eaten in the raw state should be dipped momentarily into boiling water, to destroy the activity of the germs present upon the surface. they may then be immediately immersed in ice-cold water, to preserve the crispness. . miscellaneous compounds in vegetables.--in addition to the general nutrients which have been discussed, many of the vegetables contain some tannin, glucosides, and essential oils; and occasionally those grown upon rich soils have appreciable amounts of nitrogen compounds, as nitrates and nitrites, which have not been built up into proteids. vegetables have a unique value in the dietary, and while as a class they contain small amounts of nutrients, they are indispensable for promoting health and securing normal digestion of the food. . canned vegetables.--when sound vegetables are thoroughly cooked to destroy ferments, and then sealed in cans while hot, they can be kept for a long time without any material impairment of nutritive value. during the cooking process there is lost a part of the essential oils, which gives a slightly different flavor to the canned or tinned goods.[ ] in some canned vegetables preservatives are used, but the enactment and enforcement of national and state laws have greatly reduced their use. when the cans are made of a poor quality of tin, or the vegetables are of high acidity, some of the metal is dissolved in sufficient quantity to be objectionable from a sanitary point of view.[ ] . edible portion and refuse of vegetables.--many vegetables have appreciable amounts of refuse,[ ] or non-edible parts, as skin, pods, seeds, and pulp, and in determining the nutritive value, these must be considered, as in some cases less than per cent of the weight of the material is edible portion, which proportionally increases the cost of the nutrients. ordinarily, the edible part is richer in protein than the entire material as purchased. in some cases, however, the refuse is richer in protein, but the protein is in a less available form. see comparison of potatoes and potato skins. chapter iv fruits, flavors, and extracts . general composition.--fruits are characterized by containing a large amount of water and only a small amount of dry matter, which is composed mainly of sugar and non-nitrogenous compounds. fruits contain but little fatty material and protein. a large portion of the total nitrogen is in the form of amid compounds. organic acids, as citric, tartaric, and malic, are found in all fruits, and the essential oils form a characteristic feature. the taste of fruits is due mainly to the blending of the various organic acids, essential oils, and sugars. although fruits contain a high per cent of water, they are nevertheless valuable as food.[ ] the constituents present to the greatest extent are sugars and acids. the sugar is not all like the common granulated sugar, but in ripe fruits a part is in the form known as levulose or fruit sugar, which is two and a half times sweeter than granulated sugar. sugars are valuable for heat-and fat-producing purposes, but not for muscle repairing. proteids are the muscle-forming nutrients. the organic acids, as malic acid in apples, citric acid in lemons and oranges, and tartaric acid in grapes, have characteristic medicinal properties. the sugar, proteid, and acid content of some of our more common fruits is given in the following table:[ ] composition of fruits ============================================================== | water |proteids| sugar |acid in |kind of | | | | juice | acid ----------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------- |per cent|per cent|per cent|per cent| apples (baldwin)| . | . | . | . |malic apples, sweet | . | . | . | . |malic blackberries | . | . | . | . |malic currants | . | -- | . | . |tartaric grapes | . | . | to | . to |tartaric strawberries | . | . | . | . |malic oranges | . | . | . | . |citric lemons | . | . | . | . |citric ============================================================== in addition to sugars, acids, and proteids, there are a great many other compounds in fruits. those which give the characteristic taste are called essential or volatile oils. . food value.--when the nutrients alone are considered, fruits appear to have a low food value, but they should not be judged entirely on this basis, because they impart palatability and flavor to other foods and exercise a favorable influence upon the digestive process. in the human ration fruits are a necessary adjunct. . apples.--apples vary in composition with the variety and physical characteristics of the fruit. in general they contain from to per cent of dry matter, of which per cent, or more, is sugar or allied carbohydrates. among the organic acids malic predominates, and the acidity ranges from . to . per cent. apples contain but little protein, less than per cent. there is some pectin, or jelly-like substance closely related to the carbohydrates. the flavor of the apple varies with the content of sugar, organic acids, and essential oils. during storage some apples appear to undergo further ripening, resulting in partial inversion of the sucrose, and there is a slight loss of weight, due to the formation of carbon dioxide. the apple is an important and valuable adjunct to the dietary.[ ] [illustration: fig. .--graphic composition of apple.] [illustration: fig. .--graphic composition of orange.] . oranges contain nearly the same proportion of dry matter as apples, the larger part of which is sugar. citric acid predominates and ranges in different varieties from to . per cent. the amounts of protein, fat, and cellulose are small. in some varieties of oranges there is more iron and sulphur than is usually found in fruits. all fruits, however, contain small amounts, but not as much as is found in green vegetables. the average composition of oranges is as follows: =========================================================== physical composition|chemical composition of edible portion ----------------------------------------------------------- per cent| per cent rind to | solids to pulp to | sugars to juice to | citric acid to . | ash . =========================================================== . lemons differ from oranges in containing more citric acid and less sucrose, levulose, and dextrose. the ash of the lemon is somewhat similar in general composition to the ash of the orange, but is larger in amount. the average composition of the lemon is as follows: =========================================================== physical composition|chemical composition of edible portion ----------------------------------------------------------- per cent| per cent rind to | solids to pulp to | sugar to juice to | citric acid to =========================================================== . grape fruit.--the rind and seed of this fruit make up about per cent, leaving per cent as edible portion. the juice contains per cent solids, of which nearly per cent is sugar and . per cent is citric acid. there is more acid in grape fruit than in oranges and appreciably less than in lemons. the characteristic flavor is due to a glucoside-like material. otherwise the composition and food value are about the same as of oranges. [illustration: fig. .--graphic composition of strawberry.] . strawberries contain from to per cent of dry matter, mainly sugar and malic acid. the protein, fat, and ash usually make up less than per cent. essential oils and coloring substances are present in small amounts. it has been estimated that it would require pounds of strawberries to supply the protein for a daily ration. nevertheless they are valuable in the dietary. it has been suggested that the malic and other acids have antiseptic properties which, added to the appearance and palatability, make them a desirable food adjunct. strawberries have high dietetic rather than high food value. . grapes contain more dry matter than apples or oranges. there is no appreciable amount of protein or fat, and while they add some nutrients, as sugar, to the ration, they do not contribute any quantity. their value, as in the case of other fruits, is due to palatability and indirect effect upon the digestibility of other foods. in the juice of grapes there is from to per cent or more of sugar, as sucrose, levulose, and dextrose. grapes contain also from to . per cent of tartaric acid, which, during the process of manufacture into wine, is rendered insoluble by the alcohol formed, and the product, known as argole, is used in the preparation of cream of tartar. differences in flavor and taste of grapes are due to variations in the sugar, acid, and essential oil content. . peaches contain about per cent of dry matter, of which over per cent is sugar and other carbohydrates. there is less than . per cent of protein, fat, and mineral matter and about . per cent of acid. the peach contains also a very small amount of hydrocyanic acid, which is more liberally present in the kernel than in the fruit. flavor is imparted mainly by the sugar and essential oils. peaches vary in composition with variety and environment.[ ] . plums contain the most dry matter of any of the fruits, about per cent, mainly sugar. about one per cent is acid and about . per cent are protein and ash. there are a great many varieties of plums, varying in composition. dried plums (prunes) have mildly laxative properties. . olives.--the ripe olive contains about per cent of oil, exclusive of the pit, which makes up per cent of the weight. in green, preserved olives there is considerably less oil. because of the oil the olive has food value. olive oil is slightly laxative and assists mechanically in the digestion of foods. . figs.--dried figs contain about per cent of sugar and . per cent of protein. the fig has a mildly laxative action. . dried fruits.--many fruits are prepared for market by drying. the dried fruit has a slightly different composition from the fresh fruit because of loss of the volatile and essential oils, and minor chemical changes which take place during the drying process. when free from preservatives, dried fruits are valuable adjuncts to the dietary and can be advantageously used when fresh fruits are not obtainable. . canning and preservation of fruits.--to obtain the best results in canning, the fruit should not be overripe. after the ripened state has been reached fermentation and bacterial changes occur, and it is more difficult to preserve the fruit than when not so fully matured.[ ] when a fruit has begun to ferment, it is hard to destroy the ferment bodies and their spores so as to prevent further ferment action. the chemical changes that occur in the last stages of ripening are similar to those which take place during the cooking process whereby the pectin or jelly-like substances are rendered more soluble and digestible. . adulterated canned fruits.--analyses of a number of canned fruits, made by various boards of health, show the presence of small amounts of arsenic, tin, lead, and other poisonous metals. the quantity dissolved depends upon the kind, age, and condition of the canned goods and the state of the fruit when canned. the longer a can of fruit or vegetable has been kept in stock, the larger is the amount of tin or metal that has been dissolved. when fresh canned, there is usually very little dissolved tin, but in old goods the amount may be comparatively large. the tin used for the can is occasionally of poor quality and may contain some arsenic, which also is dissolved. the occasional use of canned goods preserved in tin is not objectionable, but they should not be used continually if it can be avoided. preservatives, as borax, salicylic acid, benzoic acid, and sodium sulphate, are sometimes added to prevent fermentation and to preserve the natural appearance of the fruit or vegetable.[ ] . fruit flavors and extracts.--formerly all fruit extracts and flavors were obtained from vegetable sources; at present many are made in the chemical laboratory by synthetic methods; that is, by combining simpler organic compounds and radicals to produce the material having the desired flavor and odor. the various fruit flavors are definite chemical compounds, and can be produced in the laboratory as well as in the cells of plants. when properly made, there is no difference in chemical composition between the two. as prepared in the laboratory, however, traces of acids, alkalies, and other compounds, used in bringing about the necessary chemical combination, are often present, not having been perfectly removed. hence it is that natural and artificial flavors differ mainly in the impurities which the artificial flavors may contain. some of the flavoring materials have characteristic medicinal properties, as the flavor of bitter almond, which contains hydrocyanic acid, a poisonous substance. flavors and extracts should not be indiscriminately used. in small amounts they often exert a favorable influence upon the digestion of foods, and the value of some fruits is in a large measure due to the special flavors they contain. a study of the separate compounds which impart flavor to fruits, as the various aldehydes, ethers, and organic salts, belongs to organic chemistry rather than to foods. some of the simpler compounds of which flavors are composed may exist in entirely different form or combination in food products; as for example, pineapple flavoring is ethyl butrate. this can be prepared by combination of butyric acid from stale butter with alcohol which supplies the ethyl radical. the chemical union of the two produces the new compound, ethyl butrate, the distinctive flavoring substance of the pineapple. banana flavor can be made from stale butter, caustic soda, and chloroform. none of these materials, as such, go into the flavor, but an essential radical is taken from each. these manufactured products, when properly made, are in every essential similar to the flavor made by the plant and stored up in the fruit. the plant combines the material in the laboratory of the plant cell, and the manufacturer of essences puts together these same constituents in a chemical laboratory. in the fruit, however, the essential oil is associated with a number of other compounds. chapter v sugars, molasses, syrup, honey, and confections . composition of sugars.--the term "sugar" is applied to a large class of compounds composed of the elements carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. sugars used for household purposes are derived mainly from the sugar cane and the sugar beet.[ ] at the present time about two fifths are obtained from the cane and about three fifths from the beet. when subjected to the same degree of refining, there is no difference in the chemical composition of the sugars from the two sources; they are alike in every respect and the chemist is unable to determine their origin. the production of sugar is an agricultural industry; the methods of manufacture pertain more to industrial chemistry than to the chemistry of foods, and therefore a discussion of them is omitted in this work.[ ] [illustration: fig. .--sugar crystals.] . commercial grades of sugar.--sugars are graded according to the size of the granule, the color and general appearance of the crystals, and the per cent of sucrose or pure sugar. common granulated sugar is from . to . per cent pure sucrose. the impurities consist mainly of moisture and mineral matter. in the process of refining, sulphur fumes are frequently used for bleaching and clarifying the solution.[ ] the sulphurous acid formed is neutralized with lime, which is rendered insoluble and practically all removed in subsequent filtrations. there are, however, traces of sulphates and sulphites in ordinary sugar, but these are in such small amounts as not to be injurious to health. when sugar is burned, as in the bomb calorimeter, so as to permit collection of all of the products of combustion, granulated sugar yields about . of a per cent of sulphur dioxid.[ ] occasionally coloring substances, as a small amount of indigo, are added to yellow tinged sugars to impart a white color, much on the same principle as the bluing of clothes. the amount used is usually extremely small, and the effect on health has never been determined. occasionally, however, bluing is used to such an extent that a blue scum appears when the sugar is boiled with water. sugar has high value for the production of heat and energy. digestion experiments show that when it is used in the dietary in not excessive amounts, it is directly absorbed by the body and practically all available. it can advantageously be combined with other foods to form a part of the ration.[ ] when a ration contains the requisite amount of protein, sugar is used to the best advantage. alone it is incapable of sustaining life, because it does not contain any nitrogen. when sugar was substituted for an excess of protein in a ration, it was found to produce heat and energy at much less expense. many foods, as apples, grapes, and small fruits, contain appreciable amounts of sugar and owe their food value almost entirely to their sugar content. in the dietary, sugar is too frequently regarded as a condiment instead of a nutrient, to be used for imparting palatability rather than for purposes of nutrition. while valuable for improving the taste of foods, the main worth of sugar is as a nutritive substance; used in the preparation of foods it adds to the total heat and energy of the ration. sugar is sometimes used in excessive amounts and, as is the case with any food or nutrient, when that occurs, nutrition disturbances result, due to misuse of the food. statistics show that the average consumption of sugar in the united states is nearly pounds a year per capita. in the dietary of the adult, sugar to the extent of four ounces per day can be consumed advantageously. the exclusion of sugar from the diet of children is a great mistake, as they need it for heat and energy and to conserve the protein for growth. "sugar is one of the most important forms in which carbohydrates can be added to the diet of children. the great reduction in the price of sugar which has taken place in recent years is probably one of the causes of the improved physique of the rising generation. the fear that sugar may injure children's teeth is, largely illusory. the negroes who live largely on sugar cane have the finest teeth the world can show. if injudiciously taken, sugar may, however, injure the child's appetite and digestion. the craving for sweets which children show is no doubt the natural expression of a physiological need, but they should be taken with, and not between, meals."[ ] [illustration: fig. .--nutrients of a ration with sugar. the hacket parts represent the proportion of nutrients not digested.] . sugar in the dietary.--sugar has an important place in the dietary. it not only serves for the production of heat and energy in the body, but is also valuable in enabling the proteids to be used more economically. in reasonable amounts, it is particularly valuable in the dietary of growing children, as the proteids of the food are then utilized to better advantage for growth. the unique value of sugar depends upon its intelligent use and its proper combination with other foods, particularly with those rich in the nitrogenous compounds or proteids. sugar alone is incapable of sustaining life, but combined with other foods is a valuable nutrient. the amount which can be advantageously used depends largely upon the individual. ordinarily three to five ounces per day is sufficient, although some persons cannot safely consume as much as this. in the case of diabetes mellitus, the amount of sugar in the ration must be materially reduced. persons in normal health and engaged in outdoor work can use sugar to advantage.[ ] many of the "harvest drinks," made largely from molasses with a little ginger, and used extensively in some localities, are not without merit, as they contain an appreciable amount of nutrients. milk contains more sugar as lactose or milk sugar than any other nutrient. [illustration: fig. .--nutrients of a ration without sugar. the hacket parts represent the proportion of nutrients not digested.] the craving for sugar by growing children and athletes is natural. sugar, however, is often injudiciously used, and a perverted taste may be established which can be satisfied only by excessive amounts. this results in impaired digestion and malnutrition. . maple sugar.--sugar obtained by evaporation from the sap of the maple tree (_acer saccharinum_) is identical, except for the foreign substances which it contains, with that from the beet and sugar cane. the mottled appearance and characteristic color and taste of maple sugar are due to the various organic acids and other compounds present in the maple sap and recovered in the sugar. maple sugar, as ordinarily prepared, has . of a per cent or more of ash or mineral matter, while refined cane sugar contains less than one tenth as much.[ ] hence, when maple sugar is adulterated with cane and beet sugars, the ash content is noticeably lowered, as is also the content of organic acids. it is difficult, however, to determine with absolute certainty pure high grade maple sugar from the impure low grade to which a small amount of granulated sugar has been added. . adulteration of sugar.--sugar at the present time is not materially adulterated. other than the substances mentioned which are used for clarification and color, none are added during refining which remain in the sugar in appreciable amounts. sugar does not readily lend itself to adulteration, as it has a definite crystalline structure, and materials that would be suitable for its adulteration are of entirely different physical character.[ ] cane sugar is not easily blended with glucose, or starch sugar, because of the physical differences between the two. the question of the kind of sugar to use in the household, as granulated, loaf, or pulverized, is largely one of personal choice, as there is no appreciable difference in the nutritive value or purity of the different kinds. . dextrose sugars.--products known as glucose and dextrose sugars are made from corn and other starches; they can also be prepared from cane sugar by the use of heat, chemicals, or ferments for carrying on the process known as inversion. the dextrose sugars differ from cane sugar in containing a dissimilar number of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms in the molecule. the formula of the dextrose sugars is c_{ }h_{ }_o{ }, while that of cane sugar is c_{ }h_{ }o_{ }. by the addition of one molecule of water, h_{ }o, to a molecule of sucrose, two molecules of invert sugar (dextrose and glucose) are produced:[ ] c_{ }h_{ }o_{ } + h_{ } = c_{ }h_{ }o_{ } + c_{ }h_{ }o_{ }. in bringing about this change, acids are employed, but the acid in no way enters into the chemical composition of the final product; it is removed as described during the process of sugar manufacture. the action of the acid brings about a catalytic change, the acid being necessary only as a presence reagent to start the chemical reaction. when properly prepared and the acid product thoroughly removed, dextrose and glucose have practically the same food value as sugar. when they are digested, heat and energy are produced, and a given weight has about the same fuel value as an equal weight of sugar. some of the glucose-yielding products can be made at less expense than sugar, and when they are sold under their right names there is no reason why they should not be used in the dietary, as they serve the same nutritive purpose. . molasses is a by-product obtained in the refining of sugar. it is a mixture of cane sugar and invert sugars, as levulose and dextrose. when in sugar making the sucrose is removed by crystallization, a point is finally reached where the solution, or mother liquid, as it is called, refuses to give up any further crystals;[ ] then this product, consisting of various sugars and small amounts of organic acids and ash, is partially refined and clarified to form molasses. the term "new orleans" molasses was formerly applied to the product obtained by the use of open kettles for the manufacture of sugar, but during recent years the vacuum pan process has been introduced, and "new orleans" molasses is now an entirely different article. the terms first, second, and third molasses are applied to the liquids obtained after the removal of the first, second, and third crops of sugar crystals; first molasses being richer in sucrose, while third molasses is richer in dextrose and invert sugars. the ash in molasses ranges from to . per cent. some of the low grades of molasses are used in the preparation of animal foods. the taste and physical characteristics of molasses are due largely to the organic acids and impurities that are present, as well as to the proportion in which the various sugars occur. when used with soda in cooking and baking operations, the organic acid of the molasses liberates carbon dioxide gas, which acts as a leavening agent. because of the organic acids, molasses should not be stored in tin or metalware dishes, as the solvent action results in producing poisonous tin and other metallic salts. the food value of molasses is dependent entirely upon the amount of dry matter and the per cent of sugar. a large amount of water is considered an adulterant; ordinarily molasses contains from to per cent. if a sample of molasses contains per cent of dry matter, it has slightly less than three fourths of the nutritive value of the same weight of sugar. . syrups.--the term "syrup" is applied to natural products obtained by evaporation and purification of the saccharine juices of plants. sorghum syrup is from the sorghum plant, which is pressed by machinery and the juice clarified and evaporated so as to contain about per cent of water. in sorghum syrups there are from to per cent of cane sugar, and from to per cent of glucose and invert sugars. cane syrup is made from the clarified juice of the sugar cane, and has about the same general composition as sorghum syrup. maple syrup, prepared from the juice of the sugar maple, is characteristically rich in sucrose and contains but little glucose or reducing sugars. the flavor of all the syrups is due mainly to organic acids, ethereal products, and impurities. in some instances the essential flavor can be produced synthetically, or derived from other and cheaper materials; and by the use of these flavors, mixed syrups can be prepared closely resembling many of the natural products. when properly made, they are equal in nutritive value to natural syrups. when sold under assumed names, they are to be considered and classified as adulterated, and not as syrups from definite and specific products. low-grade syrups and molasses are often used for making fuel alcohol. they readily undergo alcoholic fermentation and are valuable for this purpose, rendering it possible for a good grade of fuel alcohol to be produced at low cost. the manufacture of sugar, syrups, and molasses has been brought to a high degree of perfection through the assistance rendered by industrial chemistry. losses in the process are reduced to a minimum, and the various steps are all controlled by chemical analysis. sugar has the physical property of deflecting a ray of polarized light, the amount of deflection depending upon the quantity of sugar in solution. this is measured by the polariscope, an instrument by means of which the sugar content of sugar plants is rapidly determined. [illustration: fig. .--graphic composition of syrup.] . honey is composed largely of invert sugars gathered by the honeybee from the nectar of flowers. it varies in composition and flavor according to its source. the color depends upon the flower from which it came, white clover giving a light-colored, pleasant-flavored honey, while that from buckwheat and goldenrod is dark and has a slightly rank taste. the comb is composed largely of wax, which has somewhat the same general composition as fat, but contains ethereal instead of glycerol bodies. on account of the predominance of invert sugars, pure honey has a levulo or left-handed rotation when examined by the polariscope. honey contains from to per cent of invert sugars, and from to per cent of water, while the ash content is small, less than one tenth of one per cent. strained honey is easily adulterated with glucose products. adulteration with cane sugar is readily detected, as pure honey contains only a very small amount of sucrose. honey can be made by feeding bees on sugar; the sugar undergoes inversion, with the production of dextrose. such honey, although not adulterated, is inferior in quality and lacking in natural flavor.[ ] . confections.--by blending various saccharine products, confections are made. usually sucrose (cane and beet sugar) is used as the basis for their preparation. sucrose has definite physical properties, as crystalline structure, and forms chemical and mechanical combinations with acid, alkaline, and other substances; it also unites with water, and when heated undergoes changes in structural composition. the presence of small amounts of acid substances, or variations in the concentration of the sugar solution, materially affect the mechanical relation of the sugar particles to each other, and their crystallization. usually crystallization takes place when there is less than per cent of water present. the form, size, and arrangement of the crystals are influenced by agitation during cooling. to secure desired results, often small quantities of various other substances are employed for their mechanical action. glucose is frequently used, and is said to be necessary for the production of some kinds of candy. candies are colored with various dyes and pigments, many of which are harmless, although some are injurious. coal tar dyes are frequently employed for this purpose. objection has generally been urged against their use, as it is believed many of them are injurious to health. it cannot be said, however, that all are poisonous, as some are known to be harmless. the use of a few coal tar dyes is allowed by the united states government. mineral colors are now rarely, if ever, used. impure candies result from objectionable ingredients, as starch, paraffin, and large amounts of injurious coloring substances. coal tar coloring materials are identified in the way described in experiment no. . confectionery, when properly prepared and unadulterated, has the same nutritive value as sugar and the other ingredients, and is entitled to a place in the dietary for the production of heat and energy. much larger amounts of candies are sold and consumed during the winter than the summer months, suggesting that in cold weather candy is most needed in the dietary. . saccharine is an artificial sweetening, five hundred times sweeter than cane sugar. it contains in its molecule, chemically united, benzine, sulphuric acid, and ammonia radicals. it is employed for sweetening purposes in cases of diabetes mellitus, where physicians advise against the use of sugar. it has no food value. a small amount is sometimes added to canned corn and tomatoes to impart a sweet taste. the physiological properties of saccharine have not been extensively investigated. chapter vi legumes and nuts . general composition of legumes.--peas, beans, lentils, and peanuts are the legumes most generally used for human food. as a class, they are characterized by high protein content and a comparatively low per cent of starch and carbohydrates. they contain the largest amount of nitrogenous compounds of any of the vegetable foods, and hence are particularly valuable in the human ration as a substitute for meats.[ ] for feeding animals the legumes are highly prized, particularly the forage crops, clover and alfalfa. these secure their nitrogen, which is the characteristic element of protein, from the free nitrogen of the air, through the workings of bacterial organisms found in the nodules on the roots of the plants. the legumes appear to be the only plants capable of making use of the nitrogen of the air for food purposes. . beans contain about per cent of protein and but little fat, less than is found in any of the grain or cereal products. the protein of the bean differs from that of cereals in its general and structural composition. it is a globulin known as legumin, and is acted upon mainly by ferments working in alkaline solutions, as in the lower part of the digestive tract. beans have about the same amount of ash as the cereals, but the ash is richer in potash and lime. [illustration: fig. .--graphic composition of beans. hacked part indigestible.] . digestibility of beans.--beans are usually considered indigestible, but experiments show they are quite completely digested, although they require more work on the part of the digestive tract than many other foods. the digestibility was found to vary with individuals, per cent of the protein being digested in one case, and only per cent in another. the protein of beans is not as completely digested as that of meats. when beans were combined with other foods, forming a part of a ration, they were more completely digested than when used in large amounts and with only a few other foods. the presence of the skin is in part responsible for low digestibility. when in the preparation of beans the skins, which contain a large amount of cellulose, are removed, the beans are more completely digested. by cooking from twenty minutes to half an hour in rapidly boiling water containing a small amount of soda, the skins are softened and loosened and are then easily removed by rubbing in cold water. some of the soda enters into combination with the legumin. along with the skins a portion of the germ is lost. the germ readily ferments, which is probably the cause of beans producing flatulence with some individuals during digestion. after the skins are removed the nutrients are more susceptible to the action of the digestive fluids. experiments show that per cent of the protein of baked skinned beans is soluble in pepsin and pancreatin solutions, while under similar conditions there is only . per cent of the protein soluble from beans baked without removal of the skins. [illustration: fig. .--beans, raw and cooked. skins, wet and dry.] . use of beans in the dietary.--there is no vegetable food capable of furnishing so much protein at such low cost as beans; from a pound costing five cents about one fifth of a pound of protein and three fifths of a pound of carbohydrates are obtained. beans can, to a great extent, take the place of meats in the dietary. there is more protein in beans than in beef. four ounces of uncooked beans or six ounces of baked beans are as much as can conveniently be combined in the dietary, and these will furnish a quarter of the protein of the ration. in the case of active out-of-door laborers over a pound of baked beans per day is often consumed with impunity. . string beans.--string beans--green beans with pod--contain a large amount of water, to per cent. the dry matter is rich in protein, nearly per cent, although in the green beans as eaten, containing per cent water, there is less than - / per cent. lima beans are richer in protein than string beans, as the green pod is not included. string beans are valuable both for the nutrients they contain and for the favorable influence they exert upon the digestibility of other foods. . peas.--in general composition and digestibility, peas are quite similar to beans. they belong to the same family, leguminosæ, and the protein of each is similar in quantity and general properties. the statements made in regard to the composition, digestibility, and use of beans in the dietary apply with minor modifications to peas. when used in the preparation of soups, they add appreciable amounts of nutrients. [illustration: fig. .--pea starch granules.] . canned peas.--in order to impart a rich green color, copper sulphate has been used in the canning of peas. physiologists differ as to its effect upon health. while a little may not be particularly injurious, much interferes with normal digestion of the food and forms insoluble copper proteids. in some countries a small amount of copper sulphate is tolerated, while in others it is prohibited. . peanuts.--peanuts differ from peas and beans in containing more fat. they should be considered a food, for at ordinary prices they furnish a large amount of protein and fat. like the other members of the legume family, the peanut is rather slow of digestion and requires considerable intestinal work for completion of the process. nuts . general composition.--nuts should be regarded as food, for they contribute to a ration appreciable amounts of nutrients. the edible portion of nearly all is rich in fat; pecans, for example, contain as high as per cent. in protein content nuts range from per cent in cocoanuts to per cent in peanuts. the carbohydrate content is usually comparatively low, less than per cent in hickory nuts, although there is nearly per cent in chestnuts. on account of high fat content, nuts supply a large amount of heat and energy.[ ] . chestnuts are characterized by containing less fat and protein and much more carbohydrate material, especially starch, than is found in other nuts. in southern europe chestnuts are widely used as food; the skins are removed, and the nuts are steamed, boiled, or roasted, and sometimes they are dried and ground into flour. chestnuts are less concentrated in protein and fat, and form a better balanced food used alone than do other nuts. . the hickory nut, which is a characteristically american nut, contains in the edible portion about per cent protein, per cent fat, and per cent carbohydrates. . the almonds used in the united states come chiefly from southern europe, although they are successfully raised in california. they contain about per cent fat and per cent protein. the flavor of almonds is due to a small amount of hydrocyanic acid. . pistachio.--some nuts are used for imparting color and flavor to food products, as the pistachio nut, the kernel of which is greenish in color and imparts a flavor suggestive of almonds. the pistachio has high food value, as it is rich in both fat and protein. it is employed in the manufacture of confectionery and in ice cream for imparting flavor and color. . cocoanuts grow luxuriantly in many tropical countries, and have a high food value. they are characteristically rich in fat, one half of the edible portion being composed of this nutrient. for tropical countries they supply the fat of a ration at less expense than any other food. when used in large amounts they should be supplemented with foods rich in carbohydrates, as rice, and in proteids, as beans. cocoanut milk is proportionally richer in carbohydrates and poorer in fat and protein than the meat of the cocoanut. in discussing the cocoanut, woods states:[ ] "the small, green, and immature nuts are grated fine for medicinal use, and when mixed with the oil of the ripe nut it becomes a healing ointment. the jelly which lines the shell of the more mature nut furnishes a delicate and nutritious food. the milk in its center, when iced, is a most delicious luxury. grated cocoanut forms a part of the world-renowned east india condiment, curry. dried, shredded (desiccated) cocoanut is an important article of commerce. from the oil a butter is made, of a clear, whitish color, so rich in fat, that of water and foreign substances combined there are but o. . it is better adapted for cooking than for table use. at present it is chiefly used in hospitals, but it is rapidly finding its way to the tables of the poor, particularly as a substitute for oleomargarine." . use of nuts in the dietary.--when nuts can be secured at a low price per pound, ten cents or less, they compare favorably in nutritive value with other staple foods. digestion experiments with rations composed largely of nuts show that they are quite thoroughly digested. professor jaffa of the california experiment station, in discussing the nutritive value of nuts and fruits, says:[ ] "it is certainly an error to consider nuts merely as an accessory to an already heavy meal, and to regard fruit merely as something of value for its pleasant flavor, or for its hygienic or medicinal virtues. the agreement of one food or another with any person is more or less a personal idiosyncrasy, but it seems fair to say that those with whom nuts and fruits agree, can, if they desire, readily secure a considerable part of their nutritive material from such sources." average composition of nuts (from fifteenth annual report, maine agricultural experiment station.) =========================================================================== |refuse|edible | edible portion |value[a] | | |------------------------------| | |portion|water|prot.| fat |carb.| ash | per lb. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | % | % | % | % | % | % | % |calories almonds | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | almonds, kernels | -- | . | . | . | . | . | . | brazil nuts | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | filberts | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | filberts, kernels | -- | . | . | . | . | . | . | hickory nuts | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | pecans | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | pecans, kernels | -- | . | . | . | . | . | . | walnuts | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | walnuts, kernels | -- | . | . | . | . | . | . | chestnuts | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | acorns | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | beechnuts | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | butternuts | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | litchi nuts | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | piñon, p. edulis | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | piñon, p. monophylla| . | . | . | . | . | . | . | piñon, p. sabiniana | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | pistachio, kernels | -- | . | . | . | . | . | . | peanuts, raw | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | peanuts, kernels | -- | . | . | . | . | . | . | roasted peanuts | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | shelled peanuts | -- | . | . | . | . | . | . | peanut butter | -- | -- | . | . | . | . |[b] . | cocoanuts | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | cocoanuts, shredded | -- | -- | . | . | . | . | . | cocoanut milk | -- | -- | . | . | . | . | . | ========================================================================= [footnote a: calculated from analyses.] [footnote b: including salt, . .] chapter vii milk and dairy products . importance in the dietary.--there is no article of food which enters so extensively into the dietary as milk, and it is one of the few foods which supply all the nutrients,--fats, carbohydrates, and proteids.[ ] milk alone is capable of sustaining life for comparatively long periods, and it is the chief article of food during many diseases. an exclusive milk diet for a healthy adult, however, would be unsatisfactory; in the case of young children, milk is essential, because the digestive tract has not become functionally developed for the digestion of other foods. it is necessary to consider not only the composition and nutritive value of milk, but also its purity or sanitary condition. . general composition.--average milk contains about per cent water and per cent dry matter. the dry matter is composed approximately of: ======================= | per cent fat | . casein | . albumin | . milk sugar | . ash | . ======================= [illustration: fig. .--milk fat globules.] fat is the most variable constituent of milk. occasionally it is found as low as per cent and as high as per cent or more. the poorest and richest milks differ mainly in fat content, as the sugar, ash, casein, and albumin, or "solids of the milk serum," are fairly constant in amount and composition. variations in the content of fat are due to differences in feed and in the breed and individuality of the animal. . digestibility.--milk is one of the most completely digested of foods, about per cent of the protein and fat and per cent of the carbohydrates being absorbed and utilized by the body. in a mixed ration, the nutrients of milk are practically all absorbed. milk also exerts a favorable influence upon the digestibility of other foods with which it is combined. this is doubtless due to the digestive action of the special ferments or enzymes which milk contains. in milk there is a soluble ferment material or enzyme which has the power of peptonizing proteids. it is this ferment which carries on the ripening process when cheese is cured in cold storage, and it is believed to be this body which promotes digestion of other foods with which milk is combined.[ ] milk is not easily digested by some persons. the tendency to costiveness caused by a milk diet can be largely overcome by the use of salt with the milk, or of some solid food, as toast or crackers, to prevent coagulation and the formation of masses resistant to the digestive fluids. barley water and lime water in small amounts are also useful for assisting mechanically in the digestion of milk. milk at ordinary prices is one of the cheapest foods that can be used. [illustration: fig. .--dirt in a sample of unsanitary milk.] . sanitary condition of milk.--equally as important as composition is the sanitary condition or wholesomeness of milk. milk is a food material which readily undergoes fermentation and is a medium for the distribution of germ diseases. the conditions under which it is produced and the way in which it is handled determine largely its sanitary value, and are of so much importance in relation to public health that during recent years city and state boards of health have introduced sanitary inspection and examination of milk along with the chemical tests for detecting its adulteration. some of the more frequent causes of contaminated and unsound milk are: unhealthy animals, poor food and water, unsanitary surroundings of the animals, and lack of cleanliness and care in the handling and transporting of the milk. outbreaks of typhoid and scarlet fevers and other germ diseases have frequently been traced to a contaminated milk supply.[ ] . certified milk.--when milk is produced under the most sanitary conditions, the number of bacterial bodies per cubic centimeter is materially reduced. in order to supply high grade milk containing but few bacteria, special precautions are taken in the care of the animals, and in the feeding and milking, and all sources of contamination of the milk are eliminated as far as possible. such milk, when sold in sterilized bottles, is commonly called "certified milk," indicating that its purity is guaranteed by the producer and that the number of bacteria per unit does not exceed a certain standard, as per cubic centimeter. ordinary market milk contains upwards of , . . pasteurized milk.--in order to destroy the activity of the bacterial organisms, milk is subjected to a temperature of ° f. for ten minutes or longer, which process is known as pasteurization. when milk is heated to a temperature above °, it is sterilized. below °, the albumin is not coagulated. by pasteurizing, milk is much improved from a sanitary point of view, and whenever the milk supply is of unknown purity, it should be pasteurized.[ ] after the milk has been thus treated, the same care should be exercised in keeping it protected to prevent fresh inoculation or contamination, as though it were unpasteurized milk. for family use milk can be pasteurized in small amounts in the following way: before receiving the milk, the receptacle should be thoroughly cleaned and sterilized with boiling water or dry heat, as in an oven. the milk is loosely covered and placed in a pan of water, a false bottom being in the pan so as to prevent unequal heating. the water surrounding the milk is gradually heated until a temperature of ° f. is registered, and the milk is kept at this temperature for about ten minutes. it is then cooled and placed in the refrigerator. [illustration: fig. .--pasteurizing milk.] . tyrotoxicon.--tyrotoxicon is a chemical compound produced by a ferment body which finds its way into milk when kept in unsanitary surroundings. it induces digestion disorders similar to cholera, and when present in large amounts, may prove fatal. it sometimes develops in cream, ice cream, or cheese, but only when they have been kept in unclean places or produced from infected milk. . color of milk is often taken as a guide to its purity and richness in fat. while a yellow tinge is usually characteristic of milks rich in fat, it is not a hard and fast rule, for frequently light-colored milks are richer in fat than yellow-tinged ones. the coloring material is independent of the percentage of fat, and it is not always safe to judge the richness of milk on the basis of color. . souring of milk.--souring of milk is due to the action of the lactic acid organism, which finds its way into the milk through particles of dust carried in the air or from unclean receptacles which contain the spores of the organism.[ ] when milk sours, a small amount of sugar is changed to lactic acid which reacts upon the casein, converting it from a soluble to an insoluble condition. when milk is exposed to the air at a temperature of from ° to ° f., lactic acid fermentation readily takes place. at a low temperature the process is checked, and at a high temperature the organisms and spores are destroyed. in addition to lactic acid ferments, there are large numbers of others which develop in milk, changing the different compounds of which milk is composed. in the processes of butter and cheese making, these fermentation changes are controlled so as to develop the flavor and secure the best grades of butter and cheese. . use of preservatives in milk.--in order to check fermentation, boric acid, formalin, and other preservatives have been proposed. physiologists object to their use because the quantity required to prevent fermentation is often sufficient to have a medicinal effect. the tendency is to use excessive amounts, which may interfere with normal digestion of the food. milk that is cared for under the most sanitary conditions has a higher dietetic value and is much to be preferred to that which has been kept sweet by the use of preservatives. . condensed milk is prepared by evaporating milk in vacuum pans until it is reduced about one fourth in bulk, when it is sealed in cans, and it will then keep sweet for a long time. occasionally some cane sugar is added to the evaporated product. when diluted, evaporated milk has much the same composition as whole milk. when a can of condensed milk has been opened, the same care should be exercised to prevent fermentation as if it were fresh milk. . skim milk differs in composition from whole milk in fat content. when the fat is removed by the separator, there is often left less than one tenth of a per cent. skim milk has a much higher nutritive value than is generally conceded, and wherever it can be procured at a reasonable price it should be used in the dietary as a source of protein. . cream ranges in fat content from to per cent. it is generally preferred to whole milk, although it is not as well balanced a food, because it is deficient in protein. cream should contain at least per cent of fat. . buttermilk is the product left after removal of the fat from cream by churning. it has about the same amount of nutrients as skim milk. the casein is in a slightly modified form due to the development of lactic acid during the ripening of the cream, and on this account buttermilk is more easily digested and assimilated by many individuals than milk in other forms. the development of the acid generally reduces the number of species of other than the lactic organisms, and these are increased. . goat's milk is somewhat richer in solids than cow's milk, containing about one per cent more proteids, a little more fat, and less sugar. when used as a substitute for human or cow's milk, it generally needs to be slightly diluted, depending, however, upon the composition of the individual sample. . koumiss is a fermented beverage made from milk by the use of yeast to secure alcoholic fermentation. koumiss contains about one per cent each of lactic acid and alcohol, and the casein and other nutrients are somewhat modified by the fermentation changes. koumiss is generally considered a non-alcoholic beverage possessing both food and dietetic value. . prepared milks.--various preparations are made to resemble milk in general composition. these are mechanical mixtures of sugar, fats, and proteids. milk sugar, casein, or malted proteids are generally the materials employed in their preparation. often the dried and pulverized solids of skim milk are used. many of the prepared milks are deficient in fat. while they are not equal to cow's milk, their use is often made necessary from force of circumstances. . human milk is not as rich in solid matter as cow's milk. it contains about the same amount of fat, one per cent more sugar, and one per cent less proteids. in human milk nearly one half of the protein is in the form of albumins, while in cow's milk there is about one fifth in this form. the fat globules are much smaller than those of cow's milk. in infant feeding it is often necessary to modify cow's milk by the addition of water, cream, and milk sugar, so as to make it more nearly resemble in composition human milk. [illustration: fig. .--apparatus used in testing milk. , pipette; , lactometer; , acid measure; , centrifuge; , test bottle.] . adulteration of milk.--milk is not as extensively adulterated as it was before the passage and enforcement of the numerous state and municipal laws regulating its inspection and sale. the most frequent forms of adulteration are addition of water and removal of cream. these are readily detected from the specific gravity and fat content of the milk. the specific gravity of milk is determined by means of the lactometer, an instrument which sinks to a definite point in pure milk. in watered milk it sinks to greater depth, depending upon the amount of water added. the fat content of milk is readily and accurately determined by the babcock test, in which the fat is separated by centrifugal action. for the detection of adulterated milk the student is referred to chapter vi, "chemistry of dairying," by snyder. butter . composition.--butter is made by the churning or agitation of cream and is composed mainly of milk fats and water, together with smaller amounts of ash, salt, casein, milk sugar, and lactic acid. average butter has the following composition: ============================ |per cent water | . ash and salt | . casein and albumin | . fat | . ============================ when butter contains an abnormal amount of water, it is considered adulterated. according to act of congress standard butter should not contain over per cent of water nor less than . per cent of fat. . digestibility of butter.--digestion experiments show that practically all of the fat, per cent, is digestible and available for use by the body. butter is valuable only for the production of heat and energy. alone, it is incapable of sustaining life, because it contains no proteid material. it is usually one of the more expensive items of food, but it is generally considered quite necessary in a ration.[ ] it has been suggested that it takes an important part mechanically in the digestion of food. . adulteration of butter.--in addition to containing an excess of water, butter is adulterated in other ways. old, stale butter is occasionally melted, washed, salted, and reworked. this product is known as renovated butter, and has poor keeping qualities. frequently preservatives are added to such butter to delay fermentation changes. oleomargarine and butterine are made by mixing vegetable and animal fats.[ ] highly colored stearin, cotton-seed oil, and lard are the usual materials from which oleomargarine is made. it has practically the same composition, digestibility, and food value as butter. when sold under its true name and not as butter, there is no objection, as it is a valuable food and supplies heat and energy at less cost than butter. the main objection to oleomargarine and butterine is that they are sold as butter.[ ] the coloring of butter is not generally looked upon as adulteration, for butter naturally has a more or less yellow tinge. according to an act of congress, butter colors of a non-injurious character are allowed to be used. cheese . general composition.--cheese, is made by the addition of rennet to ripened milk, resulting in coagulation of the casein, which mechanically combines with the fat. it differs from butter in composition by containing, in addition to fat, casein and appreciable amounts of mineral matter. the composition varies with the character of the milk from which the cheese was made. average milk produces cheese containing a larger amount of fat than proteids, while cheese from skimmed or partially skimmed milk is proportionally poorer in fat. ordinarily there is about per cent of water, per cent of fat, and per cent of casein, and albumin or milk proteids, the remainder being ash, salt, milk sugar, and lactic acid. cheese is characterized by its large percentage of both fat and protein, and has high food value. it contains more fat and protein than any of the meats; in fact, there are but few foods which have such liberal amounts of these nutrients as cheese. the odor and flavor of cheese are due to workings of bacteria which result in the production of aromatic compounds. the purity and condition of the milk, as well as the method of manufacture and the kind of ferment material used, determine largely the flavor and odor. cheese is generally allowed to undergo a ripening or curing process before it is used as food. the changes resulting consist mainly in increased solubility of the proteids, with the formation of a small amount of amid and aromatic compounds.[ ] . digestibility.--cheese is popularly considered an indigestible food, but extended experiments show that it is quite completely digested, although in the case of some individuals not easily digested. in general, about per cent of the fat and per cent and more of the protein is digested, depending upon the general composition of the cheese and the digestive capacity of the individual. as far as total digestibility is concerned, there appears to be but little difference between green and well-cured cheese. so far as ease of digestion is concerned, it is probable that some difference exists. there is also but little difference in digestibility resulting from the way in which milk is made into cheese, the nutrients of roquefort, swiss, camembert, and cheddar being about equally digestible.[ ] the differences in odor and taste are due to variations in kind and amount of bacterial action. when combined with other foods, cheese may exercise a beneficial influence upon digestion in the same way as noted from the use of several foods in a ration. no material differences were observed in digestibility when cheese was used in small amounts, as for condimental purposes, or when used in large amounts to furnish nutrients. artificial digestion experiments show that cheese is more readily acted upon by the pancreatic than by the gastric fluids, suggesting that cheese undergoes intestinal rather than gastric digestion. it is possible this is the reason that cheese is slow of digestion in the case of some individuals. . use in the dietary.--cheese should be used in the dietary regularly and in reasonable amounts, rather than irregularly and then in large amounts. cheese is not a luxury, but ordinarily it is one of the cheapest and most nutritious of human foods. a pound of cheese costing cents contains about a quarter of a pound of protein and a third of a pound of fat; at the same price, beef yields only about half as much fat and less protein. cheese at cents per pound furnishes more available nutrients and energy than beef at cents per pound. in the dietary of european armies, cheese to a great extent takes the place of beef. see chapter xvi. . cottage cheese is made by coagulating milk and preparing the curd by mixing with it cream or melted butter and salt or sugar as desired. when milk can be procured at little cost, cottage cheese is one of the cheapest and most valuable foods.[ ] . different kinds of cheese.--by the use of different kinds of ferments and variations in the process of manufacture different types or kinds of cheese are made, as roquefort, swiss, edam, stilton, camembert, etc. in the manufacture of roquefort cheese, which is made from goats' and ewes' milk, bread is added and the cheese is cured in caves, resulting in the formation of a green mold which penetrates the cheese mass, and produces characteristic odor and flavor. stilton is an english soft, rich cheese of mild flavor, made from milk to which cream is usually added. it is allowed to undergo an extended process of ripening, often resulting in the formation of bluish green threads of fungus. limburger owes its characteristic odor and flavor to the action of special ferment bodies which carry on the ripening process. neufchatel is a soft cheese made from sweet milk to which the rennet is added at a high temperature. after pressing, it is kneaded and worked, and then put into packages and covered with tin foil. . adulteration of cheese.--the most common forms of adulteration are the manufacture of skim-milk cheese by the removal of the fat from the milk, and substitution of cheaper and foreign fats, making a product known as filled cheese. when not labeled whole milk cheese, or sold as such, there is no objection to skim-milk cheese. it has a high food value and is often a cheap source of protein. the manufacture of filled cheese is now regulated by the national government, and all such cheese must pay a special tax and be properly labeled. as a result, the amount of filled cheese upon the market has very greatly decreased, and cheese is now less adulterated than in former years. the national dairy law allows the use of coloring matter of a harmless nature in the manufacture of cheese. . dairy products in the dietary.--the nutrients in milk are produced at less expense for grain and forage than the nutrients in beef, hence from a pecuniary point of view, dairy products, as milk and cheese, have the advantage. in the case of butter, however, the cost usually exceeds that of meat. in older agricultural regions, where the cost of beef production reaches the maximum, dairying is generally resorted to, as it yields larger financial returns, and as a result more cheese and less beef are used in the dietary. as the cost of meats is enhanced, dairy products, as cheese, naturally take their place. chapter viii meats and animal food products . general composition.--animal tissue is composed of the same classes of compounds as plant tissue. in each, water makes up a large portion of the weight, and the dry matter is composed of nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous compounds, and ash or mineral matter. plants and animals differ in composition not so much as to the kinds of compounds, although there are differences, but more in the percentage amounts of these compounds. in plants, with the exception of the legumes, the protein rarely exceeds per cent, and in many vegetable foods, when prepared for the table, there is less than per cent. in meats the protein ranges from to per cent. the non-nitrogenous compounds of plants are present mainly in the form of starch, sugar, and cellulose, while in animal bodies there are only traces of carbohydrates, but large amounts of fat. fat is the chief non-nitrogenous compound of meats; it ranges between quite wide limits, depending upon kind, age, and general condition of the animal. meats contain the same general classes of proteins as the vegetable foods; in each the proteins are made up of albumins, glubulins, albuminates, peptone-like bodies, and insoluble proteids. the larger portion of the protein of meats and cereals is in insoluble forms. the meat juices, which contain the soluble portion of the proteins, constitute less than percent of the nitrogenous compounds. meats contain less amid substances than plants, in which the amids are produced from ammonium compounds and are supposed to be intermediate products in the formation of proteids, while in the animal body they are derived from the proteids supplied in the food and, it is generally believed, cannot form proteids. albuminoids make up the connective tissue, hair, and skin, and are more abundant in animal than in plant tissue. one of the chief albuminoids is gelatine. both plant and animal foods undergo bacterial changes resulting in the production of alkaloidal bodies known as ptomaines, of which there are a large number. these are poisonous and are what cause putrid and stale meat to be unwholesome. the protein in meat differs little in general composition from that of vegetable origin; differences in structure and cleavage products between the two are, however, noticeable. [illustration: fig. .--meat and extractive substances.] while meats from different kinds of animals have somewhat the same general composition, they differ in physical properties, and also in the nature of the various nutrients. for example, pork contains less protein than beef, but the protein of pork is materially different from that of beef, as a larger portion is in the form of soluble proteids, while in beef more is present in an insoluble form. not only are differences in the percentage of individual proteins noticeable, but there are equally as great differences in the fats. as for example: some of the meats have a larger proportion of the fat as stearin than do others. hence meats differ in texture and taste more than in nutritive value, due to the variations in the percentage of the different proteins, fats, and extractive material, rather than to differences in the total amounts of these compounds. the taste and flavor of meat is to a large extent influenced by the amount of extractive material. while the nutrients of meats are divided into classes, as proteins and fats, there are a large number of separate compounds which make up each of the individual classes, and there are also small amounts of compounds which are not included in these groups. [illustration: fig. .--standard cuts of beef. (from office of experiment station bulletin.)] . beef.--about one half of the weight of beef is water; the lean meat contains a much larger amount than the fat. as a rule, the parts of the animal that contain the most fat contain the least water. in some meats there is considerable refuse, to per cent. in average meat about per cent of the butcher's weight is refuse and non-edible parts.[ ] a pound of average butcher's meat is about one half water, and over per cent waste and refuse, which leaves less than per cent fat and protein. meat is generally considered to have a high nutritive value, due to the comparatively large amounts of fat and protein. beef contains more protein than any vegetable food, except the legumes, and from to . per cent mineral matter, exclusive of bone. some of the mineral matter is chemically united with the protein and other compounds. while figures are given for average composition of beef, it is to be noted that wide variations are frequently to be met with, some samples containing a much larger amount of waste and trimmings than others, and this influences the percent of the nutritive substances. in making calculations of nutrients consumed, as in dietary studies, the figures for average composition of meat should be used only in cases where the samples do not contain an excess either of fat or trimmings.[ ] when very lean, there is often a large amount of refuse, and the meat contains less dry matter and is of poorer flavor than from animals in prime condition. in the case of very fat animals, a large amount of waste results, and the flavor is sometimes impaired. . veal differs from beef in containing a smaller amount of dry matter, richer in protein, but poorer in fat. animals differ in composition at different stages of growth in much the same way as plants. in the earlier stages protein predominates in the plant tissue, while later the carbohydrates are added in larger amounts, reducing the percentage content of protein. in animals the same is noticeable. young animals are, pound for pound, richer in protein than old animals. while in the case of vegetables the increase in size, or rotundity, is due to starch and carbohydrates, in animals it is due to the addition of fat. but plants, like animals, observe the same general laws as to changes in composition at different stages of growth. [illustration: fig. .--standard cuts of mutton. (from office of experiment station bulletin.)] . mutton.--there is about the same amount of refuse matter in mutton as in beef. in a side of mutton about percent: are trimmings and waste, and in a side of beef . per cent. mutton, as a rule, contains a little more fat and dry matter than beef, and somewhat less protein. a side of beef, as purchased, contains about per cent of water, . per cent protein, and . per cent of fat, while a side of mutton, as purchased, contains . per cent water, . per cent protein, and . per cent fat. a pound of beef yields a smaller number of calories by per cent than a pound of mutton. at the same price per pound more nutrients can be purchased as mutton than as beef. the differences in composition between lamb and mutton are similar to those between veal and beef; viz. a larger amount of water and protein and a smaller amount of fat in the same weight of the young animals. differences in composition between the various cuts of lamb are noticeable. the leg contains the least fat and the most protein, while the chuck is richest in fat and poorest in protein. as in the case of beef, many of the cheaper cuts contain as much or more nutrients than the more expensive cuts. they are not, however, as palatable and differ as to toughness and other physical characteristics. [illustration: fig. .--standard cuts of pork. (from office of experiment station bulletin.)] . pork is characterized by a high per cent of fat and a comparatively low per cent of protein. it is generally richest in fat of any of the meats. the per cent of water varies with the fatness of the animal; in very fat animals there is a smaller amount, while lean animals contain more. in lean salt pork there is about per cent water, and in fat salt pork about per cent. there is less refuse and waste in pork than in either beef or mutton. ham contains from to per cent of refuse, and bacon about per cent. bacon has nearly twice as much fat and a smaller amount of protein than ham. a pound of bacon, as purchased, will yield nearly twice as much energy or fuel value as a pound of ham. digestion experiments show that bacon is quite readily and completely digested and is often a cheaper source of fat and protein than other meats. there is about three times as much fat in bacon as in beef. when prepared for the table bacon contains, from to per cent of fat. a pound of high grade, lean bacon furnishes from . to . of a pound of digestible protein and from . to . of a pound of digestible fat, which is about two thirds as much fat as is found in butter. bacon contains nearly as much digestible protein as other meats and from two to three times as much fat, making it, at the same price per pound, a cheaper food than other meats. in salt pork there is from to per cent of fat, and less protein than in bacon. the protein and fat of pork differ from those in beef not only in percentage amounts, but also in the nature of the individual proteins and fats. the composition of pork varies with the nature of the food that is consumed by the animal. experiments show that it is possible by judicious feeding in the early stages of growth to produce pork with the maximum of lean meat and the minimum of fat. after the animal has passed a certain period, it is not possible by feeding to materially influence the percentage of nutrients in the meat. the flavor, too, of pork, as of other meats, is dependent largely upon the nature of the food the animal consumes. when there is a scant amount of available protein in the ration, the meat is dry, nearly tasteless, and contains less of the soluble nitrogenous compounds which impart flavor and individuality. . lard is prepared from the fat of swine, and is separated from associated tissue by the action of heat. a large amount of fat is found lining the back of the abdominal cavity, and this is known as leaf lard. slight differences are noticeable in the composition and quality of lard made from different parts of the hog. leaf lard is usually considered the best. lard is composed of the three fats, olein, stearin, and palmatin, and has a number of characteristic physical properties, as specific gravity, melting point, iodine absorption number, as well as behavior with various reagents, and these enable the mixing of other fats with lard to be readily detected. lard is used in the preparation of oleomargarine, and it is also combined with various vegetable oils, as cotton-seed oil, in the making of imitation or compound lards.[ ] lard substitutes differ little in general composition from pure lard, except in the structure of the crystals and the percentage of the various individual fats. . texture and toughness of meats.--in discussing the texture of meats, professor woods states:[ ] "whether meats are tough or tender depends upon two things: the character of the walls of the muscle tubes and the character of the connective tissues which bind the tubes and muscles together. in young and well-nourished animals the tube walls are thin and delicate, and the connective tissue is small in amount. as the animals grow older or are made to work (and this is particularly true in the case of poorly nourished animals), the walls of the muscle tubes and the connective tissues become thick and hard. this is the reason why the flesh of young, well-fed animals is tender and easily masticated, while the flesh of old, hard-worked, or poorly fed animals is often so tough that prolonged boiling or roasting seems to have but little effect on it. "after slaughtering, meats undergo marked changes in texture. these changes can be grouped under three classes or stages. in the first stage, when the meat is just slaughtered, the flesh is soft, juicy, and quite tender. in the next stage the flesh stiffens and the meat becomes hard and tough. this condition is known as _rigor mortis,_ and continues until the third stage, when the first changes of decomposition set in. in hot climates the meat is commonly eaten in either the first or second stage. in cold climates it is seldom eaten before the second stage, and generally, in order to lessen the toughness, it is allowed to enter the third stage, when it becomes soft and tender, and acquires added flavor. the softening is due in part to the formation of lactic acid, which acts upon the connective tissue. the same effect may be produced, though more rapidly, by macerating the meat with weak vinegar. meat is sometimes made tender by cutting the flesh into thin slices and pounding it across the cut ends until the fibers are broken." . influence of cooking upon the composition of meats.[ ]--it is believed by many that losses are prevented and the nutritive value conserved when, in the cooking of meat, it is placed directly into boiling water rather than into cold water and then brought to the boiling point and cooked. extensive experiments have been made by dr. grindley in regard to this and other points connected with the cooking of meats, and in general it was found that the temperature of the water in which the meat was placed made little difference in its nutritive value or the amount of material extracted. it was found that by both methods there was dissolved . percent of the protein matter, percent of the nitrogenous extractives, . per cent of non-nitrogenous material, and . per cent of ash, of the raw meat, which was equivalent to about per cent of the total proteid material and percent of the ash. the cold water extract contained bodies coagulated by heat. cold water did not extract any of the fat, but during the process of cooking, appreciable amounts were lost mechanically. cooked meats were found to be less soluble in cold water than raw meats. during the process of boiling, meat shrinks in weight about or per cent, depending mainly upon the size of the pieces and the content of fat. the loss in weight is practically a loss of water, and the loss of nutrients, all told, amounts to about per cent, or more, depending upon the mechanical loss.[ ] but slight differences were found in the composition of the meats cooked three and five hour periods. "careful study in this laboratory has shown that when meat is cooked in water at ° to ° c., placing meat in hot or cold water at the start has little effect on the amount of nutrients in the meat which passes into the broth. the meat was in the form of cubes, one to two inches, and in pieces weighing from one to two pounds. "it is commonly supposed that when meat is plunged into boiling water, the albumin coagulates and forms a crust, which prevents the escape of nutritive materials into the broth. it is also believed that if a rich broth is desired, to be used either as a soup or with the meat as a stew, it is more desirable to place the meat in cold water at the start. from the results of these experiments, however, it is evident that, under these conditions, there can be little advantage in using hot or cold water at the beginning. when meats were cooked by dry heat, as in roasting, a larger amount of nutrients was rendered soluble in water than during boiling. the losses of nutrients were much smaller when meats were cooked by dry heat than when cooked in water, being on the average, water per cent, nitrogenous extractives per cent, non-nitrogenous extractives per cent, fat per cent, ash per cent, and a small loss of protein." the nutrients in the broth of the meat started in hot water amounted to about per cent of protein, per cent of fat, and o. per cent of ash, the amount of nutrients being directly proportional to the length of time and temperature of the cooking. in general, the larger the pieces, the smaller the losses. beef that has been used in the preparation of beef tea loses its extractive materials, which impart taste and flavor, but there is only a small loss of actual nutritive value. clear meat broth contains little nutriment--less than unfiltered broth. most of the nitrogenous material of the broth is in the form of creatin, sarkin, and xanthin, nitrogenous extractives or amid substances having a much lower food value than proteids. experiments show that some of these extractives have physiological properties slightly stimulating in their action, and it is believed the stimulating effect of a meat diet is in part due to these.[ ] they are valuable principally for imparting taste and flavor, and cannot be regarded as nutrients. the variations in taste and flavor of meats from different sources are due largely to differences in extractive material. "in general, the various methods of cooking materially modify the appearance, texture, and flavor of meat, and hence its palatability, but have little effect on total nutritive value. whether it be cooked in hot water, as in boiling or stewing, or by dry heat, as in roasting, broiling, or frying, meat of all kinds has a high food value, when judged by the kind and amount of nutrient ingredients which are present." [ ] beef extracts of commerce contain about per cent of extractive matters, as amids, together with smaller amounts of soluble proteids; ash, mainly added salt, is also present in liberal amounts ( per cent). beef extracts have condimental value imparting taste and flavor, which make them useful for soup stocks, but they furnish little in the way of nutritive substance. . miscellaneous meat products.--by combining different parts of the same animal, or different meats, a large number of products known as sausage are made. these vary in composition with the ingredients used. in general, they are richer in fat than beef and contain about the same amount of protein. potato flour and flour from cereals are sometimes used in their preparations, but the presence of any material amount, unless so stated on the package, is considered an adulterant. pickled meats are prepared by the use of condiments, as salt, sugar, vinegar, and saltpeter. during the smoking and curing of meats, no appreciable losses of nutrients occur.[ ] the smoke acts as a preservative, and imparts condimental properties. saltpeter (potassium nitrate) has been used from earliest times in the preparation of meats; it preserves color and delays fermentation changes. when used in moderate amounts it cannot be regarded as a preservative or injurious to health. excessive amounts, however, are objectionable. smoked meats, prepared with or without saltpeter, give appreciable reactions for nitrites, compounds formed during combustion of the wood by which the meat was smoked. many vegetables contain naturally much larger amounts of nitrates, taken from the soil as food, than meat that has been preserved with saltpeter.[ ] . poultry.--the refuse and waste from chickens, as purchased on the market, ranges from to per cent. the fat content is much lower than in turkeys or ducks, the largest amount being found in geese. the edible portion of all fowls is rich in protein, particularly the dark meat, and the food value is about equal to that of meat in general. when it is desired to secure a large amount of protein with but little fat, chicken supplies this, perhaps, better than any other animal food. a difference is observed in the composition of the meat of young and old fowls similar to that between beef and veal. the physical composition and, to a slight extent, the solubility of the proteids are altered by prolonged cold storage, the difference being noticeable mainly in the appearance of the connective tissue of the muscles. in discussing poultry as food, langworthy states:[ ] "a good, fresh bird shows a well-rounded form, with neat, compact legs, and no sharp, bony angles on the breast, indicating a lack of tender white meat. the skin should be a clear color (yellow being preferred in the american market) and free from blotches and pin feathers; if it looks tight and drawn, the bird has probably been scalded before being plucked. the flesh should be neither flabby nor stiff, but should give evenly and gently when pressed by the finger." . fish.--from to per cent of the weight of fresh fish is refuse. the edible portion contains from to per cent, and in some cases more, of water. the dry matter is rich in protein; richer than many meats. the nutrients in fish range between comparatively wide limits, the protein in some cases being as low as per cent, in flounder, and in others as high as per cent, in dried codfish. the amount of fat, except in a few cases, as salmon and trout, is small. salmon is the richest in fat of any of the fishes. when salted and preserved, the proportion of water is lessened and that of the nutrients is increased. fish can take the place of meat in the dietary, but it is necessary to add a larger amount of fat to the ration because of the deficiency of most fish in this ingredient. fish has about the same digestibility as meats. it is believed by many to be valuable because it supplies a large amount of available phosphates. analyses, however, show that the flesh of fish contains no more phosphorus compounds than meats in general, and its food value is due to protein rather than to phosphates.[ ] fish appears to be as completely and easily digested as meats. differences in flavor, taste, and palatability are due to small amounts of flavors and extractive materials, varying according to the food consumed by the fish and the conditions under which they lived. the flesh of fish decays more readily than that of other meats and produces ptomaines, or toxic substances, which are the result of fermentation changes usually associated with putrefaction. cases of poisoning from eating unsound fish are not infrequent.[ ] shellfish have about the same general composition as fish. in clams there is a larger amount of dry matter than in oysters, which contain about per cent, half of which is protein. when placed in fresh water, the oyster increases in size and undergoes the process known as "fattening." oftentimes impure water is used for this purpose, which makes the eating of raw oysters a questionable practice from a sanitary point of view, as the water in which they are floated often contains disease-producing germs, as typhoid. during the process of fattening, although the oyster increases in size and weight, it decreases in percentage of nutrients. in discussing the composition of oysters, atwater states:[ ] "they come nearer to milk than almost any other food material as regards both the amounts and relative proportions of nutrients." . eggs, general composition.--eggs are a type of concentrated nitrogenous food. about per cent (shell removed) is water, about one third is yolk, and a little over per cent is albumin or white. the shell makes up from to per cent of the weight. the yolk and white differ widely in composition. the yolk contains a much larger per cent of solids than the white, and is rich in both fat and protein, from a third to a half of the weight being fat. the white has about the same amount of water, per cent, as average milk, but, unlike milk, the dry matter is mainly albumin. the entire egg (edible portion) contains about equal parts of fat and protein; to per cent of each and an appreciably large amount of ash or mineral matter,--from . to per cent, consisting mainly of phosphates associated with the albumin. there is no material difference in chemical composition between white and dark shelled eggs, or between eggs with different colored yolks. it is simply a question of coloring matter. the egg is influenced to an appreciable extent by feed and general care of the fowls. the egg and the potato contain about the same amount of water. they are, however, distinct types of food, the potato being largely composed of carbohydrates and the egg of protein and fat. eggs resemble meat somewhat in general composition, although they contain rather less of protein and fat. when eggs are boiled there is a loss of weight due to elimination of water; otherwise the composition is unaltered, the coagulation of the albumin, as stated in chapter i, consisting simply in a rearrangement of the atoms of the molecule. the egg is particularly valuable in the dietary of the convalescent, when it is desired to secure the maximum amount of phosphorus in organic combination. [illustration: fig. .--graphic composition of an egg.] the flavor of eggs is in part due to the food supplied to the fowls, as well as the age of the egg. experiments show that onions and some other vegetables, when fed to fowls, impart odors and taste to the eggs. the keeping qualities of eggs are also dependent upon the food supplied. in experiments at the cornell experiment station, when hens were fed on a narrow, nitrogenous ration, a large number of eggs were produced containing the minimum amount of solid matter and of poor keeping quality, while a larger sized egg of better keeping quality was obtained when a variety of foods, nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous, was supplied. . digestibility of eggs.--digestion experiments show that there is but little difference in the digestibility of eggs cooked in different ways. a noticeable difference, however, is observed in the rapidity with which the albumin and proteids are dissolved in a pepsin solution. in general, it was found that, when the albumin was coagulated at a temperature of °, it was more rapidly and completely dissolved in the pepsin than when coagulated at a temperature of °. when eggs were cooked at a temperature of °, the hard-boiled eggs appeared to be slightly more digestible than the soft-boiled eggs, but the digestion was not as complete as when the cooking was done at a temperature of °; then no difference in digestibility was found between eggs cooked for a short or a long time. the egg is one of the most completely digested of all foods, practically all the protein and fat being absorbed and available to the body. langworthy, in discussing jorissenne's investigations on the digestibility of eggs, states:[ ] "the yolk of raw, soft-boiled, and hard-boiled eggs is equally digestible. the white of soft-boiled eggs, being semi-liquid, offers little more resistance to the digestive juices than raw white. the white of a hard-boiled egg is not generally very thoroughly masticated. unless finely divided, it offers more resistance to the digestive juices than the fluid or semi-fluid white, and undigested particles may remain in the digestive tract many days and decompose. from this deduction it is obvious that thorough mastication is a matter of importance. provided mastication is thorough, marked differences in the completeness of digestion of the three sorts of eggs, in the opinion of the writer cited, will not be found." . use of eggs in the dietary.--when eggs are at the same price per dozen as meat is per pound, they furnish a larger amount of nutrients. in general, a dozen eggs have a little higher food value than a pound of meat. eggs are usually a cheaper source of food because a smaller amount is served than of meat. when eggs are cents per dozen, the cost of ten eggs for a family of five is less than that of a pound or a pound and a quarter of beef at cents per pound. the meat, however, would furnish the larger amount of nutrients. eggs are valuable, too, in the dietary because they are frequently combined with flour, cereal products, and vegetables, which contain a large amount of starch, and some of which contain small amounts of protein. this combination furnishes a balanced ration, as well as secures palatability and good mechanical combination of the foods. eggs in combination with flour, sugar, butter, and other materials have equally as great a value as when used alone and as a substitute for meat. eggs vary in weight from . to ounces, and more per dozen. they should be purchased and sold by weight. when stored, eggs lose weight. the egg cannot be considered as entirely germ proof, and care is necessary in its handling and use, the same as with other food articles. the cause of the spoiling of eggs is due largely to exterior bacterial infection. canned meats . general composition.--canned meats differ but little in composition from fresh meats. usually during the process of cooking and canning there is a slight increase in the amount of dry matter, but the relative proportion of protein and fat is about the same as in fresh meat. it is frequently stated that the less salable parts are used in the preparation of canned meats, as it is possible by cooking and the addition of condiments to conceal the inferior physical properties. as to the accuracy of these statements, the author is unable to say. the shrinkage or loss in weight during canning amounts to from to per cent. the liquids in which the cooking and parboiling are done are sometimes used in the preparation of beef extracts. salt, saltpeter, and condiments are generally added during the canning process. saltpeter is used, as it assists in retaining the natural color and prevents some objectionable fermentation changes. in moderate amounts it is not generally considered an adulterant. an extensive examination by wiley and bigelow of packing-house products and preserved meats showed that of the latter only a small amount contained objectionable preservatives. the authors, after an extended investigation, reported favorably upon their composition and sanitary value, saying they found "so little to criticise and so much to commend in these necessary products." in this bulletin they do not classify saltpeter as an adulterant.[ ] where fresh meats cannot be secured, canned meats are often indispensable. usually the nutrients of canned meats cost more than those of fresh meats, and in their use as food much care should be exercised to prevent contamination after opening the cans. occasionally the meat contains ferment materials that have not been entirely destroyed during cooking, and these, when the cans are stored in warm places, develop and cause deleterious changes to occur. consequently canned meats should be stored at a low temperature. by recent congressional act, these preparations are now made under the supervision of government inspectors. all diseased animals are rejected, and the sanitary conditions under which the meat is prepared have been greatly improved. formerly, the most frequent forms of adulteration were substitution of one meat for another, as the mixing of veal with chicken, and the use of preservatives, as borax and sulphites. while the cost of the nutrients in canned meats is generally much higher than in fresh meats, the latter are not always easily obtained, or capable of being kept for any length of time, and hence canned meats are often indispensable. chapter ix cereals . preparation and cost of cereals.--the grains used in the preparation of cereal foods are wheat, oats, corn, rice, and, to a less extent, barley and rye. for some of these the entire cleaned grain is ground or pulverized, while for others the bran and germ are first removed. in order to improve their keeping qualities, they are often sterilized before being put up in sealed packages. special treatment, as steaming or malting, is sometimes given to impart palatability and to lessen the time required for cooking. as a class, the cereal foods are clean, nutritious, and free from adulteration. extravagant claims are sometimes made as to their food value, and frequently excessive prices are charged, out of proportion to the cost of the nutrients in the raw material. within recent years the number of cereal preparations has greatly increased, due to improvements and variations in the methods of manufacture.[ ] cereal foods are less expensive than meats and the various animal food products. they contain no refuse, are easily prepared for the table, and may be kept without appreciable deterioration. some of the ready--to-eat brands are cooked, dried, and crushed, and sugar, glucose, salt, and various condimental materials added to impart taste. others contain malt, or are subjected to a malting or germinating process to develop the soluble carbohydrates, and such foods are sometimes called predigested. it is believed that the cereals are being more extensively used in the dietary, which is desirable both from an economic and a nutritive point of view. special care is necessary in the cooking and preparation of cereals for the table, in order to develop flavor and bring about hydration and rupturing of the tissues, as explained in chapter ii. . corn preparations.--corn or maize is characterized by a high percent of fat and starch, and, compared with wheat and oats, a low content of protein.[ ] removal of the bran and germ lessens the per cent of fat. the germ is removed principally because it imparts poor keeping qualities. many of the corn breakfast foods contain per cent or less of fat and from to per cent of protein. coarsely ground corn foods are not as completely digested and assimilated as those more finely ground. as in the case of wheat products, the presence of the bran and germ appears to prevent the more complete absorption of the nutrients. finely ground corn meal compares favorably in digestibility with wheat flour. corn flour is prepared by removal of the bran and germ and granulation of the more starchy portions of the kernel, and has better keeping qualities than corn meal from which the bran and germ have not been so completely removed. at times corn flour has been sufficiently low in price to permit its use for the adulteration of wheat flour. the mixing of corn and wheat flours, however, is prohibited by law unless the product is so labeled. when combined with wheat flour, corn bread and various other articles of food are prepared, but used alone corn flour is not suitable for bread making, because its gluten lacks the binding properties imparted to wheat flour by the gliadin. it is essential that corn be used with foods of high protein content so as to make a balanced ration; for when it forms a large part of the dietary, the ration is apt to be deficient in protein. in a mixed dietary, corn is one of the cheapest and best cereals that can be used. too frequently, however, excessive prices are charged for corn preparations that contain no more nutrients than ordinary corn meal. there is no difference between yellow and white corn meal so far as nutritive value is concerned. [illustration: fig. .--corn starch.] . oat preparations are characterized by large amounts of both protein and fat. because of the removal of the hulls, they contain more protein than the original grain. the oat preparations differ little in chemical composition. they all have about per cent of protein, per cent of fat, and per cent of starch, and are richer in ash or mineral matter than other cereals. the main difference is in method of preparation and mechanical composition. some are partially cooked and then dried. those costing cents or more per pound do not contain any greater amount of nutritive substance than those purchased in bulk at about half the price. at one time it was believed that oats contained a special alkaloid having a stimulating effect when fed to animals. recent investigations, however, show that there is no alkaloidal material in oats, and whatever stimulating effect they may have results from the nutrients they contain. occasionally there is an appreciable amount of cellulose, or fiber, left in the oat preparations, due to imperfect milling. this noticeably lowers the digestibility. oatmeal requires much longer and more thorough cooking than many other cereals, and it is frequently used as food when not well prepared. digestion experiments show that when oatmeal is cooked for four hours or more, it is more readily acted upon by the diastase ferment and digested in a shorter time than oatmeal cooked only a half hour.[ ] oatmeal is one of the cheapest sources from which protein is obtained, and when well cooked it can advantageously form an essential part of the ration. unless thoroughly cooked, the oat preparations do not appear to be quite so completely or easily digested as some of the other cereals. [illustration: fig. .--oat starch granules.] [illustration: fig. .--wheat starch grains.] . wheat preparations differ in chemical composition more than those from oats or corn, because wheat is prepared in a greater variety of ways. they are made either from the entire kernel, including the bran and germ, or from special parts, as the granular middlings, as in the case of some of the breakfast foods, and a few are made into a dough and baked, then dried and toasted. some special flours are advertised as composed largely of gluten, but only those that have been prepared by washing out the starch are entitled to be classed as gluten flours.[ ] for the food of persons suffering from diabetes mellitus physicians advise the use of flour low in starch, and this can be made by washing and thus removing a portion of the starch from wheat flour, as directed in experiment no. . the glutinous residue is then used for preparing articles of food. analyses of some of the so-called gluten flours show that they contain no more gluten than ordinary flour, particularly the low grades. a number of wheat breakfast foods are prepared by sterilizing the flour middlings obtained after removal of the bran and germ. these middlings are the same stock or material from which the patent grades of flour are made, and they differ from wheat flour only in mechanical structure and size of the particles. where granular wheat middlings can be secured in bulk at the same price as flour they furnish a valuable and cheap cereal breakfast food. as to the digestibility and food value, the wheat breakfast foods have practically the same as graham, entire wheat, or ordinary patent flour, depending upon the stock which they contain. those with large amounts of bran and germ are not as completely digested as when these parts of the kernel are not included. wheat preparations, next to oats, have the most protein of any of the cereal foods. occasionally they are prepared from wheats low in gluten and not suitable for bread-making purposes. when purchased in bulk the wheat preparations are among the cheapest foods that can be used in the dietary.[ ] [illustration: fig. .--barley starch.] . barley preparations are not so extensively used as wheat, oats, and corn. barley contains a little more protein than corn, but not quite so much as wheat; otherwise it is quite similar to wheat in general composition. sometimes in the preparation of breakfast foods barley meal is mixed with wheat or corn. barley is supposed to be more readily digested than some of the other cereals, because of the presence of larger amounts of active ferment bodies, and it is frequently used for making an extract known as "barley water," which, although it contains very little nutritive value, as less than one per cent of the weight of the barley is rendered soluble, is useful in its soothing influence and mechanical action upon the mucous membrane of the digestive tract. [illustration: fig. .--rice starch.] . rice preparations.--rice varies somewhat in composition, but usually contains a slightly lower percentage of protein than corn and also a smaller amount of fat. it is particularly rich in starch, and has the least ash or mineral matter of any of the cereals. in order to make a balanced ration, rice should be supplemented with legumes and other foods rich in proteids. it is a valuable grain, but when used alone it is deficient in protein. rice is digested with moderate ease, but is not as completely absorbed by the body as other cereals, particularly those prepared by fine grinding or pulverization. of late years rice culture has been extensively introduced into some of the southern states, and the domestic rice seems to have slightly higher protein content than the imported. rice contains less protein than other cereals, and the starch grain is of different construction. rice does not require such prolonged cooking as oatmeal; it needs, however, to be thoroughly cooked. . predigested foods.[ ] "it is questionable whether it would be of advantage to a healthy person to have his food artificially digested. the body under normal conditions is well adapted to utilize such foods as the ordinary mixed diet provides, among them the carbohydrates from the cereals. moreover, it is generally believed that for the digestive organs, as for all others of the body, the amount of exercise they are normally fitted to perform is an advantage rather than the reverse. it has been said that 'a well man has no more need of predigested food than a sound man has for crutches.' if the digestive organs are out of order, it may be well to save them work, but troubles of digestion are often very complicated affairs, and the average person rarely has the knowledge needed to prescribe for himself. in general, those who are well should do their own work of digestion, and those who are ill should consult a competent physician."--woods and snyder. . the value of cereals in the dietary.--cereals are valuable in the dietary because of the starch and protein they supply, and the heat and energy they yield. they are among the most inexpensive of foods and, when properly prepared, have a high degree of palatability; then, too, they are capable of being blended in various ways with other foods. some are valuable for their mechanical action in digestion, rather than for any large amount of nutrients. they do not furnish the quantity of mineral matter and valuable phosphates that is popularly supposed. they all contain from . to . percent of mineral matter, of which about one third is phosphoric anhydrid. in discussing the phosphate content of food, hammersten states:[ ] "very little is known in regard to the need of phosphates or phosphoric acid.... the extent of this need is most difficult to determine, as the body shows a strong tendency, when increased amounts of phosphorus are introduced, to retain more than is necessary. the need of phosphates is relatively smaller in adults than in young developing animals." in the coarser cereals, which include the bran and germ, there is the maximum amount of mineral matter, but, as in the case of graham bread, it is not as completely digested and absorbed by the body as the more finely granulated products which contain less. the kind of cereal to use in the dietary is largely a matter of personal choice. as only a small amount is usually eaten at a meal, there is little difference in the quantity of nutrients supplied by the various breakfast cereals. total and digestible nutrients and fuel value of cereals [transcriber's note: this table has been divided into two parts to fit limits on page width.] ======================================================= | total nutrients | |-----+----+----+----------+----+ | | | | c.h. | | kind of food |water|pro.|fat +----+-----+ash | | | | |n.f.|fiber| | | | | |ext | | | ----------------------+-----+----+----+----+-----+----+ | % | % | % | % | % | % | oat preparations: | | | | | | | oats, whole grain | . | . | . | . | . | . | oatmeal, raw | . | . | . | . | . | . | rolled, steam-cooked| . | . | . | . | . | . | wheat: | | | | | | | whole grain | . | . | . | . | . | . | cracked wheat | . | . | . | . | . | . | rolled, steam-cooked| . | . | . | . | . | . | shredded wheat | . | . | . | . | . | . | crumbed and malted | . | . | . | . | . | . | farina | . | . | . | . | . | . | rye: | | | | | | | whole grain | . | . | . | . | . | . | flaked, to be eaten | . | . | . | . | . | raw | | | | | | | barley: | | | | | | | whole grain | . | . | . | . | . | . | pearled barley | . | . | . | . | . | . | buckwheat: | | | | | | | flour | . | . | . | . | . | . | corn: | | | | | | | whole grain | . | . | . | . | . | . | corn meal, unbolted | . | . | . | . | . | corn meal, bolted | . | . | . | . | . | . | hominy | . | . | . | . | . | . | pop corn, popped | . | . | . | . | . | . | hulled corn | . | . | . | . | . | rice: | | | | | | | whole rice, polished| . | . | . | . | . | puffed rice | . | . | . | . | . | crackers | . | . | . | . | . | . | macaroni | . | . | . | . | . | ======================================================= ================================================= | digestible nutrients |----+----+----+----+------ | | | | | fuel kind of food |pro.|fat |c.h.|ash | value | | | | | per lb. | | | | | ----------------------+----+----+----+----+---------- | % | % | % | % | calories. oat preparations: | | | | | oats, whole grain | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- oatmeal, raw | . | . | . | . | rolled, steam-cooked| . | . | . | . | wheat: | | | | | whole grain | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- cracked wheat | . | . | . | . | rolled, steam-cooked| . | . | . | . | shredded wheat | . | . | . | . | crumbed and malted | . | . | . | . | farina | . | . | . | . | rye: | | | | | whole grain | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- flaked, to be eaten | . | . | . | . | raw | | | | | barley: | | | | | whole grain | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- pearled barley | . | . | . | . | buckwheat: | | | | | flour | . | . | . | . | corn: | | | | | whole grain | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- corn meal, unbolted | . | . | . | . | corn meal, bolted | . | . | . | . | hominy | . | . | . | . | pop corn, popped | . | . | . | . | hulled corn | . | . | . | . | rice: | | | | | whole rice, polished| . | . | . | . | puffed rice | . | . | . | . | crackers | . | . | . | . | macaroni | . | . | . | . | ================================================= chapter x wheat flour . use for bread making.--wheat is particularly adapted to bread-making purposes because of the physical properties of the gliadin, one of its proteids. it is the gliadin which, when wet, binds together the flour particles, enabling the gas generated during bread making to be retained, and the loaf to expand and become porous. wheat varies in chemical composition between wide limits; it may contain as high as per cent of protein, or as low as per cent; average wheat has from to per cent; and with these differences in composition, the bread-making value varies. [illustration: fig. .--starchy (light-colored) and glutinous (dark-colored) wheats.] . winter and spring wheat flours.--there are two general classes of wheat: spring wheat and winter wheat. the winter varieties are seeded in the fall, and the spring varieties, which are grown mainly in the northwestern states, minnesota, and north and south dakota, and the canadian northwest, are seeded in the spring and mature in the late summer. winter wheat is confined to more southern latitudes and regions of less severe winter, and matures in the early summer. there are many varieties of both spring and winter wheat, although wheats are popularly characterized only as hard or soft, depending upon the physical properties. the winter wheats are, as a rule, more soft and starchy than the spring wheats, which are usually corneous or flinty to different degrees. there is a general tendency for wheats to become either starchy or glutinous, owing to inherited individuality of the seed and to environment. there are often found in the same field wheat plants yielding hard glutinous kernels, and other plants producing starchy kernels containing per cent less proteids. wheats of low protein content do not make high-grade flour; neither do wheats of the maximum protein content necessarily make the best flour. for a more extended discussion of wheat proteids, the student is referred to chapter xi. [illustration: fig. .--longitudinal section of wheat kernel: _a_, pericarp; _b_, bran layers; _c_, aleurone cells; _d_, germ. (after kÃ�nig.)] . composition of wheat and flour.--in addition to to per cent proteids, wheat contains to per cent of starch and small amounts of other carbohydrates, as sucrose, dextrose, and invert sugar. the ash or mineral matter ranges from . to . per cent. there is also about per cent fiber, . per cent ether extract or crude fat, and about . per cent organic acids. summary: composition of wheat flour ======================================================== | per cent water | . | {potash } | {soda } | {lime } | ash {magnesia } | . {phosphoric anhydrid} | {sulphuric anhydrid } | {other substances } | | {albumin . } | {globulin . } | protein {gliadin . } | . {glutenin . } | {other proteids . } | other nitrogenous bodies, as amids, lecethin | . crude fat, ether extract | . cellulose | . starch | . sucrose, dextrose, soluble carbohydrates, etc.| . ======================================================= . roller process of flour milling.--flours vary in composition, food value, and bread-making qualities with the character of the wheat and the process of milling employed. prior to practically all wheat flour was prepared by grinding the wheat between millstones; but with the introduction of the roller process, steel rolls were substituted for millstones.[ ] by the former process a smaller amount of flour was secured from the wheat, but with the present improved systems about per cent of the weight of the grain is recovered as merchantable flour and per cent as wheat offals, bran, and shorts[ ]. [illustration: fig. .--granular wheat flour particles.] the wheat is first screened and cleaned, then passed on to the corrugated rolls, or the first break, where it is partially flattened and slightly crushed and a small amount of flour, known as the break flour, is separated by means of sieves, while the main portion is conveyed through elevators to the second break, where the kernels are more completely flattened and the granular flour particles are partially separated from the bran. the material passes over several pairs of rolls or breaks, each succeeding pair being set a little nearer together. this is called the gradual reduction process, because the wheat is not made into flour in one operation. more complete removal of the bran and other impurities from the middlings is effected by means of sieves, aspirators, and other devices, and the purified middlings are then passed on to smooth rolls, where the granulation is completed. the flour finally passes through silk bolting cloths, containing upwards of , meshes per square inch. the dust and fine débris particles are removed at various points in the process. the granulation of the middlings is done after the impurities are removed, the object being first to separate as perfectly as possible the middlings from the branny portions of the kernel. if the wheat were first ground into a fine meal, it would be impossible to secure complete separation of the flour from the offal portions of the kernel. [illustration: fig. .--exterior of flour mill and wheat elevator.] flour milling is entirely a mechanical process; the flour stock passes from roll to roll by means of elevators. according to the number of reductions which the middlings and stock undergo, the milling is designated as a long or a short reduction system; the term , , , or break process means that the stock has been subjected to that number of reductions. with an -break system of milling, the process is more gradual than with a -break, and greater opportunity is afforded for complete removal of the bran. in some large flour mills, the wheat is separated into forty or more different products, or streams, as they are called, so as to secure a better granulation and more complete removal of the offals, after which many of these streams are brought together to form the finished flour. what is known as patent flour is derived from the reduction of the middlings, while the break flours are recovered before the offals are completely removed; hence they are not of so high a grade. no absolute definition can be given, however, of the term "patent flour," as usage varies the meaning in different parts of the country. . grades of flour.--flour is the purified, refined, and bolted product obtained by reduction and granulation of wheat during and after the removal of the branny portions of the wheat kernel. it is defined by proclamation of the secretary of agriculture, under authority of an act of congress, as: "flour is the fine, sound product made by bolting wheat meal, and contains not more than thirteen and one half ( . ) per cent of moisture, not less than one and twenty-five hundredths ( . ) per cent of nitrogen, not more than one ( ) per cent of ash, and not more than fifty hundredths ( . ) per cent of fiber." [illustration: fig. .--grinding floor of flour mill, russell-miller milling co., minneapolis, minn.] generally speaking, flour may be divided into two classes, high grade and low grade. to the first class belong the first and second patents and, according to some authorities, a portion of the straight grade, or standard patent flour, and to the second class belong the second clear and "red dog." about per cent of the cleaned wheat as milled is recovered in the higher grades of flour, and about or per cent as low grades, a large portion of which is sold as animal food. the high grades are characterized by a lighter color, more elastic gluten, better granulation, and a smaller number of débris particles. although the lower grade flours contain a somewhat higher percentage of protein, they are not as valuable for bread-making purposes because the gluten is not as elastic, and consequently they do not make as good bread. if the impurities from the low grades could be further eliminated, it is believed that less difference would exist between high and low grade flours. various trade names are used to designate flours, as a per cent patent, meaning that per cent of the total flour is included in the patent; or an per cent patent, when per cent of all the flour is included in that particular patent. if all the flour streams were purified and blended, and only one grade of flour made, it would be called a per cent patent. an per cent patent is a higher grade flour than a per cent patent. [illustration: fig. .--silk bolting cloth used in manufacture of flour, magnified.] . composition of flour.--the composition of the different grades of flour made from the same wheat is given in the following table:[ ] composition, acidity, and heats of combustion of flours and other milled products of wheat =========================================================================== |water| protein | fat| carbo-| ash| acidity | heat of milled product | |(n Ã� . )| | hy- | | calcul- |combustion | | | | drates| |ated as | per gram | | | | | |lactic |determined | | | | | | acid | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | % | % | % | % | % | % |calories first patent flour | . | . | . | . | . | . | second patent flour | . | . | . | . | . | . | straight[a] or | | | | | | | standard patent | . | . | . | . | . | . | flour | | | | | | | first clear grade | . | . | . | . | . | . | flour | | | | | | | second clear grade | . | . | . | . | . | . | flour | | | | | | | "red dog" flour | . | . | . | . | . | . | shorts | . | . | . | . | . | . | bran | . | . | . | . | . | . | entire-wheat flour | . | . | . | . | . | . | graham flour | . | . | . | . | . | . | wheat | . | . | . | . | . | . | =========================================================================== [footnote a: straight flour includes the first and second patents and first clear grade.] in the table it will be noted that there is a gradual increase in protein content from first patent to "red dog," the largest amount being in the "red dog" flour. although "red dog" contains the most protein, it is by far the poorest flour in bread-making qualities, and in the milling of wheat often it is not separated from the offals, but is sold as an animal food. it will also be seen that there is a gradual increase in the ash content from the highest to the lowest grades of flour, the increase being practically proportional to the grade,--the most ash being in the lowest grade. the grade to which a flour belongs can be determined more accurately from the ash content than from any other constituent. patent grades of flour rarely contain more than . per cent of ash,--the better grades less than . per cent. the more completely the bran and offals are removed during the process of milling, the lower the per cent of ash. the ash content, however, cannot be taken as an absolute guide in all cases, as noticeable variations occur in the amount of mineral matter or ash in different wheats; starchy wheats that have reached full maturity often contain less than hard wheats grown upon rich soil where the growing season has been short, and from such wheats a soft, straight flour may have as low a per cent of ash as a hard first patent flour. when only straight or standard patent flour is manufactured by a mill, all of the flour is included which would otherwise be designated first and second patents and first clear. . graham and entire wheat flours.--when the germ and a portion of the bran are retained in the flour, and the particles are not completely reduced, the product is called "entire wheat flour." the name does not accurately describe the product, as it includes all of the flour and only a portion of the bran, and not the entire wheat kernel. graham flour is coarsely granulated wheat meal. no sieves or bolting cloths are employed in its manufacture, and many coarse, unpulverized particles are present in the product[ ]. . composition of wheat offals.--bran and shorts are characterized by a high percentage of fiber, or cellulose. the ash, fat, and protein content of bran are all larger than of flour. the protein, however, is not in the form of gluten, but is largely albumin and globulins,[ ] which are mainly in the aleurone layer of the wheat kernel, and are inclosed in branny capsules, and consequently are in a form not readily digested by man. [illustration: fig. .--flour and gluten. , flour; , dough; , moist gluten; , dry gluten.] the germ is generally included in the shorts, although occasionally it is removed for special commercial purposes. it is sometimes sterilized and used in breakfast food products. the germ is rich in oil and is excluded from the flour mainly because it has a tendency to become rancid and to impart to the flour poor keeping qualities. wheat oil has cathartic properties, and it is believed the physiological action of whole wheat and graham bread is in part due to the oil. the germ is also rich in protein, mainly in the form of globulins and proteoses. a dough cannot be made of pure germ, because it contains so little of the gliadin and glutenin. . aging and curing of flour.--flours well milled and made from high-grade, cleaned wheat generally improve in bread-making value when stored in clean, ventilated warehouses for periods of three to six months[ ]. high-grade flour becomes drier and whiter and produces bread of slightly better quality when properly cured by storage. if the flour is in any way unsound, it deteriorates during storage, due to the action of ferment bodies. wheat also, when properly cleaned and stored, improves in milling and bread-making value. certain enzymic changes appear to take place which are beneficial. wheats differ materially from year to year in bread-making value, and those produced in seasons when all the conditions for crop growth are normal do not seem to be so much improved by storing and aging, either of the wheat or the flour, as when the growing season has been unfavorable. when wheat is stored, specific changes occur in both the germ and the cells of the kernel; these changes are akin to the ripening process, and appear to be greater if, for any reason, the wheat has failed to fully mature or is abnormal in composition. the flour yield of wheat is in general proportional to the weight per bushel of the grain, well-filled, heavy grain producing more flour than light grain.[ ] the quality of the flour, however, is not necessarily proportional to the weight of the grain. it is often necessary to blend different grades and types of wheat in order to secure good flour. . macaroni flour is made from durum wheat, according to saunders a variety of hard, spring wheat. it is best grown in regions of restricted rainfall. durum and other varieties of hard spring wheat grown under similar conditions, differ but little in general chemical composition, except that the gluten of durum appears to have a different percentage of gliadin and glutenin, and the flour has a more decided yellow color. durum wheats are not generally considered as valuable for bread making as other hard wheat. they differ widely in bread-making value, some being very poor, while others produce bread of fair quality.[ ] . color.--the highest grades of flour are white in color, or of a slight creamy tinge. dark-colored, slaty, and gray flours are of inferior quality, indicating a poor grade of wheat, poor milling, or a poor quality of gluten. flours, after being on the market for a time, bleach a little and improve to a slight degree in color. color is one of the characteristics by which the commercial value of flour is determined; the whiter the flour, the better the grade, provided other properties are equal[ ]. the color, however, should be a pure or cream white. some flours have what is called a dead white color, and, while not objectionable as far as color is concerned, they are not as valuable for bread-making and general commercial purposes. one of the principal trade requirements of a flour is that it possess a certain degree of whiteness and none of the objectionable shades mentioned. to determine the color of a flour, it is compared with a standard. if it is a winter wheat flour, one of the best high-grade winter patents to be found on the market is selected, and the sample in question is compared with this; if it is a spring wheat patent flour, one of the best spring wheat patent grades is taken as the standard. in making the comparison, the flours should be placed side by side on a glass plate and smoothed with the flour trier, the comparison being made preferably by a north window. much experience and practice are necessary in order to determine with accuracy the color value of a flour. . granulation.--the best patent grades of flour contain an appreciable amount of granular middlings, which have a characteristic "feel" similar to fine, sharp sand. a flour which has no granular feeling is not usually considered of the highest grade, but is generally a soft wheat flour of poor gluten. however, a flour should not be too coarsely granulated. the percentage amounts of the different grades of stock in a flour can be approximately determined by means of sieves and different sized bolting cloths. to test a flour, ten grams are placed in a sieve containing a no. bolting cloth; with a camel's-hair brush and proper manipulation, the flour is sieved, and that which passes through is weighed. the percentage amount remaining on the no. cloth is coarser middlings. nearly all high-grade flours leave no residue on the no. cloth. the sifted flour from the no. cloth is also passed through nos. , , , and cloths[ ]. in this way the approximate granulation of any grade of flour may be determined, and the granulation of an unknown sample be compared with that of a standard flour. in determining the granulation of a flour, if there are any coarse or discolored particles of bran or dust, they should be noted, as it is an indication of poor milling. when the flour is smoothed with a trier, there should be no channels formed on the surface of the flour, due to fibrous impurities caught under the edge of the trier. a hand magnifying glass is useful for detecting the presence of abnormal amounts of dirt or fibrous matter in the flour. . capacity of flour to absorb water.--the capacity of a flour to absorb water is determined by adding water from a burette to a weighed amount of flour until a dough of standard consistency is obtained. low absorption is due to low gluten content. a good flour should absorb from to per cent of its weight of water. in making the test, it is advisable to determine the absorption of a flour of known baking value at the same time that an unknown flour is being tested. flours of low absorption do not make breads of the best quality; also there are a smaller number of loaves per barrel, and the bread dries out more readily. . physical properties of gluten.--the percentages of wet and dry gluten in a flour are determined as outlined in experiment no. . flours of good character should show at least per cent moist gluten and from to per cent dry gluten. the quality of a flour is not necessarily proportional to its gluten content, although a flour with less than - / per cent of dry gluten will not make the best quality of bread, and flours with excessive amounts are sometimes poor bread makers. the color of the gluten is also important; it should be white or creamy. the statements made in regard to color of flour apply also to color of the gluten. a dark, stringy, or putty-like gluten is of little value for bread-making purposes.[ ] in making the gluten test, it is advisable to compare the gluten with that from a flour of known bread-making value. soft wheat flours have a gluten of different character from hard wheat flours. . gluten as a factor in bread making.--the bread-making value of a flour is dependent upon the character of the wheat and the method of milling. it is not necessarily dependent upon the amount of gluten, as the largest volume and best quality of bread are often made from flour of average rather than maximum gluten content. but flours with low gluten do not produce high-grade breads. when a flour contains more than or per cent of proteids, any increase does not necessarily mean added bread-making value. the quality of the gluten, equally with the amount, determines the value for bread-making purposes. . unsoundness.--a flour with more than per cent of moisture is liable to become unsound. high acidity also is an indication of unsoundness or of poor keeping qualities. the odor of a sample of flour should always be carefully noted, for any suggestion of fermentation sufficient to affect the odor renders the flour unsuited for making the best bread. any abnormal odor in flour is objectionable, as it is due to contamination of some sort, and most frequently to fermentation changes. a musty odor is always an indication of unsoundness. some flours which have but a slight suggestion of mustiness will, when baked into bread, have it more pronounced; on the other hand, some odors are removed during bread making. flours may absorb odors because of being stored in contaminated places or being shipped in cars in which oil or other ill-smelling products with strong odors have previously been shipped. unsoundness is often due to faulty methods in handling, as well as to poor wheat, or to lack of proper cleaning of the wheat or flour. [illustration: fig. .--fungous growth in unsound flour.] . comparative baking tests.--to determine the bread-making value of a flour, comparative baking tests, as outlined in experiment no. , are made; the flour in question is thus compared as to bread-making value with a flour of known baking quality. in making the baking tests, the absorption of the flour, the way in which it responds in the doughing process, and the general properties of the dough, are noted. the details should be carried out with care, the comparison always being made with a similar flour of known baking value, and the bread should be baked at the same time and under the same conditions as the standard. the color of the bread, the size and weight of the loaf, and its texture and odor, are the principal characteristics to be noted. [illustration: fig. .--comparative baking tests.] the quality of flour for bread-making purposes is not strictly dependent upon any one factor, but appears to be the aggregate of a number of desirable characteristics. the commercial grade of a flour can be accurately determined from the color, granulation, absorption, gluten and ash content, and the quality of the bread. technical flour testing requires much experience and a high degree of skill. . bleaching.--in the process of manufacture, flours are often subjected to air containing traces of nitrogen peroxide gas, generated by electrical action and resulting in the union of the oxygen and nitrogen of the air. this whitens and improves the color of the flour. bleached flours differ neither in chemical composition nor in nutritive value from unbleached flours, except that bleached flours contain a small amount (about one part to one million parts of flour) of nitrite reacting material, which is removed during the process of bread making. the amount of nitrites produced in flour during bleaching is less than is normally present in the saliva, or is found naturally in many vegetable foods, or in smoked or cured meats, or in bread made from unbleached flour and baked in a gas oven where nitrites are produced from combustion of the gas. the bleaching of flour cannot be regarded as in any way injurious to health or as adulteration, and a bleached flour which has good gluten and bread-making qualities is entirely satisfactory. it is not possible to successfully bleach low-grade flours so they will resemble the high grades, because the bran impurities of the low grades blacken during bleaching and become more prominent. alway, of the nebraska experiment station, has shown that there is no danger to apprehend from over-bleaching, for when excess of the bleaching reagent is used, flours become yellow in color[ ]. similar results have been obtained at the minnesota experiment station. as bleaching is not injurious to health, and as it is not possible through bleaching to change low grades so as to resemble the patent grades, bleaching resolves itself entirely into the question of what color of flour the consumer desires. pending the settlement of the status of bleaching the practice has been largely discontinued. [illustration: fig. .--wheat hairs and dÃ�bris in low grade flours.] . adulteration of flour.--flour is not easily adulterated, as the addition of any foreign material interferes with the expansion and bread-making qualities and hence is readily detected. the mixing of other cereals, as corn flour, with wheat flour has been attempted at various times when wheat commanded a high price, but this also is readily detected, by microscopic examination, as the corn starch and wheat starch grains are quite different in mechanical structure. such flours are required to be labeled, in accord with the congressional act of , when congress passed, in advance of the general pure food bill, an act regulating the labeling and sale of mixed and adulterated flours. various statements have been made in regard to the adulteration of flour with minerals, as chalk and barytes, but such adulteration does not appear to be at all general. . nutritive value of flour.--from a nutritive point of view, wheat flour and wheat bread have a high value.[ ] a larger amount of nutrients can be secured for a given sum of money in the form of flour than of any other food material except corn meal. according to statistics, the average per capita consumption of wheat in the united states is about - / bushels, or, approximately, one barrel per year, and from recent investigations it would appear that the amount of flour used in the dietary is on the increase. according to the bureau of labor, flour costs the average laborer about one tenth as much as all other foods combined, although he secures from it a proportionally larger amount of nutritive material than from any other food. chapter xi bread and bread making . leavened and unleavened bread.--to make unleavened bread the flour is moistened and worked into a stiff dough, which is then rolled thin, cut into various shapes, and baked, forming a brittle biscuit or cracker. the process of making raised or leavened bread consists, in brief, of mixing the flour and water in proper proportions for a stiff dough, together with some salt for seasoning, and yeast (or other agent) for leavening. the moistened gluten of the flour forms a viscid, elastic, tenacious mass, which is thoroughly kneaded to distribute the yeast. the dough is then set in a warm place and the yeast begins to grow, or "work," causing alcoholic fermentation, with the production of carbon dioxid gas, which expands the dough, or causes it to "rise," thus rendering it porous. after the yeast has grown sufficiently, the dough is baked in a hot oven, where further fermentation is stopped because of destruction of the yeast by the heat, which also causes the gas to expand the loaf and, in addition, generates steam. the gas and steam inflate the tenacious dough and finally escape into the oven. at the same time the gluten of the dough is hardened by the heat, and the mass remains porous and light, while the outer surface is darkened and formed into a crust. when the flour is of good quality, the dough well prepared, and the bread properly baked, the loaf has certain definite characteristics. it should be well raised and have a thin, flinty crust, which is not too dark in color nor too tough, but which cracks when broken; the crumb, as the interior of the loaf is called, should be porous, elastic, and of uniform texture, without large holes, and should have good flavor, odor, and color. meal or flour from any of the cereals may be used for unleavened bread, but leavened bread can be made only from those that contain gluten, a mixture of vegetable proteids which when moistened with water becomes viscid, and is tenacious enough to confine the gas produced in the dough. most cereals, as barley, rice, oats, and corn, some of which are very frequently made into forms of unleavened bread, are deficient or wholly lacking in gluten, and hence cannot be used alone for making leavened bread. for the leavened bread, wheat and rye, which contain an abundance of gluten, are best fitted, wheat being in this country by far the more commonly used. . changes during bread making.--in bread making complex physical, chemical, and biological changes occur. each chemical compound of the flour undergoes some change during the process. the most important changes are as follows[ ]: . production of carbon dioxid gas, alcohol, and soluble carbohydrates as the result of ferment action. . partial rupturing of the starch grains and formation of a small amount of soluble carbohydrates due to the action of heat. . production of lactic and other organic acids. . formation of volatile carbon compounds, other than alcohol and carbon dioxid. . change in the solubility of the gluten proteins, due to the action of the organic acids and fermentation. . changes in the solubility of the proteids due to the action of heat, as coagulation of the albumin and globulin. . formation and liberation of a small amount of volatile, nitrogenous compounds, as ammonia and amids. . partial oxidation of the fat. . loss of dry matter during bread making.--as many of the compounds formed during bread making are gases resulting from fermentation action, and as these are volatile at the temperature of baking, appreciable losses necessarily take place. experiments show about per cent of loss of dry matter under ordinary conditions. these losses are not confined to the carbohydrates alone, but also extend to the proteids and other compounds. when pounds of flour containing per cent of water and per cent of dry matter are made into bread, the bread contains about pounds of dry matter. in exceptional cases, where there has been prolonged fermentation, the losses exceed per cent[ ]. [illustration: fig. .--brewers' yeast.] . action of yeast.--yeast is a monocellular plant requiring sugar and other food materials for its nourishment. under favorable conditions it rapidly increases by budding, and as a result produces the well-known alcoholic fermentation. it requires mineral food, as do plants of a higher order, and oftentimes the fermentation process is checked for want of sufficient soluble mineral food. the yeast plant causes a number of chemical changes to take place, as conversion of starch to a soluble form and alcoholic fermentation. c_{ }h_{ }o_{ } + h_{ }o = c_{ }h_{ }o_{ }. c_{ }h_{ }o_{ } = c_{ }h_{ }oh + co_{ }. alcoholic fermentation cannot occur until the starch has been converted into dextrose sugar. the yeast plant is destroyed at a temperature of ° f. it is most active from ° to ° f. at a low temperature it is less active, and when it freezes the cells are ruptured. a number of different kinds of fermentation are associated with the growth of the yeast plant, and there are many varieties of yeast, some of which are more active than others. for bread making an active yeast is desirable to prevent the formation of acid bodies. if the work proceeds quickly, the rising process is completed before the acid fermentation is far advanced. if fermentation is too prolonged, some of the products of the yeast plant impart an undesirable taste and odor to the bread, and hinder the development of the gluten and expansion of the loaf. . compressed yeast.--the yeast most commonly used in bread making is compressed yeast, a product of distilleries. the yeast floating on the surface of the wort is skimmed off and that remaining is allowed to settle to the bottom, and is obtained by running the wort into shallow tanks or settling trays. it is then washed with cold water, and the impurities are removed either by sieving through silk or wire sieves, or, during the washing, by fractional precipitation. the yeast is then pressed, cut into cakes, and wrapped in tinfoil. when fresh, it is of uniform creamy color, moist, and of a firm, even texture[ ]. it should be kept cold, as it readily decomposes. . dry yeast is made by mixing starch or meal with fresh yeast until a stiff dough is formed. this is then dried, either in the sun or at a moderate temperature, and cut into cakes. by drying, many of the yeast cells are rendered temporarily inactive, and so it is a slower acting leaven than the compressed yeast. a dry yeast will keep indefinitely. . production of carbon dioxid gas and alcohol.--carbon dioxid and alcohol are produced in the largest amounts of any of the compounds formed during bread making. when the alcoholic ferments secreted by the yeast plant act upon the invert sugars and produce alcoholic fermentation, carbon dioxid is one of the products formed. ordinarily about per cent of carbon dioxid gas is generated and lost during bread making. about equal weights of carbon dioxid and alcohol are produced during the fermentation. in baking, the alcohol is vaporized and aids the carbon dioxid in expanding the dough and making the bread porous. if all of the moisture given off during bread making be collected it will be found that from a pound loaf of bread there are about cubic centimeters of liquid; when this is submitted to chemical analysis, small amounts of alcohol are obtained. alcoholic fermentation sometimes fails to take place readily, because there are not sufficient soluble carbohydrates to undergo inversion, or other food for the yeast plant. starch cannot be converted directly into alcohol and carbon dioxid gas; it must first be changed into dextrose sugars, and these undergo alcoholic fermentation. bread gives no appreciable reaction for alcohol even when fresh.[ ] [illustration: fig. .--wheat starch granules after fermentation with yeast, as in bread making.] if the gluten is of poor quality, or deficient in either gliadin or glutenin, the dough mass fails to properly expand because the gas is not all retained. the amount of gas formed is dependent upon temperature, rapidity of the ferment action, and quality of the yeast and flour. if the yeast is inactive, other forms of fermentation than the alcoholic may take place and, as a result, the dough does not expand. poor yeast is a frequent cause of poor bread. the temperature reached in bread making is not sufficient to destroy all the ferment bodies associated with the yeast, as, for example, bread sometimes becomes soft and stringy, due to fermentation changes after the bread has been baked and stored. both bread and flour are subject to many bacterial diseases, and one of the objects of thorough cleaning of the wheat and removal of the bran and débris particles during the process of flour manufacture is to completely eliminate all ferment bodies mechanically associated with the exterior of the wheat kernel, which, if retained in the flour, would cause it readily to become unsound. . production of soluble carbohydrates.--flour contains naturally a small amount of soluble carbohydrates, which are readily acted upon by the alcoholic ferments. the yeast plant secretes soluble ferments, which act upon the starch, forming soluble carbohydrates, and the heat during baking brings about similar changes. in fact, soluble carbohydrates are both consumed and produced by ferment action during the bread-making process. flour contains, on an average, per cent of starch, and during bread making about per cent is changed to soluble forms. bread, on a dry matter basis, contains approximately per cent of soluble carbohydrates, including dextrine, dextrose, and sucrose sugars.[ ] the physical changes which the starch grains undergo are also noticeable. wheat starch has the structure shown in illustration no. . the starch grains are circular bodies, concave, with slight markings in the form of concentric rings. when the proteid matter of bread is extracted with alcohol and the starch grains are examined, it will, be seen that some of them are partially ruptured, like those in popped corn, while others have been slightly acted upon or eaten away by the organized ferments, the surface of the starch grains being pitted, as shown in the illustration. the joint action of heat and ferments on the starch grains changes them physically so they may more readily undergo digestion. the brown coating or crust formed upon the surface of bread is mainly dextrine, produced by the action of heat on the starch. dextrine is a soluble carbohydrate, having the same general composition as starch, but differing from it in physical properties and ease of digestion. . production of acids in bread making.--wheat bread made with yeast gives an acid reaction. the acid is produced from the carbohydrates by ferment action. flour contains about one tenth of per cent of acid; the dough contains from . to . per cent, while the baked bread contains from . to . per cent, but after two or three days slightly more acid is developed.[ ] during the process of bread making, a small portion of the acid is volatilized, but the larger part enters into chemical combination with the gliadin, forming an acid proteid. when the alcoholic fermentation of bread making becomes less active, acid fermentations begin, and sour dough results. it is not definitely known what specific organic acids are developed in bread making. lactic and butyric acids are known to be formed, and for purposes of calculation, the total acidity is expressed in terms of lactic acid. the acidity is determined by weighing grams of flour into a flask, adding cubic centimeters of distilled water, shaking vigorously, and leaving the flour in contact with the water for an hour; cubic centimeters of the filtered solution are then titrated with a tenth normal solution of potassium hydroxid. phenolphthalein is used as the indicator. it cannot be said that all of the alkali is used for neutralizing the acid, as a portion enters into chemical combination with the proteids. if the method for determining the acid be varied, constant results are not secured. unsound or musty flours usually show a high per cent of acidity. [illustration: fig. .--apparatus used in study of losses in bread making.] . volatile compounds produced during bread making.--in addition to carbon dioxid and alcohol, there is lost during bread making a small amount of carbon in other forms, as volatile acids and hydrocarbon products equivalent to about one tenth of one per cent of carbon dioxid. the aroma of freshly baked bread is due to these compounds. both the odor and flavor of bread are caused in part by the volatile acids and hydrocarbons. the amount and kind of volatile products formed can be somewhat regulated through the fermentation process by the use of special flours and the addition of materials that produce specific fermentation changes and desirable aromatic compounds. some of the ferment bodies left in flour from the imperfect removal of the dirt adhering to the exterior of the wheat kernels impart characteristic flavors to the bread. the so-called nutty flavor of some bread is due to the action of these ferment bodies and, when intensified, it becomes objectionable. fungous growths in unsound flour and bread result in the liberation of volatile products, which impart a musty odor. good odor and flavor are very desirable in both flour and bread. . behavior of wheat proteids in bread making.--gluten is an ingredient of the flour on which its bread-making properties largely depend. the important thing, however, is not entirely the quantity of gluten, but more particularly its character. two flours containing the same amounts of carbohydrates and proteid compounds, when converted into bread by exactly the same process, may produce bread of entirely different physical characteristics because of differences in the nature of the gluten of the two samples. gluten is composed of two bodies called gliadin and glutenin. the gliadin, a sort of plant gelatin, is the material which binds the flour particles together to form the dough, thus giving it tenacity and adhesiveness; and the glutenin is the material to which the gliadin adheres. if there is an excess of gliadin, the dough is soft and sticky, while if there is a deficiency, it lacks expansive power. many flours containing a large amount of gluten and total proteid material and possessing a high nutritive value, do not yield bread of the best quality, because of an imperfect blending of the gliadin and glutenin. this question is of much importance in the milling of wheats, especially in the blending of the different types of wheat. an abnormally large amount of gluten does not yield a correspondingly large loaf. [illustration: fig. .--bread from normal flour ( ); gliadin extracted flour ( ); and from flour after extraction of sugar and soluble proteids ( ).] experiments were made at the minnesota experiment station to determine the relation between the nature of the gluten and the character of the bread. this was done by comparing bread from normal flour with that from other flour of the same lot, but having part or all of its gliadin extracted.[ ] dough made from the latter was not sticky, but felt like putty, and broke in the same way. the yeast caused the mass to expand a little when first placed in the oven; then the loaf broke apart at the top and decreased in size. when baked it was less than half the size of that from the same weight of normal flour, and decidedly inferior in other respects. the removal of part of the gliadin produced nearly the same effect as the extraction of the whole of it, and even when an equal quantity of normal flour was mixed with that from which part of the gliadin had been extracted, the bread was only slightly improved. in flour of the highest bread-making properties the two constituents, gliadin and glutenin, are present in such proportions as to form a well-balanced gluten. the proteids of wheat flour are mainly in an insoluble form, although there are small amounts of albumins and globulins; these are coagulated by the action of heat during the bread-making process, and rendered insoluble. a portion of the acid that is developed unites with the gliadin and glutenin, forming acid proteids, which change the physical properties of the dough. both gliadin and glutenin take important parts in bread making. the removal of gliadin from flour causes complete loss of bread-making properties. ordinarily from to per cent of the total nitrogen of the flour is present in alcohol soluble or gliadin form. proteids also undergo hydration during mixing, some water being chemically united with them, changing their physical properties. this hydration change is necessary for the full development of the physical properties of the gluten. the water and salt soluble proteids appear to take no important part in the bread-making process, as their removal in no way affects the size of the loaf or general character of the bread. because of the action of the acids upon the gliadin, bread contains a larger amount of alcohol soluble nitrogen or gliadin than the flour from which the bread was made. it is believed that this action changes the molecular structure of the protein so that it is more readily separated into its component parts when it undergoes digestion and assimilation. . production of volatile nitrogenous compounds.--when fermentation is unnecessarily prolonged, an appreciable amount of nitrogen is volatilized in the form of ammonia and allied bodies, as amids. during the process of bread making, the yeast appears to act upon the protein, as well as upon the carbohydrates, and, as previously stated, losses of dry matter fall alike upon these two classes of compounds, nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous. analyses of the flours and materials used in bread making, and of the bread, show that ordinarily about . per cent of the total nitrogen is liberated in the form of gas during the bread-making process, and analyses of the gases dispelled in baking show approximately the same per cent of nitrogen. when bread is dried, as in a drying oven, a small amount of volatile nitrogen appears to be given off,--probably as ammonium compounds formed during fermentation. the nitrogen lost in bread making under ordinary conditions is not sufficient to affect the nutritive value of the product. the losses of both nitrogen and carbon are more than offset by the increased solubility of the proteids and carbohydrates, the preliminary changes they have undergone making them more digestible and valuable for food purposes. the nitrogen volatilized in bread making appears to be mainly that present in the flour in amid forms or liberated as the result of fermentation processes. the more stable proteids undergo only limited changes in solubility and are not volatilized. . oxidation of fat.--flour contains about . per cent of fat mechanically mixed with a small amount of yellow coloring matter. during the process of bread making the fat undergoes slight oxidation, accompanied by changes in both physical and chemical properties. the fat from bread, when no lard or shortening has been added, is darker in color, more viscous, less soluble in ether, and has a lower iodine number, than fat from flour. the change in solubility of the fat is not, however, such as to affect food value, because the fat is not volatilized, and is only changed by the addition of a small amount of oxygen from the air. when wheat fat and other vegetable and animal fats are exposed to the air, they undergo changes known as aging, similar to the slight oxidation changes in bread making.[ ] . influence of the addition of wheat starch and gluten to flour.--ten per cent or more of starch may be added to normal flour containing a well-balanced gluten, without decreasing the size of the loaf. when moist gluten was added to flour, thus increasing the total amount of gluten, the size of the loaf was not increased[ ]. influence of addition of starch and gluten to flour ===================================================================== | size of loaf | weight --------------------------------------------------------------------- wheat flour, ounces | - / Ã� - / | . wheat flour, % wheat starch | - / Ã� | . wheat flour, . % wheat starch | - / Ã� | . | | wheat flour, grams, about ounces | - / Ã� | . wheat flour, % gluten added, grams | - / Ã� | . wheat flour, % gluten added | Ã� - / | . ===================================================================== so long as the quality of the gluten is not destroyed, the addition of a small amount of either starch or gluten to flour does not affect the size of the loaf, but removal of the gluten affects the moisture content and physical properties of the bread. the addition of starch to flour has the same effect upon the bread as the use of low gluten flour,--lessening the capacity of the flour to absorb water and producing a dryer bread of poorer quality. . composition of bread.--the composition of bread depends primarily upon that of the flour from which it was made. if milk and butter (or lard) are used in making the dough, as is commonly the case, their nutrients are, of course, added to those of the flour; but when only water and flour are used, the nutrients of the bread are simply those of the flour. in either case the amount of nutrients in the bread is smaller than in the same weight of flour, because a considerable part of the water or milk used in making the dough is present in the bread after baking; that is, a pound of bread contains less of any of the nutrients than a pound of the flour from which the bread was made, because the proportion of water in the bread is greater. the following table shows how the composition of flour compares with that of bread, the different kinds of bread all having been made from the flour with which they are compared: composition of flour, and bread made from it in different ways ===================================================================== material | water | protein | fat| c.h.| ash --------------------------------------------------------------------- | % | % | % | % | % flour | . | . | . | . | . bread from flour and water | . | . | . | . | . bread from flour, water, and lard | . | . | . | . | . bread from flour and skim milk | . | . | . | . | . ===================================================================== thus it may be seen that the proportion of water is larger and of each nutrient smaller in bread than in flour, and that the nutrients of the flour are increased by those in the materials added in making the bread. it is apparent that two breads of the same lot of flour may differ, according to the method used in making, and also that two loaves of bread made by exactly the same process but from different lots of flour, even when of the same grade or brand, do not necessarily have the same composition, because of possible variation in the flours. in bread made from flour of low gluten content, the per cent of protein is correspondingly low. . use of skim milk and lard in bread making.--when flours low in gluten are used, skim milk may be employed advantageously in making the bread, to increase the protein content. tests show that such bread contains about per cent more protein than that made with water. ordinarily there is no gain from a nutritive point of view in adding an excessive amount of lard or other shortening, as it tends to widen the nutritive ratio. . influence of warm and cold flours on bread making.--when flour is stored in a cold closet or storeroom, it is not in condition to produce a good quality of bread until it has been warmed to a temperature of about ° f. cold flour checks the fermentation process, and is occasionally the cause of poor bread. on the other hand, when flour is too warm ( ° f.) the influence upon fermentation is unfavorable. heating of flour does not affect the bread-making value, provided the flour is not heated above ° f. and is subsequently cooled to a temperature of ° f. wheat flour contains naturally a number of ferment substances, some of which are destroyed by the action of heat. the natural ferments, or enzymes, of flour appear to take a part in bread making, imparting characteristic odors and flavors to the product. [illustration: fig. .-bread from ( ) graham, ( ) entire wheat, and ( ) white flour. the same amounts of flour were used in making all of the breads.] . variations in the process of bread making.--since flours differ so in chemical composition, and the yeast plant acts upon all the compounds of flour, it naturally follows that bread making is not a simple but a complex operation, resulting in a number of intricate chemical reactions, which it is necessary to control and many of which are only imperfectly understood. bread of the best physical quality and commercial value is made of flour from fully matured, hard wheats, containing a low per cent of acid, no foreign ferment materials or their products, and at least - / per cent of proteids, of which the larger portion is in the form of gliadin. it is believed that a better quality of bread could be produced from many flours by slight changes or modifications in the process of bread making. it cannot be expected that the same process will give the best results alike with all types and kinds of flour. the kind of fermentation process that will produce the best bread from a given type of flour can be determined only by experimentation. poor bread making is due as often to lack of skill on the part of the bread maker, and to poor yeast, as it is to poor quality of flour. frequently the flour is blamed when the poor bread is due to other factors. lack of control of the fermentation process, and the consequent development of acid and other organisms which check the activity of the alcoholic ferments, is a frequent cause of poor bread. . digestibility of bread.--extensive experiments have been made by the office of experiment stations of the united states department of agriculture, at the minnesota and maine experiment stations, to determine the digestibility and nutritive value of bread. different kinds and types of wheat were milled so as to secure from each three flours: graham, entire wheat, and standard patent. the flours were made into bread, and the bread fed to workingmen, and its digestibility determined. the experiments taken as a whole show that bread is an exceedingly digestible food, nearly per cent of the starch or carbohydrate nutrients and about per cent of the gluten or proteid constituents being assimilated by the body. in the case of the graham and entire wheat flours, although they contained a larger total amount of protein, the nutrients were not as completely digested and absorbed by the body as were those of the white flour. the body secured a larger amount of nutrients from the white than from the other grades of flour, the digestibility of the three types being as follows: standard patent flour, protein . per cent and carbohydrates . per cent; entire wheat flour, protein percent and carbohydrates . per cent; graham flour, protein . per cent and carbohydrates . per cent. the low digestibility of the protein of the graham and entire wheat flours is supposed to be due to the coarser granulation; the proteins, being embedded and surrounded with cellular tissue, escape the action of the digestive fluids. microscopic examination of the feces showed that often entire starch grains were still inclosed in the woody coverings and consequently had failed to undergo digestion.[ ], [ ], [ ], [ ] . use of graham and entire wheat in the dietary.--entire wheat and graham flours should be included in the dietary of some persons, as they are often valuable because of their physiological action, the branny particles stimulating the process of digestion and encouraging peristaltic action. in the diet of the overfed, they are valuable for the smaller rather than the larger amount of nutrients they contain. also they supply bulk and give the digestive tract needed exercise. for the laboring man, where it is necessary to obtain the largest amount of available nutrients, bread from white flour should be supplied; in the dietary of the sedentary, graham and entire wheat flours can, if found beneficial, be made to form an essential part. the kind of bread that it is best to use is largely a matter of personal choice founded upon experience. "when we pass on to consider the relative nutritive values of white and whole-meal bread, we are on ground that has been the scene of many a controversy. it is often contended that whole-meal is preferable to white bread, because it is richer in proteid and mineral matter, and so makes a better balanced diet. but our examination of the chemical composition of whole-meal bread has shown that as regards proteid at least, this is not always true, and even were it the case, the lesser absorption of whole-meal bread, which we have seen to occur, would tend to annul the advantage.... on the whole, we may fairly regard the vexed question of whole-meal _versus_ white bread as finally settled and settled in favor of the latter."[ ] "the higher percentage of nitrogen in bran than in fine flour has frequently led to the recommendation of the coarser breads as more nutritious than the finer. we have already seen that the more branny portions of the grain also contain a much larger percentage of mineral matter. and, further, it is in the bran that the largest proportion of fatty matter--the non-nitrogenous substance of higher respiratory capacity which the wheat contains--is found. it is, however, we think, very questionable whether upon such data alone a valid opinion can be formed of the comparative values of bread made from the finer or courser flours ground from one and the same grain. again, it is an indisputable fact that branny particles when admitted into the flour in the degree of imperfect division in which our ordinary milling processes leave them very considerably increase the peristaltic action, and hence the alimentary canal is cleared much more rapidly of its contents. it is also well known that the poorer classes almost invariably prefer the whiter bread, and among some of those who work the hardest and who consequently soonest appreciate a difference in nutritive quality (navvies, for example) it is distinctly stated that their preference for the whiter bread is founded on the fact that the browner passes through them too rapidly; consequently, before their systems have extracted from it as much nutritious matter as it ought to yield them.... in fact, all experience tends to show that the state as well as the chemical composition of our food must be considered; in other words, that the digestibility and aptitude for assimilation are not less important qualities than its ultimate composition. "but to suppose that whole-wheat meal as ordinarily prepared is, as has generally been assumed, weight for weight more nutritious than ordinary bread flour is an utter fallacy founded on theoretical text-book dicta, not only entirely unsupported by experience, but inconsistent with it. in fact, it is just the poorer fed and the harder working that should have the ordinary flour bread rather than the whole-meal bread as hitherto prepared, and it is the overfed and the sedentary that should have such whole-meal bread. lastly, if the whole grain were finely ground, it is by no means certain that the percentage of really nutritive nitrogenous matters would be higher than in ordinary bread flour, and it is quite a question whether the excess of earthy phosphates would not then be injurious."--lawes and gilbert.[ ] * * * * * "according to the chemical analysis of graham, entire wheat, and standard patent flours milled from the same lot of hard scotch fife spring wheat, the graham flour contained the highest and the patent flour the lowest percentage of total protein. but according to the results of digestion experiments with these flours the proportions of digestible or available protein and available energy in the patent flour were larger than in either the entire wheat or the graham flour. the lower digestibility of the protein of the latter is due to the fact that in both these flours a considerable portion of this constituent is contained in the coarser particles (bran), and so resists the action of the digestive juices and escapes digestion. thus while there actually may be more protein in a given amount of graham or entire wheat flour than in the same weight of patent flour from the same wheat, the body obtains less of the protein and energy from the coarse flour than it does from the fine, because, although the including of the bran and germ increases the percentage of protein, it decreases its digestibility. by digestibility is meant the difference between the amounts of the several nutrients consumed and the amount excreted in the feces. "the digestibility of first and second patent flours was not appreciably different from that of standard patent flour. the degree of digestibility of all these flours is high, due largely to their mechanical condition; that is, to the fact that they are finely ground."--snyder.[ ] for a more extended discussion of the subject, the student is referred to bulletins , , and , office of experiment stations, united states department of agriculture. . mineral content of white bread.--average flour contains from . to . of per cent of ash or mineral matter, the larger portion being lime and magnesia and phosphate of potassium. it is argued by some that graham and entire wheat flours should be used liberally because of their larger mineral content and their greater richness in phosphates. in a mixed dietary, however, in which bread forms an essential part, there is always an excess of phosphates, and there is nothing to be gained by increasing the amount, as it only requires additional work of the kidneys for its removal. few experiments have been made to determine the phosphorus requirements of the human body, but these indicate that it is unnecessary to increase the phosphate content of a mixed diet. it is estimated that less than two grams per day of phosphates are required to meet all of the needs of the body, and in an average mixed ration there are present from three to five grams and more. a large portion of the phosphate compounds of white bread is present in organic combinations, as lecithin and nucleated proteids, which are the most available forms, and more valuable for purposes of nutrition than the mineral phosphates. in the case of graham and entire wheat flours, a proportionally smaller amount of the phosphates are digested and assimilated than from the finer grades of flour. . comparative digestibility of new and old bread.--with healthy persons there is no difference whatever in the completeness of digestibility of old and new bread; one appears to be as thoroughly absorbed as the other. in the case of some individuals with impaired digestion there may be a difference in the ease and comfort with which the two kinds of bread are digested, but this is due mainly to individuality and does not apply generally. the change which bread undergoes when it is kept for several days is largely a loss of moisture and development of a small amount of acid and other substances from the continued ferment action. . different kinds of bread.--according to variations in method of preparation, there are different types and varieties of bread, as the "flat bread" of scandinavian countries, unleavened bread, vienna bread, salt rising bread, etc. bread made with baking powder differs in no essential way from that made with yeast, except in the presence of the residue from the baking powder, discussed in chapter xii. biscuits, wheat cakes, crackers, and other food materials made principally from flour, have practically the same food value as bread. it makes but little difference in what way flour is prepared as food, for in its various forms it has practically the same digestibility and nutritive value. . toast.--when bread is toasted there is no change in the percentage of total nutrients on a dry matter basis. the change is in solubility and form, and not in amount of nutrients available. some of the starch becomes dextrine, which is more soluble and digestible.[ ] proteids, on the other hand, are rendered less soluble, which appears to slightly lower the digestion coefficient. they are somewhat more readily but not quite so completely digested as those of bread. digestion experiments show that toast more readily yields to the diastase and other ferments than does wheat bread. toasting brings about ease of digestion rather than increased completeness of the process. toast is a sterile food, while bread often contains various ferments which have not been destroyed by baking. these undergo incubation during the process of digestion, particularly in the case of individuals with diseases of the digestive tract. with normal digestion, however, these ferment bodies do not develop to any appreciable extent, as the digestive tract disinfects itself. when the flour is prepared from well cleaned wheat and the ferment substances which are present mainly in the bran particles have been removed, a flour of higher sanitary value is secured. chapter xii baking powders . general composition.--all baking powders contain at least two materials; one of these has combined carbon dioxid in its composition, the other some acid constituent which serves to liberate the gas. the material from which the gas is obtained is almost invariably sodium bicarbonate, nahco_{ }, commonly known as "soda" or "saleratus." ammonium carbonate has been used to some extent, but is very seldom used at the present time. the acid constituent may be one of several materials, the most common being cream of tartar, tartaric acid, calcium phosphate, or alum. these may be used separately or in combination. the various baking powders are designated according to the acid constituent, as "cream of tartar," "phosphate," and "alum" powders. all of them liberate carbon dioxid gas, but the products left in the food differ widely in nature and amount[ ]. baking powder is a chemical preparation which, when brought in contact with water, liberates carbon dioxid gas. the baking powder is mixed dry with flour, and when this is moistened the carbon dioxid that is liberated expands the dough. the action is similar to that of yeast except that in the case of yeast the gas is given off much more slowly and no residue is left in the bread. when baking powder is used, there is a residue left in the food which varies with the material in the powder. it is the nature and amount of this residue that is important and makes one baking powder more desirable than another. [illustration: fig. .--ingredients of a baking powder. , baking powder; , cream of tartar; , baking soda; , starch.] . cream of tartar powders.--the acid ingredient of the cream of tartar powders is tartaric acid, h_{ }c_{ }h_{ }o_{ }. cream of tartar is potassium acid tartrate, khc_{ }h_{ }o_{ }; it contains one atom of replaceable hydrogen, which imparts the acid properties, and it is prepared from crude argol, a deposit of grape juice when wine is made. the residue from this powder is sodium potassium tartrate, nakc_{ }h_{ }o_{ }, commonly known as rochelle salt. this is the active ingredient of seidlitz powders and has a purgative effect when taken into the body. the dose as a purgative is from one half to one ounce. a loaf of bread as ordinarily made with cream of tartar powder contains about grains of rochelle salt, which is grains more than is found in a seidlitz powder, but the amount actually eaten at any one time is small and its physiological effect can probably be disregarded. when a cream of tartar baking powder is used, the reaction takes place according to the following equation: hkh_{ }c_{ }o_{ } + nahco_{ } = knac_{ }h_{ }o_{ } + co_{ } + h_{ }o. the crystallized rochelle salt contains four molecules of water, so that, even allowing for some starch filler, there is very nearly as much weight of material (rochelle salt) left in the food as there was of the original powder. if free tartaric acid were used instead of potassium acid tartrate, the reaction would be as follows: h_{ }c_{ }h_{ }o{ } + nahco_{ } = na_{ }c_{ }h_{ }o_{ }. h_{ }o + co_{ }. but the residue, sodium tartrate, is less in proportion. it has physiological properties very similar to rochelle salt. tartaric acid is seldom used alone, but very often in combination with cream of tartar. it is more expensive than cream of tartar; but not so much is required, and it is more rapid in action. . phosphate baking powders.--here the acid ingredient is phosphoric acid and the compound usually employed is mono-calcium phosphate, cah_{ }(po-{ })_{ }. this is made by the action of sulphuric acid on ground bone (ca_{ }(po_{ })_{ } + h_{ }so_{ } = cah_{ }(po_{ })_{ } + caso_{ }), and it is difficult to free it from the calcium phosphate formed at the same time; hence such powders contain more or less of this inert material. the reaction which occurs with a phosphate powder is as follows: cah_{ }(po_{ })_{ } + nahco_{ } = cahpo_{ } + co_{ } + h_{ }o + na_{ }hpo_{ }. sodium phosphate, according to the united states dispensatory, is "mildly purgative in doses of from to ounces." the claim is made by the makers of phosphate baking powders that the phosphates of sodium and calcium, products left after the baking, restore the phosphates which have been lost from the flour in the bran. this baking powder residue does not restore the phosphates in the same form in which they are present in grains and it does furnish them in larger amounts--nearly tenfold. however, the residue from these powders is probably less objectionable than that from alum powders. the chief drawback to the phosphate powders is their poor keeping qualities. . alum baking powders.--sulphuric acid is the acid constituent of these powders. the alums are double sulphates of aluminium and an alkali metal, and have the general formula _x_al(so_{ })_{ } in which _x_ may be k, na, or nh_{ }, producing respectively a potash, soda, or ammonia alum. potash alum is most commonly used, soda and ammonia alums to a less extent. the reaction takes place as follows: nh_{ }al(so_{ })_{ } + nahco_{ } = al_{ }(oh)_{ } + na_{ }so_{ } + (nh_{ })_{ }so_{ } + co_{ }. if it is a potash or soda alum, simply substitute k or na for nh_{ } throughout the equation. the best authorities regard alum baking powders as the most objectionable. ammonia alum is without doubt the worst form, since all of the ammonium compounds have an extremely irritating effect on animal tissue. sulphates of sodium and potassium are also objectionable. aluminium hydroxide is soluble in the slightly acid gastric juice and has an astringent action on animal tissue, hindering digestion in a way similar to the alum itself. many of the alum powders contain also mono-calcium phosphate; the reaction is as follows: nh_{ }al(so_{ })_{ } + cah_{ }(po_{ })_{ } + nahco_{ } = al_{ }(po_{ })_{ } + caso_{ } + (nh_{ })_{ }so_{ } + na_{ }so_{ } + co_{ } + h_{ }o. these are probably less injurious than the straight alum powders, although the residues are, in general, open to the same objection. . inspection of baking powders.--many of the states have enacted laws seeking to regulate the sale of alum baking powders. some of these laws simply require the packages to bear a label setting forth the fact that alum is one of the ingredients; others require the baking powder packages to bear a label naming all the ingredients of the powder. . fillers.--all baking powders contain a filler of starch. this is necessary to keep the materials from acting before the powder is used. the amount of filler varies from to per cent; the least is found in the tartrate powders and the most in the phosphate powders. the amount of gas which a powder gives off regulates its value; it should give off at least / of its weight. . home-made baking powders.--baking powders can be made at home for about one half what they usually cost and they will give equal satisfaction. the following will make a long-keeping powder: cream of tartar, ounces; baking soda, ounces; corn starch, ounces. for a quick-acting powder use but one ounce of starch. the materials should be thoroughly dry. mix the soda and starch first by shaking well in a glass or tin can. add the cream of tartar last and shake again. thorough mixing is essential to good results. cream of tartar is often adulterated, but it can be obtained pure from a reliable druggist. to insure baking powders remaining perfectly dry, they should always be kept in glass or tin cans, never in paper. chapter xiii vinegar, spices, and condiments . vinegar.--vinegar is a dilute solution of acetic acid produced by fermentation, and contains, in addition to acetic acid, small amounts of other materials in solution, as mineral matter and malic acid, according to the material from which the vinegar was made. unless otherwise designated, vinegar in this country is generally considered to be made from apples. other substances, however, are used, as vinegar can be manufactured from a variety of fermentable materials, as molasses, glucose, malt, wine, and alcoholic beverages in general. the chemical changes which take place in the production of vinegars are: ( ) inversion of the sugar, ( ) conversion of the invert sugars into alcohol, and ( ) change of alcohol into acetic acid. all these chemical changes are the result of ferment action. the various invert ferments change the sugar into dextrose and glucose sugars; then the alcoholic ferment produces alcohol and carbon dioxid from the invert sugars, and finally the acetic acid ferment completes the work by converting the alcohol into acetic acid. the chemical changes which take place in these different steps are: sucrose dextrose levulose ( ) c_{ }h_{ }o_{ } + h_{ }o = c_{ }h_{ }o_{ } + c_{ }h_{ }o_{ }; dextrose alcohol ( ) c_{ }h_{ }o_{ } = c_{ }h_{ }oh + co_{ }; alcohol acid ( ) c_{ }h_{ }oh + o = hc_{ }h_{ }o_{ } + h_{ }o. [illustration: fig. .--acetic acid ferments. (after kÃ�nig.)] the acetic acid organism, _mycoderma aceti_, can work only in the presence of oxygen. it is one of the aerobic ferments, and is present in what is known as the "mother" of vinegar and is secreted by it. when vinegar is made in quantity, the process is hastened by allowing the alcoholic solution to pass through a narrow tank rilled with shavings containing some of the ferment material, and at the same time air is admitted so as to secure a good supply of oxygen. when vinegar is made by allowing cider or wine to stand in a warm place until the fermentation process is completed, a long time is required--the length of time depending upon the supply of air and other conditions affecting fermentation. in some countries malt vinegar is common. this is produced by allowing a wort made from malt and barley to undergo acetic acid fermentation, without first distilling the alcohol as is done in the preparation of spirit vinegar. in various european countries wine vinegar is in general use and is made by acetification of the juice of grapes. sometimes spirit vinegar is made from corn or barley malt. alcoholic fermentation takes place, the alcohol is distilled so that a weak solution remains, which is acetified in the ordinary way. such a vinegar can be produced very cheaply and is much inferior in flavor to genuine wine or cider vinegar. vinegar, when properly made, should remain clear, and should not form a heavy deposit or produce any large amount of the fungous growth, commonly called the "mother" of vinegar. in order to prevent the vinegar from becoming cloudy and forming deposits, it should be strained and stored in clean jugs and protected from the air. so long as air is excluded further acetic acid fermentation and production of "mother" of vinegar cannot take place. when the vinegar is properly made and the fermentation process has been completed, the acid already produced prevents all further development of acetic acid ferments. when vinegar becomes cloudy and produces deposits, it is an indication that the acetic fermentation has not been completed. the national standard for pure apple cider vinegar calls for not less than grams acetic acid, . grams of apple solids, and . grams of apple ash per cubic centimeters, along with other characteristics, as acidity, sugar, and phosphoric acid content. many states have special laws regarding the sale of vinegar. . adulteration of vinegar.--vinegar is frequently adulterated by the addition of water, or by coloring spirit vinegar, thus causing it to resemble cider vinegar. formerly vinegar was occasionally adulterated by the use of mineral acids, as hydrochloric or sulphuric, but since acetic acid can be produced so cheaply, this form of adulteration has almost entirely disappeared. colored spirit vinegar contains merely a trace of solid matter and can be readily distinguished from cider vinegar by evaporating a small weighed quantity to dryness and determining the weight of the solids. occasionally, however, glucose and other materials are added so as to give some solids to the spirit vinegar, but such a vinegar contains only a trace of ash[ ]. attempts have also been made to carry the adulteration still further by adding lime and soda to give the colored spirit vinegar the necessary amount of ash. malt, white wine, glucose, and molasses vinegars when properly manufactured and unadulterated are not objectionable, but too frequently they are made to resemble and sell as cider vinegar. this is a fraud which affects the pocketbook rather than the health. for home use apple cider vinegar is highly desirable. there is no food material or food adjunct, unless possibly ground coffee and spices, so extensively adulterated as vinegar. vinegar has no food value whatever, and is valuable only for giving flavor and palatability to other foods, and to some extent for the preservation of foods. it is useful in the household in other ways, as it furnishes a dilute acid solution of aid in some cooking and baking operations for liberating gas from soda, and also when a dilute acid solution is required for various cleaning purposes. vinegar should never be kept in tin pails, or any metallic vessel, because the acetic acid readily dissolves copper, tin, iron, and the ordinary metals, producing poisonous solutions. earthenware jugs, porcelain dishes, glassware, or wooden casks are all serviceable for storing vinegar. . characteristics of spices.[ ]--spices are aromatic vegetable substances characterized as a class by containing some essential or volatile oil which gives taste and individuality to the material. they are used for the flavoring of food and are composed of mineral matter and the various nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous compounds found in all plant bodies. since only a comparatively small amount of a spice is used for flavoring purposes, no appreciable nutrients are added to the food. some of the spices have characteristic medicinal properties. occasionally they are used to such an extent as to mask the natural flavors of foods, and to conceal poor cooking and preparation or poor quality. for the microscopic study of spices the student is referred to winton, "microscopy of vegetable foods," and leach, "food inspection and analysis." . pepper.--black and white pepper are the fruit of the pepper plant (_piper nigrum_), a climbing perennial shrub which grows in the east and west indies, the greatest production being in sumatra. for the black pepper, the berry is picked before thoroughly ripe; for the white pepper, it is allowed to mature. white pepper has the black pericarp or hull removed. pepper owes its properties to an alkaloid, piperine, and to a volatile oil. in the black pepper berries there is present ash to the extent of about . per cent, it ought not to be above . per cent; ether extract, including piperine and resin, not less than . per cent; crude fiber not more than per cent; also some starch and nitrogenous material. the white pepper contains less ash and cellulose than the black pepper. ground pepper is frequently grossly adulterated; common adulterants being: cracker crumbs, roasted nut shells and fruit stones, charcoal, corn meal, pepper hulls, mustard hulls, and buckwheat middlings. the pepper berries wrinkle in drying, and this makes it difficult to remove the sand which may have adhered to them. an excessive amount of sand in the ash should be classed as adulteration. adulterants in pepper are detected mainly by the use of the microscope. the united states standard for pepper is: not more than per cent total ash, per cent fiber, and not less than per cent starch and per cent non-volatile ether extract.[ ] . cayenne.--cayenne or red pepper is the fruit pod of a plant, _capsicum_, of which there are several varieties,--the small-fruited kind, used to make cayenne or red pepper; and the tabasco sort, forming the basis of tabasco sauce. it is grown mainly in the tropics, and was used there as a condiment before the landing of columbus, who took specimens back to europe. cayenne pepper contains per cent of oil, about per cent of ash, and a liberal amount of starch. the adulterants are usually of a starchy nature, as rice or corn meal, and the product is often colored with some red dye. . mustard.--mustard is the seed of the mustard plant, and is most often found in commerce in the ground form. the black or brown mustard has a very small seed and the most aroma. white mustard is much larger and is frequently used unground. for the ground mustard, only the interior of the seed is used, the husk being removed in the bolting. mustard contains a large amount of oil, part of which is usually expressed before grinding, and this is the form in which spice grinders buy it. in mustard flour there is: ash from to per cent, volatile oil from . to per cent, fixed oil from to per cent, crude fiber from to per cent, albuminoids from to per cent, and a little starch. the principal adulterants are wheat, corn, and rice flour. when these are used, the product is frequently colored with turmeric, a harmless vegetable coloring material. . ginger.--ginger is the rhizome or root of a reed-like plant (_zingiber officinale_), native in tropical asia, chiefly india. it is cultivated in nearly all tropical countries. when unground it usually occurs in two forms: dried with the epidermis, or with the epidermis removed, when it is called scraped ginger. very frequently a coating of chalk is given, as a protection against the drug store beetle. jamaica ginger is the best and most expensive. cochin, scraped, african, and calcutta ginger range in price in the order given. ginger contains from . to . per cent of ash, from . to per cent of volatile oil, and from to . per cent of fixed oil. there is a large amount of starch. the chief adulterants are rice, wheat, and potato starch, mustard hulls, exhausted ginger from ginger-ale and extract factories, sawdust and ground peanut-shells, and turmeric is frequently used for coloring the product. the united states standard for ginger is not more than per cent starch, per cent fiber, and per cent total ash.[ ] . cinnamon and cassia.--the bark of several species of plants growing in tropical countries furnishes these spices. true cinnamon is a native of ceylon, while the cassias are from bengal and china. in this country there is more cassia used than cinnamon--cinnamon being rarely found except in drug stores. cassia bark is much thicker than cinnamon bark. the ground spice contains about . per cent volatile oil and the same amount of fixed oil, per cent of ash, and some fiber, nitrogenous matter, and starch. cereals, cedar sawdust, ground nutshells, oil meal, and cracker crumbs are the chief adulterants. . cloves.--cloves are the flower buds of an evergreen tree that grows in the tropics. these are picked by hand and dried in the sun. in the order of value, penang, sumatra, amboyna, and zanzibar furnish the chief varieties. cloves rarely contain more than per cent ash, or less than per cent volatile oil and per cent fixed oil, and to per cent of tannin-yielding bodies. no starch is present. the chief adulterants of ground cloves are spent cloves, allspice, and ground nutshells. clove stems are also sometimes used and may be detected by a microscopical examination, since they contain many thick-walled cells and much fibrous tissue. . allspice.--allspice, or pimento, is the fruit of an evergreen tree common in the west indies. it is a small, dry, globular berry, two-celled, each cell having a single seed. allspice contains about . per cent volatile oil, per cent fixed oil, and . per cent ash. because of its cheapness, it is not generally adulterated, cereal starches being the most common adulterants. . nutmeg.--nutmeg is the interior kernel of the fruit of a tree growing in the east indies. the fruit resembles a small pear. a fleshy mantle of crimson color, which is mace, envelopes the seed. nutmeg contains about . per cent ash, . to per cent volatile oil, and to per cent fixed oil. mace has practically the same composition. extensive adulteration is seldom practiced. the white coating on the surface of the nutmeg is lime, used to prevent sprouting of the germ. chapter xiv tea, coffee, chocolate, and cocoa [illustration: fig. .--tea leaf. (after winton.)] . tea is the prepared leaf of an evergreen shrub or small tree cultivated chiefly in china and japan. there are two varieties of plants. the assamese, which requires a very moist, hot climate, yields in india and ceylon about pounds per acre, and may produce as high as pounds. from this plant a number of flushes or pickings are secured in a year. the chinese plant grows in cooler climates and has a smaller, tougher, and darker leaf, which is more delicate than that of the assamese and is usually made into green tea. the chinese tea plant yields only four or five flushes a year. about per cent of the tea used in this country comes from japan and per cent from china. the tea industry of india and ceylon has developed rapidly in late years, and is now second only to that of china. tea has been raised upon a small scale in the united states. the quality or grade of the tea depends upon the leaves used and the method of curing. . composition of tea.--black and green teas are produced from the same species of plant, but owe their difference in color as well as flavor and odor to methods of preparation. the same plant may yield several grades of both green and black tea. to produce black tea, the leaves are bruised to liberate the juices, allowed to ferment a short time, which develops the color, and then dried.[ ] for green tea the fresh leaves are roasted or steamed, then rolled and dried as quickly as possible to prevent fermentation. the smaller leaves and the first picking produce the finest quality of tea. the characteristic flavor and odor of tea are imparted by a volatile oil, although the odor is sometimes altered by the tea being brought in contact with orange flowers, jessamine, or the fragrant olive. there are also present in tea an alkaloid, theine, which gives the peculiar physiological properties, and tannin, upon which depends largely the strength of the tea infusion. the composition of tea is as follows: =========================================== |original| green | black | tea | tea | tea ------------------------------------------- tannin, per cent | . | . | . theine, per cent | . | . | . ash, per cent | . | . | . fiber, per cent | . | . | . protein, per cent | . | . | . (all insoluble) | | | =========================================== it will be noticed that green tea contains twice as much tannin as black tea; during the fermentation which the black tea undergoes, some of the tannin is decomposed. there is a large amount of protein in tea, but it is of no food value, because of its insolubility. about half of the ash is soluble. the tannin is readily soluble, and for this reason green tea especially should be infused for a very short time and never boiled. tannin in foods in large amounts may interfere with the normal digestion of the protein compounds, because it coagulates the albumin and peptones after they have become soluble, and thus makes additional work for the digestive organs. . judging teas.--teas are judged according to: ( ) the tea as it appears prepared for market, ( ) the infusion, and ( ) the out-turn after infusion. the color should be uniform; if a black tea, it should be grayish black, not a dead black. the leaves should be uniform in size or grade. the quality and grade are dependent upon flavor, and, with the strength of the infusion, are determined by tasting. this work is rapidly done by the trained tea taster. the out-turn should be of one color; no bright green leaves should be present; evenness of make is judged by the out-turn. the flavor of a tea is largely a matter of personal judgment, but from a physiological point of view black teas are given the preference. . adulteration of tea.--a few years ago tea was quite extensively adulterated, but the strict regulation of the government regarding imported tea has greatly lessened adulteration. the most common form was the use of spent leaves, _i.e._ leaves which had been infused. leaves of the willow and other plants which resemble tea were also used, as well as large quantities of tea stems. facing or coloring is also an adulteration, since it is done to give poor or damaged tea a brighter appearance. "facing consists in treating leaves damaged in manufacture or which from age are inferior, with a mixture containing prussian blue, turmeric, indigo, or plumbago to impart color or gloss, and with a fraudulent intent. there is no evidence that the facing agents are deleterious to health in the small quantities used, but as they are used for purposes of deception, they should be discouraged."[ ] facing and the addition of stems are the chief adulterations practiced at present. . food value and physiological properties of tea.--tea infusion does not contain sufficient nutrients to entitle it to be classed as a food. it is with some persons a stimulant. the caffein or theine in tea is an alkaloid that has characteristic physiological properties. in doses of from three to five grains, according to the united states dispensatory, "it produces peculiar wakefulness." larger doses produce intense physical restlessness, mental anxiety, and obstinate sleeplessness. "it has no effect upon the motor nerves, but is believed to have a visible effect upon the sensatory nerves." (united states dispensatory.) experiments with animals show that it causes elevation of the arterial pressure. it is used as a cardiac stimulant. the quantity of theine consumed in a cup of tea is about / of a grain, or / of a medicinal dose. [illustration: fig. .--coffee berries. , mocha; , java; , rio.] . composition of coffee.--the coffee tree is an evergreen cultivated in the tropics. it grows to a height of feet, but when cultivated is kept pruned to from to feet. the fruit, which resembles a small cherry, with two seeds or coffee grains embedded in the pulp, is dried and the seeds removed, cleaned, and graded. coffee has an entirely different composition from tea; it is characterized by a high per cent of fat and soluble carbohydrates, and also contains an essential oil and caffein, an alkaloid identical with theine. tannic acid, not as free acid, is combined with caffein as a tannate. ====================================== |raw coffee|roasted coffee -------------------------------------- | per cent | per cent water | . | . ash | . | . fat | . | . sugar, etc. | . | . protein | . | . caffein | . | . ====================================== the high per cent of sugar and other soluble carbohydrates in roasted coffee is caused by the action of heat upon the non-nitrogenous compounds. coffee cannot be considered a food, because only a comparatively small amount of the nutrients are soluble and available. it is a mildly stimulating beverage. with some individuals it appears to promote the digestive process, while with others its effect is not beneficial. coffee is more extensively used in this country than tea, and is subject to greater adulteration. it is adulterated by facing and glazing; _i.e._ coloring the berries to resemble different grades and coating them with caramel and dextrine. spent coffee grains and coffee that has been extracted without grinding are also used as adulterants. imitation berries made of rye, corn, or wheat paste, molded, colored with caramel, and baked have been found mixed with genuine coffee berries. roasted cereals and chicory are used extensively to adulterate ground coffee. chicory is prepared from the root of the chicory plant, which belongs to the same family as the dandelion. it is claimed by some that a small amount of chicory improves the flavor of coffee. however, when chicory is added to coffee, it should be so stated on the label and the amount used given. the dextrine and sugar used in glazing are browned or caramelized during roasting and impart a darker color to the infusion, making it appear better than it really is. the glazing also makes the coffee retain moisture which would otherwise be driven off during roasting. coffee contains such a large per cent of oil that the berries generally float when thrown on water, while the imitation berries sink. chicory also sinks rapidly and colors the water brown, while the coffee remains floating for some time. there are three kinds of coffee in general use: java, mocha, and rio or brazil. the brazil coffee has the largest berry and is usually styled by dealers as "low" or "low middlings." the java coffee berries are smaller and paler in color, the better grades being brown. mocha usually commands the highest price in commerce. the seeds are small and dark yellow before roasting. . cereal coffee substitutes. "a few of these preparations contain a little true coffee, but for the most part they appear to be made of parched grains of barley, wheat, etc., or of grain mixed with pea hulls, ground corncobs, or wheat middlings. it is said that barley or wheat parched, with a little molasses, in an ordinary oven, makes something indistinguishable in flavor from some of the cereal coffees on the market. if no coffee is used in the cereal preparations, the claim that they are not stimulating is probably true. as for the nutritive value, parching the cereals undoubtedly renders some of the carbohydrates soluble, and a part of this soluble matter passes into the decoction, but the nutritive value of the infusion is hardly worth considering in the dietary."[ ] . cocoa and chocolate preparations.--cocoa and chocolate are manufactured from the "cocoa bean," the seed of a tree native to tropical america. the beans are inclosed in a lemon-yellow, fleshy pod. they are removed from the pulp, allowed to undergo fermentation, and dried by exposure to the air and light, which hardens them and gives them a red color. this method produces what is known as the "fermented cocoa." for the "unfermented cocoa," the beans are dried without undergoing fermentation. fermentation removes much of the acidity and bitterness characteristic to the unfermented bean, and when properly regulated develops flavor. the original bean contains about per cent fat, part of which is removed in preparing the cocoa. this fat is sold as cocoa butter. in the preparation of some brands of cocoa, alkalies, such as soda and potash, are used to form a combination with the fat to prevent its separating in oily globules. this treatment improves the appearance of the cocoa, but experiments show the albumin to be somewhat less digestible and the soap-like product resulting not as valuable a food as the fat. such preparations have a high per cent of ash. there is no objection from a nutritive point of view to a cocoa in which the fat separates in oily globules. . composition of cocoa.--the cocoa bean, when dried or roasted and freed from its husk and ground, is sold as cracked cocoa, or cocoa nibs. from cocoa nibs the various cocoa and chocolate preparations are made. cocoas vary in composition according to the extent to which the fat is removed during the process of manufacture and the nature and extent to which other ingredients are added. an average cocoa contains about per cent of proteids, and per cent fat, also starch, sugar, gums, fiber, and ash, as well as theobromine, a material very similar to theine and caffein in tea and coffee, but not such an active stimulant. cocoa is not easily soluble, but it may be ground so fine that a long time is required for its sedimentation; or sugar or other soluble material may be added during the process of manufacture to increase the specific gravity of the liquid to such an extent that the same object is attained without such fine grinding. the first method is to be preferred. cocoa and its preparations are richer in nutritive substances than tea and coffee and have this added advantage that both the soluble and insoluble portions become a part of the beverage. owing to the small amount used for a cup of cocoa, independent of the milk it does not add much in the way of nutrients to the ration. . chocolate.--plain chocolate is prepared from cocoa nibs without "removal of the fat or other constituents except the germ." it differs in chemical composition from cocoa by containing more fat and less protein; it has nearly the same chemical composition as the cocoa nibs. it is officially defined as containing "not more than per cent of ash insoluble in water, - / per cent of crude fiber and per cent of starch, and less than per cent cocoa fat."[ ] by the addition of sugar, sweet chocolates are made. they vary widely in composition according to the flavors and amounts of sugar added during their preparation. the average composition of cocoa nibs, standard cocoa, and plain chocolate is as follows: ============================================================== | cocoa | composition of | composition of | nibs | standard cocoa | plain chocolate |--------------------------------------------- |per cent| per cent | per cent water | . | -- | . ash | . | . | . theobromine | . | -- | -- caffein | . | -- | -- crude protein | . | -- | -- crude fiber | . | . | . fat | . | . | . starch and other| | | non-nitrogenous| | | matter | . | -- | -- ============================================================ . adulteration of chocolate and cocoa.--the various chocolate and cocoa preparations offer an enticing field for sophistication; they are not, however, so extensively adulterated as before the enforcement of national and state pure food laws. the most common adulterants are starch, cocoa shells, and occasionally iron dioxid and other pigments to give color, also foreign fats to replace the fat removed and to give the required plasticity for molding. . comparative composition of beverages.--tea and coffee as beverages contain but little in the way of nutrients other than the cream and sugar used in them. the solid matter in tea and coffee infusions amounts to less than . per cent. when cocoa is made with milk, it is a beverage of high nutritive value due mainly to the milk. composition of beverages[ ] ============================================================================= | | | | | fuel kind of beverage | water | protein | fat | carbo- | value | | | | hydrates | per lb. ------------------------|----------|----------|----------|----------|-------- | per cent | per cent | per cent | per cent |calories commercial cereal coffee| | | | | ( . ounce to | | | | | pint water) | . | . | -- | . | parched corn coffee | | | | | ( . ounces to | | | | | pint water) | . | . | -- | . | oatmeal water ( ounce | | | | | to pint water) | . | . | -- | . | coffee ( ounce | | | | | pint water) | . | . | -- | . | tea ( . ounce to | | | | | pint water) | . | . | -- | . | cocoa ( . ounce to | | | | | pint milk) | . | . | . | . | cocoa ( . ounce to | | | | | pint water) | . | . | . | . | skimmed milk | . | . | . | . | ============================================================================= chapter xv the digestibility of foods . digestibility, how determined.--the term "digestibility," as applied to foods, is used in two ways: ( ) meaning the thoroughness of the process, or the completeness with which the nutrients of the food are absorbed and used by the body, and ( ) meaning the ease or comfort with which digestion is accomplished. cheese is popularly termed indigestible, and rice digestible, when in reality the nutrients of cheese are more completely although more slowly digested than those of rice. in this work, unless otherwise stated, digestibility is applied to the completeness of the digestion process. the digestibility of a food is ascertained by means of digestion experiments, in which all of the food consumed for a certain period, usually two to four days, is weighed and analyzed, and from the weight and composition is determined the amount, in pounds or grams, of each nutrient consumed.[ ] in like manner the nutrients in the indigestible portion, or feces, are determined from the weight and composition of the feces. the indigestible nutrients in the feces are deducted from the total nutrients of the food, the difference being the amount digested, or oxidized in the body. when the food is digested, the various nutrients undergo complete or partial oxidation, with the formation of carbon dioxid gas, water, urea (ch_{ }n_{ }o), and other compounds. the feces consist mainly of the compounds which have escaped digestion. the various groups of compounds of foods do not all have the same digestibility; for example, the starch of potatoes is per cent digestible, while the protein is only per cent. the percentage amount of a nutrient that is digested is called the digestion coefficient. in the following way the digestibility of a two-days ration of bread and milk was determined: . grams of bread and grams of milk were consumed by the subject. the dried feces weighed . grams. the foods and feces when analyzed were found to have the following composition:[ ] ===================================================================== composition | bread | milk | feces[a] --------------------------------------------------------------------- water | . | . | -- crude protein | . | . | . ether extract | . | . | . ash | . | . | . carbohydrates | . | . | . calories per gram | . | . | . ===================================================================== [footnote a: results on dry-matter basis.] statement of results of a digestion experiment ============================================================================= food consumed | weight | protein | ether | carbo- | | heat of | of | n Ã� . | extract | hy- | ash | combus- | material | | | drates | | tion ------------------+----------+----------+---------+--------+-------+--------- | grams | grams | grams | grams | grams | calories bread | . | . | . | . | . | milk | . | . | . | . | . | | | ------- + ------- + -------+-------+--------- total | . | . | . | . | . | feces | | . | . | . | . | | | ------- + ------- + -------+-------+--------- total amount | | . | . | . | . | digested | | | | | | per cent digested | | | | | | or coefficients | | | | | | of digestibility| | . | . | . | . | . | | | | | | available energy | | -- | -- | -- | -- | . ============================================================================= in this experiment per cent of the crude protein, per cent of the ether extract, and . per cent of the carbohydrates of the bread and milk ration were digested and absorbed by the body. in calculating the available energy, correction is made for the unoxidized residue, as urea and allied forms. it is estimated that for each gram of protein in the ration there was an indigestible residue yielding . calories. . available nutrients.--a food may contain a comparatively large amount of a compound, and yet, on account of its low digestibility, fail to supply much of it to the body in an available form. hence it is that the value of a food is dependent not alone on its composition, but also on its digestibility. the digestible or available nutrients of a food are determined by multiplying the per cent of each nutrient which the food contains by its digestion coefficient. for example, a sample of wheat flour contains per cent protein, per cent of which is digestible, making . per cent of available or digestible protein ( Ã� . - . ). graham flour made from similar wheat contains per cent total protein, and only per cent of the protein is digestible, making . per cent available ( Ã� . = . ). thus one food may contain a larger total but a smaller available amount of a nutrient than another. . available energy.--the available energy of a food or a ration is expressed in calories. a ration for a laborer at active out-of-door work should yield about calories. the calory is the unit of heat, and represents the heat required to raise the temperature of a kilogram of water ° c., or four pounds of water ° f. the caloric value of foods is determined by the calorimeter, an apparatus which measures heat with great accuracy. a pound of starch, or allied carbohydrates, yields calories, and a pound of fat (see section ). while a gram of protein completely burned produces . calories, digested it yields only about . calories, because, as explained in the preceding section, not all of the carbon and oxygen are oxidized.[ ] the caloric value or available energy of a ration can be calculated from the digestible nutrients by multiplying the pounds of digestible protein and carbohydrates by , the digestible fat by , and adding the results. for determination of the available energy of foods under different experimental conditions, and where great accuracy is desired, a specially constructed respiration calorimeter has been devised, which is built upon the same principle as an ordinary calorimeter, except it is large enough to admit a person, and is provided with appliances for measuring and analyzing the intake and outlet of air.[ ] the heat produced by the combustion of the food in the body warms the water surrounding the calorimeter chamber, and this increase in temperature is determined by thermometers reading to . of a degree or less. [illustration: fig. .--calorimeter.] . normal digestion and health.--while the process of digestion has been extensively studied, it is not perfectly understood. between the initial compounds of foods and their final oxidation products a large number of intermediate substances are formed, and when digestion fails to take place in a normal way, toxic or poisonous compounds are produced and various diseases result. it is probable that more diseases are due to imperfect or malnutrition than to any other cause. there is a very close relationship between health and normal digestion of the food. the cells in the different parts of the digestive tract secrete fluids containing substances known as soluble ferments, or enzymes, which act upon the various compounds of foods, changing them chemically and physically so that they can be absorbed and utilized by the body. (see section .) some of the more important ferments are: ptyolin of the saliva, pepsin of the stomach, and pancreatin and diastase of the intestines. in order that these ferments may carry on their work in a normal way, the acidity and alkalinity of the different parts of the digestive tract must be maintained. the gastric juice contains from . to . per cent of hydrochloric acid, imparting mildly antiseptic properties; and while the peptic ferment works in a slightly acid solution, the tryptic ferment requires an alkaline solution. to secrete the necessary amount and quality of digestive fluids, the organs must be in a healthy condition. many erroneous ideas regarding the digestion of foods are based upon misinterpretation of facts by persons suffering from impaired digestion, and attempts are frequently made to apply to normal digestion generalizations applicable only to diseased conditions. . digestibility of animal foods.--the proteids and fats in animal foods, as meats, are more completely digested than the same class of nutrients in vegetables. in general, about per cent of the proteids of meats is digestible, while those in vegetables are often less than percent digestible. the amount of indigestible residue from animal foods is small; while from vegetables it is large, for the cellulose prevents complete absorption of the nutrients and, as a result, there is much indigestible residue. animal foods are concentrated, in that they furnish large amounts of nutrients in digestible forms. there is less difference in the completeness with which various meats are digested than in their ease of digestion; the proteins all have about the same digestion coefficients, but vary with individuals as to ease of digestion and time required. it is generally considered that the digestible proteins, whether of animal or vegetable origin, are equally valuable for food purposes. this is an assumption, however, that has not been well established by experimental evidence. in a mixed ration, the proteins from different sources appear to have the same nutritive value, but as each is composed of different radicals and separated into dissimilar elementary compounds during the process of digestion, they would not necessarily all have the same food value. there is but little difference between the fats and proteins of meats as to completeness of digestion,--the slight difference being in favor of the proteins. some physiologists claim that the fat, which in some meats surrounds the bundles of fiber (protein), forming a protecting coat, prevents the complete solvent action of the digestive fluid. very fat meats are not as completely digested as those moderately fat. it is also claimed that the digestibility of the meat is influenced by the mechanical character, as toughness of the fiber. . digestibility of vegetable foods.--vegetable foods vary in digestibility with their mechanical condition and the amount of cellulose or fiber. in some the nutrients are so embedded in cellular tissue as to be protected from the solvent action of the digestive fluids, and in such cases the digestibility and availability are low. the starches and sugars are more completely digested than any other of the nutrients of vegetables; in some instances they are from to per cent digestible. some cellular tissue, but not an excess, is desirable in a ration, as it exerts a favorable mechanical action upon the organs of digestion, encourages peristalsis, and is an absorbent and dilutant of the waste products formed during digestion. for example, in the feeding of swine, it has been found that corn and cob meal often gives better results than corn fed alone. the cob contains but little in the way of nutrients, but it exerts a favorable mechanical action upon digestion. occasionally too many bulky foods are combined, containing scant amounts of nutrients, so that the body receives insufficient protein. this is liable to be the case in the dietary of the strict vegetarian. many of the vegetables possess special dietetic value, due to the organic acids and essential oils, as cited in the chapter on fruits and vegetables. the value of such foods cannot always be determined from their content of digestible protein, fat, and carbohydrates. this is particularly evident when they are omitted from the ration, as in the case of a restricted diet consisting mainly of animal foods. many vegetables have low nutritive value on account of their bulky nature and the large amount of water and cellulose which they contain, which tends to decrease digestibility and lower the amount of available nutrients. because of their bulk and fermentable nature, resulting in the formation of gases, a diet of coarse vegetables has a tendency to cause distention and enlargement of the intestinal organs. the carbohydrates, which are the chief constituents of vegetables, are digested mainly in the intestines, and require special mechanical preparation in the stomach, hence the nutrients of vegetables are not, as a rule, as easily digested as those of animal foods. . factors influencing digestion.--there are a number of factors which influence completeness as well as ease of digestion, as: ( ) combination of foods; ( ) amount of food; ( ) method of preparation; ( ) mechanical condition of the food; ( ) palatability; ( ) physiological properties; ( ) individuality of the consumer; and ( ) psychological influences. . combination of foods.--in a mixed ration the nutrients are generally more completely digested than when only one food is used. for example, milk is practically all digested when it forms a part of a ration, and it also promotes digestibility of the foods with which it is combined, but when used alone it is less digestible.[ ] bread alone and milk alone are not as completely digested as bread and milk combined. the same in a general way has been observed in the feeding of farm animals,--better results are secured from combining two or more foods than from the use of one alone. the extent to which one food influences the digestibility of another has not been extensively studied. in a mixed ration, consisting of several articles of food of different mechanical structure, the work of digestion is more evenly distributed among the various organs. a food often requires special preparation on the part of the stomach before it can be digested in the intestines, and if this food is consumed in small amounts and combined with others of different structure, the work of gastric digestion is lessened so that the foods are properly prepared and normal digestion takes place. the effect which one food exerts upon the digestibility of another is largely mechanical. . amount of food.--completeness as well as ease of digestion is influenced by the amount of food consumed. in general, excessive amounts are not as completely digested as moderate amounts. in digestion experiments with oatmeal and milk, it was found that when these foods were consumed in large quantities the fat and protein were not as completely absorbed by the body as when less was used, the protein being per cent and the fat per cent more digestible in the medium ration. experiments with animals show that economical results are not secured from an excess of food.[ ] some individuals consume too much food, and with them a restricted diet would be beneficial, while others err in not consuming enough to meet the requirements of the body. quite frequently it is those who need more food who practice dieting. when there is trouble with digestion, it is not always the amount or kind of food which is at fault, but other habits may be such as to affect digestion. the active out-of-door laborer can with impunity consume more food, because there is greater demand for nutrients, and the food is more completely oxidized in the body and without the formation of poisonous waste products. the amount of food consumed should be sufficient to meet all the demands of the body and maintain a normal weight. . method of preparation of food.--the extent to which methods of cooking and preparation influence completeness of digestion has not been extensively investigated. as is well known, they have great influence upon ease and comfort of digestion. during cooking, as discussed in chapter ii, extensive physical and chemical changes occur, and these in turn affect digestibility. when the cooking has not been sufficient to mechanically disintegrate vegetable tissue, the digestive fluids fail to act favorably upon the food. cooking is also beneficial because it renders the food sterile and destroys all objectionable microörganisms which, if they remain in food, readily undergo incubation in the digestive tract, interfering with normal digestion. prolonged heat causes some foods to become less digestible, as milk, which digestion experiments show to be more completely digested when fresh than when sterilized. pasteurized milk, which is not subjected to so high a temperature as sterilized milk, is more completely digested. see chapter vii for discussion of sterilizing and pasteurizing milk.[ ] the benefits derived from the destruction of the objectionable bacteria in foods are, however, greater than the losses attendant on lessened digestibility due to the action of heat. the method of preparation of a food affects its digestibility mainly through change in mechanical structure, and modification of the forms in which the nutrients are present.[ ] . mechanical condition of foods.--the mechanical condition of foods as to density and structure of the particles and the extent to which they are disintegrated in their preparation for the table influences digestibility to a great extent. the mechanics of digestion is a subject that has not been extensively investigated, and it is one of great importance, as biological and chemical changes cannot take place if the food is not in proper mechanical condition. in general, the finer the food particles, the more completely the nutrients are acted upon by the digestive fluids and absorbed by the body. nevertheless, the diet should not consist entirely of finely granulated foods. some foods are valuable mainly because of the favorable action they exert mechanically upon digestion, rather than for the nutrients they contain.[ ] coarsely granulated breakfast foods, whole wheat flour, and many vegetables contain sufficient cellular tissue to give special value from a mechanical rather than a chemical point of view. the extent to which coarsely and finely granulated foods should enter into the ration is a question largely for the individual to determine. experiments with pigs show that if large amounts of coarse, granular foods are consumed, the tendency is for the digestive tract to become inflamed and less able to exercise its normal functions. coarsely granulated foods have a tendency to pass through the digestive tract in less time than those that are finely granulated, due largely to increased peristaltic action, and the result is the food is not retained a sufficient length of time to allow normal absorption to take place. in the feeding of farm animals, it has been found that the mechanical condition of the food has a great influence upon its economic use. rations that are either too bulky or too concentrated fail to give the best results. in the human ration, the mechanical condition of the food is equally as important as its chemical composition. . mastication is an important part of digestion, and when foods are not thoroughly masticated, additional work is required of the stomach, which is usually an overworked organ because of doing the work of the mouth as well. although much of the mechanical preparation and mixing of foods is of necessity done in the stomach, some of it may advantageously be done in the mouth. the stomach should not be required to perform the function of the gizzard of a fowl. . palatability of foods.--many foods naturally contain essential oils and other substances which impart palatability. these have but little in the way of nutritive value, but they assist in rendering the nutrients with which they are associated more digestible. palatability of a food favorably influences the secretion of the gastric and other digestive fluids, and in this way the natural flavors of well-prepared foods aid in digestion. in the feeding of farm animals it has been found that when foods are consumed with a relish better returns are secured than when unpalatable foods are fed. to secure palatability the excessive use of condiments is unnecessary. it is possible to a great extent during preparation to develop and conserve the natural flavors. some foods contain bitter principles which are removed during the cooking, while in others pleasant flavors are developed. palatability is an important factor in the digestibility of foods. . physiological properties of food.--some food materials, particularly fruits and vegetables, contain compounds which have definite physiological properties, as tannin which is an astringent, special oils which exert a cathartic action, and the alkaloids which serve as irritants to nerve centers. wheat germ oil is laxative, and it is probable that the physiological properties of graham and whole wheat breads are due in some degree to the oil which they contain.[ ] the use of fruits, herbs, and vegetables for medicinal purposes is based upon the presence of compounds possessing well-defined medicinal properties. as a rule food plants do not contain appreciable amounts of such substances, and the use of food for medicinal effect should be by the advice of a physician. the physiological properties of some foods are due to bacterial products. see chapter xx. . individuality.--material difference in digestive power is noticeable among individuals. digestion experiments show that one person may digest per cent more of a nutrient than another. this difference appears to be due to a number of factors, as activity of the organs, as affected by exercise and kind of labor performed; abnormal composition of the digestive fluids; or failure of the different parts of the digestive tract to act in harmony. individuality is one of the most important factors in digestion. persons become accustomed to certain foods through long usage, and the digestive tract adapts itself to those foods, rendering sudden and extreme changes in the dietary hazardous. common food articles may fail to properly digest in the case of some individuals, while with others they are consumed with benefit. what is food to one may prove to be a poison to another, and while general statements can be made in regard to the digestibility of foods, individual differences must be recognized. . psychological factors.--previously conceived ideas concerning foods influence digestibility. foods must be consumed with a relish in order to secure the best results, as flow of the digestive fluids and activity of the organs are to a certain extent dependent upon the nerve centers. if it is believed that a food is poisonous or injurious, even when the food is wholesome, normal digestion fails to take place. in experiments by the author, in which the comparative digestibility of butter and oleomargarine was being studied, it was found that when the subjects were told they were eating oleomargarine, its digestibility was depressed per cent, and when they were not told the nature of the material, but assumed that butter was oleomargarine, the digestibility of the butter was lowered about per cent.[ ] preconceived notions in regard to foods, not founded upon well-established facts, but due to prejudice resulting from ignorance, cause many valuable foods to be excluded from the dietary. many persons, like the foreign lady who, visiting this country, said she ate only acquaintances, prefer foods that have a familiar taste and appearance, and any unusual taste or appearance detracts from the value because of the psychological influence upon digestion. chapter xvi comparative cost and value of foods . cost and nutrient content of foods.--the market price and the nutritive value of foods are often at variance, as those which cost the most frequently contain the least nutrients.[ ] it is difficult to make absolute comparisons as to the nutritive value of foods at different prices, because they differ not only in the amounts, but also in the kinds of nutrients. while it is not possible to express definitely the value of one food in terms of another, approximate comparisons may be made as to the amounts of nutrients that can be secured for a given sum of money when foods are at different prices, and tables have been prepared making such comparisons. [illustration: fig. .--composition of foods. (from office of experiment stations bulletin.)] . nutrients procurable for a given sum.[ ]--to ascertain the nutrients procurable for a given sum first determine the amount in pounds that can be obtained, say, for ten cents, and then multiply by the percentages of fat, protein, carbohydrates, and calories in the food. the results are the amounts, in pounds, of nutrients procurable for that sum of money. for example: if milk is cents per quart, two quarts or approximately four pounds, can be procured for cents. if the milk contains fat, per cent, protein, . per cent, carbohydrates, per cent, and fuel value, calories per pound, multiplying each of these by gives the nutrients and fuel value in four pounds, or cents worth of milk, as follows: protein . lb. fat . lb. carbohydrates . lb. calories if it is desired to compare milk at cents per quart with round steak at cents per pound, cents will procure . , or two thirds of a pound of round steak containing on an average (edible portion) per cent protein, . per cent fat, and yielding calories per pound. if per cent is refuse, there is edible about . of a pound. the amounts of nutrients in the . of a pound of steak, edible portion, or . lb. as purchased would be: protein . lb. fat . lb. calories it is to be observed that from the cents' worth of milk a little more protein, . of a pound more fat, and nearly two and one half times as many calories can be secured as from the cents' worth of meat. this is due to the carbohydrates and the larger amount of fat which the milk contains. at these prices, milk should be used liberally in the dietary, as it furnishes more of all the nutrients than does meat. it would not be advisable to exclude meat entirely from the ration, but milk at cents per quart is cheaper food than meat at cents per pound. in making comparisons, preference cannot always be given to one food because of its containing more of any particular nutrient, for often there are other factors that influence the value. . comparing foods as to nutritive value.--in general, preference should be given to foods which supply the most protein, provided the differences between the carbohydrates and fats are not large. when the protein content of two foods is nearly the same, but the fats and carbohydrates differ materially, the preference may safely be given to the food which supplies the larger amount of total nutrients. a pound of protein in a ration is more valuable than a pound of either fat or carbohydrates, although it is not possible to establish an absolute scale as to the comparative value of these nutrients, because they serve different functional purposes in the body. it is sometimes necessary to use small amounts of foods rich in protein in order to secure a balanced ration; excessive use of protein, however, is not economical, as that which is not needed for functional purposes is converted into heat and energy which could be supplied as well by the carbohydrates, and they are less expensive nutrients. [illustration: fig. .--pecuniary economy of food. (from office of experiment stations bulletin.)] ten cents will purchase: (from farmer's bulletin no. , u. s. dept. of agr.) ============================================================================= | | total | | | | | | weight | | | | kind of food | price | of food | | | car- | material | per | mate- |protein | fat | bohy- | energy | pound | rial | | | drates | ------------------------+-------+---------+--------+-------+---------+------- | cents | pounds | pound | pound | pounds |calories beef, sirloin | | . | . | . | -- | do. | | . | . | . | -- | do. | | . | . | . | -- | beef, round | | . | . | . | -- | do. | | . | . | . | -- | do. | | . | . | . | -- | beef, shoulder clod | | . | . | . | -- | do. | | . | . | . | -- | beef, stew meat | | . | . | . | -- | beef, dried, chipped | | . | . | . | -- | mutton chops, loin | | . | . | . | -- | mutton, leg | | . | . | . | -- | do. | | . | . | . | -- | roast pork, loin | | . | . | . | -- | pork, smoked ham | | . | . | . | -- | do. | | . | . | . | -- | pork, fat salt | | . | . | . | -- | codfish, dressed, fresh | | . | . | -- | -- | halibut, fresh | | . | . | . | -- | cod, salt | | . | . | . | -- | mackerel, salt, dressed | | . | . | . | -- | salmon, canned | | . | . | . | -- | oysters, solids, | | | | | | cents per quart | | . | . | -- | . | cents per quart | | . | . | . | . | lobster, canned | | . | . | . | -- | butter | | . | . | . | -- | do. | | . | -- | . | -- | do. | | . | -- | . | -- | eggs, cents per dozen| | . | . | . | -- | eggs, cents per dozen| | . | . | . | -- | eggs, cents per dozen| | . | . | . | -- | cheese | | . | . | . | . | milk, cents per quart | - / | . | . | . | . | milk, cents per quart | | . | . | . | . | wheat flour | | . | . | . | . | do. | - / | . | . | . | . | corn meal, granular | - / | . | . | . | . | wheat breakfast food | - / | . | . | . | . | oat breakfast food | - / | . | . | . | . | oatmeal | | . | . | . | . | rice | | . | . | -- | . | wheat bread | | . | . | . | . | do. | | . | . | . | . | do. | | . | . | . | . | rye bread | | . | . | . | . | beans, white, dried | | . | . | . | . | cabbage | - / | . | . | . | . | celery | | . | . | -- | . | corn, canned | | . | . | . | . | potatoes, | | | | | | cents per bushel | - / | . | . | . | . | cents per bushel | | . | . | . | . | cents per bushel | / | . | . | . | . | turnips | | . | . | . | . | apples | - / | . | . | . | . | bananas | | . | . | . | . | oranges | | . | . | -- | . | strawberries | | . | . | . | . | sugar | | . | -- | -- | . | ============================================================================= it is to be noted in the table that, ordinarily, for the same amount of money the most nutrients can be obtained in the form of milk, cheese, sugar, and beans, corn meal, wheat flour, oatmeal, and cereals in bulk. while meats supply protein liberally, they fail to furnish carbohydrates as the vegetables. as discussed in the chapter on dietary studies of families, unnecessarily expensive foods are often used, resulting either in lack of nutrients or unbalanced rations. examples . compute the calories and the amounts of protein, fat, and carbohydrates that can be procured for cents in cheese selling for cents per pound; how do these compare with the nutrients in eggs at cents per dozen? . which food furnishes the larger amount of nutrients, potatoes at cents per bushel or flour at $ per barrel? . how do beans at cents per quart compare in nutritive value with beef at cents per pound? . how does salt codfish at cents per pound compare in nutritive value with lamb chops at cents per pound? . compare in nutritive value cream at cents per quart with butter at cents per pound. . calculate the composition and nutritive value of a cake made of sugar, oz.; butter, oz.; eggs, oz.; flour, oz.; and milk, oz.; the baked cake weighs one and three fourths pounds. average composition of common american food products (from farmer's bulletin, no. , u. s. dept. of agr.) ============================================================================= | | | | | | | f | | | | | h | | u p | r | | p | | c y | | e e | e | w | r | | a d | | l r | f | a | o | f | r r | a | food material | u | t | t | a | b a | s | v p (as purchased) | s | e | e | t | o t | h | a o | e | r | i | | - e | | l u | | | n | | s | | u n | | | | | | | e d ------------------------------+------+------+------+------+-----+-----+------ | | | | | | | calo- animal food | % | % | % | % | % | % | ries | | | | | | | beef, fresh: | | | | | | | chuck ribs | . | . | . | . | -- | . | flank | . | . | . | . | -- | . | loin | . | . | . | . | -- | . | porterhouse steak | . | . | . | . | -- | . | sirloin steak | . | . | . | . | -- | . | neck | . | . | . | . | -- | . | ribs | . | . | . | . | -- | . | rib rolls | -- | . | . | . | -- | . | round | . | . | . | . | -- | . | rump | . | . | . | . | -- | . | shank, fore | . | . | . | . | -- | . | shoulder and clod | . | . | . | . | -- | . | fore quarter | . | . | . | . | -- | . | hind quarter | . | . | . | . | -- | . | beef, corned, canned, | | | | | | | pickled, dried: | | | | | | | corned beef | . | . | . | . | -- | . | tongue, pickled | . | . | . | . | -- | . | dried, salted, and smoked | . | . | . | . | -- | . | canned boiled beef | -- | . | . | . | -- | . | canned corned beef | -- | . | . | . | -- | . | veal: | | | | | | | breast | . | . | . | . | -- | . | leg | . | . | . | . | -- | . | leg cutlets | . | . | . | . | -- | . | fore quarter | . | . | . | . | -- | . | hind quarter | . | . | . | . | -- | . | mutton: | | | | | | | flank | . | . | . | . | -- | . | leg, hind | . | . | . | . | -- | . | loin chops | . | . | . | . | -- | . | fore quarter | . | . | . | . | -- | . | hind quarter, without | . | . | . | . | -- | . | tallow | | | | | | | lamb: | | | | | | | breast | . | . | . | . | -- | . | leg, hind | . | . | . | . | -- | . | pork, fresh: | | | | | | | ham | . | . | . | . | -- | . | loin chops | . | . | . | . | -- | . | shoulder | . | . | . | . | -- | . | tenderloin | -- | . | . | . | -- | . | pork, salted, cured, pickled: | | | | | | | ham, smoked | . | . | . | . | -- | . | shoulder, smoked | . | . | . | . | -- | . | salt pork | -- | . | . | . | -- | . | bacon, smoked | . | . | . | . | -- | . | sausage: | | | | | | | bologna | . | . | . | . | -- | . | pork | -- | . | . | . | . | . | frankfort | -- | . | . | . | . | . | soups: | | | | | | | celery, cream of | -- | . | . | . | . | . | beef | -- | . | . | . | . | . | meat stew | -- | . | . | . | . | . | tomato | -- | . | . | . | . | . | poultry: | | | | | | | chicken, broilers | . | . | . | . | -- | . | fowls | . | . | . | . | -- | . | goose | . | . | . | . | -- | . | turkey | . | . | . | . | -- | . | fish: | | | | | | | cod, dressed | . | . | . | . | -- | . | halibut, steaks or sections | . | . | . | . | -- | . | mackerel, whole | . | . | . | . | -- | . | perch, yellow dressed | . | . | . | . | -- | . | shad, whole | . | . | . | . | -- | . | shad, roe | -- | . | . | . | . | . | fish, preserved: | | | | | | | cod, salt | . | . | . | . | -- | . | herring, smoked | . | . | . | . | -- | . | fish, canned | | | | | | | salmon | -- | . | . | . | -- | . | sardines |[a] . | . | . | . | -- | . | shellfish: | | | | | | | clams | -- | . | . | . | . | . | crabs | . | . | . | . | . | . | lobsters | . | . | . | . | . | . | eggs: hen's eggs [b]| . | . | . | . | -- | . | dairy products, etc.: | | | | | | | butter | -- | . | . | . | -- | . | whole milk | -- | . | . | . | . | . | skim milk | -- | . | . | . | . | . | buttermilk | -- | . | . | . | . | . | condensed milk | -- | . | . | . | . | . | cream | -- | . | . | . | . | . | cheese, cheddar | -- | . | . | . | . | . | cheese, full cream | -- | . | . | . | . | . | | | | | | | | vegetable food | | | | | | | | | | | | | | flour, meal, etc.: | | | | | | | entire wheat flour | -- | . | . | . | . | . | graham flour | -- | . | . | . | . | . | wheat flour, patent | | | | | | | roller process | | | | | | | high-grade and medium | -- | . | . | . | . | . | low grade | -- | . | . | . | . | . | macaroni, vermicelli, etc | -- | . | . | . | . | . | wheat breakfast food | -- | . | . | . | . | . | buckwheat flour | -- | . | . | . | . | . | rye flour | -- | . | . | . | . | . | corn meal | -- | . | . | . | . | . | oat breakfast food | -- | . | . | . | . | . | rice | -- | . | . | . | . | . | tapioca | -- | . | . | . | . | . | starch | -- | -- | -- | -- | . | -- | bread, pastry, etc.: | | | | | | | white bread | -- | . | . | . | . | . | brown bread | -- | . | . | . | . | . | bread, pastry, etc.: | | | | | | | graham bread | -- | . | . | . | . | . | whole wheat bread | -- | . | . .| . | . | . | rye bread | -- | . | . .| . | . | . | cake | -- | . | . .| . | . | . | cream crackers | -- | . | . .| . | . | . | oyster crackers | -- | . | . .| . | . | . | soda crackers | -- | . | . .| . | . | . | | | | | | | | sugars, etc.: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | molasses | -- | -- | -- | -- | . | -- | candy[c] | -- | -- | -- | -- | . | -- | honey | -- | -- | -- | -- | . | -- | sugar, granulated | -- | -- | -- | -- | . | -- | maple sirup | -- | -- | -- | -- | . | -- | | | | | | | | vegetables:[d] | | | | | | | beans, dried | -- | . | . .| . | . | . | beans, lima, shelled | -- | . | . .| . | . | . | beans, string | . | . | . .| . | . | . | beets | . | . | . .| . | . | . | cabbage | . | . | . .| . | . | . | celery | . | . | . .| . | . | . | corn, green (sweet), | | | | | | | edible portion | -- | . | . | . | . | . | cucumbers | . | . | . .| . | . | . | lettuce | . | . | . .| . | . | . | mushrooms | -- | . | . | . | . | . | onions | . | . | . .| . | . | . | parsnips | . | . | . .| . | . | . | peas _(pisum sativum),_ | | | | | | | dried. | -- | . | . | . | . | . | shelled | -- | . | . | . | . | . | cowpeas, dried | -- | . | . .| . | . | . | potatoes | . | . | . .| . | . | . | vegetables: | | | | | | | rhubarb | . | . | . | . | . | . | sweet potatoes | . | . | . | . | . | . | spinach | -- | . | . | . | . | . | squash | . | . | . | . | . | . | tomatoes | -- | . | . | . | . | . | turnips | . | . | . | . | . | . | vegetables, canned: | | | | | | | baked beans | -- | . | . | . | . | . | peas _(pisum sativum),_ | | | | | | | green | -- | . | . | . | . | . | corn, green | -- | . | . | . | . | . | succotash | -- | . | . | . | . | . | tomatoes | -- | . | . | . | . | . | fruits, berries, etc., | | | | | | | fresh: [e] | | | | | | | apples | . | . | . | . | . | . | bananas | . | . | . | . | . | . | grapes | . | . | . | . | . | . | lemons | . | . | . | . | . | . | muskmelons | . | . | . | -- | . | . | oranges | . | . | . | . | . | . | pears | . | . | . | . | . | . | persimmons, edible portion | -- | . | . | . | . | . | raspberries | -- | . | . | -- | . | . | strawberries | . | . | . | . | . | . | watermelons | . | . | . | . | . | . | fruits, dried: | | | | | | | apples | -- | . | . | . | . | . | apricots | -- | . | . | . | . | . | dates | . | . | . | . | . | . | fruits, dried: | | | | | | | rhubarb | . | . | . | . | . | . | | | | | | | | figs | -- | . | . | . | . | . | raisins | . | . | . | . | . | . | nuts: | | | | | | | almonds | . | . | . | . | . | . | brazil nuts | . | . | . | . | . | . | butternuts | . | . | . | . | . | . | chestnuts, fresh | . | . | . | . | . | . | chestnuts, dried | . | . | . | . | . | . | cocoanuts [f]| . | . | . | . | . | . | cocoanut, prepared | -- | . | . | . | . | . | filberts | . | . | . | . | . | . | hickory nuts | . | . | . | . | . | . | pecans, polished | . | . | . | . | . | . | peanuts | . | . | . | . | . | . | piñon _(pinus edulis)_ | . | . | . | . | . | . | walnuts, black | . | . | . | . | . | . | walnuts, english | . | . | . | . | . | . | miscellaneous: | | | | | | | chocolate | -- | . | . | . | . | . | cocoa, powdered | -- | . | . | . | . | . | cereal coffee, infusion | | | | | | | ( part boiled in | | | | | | | parts water)[g] | -- | . | . | -- | . | . | ============================================================================= [footnote a: refuse, oil.] [footnote b: refuse, shell.] [footnote c: plain confectionery not containing nuts, fruit, or chocolate.] [footnote d: such vegetables as potatoes, squash, beets, etc., have a certain amount of inedible material, skin, seeds, etc the amount varies with the method of preparing the vegetables, and cannot be accurately estimated the figures given for refuse of vegetables, fruits, etc., are assumed to represent approximately the amount of refuse in these foods as ordinarily prepared.] [footnote e: fruits contain a certain proportion of inedible materials, as skin, seeds, etc., which are properly classed as refuse. in some fruits, as oranges and prunes, the amount rejected in eating is practically the same as refuse. in others, as apples and pears, more or less of the edible material is ordinarily rejected with the skin and seeds and other inedible portions. the edible material which is thus thrown away, and should properly be classed with the waste, is here classed with the refuse. the figures for refuse here given represent, as nearly as can be ascertained, the quantities ordinarily rejected.] [footnote f: milk and shell.] [footnote g: the average of five analyses of cereal coffee grain is: water . , protein . , fat . , carbohydrates . , and ash . per cent. only a portion of the nutrients, however, enter into the infusion. the average in the table represents the available nutrients in the beverage. infusions of genuine coffee and of tea like the above contain practically no nutrients.] chapter xvii dietary studies . object of dietary studies.--the quantity of food which different families purchase varies between wide limits; a portion being lost mechanically in preparation and a still larger and more variable amount in the refuse and non-edible parts. if a record is made of all foods purchased and the waste and non-edible portions are deducted, the nutrients consumed by a family may be calculated by multiplying the weight of each food by the average composition. if such calculations be made, it will be found that in some families nearly a half pound per day of both protein and fat is consumed by adults, while in other families less than half of this amount is used. the object of dietary studies is to determine the source, cost, composition, and nutritive value of the foods consumed by different families; they also enable comparisons to be made of the amounts of nutrients purchased. extensive dietary studies have been made by the united states department of agriculture, and the results have been published in various bulletins.[ ] . wide and narrow rations.--when the amount of carbohydrates in a ration is small in comparison with the protein, it is called a narrow ration, while a wide ration is one in which the carbohydrates are much in excess of the protein. when a ration contains . of a pound of protein, . of a pound of fat, and pound of carbohydrates, it has a nutritive ratio of to . and is a narrow ration. to calculate the nutritive ratio, the fat is multiplied by - / , the product added to the carbohydrates, and this sum divided by the protein. it is not possible to designate accurately the amount of protein and other nutrients that should be in the daily ration of all persons, because the needs of the body vary so with different individuals. hard and fast rules governing the amounts of nutrients to be consumed cannot as yet be formulated, as our knowledge of the subject is too limited. it is known that both excessive and scant amounts are alike injurious. while the appetite may indicate either hunger or satiety, it alone cannot always be relied upon as a safe guide for determining the amount and kind of food to consume, although the demands of appetite should not be disregarded until it has been demonstrated beyond a doubt that it is not voicing the needs of nature. there has been a tendency which perhaps was a survival of the puritanical ideas of the early days to stamp as hurtful whatever seemed desirable and pleasant; as examples might be cited the craving for water by fever patients, and for sugar by growing children, which have now been proven to be normal demands of nature. . dietary standards.--as a result of a large number of dietary studies and digestion experiments, dietary standards have been prepared. atwater in this country and voit in germany have proposed such standards for men employed at different kinds of labor, as follows: ========================================================================== |protein| fat|carbo- | fuel |nutritive | | |hydrates| value | ---------------------------------|-------|----|-----------------|--------- | lb. | lb.| lb. |calories| ratio man with little physical exercise| . | . | . | | . man with light muscular work | . | . | . | | . man with moderate muscular work | . | . | . | | . man with active muscular work | . | . | . | | . man with hard muscular work | . | . | . | | . ========================================================================== in the table it will be seen that the quantity of nutrients increases with the labor to be performed. in order to secure the necessary heat and energy, rations for men at heavy labor contain proportionally more fat and carbohydrates than are required for light work. all dietary standards, however, should be regarded as tentative only. opinions differ greatly on different points; for example, as to the amount of protein a ration should contain. this is a matter that can be determined only from extended investigations under a variety of conditions, and as yet results are too meager to formulate other than tentative standards. chittenden has found that the body can be sustained on very much less protein than is called for in the standard ration.[ ] the amount of protein in the ration should be ample to sustain the body weight and maintain a nitrogen equilibrium; that is, the income and outgo of nitrogen from the body should be practically equal. [illustration: fig. .--dietaries and dietary standards. (from office of experiment stations bulletin.)] "while one freely admits that health and a large measure of muscular strength may be maintained upon a minimum supply of protein, yet i think that a dispassionate survey of mankind will show that races which adopt such a diet are lacking in what, for want of a better word, one can only describe as energy." [ ] on the other hand, excessive and unnecessarily large amounts of protein are sometimes consumed, adding greatly to the cost of the ration and necessitating additional labor on the part of the body for its elimination. . number of meals per day.--some persons advocate two meals per day rather than three, but dietary studies show that the best results are secured when the food is divided among three rather than two meals, and with a two-meal system the tendency is to consume a larger total amount of food than when three meals are eaten. it is not essential that the food be equally divided among the three meals. any one of them may be lighter or more substantial as the habits and inclinations of the individual dictate. if it is found necessary to reduce the total quantity of food consumed, this may be done by a proportional reduction of each of the meals, or of any one of them instead of decreasing the number of meals per day. the occasional missing of a meal is sometimes beneficial, in cases of digestion disorders, but the ordinary requirements of persons in normal health who have either mental or physical labor to perform are best met when three meals per day are consumed, as this insures an even supply of nutrients. for persons of sedentary habits, the kind and quantity of food at each meal must be regulated largely by the individual from knowledge based on personal experience. "in the matter of diet every man must, in the last resort, be a law unto himself; but he should draw up his dietetic code intelligently and apply it honestly, giving due heed to the warnings which nature is sure to address to him should he at any time transgress."[ ] if there is trouble in digesting the food, it is well to study the other habits of life along with the food question, for it may be the difficulty arises from some other cause, and would be remedied by more exercise and fresh air, avoiding rush immediately after meals, more thorough mastication, or less worry. it is a serious matter to shut off the supply of food from a person not suffering from some disease and who is working; as well cut off the supply of fuel from a furnace and then expect a full amount of energy and heat. but unlike the furnace, when the human body is deprived of needed nutrients it preys upon itself and uses up its reserve that should be drawn upon only in cases of illness or extreme nervous strain. some persons live in such a way as to never have any reserve of strength and energy to call upon but use up each day all the body can produce and so become physical bankrupts when they should be in their prime. food is required for the production of nerve energy as well as physical energy.[ ] . mixed dietary desirable.--experiments in the feeding of farm animals show that the best results come from the combination of a number of foods to form a mixed ration, rather than from the use of one food alone,[ ] for in this way the work of digestion is more evenly distributed, and a higher degree of efficiency is secured from the foods consumed. the same is true in human feeding; the best results are secured from a mixed diet. ordinarily, about two fifths of the nutrients of a ration are derived from animal and three fifths from vegetable sources. . animal and vegetable foods; economy of production.--animal foods can never compete in cheapness of the nutrients with cereals and vegetables, as it takes six to eight pounds or more of a cereal, together with forage crops, to make a pound of meat. hence the returns in food value are very much larger from the direct use of the cereals as human food, than from the feeding of cereals to cattle and the use of the meat. as the population of a country increases, and foods necessarily become more expensive, cereals are destined to replace animal foods to a great extent, solely as a matter of economy. . food habits.--long-established dietary habits and customs are not easily changed, and when the body becomes accustomed to certain foods, substitution of others, although equally valuable, may fail to give satisfactory results. for example, immigrants from southern europe demand foods with which they are familiar, as macaroni, olive oil, and certain kinds of cheese, foods which are generally imported and more expensive than the staples produced in this country,[ ] and when they are compelled to live on other foods, even though they have as many nutrients, they complain of being underfed. previously acquired food habits appear to affect materially the process of digestion and assimilation. sudden and pronounced change in the feeding of farm animals is attended with unsatisfactory results, and whenever changes are made in the food of either humans or animals they should be gradual rather than radical. . underfed families.--as the purchasing of food is often done by inexperienced persons, palatability rather than nutritive value is made the basis of choice. dietary studies show that because of lack of knowledge of the nutritive value of foods, whole families are often underfed. particularly is this true where the means for purchasing foods are limited. in dietary studies among poor families in new york city,[ ] the united states department of agriculture notes: "it is quite evident that what is needed among these families more than anything else is instruction in the way to make the little they have go the farthest." some classes of the rich too are equally liable to be underfed, as they are more prone to food notions and are able to indulge them. among the children of the rich are found some as poorly nourished as among the poor. . cheap and expensive foods.--among the more expensive items of a ration are meats, butter, and canned fruits. the difference in composition and nutritive value between various cuts of meat is small, being largely physical, and affecting taste and flavor rather than nutritive value. expensive cuts of meat, high-priced breakfast cereals, tropical fruits and foods which impart special flavors, add little in the way of nutritive value to the ration, but greatly enhance the cost of living. ordinarily the cheapest foods are corn meal, wheat flour and bread, milk, beans, cheese, sugar, and potatoes.[ ] the amount of animal and vegetable foods to combine with these to form a balanced ration may be governed largely by personal preference or cost, as there is little difference in nutritive value. the selection of foods on the basis of cost and nutritive value is discussed in chapter xvi. . food notions.--many erroneous ideas exist as to the nutritive value of foods, and often wholesome and valuable foods are discriminated against because of prejudice. skim milk is usually regarded as containing little if any nourishing material, when in reality it has a high protein content, and can be added to other foods to increase their nutritive value. the less expensive cuts of meat contain more total nutrients than many of the more expensive ones. beef extracts have been erroneously said to contain more nutrients than beef,[ ] and mushrooms to be equal in value of beefsteak; chemical analyses fail to confirm either statement. the banana also has been overestimated as to food value, and while it contains more nutrients than many fruits, it is not the equal of cereals, as has been claimed.[ ] cocoa, although a valuable beverage, adds but little in the way of nutrients to a ration unless it is made with milk. the value of a food should be based upon its composition as determined by chemical analysis, its digestibility as founded upon digestion experiments, and its palatability and mechanical structure. food notions have, in many instances, been the cause of banishing from the dietary wholesome and nutritious foods, of greatly increasing the cost of living, as well as of promulgating incorrect ideas in regard to foods, so that individuals and in some cases entire families have suffered from improper or insufficient food. . dietary of two families compared.--a dietary study often reveals ways in which it is possible to improve the ration in kinds and amounts of food, and sometimes at less expense. the following dietaries of two families for the same period show that one family expends over twice as much in the purchase of foods as the other family, and yet the one whose food costs the less actually secures the larger amount of nutritive material and is better fed than the family where more money is expended for food.[ ] food consumed, one week family no. loaves of bread $ . to lb. loin steak, or meat of similar cost . to lb. rib roast, or similar meat . lb. high-priced cereal breakfast food, ct. . cake and pastry purchased . lb. butter, ct. . tea, coffee, spices, etc . mushrooms . celery . oranges . potatoes . miscellaneous canned goods . milk . miscellaneous foods . doz. eggs . ------ $ . family no. lb. flour, bread home-made (skim milk used) $ . yeast, shortening and skim milk . lb. steak (round. hamburger and some loin) . lb. other meats, boiling pieces, rump roast, etc. . lb. cheese, cents . lb. oatmeal (bulk) . lb. beans . home-made cake and pastry . lb. butter, ct. . lb. home-made shortening . tea, coffee, and spices . apples . prunes . potatoes . milk . miscellaneous foods . doz. eggs . ------ $ . [illustration: fig. .--cost and nutritive value of rations.] in comparing the foods used by the two families, it will be observed that family no. purchased their bread at the bakery at a cost of $ . , while the bread of family no. was home-made, skim milk being used in its preparation, the flour, milk, yeast, and shortening costing about cents. family no. consumed pounds of expensive steaks, family no. consumed the same number of pounds, a portion being cheaper cuts. instead of the pounds of roast or similar beef used by family no. , only one half as much and cheaper cuts as boiling pieces, stew, rump roast, etc., were used by family no. ; pounds of beans and pounds of cheese taking the place of some of the meat. family no. consumed pounds of high-priced cereal breakfast foods, supposing they contained a larger amount of nutrients than were actually present. in place of the pounds of high-priced cereal breakfast foods of family no. , family no. used pounds of oatmeal purchased in bulk. family no. bought their cake and pastry for $ . , while those of family no. were home made and cost $ . . family no. used pounds less butter per week because of the preparation and use of home-made shortening from beef suet and milk. they also purchased a smaller amount of tea, coffee, and spices than family no. . family no. consumed a larger quantity of less expensive fruits and vegetables than family no. , who ate cents' worth of mushrooms with the idea that they contained as much protein as meat, but analyses show that mushrooms contain no more nutrients than potatoes and similar vegetables. in place of the celery and oranges, apples and prunes were used by family no. . the same amount of potatoes was used by each. fifty cents was spent for milk by family no. and $ . by family no. . the total amount expended for food by family no. was $ . , while family no. purchased a greater variety of foods for $ . , as well as foods containing more nutrients. the approximate amounts of nutrients in the foods purchased by the two families are given in the following table, from which it will be observed that family no. obtained a much larger amount of total nutrients and was better fed at considerably less expense than family no. . nutrients in foods consumed.--family no. ============================================= |protein| fat |carbohydrates | lb. | lb. | lb. -------------------------|-----|------------- lb. bread | . | . | . lb. loin steak| . | . | -- lb. rib roast | . | . | -- lb. cereals | . | . | . lb. butter | . | . | -- lb. potatoes | . | . | . lb. milk | . | . | . |-------|-----|------------- | . | . | . ============================================= family no. ===================================================== |protein| fat |carbohydrates | lb. | lb. | lb. -------------------------|-------|-----|------------- lb. flour | . | . | . lb. skim milk | . | . | . lb. round steak | . | . | -- lb. beef | . | . | -- lb. cheese | . | . | -- lb. oatmeal | . | . | . lb. butter | . | . | -- lb. shortening | -- | . | -- lb. prunes | . | -- | . lb. apples | . | -- | . lb. potatoes | . | . | . lb. milk | . | . | . lb. beans | . | -- | . -------------------------|-------|-----|------------------ | . | . | . -------------------------|-------|-----|------------------ difference in nutrients | in favor of family no. ,| consuming the cheaper | . . . combination of foods | ===================================================== . food in its relation to mental and physical vigor.--when the body is not properly supplied with food, the best results in the form of productive work cannot be secured. there is a close relationship between the nature of the food consumed and mental activity, also ability to satisfactorily perform physical labor. "the productive power of the individual as well as of the nation depends doubtless upon many factors other than food, such as race, climate, habit, etc., but there is no gainsaying the fact that diet has also a profound and direct influence upon it."[ ] if the body is diseased, it cannot make the right uses of the food, and often the food is blamed when the trouble is due primarily to other causes. the fact that a diseased digestive tract is unable to utilize some foods is no valid reason why these foods should be discarded in the dietary of persons in normal health, particularly when the food is in no way responsible for the disease. some diseases are most prevalent in the case of a restricted diet. a change in the dietary of the japanese navy greatly improved the health of the sailors. "the prevalence of kakke or beriberi in the navy turned the attention of many medical specialists toward the problem of nutrition.... it was generally believed that there was some very close connection between the disease and the rice diet.... one outcome of these investigations was the passage of the food supply act of the navy in . the ration provided in accordance with this act was sufficient to furnish an abundance of protein and energy.... following the change of ration in , the prevalence of the disease was very materially diminished, and at the end of three years cases of kakke were practically unknown among the marines."[ ] . dietary studies in public institutions.--dietary studies in public institutions, as prisons, and asylums for the insane, show that it is possible to secure greater variety of food containing a larger amount of nutrients, and even at a reduction in cost.[ ] in such institutions it is important that the food should be not only ample in amount, but wholesome and nutritious, as many of the inmates respond both physically and mentally to an improved diet. for humanitarian as well as economic reasons institutional dietetics should more generally be placed under the supervision of skilled dietists. chapter xviii rational feeding of man . object.--rational feeding of man has for its object the regulation of the food supply in accord with the demands of the body. it is based upon the same principles as the rational feeding of animals; in each, the best results in the way of health, amount of labor performed, and economy are secured when the body receives nutrients sufficient for the production of heat and energy and for the repair of worn-out tissues. rational feeding is simply regulation of the food, both as to kind and amount, to meet the needs of the body.[ ] . standard rations.--in human feeding, as in animal feeding, it is not possible to lay down hard and fast rules as to the quantity of nutrients required for a standard ration.[ ] as stated in the chapter on dietary studies, such standards have been proposed, but they are to be considered as tentative rather than absolute, for the amount of food required by different persons must necessarily vary with the individuality. while it is impossible to establish absolute standards, any large variation from the provisional standards usually results in lessened ability to accomplish work, ill health, or increased expense. . amounts of food consumed.--the approximate amounts of some food articles consumed per day are as follows: =================================== | range | approximate | |amount in lbs. --------|-------------------------- bread | to oz.| . butter | to oz.| . potatoes| to oz.| . cheese | to oz.| . beans | to oz.| . milk | to oz.| -- sugar | to oz.| . meats | to oz.| . oatmeal | to oz.| . =================================== in the calculation of rations it is desirable that the amount of any food article should not exceed that designated, unless for some special reason it has been found the food can consistently be increased. the amount of nutrients given in dietary standards is for one day, and the nutrients may be divided among the three meals as desired. it is to be noted that, ordinarily, the foods which supply carbohydrates are flour, corn meal, cereal products, potatoes, beans, sugar, and milk; those which supply fat are milk, butter, lard, and meats; and those which supply protein in liberal amounts are beans, cheese, meats, oatmeal, cereals, bread, and milk. . average composition of foods.--the amounts of nutrients in foods are determined from the average composition of the foods. these figures for average composition are based upon analyses of a large number of samples of food materials.[ ] in individual cases it will be found that foods may vary from the standards given; as for example, milk may contain from . to per cent of fat, while the protein and fat of meats vary appreciably from the figures given for average composition. with the cereals and vegetable foods, variations from the standards are small. in the table, the composition of the food as purchased represents all of the nutrients in the food, including those in the refuse, trimmings, or waste, while the figures for the edible portion represent the nutrients in the food after deducting what is lost as refuse. in making calculations, the student should use the figures given for the foods as purchased, unless the weights are of the edible portion only. the figures in the table are on the basis of percentage amounts, or nutrients in pounds of food. by moving the decimal point two places to the left, the figures will represent the nutrients in one pound, and if this is multiplied by the number of pounds or fraction of a pound used, the quantity of nutrients is secured. for example, suppose bread contains . per cent of protein and per cent of carbohydrates, pound would contain . pound of protein, . pound of carbohydrates; and . of a pound would contain approximately . pound of protein and . pound of carbohydrates. in calculating rations, it is not necessary to carry the figures to the third decimal place. [illustration: fig. .--food articles for a human ration.] . example of a ration.--suppose it is desired to calculate a ration for a man at light muscular work. first, note the requirements in the way of nutrients in the table "dietary standards," section . such a ration should supply approximately . pound each of protein and fat, and . pound of carbohydrates, and should yield calories. a trial ration is made by combining the following: ========================================================== | pound bread | . butter | . potatoes | . milk | . sugar | . beef | . ham | . oatmeal | . eggs | . ========================================================== the quantities of nutrients in these food materials are approximately as follows: ration for man at moderate work =================================================================== | | protein | fat | c.h. | | lb. | lb. | lb. | lb. | calories -------------------------+------+---------+------+------+---------- bread | . | . | . | . | butter | . | -- | . | -- | potato | . | . | -- | . | milk | . | . | . | . | sugar | . | -- | -- | . | beef (round) | . | . | . | -- | ham | . | . | . | -- | oatmeal | . | . | . | . | eggs | . | . | . | -- | squash | . | -- | -- | . | |------+---------+------+------+---------- | | . | . | . | =================================================================== it is to be noted that this ration contains approximately the amount of protein called for in the standard ration, while the fat is slightly more and the carbohydrates are less. the food value of the ration is practically that called for in the standard. this ration is sufficiently near the standard to supply the nutrient requirements of a man at light muscular work. to supply palatability, some fruit and vegetables should be added to the ration. these will contribute but little to the nutrient content, but are necessary in order to secure health and the best returns from the other foods, and as previously stated, they are not to be estimated entirely upon the basis of nutrient content. a number of food articles could be substituted in this ration, if desired, either in the interests of economy, palatability, or personal preference. . requisites of a balanced ration.--reasonable combinations of foods should be made to form balanced rations.[ ] a number of foods slow of digestion, or which require a large amount of intestinal work, should not be combined; neither should foods which are easily digested and which leave but little indigestible residue. after a ration has been calculated and found to contain the requisite amount of nutrients, it should be critically examined to see whether or not it fulfills the following requirements: . economy and adaptability to the work required. . necessary bulk or volume. . desired physiological influence of the foods upon the digestive tract, whether constipating or laxative in character. . ease of digestion. . effect upon health. it is recognized that there are foods wholesome and nutritious, that cannot be used by some persons, while with others the same foods can be consumed with impunity. as explained in the chapter on dietary studies, the nutrients should be supplied from a number of foods rather than from a few, because it is believed the various nutrients, particularly the proteins, are not absolutely identical from all sources, or equal in nutritive value. examples . calculate a ration for a man with little physical exercise. . calculate a ration for a man at hard muscular labor, and give the approximate cost of the ration. . calculate the amounts of food and the nutrient requirements for a family of seven for days; five of the family to consume . as much as an adult. calculate the cost of the food; then calculate on the same basis the probable cost of food for one year, adding per cent for fluctuation in market price and additional foods not included in the list. . weigh out the food articles used in problem no. , and apportion them among three meals. chapter xix water . importance.--water is one of the most essential food materials. it enters into the composition of the body, and without it the nutrients of foods would be unavailable, and life could not be sustained. water unites chemically with various elements to form plant tissue and supplies hydrogen and oxygen for the production of organic compounds within the leaves of plants. in the animal economy it is not definitely known whether or not water furnishes any of the elements of which the tissues are composed, as the food contains liberal amounts of hydrogen and oxygen; it is necessary mainly as the vehicle for distributing nutrients in suspension and solution, and as a medium in which chemical, physical, and physiological changes essential to life processes take place. from a sanitary point of view, the condition of the water supply is of great importance, as impure water seriously affects the health of the consumer.[ ] . impurities in water.--waters are impure because of: ( ) excessive amounts of alkaline salts and other mineral compounds; ( ) decaying animal and vegetable matters which act chemically as poisons and irritants, and which may serve as food for the development of objectionable bacterial bodies; and ( ) injurious bacteria. the most common forms of impurities are excess of organic matter and bacterial contamination. the sanitary condition of water is greatly influenced by the character of the soil through which it flows and the extent to which it has been polluted by surface drainage.[ ] [illustration: fig. .--dirt and impurities in a surface well water.] . mineral impurities.--- the mineral impurities of water are mainly soluble alkaline and similar compounds dissolved by the water in passing through various layers of soil and rock. when water contains a large amount of sodium chloride, sodium sulphate or carbonate, or other alkaline salts, it is termed an "alkali water." where water passes through soil that has been largely formed from the decay of rocks containing alkaline minerals, the water dissolves some of these minerals and becomes alkaline. the kind of alkali determines the character of the water; in some cases it is sodium carbonate, which is particularly objectionable. the continued use of strong alkali water causes digestion disorders, because of the irritating action upon the digestive tract. hard waters are due to the presence of lime compounds. in regions where limestone predominates, the carbon dioxid in water acts as a solvent, producing hard waters. waters that are hard on account of the presence of calcium carbonate give a deposit when boiled, due to liberation of the carbon dioxid which is the material that renders the lime soluble. calcium sulphate, or gypsum, on the other hand, imparts permanent hardness. there is no deposit when such waters are boiled. a large number of minerals are found in various waters, often sufficient in amount to impart physiological properties. water that is highly charged with mineral matter is difficult to improve sufficiently for household purposes. about the only way is by distillation.[ ] . organic impurities.--water that flows over the surface of the ground comes in contact with animal and vegetable material in various stages of decay, and as a result some is dissolved and some is mechanically carried along by the water. after becoming soluble, the organic matter undergoes further chemical changes, as oxidation and nitrification caused by bacteria. if the organic matter contain a large amount of nitrogenous material, particularly of proteid origin, a series of chemical changes induced by bacterial action takes place, resulting in the production of nitrites. the nitrifying organisms first produce nitrous acid products (nitrites), and in the further development of the nitrifying process these are changed to nitrates. the ammonia formed as the result of the decomposition of nitrogenous organic matter readily undergoes nitrification changes. nitrates and nitrites alone are not injurious in water, but they are usually associated with objectionable bacteria and generally indicate previous contamination.[ ] . interpretation of a water analysis.--"total solid matter" represents all the mineral, vegetable, and animal matter which a water contains. it is the residue obtained by evaporating the water to dryness at a temperature of ° f. average drinking water contains from to grains per gallon of solid matter. "free ammonia" is that formed as a result of the decomposition of animal or vegetable matter containing nitrogen. water of high purity usually contains less than . parts per million of free ammonia. "albuminoid ammonia" is derived from the partially decomposed animal or vegetable material in water. the greater the amount of nitrogenous organic impurities, the higher the albuminoid ammonia. a good drinking water ought not to contain more than . part per million of albuminoid ammonia. an abnormal quantity of chlorine indicates surface drainage or sewage contamination, or an excess of alkaline matter, as common salt. nitrites should not be present, as they are generally associated with matter not completely oxidized. nitrites are usually considered more objectionable than nitrates; both are innocuous unless associated with disease-producing nitroörganisms. . natural purification of water.--river waters are sometimes dark colored because of large amounts of dissolved organic matter, but in contact with the sun and air they gradually undergo natural purification and the organic matter is oxidized. however, absolute reliance cannot be placed upon natural purification of a bad water, as the objectionable organisms often have great resistive power. there is no perfectly pure water except that prepared in the chemical laboratory by distillation. all natural waters come in contact with the soil and air, and necessarily contain impurities proportional to the extent of their contamination. . water in relation to health.--there are many diseases, of which typhoid fever is a type, that are distinctly water-born. the typhoid bacilli, present in countless numbers in the feces of persons suffering or convalescent from typhoid fever, find their way into streams, lakes, and wells.[ ] they retain their vitality, and when they enter the digestive tract of an individual, rapidly increase in numbers. numerous disastrous outbreaks of typhoid fever have been traced to contamination of water. coupled with the sanitary improvement of a city's water supply, there is diminution of typhoid fever cases, and a noticeable lowering of the death rate. many cities and villages are dependent for their water upon rivers and lakes into which surface drainage finds its way, with all contaminating substances. mechanical sedimentation and filtration greatly improve waters of this class, but do not necessarily render them entirely pure. compounds of iron and aluminium are sometimes added in small amounts, under chemical supervision, to such waters to precipitate the organic impurities. spring waters are not entirely above suspicion, as oftentimes the soil through which they flow is highly polluted. all water of doubtful purity should be boiled, and there are but few natural waters of undoubted purity. there is no such thing as absolutely pure water in a state of nature. the mountain streams perhaps approach nearest to it where there are no humans to pollute the banks; but then there are always the beasts and birds, and they, too, are subject to disease. there are very few waters that at some time of the year and under some conditions are not contaminated with disease-producing organisms. no matter how carefully guarded are the banks of lakes furnishing the water supply of cities, more or less objectionable matter will get in. in seasons of heavy rains, large amounts of surface water enter the lakes, carrying along the filth gathered from many acres of land drained by the streams entering the lakes. some of the most serious outbreaks of typhoid fever have come from temporary contamination of ordinarily fairly good drinking water. in general, too little attention is given to the purity of drinking water. it is just as important that water should be boiled as that food should be cooked. one of the objects of cooking is to destroy the injurious bacteria, and they are frequently more numerous in the drinking water than in the food. the argument is sometimes advanced that the mineral matter present in water is needed for the construction of the bone and other tissues of the body, and that distilled water fails to supply the necessary mineral matter. this is an erroneous assumption, as the mineral matter in the food is more than sufficient for this purpose. when water is highly charged with mineral salts, additional work for their elimination is called for on the part of the organs of excretion, particularly the kidneys; and furthermore, water nearly saturated with minerals cannot exert its full solvent action. in discussing the immediate benefits resulting from improvement of water, fuertes says:[ ] "immediately after the change to the 'four mile intake' at chicago in , there was a great reduction in typhoid. lawrence, mass., showed a great improvement with the setting of the filters in operation in september, ; fully half of the deaths in were among persons known to have used the unfiltered canal water. the conclusion is warranted that for the efficient control of the death rate from typhoid fever it is necessary to have efficient sewerage and drainage, proper methods of living, and pure water. the reason why our large cities, which are all provided with sewerage, have such high death rates is therefore without doubt their continuance of the filthy practice of supplying drinking water which carries in solution and suspension the washings from farms, from the streets, from privies, from pigpens, and the sewage of cities.... and also we should recognize the importance of flies and other winged insects and birds which feed on offal as carriers of bacteria of specific diseases from points of infection to the watersheds, and the consequent washing of newly infected matter into our drinking water by rains." there is a very close relationship between the surface water and that of shallow wells. a shallow well is simply a reservoir for surface water accumulations. it is stated that, when an improved system of drainage was introduced into a part of london, many of the shallow wells became dry, indicating the source from which they received their supply. direct subterranean connection between cesspools and wells is often traced in the following way: a small amount of lithium, which gives a distinct flame reaction, and a minute trace of which can be detected with the spectroscope, is placed in the cesspool, and after a short time a lithium reaction is secured from the well water. rain water is relied upon in some localities for drinking purposes. that collected in cities and in the vicinity of barns and dwellings contains appreciable amounts of organic impurities. the brown color is due to the impurities, ammonium carbonate being one of these. there are also traces of nitrates and nitrites obtained from the air. when used for drinking, rain water should be boiled. . improvement of waters.--waters are improved by: ( ) boiling, which destroys the disease-producing organisms; ( ) filtration, which removes the materials mechanically suspended in the water; and ( ) distillation, which eliminates the impurities in suspension and solution, as well as destroys all germ life. . boiling water.--in order to destroy the bacteria that may be in drinking water, it is not sufficient to heat the water or merely let it come to a boil. it has been found that if water is only partially sterilized and then cooled in the open air, the bacteria develop more rapidly than if the water had not been heated at all. it should boil vigorously five to ten minutes; cholera and typhoid bacteria succumb in five minutes or less. care should be taken in cooling that the water is not exposed to dust particles from the air nor placed in open vessels in a dirty refrigerator. it should be kept in perfectly clean, tight-stoppered bottles. these bottles should be frequently scalded. great reliance may be placed upon this method of water purification when properly carried out. . filtration.--among the most efficient forms of water filters are the berkefeld and pasteur. the pasteur filter is made of unglazed porcelain, and the berkefeld of fine infusorial earth (finely divided sio_{ }). both are porous and allow a moderately rapid flow of water. the flow from the berkefeld filter is more rapid than from the pasteur. the mechanical impurities of the water are deposited upon the filtering surface, due to the attraction which the material has for particles in suspension. these particles usually are the sources of contamination and carry bacteria. when first used, filters are satisfactory, but unless carefully looked after they soon lose their ability to remove germs from the water and may increase the impurity by accumulation. small faucet filters are made of porous stone, asbestos, charcoal, etc. many of them are of no value whatever or are even worse than valueless. filters should be frequently cleansed in boiling water or in steam under pressure. unless this is done, the filters may become incubators for bacteria. [illustration: fig. .--pasteur water filters.] . distillation.--when an unquestionably pure water supply is desired, distillation should be resorted to. there are many forms of stills for domestic use which are easily manipulated and produce distilled water economically.[ ] the mineral matter of water is in no way essential for any functional purpose, and hence its removal through distillation is not detrimental. [illustration: fig. .--water still.] . chemical purification.--purification of water by the use of chemicals should not be attempted in the household or by inexperienced persons. when done under supervision of a chemist or bacteriologist, it may be of great value to a community. turneaure and russell,[ ] in discussing the purification of water by addition of chemicals, state: "there are a considerable number of chemical substances that may be added to water in order to purify it by carrying down the suspended matter as well as bacteria, by sedimentation. such a process of purification is to be seen in the addition of alum, sulphate of iron, and calcium hydrate to water. methods of this character are directly dependent upon the flocculating action of the chemical added, and the removal of the bacteria is accomplished by subsidence." . ice.--the purity of the ice supply is also of much importance. while freezing reduces the number of organisms and lessens their vitality, it does not make an impure water absolutely wholesome. the way, too, in which ice is often handled and stored subjects it to contamination, and foods which are placed in direct contact with it mechanically absorb the impurities which it contains. for cooling water, ice should be placed around rather than in it. diseases have frequently been traced to impure ice. the only absolutely pure ice is that made from distilled water. . mineral waters.--when water is charged with carbonic acid gas under pressure, carbonated water results, and when minerals, as salts of sodium, potassium, or lithium, are added, artificial mineral waters are produced. natural mineral waters are placed on the market to some extent, but most mineral waters are artificial products and they are sometimes prepared from water of low sanitary character. mineral waters should not be used extensively except under medical direction, as many have pronounced medicinal properties. some of the constituents are bicarbonates of sodium, potassium, and lithium; sulphates of magnesium (epsom salts) and calcium; and chloride of sodium. the sweetened mineral waters, as lemonade, orangeade, ginger ale, and beer, contain sugar and organic acids, as citric and tartaric, and are flavored with natural or artificial products. most of them are prepared without either fruit or ginger. natural mineral waters used under the direction of a physician are often beneficial in cases of chronic digestion disorders or other diseases. . materials for softening water.--the materials most commonly used for softening water are sodium carbonate (washing soda), borax, ammonia, ammonium carbonate, potash, and soda lye. waters that are very hard with limestone should have a small amount of washing soda added to them. two ounces for a large tub of water is the most that should be used, and it should first be dissolved in a little water. if too much soda is used, it is injurious, as only a certain amount can be utilized for softening the water, and the excess simply injures the hands and fabric. when hard limewater is boiled and a very little soda lye added, a precipitate of carbonate of lime is formed, and then if the water is strained, it is greatly improved for washing purposes. borax is valuable for making some hard waters soft. it is not as strong in its action as is sodium carbonate. for the hardest water / pound of borax to a large tubful may be used; most waters, however, do not need so much. ammonia is one of the most useful reagents for softening water. it is better than washing soda and borax, because the ammonia is volatile and does not leave any residue to act on the clothes, thus causing injury. for bathing purposes, the water should be softened with ammonia, in preference to any other material. ammonia should not be poured directly into hot water; it should be added to the water while cold, or to a small quantity of cold water, and then to the warm water, as this prevents the ammonia from vaporizing too readily. ammonia produces the same effect as potash or soda lye, without leaving a residue in the garments washed. it is especially valuable in washing woolen goods or materials liable to shrink. waters which are hard with alum salts are greatly benefited by the addition of ammonia. a little in such a water will cause a precipitate to form, and when the water is strained it is in good condition for cleaning purposes. ammonium carbonate is used to some extent as a softening and cleaning agent, and is valuable, as there is no injurious effect upon clothing, because it readily volatilizes. caustic potash and caustic soda are sometimes employed for softening water, but they are very active and are not adapted to washing colored or delicate fabrics. they may be used for very heavy and coarse articles that are greasy,--not more than a gram in a gallon of water. bleaching powder is not generally a safe material for cleansing purposes, as it weakens the texture of clothing. after a contagious disease, articles may be soaked in water containing a little bleaching powder and a few drops of carbolic acid, followed by thorough rinsing and bleaching in the sun. but as a rule formaline is preferable for disinfecting clothing. it can be used at the rate of about one pound to gallons of water. bleaching powder, caustic potash or soda, and strong soap are not suitable for cleaning woodwork, because of the action of the alkali on paint and wood; they roughen the surface and discolor the paint. waters vary so in composition, that a material suitable for softening one may not prove to be the best for softening another. the special kind must be determined largely by trial, and it should be the aim to use as little as possible. when carbolic acid, formaline, bleaching powder, and caustic soda are used, the hands should be protected and the clothes should be well rinsed. [illustration: fig. .--typhoid bacilli.] . economic value of a pure water supply.--from a financial point of view, the money spent in securing pure water is one of the best investments a community can make. statisticians estimate the death of an adult results in a loss to the state of from $ to $ ; and to the losses sustained by death must be added those incurred by sickness and by lessened quality and quantity of work through impaired vitality,--all caused by using poor drinking water. wherever plants have been installed for improving the sanitary condition of the water supply, the death rate has been lowered and the returns to the community have been far greater than the cost of the plant. impure water is the most expensive food that can be consumed. chapter xx food as affected by household sanitation and storage . injurious compounds in foods.--an ordinary chemical analysis of a food determines only the nutrients, as protein, carbohydrates, and fats; and unless there is reason to believe the food contains injurious substances no special tests for these are made. there are a number of poisonous compounds that foods may contain, and many of them can but imperfectly be determined by chemical analysis. numerous organic compounds are produced in foods as the result of the workings of microörganisms; some of these are poisonous, while others impart only special characteristics, as taste and odor. the poisonous bacteria finding their way into food produce organic compounds of a toxic character; and hence it is that the sanitary condition of a food, as influenced by preparation and storage, is often of more vital importance than the nutrient content.[ ] [illustration: fig. .--tuberculosis bacilli. (after conn.) often present in dust particles and contaminated foods.] . sources of contamination of food.--as a rule, too little attention is given to the sanitary handling and preparation of foods. they are often exposed to impure air and to the dust and filth from unclean streets and surroundings, and as a result they become inoculated with bacteria, which are often the disease-producing kind. gelatine plates exposed by bacteriologists under the same conditions as foods develop large numbers of injurious microörganisms. in order to avoid contamination in the handling of food, there must be: ( ) protection from impure air and dust; ( ) storage in clean, sanitary, and ventilated storerooms and warehouses; ( ) storage of perishable foods at a low temperature so as to retard fermentation changes; and ( ) workmen free from contagious diseases in all occupations pertaining to the preparation of foods. ordinarily, foods should not be stored in the paper wrappers in which they are purchased, as unclean paper is often a source of contamination. . sanitary inspection of food.--during recent years some state and city boards of health have introduced sanitary inspection of foods, with a view of preventing contamination during manufacture and transportation, and this has done much to improve the quality and wholesomeness. putrid meats, fish, and vegetables are not allowed to be sold, and foods are required to be handled and stored in a sanitary way. next to a pure water supply, there is no factor that so greatly influences for good the health of a community as the sanitary condition of the food. while the cooking of foods destroys many organisms, it often fails to render innocuous the poisons which they produce, and furthermore the unsound foods when cooked are not entirely wholesome, and they have poor keeping qualities. often meats, vegetables, and other foods eaten uncooked, as well as the numerous cooked foods, are exposed in dirty market places, and accumulate large amounts of filth, and are inoculated with disease germs by flies. protection of food from flies is a matter of vital importance, as they are carriers of many diseases. in the case of typhoid fever, next to impure drinking water flies are credited with being the greatest distributors of the disease germs.[ ] [illustration: fig. .--diphtheria bacilli. (after conn.) often present in dust particles and in food unprotected from dust.] . infection from impure air.--the dust particles of the air contain decayed animal and vegetable matter in which bacteria are present; these find their way into the food when it is not carefully protected, into the water supply, and also into the lungs and other organs of the body. when foods are protected from the mechanical impurities which gain access through the air, and fermentation is delayed by storage at a low temperature, digestion disorders are greatly lessened. from a sanitary point of view, the air of food storerooms and of living rooms should be of equally high purity. when foods are kept in unventilated living rooms, they become contaminated with the impurities thrown off from the lungs in respiration, which include not only carbon dioxid, but the more objectionable toxic organic materials. vegetable foods need to be stored in well-ventilated places, as the plant cells are still alive and carrying on life functions, as the giving off of carbon dioxid, which is akin to animal respiration; in fact, it is plant-cell respiration. provision should be made for the removal of the carbon dioxid and other products, as they contaminate the air. when vegetable tissue ceases to produce carbon dioxid, death and decay set in, accompanied by fermentation changes. . storage of food in cellars.--cellars are often in a very unsanitary condition, damp, poorly lighted, unventilated, and the air filled with floating particles from decaying vegetables. the walls and shelves absorb the dust and germs from the foul air and are bacterially contaminated, and whenever a sound food is stored in such a cellar, it readily becomes inoculated with bacteria. there is a much closer relationship existing between the atmosphere of the cellar and that of the house than is generally realized. an unclean cellar means contaminated air throughout the house. when careful attention is given to the sanitary condition of the cellar, many of the more common diseases are greatly reduced. cases of rheumatism have often been traced to a damp cellar. in some localities where the cellars are unusually unsanitary, there is in the season of spring rains, when they are especially damp and contain the maximum of decayed vegetation, a prevalence of what might be called "cellaritis." the symptoms differ and the trouble is variously attributed, but the real cause is the same, although overlooked, for, unfortunately, doctors do not visit the cellar. cellars should be frequently cleaned and disinfected, using for the purpose some of the well-known disinfectants, as formaline, bleaching powder, or a dilute solution of carbolic acid. it has been found in large cities, when the spread of such diseases as yellow fever was imminent, that a general and thorough cleaning up of streets and cellars with the improved sanitary conditions resulting greatly lowered the usual death rate. [illustration: fig. .--dung fungus. (after butters.) often present on surface of unclean vegetables.] . sunlight, pure water, and pure air as disinfectants.--the most effectual and valuable disinfectants are sunlight, pure water, and pure air. many kinds of microörganisms, particularly those that are disease-producing, are destroyed when exposed for a time to sunlight. the chemical action of the sun's rays is destructive to the organic material which makes up the composition of many of these organisms, while higher forms of organic life are stirred into activity by it. the disinfecting power of sunlight should be made use of to the fullest extent, not only in the house, but plenty of sunlight should also be planned for in constructing barns and other buildings where milk-and meat-producing animals are kept. pure water is also a disinfectant, but when water becomes polluted it loses this power. many disease-producing organisms are rendered inactive when placed in pure water. water contains more dissolved oxygen than air, and apparently a portion of the oxygen in water is in a more active condition than that in air. pure air, too, is a disinfectant; the ozone and hydrogen peroxide and oxides of nitrogen, which are present in traces, exert a beneficial influence in oxidizing organic matter. fresh air and sunlight, acting jointly, are nature's most effectual disinfectants. sunshine, fresh air, and pure water are a health-producing trinity. in discussing the importance of pure air, water, and sunlight, ellen h. richards[ ] says: "the country dweller surrounds his house with evergreens or shade trees, the city dweller is surrounded with high brick walls. blinds, shades, or thick draperies shut out still more, and prevent the beneficial sunlight from acting its role of germ prevention and germ destruction. bright-colored carpets and pale-faced children are the opposite results which follow. sunlight, pure air, and pure water are our common birthright which we often bargain away for so-called comforts." and dr. woods hutchinson says of sunlight: "it is a splendid and matchless servant in the promoting of healthfulness of the house, for which no substitute has yet been discovered. it is the foe alike of bacilli and the blues; the best tonic ever yet invented for the liver and for the scalp, and for everything between, the only real complexion restorer, and the deadliest foe of dirt and disease." [illustration: fig. .--dirt and manure embedded in surface of celery.] . utensils for storage of food.--in order that dishes and household utensils may be kept in the best sanitary condition, they should be free from seams, cracks, and crevices where dust and dirt particles can find lodgment. from the seams of a milk pail that has not been well washed, decaying milk solids can be removed with the aid of a pin or a toothpick. this material acts as a "starter" or culture when pure, fresh milk is placed in the pail, contaminating it and causing it to become sour. not only is this true of milk, but also of other foods. wooden utensils are not satisfactory for the handling, storage, or preparation of foods, as it is difficult to keep wood in a sanitary condition. uncleanliness of dishes in which foods are placed is too often caused by the use of foul dishcloths and failure to thoroughly wash and rinse the dishes. it is always well to rinse dishes with scalding water, as colds and skin diseases may be communicated from the edges of drinking glasses, and from forks and spoons, and, unless the dish towels are kept scrupulously clean, it is more sanitary to drain the dishes than to wipe them. . contamination from unclean dishcloths.--when the dishcloth is foul, the fat absorbed by the fibers becomes rancid, the proteids undergo putrefaction changes with formation of ill-smelling gases containing nitrogen, the carbohydrates ferment and are particularly attractive to flies, and all the various disease germs collected on the surface of the dishcloth are, along with the rancid fat and other putrifying materials, distributed over the surface of the dishes with which the cloth comes in contact. [illustration: fig. .--contamination of well water from surface drainage. (after farmers' bulletin, u. s. dept. agr.)] . refrigeration.--at a low temperature the insoluble or unorganized ferments become inactive, but the chemical ferments or enzymes are still capable of carrying on fermentation. thus it is that a food, when placed in a refrigerator or in cold storage, continues to undergo chemical change. an example of such enzymic action is the curing of beef and cheese in cold storage. a small amount of ventilation is required when foods are refrigerated, just sufficient to keep up a slight circulation of air. it seems not to be generally understood that all fermentation changes do not cease when food is placed in refrigerators, and this often leads to neglect in their care. cleanliness is equally as essential, or more so, in the refrigeration of food as in its handling in other ways. too often the refrigerator is neglected, milk and other food is spilt, filling the cracks, and slow decomposition sets in. a well-cared-for refrigerator is an important factor in the preservation of food, but when it is neglected, it becomes a source of contamination. unclean vegetables and food receptacles, impure ice and foul air, are the most common forms of contamination. the chemical changes which foods undergo during refrigeration are such as result in softening of the tissues. . soil.--the soil about dwellings and places where foods are stored frequently becomes polluted with decaying animal and vegetable matter, and in such soils disease-producing organisms readily find lodgment. poorly drained soils containing an excess of vegetable matter furnish a medium in which the tapeworm and the germs of typhoid fever, lockjaw, and various diseases affecting the digestive tract, may propagate. the wind carries the dust particles from these contaminated places into unprotected food, where they cause fermentation changes and the disease germs multiply. in considering the sanitary condition of a locality, the character of the soil is an important factor. whenever there is reason to suspect that a soil is unsanitary, it should be disinfected with lime or formaldehyde. soils about dwellings need care and frequent disinfecting to keep them in a sanitary condition, equally as much as do the rooms in the dwellings.[ ] in the growing of garden vegetables, frequently large quantities of fertilizers of unsanitary character are used, and vegetables often retain mechanically on their surfaces particles of these. to this dirt clinging to the vegetables have been traced diseases, as typhoid fever and various digestion disorders. . disposal of kitchen refuse.--refuse, as vegetable parings, bones, and meat scraps, unless they are used for food for animals or collected as garbage, should preferably be burned; then there is no danger of their furnishing propagating media for disease germs. garbage cans should be kept clean, and well covered to protect the contents from flies. where the refuse cannot be burned, it should be composted. for this, a well-drained place should be selected, and the refuse should be kept covered with earth to keep off the flies and absorb the odors that arise from the fermenting material, and to prevent its being carried away by the wind. lime should be sprinkled about the compost heap, and from time to time it should be drawn away and the place covered with clean earth. it is very unsanitary to throw all of the kitchen refuse in the same place year after year without resorting to any means for keeping the soil in a sanitary condition. although composting refuse is not as sanitary as burning, it is far more sanitary than neglecting to care for it at all, as is too frequently the case. ground polluted with kitchen refuse containing large amounts of fatty material and soap becomes diseased, so that the natural fermentation changes fail to take place, and the soil becomes "sewage sick" and gets in such a condition that vegetation will not grow. failure to properly dispose of kitchen refuse is frequently the cause of the spread of germ diseases, through the dust and flies that are attracted by the material and carry the germs from the refuse pile to food. [illustration: fig. .--plumbing of sink. , , house side of trap, filled with water; , vent pipe; , drain pipe connecting with sewer.] where there is no drainage system, disposal of the liquid refuse is a serious problem. drain basins and cesspools are often resorted to, and these may become additional sources of contamination. as stated in the chapter on well water, direct communication is frequently established between such places and shallow wells. where the only place for the disposal of waste water is the surface of the ground, it should be thrown some distance from the house and where it will drain from and not toward the well. the land should be well drained and open to the sunlight. coarse sand and lime should be sprinkled over it frequently, and occasionally the soil should be removed and replaced with fresh. sunlight, aëration, and disinfection of the soil and good drainage are necessary, in order to keep in a sanitary condition the place where the dish water is thrown. poor plumbing is often the cause of contaminated food. the gases which escape from unclean traps may carry with them solid particles of organic matter in various stages of decay. the "house side" of traps always ventilates into the rooms, and hence it is important that they be kept scrupulously clean. where the drip pipe from the refrigerator drains directly into the sewerage system, there is always danger. special attention should be given to the care of plumbing near places where foods are stored. frequently there are leaky joints due to settling of the dwellings or to extreme changes in temperature, and the plumbing should be occasionally inspected by one familiar with the subject.[ ] . general considerations.--in order to keep food in the most wholesome condition, special care should be taken that all of its surroundings are sanitary. the air, the dishes in which the food is placed, the refrigerator, cellar or closet where stored, and the other food with which it comes in contact, all influence the wholesomeness or cause contamination. a food may contain sufficient nutrients to give it high value, and yet, on account of products formed during fermentation, be poisonous. foods are particularly susceptible to putrefaction changes, and chemicals and preservatives added as preventives, with a view of retarding these changes, are objectionable, besides failing to prevent all fermentation from taking place. intelligent thought should be exercised in the care of food, for the health of the consumer is largely dependent upon the purity and wholesomeness of the food supply. [illustration: fig. .--a petri dish, showing colonies of bacteria produced by allowing a house fly to crawl over surface. (from minnesota experiment station bulletin no. .)] chapter xxi laboratory practice object of laboratory practice, laboratory note-book, and suggestions for laboratory practice.--the aim of the laboratory practice is to give the students an idea of the composition, uses, and values of food materials, and the part which chemistry takes in sanitation and household affairs; also to enable them by simple tests to detect some of the more common adulterants in foods. before performing an experiment, the student is advised to review those topics presented in the text which have a bearing upon the experiment, so that a clear conception may be gained of the relationship between the laboratory work and that of the class room. the student should endeavor to cultivate the power of observation and to grasp the principle involved in the work, rather than do it in a merely mechanical and perfunctory way. neatness is one of the essentials for success in laboratory practice, and too much emphasis cannot be laid upon this requisite to good work. the student should learn to use his time in the laboratory profitably and economically. he should obtain a clear idea of what he is to do, and then do it to the best of his ability. if the experiment is not a success, repeat it. while the work is in progress it should be given undivided attention. care should be exercised to prevent anything getting into the sinks that will clog the plumbing; soil, matches, broken glass, and paper should be deposited in the waste jars. [illustration: fig. .--apparatus used in laboratory work. see page for names.] a careful record of the experiments should be kept by each student in a suitable note-book. it is suggested that those students desiring more time in writing out the experiments than the laboratory period affords, take notes as they make the various tests, and then amplify and rearrange them in the evening study time. the final writing up of the notes should, however, be done before the next laboratory period. careful attention should be given to the spelling, language, and punctuation, and the note-book should represent the student's individual work. he who attempts to cheat by copying the results of others, only cheats himself. in recording the results of an experiment, the student should state briefly and clearly the following: . number and title of experiment. . how the experiment is performed. . what was observed. . what the experiment proves. [illustration: fig. .--balance and weights.] list of apparatus used in experiments crucible tongs evaporating dishes casserole beakers test tubes wooden stand test tube stand sand bath funnels tripod stoddart test tube clamp test tube brush burner and tubing stirring rods watch glasses erlenmeyer flasks package filter paper box matches wire gauze burettes porcelain crucible aluminum dish directions for weighing.--place the dish or material to be weighed in the left-hand pan of the balance. with the forceps lay a weight from the weight box on the right-hand pan. do not touch the weights with the hands. if the weight selected is too heavy, replace it with a lighter weight. add weights until the pans are counterpoised; this will be indicated by the needle swinging nearly as many divisions on one side of the scale as on the other. the brass weights are the gram weights. the other weights are fractions of a gm. the , , mg. (milligram) weights are recorded as . , . , and . gm. the , , and mg. weights as . , . , and . gm. if the , and gm., and the , the , and the mg. weights are used, the resulting weight is . gms. no moist substances should ever come in contact with the scale pans. the weights and forceps should always be replaced in the weight box. too much care and neatness cannot be exercised in weighing. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .--pouring reagent from bottle.] directions for measuring.--reagents are measured in graduated cylinders (see fig. ). when the directions call for the addition of or cc. of a reagent, unless so directed it is not absolutely necessary to measure the reagent in a measuring cylinder. a large test tube holds about cc. of water. measure out cc. of water and transfer it to a large test tube. note its volume. add approximately cc. of water directly to the test tube. measure it. repeat this operation until you can judge with a fair degree of accuracy the part of a test tube filled by cc. in the experiments where a burette is used for measuring reagents, the burette is first filled with the reagent by means of a funnel. the tip of the burette is allowed to fill before the readings are made, which are from the lowest point or meniscus. when reagents are removed from bottles, the stopper should be held between the first and second fingers of the right hand (see fig. ). hold the test tube or receptacle that is to receive the reagent in the left hand. pour the liquid slowly until the desired amount is secured. before inserting the stopper, touch it to the neck of the bottle to catch the few drops on the edge, thus preventing their streaking down the sides of the bottle on to the shelf. replace the bottle in its proper place. every precaution should be taken to prevent contamination of reagents. [illustration: fig. .--microscope and accessories. , eye-piece or ocular; , objective; , stage; , cover glass; , slide; , mirror.] use of the microscope.--special directions in the use of the microscope will be given by the instructor. the object or material to be examined is placed on a microscopical slide. care should be exercised to secure a representative sample, and to properly distribute the substance on the slide. if a pulverized material is to be examined, use but little and spread it in as thin a layer as possible. if a liquid, one or two drops placed on the slide will suffice. the material on the slide is covered with a cover glass, before it is placed on the stage of the microscope. in focusing, do not allow the object glass of the microscope to come in contact with the cover glass. focus upward, not downward. special care should be exercised in focusing and in handling the eye-piece and objective. a camel's-hair brush, clean dry chamois skin, or clean silk only should be used in polishing the lenses. always put the microscope back in its case after using. experiment no. water in flour carefully weigh a porcelain or aluminum dish. (porcelain must be used if the ash is to be determined on the same sample.) place in it about gm. of flour; record the weight; then place the dish in the water oven for at least hours. after drying, weigh again, and from the loss of weight calculate the per cent of water in the flour. (weight of flour and dish before drying minus weight of flour and dish after drying equals weight of water lost. weight of water divided by weight of flour taken, multiplied by , equals the per cent of water in the flour.) how does the amount of water you obtained compare with the amount given in the tables of analysis? experiment no. water in butter carefully weigh a clean, dry aluminum dish, place in it about gms. of butter, and weigh again. record the weights. place the dish containing butter in the water oven for or hours and then weigh. the loss in weight represents the water in the butter. calculate the per cent of water. care must be taken to get a representative sample of the butter to be tested; preferably small amounts should be taken with the butter trier from various parts of the package. experiment no. ash in flour place the porcelain dish containing flour from the preceding experiment in a muffle furnace and let it remain until the organic matter is completely volatilized. cool, weigh, and determine the per cent of ash. the flour should be burned at the lowest temperature necessary for complete combustion. experiment no. nitric acid test for nitrogenous organic matter to cc. of egg albumin in a test tube add cc. of hno_{ } (conc.) and heat. when cool add nh_{ }oh. the nitric acid chemically reacts upon the albumin, forming yellow xanthoprotein. what change occurs in the appearance of the egg albumin when the hno_{ } is added? is this a physical or chemical change? what is the name of the compound formed? what change occurs on adding nh_{ }oh? experiment no. acidity of lemons with a pipette measure into a small beaker cc. of lemon juice. add cc. of water and a few drops of phenolphthalein indicator. from the burette run in n/ koh solution until a faint pink tinge remains permanently. note the number of cubic centimeters of koh solution required to neutralize the citric acid in the lemon juice. calculate the per cent of citric acid. ( cc. of n/ koh solution equals . gm. citric acid. cc. of h_{ }o weighs gm. because of sugar and other matter in solution cc. of lemon juice weighs approximately . gm.) . what is the characteristic acid of lemons? . what is the salt formed when the lemon juice is neutralized by the koh solution? . describe briefly the process for determining the acidity of lemon juice. . what per cent of acidity did you obtain? . how does this compare with the acidity of vinegar? experiment no. influence of heat on potato starch grains with the point of a knife scrape slightly the surface of a raw potato and place a drop of the starchy juice upon the microscopical slide. cover with cover glass and examine under the microscope. in the evaporating dish cook a small piece of potato, then place a very small portion upon the slide, and examine with the microscope. make drawings of the starch grains in raw and in cooked potatoes. experiment no. influence of yeast on starch grains moisten a small portion of the dough prepared with yeast and with the stirring rod place a drop of the starchy water upon the slide. cover with cover glass and examine under the microscope. repeat, examining a drop of starchy water washed from flour. make drawing of wheat starch grain in flour and in dough prepared with yeast. experiment no. mechanical composition of potatoes wash one potato. weigh, then peel, making the peeling as thin as possible. weigh the peeled potato and weigh the peeling or refuse. calculate the per cent of potato that is edible and the per cent that is refuse. experiment no. pectose from apples reduce a small peeled apple to a pulp. squeeze the pulp through a clean cloth into a beaker. add cc. h_{ }o and heat on a sand bath to coagulate the albumin. filter, adding a little hot water if necessary. to the filtrate add cc. alcohol. the precipitate is the pectose material. . is the pectose from the apple soluble? . is it coagulated by heat? . is it soluble in alcohol? experiment no. lemon extract to cc. of the extract in a test tube add an equal volume of water. a cloudy appearance indicates the presence of lemon oil. if the solution remains clear after adding the water, the extract does not contain lemon oil. why does the extract containing lemon oil become cloudy on adding water? experiment no. vanilla extract pour into a test tube cc. of the extract to be tested. evaporate to one third. then add sufficient water to restore the original volume. if a brown, flocculent precipitate is formed, the sample contains pure vanilla extract. resin is present in vanilla beans and is extracted in the essence. the resin is readily soluble in per cent alcohol. if the alcohol is removed from the extract, the excess of resin is precipitated, or if free from alkali, it may be precipitated by diluting the original solution with twice its volume of water. test the two samples and compare. (adapted from leach, "food inspection and analysis.") . describe the appearance of each sample after evaporating and adding water. . which sample contains pure vanilla extract? . state the principle underlying this test. experiment no. testing olive oil for cotton seed oil pour into a test tube cc. of the oil to be tested and cc. of halphen's reagent. mix thoroughly. plug the test tube loosely with cotton, and heat in a bath of boiling saturated brine for minutes. if cotton seed oil is present, a deep red or orange color is produced. test two samples and compare. halphen's reagent.--mix equal volumes of amyl alcohol and carbon disulphid containing about one per cent of sulphur in solution. (adapted from leach, "food inspection and analysis.") experiment no. testing for coal tar dyes dilute to cc. of the material to cc.; boil for minutes with cc. of a per cent solution of potassium bisulphate and a piece of white woolen cloth which has previously been boiled in a . per cent solution of naoh and thoroughly washed in water. remove the cloth from the solution, wash in boiling water, and dry between pieces of filter paper. a bright red indicates coal tar dye. if the coloring matter is entirely from fruit, the woolen cloth will be either uncolored or will have a faint pink or brown color which is changed to green or yellow by ammonia and is not restored by washing. this is the arata test. (adapted, winston, conn. experiment station report.) . describe arata's wool test for coal tar dyes. . what is the appearance of the woolen cloth when the coloring matter is entirely from fruit? . what effect has nh_{ }oh upon the color? . why is naoh used? . why may not cotton cloth be used instead of woolen? . what can you say of the use of coal tar dyes in foods? experiment no. determining the per cent of skin in beans place in an evaporating dish gm. of beans, cc. of water, and / gm. of baking soda. boil minutes or until the skins are loosened, then drain off the water. add cold water and rub the beans together till the skins slip off. collect the skins, place on a watch glass and dry in the water oven for / hour. weigh the dried skins and calculate the per cent of "skin." . what does the soda do? . what effect would hard limewater have upon the skins? . how does removal of skins affect food value of beans and digestibility? experiment no. extraction of fat from peanuts shell three or four peanuts and with the mortar and pestle break them into small pieces. place in a test tube and pour over them about cc. of ether. cork the test tube and allow it to stand minutes, shaking occasionally. filter on to a watch glass and let stand until the ether evaporates, and then observe the fat. . what is the appearance of the peanut fat? . what is the solvent of the fat? . what becomes of the ether? . why should the peanuts be broken into small pieces? experiment no. microscopic examination of milk place a drop of milk on a microscopical slide and cover with cover glass. examine the milk to detect impurities, as dust, hair, refuse, etc. make drawings of any foreign matter present. experiment no. formaldehyde in cream or milk to cc. of milk in a casserole add cc. of the acid reagent. heat slowly over the flame nearly to boiling, holding the casserole in the hand and giving it a slight rotary movement while heating. the presence of formaldehyde is indicated by a violet coloration varying in depth with the amount present. in the absence of formaldehyde the solution slowly turns brown. acid reagent.--commercial hydrochloric acid (sp. gr. . ) containing cc. per liter of per cent ferric chlorid. (adapted from leach, "food inspection and analysis.") . how may the presence of formaldehyde in milk be detected? . why in this test is it necessary to use acid containing ferric chlorid? . describe the appearance of the two samples of milk after adding the acid reagent and heating. . which sample showed the presence of formaldehyde? experiment no. gelatine in cream or milk to cc. of milk or cream in a beaker add cc. of acid mercuric nitrate and about cc. of h_{ }o. let stand for a few minutes and filter. filtrate will be cloudy if gelatine is present. add / cc. of a dilute solution of picric acid--a heavy yellow precipitate indicates gelatine. acid mercuric nitrate.-- part by weight of hg, parts hno_{ } (sp. gr. . ). dilute times with water. experiment no. testing for oleomargarine apply the following tests to two samples of the material: boiling or spoon test.--melt the sample to be tested--a piece about the size of a chestnut--in a large spoon, hastening the process by stirring with a splinter. then, increasing the heat, bring to as brisk a boil as possible and stir thoroughly, not neglecting the outer edges. oleomargarine and renovated butter boil noisily, sputtering like a mixture of grease and water, and produce no foam, or but very little. genuine butter boils with less noise and produces an abundance of foam. waterhouse test.--into a small beaker pour cc. of sweet milk. heat nearly to boiling and add from to gms. of butter or oleomargarine. stir with a glass rod until fat is melted. then place the beaker in cold water and stir the milk until the temperature falls sufficiently for the fat to congeal. at this point the fat, if oleomargarine, can easily be collected into one lump by means of the rod; while if butter, it will granulate and cannot be collected. (from farmers' bul. , u. s. dept. of agriculture.) . name two simple tests for distinguishing butter and oleomargarine. . describe these tests. . why do butter and oleomargarine respond differently to these tests? . are these tests based upon chemical or physical properties of the fats? experiment no. testing for watering or skimming of milk _a._ fat content of milk by means of babcock test.--measure with pipette into test bottle . cc. of milk. sample should be carefully taken and well mixed. measure with cylinder . cc. commercial h_{ }so_{ } and add to milk in test bottle. (see fig. .) mix acid and milk by rotating the bottle. then place test bottles in centrifugal machine and whirl minutes. add sufficient hot water to test bottles to bring contents up to about the th mark on stem. then whirl bottles minutes longer and read fat. read from extreme lowest to highest point. each large division as to represents a whole per cent, each small division . of a per cent. _b._ determining specific gravity by means of lactometer.--pour cc. of milk into cc. cylinder. place lactometer in milk and note depth to which it sinks as indicated on stem. note also temperature of milk. for each ° above ° f. add to the lactometer number, in order to make the necessary correction for temperature. for example, if milk has sp. gr. of . at temperature of °, it will be equivalent to sp. gr. of . at °. ordinarily milk has a sp. gr. of . to . . if milk has sp. gr. less than . , or contains less than per cent fat, it may be considered watered milk. if the milk has a high sp. gr. (above . ) and a low content of fat, some of the fat has been removed. (for extended direction for milk testing see snyder's "dairy chemistry.") experiment no. boric acid in meat cut into very small pieces gms, of meat, removing all the fat possible. place in an evaporating dish with to cc. of water to which a few drops of hcl have been added and warm slightly. dip a piece of turmeric paper in the meat extract and dry. a rose-red color of the turmeric paper after drying (turned olive by a weak ammonia solution) is indicative of boric acid. . how may meat be tested for boric acid? . why is hcl added to the water? . why is the water containing the meat warmed slightly? . what is the appearance of the turmeric paper after being dipped in the meat extract and dried? . what change takes place when it is moistened with ammonia, and why? experiment no. microscopic examination of cereal starch grains make a microscopic examination and drawings of wheat, corn, rice, and oat starch grains, comparing them with the drawings of the different starch grains on the chart. if the material is coarse, pulverize in a mortar and filter through cloth. place a drop or two of the starchy water on the slide, cover with a cover glass, and examine. experiment no. identification of commercial cereals examine under the microscope two samples of cereal breakfast foods, and by comparison with the wheat, corn, and oat starch grains previously examined tell of what grains the breakfast foods are made and their approximate food value. experiment no. granulation and color of flour arrange on glass plate, in order of color, samples of all the different grades of flour. note the differences in color. how do these differences correspond with the grades of the flour? examine the flour with a microscope, noting any coarse or dark-colored particles of bran or dust. rub some of the flour between the thumb and forefinger. note if any granular particles can be detected. experiment no. capacity of flour to absorb water weigh out gms. of soft wheat flour into an evaporating dish; then add from burette a measured quantity of water sufficient to make a stiff dough. note the amount of water required for this purpose. repeat the operation, using hard wheat flour. . how may the absorptive power of a flour be determined? . to what is it due? . why do some flours absorb more water than others? experiment no. acidity of flour weigh into a flask gms. of flour and add cc. distilled water. shake vigorously. after letting stand minutes, filter and then titrate cc. of the filtrate against standard koh solution, using phenolphthalein as indicator, cc. of the alkali equals . gms. lactic acid. calculate the per cent of acid present. . how may the acidity of a flour be determined? . the acidity is expressed in percentage amounts of what acid? . what per cent of acidity is found in normal flours? . what does a high acidity of a flour indicate? experiment no. moist and dry gluten weigh gms. of flour into a porcelain dish. make the flour into a stiff dough. after minutes obtain the gluten by washing, being careful to remove all the starch and prevent any losses. squeeze the water from the gluten as thoroughly as possible. weigh the moist gluten and calculate the per cent. dry the gluten in the water oven and calculate the per cent of dry gluten. experiment no. gliadin from flour place in a flask gms. of flour, cc. of alcohol, and cc. of water. cork the flask and shake, and after a few minutes shake again. allow the alcohol to act on the flour for an hour, or until the next day. then filter off the alcohol solution and evaporate the filtrate to dryness over the water bath. examine the residue; to a portion add a little water; burn a small portion and observe odor. . describe the appearance of the gliadin. . what was the result when water was added? . when burned, what was the odor of the gliadin, and what does this indicate? . what is gliadin? experiment no. bread-making test make a "sponge" by mixing together: gm. sugar, gm. yeast (compressed), gm. salt, cc. water (temp. ° c.). let stand / hour at a temperature of ° c. in a large bowl, mix with a knife or spatula . gms. of lard with . gms. of flour. then add cc. of the "sponge," or as much as is needed to make a good stiff dough, and mix thoroughly, using the spatula. with some flours as small a quantity as cc. of sponge may be used. if more moisture is necessary, add h_{ }o. keep at temperature of ° c. allow the dough to stand minutes to first pulling, minutes to second pulling, and to minutes to the pan. let it rise to top of pan and then bake for / hour in an oven at a temperature of ° c. one loaf of bread is made of patent flour of known quality as a standard for comparison, and other loaves of the flours to be tested. compare the loaves as to size (cubic contents), color, porosity, odor, taste, nature of crust, and form of loaf. experiment no. microscopic examination of yeast on a watch glass mix thoroughly a very small piece of yeast with about cc. of water and then with the stirring rod place a drop of this solution on the microscopical slide, adding a drop of very dilute methyl violet solution. cover with the cover glass and examine under the microscope. the living active cells appear colorless while the decayed and lifeless ones are stained. yeast cells are circular or oval in shape. (see fig. .) (adapted from leach, "food inspection and analysis.") experiment no. testing baking powders for alum place about gms. of flour in a dish with / gm. baking powder. add enough water to make a dough and then or drops of tincture of logwood and or drops of ammonium carbonate solution. mix well and observe; a blue color indicates alum. try the same test, using flour only for comparison. . how do you test a baking powder for alum? . what difference in color did you observe in the test with the baking powder containing alum and in that with the flour only? . why is the (nh_{ })_{ }co_{ } solution used? experiment no. testing baking powders for phosphoric acid dissolve / gm. of baking powder in cc. of h_{ }o and cc. hno_{ }. filter and add cc. ammonium molybdate. heat gently. a yellow precipitate indicates phosphoric acid. . how do you test a baking powder for phosphoric acid? . what is the yellow precipitate obtained in this test? experiment no. testing baking powders for ammonia dissolve / gm. of material in cc. water; filter off any insoluble residue and to the filtrate add or cc. naoh and apply heat. test the gas given off with moistened turmeric paper. if nh_{ } is present, the paper will be colored brown. do not allow the paper to come in contact with the liquid or sides of the test tube. (perform the tests on two samples of baking powder.) . how do you test a baking powder for ammonia? . why do you add naoh? . why must you be careful not to let the turmeric paper touch the sides of the test tube or the liquid? experiment no. vinegar solids into a weighed aluminum or porcelain dish pour cc. of vinegar. weigh and then evaporate over boiling water. to drive off the last traces of moisture dry in the water oven for an hour. cool and weigh. calculate the per cent of solids. observe the appearance of the solids. test both samples and compare. . how may the per cent of solids in vinegar be determined? . describe the appearance of the solids from the good and from the poor sample of vinegar. . what is the legal standard for vinegar solids in your state? experiment no. specific gravity of vinegar pour cc. vinegar into cc. cylinder. place a hydrometer for heavy liquids (sp. gr. to . ) in the cylinder. note the depth to which it sinks and the point registered on the scale on the stem. note temperature of vinegar. record specific gravity of vinegar. . what effect would addition of water to vinegar have upon its specific gravity? . what effect would addition of such material as sugar have upon specific gravity? . why should the specific gravity of vinegar be fairly constant? . what would be the weight of cc. of vinegar calculated from the specific gravity? experiment no. acidity of vinegar into a small beaker pour cc. of vinegar and cc. of water and a few drops of phenolphthalein indicator. run in standard koh solution from a burette until a faint pink tinge remains permanently. note the number of cubic centimeters of koh solution required to neutralize the acid. divide this number by , which will give approximately the per cent of acetic acid. . how may the per cent of acidity of vinegar be determined? . why was phenolphthalein used? . why was koh used? . what acids does vinegar contain? . what is the legal requirement in this state for acetic acid in vinegar? . how did the acidity you obtained compare with this legal requirement? experiment no. deportment of vinegar with reagents to cc. of vinegar in a test tube add or drops of lead sub-acetate and shake. observe the precipitate. lead sub-acetate precipitates mainly the malic acid which is always present in cider vinegar. . how may the presence of malic acid in a vinegar be detected? . describe the precipitate. . what does malic acid in a vinegar indicate? experiment no. testing mustard for turmeric place gm. of ground mustard on a small watch glass and moisten slightly with water. add or drops of nh_{ }oh, stirring well with a glass rod. a brown color indicates turmeric present in considerable quantity. test a sample of good mustard and one adulterated with turmeric and compare the results. experiment no. examination of tea leaves soak a small amount of tea and unroll or of the leaves. make a drawing of a tea leaf. observe the proportion of stems in each of three samples of tea; also the relative proportion of large and small leaves. observe if the leaves are even as to size and of a uniform color. experiment no. action of iron compounds upon tannic acid make an infusion of tea by placing gms. of tea in cc. of hot water and stirring well. filter off some of the infusion and test cc. with ferrous sulphate solution made by dissolving gm. feso_{ } in cc. h_{ }o and filtering. note the result. . what change in color did you observe when the ferrous sulphate solution was added to the tea infusion? . what effect would waters containing iron have upon the tea infusion? experiment no. identification of coffee berries examine rio, java, and mocha coffee berries. describe each. note the characteristics of each kind of coffee berry. experiment no. detecting chicory in coffee fill a beaker with water and place about a teaspoonful of ground coffee on the surface. if much of the ground material sinks and it imparts a dark brown color to the lower portion of the liquid, it is an indication of the presence of chicory. pure coffee floats on water. chicory has a higher specific gravity than coffee. . how may the presence of chicory in ground coffee be detected? . why does coffee float on the water while chicory sinks? . what effect does chicory have upon the color of water? experiment no. testing hard and soft waters partially fill a large cylinder with very hard water. this may be prepared by dissolving . to . gm. calcium chloride in cc. of ordinary water. add to this a measured quantity of soap solution. mix well and notice how many cubic centimeters of soap solution must be used before a permanent lather is formed, also notice the precipitate of "lime soap." repeat this experiment, using either rain or distilled water, and compare the cubic centimeters of soap solution used with that in former test. repeat the test, using tap water. soap solution.--scrape gms. of castile soap into fine shavings and dissolve in a liter of alcohol, dilute with / water. filter if not clear and keep in a tightly stoppered bottle. . why is more soap required to form a lather with hard water than with soft water? . what is meant by "lime soap"? describe its appearance. . how may hard waters be softened for household purposes? experiment no. solvent action of water on lead put gm. of clean bright lead shavings into a test tube containing cc. of distilled water. after hours decant the clear liquid into a second test tube, acidify slightly with hcl, and add a little hydrogen sulphid water. a black or brownish coloration indicates lead in solution. (adapted from caldwell and breneman, "introductory chemical practice.") under what conditions may lead pipes be objectionable? experiment no. suspended matter in water place a drop of water on the microscopical slide, cover with cover glass, and examine with the microscope. note the occurrence and appearance of any suspended matter in the water. experiment no. organic matter in water pour into the evaporating dish cc. h_{ }o and evaporate to dryness over the sand bath. ignite the solids. if the solids blacken when ignited, the water contains organic matter. experiment no. deposition of lime by boiling water boil for a few minutes about cc. of water in a flask. after the water is cool, note any sediment of lime or turbidity of the water due to expelling the carbon dioxid. . what is meant by a "hard" water? . what do the terms "temporary" and "permanent" hardness of water mean? . what acts as a solvent of the lime in water? . why does boiling cause the lime to be deposited? experiment no. qualitative tests for minerals in water test for chlorids.--to cc. of h_{ }o add a few drops of hno_{ } and cc. of agno_{ }. a white precipitate indicates the presence of chlorids, usually in the form of sodium chlorid. test for sulphates.--to cc. of water add cc. of dilute hcl and cc. of bacl_{ }. a cloudiness or the formation of a white precipitate indicates the presence of sulphates. test for iron.--if a brown sediment is formed in water exposed to the air for some time, it is probably iron hydroxid. to cc. of the water add a few drops of hno_{ }, heat, and then add / cc. of nh_{ }cns. a red color indicates the presence of iron. test for cao and mgo.--to cc. of h_{ }o add cc. nh_{ }oh. if a precipitate forms, filter it off, and to the filtrate add cc. nh_{ }cl and cc. (nh_{ })_{ }c_{ }o_{ }. the precipitate is cac{ }o_{ }, and the filtrate contains the magnesia. filter and add cc. na_{ }po_{ } to precipitate mgnh_{ }po_{ }. . how would you test a water to detect the presence of organic matter? . name some mineral impurities often found in water. . describe the test for chlorids; for sulphates; for iron; for lime; for magnesium. . of the two classes of impurities found in water, which is the more harmful? . name three ways of purifying waters known to be impure, and tell which is the most effectual. experiment no. testing for nitrites in water to cc. of water in a small beaker add with a pipette cc. of naphthylamine hydrochloride and then cc. of sulphanilic acid. stir well and wait minutes for color to develop. a pink color indicates nitrites. reagents used sulphanilic acid.--dissolve gm. in cc. of dilute acetic acid; sp. gr. . . naphthylamine hydrochloride.--boil . gm. of solid [greek: a]-amidonaphthaline (naphthylamine) in cc. of water, filter the solution through a plug of absorbent cotton, and mix the nitrate with cc. of dilute acetic acid. all water used must be free from nitrites, and all vessels must be rinsed out with such water before tests are applied. . would a water showing the presence of nitrites be a safe drinking water? why? . what are nitrites? . what does the presence of nitrites indicate? . are small amounts of nitrites, when not associated with bacteria, injurious? review questions chapter i general composition of foods . to what extent is water present in foods? . what foods contain the most, and what foods the least water? . how does the water content of some foods vary with the hydroscopicity of the air? . how may changes in water content of foods affect their weight? . why is it necessary to consider the water content of foods in assigning nutritive values? . how is the dry matter of a food determined? . why is the determination of the water in a food often a difficult process? . what is the ash or mineral matter of a food? . how is it obtained? . what is its source? . of what is the ash of plants composed? . what part in plant life do these ash elements take? . name the ash elements essential for plant growth. . which of the mineral elements take the most essential part in animal nutrition? . in what form are these elements usually considered most valuable? . why is sodium chloride or common salt necessary for animal life? . how do food materials differ in ash content? . define organic matter of foods. . how is it obtained? . of what is it composed? . into what is the organic matter converted when it is burned? . give the two large classes of organic compounds found in food materials. . name the various subdivisions of the non-nitrogenous compounds. . what are the carbohydrates? . give their general composition. . what is cellulose? . where is it found? . what is its function in plants? . what is its food value? . in what way may cellulose be of value in a ration? . in what way may it impart a negative value to a ration? . what is starch? . where is it mainly found in plants? . give the mechanical structure of the starch grain. . why is starch insoluble in cold water? . how do starch grains from different sources differ in structure? . what effect does heat have upon starch? . define hydration of starch. . under what conditions does this change take place? . what value as a nutrient does starch possess? . what is sugar? . how does it resemble and how differ in composition from starch? . what are the pectose substances? . how are they affected by heat? . what food value do they possess? . what is nitrogen-free-extract? . how is it obtained? . how may the nitrogen-free-extract of one food differ from that of another? . what are the fats? . how do they differ in composition from the starches? . why does fat when burned or digested produce more heat than starch or sugar? . name the separate fats of which animal and vegetable foods are composed. . give some of the physical characteristics of fat. . what is the iodine absorption number of a fat? . how does the specific gravity of fat compare with that of water? . into what two constituents may all fats be separated? . what is ether extract? . how does the ether extract in fats vary in composition and nutritive value? . what are the organic acids? . name those most commonly met with in foods. . what nutritive value do they possess? . what dietetic value? . what value are they to the growing plant? . what organic acids are found in animal foods? . what are the essential oils? . how do they differ from the fixed oils, or fats? . what property do the essential oils impart to foods? . what food value do they possess? . what dietetic value? . what are the mixed compounds? . how may a compound impart a negative value to a food? . what is the nutritive value of the non-nitrogenous compounds, taken as a class? . why is it necessary that nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous compounds be blended in a ration? . what are the nitrogenous compounds? . how do they differ from the non-nitrogenous compounds? . name the four subdivisions of the nitrogenous compounds. . what is protein? . what is characteristic as to its nitrogen content? . what are some of the derivative products that can be obtained from the protein molecule? . how does the protein content of animal bodies compare with that of plants? . name the various subdivisions of the proteins. . what is albumin, and how may it be obtained from a food? . what is globulin, and how is it obtained from a food? . give some examples of globulins. . what are the albuminates, and how are they affected by the action of acids and alkalies? . what are the peptones, and how do they differ from the albumins? . how are the peptones produced from other proteids? . what are the insoluble proteids? . give an example. . which of the proteids are found to the greatest extent in foods? . why may proteids from different sources vary in their nutritive value? . what general change do the proteids undergo during digestion? . what is crude protein? . how is the crude protein content of a food calculated? . why is the nitrogen content of a food more absolute than the crude protein content? . what food value do the proteins possess? . why may proteins serve so many functions in the body? . why is protein necessary as a nutrient? . what is the effect of an excess of protein in the ration? . what is the effect of a scant amount of protein in a ration? . what are the albuminoids? . name borne materials that contain large amounts of albuminoids. . what food value do the albuminoids possess? . what are the amids? . how are they formed in plants? . what is their source in animals? . what general changes does the element nitrogen undergo in plant and animal bodies? . what is the food value of the amids? . what are the alkaloids? . what is their food value? . what effect do some alkaloids exert upon the animal body? . how may they be produced in animal foods? . what general relationship exists between the various nitrogenous compounds? . why is it essential that the animal body be supplied with nitrogenous food in the form of proteids? . name the cycle of changes through which the element nitrogen passes in plant and animal bodies. chapter ii changes in composition of foods during cooking and preparation . how do raw and cooked foods compare in general composition? . in what ways are foods acted upon during cooking? . what causes chemical changes to take place during cooking? . what are the principal compounds that are changed during the process of cooking? . how does cooking affect the cellulose of foods? . what change does starch undergo during cooking? . when foods containing starch are baked, what change occurs? . how are the sugars acted upon when foods are cooked? . what effect does dry heat have upon sugar? . what change occurs to the fats during cooking? . how does this affect nutritive value? . what changes do the proteids undergo during cooking? . why does the action of heat affect various proteids in different ways? . why are chemical changes, as hydration, often desirable in the cooking and preparation of foods? . what physical changes do vegetable and animal tissues undergo when cooked? . how do foods change in weight during cooking? . why is a prolonged high temperature unnecessary to secure the best results in cooking? . to what extent is the energy of fuels utilized for producing mechanical and chemical changes in foods during cooking? . what effect does cooking have upon the bacterial flora of foods? . in what ways do bacteria exert a favorable influence in the preparation of foods? . how may certain classes of bacteria exert unfavorable changes in the preparation of foods? . what are the insoluble ferments? . what are the soluble ferments? . what part do they take in animal and plant nutrition? . define aerobic ferments. . define anaërobic ferments. . what general relationship exists between the chemical, physical, and bacteriological changes that take place in foods? . why should foods also possess an esthetic value? . what kinds of colors should be used in the preparation of foods? . what processes should be used for removal of coloring materials from foods? chapter iii vegetable foods . give the general composition of vegetable foods as a class. . how do vegetable foods differ from animal foods? . name some vegetables which contain the maximum, and some which contain the minimum percentage of protein. . give the general composition of potatoes. . of what is the dry matter mainly composed? . how much of the crude protein of potatoes is true protein? . what ratio exists between the nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous compounds in the potato? . give the chemical composition of the potato. . what influence do different methods of boiling have upon the crude protein content of potatoes? . to what extent are the nutrients of potatoes digested and absorbed by the body? . what value do potatoes impart to the ration? . how do sweet potatoes differ in chemical composition and food value from white potatoes? . how do carrots differ in composition from potatoes? . what is characteristic of the dry matter of the carrot? . how do carrots and milk differ in composition? . to what is the color of the carrot due? . to what extent are the nutrients removed in the cooking of carrots? . what is the value of carrots in a ration? . give the characteristics of the composition of parsnips. . how does the starch of parsnips differ from that of potatoes? . how does the mineral matter of parsnips differ from that of potatoes? . how does the cabbage differ in general composition from many vegetables? . to what extent are nutrients extracted in the boiling of cabbage? . give the nutritive value of cabbage. . how does the cauliflower differ from cabbage? . give the general composition of beets. . give the general composition of cucumbers. . what nutritive value has lettuce? . give the composition and dietetic value of onions. . how does the ratio of nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous compounds in spinach differ from that in many other vegetables? . give the general composition and nutritive value of asparagus. . how much nutritive material do melons contain? . what are the principal compounds of tomatoes? . what nutrients do they supply to the ration? . in the canning of tomatoes, why is it desirable to conserve the juices? . how does sweet corn differ in composition from fully matured corn? . what nutritive value does the egg plant possess? . what are the principal nutrients of squash? . what nutritive material does celery contain? . to what does celery owe its dietetic value? . why are vegetables necessary in a ration? . why is it not possible to value many vegetable foods simply on the basis of percentage of nutrients present? . name the miscellaneous compounds which many vegetables contain, and the characteristics which these may impart. . why is it necessary to consider the sanitary conditions of vegetables? . how do canned vegetables differ in composition and food value from fresh vegetables? . what proportion of vegetables is refuse and non-edible parts? . why is it necessary to consider the refuse of a food in determining its nutritive value? chapter iv fruits . to what extent do fruits contain water and dry matter? . give the general composition of fruits. . what compounds impart taste and flavor? . how much nutrients do fruits add to a ration? . why is it not right to determine the value of fruits entirely on the basis of nutrients? . give the general composition of apples? . what compound is present to the greatest extent in the dry matter of apples? . how do apples differ in composition? . give the general physical composition of oranges. . what nutrients are present to the greatest extent in oranges? . how do lemons differ in composition from oranges? . how does grape fruit resemble and how differ in chemical composition from oranges and lemons? . what are the main compounds in strawberries? . in what ways are strawberries valuable in a ration? . of what is grape juice mainly composed? . what acid is in grapes, and what is its commercial value? . to what are the differences in flavor and taste due? . how do ripe olives differ in composition from green olives? . what is the food value of the olive? . what physiological property does olive oil have? . what is the principal nutrient in peaches? . what compounds give flavor to peaches? . of what does the dry matter of plums mainly consist? . how do plums differ in composition from many other fruits? . what are prunes? what is their food value? . how do dried fruits differ in composition from fresh fruits? . what should be the stage of ripeness of fruit in order to secure the best results in canning? . how do canned fruits differ in composition and nutritive value from fresh fruits? . to what extent are metals dissolved by fruit juices? . why should tin in which canned goods are preserved be of good quality? . what preservatives are sometimes used in the preparation of canned fruits? . what is the objection to their use? . why are fruits necessary in the ration? . what change does heat bring about in the pectose substances of fruits? chapter v sugar, molasses, sirups, honey, and confections . what is sugar? . from what sources are sugars obtained? . name the two divisions into which sugars are divided. . how are sugars graded commercially? . what per cent of purity has granulated sugar? . how is the coloring material of sugar removed? . how is sugar treated to make it whiter? . what value as a nutrient does sugar possess? . why should sugar be combined with other nutrients? . what foods contain appreciable amounts of sugar? . why is an excessive amount of sugar in a ration undesirable? . does sugar possess more than condimental value? . what is the average quantity of sugar consumed in this country? . what is maple sugar? . how does it differ in composition from other sugar? . how is adulterated maple sugar detected? . to what extent is granulated sugar adulterated? . why is it not easily adulterated? . what are the dextrose sugars? . how do they differ chemically from sucrose? . what is the inversion of sugar? . in what way does acid act upon sugar? . how are the acid products removed? . what is the food value of glucose? . what is molasses? . how is it obtained? . of what is it composed? . what gives taste and flavor to molasses? . how may molasses act upon metalware? . what is the food value of molasses? . what is sirup? . name three kinds of sirup, and mention materials from which they are prepared. . what is the polariscope, and how is it employed in sugar work? . what is honey? . how does it differ in composition from sugar? . how is strained honey adulterated? . what materials are used in the preparation of confections? . what changes take place in their manufacture? . what materials are used for imparting color? . what can you say in regard to the coal tar colors? . what should be the position of candy in the dietary? . what can you say of the comparative value of cane and beet sugar? . how do the commercial grades of sugar compare as to nutritive value? . what are some of the impurities in candy? . what is saccharine? . what are its properties? chapter vi legumes and nuts . what nutrients do the legumes contain in comparatively large amounts? . how does the amount of this nutrient compare with that found in meats? . why are legumes valuable crops in general farming and for the feeding of farm animals? . give the general composition of beans. . how do beans compare in protein content with cereals? . how does the protein of beans differ from that of many other food materials? . to what extent are the nutrients of beans digested? . what influence does the combination of beans with other foods have upon digestibility? . what influence does removal of skins have upon digestibility? . in what part of the digestive tract are beans mainly digested? . how does the cost of the nutrients in beans compare with that of the nutrients in other foods? . how do string beans differ from green beans? . give the general composition, digestibility, and nutritive value of peas. . what can you say of the use of copper sulphate in the preparation of canned peas? . what nutrients do peanuts contain in large amounts? . give the general composition of nuts. . what are the characteristics of pistachio? . give the general composition of the cocoanut. . what is cocoanut butter? . to what extent may nuts contribute to the nutritive value of a ration? chapter vii milk and dairy products . what can you say as to the importance of dairy products in the dietary? . give the general composition of milk. . what compound in milk is most variable? . to what extent are the nutrients in milk digestible? . what influence does milk have upon the digestibility of other foods? . why is cheese cured in cold storage? . how can the tendency of a milk diet to produce costiveness be overcome? . why is it necessary to consider the sanitary condition of milk? . what factors influence the sanitary condition of milk? . what is certified milk? . what is pasteurized milk? . how can milk be pasteurized for family use? . what is tyrotoxicon? . what is its source in milk? . to what is the color of milk due? . to what extent is color associated with fat content? . what causes souring of milk? . what change occurs in the milk sugar? . what are the most favorable conditions for the souring of milk? . what are some of the preservatives used in milk. . what objection is urged against their use? . what is condensed milk? . what is buttermilk, and what dietetic value has it? . how does goats' milk differ from cows' milk? . what is koumiss, and how is it prepared? . what are the prepared milks? . how does human milk differ in composition from cows' milk? . give the nutritive value of skim milk. . what content of fat should cream contain? . in what ways is milk adulterated? . how are these adulterations detected? . give the general composition of butter. . what is the maximum amount of water that a butter may contain without being considered adulterated? . what can you say in regard to the digestibility of butter? . how is butter adulterated? . how does oleomargarine compare in digestibility and food value with butter? . what is the food value of butter? . how does cheese differ in composition from butter? . give the general composition of cheese. . to what are the flavor and odor of cheese due? . why is cheese ripened? . what chemical changes take place during ripening? . to what extent are the nutrients of cheese digested? . why is cheese sometimes considered indigestible? . to what extent do the nutrients of different kinds of cheese vary in digestibility? . how does cheese compare in nutritive value and cost with meats? . what is cottage cheese? . what is roquefort cheese? . name four kinds of cheese, and say to what each owes its individuality. . how is cheese adulterated? . why are dairy products in older agricultural regions generally cheaper than meats? chapter viii meats and animal food products . give the general composition of meats. . how do meats differ in chemical composition from vegetable foods? . what is the principal non-nitrogenous compound of meats, and what of vegetables? . name the different classes of proteins in meats. . which class is present in largest amounts? . to what extent are amid compounds present in meats? . what characteristics do amids impart to meats? . how are alkaloids produced in meats? . in what ways does the lean meat of different kinds of animals vary chemically and physically? . give the general composition of beef. . what relationship exists between the fat and water content of beef? . how much refuse have meats? . in what forms are the ash elements (mineral matter) present in meats? . how does veal differ in composition from beef? . what general changes in composition occur as animals mature? . how do these compare with the changes that take place when plants ripen and seeds are produced? . how does mutton vary in composition from beef? . how does it compare in food value with beef? . how do lamb and mutton differ in composition? . to what extent do the various cuts differ in composition? . how do the more expensive cuts of lamb compare in nutritive value with the less expensive cuts? . how does pork differ in composition from other meats? . give the general composition of ham. . give the composition and nutritive value of bacon. . how does bacon compare in food value with other meats? . how does the character of the fat influence the composition and taste of the meat? . what influences the texture or toughness of meats? . how do cooked meats compare in composition with raw meats? . to what extent are nutrients lost in the boiling of meats? . what influence does the temperature of the water in which the meat is placed for cooking have upon the amount of nutrients extracted? . to what is the shrinking of meats in cooking due? . of what does meat extract mainly consist? . to what do beef extracts owe their flavor? . what is their food value? . what is their dietetic value? . what is lard? . how does it differ in composition from other fats? . what is imparted to meats during the smoking process? . why is saltpeter used in the preservation of meats? . do vegetable foods contain nitrates and nitrites? . how does poultry resemble and how differ in composition from other meat? . give the characteristics of sound poultry. . give the general composition of fish. . how does the flesh of different kinds of fish vary in composition? . what influence does salting and preservation have upon composition? . how do fish and meat compare in digestibility? . how does the mineral matter and phosphate content of fish compare with that of other foods? . what are the main nutrients in oysters? . give the general food value of oysters. . what is meant by the fattening of oysters? . what effect does the character of the water used in fattening have upon the sanitary value? . give the general composition of the egg. . how do different parts of the egg differ in composition? . how does the egg differ in composition from the potato? . is color an index to the composition of the egg? . what effect does cooking have upon the composition of the egg? . what factors influence the flavor of eggs? . how do different ways of cooking affect the digestibility? . under what conditions can eggs be used economically in the dietary? . why should eggs be purchased and sold by weight? . how do canned meats differ in composition from fresh meats? . how do the nutrients of canned meats compare in cost with those of fresh meat? . what are the advantages of canned meats over fresh meats? . what are some of the materials used in the preservation of meats? chapter ix cereals . how are the cereals milled? . what are the cereals most commonly used for food purposes? . give the general composition of cereals as a class. . what are the main nutrients in corn preparations? . what influence does the more complete removal of the bran and germ of corn have upon its digestibility? . how does the cost of nutrients in corn compare with other foods? . why is corn alone not suitable for bread-making purposes? . why should corn be combined in a ration with foods mediumly rich in protein? . what change takes place in corn meal from long storage? . give the characteristics and composition of oat preparations. . how does removal of the oat hull affect the composition of the product? . to what extent do the various oat preparations on the market differ in composition and food value? . do oats contain any special alkaloidal or stimulating principle? . why should oatmeal receive longer and more-thorough cooking than many other foods? . to what extent are the nutrients in oatmeal digested? . how do wheat preparations differ in general composition from corn and oat preparations? . what influence upon the composition of the wheat breakfast foods has partial or complete removal of the bran? . what is the effect upon their digestibility and nutritive value? . what are the special diabetic flours, and how are they prepared? . what are the wheat middlings breakfast foods, and how do they compare in digestibility and food value with bread? . how do they differ mechanically? . how does barley differ from wheat in general composition? . what is barley water, and what nutritive material does it contain? . what cereal does rice resemble in composition? . with what food materials should rice be combined to make a balanced ration? . what can you say as to comparative ease and completeness of digestibility of rice? . why are cereals valuable in the ration? . in what way do they take a mechanical part in digestion? . what are predigested breakfast foods? . how would you determine the general nutritive value of a breakfast food, knowing the kind of cereal from which it was prepared? . to what extent are cereals modified or changed in composition by cooking? . to what extent are the nutrients of cereal foods digested and absorbed by the body? . to what extent do the cereals supply the body with mineral matter? . how does the phosphate content of cereals compare with that of meats and milk? chapter x wheat flour . why is wheat flour especially adapted to bread-making purposes? . to what extent may wheat vary in protein content? . what are spring wheats? . what are winter wheats? . give the general characteristics of each. . what are glutinous wheats? . what are starchy wheats? . name the different proteids in wheat flour. . about how much starch does wheat flour contain? . what other carbohydrates are also present? . what is the roller process of flour milling? . what is meant by the first break? . how are the different products of the wheat kernel separated? . what is meant by middlings flour? . what is break flour? . what is patent flour? . name the high grade flours. . name the low grade flours. . how are the impurities removed from wheat flour? . what per cent of the wheat kernel is returned as flour? as offals? . what becomes of the wheat germ during milling? . what sized bolting cloths are used in milling? . what is graham flour? . how does it differ in mechanical and chemical composition from white flour? . what is entire wheat flour? . how does it differ in physical and chemical composition from white flour? . what effect has the refining of flour upon the ash content? . how do low and high grade flours differ in chemical composition? . how do the wheat offals differ in composition from the flour? . what are the factors which influence the composition of flours? . what effect does storage have upon the bread-making value of flour? . what change takes place when new wheat is stored in an elevator? . what is durum wheat flour, and how does it differ from other flour? . what gives flour its color? . why is color an index of grade? . how is the color of a flour determined? . how do flours differ in granulation? . how does the granulation affect the physical properties of flour? . how is the granulation of flour approximately determined? . how is the absorptive capacity of a flour determined? . what factors cause a variation in the capacity of flours to absorb water? . give the characteristics of a good gluten. . what causes unsound flours? . how is the bread-making value of a flour determined? . how are flours bleached? . how does bleaching affect the chemical composition of flour? . what influence does bleaching have upon bread-making value? . traces of what compounds are formed during bleaching? . are these compounds injurious to health? . what effect does bleaching have upon the color of fiber and débris particles in flour? . is it possible to bleach low grade flours and cause them to resemble high grade flours? . are flours usually adulterated? . why? . how would mineral adulterants be detected? . how would the presence of other cereals be detected? . how does flour compare in nutritive value with other foods? . how does the cost of flour compare with that of other foods? . what causes flours to vary so in bread-making value? . why may flours produced from the same type of wheat vary slightly in character from year to year? . what relationship exists between the nutritive and bread-making value of a flour? chapter xi bread and bread making . define leavened and unleavened bread. . why is yeast used in bread making? . give the characteristics of a good loaf of bread. . why is flour used for bread making purposes? . name the eight chemical changes that take place during bread making. . to what extent do losses in dry matter occur during bread making? . what compounds suffer losses during bread making? . what is yeast? . what chemical changes does it produce? . what becomes of these products during bread making? . how is compressed yeast made? . what part does the alcohol take in bread making? . what temperature is reached in the interior of the loaf during bread making? . through what chemical changes does starch pass during bread making? . to what extent are soluble carbohydrates formed? . in what way is starch acted upon mechanically? . explain the structure of the starch grains in flour and in dough after they have been acted upon by the yeast ferments. . to what extent are acids produced in bread making? . what becomes of the acids formed? . how may the acids thus developed affect the properties of other chemical compounds? . to what extent are volatile carbon compounds, other than carbon dioxid and alcohol, liberated during bread making? . what changes occur to the various proteids during the process of bread making? . why do flours vary in quality of gluten? . to what extent do losses of nitrogen occur during bread making? . how much of the total nitrogen of flour is present as proteids? . how is the fat of flour affected during the process of bread making? . what effect does the addition of per cent of wheat starch to flour have upon the size of the loaf? . what effect does the addition of per cent of wheat gluten to flour have upon the size of the loaf? . what relationship exists between gluten content and capacity of a flour to absorb water? . give the general composition of bread. . what factors influence its composition? . what effect does the use of skim milk and lard in bread making have upon composition? . how does the temperature of the flour influence the bread-making process? . why is it necessary to vary the process of bread making in order to get the best results with different kinds of flour? . to what extent are the nutrients of bread digested? . how does graham bread compare in digestibility with white bread? . how do graham and entire wheat breads compare in nutritive value with white bread? . what value do graham and entire wheat breads have in the dietary? . why is white bread generally preferable in the dietary of the laboring man? . how do graham and entire wheat flours compare in chemical composition with white flour? . how do they compare in mechanical composition? . to what is the difference in digestibility supposed to be due? . are graham and entire wheat breads necessary in a ration as a source of mineral elements? . what is the main difference in composition between old and new bread? . how do different kinds of bread made from the same flour compare in composition and nutritive value? . how does toast differ in composition from bread? . what influence does toasting have upon digestibility? . what is gained by toasting bread? . how does bread compare in nutritive value with other cereal foods? . how does bread compare in nutritive value with animal foods? chapter xii baking powders . what is a baking powder? . what are the two kinds of materials which baking powders contain? . name the different types of baking powders. . how does baking powder differ in its action from yeast? . what are the cream of tartar baking powders? . what is the nature of the residue which they leave? . what are the phosphate baking powders? . what is the nature of the residue which they leave? . why is the mineral phosphate not considered equally valuable with that naturally present in foods? . what are the alum baking powders? . what residue is left from the alum powders? . which of the three classes of baking powders is considered the least objectionable? . why is a new baking powder preferable to one that has been kept a long time? . why should baking powders be kept in tin cans, and not in paper? . why are fillers used in the manufacture of baking powders? . how may a baking powder be prepared at home? . how does such a baking powder compare in cost and efficiency with those purchased in the market? chapter xiii vinegars, spices, and condiments . what is vinegar? . how is it made? . give the three chemical changes that take place in its preparation. . why is air necessary in the last stage of the process? . what ferments take part in the production of vinegar? . what is malt vinegar? . what materials other than apples can be used in the preparation of vinegar? . give the characteristics of a good vinegar. . in what ways are vinegars adulterated? . what food value has vinegar? . why should vinegars not be stored in metalware? . what dietetic value has vinegar? . to what materials do the spices owe their value? . what is pepper? . what is the difference between white and black pepper? . what compounds give pepper its characteristics? . how are peppers adulterated? . what is mustard? . give its general composition. . how is it adulterated? . what is ginger? . how is it prepared for the market? . give its general composition. . what is cinnamon? . what is cassia? . what gives these their taste and flavor? . what are cloves? . how are they prepared? . what is mace? . what is nutmeg? . do the spices have any food value? . what is their dietetic value? . why is excessive use of some of the spices objectionable? chapter xiv tea, coffee, chocolate, and cocoa . what is tea? name the two plants from which it is obtained, the countries where each grows best, and the number of flushes each yields. . upon what does the quality and grade of tea depend? . give differences in the preparation and composition of green and black teas. . the characteristic flavor of tea is imparted by what compound? . to what compound are its peculiar physiological properties due? . what can you say of the protein in tea as to amount and food value? . why should tea--especially green tea--be infused for a very short time, never boiled? . what effect has tannin upon the digestion of proteids? . what three points are considered in judging a tea? . what is the most common form of tea adulteration? . describe the coffee plant and fruit, and its method of preparation for market. . what is the difference in the chemical composition of tea and coffee? . name the characteristic alkaloid of coffee. how does it compare with theme? . why may coffee not be considered a food? . tell different ways in which coffee may be adulterated. . which is more commonly practiced, tea or coffee adulteration? why? . how may real coffee be distinguished from chicory? why? . name the three kinds of coffee in general use. give distinguishing features of each. which is usually considered best? . from what are cocoa and chocolate obtained? . give the two methods of preparing cocoa. . what alkaloid similar to the theme and caffeine of tea and coffee is present in cocoa and chocolate? . what is the difference in preparation of cocoa and chocolate? . what are cereal coffee-substitutes? . what nutritive value have they? . how do they differ in composition from coffee? . to what extent does cocoa add to the nutritive value of a ration? . what is plain chocolate? . why do chocolate preparations vary so widely in composition? . what treatment is given to the cocoa bean in its preparation for commerce? . what treatment is sometimes given to prevent separation of the cocoa fat? . in what ways may cocoa and chocolate preparations be adulterated? chapter xv digestibility of foods . define the term nutrient. . do all the nutrients of food have the same degree of digestibility? . what is a digestion coefficient? . how is the digestibility of a food determined? . what volatile products are formed during the digestion of food? . define digestible protein; digestible carbohydrates, digestible fat. . what is the available energy of a ration? . how is it determined? . how do the nutrients, protein, fat, and carbohydrates, compare as to available energy? . why is it necessary to consider the caloric value of a ration? . is the protein molecule as completely oxidized in the body as starch or fat? . what residue is left from the digestion of protein? . what part do the soluble ferments take in digestion? . to what extent are the nutrients of animal foods digested? . which nutrient, protein or fat, is the most completely digested? . how do vegetable foods compare in digestibility with animal foods? . what effect does cellulose have upon digestibility? . which of the nutrients of vegetables, protein or carbohydrates, is more completely digested? . what mechanical value may cellulose have in a ration? . why must bulk be considered in a ration, as well as nutrient content? . name the eight most important factors influencing the digestibility of foods. . to what extent does the combination of foods affect the digestibility of the nutrients? . why does a mixed ration give better results than when only a single food is used? . how does the amount consumed affect the completeness of the digestive process? . to what extent does the method of preparing food affect digestibility? . what is gained, so far as digestibility is concerned, by the cooking of foods? . to what extent does the mechanical condition of food affect its digestibility? . why is it desirable to have some coarsely granulated foods in a ration? . why should the ration not be composed exclusively of finely granulated foods? . why is some coarsely granulated food more essential in the dietary of the sedentary than in the dietary of the laborer? . how does palatability affect the digestive process? . do psychological processes in any way affect digestion? . what physiological properties do some foods possess? . to what are these physiological properties due? . to what extent is individuality a factor in digestion? . to what extent does digestibility differ with individuals? . why do some foods affect individuals in different ways? . why is it necessary that the quantity, quality, and character of the food should vary with different individuals? . in what different ways is the expression "digestibility of a food" used? . why is it necessary to consider the digestibility of food, as well as its composition? . does the digestibility of a food necessarily indicate the economic uses that will be made of it by the body? . how is it possible for one food containing per cent of digestible protein, and other nutrients in like amounts, to be more valuable than another food with the same per cent of digestible protein and other nutrients? . how is it possible for one food to contain less total protein than another food and yet be more valuable from a nutritive point of view? . why is it necessary to consider the mechanical condition of a food and its combination with other foods, as well as its chemical composition? . what effect does lack of a good supply of air have upon the completeness of the digestion process? . in what ways does the digestion of food resemble the combustion of fuel? . what is gained by a study of the digestibility of foods? . why may two foods of the same general character give different results when used for nutritive purposes? chapter xvi comparative cost and value of foods . to what extent do the nutritive value and the market price of foods vary? . how is the value of one food expressed in terms of another food? . how determine the amount of nutrients that can be procured in a food for a given sum of money? . how compare the amounts of nutrients that can be procured in two foods for a given sum of money? . how is it possible to determine approximately which of two foods is cheaper, when the price and composition of the foods are known? . to what nutrient is preference usually given in assigning a value to a food? . when the difference in this nutrient between two foods is small, then the preference is given to what nutrients? . at ordinary prices, what are the cheapest vegetable foods? . what are among the cheapest animal foods? . why is it not possible to determine the value of a food absolutely from its composition and digestibility? . why is it necessary to consider the physical as well as the chemical composition of foods? . what proportion of the income of the laboring man is usually expended for food? . what are the most expensive foods? . what foods furnish the largest amount of nutrients at the least cost? chapter xvii dietary studies . what is a dietary study? . how is a dietary study made? . what is the value of the dietary study of a family? . to what extent does the protein in the dietary range? . why is a scant amount of protein in a ration undesirable? . why is an excess of protein in the ration undesirable? . what are dietary standards? . how are such standards obtained? . why is it desirable in a ration to secure the protein and other nutrients from a variety rather than from a few foods? . why is it necessary to consider the caloric value of a ration? . how is this determined? . what is a wide nutritive ratio? . what is a narrow nutritive ratio? . why should the amount of nutrients consumed vary with the work performed? . how should the nutrients be apportioned among the meals? . what are some of the most common dietary errors? . what analogy exists between human and animal feeding? . what is gained by the rational feeding of both humans and animals? . what use can be made of the results of dietary studies for improvement of the dietary? . why is it not possible for animal foods to compete in economy with cereal and vegetable foods? . is a well-balanced ration and one containing an ample supply of nutrients necessarily an expensive ration? . show how it is possible for one family to spend less money for food than another family, and yet secure more digestible nutrients and energy. . what are some of the most erroneous ideas as to food values? . why is it necessary to consider previously acquired food habits in the selection of foods? . in general, what portion of the nutrients of a ration should be derived from vegetable foods, and what portion from meats? . to what extent may a ration vary from the dietary standards? . why are some inexpensive foods often expensive when prepared for the table? . what are some of the ways in which the cost of a ration can be decreased without sacrificing nutritive value? . why do different nationalities acquire distinct food habits? . why is it not possible to make sudden and radical changes in the dietary? . why is it not possible for a dietary which gives ample satisfaction for one class of people to be applied to another class with equal satisfaction? . what relationship exists between the dietary of a nation and its physical development? . what relationship exists between dietary habits and mental development and vigor? . why is it unnecessary and undesirable to regulate absolutely the amount of nutrients consumed in the daily ration? . what is the general tendency as to quantity of food and amount of nutrients consumed? . why do people of sedentary habits require a different dietary from those pursuing active, out-of-door occupations? chapter xviii rational feeding of man . what is the object of the rational feeding of man? . on what is it based? . how does it compare with the rational feeding of animals? . what is a standard ration? . how is it determined? . to what extent may the nutrients of a ration vary from the standard? . how do you combine foods to form a balanced ration? . what foods are valuable for supplying protein? . what foods supply fats? . what foods are rich in carbohydrates? . what other requisites should a ration have in addition to supplying the necessary nutrients? . why is it necessary to consider the calorie value of a ration? . if a ration contained an excess of carbohydrates and a scant amount of protein, how could it be improved? . how do you calculate the nutrients in a fraction of a pound of food? . give the amounts of the common food materials, as potatoes, bread, butter, milk, and cheese, ordinarily combined to form a ration. . to what extent may foods differ in composition from the average analysis given? . what foods are subject to the greatest and what foods to the least variation? chapter xix water . why is water regarded as a food? . does it enter chemically into the composition of plants? of animals? . in addition to serving as a food, why is water necessary for life processes? . in what ways may water be improved? . what are the most common forms of impurities? . what are the mineral impurities of water? . what is their source? . what effect do some of these minerals have upon the value of the water? . what causes some waters to dissolve limestone? . what are permanently hard waters? . to what is temporary hardness in water due? . what is the best way to remove mineral matter from water? . what are the organic impurities of water? . what are the sources of the organic impurities? . what change does the organic matter of water undergo? . what becomes of the nitrogen of the organic matter? . what does the presence of nitrates in water indicate? nitrites? . what is the total solid matter of a water, and how is it obtained? . define the terms free ammonia; albuminoid ammonia. . what does the presence of chlorine in a surface well water indicate? . explain natural purification of water. . can natural purification always be relied upon? . why does the character of the drinking water affect health? . what diseases are mainly caused by impure drinking water? . with what materials in water are the disease-producing organisms associated? . why should a water of questionable purity be boiled? . state how the boiling should be done, to be effective. . why should boiled water receive further care in its storage? . what effect does improvement of the water supply of a city have upon the death rate? . how may connections between cesspools and surface well waters be traced? . what impurities do rain waters contain? . explain the workings of the pasteur and berkefeld water filters. . why must special attention be given to cleaning the water filter? . explain the processes employed for the removal of mechanical impurities of water by sedimentation and the use of chemicals. . why should such purification be under the supervision of a chemist or bacteriologist? . what effect does freezing have upon the purity of water? . why are precautions necessary in the use of ice for refrigeration? . what are mineral waters? . how are artificial mineral waters prepared? . what are the more common materials used in their preparation? . why should mineral waters be extensively used only by the advice of a physician? . what are some of the materials used for softening water? . which are the least objectionable of these materials? . which are the most objectionable? . what can you say of the use of ammonia and ammonium carbonate for softening waters? . in washing clothing after contagious diseases, what materials may be used for disinfecting? . why, in softening waters for household purposes, must caustic soda, potash, and bleaching powder be used with caution? . why is it necessary to determine by trial the material most suitable for softening water? . what advantage, from a pecuniary point of view, results from the improvement of the water supply of a community? chapter xx food in its relation to household sanitation and storage . what are the compounds usually determined in a food analysis? . does such an analysis necessarily indicate the presence of injurious compounds? . what are the sources of the injurious organic compounds in foods? . why is it necessary to consider sanitary condition as well as chemical composition? . what are the sources of contamination of foods? . what is the object of the sanitary inspection of food? . how may flies carry germ diseases? . why should food be protected from impure air and dust particles? . why should places where vegetables are stored be well ventilated? . how may the dirt adhering to vegetables be the carrier of germ diseases? . why should the cellar in which food is stored be in a sanitary condition? . what effect does the cleaning of streets and improvement of the sanitation of cities have upon the death rate? . name the three natural disinfectants, and explain the action of each. . why must dishes and utensils in which foods are placed be thoroughly cleaned? . explain the principle of refrigeration. . what kind of ferment action may take place at a low temperature? . why is some ventilation necessary in refrigeration? . what effect does refrigeration have upon the composition of food? . what relationship exists between unsanitary condition of soils about dwellings and contamination of the food? . why should special attention be given to the sanitary disposal of kitchen refuse? . name the ways in which this can be accomplished. . how may foods become contaminated through imperfect plumbing? . mention the conditions necessary in order to keep foods sanitary. references the following list of references is given for the use of the student in case additional information is desired upon some of the subjects discussed in this work. the list is not intended as a complete bibliography of the subject of foods. the advanced student will find extended references in the experiment station record and the various chemical, physiological, and bacteriological journals. . snyder: the chemistry of plant and animal life. . minnesota experiment station bulletin no. : human food investigations. . cross and bevans: cellulose. . wiley: principles and practice of agricultural analysis, vol. iii. . minnesota experiment station bulletin no. : human food investigations. . parry: the chemistry of essential oils, etc. . u. s. department of agriculture, farmers' bulletin no. : principles of nutrition and nutritive value of food. . mann: chemistry of the proteids. . minnesota experiment station bulletin no. : wheat and flour investigations. . armsby: principles of animal nutrition. . sherman: organic analysis. . u. s. department of agriculture, office of experiment stations bulletin no. : digestion experiments with potatoes and eggs. . unpublished results of author. . u. s. department of agriculture, bureau of animal industry bulletin no. : cold curing of cheese. . wiley: foods and their adulteration. . minnesota experiment station bulletin no. : miscellaneous analyses. . u. s. department of agriculture, bureau of chemistry bulletin no. , part : canned vegetables. . leach: food inspection and analysis. . u. s. department of agriculture, farmers' bulletin no. : preparation of vegetables for the table. . u. s. department of agriculture year book, : fruit and its uses as food. . handbook of experiment station work, . . u. s. department of agriculture, division of chemistry bulletin no. : studies on apples. . u. s. department of agriculture, bureau of chemistry bulletin no. : fruits and fruit products. . u. s. department of agriculture, farmers' bulletin no. : canned fruits, preserves, and jellies. . u. s. department of agriculture, bureau of chemistry bulletin no. : sugar beet industry. . sadtler: a handbook of industrial organic chemistry. . minnesota experiment station bulletin no. : the food value of sugar. the digestive action of milk. . hutchison: food and principles of dietetics. . u. s. department of agriculture, farmers' bulletin no : sugar as food. . u. s. department of agriculture, office of experiment stations bulletin no. : maple sugar and sirup. . u. s. department of agriculture, bureau of chemistry bulletin no. , part : sugar, molasses, sirup, and confections. . u. s. department of agriculture, farmers' bulletin no. : peas and beans as food. . u. s. department of agriculture, farmers' bulletin no. : nuts as food. . maine experiment station bulletin no. : nuts as food. . california experiment station bulletins nos. and : investigations among fruitarians. . u. s. department of agriculture, farmers' bulletin no. : milk as food. . u. s. department of agriculture, farmers' bulletin no. : care of milk on the farm. . u. s. department of agriculture, farmers' bulletin no. : digestibility of milk. . russell: dairy bacteriology. . u. s. department of agriculture, bureau of chemistry bulletin no. . part : dairy products. . u. s. department of agriculture, farmers' bulletin no. : household tests for detection of oleomargarine and renovated butter. . u. s. department of agriculture, bureau of animal industry bulletin no : relation of bacteria to flavor of cheddar cheese. . minnesota experiment station bulletin no. : the digestibility and nutritive value of cottage cheese, etc. . lawes and gilbert: experiments with animals. . u. s. department of agriculture, farmers' bulletin no. : meats, composition and cooking. . u. s. department of agriculture, bureau of chemistry bulletin no. , part : lard and lard adulterants. . u. s. department of agriculture, office of experiment stations bulletin no. : cooking of meats as affecting digestibility. . u.s. department of agriculture, office of experiment stations bulletin no. : experiments on losses in cooking meats. see also office of experiment stations bulletin no. : losses in cooking meats. . u. s. department of agriculture, office of experiment stations bulletin no. : physiological effect of creatin and creatinin. . u. s. department of agriculture, office of experiment stations bulletin no. : the influence of cooking upon the nutritive value of meats. . u. s. department of agriculture, bureau of chemistry bulletin no. , part : preserved meats. . richardson, w. d., journal of the american chemical society, december, : the occurrence of nitrates in vegetable foods, in cured meats, and elsewhere. . u. s. department of agriculture, office of experiment stations bulletin no. : poultry as food. . u. s. department of agriculture, farmers' bulletin no. : fish as food. . u. s. department of agriculture, farmers' bulletin, experiment station work: digestibility of fish and poultry. . u. s. department of agriculture, farmers' bulletin no. : cereal breakfast foods. . u. s. department of agriculture, bureau of chemistry bulletin no. : composition of maize. . u. s. department of agriculture, office of experiment stations bulletin no. : gluten flour and similar foods. . hammerston: physiological chemistry. . edgar: the wheat berry. . minnesota experiment station bulletin no. : composition and value of grains. . u. s. department of agriculture, office of experiment stations bulletin no. : bread and bread making. . u. s. department of agriculture, office of experiment stations bulletin no. : digestibility and nutritive value of bread and macaroni flour. . u. s. department of agriculture, office of experiment stations bulletin no. : bread and bread making. . university of nebraska bulletin no. : the effect of bleaching upon the quality of wheat flour. . snyder: wheat flour and bread. . u. s. department of agriculture, office of experiment stations bulletin no. : bread and bread making. . lawes and gilbert: experiments on some points in the composition of the wheat grain, of the product in the mill and bread. . u. s. department of agriculture, bureau of chemistry bulletin no. , part : baking powders. . u. s. department of agriculture, bureau of chemistry bulletin no. , part : spices and condiments. . food standards: u. s. department of agriculture. see annual reports of the association of official agricultural chemists. . u. s. department of agriculture, office of experiment stations bulletin no. : methods and results of investigations on the chemistry and economy of foods. . u. s. department of agriculture, bureau of chemistry bulletin no. , part : tea, coffee, and cocoa preparations. . the respiration calorimeter: year-book u. s. department of agriculture, . . year book u. s. department of agriculture, : cost of food as related to its nutritive value. . see u. s. department of agriculture, office of experiment stations bulletins nos. , , , , , , . see also other bulletins of the office of experiment stations. . chittenden: physiological economy in nutrition. . u. s. department of agriculture, office of experiment stations bulletin no. : effect of severe and prolonged muscular work on food consumption. . henry: feeds and feeding. . u. s. department of agriculture, office of experiment stations: dietary studies in chicago bulletin no. . . u. s. department of agriculture, office of experiment stations bulletin no. : dietary studies in new york city. . u. s. department of agriculture, farmers' bulletin no. : banana flour. . u. s. department of agriculture, office of experiment stations bulletin no. : digest of japanese investigations on the nutrition of man. . u. s. department of agriculture, office of experiment stations bulletin no. : dietary studies at the government hospital for the insane, washington, d.c. . u. s. department of agriculture, office of experiment stations bulletin no. : studies on the food of maine lumbermen. . u. s. department of agriculture, office of experiment stations bulletin no. : studies on the digestibility and nutritive value of bread at the maine experiment station. . u. s. department of agriculture, office of experiment stations, experiment station work, vol. iii: wells and pure water. . u. s. department of agriculture, farmers' bulletin no. : pure water on the farm. mineral impurities in water. see various bulletins of the california and new mexico agricultural experiment stations. . mason: examination of water. . department of the interior, u. s. geological survey: the quality of surface waters in minnesota. . fuertes: water and public health. . u. s. department of agriculture, farmers' bulletin no. : distilled drinking water. . turneaure and russell: public water supplies. . vaughan and novy: ptomains and lencomains. . u. s. department of agriculture, bureau of entomology, circular no. : house flies. . ellen h. richards and s. maria elliott: the chemistry of cooking and cleaning. . dr. woods hutchinson, _saturday evening post_, : the real angels of the house. . harrington: practical hygiene. . price: handbook of sanitation. index air, infection from impure, . pure, disinfectant, . albuminoids, . alkaloids, . allspice, . almonds, . alum baking powder, . amids and amines, . animal and vegetable foods, economy of, . animal foods, digestibility of, . apparatus used in experiments, . apples, . pectose from, . ash, of foods, . elements of plants, . asparagus, . available energy, . nutrients, . bacteria in food, . baking powder, composition of, . cream of tartar, . phosphates, . alum, . inspection of, . fillers, . home-made, . testing for alum, . testing for ammonia, . testing for phosphoric acid, . baking tests, - . barley preparations, . beans, composition, . digestibility, . removal of skins, . string, . use of, in dietary, . beef, . extracts, . beets, . beverages, composition, . bleaching of flour, . bolting cloth, . bread and bread making, - . leavened and unleavened bread, . chemical changes during making, . losses during bread making, . production of carbon dioxide, . production of alcohol, . production of soluble carbohydrates, . production of acids, . production of volatile compounds, . production of volatile nitrogenous compounds, . wheat proteids, part taken by, . oxidation of fat, . starch, influence of, addition of, . composition of bread, . temperature of flour, . use of skim milk, . process of bread making, . digestibility of bread, . graham bread, use in the dietary, . white and graham bread compared, . mineral content of, . new and old, . action of heat on, . different kinds of, . breakfast foods, - . broth, . butter, composition, . digestibility, . adulteration, . coloring, . renovated, . water in, . buttermilk, . cabbage, . candies, . canned meats, . vegetables, . peas, . carbohydrates defined, . carrots, . cauliflower, . cellars, storage of food in, . cellulose and properties, . cereals, - . preparation of, . cost of, . value of, . use of, in dietary, . corn preparations, . oat preparations, . wheat preparations, . barley preparations, . rice preparations, . predigested, . phosphates in, . mineral matters of, . coffees, . cesspools, . cheese, - . general composition, . digestibility, . use of, in dietary, . cottage, . different kinds of, . adulteration, . chemical changes during cooking, - . chemicals, use of, in preparation of foods permitted, . chestnuts, . chicory, detection in coffee, . chocolate, . adulteration of, . cinnamon and cassia, . cloves, . coal tar dyes, testing for, . cocoa, . cocoanuts, . coffee, composition of, . detection of chicory in, . glazing of, . substitutes, cereal, . types of, . combustion of foods, . cooking, changes during, . chemical, - . physical, - . bacteriological, . corn, sweet, . preparations, . cream, . cream of tartar, . crude fiber of foods, . crude protein, . cucumbers, . dairy products, - . use of, in dietary, . dextrose, . dietary standards, . dietary studies, - . object of, . mixed, desirable, . of families compared, . in public institutions, . digestibility of foods, . of animal foods, . of vegetable foods, . digestion, combination of foods, . factors influencing, . amount of food, . method of preparation of food, . mechanical condition of foods, . psychological factors, . individuality, . digestion and health, . dishcloth, unclean, . disinfectants, , , . drying of foods, . dry matter, . egg plant, . eggs, - . composition, . digestibility, . cooking of, . use of, in dietary, . elements in foods, . energy, available, . energy value of rations, . entire wheat, . essential oils, . occurrence, . composition of, . food value, . esthetic value of foods, . fat, occurrence in food, . composition, . physical properties, . food value, . individual fats, . oxidation of, during bread making, . ferments, soluble, . insoluble, . figs, . fish, . flavoring extracts, . flavors, composition of, . occurrence of, . food value, . flies, contamination of food by, , . foods, . digestibility of, . mechanical condition of, . palatability of, . physiological properties of, . ash of, . predigested, . sodium chloride in, . cost of, . market price and nutritive value, - . composition of, - . comparative nutritive value, . economy of production, . habits, . notions, . relation to mental and physical vigor, . amount consumed, . injurious compounds in, . contamination of, , . sanitary inspection of, . storage in cellars, . infection from impure air, . utensils for storage, . raw, . cheap and expensive, . fruits, composition of, . canned, . dried, . canned and adulterated, . fruit extracts, . fruit flavors, . ginger, . gliadin, . gluten, addition of, to flour, . moist and dry, . gluten properties of flour, . graham bread, . use in dietary, . graham flour, . grape fruit, . grapes, . heat, action on foods, . hickory nuts, . honey, . ice, . inspection of food, . inversion of sugar, . kitchen refuse, . koumiss, . laboratory practice, . lard, . substitutes, . legumes, - . lemon extract, testing, . lemons, . acidity of, . lettuce, . macaroni flour, . mace, . malted foods, . maple sugar, . meals, number of, per day, . measuring, directions for, . meat broth, . meats, - . general composition, . proteids of, . fat of, . water of, . texture of, . cooking of, influence of, on composition, . extractive materials, . smoked, . boric acid in, . saltpeter in, . canned, . melons, . microscope, use of, . milk, importance in dietary, . general composition, . souring of, . condensed, . digestibility, . sanitary condition, . certified milk, . pasteurized, . color of, . preservatives in, . goat's, . human, . adulteration of, . prepared, . formaldehyde in, . mineral matter, . in ration, . mineral waters, . miscellaneous compounds, . mixed nitrogenous compounds, . mixed non-nitrogenous compounds, . moisture content of foods, variations in, . moisture in foods, how determined, . molasses, . mustard, . testing for turmeric, . mutton, . nitrates in foods, . nitrites in foods, . nitrogen free extract, . defined, . composition, . how determined, . variable character of, . nitrogenous compounds, . general composition, . non-nitrogenous compounds, classification of, . nutmeg, . nutrients, available, . nutritive value of nitrogenous compounds, . starch, . sugar, . nitrogen free extract, . fat, . protein, . amids, . nuts, - . use of, in dietary, . oat preparations, . oleomargarine, . detecting, . olive oil, testing, . olives, . onions, . oranges, . organic acids, . occurrence in foods, . influence on digestion, . use in plant economy, . production during germination, . organic compounds, classification of, . organic matter, . oysters, . palatability of food, . parsnips, . peaches, . peanuts, . fat from, . peas, . canned, . pectose substances, . pepper, . phosphate baking powders, . physical changes during cooking, . physiological properties of foods, . pistachio, . plumbing, sanitary, . plums, . pork, . potatoes, . composition, . digestibility, . nutritive value, . sweet, . poultry, . predigested foods, . protein, composition of, . properties of, . combinations of, . types of, . crude, . food value of, . amount of, in ration, . psychological factors in digestion, . pumpkins, . rational feeding of man, - . rations, wide and narrow, . standard, . object of, . examples of, . requisites of, . protein requirements of, . energy value of, . references, . refrigeration, . refuse, disposal of, . renovated butter, . review questions, . rice preparations, . saccharine, . saltpeter in meats, . sanitary condition of vegetables, . sanitary inspection of food, . sausage, . sodium chloride in foods, . soil, sanitary condition of, . spices, . spinach, . squash, . starch, . occurrence, . composition, . properties, . food value, . influence of heat on, . strawberries, . sugar, defined, . beet, . cane, . commercial grades, . manufacture of, . sulphur in, . digestibility of, . value of, in dietary, . adulteration of, . maple, . dextrose, . sunlight as a disinfectant, . sweet potatoes, . syrups, . sorghum, . tea, - . black, . green, . composition of, . judging of, . adulteration of, . physiological properties of, . examination of leaves, . toast, . tomatoes, . underfed families, . vanilla extract, testing, . veal, . vegetable foods, . vegetables, - . edible portion, . canned, . sanitary condition of, . digestibility of, . vinegar, - . preparation of, . different kinds of, . adulteration of, . solids, . specific gravity, . acidity, . volatile matter, . water, drinking, - . importance, . impurities in, . mineral impurities, . organic impurities, . purification of, - . analysis, . and typhoid fever, . improvement of, . boiling of, . filtration of, . distillation of, . materials for softening water, . testing purity of, . water in foods, . how determined, . water supply, economic value, . waters, mineral, . weighing, directions for, . wheat cereal preparations, . wheat flour, . spring and winter wheat flour, . starchy and glutenous, . composition of, . process of milling, - . patent, . grades of, . composition of, . ash content, . graham, . entire wheat, . by-products, . aging and curing, . macaroni, . color, . granulation, . capacity to absorb water, . gluten, properties of, . unsoundness of, . baking tests, . bleaching of, . adulteration of, . nutritive value of, . water in, . ash in, . acidity of, . moist and dry gluten, . yeast, action of, . compressed, . dry, . by harry snyder, b.s. professor of agricultural chemistry, university of minnesota, and chemist of the minnesota agricultural experiment station the chemistry of plant and animal life _illustrated. cloth. mo. pages. $ . net; by mail, $ . _ "the language is, as it should be, plain and simple, free from all needless technicality, and the story thus told is of absorbing interest to every one, man or woman, boy or girl, who takes an intelligent interest in farm life."--_the new england farmer._ "although the book is highly technical, it is put in popular form and made comprehensible from the standpoint of the farmer; it deals largely with those questions which arise in his experience, and will prove an invaluable aid in countless directions."--_the farmer's voice._ dairy chemistry _illustrated, pages, $ . net; by mail, $ . _ "the book is a valuable one which any dairy farmer, or, indeed, any one handling stock, may read with profit."--_rural new yorker._ soils and fertilizers _third edition. illustrated. $ . net; by mail, $ . _ a book which presents in a concise form the principles of soil fertility and discusses all of the topics relating to soils as outlined by the committee on methods of teaching agriculture. it contains pages, with illustrations, and treats of a great variety of subjects, such as physical properties of soils; geological formation, etc.; nitrogen of the soil and air; farm manures; commercial fertilizers, several chapters; rotation of crops; preparation of soil for crops, etc. the macmillan company - fifth avenue, new york books on agriculture on selection of land, etc. thomas f. hunt's how to choose a farm $ net e. w. hilgard's soils: their formation and relations to climate and 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book net a. french's how to grow vegetables net on fruit-growing, etc. l. h. bailey's nursery book net l. h. bailey's fruit-growing net l. h. bailey's the pruning book net f. w. card's bush fruits net j. t. bealby's fruit ranching in british columbia net on the care of live stock d. e. lyon's how to keep bees for profit net nelson s. mayo's the diseases of animals net w. h. jordan's the feeding of animals net i. p. roberts's the horse net george c. watson's farm poultry net c. s. valentine's how to keep hens for profit net o. kellner's the scientific feeding of animals (trans.) net m. h. reynolds's veterinary studies for agricultural students net on dairy work henry h. wing's milk and its products $ net c. m. aikman's milk net harry snyder's dairy chemistry net w. d. frost's laboratory guide in elementary bacteriology net i. p. sheldon's the farm and the dairy net chr. barthel's methods used in the examination of milk and dairy products net on plant diseases, etc. george massee's diseases of cultivated plants and trees net j. g. lipman's bacteria in relation to country life net e. c. lodeman's the spraying of plants net h. m. ward's disease in plants (english) net a. s. packard's a text-book on entomology net on production of new plants l. h. bailey's plant-breeding net l. h. bailey's the survival of the unlike net l. h. bailey's the evolution of our native fruits net w. s. harwood's new creations in plant life net on economics and organization j. b. green's law for the american farmer net j. mclennan's manual of practical farming net l. h. bailey's the state and the farmer net henry c. taylor's agricultural economics net i. p. roberts's the farmer's business handbook net george t. fairchild's rural wealth and welfare net s. e. sparling's business organization net in the citizen's library. includes a chapter on farming kate v. st. maur's a self-supporting home net kate v. st. maur's the earth's bounty. net g. f. warren and k. c. livermore's exercises in farm management net h. n. ogden's rural hygiene net on everything agricultural l. h. bailey's cyclopedia of american agriculture: vol. i. farms, climates, and soils. vol. ii. farm crops. vol. iii. farm animals. vol. iv. the farm and the community. complete in four royal vo volumes, with over illustrations. price of sets: cloth, $ net; half morocco, $ net. _for further information as to any of the above, address the publishers._ the macmillan company publishers - fifth avenue new york cyclopedia of american agriculture edited by l. h. bailey of cornell university, editor of "cyclopedia of american horticulture," author of "plant breeding," "principles of agriculture," etc. with full-page plates and more than illustrations in the text--four volumes--the set: cloth, $ net--half morocco, $ net--carriage extra volume i--farms the agricultural regions--the projecting of a farm--the soil environment--the atmosphere environment. volume ii--crops the plant and its relations--the manufacture of crop products--north american field crops. volume iii--animals the animal and its relations--the manufacture of animal products--north american farm animals. volume iv--the farm and the community economics--social questions--organizations--history--literature, etc. "indispensable to public and reference libraries ... readily comprehensible to any person of average education."--_the nation._ "the completest existing thesaurus of up-to-date facts and opinions on modern agricultural methods. it is safe to say that many years must pass before it can be surpassed in comprehensiveness, accuracy, practical value, and mechanical excellence. it ought to be in every library in the country."--_record herald_, chicago. published by the macmillan company fifth avenue, new york transcriber's note: ################### this e-text is based on the edition. inconsistent hyphenation (e.g., 'semi-acid'/'semiacid') and spelling ('purée'/'puree') have been retained. italic passages in the original version has been placed between underscores (_italic_); text in small caps have been symbolised by forward slashes (/small caps/). the following passages have been corrected: # table of contents: 'low vitality (continued)' has been added # table of contents: page number for 'colds' changed to match the original; corresponding header added to the text # p. : 'lagrippe' --> 'la grippe' # p. : 'cyicken' --> 'chicken' encyclopedia of diet encyclopedia of diet _a treatise on the food question_ in five volumes /explaining, in plain language, the chemistry of food and the chemistry of the human body, together with the art of uniting these two branches of science in the process of eating, so as to establish normal digestion and assimilation of food and normal elimination of waste, thereby removing the causes of stomach, intestinal, and all other digestive disorders/ by /eugene christian/, f.s.d. /volume iv/ new york the christian dietetic society /copyright, by eugene christian all rights reserved /published august, / contents /volume iv/ _lesson xv_ (continued) _page_ low vitality (continued) obesity neurasthenia malnutrition anemia locomotor ataxia colds nasal catarrh hay fever asthma influenza insomnia rheumatism and gout bright's dis-ease diabetes consumption dis-eases of the skin appendicitis menus for the pregnant woman importance of food during pregnancy the nursing mother menus for the nursing mother miscellaneous menus: weak digestion building up nervous system for aged person strength and endurance malassimilation and autointoxication no appetite athletic diet for invalid child for mental worker for school teacher for laboring man for cold weather for hot weather to build up sexual vitality lesson xv curative and remedial menus concluded low vitality (continued) spring menu _low vitality--underweight weak digestion_ take a cool sponge or a shower bath, a few minutes' vigorous exercise, and a cup of hot water just after rising. breakfast strained orange juice, diluted--one-half water one egg whipped five or six minutes with a rotary egg beater, to which add a spoonful of sugar, a flavor of pineapple juice, and a glass of milk half-cup of wheat bran, cooked, and a spoonful or two of steamed wheat luncheon three eggs prepared as for breakfast, adding two glasses of milk. drink slowly dinner a two-egg omelet rolled in cream and grated nuts puree of peas or beans a small baked potato take sufficient wheat bran night and morning to keep the bowels in normal action. summer menu _low vitality--underweight weak digestion_ a very ripe peach or plum, a cup of cool water, exercise and deep breathing on rising. breakfast cantaloup, peaches, cherries, or any very ripe sweet fruit buttermilk or egg, prepared choice a baked sweet potato luncheon three glasses of milk, taking one-half glass every five or six minutes a small portion of wheat bran, cooked dinner a green salad an ear of tender corn one or two fresh vegetables such as onions, beans, spinach, beets fall menu _low vitality--underweight weak digestion_ breakfast a small portion of wheat bran, well cooked a cup of warm milk one egg, whipped very fine, to which add a very little sugar and lemon juice. take this uncooked a few baked chestnuts eaten with butter luncheon string beans or carrots--masticate very thoroughly a large spanish onion, boiled a baked potato wheat bran dinner choice of tender fish or chicken a portion of spinach a baked potato onions, en casserole a small portion of wheat bran winter menu _low vitality--underweight weak digestion_ /first day/: drink two glasses of water immediately after rising. eat one-fourth pound of grapes or some juicy fruit. devote from three to four minutes to deep breathing exercises. breakfast (half hour later) whole wheat, cooked; serve with cream or butter a baked sweet potato a cup of milk a small portion of wheat bran eaten with thin cream luncheon a large, boiled spanish or bermuda onion a small portion of carrots, thoroughly cooked a spoonful or two of wheat bran dinner a cream soup made from celery or onions rice made into a thick purée, or a baked potato, carrots, onions, or turnips a spoonful or two of wheat bran just before retiring, take a spoonful or two of wheat bran, uncooked, in a little water, and devote as much time as possible to deep breathing exercises. from one to two glasses of water should be drunk at each of the above meals. it may be taken hot if preferred. if something hot is desired, as a beverage, take a cup of sassafras tea with a little cream and sugar. /second day/: the same as the first. /third day/: the same as the second, slightly increasing the quantity of food if demanded by normal hunger. /fourth day/: exercises, water-drinking, and fruit as prescribed for the first day. breakfast two extremely ripe bananas, eaten with thin cream and nut butter or nuts masticated very fine. (they should be baked if not exceedingly ripe) a cup of sassafras tea or chocolate luncheon three glasses of buttermilk two beaten egg whites with three teaspoonfuls of sugar a tablespoonful of wheat bran dinner a portion of boiled onions and tender carrots, cooked until very soft two baked white potatoes eaten with a little butter two egg whites prepared any way they are most appetizing a cup of water, hot or cold /fifth day/: the same as the fourth. /sixth day/: the same as the first, repeating the menus for a week or two. such vegetables as sweet potatoes, parsnips, baked beans and pumpkin may be added as digestion and assimilation improve. for recipe for baked bananas, see p. ; for cooking vegetables, see p. . menus for obesity spring menu _obesity--irregular heart action nervousness_ fruit-juice, a glass of water, and ten minutes devoted to vigorous exercise and deep breathing just after rising. breakfast choice of fruit a cup of hot water two or three exceedingly ripe bananas (red variety preferred), eaten with raisins, nuts, and cream luncheon a portion of fresh fish and a new baked potato dinner a green salad with dressing and nuts peas or asparagus a rare omelet with a dash of grated nuts a bit of crisp corn bread or a bran meal gem most people afflicted with obesity are also afflicted with abnormal appetite, therefore at the outset they may undergo some deprivation, but if this is not yielded to, hunger will soon become normal. the appetite for an excessive quantity of food is very much like the appetite for coffee, intoxicants, or tobacco, and when the appetite once becomes abnormal and is not held under control, either obesity or chronic autointoxication will be the result. luncheon should be omitted unless very hungry. summer menu _obesity--irregular heart action nervousness_ breakfast melon, peaches, or berries tender fish, broiled a new potato or a bran muffin luncheon corn or beans a salad--lettuce or celery dinner a light soup--vegetable eggplant, okra, beans, or squash bran gems or a potato nuts, with a lettuce salad fall menu _obesity--irregular heart action nervousness_ /first day/: immediately on rising, drink a cup of hot water, followed by a cup of cool water. devote as much time as possible (from three to ten minutes) to such exercises as can be endured. (see vol. v, pp. to .) inflate lungs to their utmost capacity every third or fourth movement. secure a spirometer and increase the lung capacity until it registers about two hundred and fifty cubic inches. this is exceedingly important. breakfast a cantaloup or soaked, evaporated peaches baked chestnuts bananas with cream bran meal gems luncheon a salad carrots, squash, beets, parsnips, or turnips a potato or lima beans supplementary luncheon (to be taken in office) two exceedingly ripe bananas, with nut butter and raisins two glasses of water (or the following at a restaurant or cafe) choice of the following vegetables--boiled onions, carrots, parsnips, squash, or tender corn a baked potato a glass of water dinner choice of two vegetables from the selection given for luncheon a green salad a baked sweet or a white potato two egg whites and one yolk very lightly poached two glasses of water devote about ten minutes to exercising and deep breathing just before retiring. /second day/: the same as the first, slightly increasing or decreasing the quantity of food according to normal hunger. it will probably be necessary to draw a very sharp distinction between appetite and hunger. (see spring menu, "no appetite," p. .) /third day/: the same as the first, if entirely agreeable. if the bowels should become too lax, a small portion of rice, cooked in milk, might be taken with both the morning and the evening meal, omitting a similar quantity of other foods. /fourth day/: breakfast two eggs, whipped from five to eight minutes, into which whip a rounded teaspoonful of sugar, and a dessert-spoonful of lemon juice half a glass of water luncheon a vegetable salad, with a few nuts a baked sweet potato (these two articles should compose the entire meal) dinner spinach (cooked), or a salad of lettuce and celery with english walnuts, masticated infinitely fine choice of one or two fresh vegetables, including a small, baked white potato /fifth day/: the same as the fourth. /sixth day/: the same as the first, repeating the diet for about two weeks. winter menu _obesity--irregular heart action nervousness_ /first day/: immediately after rising, drink a glass of cool water, and the juice of a sweet orange. devote as much time as possible (five to ten minutes) to vigorous exercises. breakfast a cup of hot water one banana two egg whites and one yolk very lightly poached a small, baked white potato, with butter; eat skins and all a small portion of wheat bran cooked five minutes /note/: if the quantity seems insufficient, a corn-meal muffin may be eaten. luncheon boiled onions, carrots, or turnips a baked potato--eat skins and all one egg boiled two minutes dinner celery, endive, or lettuce, with nuts or a simple dressing turnips, carrots, spinach, boiled onions--any two of these a baked white potato, served hot with butter and salt a portion of wheat bran cooked five minutes a portion of gelatin, with thin cream just before retiring, devote from three to five minutes to exercising. drink a glass of water, take a spoonful or two of wheat bran, and either a few california grapes or the juice of an orange. /second day/: the same as the first, slightly varying the meals by choosing different vegetables from the following selections: beans potatoes beets pumpkin cabbage spinach carrots squash onions turnips parsnips /third day/: the same as the second, adding one very ripe banana, eaten with thin cream and raisins, to the morning meal, and a few nuts, if desired. banana, nut butter, raisins, and cream make a delicious combination. the entire breakfast could be made of these with good results. /fourth day/: exercise, water-drinking, and deep breathing just before retiring and just after rising, as prescribed for the first day. breakfast a few malaga grapes or a sweet orange two exceedingly ripe bananas, eaten with thin cream and nut butter a cup of junket, or a small portion of gelatin with a very little sugar and thin cream one egg prepared as per recipe in "introduction to menus" if the appetite will accept it. (see p. .) luncheon a green salad a small portion of fish or chicken a baked potato a cup of hot water dinner one or two fresh vegetables--choice a glass of buttermilk with a small piece of corn bread a small portion of gelatin with thin cream if the bowels are not normal, a portion of wheat bran should be taken at the morning and the evening meal. both digestion and assimilation of food can be largely increased by daily taking exercise no. (see vol. v, p. ), vigorously, for ten or fifteen minutes just after rising and just before retiring. /fifth day/: same as the fourth, slightly increasing or decreasing the quantity of food according to hunger. /sixth day/: same as the first, repeating, for a period of two or three weeks, the menus as given, varying the meals by choosing different vegetables in the same class as those prescribed. spring menu _abnormal appetite obesity--drowsiness_ menu i menu ii breakfast the juice of a sweet orange, fruit--choice or a dish of very ripe one whole egg berries, with sugar only a bran meal gem or a small two very ripe bananas portion of corn bread eaten with thin cream, one extremely ripe banana dates, and nuts, masticated with figs, thin cream, and exceedingly fine nuts two glasses of water or a cup of thin cocoa luncheon a lettuce and tomato salad, one very ripe banana with nuts a spoonful or two of nuts one vegetable--fresh peas, one or two figs, or two beans, spinach, or onions dates one very small, baked one glass of water potato one glass of water dinner a salad of lettuce and tomatoes a salad choice of two vegetables--asparagus, asparagus, or peas cooked beans, beets, and served in the pod onions, peas a baked white potato a small, baked potato a very small portion of fish, or white meat of chicken menus no. are slightly heavier than menus no. . choice may be exercised between them, according to hunger, or according to activity or amount of work done. one glass of water should be drunk at each of the dinner meals. two or three tablespoonfuls of wheat bran should be taken twice a week with both the morning and the evening meal. the bran should be cooked five minutes, and eaten with a spoonful of cream. summer menu _abnormal appetite obesity--drowsiness_ menu i menu ii breakfast a cantaloup two or three very ripe one exceedingly ripe red peaches with sugar and banana, eaten with nut cream butter; masticate very a cantaloup fine bran gems or whole wheat three egg whites and one yolk, poached lightly, eaten with corn or a small potato luncheon a lettuce and tomato salad, two glasses of buttermilk eaten with nuts onions, en casserole carrots, peas, or beans dinner a very small portion of two ears of tender corn fresh fish an egg, with cooked spinach, a small, baked potato or a small portion green corn of green salad spinach and corn, cooked from one to two glasses of water should be drunk at each of these meals. the accumulation of gas after meals can be largely controlled by extreme mastication, very slow, deliberate eating, and copious water-drinking at meals. if constipated, take, immediately on rising and just before retiring, a half pound of grapes, swallowing the skins, seeds and pulp. do not masticate the seeds or pulp. if preferred, half a cup of coarse wheat bran may be taken twice daily instead of grapes. if the bowels should become slightly lax, the seeds of the grapes should be omitted at night. health is nature's gift to the young; after that, it is a thing that must be earned. fall menu _abnormal appetite obesity--drowsiness_ /first day/: breakfast one glass of water a melon two or three extremely ripe peaches three egg whites, poached very lightly a bran meal gem one exceedingly ripe red banana (must be black spotted), with nut butter and thin cream luncheon one egg, whipped, mixed with a large glass of milk (a half hour later, eat two or three exceedingly ripe peaches) dinner half a glass of water half a cantaloup a lettuce and tomato salad two medium ears of tender corn a small portion of tender fish /note/: i would advise a spirometer for measuring the capacity of the lungs. the normal lung capacity for a man feet to inches in height should be about cubic inches, and for a woman feet inches, to cubic inches. the ability to use surplus food, which the appetite will continue to demand for some time, will depend upon the amount of exercise and deep breathing taken, and the consequent lung capacity. /second day/: same as the first, slightly increasing the quantity of food taken at each meal, if demanded by /normal hunger/. /third day/: breakfast one glass of water choice of melon, peaches, or plums an exceedingly ripe banana, eaten with thin cream one whole egg, or a small piece of broiled fish a very small baked potato--sweet or white luncheon one or two glasses of buttermilk an ear of corn dinner one glass of water a small ear of tender corn--boiled choice of fresh green beans or tender lima beans spinach, or a salad or anything green a very small portion of broiled fish (if preferred, chicken may be eaten at this meal) a baked potato just before retiring, eat a few peaches or some grapes. if sleepy or drowsy after meals, devote from one to two minutes to exercises nos. and (see vol. v, pp. and ), together with deep breathing, before an open window or in the fresh air. /fourth day/: same as the third. /fifth day/: same as the first, repeating these menus for about thirty days, making such variations in vegetables and fruits as demanded by normal hunger. these menus will seem insufficient in quantity measured by appetite, but appetite, which comes from irritation of the mucous surface of the stomach, is not a safe guide. see menus for "no appetite," p. . the greatest difficulty will be experienced the first week. after that, nature will begin her process of adjustment, and the patient will begin to reduce in weight and gain in strength; sleep will become more restful and the sleepy and drowsy feeling after meals will gradually disappear. the following natural laws should be rigidly observed: limit the quantity of food to the actual needs of the body thorough and complete mastication an abundance of deep breathing a given amount of vigorous exercise every day winter menu _abnormal appetite obesity--drowsiness_ menu i menu ii breakfast bananas, very ripe, baked, boiled wheat, eaten with eaten with thin cream thin cream a spoonful or two of wheat a spoonful of nuts, with bran anything green in the one egg, whipped, to which way of a salad--celery, add a very little sugar lettuce, or romaine and a few drops of lemon (anything green may juice be taken with menu i--breakfast) a cup of hot water, chocolate, cocoa, or sassafras tea may be taken after either one of these meals. luncheon carrots, squash, pumpkin, same selections as menu i beets, or turnips (luncheon); select one sweet or white potatoes vegetable, or omit vegetables entirely, and take two eggs, whipped with a little sugar and lemon juice; add a glass or two of milk dinner a bit of anything green--celery, one or two of the same spinach, or lettuce vegetables as in menu i eaten with oil, salt and (dinner) nuts anything green, as a salad choice of any fresh vegetable one egg, or a bit of fish, if named for luncheon desired a baked sweet or a white potato a few nuts, and one extremely ripe banana as a dessert for recipe for baked bananas and whipped eggs, see pp. and , vol. iii. spring menu _for decreasing weight and increasing strength_ breakfast whole wheat, thoroughly cooked two bananas, baked, if not very ripe; serve with cream and either nut butter or nuts luncheon baked beans, with sauce of olive-oil, lemon juice and sugar a cup of chocolate dinner a green salad smelts, or any young or tender fish a potato an onion gelatin, with fruit vigorous exercise and deep breathing are very necessary both in decreasing weight and increasing strength. at least three hours daily should be spent in the open air, and the lungs should be filled to their utmost capacity. the bowels should be kept in normal condition. (see menus for constipation.) summer menu _for decreasing weight and increasing strength_ breakfast cherries, berries, cantaloup, or melon a red banana, with nuts one or two eggs, whipped--dash of sugar; flavor with lemon or pineapple juice luncheon green beans, with onion corn or a potato dinner celery or shredded cabbage, with nuts and oil sweet potatoes--butter corn melon a glass of water or thin cocoa may be taken at each of the above meals. fall menu _for decreasing weight and increasing strength_ breakfast a cantaloup a banana, with raisins, cream, and nuts an egg, cooked two minutes a bran gem or a whole wheat cracker, or whole wheat bread luncheon a pint of junket or two glasses of buttermilk dinner a green salad, with oil and nuts a rare omelet, rolled in scraped corn a potato--sweet or white a cantaloup winter menu _for decreasing weight and increasing strength_ immediately on rising devote five minutes to exercises and deep breathing. breakfast wheat bran and flaked wheat, cooked together; use a liberal service of cream a cup of cocoa luncheon spinach, with egg white a bran gem or a whole wheat muffin a vegetable or fruit salad, with oil and nuts dinner boiled onions, parsnips, or carrots--any two of these a baked potato a very small portion of fish or white meat of chicken a cup of hot water menus for neurasthenia spring menu _neurasthenia_ breakfast three or four egg whites, whipped and mixed with a pint of rich milk bran meal gems luncheon onions, en casserole a potato dinner peas or asparagus a morsel of dried herring and an onion, uncooked bran meal gems or a potato cheese, raisins, and nuts summer menu _neurasthenia_ breakfast cantaloup, peaches, plums, or berries--no sugar whole wheat, boiled half a cup of wheat bran, with cream luncheon spinach or turnip-tops onions, uncooked, and a bit of dried fish a potato dinner lettuce or celery, with nuts fish vegetable soup squash, carrots, or onions a potato fall menu _neurasthenia_ breakfast cantaloup or peaches baked bananas, with cream one egg, boiled two minutes a bran meal gem luncheon two glasses of buttermilk a muffin--graham or gluten dinner vegetable soup celery or lettuce, with nuts turnips, carrots, okra, cauliflower--choice a bran meal gem a sweet potato winter menu _neurasthenia_ breakfast prunes or a very ripe banana nuts, with raisins and cream a sweet potato luncheon an onion, uncooked, and a very small portion of dried fish a bran gem cocoa dinner celery or slaw nuts cabbage, cauliflower, or brussels sprouts carrots, parsnips, or onions baked beans or a potato the person afflicted with neurasthenia should omit all beverages, except water, which should be drunk only at meals. by all means avoid overeating. menus for malnutrition spring menu _malnutrition_ menus for the treatment of malnutrition should be limited in quantity, and composed of the most soluble and readily digestible articles that will afford the required elements of nourishment. breakfast very ripe berries, without sugar and cream two or three egg whites, whipped, and mixed with a pint of skimmed milk two heaping tablespoonfuls of wheat bran, cooked, and served with a little cream luncheon a raw spanish onion, with a bit of dried fish a baked potato--eat skins and all bran meal gems, with butter dinner lettuce or young onions peas or asparagus spinach or turnip-greens, with yolk of egg a baked potato a tablespoonful of wheat bran, cooked summer menu _malnutrition_ breakfast melon, peaches, or berries two very large, ripe bananas, baked; serve with cream (see recipe, page ) a glass of milk luncheon spinach or turnip-greens, with egg yolk bran meal gems or corn bread a bit of onion, uncooked dinner a light vegetable soup string beans, fresh peas, tender corn--any two of these a potato or lima beans gelatin (lemon or vanilla), if something sweet is desired fall menu _malnutrition_ breakfast cantaloup or peaches one or two bran meal gems or a corn muffin a glass or two of rich milk luncheon celery or lettuce, with either nuts or oil tender corn or lima beans a potato--sweet or white dinner vegetable or cream soup celery, with ripe olives and nuts carrots, and either onions or squash (these should be cooked in a casserole dish; see page ) bran meal gems or a potato winter menu _malnutrition_ breakfast strained orange juice--half water whole wheat, boiled, and served with butter (omit cream) luncheon three to four glasses of rich milk two or three tablespoonfuls of wheat bran dinner celery or vegetable salad, with nuts and oil turnips, carrots, winter squash, or onions; preferably en casserole a bit of very tender fish or white meat of chicken a potato or a corn muffin for cooking en casserole, see p. , vol. iii. menus for anemia spring menu for a youth _anemia--malassimilation--underweight--no appetite_ the following menus should be carefully adhered to for two or three days, or until normal hunger is produced: breakfast prunes or dried peaches bananas, nuts, or nut butter a pint of rich milk luncheon a light vegetable, such as boiled onions, peas, or new potatoes a glass or two of milk dinner two eggs, coddled a baked white potato spring menu for a youth _anemia--malassimilation--underweight--no appetite_ when good digestion and normal hunger are restored, the following menus should be given: breakfast farina, rice, or corn hominy, with butter and a very little sugar fresh milk--one or two glasses luncheon baked potatoes milk dinner peas or beans, creamed onions a potato rice or corn bread gelatin or boiled custard vigorous exercise and outdoor sport should be encouraged. summer menu for a youth _anemia--malassimilation--underweight--no appetite_ breakfast cantaloup, peaches, or plums a very rare omelet or a coddled egg a corn-meal gem milk luncheon milk or buttermilk--buttermilk preferred a bran gem or a whole wheat gem dinner one or two vegetables rice or corn milk a cantaloup drink an abundance of water. spend all the time possible out of doors. fall menu for a youth _anemia--malassimilation--underweight--no appetite_ choice of the following: menu i menu ii breakfast two or three egg whites, one exceedingly ripe banana, whipped three or four eaten with nut minutes, into which whip butter, cream, and figs a teaspoonful each of or dates olive-oil and lemon juice, a glass or two of milk and a heaping teaspoonful of sugar. add a cup of rich milk luncheon turnips, carrots, parsnips, boiled onions squash--any two of these a bit of tender fish or an a bit of whole wheat bread egg. (the egg might be or a baked potato whipped as for morning) milk a baked potato--sweet or white milk dinner choice of one vegetable (see an egg, or clabbered milk, luncheon) with a little sugar one egg whipped, or a glass a baked potato of milk. (both, if the one fresh vegetable appetite will accept them) a baked potato--sweet or white it would be preferable to make the entire meal (dinner) upon whipped eggs, if they appeal to the taste. for "choice of menus," see p. , vol. iii. winter menu for the youth _anemia--malassimilation--underweight--no appetite_ breakfast a cup of chocolate or cocoa, or warm milk steamed wheat, farina, or corn hominy luncheon vegetable soup fish or a potato milk dinner one fresh vegetable a potato chicken or fish ice-cream--very little for primary causes of anemia, see lesson i, "chart showing different dis-eases caused by superacidity," p. . menus for locomotor ataxia spring menu _locomotor ataxia_ breakfast three egg whites and one yolk, whipped, mixed with a pint of rich milk two or three tablespoonfuls of wheat bran, cooked, and served with thin cream luncheon plain wheat, boiled thoroughly, eaten with pignolia (pine) nuts dinner fresh peas or baked beans buttermilk cheese, nuts, and raisins wheat bran summer menu _locomotor ataxia_ breakfast melon or peaches--no sugar three or four glasses of fresh milk a corn muffin wheat bran luncheon fresh corn, peas, or beans milk; two to four glasses bran dinner shelled peas or beans a potato fish, eggs, or buttermilk bran fall menu _locomotor ataxia_ breakfast a pint of clabbered milk, with a sprinkle of sugar corn hominy or corn bread luncheon fish, chicken, or turkey a potato cheese and nuts dinner celery with nuts two or three glasses of milk; buttermilk preferred a potato bran raisins, cheese, and nuts winter menu _locomotor ataxia_ breakfast california grapes or prunes two eggs, whipped, and mixed with two or three glasses of milk bran meal gems luncheon celery with nuts turnips, carrots, or parsnips a baked potato dinner boiled plain wheat or corn bread fish, chicken, or two or three glasses of milk (wheat bran, if milk is taken) colds [sidenote: cause ] a cold, in its last analysis, is merely a form of congestion throughout the capillary vessels of the body. it may have been caused by exposure--a draft of cold air blowing upon some exposed part of the body, in which case nature closes the pores of the skin in self-defense. the poisons that are constantly being eliminated through the pores are thus prevented from escaping through these channels, and are picked up by the circulation, and carried to the lungs to be burned with oxygen. the lung capacity being too limited, or the amount of poison too great, nature suppurates these poisons and throws them off in the form of mucus. [sidenote: cause ] when a quantity of food, greater than the body can use, is taken and ingested into the circulation, the excess is carried to the lungs in the same manner as above described, and the same form of congestion and elimination takes place; therefore, colds caused by _exposure_ and _overeating_ are alike in every respect except their origin. the experience of the writer has been that congestion, which we term colds, is caused much more frequently from overeating than from exposure. the logical remedy in either case is to limit the quantity of food to the minimum and to confine the diet, as nearly as possible, to readily soluble and readily digestible foods, such as nuts, fruit salads, and fresh watery vegetables, taking only sufficient nitrogenous and carbohydrate compounds to balance the daily bill of fare. the following menus given for colds may be also used in cases of la grippe, influenza, etc.: menus for colds spring menu breakfast a cup of hot water an apple, with nuts or berries, in season two egg whites to one yolk, whipped or lightly poached clabbered milk, with a sprinkle of grated maple-sugar a few raisins and nuts luncheon one tuber vegetable a baked potato or baked beans a salad (green), with nuts or cheese dinner asparagus, turnips, beets, onions--any two of these a potato whole wheat, well cooked, or a portion of wheat bran, cooked nut butter or thin cream in the late spring, such vegetables as new beets, radishes, lettuce, onions, or any green salad may be eaten at either the noon or the evening meal. these meals may be varied by choosing fresh vegetables or fruit in season. summer menu _colds_ breakfast choice of fruit--a liberal quantity a banana--very ripe; serve with raisins, nuts, and cream (if the banana is not very ripe, it should be baked) luncheon a generous green salad, with grated nuts choice of one or two fresh vegetables a poached egg, dropped into a baked potato dinner a liberal green salad smelts, broiled tender corn one or two fresh vegetables a dessert of peaches, plums, berries, or any juicy fruit from one to two glasses of water should be drunk at meals. a liberal quantity of fruit or berry juice should be taken between meals. vegetable soup may be served at either the noon or the evening meal, using but little fats. acid fruits, such as oranges, grapefruit, pineapples, lemons, and strawberries should be omitted if there is a tendency toward superacidity, intestinal fermentation, or rheumatism. fall menu _colds_ breakfast melon or choice of fruit baked squash or a banana flaked wheat or a bran meal gem a spoonful or two of nuts, with raisins luncheon two shirred eggs an ear of tender corn a green salad dinner choice of two fresh vegetables choice of corn or lima beans choice of a baked sweet or a white potato a green salad--liberal portion gelatin or junket winter menu _colds_ juice of orange or grapes just after rising. breakfast a cup of hot water, sassafras tea, or malted milk two coddled eggs, or very tender fish, broiled a potato or a bran gem[*] luncheon any fresh vegetable: cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage, turnips spinach or endive malted milk or a cup of cocoa dinner a bit of slaw or celery liberal portion of boiled onions spinach, with egg a potato; prepared choice all of the menus for colds can be taken in cases of la grippe and influenza. [* see "bran meal," p. .] nasal catarrh the following menus, in their various groups, are composed of the most easily digested foods that will give to the body all the elements of nourishment it requires, during the several seasons of the year. the calories of energy, remedial elements and counteractive properties these menus contain, have been very carefully compiled from long experience in the treatment of catarrh. the nutritive factors they contain are proportioned or leveled so that under ordinary conditions there will be no deficiency to produce unnatural craving, and no surplus to be decomposed and converted into mucous or catarrhal discharges. these menus contemplate a normal body, living under normal conditions. if one should be exposed to excessive cold, the carbohydrates (sugar and starches) and fats may be slightly increased, and if exposed to excessive heat these articles should be limited somewhat below the amount prescribed. if one is engaged in heavy manual labor the proteid factor such as is contained in beans, eggs, fish, and cheese may be increased, and if performing no labor, these things should be reduced even below the amount prescribed. these menus will have a tendency to establish normal digestion and assimilation of food, and normal elimination of waste. when this is accomplished, the instincts and various senses will suggest the quality and the quantity of food, the kind and amount of exercise, and all other natural laws that govern and control the physical organism. water-drinking in the treatment of nasal catarrh sufficient water should be drunk at each of these meals to bring the moisture up to about per cent of the whole. this will require from one to three ordinary glasses, depending largely upon the amount of residual water in the foods composing the meal. see "uses of water in the body," lesson ii, vol. i, p. . see also "water-drinking in cases of superacidity," vol. ii, p. . water performs another very valuable service. when one eats too many sweets, he should drink an abundance of water. this prevents stomach-acidity, and consequent fermentation and irritation of the mucous lining of the stomach. it also prevents torpidity of the liver, which usually follows the excessive use of sweets. two or three glasses of water taken at an ordinary meal will all be retained and used by the body, while the same quantity of water taken from two to three hours after a meal, will nearly all pass off in the form of urine. menus for nasal catarrh late spring and early summer _nasal catarrh_ sweet orange, cherries, or very ripe grapefruit just after rising. breakfast three or four egg whites, whipped five minutes, to which add two teaspoonfuls each of lemon juice and sugar, while whipping one very ripe banana, or plain boiled wheat, with nuts luncheon a green salad, with tomatoes and oil one fresh vegetable--peas or beans corn bread--butter buttermilk dinner spinach, kale, young cabbage, or turnip-tops, cooked one fresh vegetable, in season a baked sweet potato choice tender fish, chicken, or three egg whites and one yolk, whipped, with spoonful each of sugar and of lemon juice these menus are composed largely of proteids in their most soluble and digestible forms--a most important factor in remedial feeding, especially in cases of either stomach or nasal catarrh. one or two glasses of water should be drunk at each of these meals. mastication should be perfect before any water is taken into the mouth. the bowels should be kept normal by the use of wheat bran. late summer and early fall _nasal catarrh_ for many patients suffering with nasal catarrh, the following combinations have been prescribed by the author with much success. choice of the following: menu i menu ii breakfast peaches or pears a cantaloup or grapes a baked sweet potato one or two eggs, lightly half a glass of milk cooked a baked banana a whole wheat gem or a baked white potato a cup of cocoa luncheon a lettuce salad peas, beans, or carrots one fresh vegetable, in season a sweet or a white potato a baked potato or a very buttermilk, with two egg little whole wheat bread; whites, whipped potato preferred a banana with cream cheese and dates dinner a lettuce and tomato salad young onions, radishes, or choice of two fresh vegetables celery tender fish beets, carrots, corn, parsnips, a baked potato spanish onion, or plain ice-cream, provided string beans--any two salad is omitted of these choice--fish, chicken, or eggs a baked potato a cantaloup late fall and early winter _nasal catarrh_ menu i menu ii breakfast grapes one very ripe banana with bran gems thin cream and nut butter one egg whipped with sugar a pint of clabbered milk and lemon juice a small portion of coarse a baked sweet potato cereal--plain wheat boiled luncheon a salad, or celery, with onions cooked in a casserole either nuts or oil dish baked beans a potato; prepared choice boiled onions or carrots dinner carrots, onions, parsnips, one fresh vegetable squash, turnips--any two a baked sweet or a white of these potato choice of one of the following a very ripe banana, with proteid foods: either nuts and raisins eggs chicken or figs and cream (white meat) fish turkey (white meat) a baked potato /note/: if the weather is very cold a dessert-spoonful or more of olive-oil should be taken just before each of these meals, and a cup of hot water at the close. late winter and early spring _nasal catarrh_ menu i menu ii breakfast a sweet orange whole wheat or corn--boiled a rare omelet rolled in soft or simmered grated nuts and cream over night; serve with whole wheat bread or corn butter or cream muffins a cup of chocolate a cup of chocolate luncheon baked sweet potatoes with a boiled spanish onion butter a white potato, baked a cup of chocolate two eggs, either whipped or coddled dinner cream of tomato soup (christmas or new year's celery or slaw dinner) nuts cream of celery soup carrots, parsnips, or turnips a vegetable salad a baked potato baked or creamed potatoes cocoa or hot water turkey or chicken--white meat--very little baked chestnuts cranberry sauce ice-cream hot chocolate menus for hay fever spring menu _hay fever_ breakfast bananas, baked whole wheat or rye, boiled five or six hours thin cream luncheon any fresh vegetable--cabbage, onions, carrots whole wheat bread thin cocoa dinner one egg, coddled rice or a potato boiled onions or squash spinach or lettuce, with nuts for recipe for baked bananas and coddled eggs, see p. , vol. iii. see "bran meal," p. , vol. iii. summer menu _hay fever_ breakfast cantaloup or peaches--no sugar a potato--sweet or white clabbered milk luncheon corn or peas lima beans a potato a melon dinner lettuce and tomato salad, with nut-butter sauce peas, beans, carrots, squash, or onions a potato--sweet or white an egg or a very small portion of fish fall menu _hay fever_ breakfast persimmons or grapes bran meal gems or corn bread a glass of milk luncheon winter squash or a sweet potato baked beans or a white potato dinner lettuce or celery, with nuts carrots or string beans a raw onion a baked potato or corn bread a spoonful or two of bran, cooked winter menu _hay fever_ breakfast the juice of a sweet orange three baked bananas or two very ripe bananas, with cream, raisins, and nuts luncheon eggplant and a boiled onion a bran meal gem or a corn muffin nuts, with raisins dinner a light vegetable soup turnips or cabbage, en casserole a baked potato or bran meal gems one or two figs, with cheese and nuts the bowels should be kept in normal condition by the liberal use of wheat bran at each meal. the free action of the bowels is very important in all such disorders as hay fever, influenza, and colds. menus for asthma spring menu _asthma_ breakfast grapefruit or an orange--very ripe baked bananas--must be very ripe a glass of milk luncheon peas or asparagus bran meal gems a glass of milk dinner spinach or turnip-tops corn bread or bran meal gems peas or asparagus a potato summer menu _asthma_ breakfast peaches, plums, or berries, without cream one egg, either lightly poached or boiled two minutes a small baked potato luncheon an ear of tender corn a spanish onion, uncooked, with a morsel of dried fish dinner fresh peas, beans, or carrots tender corn or a baked potato lettuce, romaine, or watercress, with nuts fall menu _asthma_ breakfast grapes or a melon two egg whites, whipped, and mixed with a pint of milk baked chestnuts, with cream luncheon okra or a boiled onion a baked potato half a glass of milk dinner celery, with nuts cauliflower, squash, or a stewed pumpkin a potato or lentils a cup of cocoa or a glass of milk winter menu _asthma_ breakfast pineapple--eliminate the pulp plain boiled wheat; serve with fresh butter luncheon a pint of clabbered milk, with a sprinkle of sugar two tablespoonfuls of wheat bran dinner vegetable soup celery, with nuts and ripe olives carrots or baked squash a potato--sweet or white the juice of a sweet orange an hour after eating. where milk is not prescribed in the above menus, from one to two glasses of water should be drunk. the bowels should be kept in normal condition by the use of wheat bran. influenza in treating influenza heavy starchy foods such as white flour products should be omitted, and the diet confined largely to fresh vegetables and the more soluble proteids, such as egg whites and buttermilk, with now and then a limited quantity of fish or fowl for a change. fats and sugars should be limited very materially and a liberal quantity of coarse articles such as wheat bran, celery, grapes, and green salads eaten when in season. the patient should exercise great care in regard to quantity, endeavoring always to limit the quantity of food somewhat below the demands of normal hunger. the menus for colds, catarrh, hay fever, and asthma may be used for influenza. see pp. to , inclusive. menus for insomnia spring menu _insomnia--nervousness_ _low vitality_ both insomnia and nervousness are symptoms of the same conditions. the following menus, therefore, are for the purpose of removing primary causes, which are usually either stomach or intestinal fermentation. the logical remedy for fermentation is to limit the diet to the fewest number of articles that will give to the body the necessary elements of nutrition. breakfast a cup of hot water corn hominy or boiled wheat a banana, baked, or sliced and broiled in butter a cup of cool water luncheon a liberal portion of peas in the pod a baked potato dinner light vegetable soup peas or asparagus baked potatoes a cup of hot water half-cup of wheat bran, cooked /note/: new peas should be cooked in the pod, as the shell contains better nutrition than the pea. for recipe, see p. . summer menu _insomnia--nervousness low vitality_ breakfast cantaloup or very ripe pear, with cream a baked sweet potato, with butter a pint of rich milk wheat bran luncheon an ear or two of tender corn a green salad one egg, whipped dinner lettuce and tomato salad, with grated nuts string beans, with raw onion tender corn, scraped from the cob, cooked with very little rich milk and the white of an egg cantaloup the quantity of food prescribed is sufficient for one performing very light labor. if the duties should be strenuous, the quantity may be slightly increased, but the proportions and the combinations should be observed. fall menu _insomnia--nervousness low vitality_ vigorous exercise, deep breathing, and a glass or two of water should be taken on rising. breakfast (half hour later) cantaloup, pears, or persimmons baked bananas, served with cream steamed figs, with thin cream a spoonful of nuts luncheon corn on the cob or boiled wheat string beans spinach dinner romaine and tomato salad a liberal portion of baked white potato or tender corn carrots or parsnips cheese with hard cracker a cup of thin cocoa if there should be congestion of the bowels, a liberal service of concord or blue grapes should be eaten the first thing after rising, and the last thing before retiring. the pulp and seeds should be swallowed, and the skins well masticated. winter menu _insomnia--nervousness low vitality_ a cup or two of hot water, deep breathing, and vigorous exercise immediately after rising. breakfast half a pound of tokay or malaga grapes, masticating and swallowing both skins and seeds two fresh eggs, whipped very thoroughly, slightly sweetened with honey or maple-sugar, and flavored with fruit-juice. add half a glass of milk to each egg and drink slowly luncheon a small portion of wheat bran, cooked a pint and a half of junket, taken slowly one bran meal gem dinner carrots or winter squash a small portion of tender fish or a whipped egg a baked potato a cup of cool water to increase vital energy depends not so much upon the quantity as upon the amount of food ingested or assimilated. these menus are rather light for one of low vitality, but they are made to meet the requirements of one suffering from nervousness and insomnia. if, however, these conditions do not prevail, the quantity may be increased, but the combinations should be carefully observed. menus for rheumatism and gout spring menu _rheumatism--gout--lumbago sciatica, arthritis_ breakfast choice of the following: _a_ two or three bananas, baked; serve with cream or butter _b_ a baked sweet potato half a dozen steamed figs, with cream luncheon asparagus or peas a small portion of new potatoes--preferably baked dinner potato, steamed wheat, or bran gems a glass of milk; buttermilk preferred one fresh vegetable, such as carrots, turnips, parsnips, or onions nuts or cream cheese a generous quantity of pure water should be drunk immediately on rising, and from one to two glasses at each of these meals. mastication should be very thorough. at least two hours' vigorous exercise or useful labor should be performed each day, in the open air. omit all acids, such as grapefruit, oranges, pineapples, lemons, and rhubarb; also eggs and all flesh foods. if the bowels are constipated, take a tablespoonful of wheat bran in half a glass of hot water immediately on rising, and half a cup of bran, cooked, at each meal; also, two or three tablespoonfuls in hot water just before retiring. continue this until the bowels become normal, then reduce the quantity according to the severity of the case. summer menu _rheumatism--gout--lumbago_ _sciatica, arthritis_ breakfast melon or peaches--very ripe two or three large, very ripe bananas, peeled, and baked ten minutes; serve with cream or fresh butter a bran meal gem luncheon a very small portion of green salad an ear or two of tender corn a pint of buttermilk dinner a small portion of green salad peas, beans, corn, or any fresh vegetable a very small portion of fish (buttermilk or junket may be taken instead of fish, if preferred) a baked potato melon or cantaloup from two to three glasses of water should be drunk at each of these meals. if the bowels are constipated, observe the instructions given for the spring menu. exercise, in all rheumatic conditions, is very important, and while the temperature of the summer weather aids in eliminating poisons from the body, vigorous exercise should be taken in order to give nature all the help possible. rheumatism is merely a form of congestion throughout the capillary vessels of the body. the cure, therefore, is first to remove the causes by taking into the body only such foods as it will use, and use completely; secondly, to aid nature in casting out all poisons, thereby establishing perfect elimination. fall menu _rheumatism--gout--lumbago_ _sciatica, arthritis_ breakfast melons or persimmons whole wheat gems or bran gems an exceedingly ripe banana, with cream, nuts, and raisins luncheon green corn or fresh string beans either a baked potato or a very little whole wheat bread two or three tablespoonfuls of olive-oil, with lettuce dinner vegetable soup or cream soup corn, lima beans, turnips, carrots, parsnips, squash, onions--any two of these a baked potato half a pound of grapes may be eaten an hour after either meal, or just before retiring. two glasses of water should be drunk at each of these meals. for general instructions, see spring menu. winter menu _rheumatism--gout--lumbago_ _sciatica, arthritis_ /first day/: on rising, drink two glasses of water. devote as much time as possible to vigorous exercises and deep breathing. breakfast corn muffins or bran meal gems, with cream or fresh butter a cup of cocoa--half milk luncheon a large portion of boiled onions a baked white potato raisins, with nuts and cream cheese dinner a fresh vegetable soup squash, pumpkin, cabbage, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, eggplant--any two of these a very small portion of white meat of chicken salted nuts with steamed figs just before retiring drink a glass of water, and exercise as already suggested. /second day/: very much the same as the first, slightly increasing the quantity of food, if the amount prescribed does not seem sufficient to satisfy normal hunger. take great care, however, not to overeat. /third day/: breakfast bran gems, or a baked potato, with butter two glasses of milk luncheon a liberal portion of baked sweet potatoes, with butter a cup of hot water, into which put a little sugar and cream figs, cream, and nuts dinner a salad of lettuce, celery, or endive, with nuts one fresh vegetable a bit of chicken or turkey--white meat; or shell-fish, such as lobster or crab, may be eaten a baked potato /note/: the meats are given only in case there is a craving for something salty. exercise and water-drinking just before retiring. /fourth day/: same as the third, varying the meals by changing vegetables according to hunger. /fifth day/: same as the first, repeating these menus for a period of from fifteen to twenty days, making such variations in the vegetables as normal hunger requires. spring menu _anemia--sluggish liver_ _rheumatic tendency_ drink two glasses of water just after rising, to which add a spoonful or two of lemon juice. devote as much time as possible (from three to five minutes) to vigorous exercises, as shown in vol. v, pp. to . hold the breath while executing three or four movements. in this way the lung capacity can be much increased. choice of the following: menu i menu ii breakfast a cup of hot water grapes or orange juice half a cup of wheat bran, whole wheat, boiled; serve cooked with thin cream an egg white, poached wheat bran a banana, baked luncheon spinach one glass of water a potato or steamed wheat boiled onions a baked white potato dinner a salad of lettuce and tomatoes, a green salad with oil carrots, spinach, or onions--any choice of peas, beans, or two of these asparagus a baked sweet or a white a small, baked white potato potato one egg or a very small portion baked beans or rye bread of tender fish one glass of water one glass of water apple tapioca or gelatin the bowels should be kept in normal condition by the use of clean, coarse wheat bran. summer menu _anemia--sluggish liver_ _rheumatic tendency_ /first day/: on rising, take two sweet, ripe plums, and a glass of water. devote from one to three minutes to exercises nos. and (see vol. v, pp. and ), and practise deep breathing, filling the lungs to their utmost capacity every third or fourth movement. also take a short, brisk walk in the open air. breakfast (an hour later) four or five extremely ripe peaches, with just a sprinkle of sugar--no cream two or three egg whites and one yolk, whipped with a teaspoonful of sugar one extremely ripe banana (black spotted), with nuts luncheon two medium ears of tender green corn, thoroughly masticated; serve with either a very little nut butter or fresh dairy butter dinner cream of pea soup; crisp cracker--very little a lettuce and tomato salad, or cooked spinach an ear or two of tender green corn, or lima beans (cooked) a grilled sweet potato water should be taken as follows: half a glass at the beginning, a glass during the progress of the meal, and half a glass at the close. just before retiring, eat half a pound of very ripe grapes, swallowing skins, seeds and pulps, or take four or five extremely ripe japanese plums, if they are not sweet and well ripened; grapes are preferred. devote about three minutes to exercises nos. and , together with deep breathing. /second day/: same as the first, very slightly increasing the quantity of food if there is the least symptom of weakness. every morning, immediately on rising, eat two or three peaches or plums, and drink a glass of water. /third day/: breakfast cantaloup a cup of cocoa or chocolate choice of: _a_ two extremely ripe bananas, baked; serve with thin cream (bananas must be black spotted) _b_ a baked potato two egg whites, whipped with a sprinkle of sugar and a little lemon juice and cream luncheon tender corn string beans or squash spinach or a green salad a cantaloup or two exceedingly ripe peaches, with a little sugar--no cream dinner a small portion of fish or white meat of chicken, provided there is a craving for this kind of food; if not, confine to tender corn (one whole poached egg, eaten with the corn) one boiled onion or cooked spinach two glasses of water this entire meal should be masticated very thoroughly. this is one method of preventing supersecretion of acid, premature fermentation and the consequent accumulation of gas. /fourth day/: the same as the third, with the exception of the evening meal, which should consist of-- a baked sweet potato--butter carrots or string beans, or spanish onion /fifth day/: the same as the first. /sixth day/: the same as the second, repeating the diet as given for a week or ten days. after the fourth day these meals may be slightly varied by choosing from the following, where vegetables are prescribed: beans parsnips beets peas carrots squash corn turnips the patient should retire at a reasonable hour, say o'clock, and rise about or . ; have breakfast between . and ; luncheon between and , and dinner not later than . or . masticate well every mouthful of food, whether it seems to need it or not. even bananas need much mastication, not for the purpose of reduction, but for the purpose of insalivation. the same rule should apply to all cooked vegetables and soft foods. fall menu _anemia--sluggish liver_ _rheumatic tendency_ choice of the following: menu i menu ii breakfast cantaloup, melon, or pears farina, rice, or boiled wheat steamed whole wheat or one tablespoonful of nuts rice--sugar and cream (choice) a tablespoonful of nuts cream and figs (choice) a liberal portion of wheat half a glass of sour milk bran luncheon spinach or boiled onion one vegetable--corn, carrots, corn bread with sweet squash, or lima butter beans two tablespoonfuls of nuts two spoonfuls of nuts (choice) a potato one glass of sour milk dinner choice of lima beans or corn corn, spinach, or a lettuce corn bread and sweet butter salad lettuce and fresh tomato, rye bread or a potato with dressing whites of two eggs, whipped or poached plain ice-cream, gelatin, or junket may be eaten with either of the dinner menus. omit all laxative medicines. use coarse clean wheat bran liberally, especially with the morning and the evening meal. winter menu _anemia--sluggish liver_ _rheumatic tendency_ /first day/: immediately on rising, drink two glasses of water, and eat a small bunch of grapes, or two or three soaked prunes. devote two or three minutes to exercises nos. and (see vol. v, pp. and ). the exercises should be taken before an open window, or in a well-ventilated room. breakfast a cup of hot water three or four egg whites and two yolks, whipped rapidly four or five minutes with a rotary egg beater. whip into this a heaping teaspoonful of sugar and a teaspoonful of olive-oil, and whip again for two or three minutes flaked wheat, eaten with thin cream--small portion a cup of hot water wheat bran luncheon carrots or parsnips baked potatoes, with butter a boiled onion dinner cream of tomato soup fish--small portions carrots, onions, parsnips, squash, turnips--one or two of these potatoes, prepared choice one exceedingly ripe banana, eaten with thin cream and raisins just before retiring take two tablespoonfuls of wheat bran, and devote four or five minutes to the above-named exercises. /second day/: the same as the first. /third day/: the same as the second, slightly varying the meals according to choice of vegetables, adhering closely, however, to the number of eggs prescribed. if olive-oil is not pleasant to the taste, it may be omitted, and a larger quantity of butter taken with the potatoes. it would be well to take a tablespoonful of olive-oil just before eating, followed by half a cup of hot water, especially if the weather is cold. /fourth day/: breakfast whole wheat, thoroughly steamed or boiled; serve with butter a cup of hot water luncheon vegetable soup corn bread--butter cocoa dinner one fresh vegetable--carrots, parsnips, turnips, etc. a bit of fish a baked potato a small portion of plain ice-cream, if something sweet is desired /fifth day/: the same as the fourth. /sixth day/: the same as the first, and so on for a period of fifteen to twenty days. spring menu _stiffness and pain in joints_ _stomach trouble--constipation--intestinal gas--irregular heart action_ immediately on rising, drink two cups of hot water. breakfast a cup of wheat bran, cooked ten minutes; serve with butter, cream, and a very little salt a cup of hot water one or two exceedingly ripe bananas, baked, eaten with thin cream two egg whites, very lightly poached a baked potato or bran meal gems a glass of water luncheon a cup of junket or fresh buttermilk a small, new potato, baked; serve with butter a glass of water dinner choice of two of the following vegetables: asparagus green peas beans spinach baked new potatoes a very small portion of either fish or chicken a small cup of wheat bran, prepared as for breakfast a glass of water summer menu _stiffness and pain in joints_ _stomach trouble--constipation--intestinal gas--irregular heart action_ choice of the following menus: menu i menu ii breakfast melon choice of peaches, plums, one very ripe banana, or melon baked rice or oatmeal one or two spoonfuls of two very ripe bananas, steamed whole wheat baked; serve with cream two glasses of water half a cup of bran luncheon choice of lima beans or green corn baked potato rich milk one glass of milk--clabbered or buttermilk a glass of water dinner lima beans or corn two vegetables--choice a fruit salad (made of sweet butter with either sweet fruit), with whipped corn bread or green corn cream one glass of milk two or three egg whites one or two tablespoonfuls of nuts--choice cantaloup or melon all sweets may be omitted if they do not appeal to the taste. however, if something sweet is desired, make either the luncheon or the dinner of vegetables and home-made ice-cream, omitting all other articles. emergency meal (to be taken in lieu of luncheon or dinner, if languid or stupid) two ears of tender corn two glasses of milk one whipped egg a small portion of ice-cream wheat bran fall menu _stiffness and pain in joints_ _stomach trouble--constipation--intestinal gas--irregular heart action_ /first day/: on rising, drink a cup or two of hot water, and eat a half pound of grapes, the concord or blue grapes preferred, swallowing seeds and pulp whole, masticating and swallowing the skins. devote as much time as possible (from three to five minutes) to deep breathing exercises before an open window, or in a thoroughly ventilated room. breakfast (half an hour later) half a cup of coarse wheat bran, served as an ordinary cereal a bowl of clabbered milk, with a sprinkle of maple-sugar bran meal gems luncheon a glass of cool water baked potatoes or corn one fresh vegetable, such as carrots, parsnips, turnips, beets, boiled onions, or squash half a cup of hot water dinner one or two fresh vegetables (see list suggested for luncheon) choice of green salad, cooked spinach, or celery a baked white potato--eat skins and all one egg white, or a very small portion of either fish or white meat of chicken; egg preferred from one to two glasses of water should be drunk at each of these meals--half a glass of cool water at the beginning of the meal, and a cup of hot water at the close, would be sufficient; drink enough, however, to make the total moisture about per cent of the whole. a tablespoonful of wheat bran should also be taken at each of the above meals, either with a little water at the close of the meal, or cooked and served as a cereal at the beginning of the meal. a spoonful or two should be taken just after rising, and just before retiring, until the bowels act normally, when the quantity may be regulated to meet the severity of the condition. /second day/: same as the first. /third day/: same as the second, slightly increasing the food if demanded by normal hunger, or decreasing it if there is a sense of fullness after meals. it is always well to cease eating before hunger is thoroughly satisfied. when the body is kept slightly hungry, it assimilates all the food eaten, and insures natural digestion and elimination of waste. /fourth day/: breakfast one or two exceedingly ripe bananas, with cream and nut butter, and either raisins or soaked prunes a glass of milk one egg white boiled wheat, with thin cream and either nuts or nut butter luncheon a sweet potato, with butter corn, fresh a glass of milk dinner spinach, with egg white a very small portion of fish or white meat of chicken a baked sweet or a white potato a tablespoonful of olive-oil may be taken at the beginning of each of these meals, and a cup of hot water at the close. if the bowels have not become normal, continue taking the wheat bran and grapes according to directions for the first day. observe the general rules of exercise and water-drinking just after rising and just before retiring. /fifth day/: same as the fourth. /sixth day/: same as the first, repeating the diet herein given, day by day, for two or three weeks. winter menu _stiffness and pain in joints_ _stomach trouble--constipation--intestinal gas--irregular heart action_ /first day/: on rising, drink a glass or two of pure water. take a short, brisk walk in the open air. breakfast a cup of hot water one tablespoonful of olive-oil or nut oil two exceedingly ripe bananas (must be black spotted), eaten with thin cream and nut butter (a few dates, if something sweet is desired) two or three tablespoonfuls of wheat bran, cooked a potato--eat skins and all luncheon baked potatoes, with butter. eat skins and all (make entire meal upon this) dinner stewed pumpkin or winter squash corn bread choice of beans or a baked potato wheat bran, cooked a glass of milk just before retiring, take a brisk walk for five minutes and practise deep breathing. eat five or six soaked prunes. /second day/: same as the first, slightly increasing or decreasing the quantity of food to meet the demands of normal hunger. /third day/: breakfast prunes or dried peaches, stewed--no sugar one egg, whipped very fine coarse cereal or wheat bran luncheon liberal portion of baked sweet or white potatoes dinner choice of two of the following vegetables: beans onions beets pumpkin carrots squash corn turnips a potato, prepared choice /fourth day/: same as the third, increasing or decreasing the quantity of food according to hunger. /fifth day/: same as the first, repeating these menus for twelve or fifteen days. while the yolks of eggs are conducive to rheumatic tendencies, only that portion, however, that is not naturally appropriated by the body affect these conditions. in other words, it is the excess that is harmful. menus for bright's dis-ease spring menu _bright's dis-ease_ breakfast clabbered milk or two or three egg whites baked bananas luncheon a spanish onion, en casserole turnips or fresh peas in the pod two egg whites dinner an onion, uncooked--small portion corn bread and a very small portion of dried fish peas, asparagus, or turnips a potato summer menu _bright's dis-ease_ breakfast a melon or peaches, omitting cream two glasses of fresh milk bran meal gems luncheon peas or beans young onions a small piece of corn bread a glass of buttermilk dinner lettuce, with nuts corn or string beans new potatoes or lima beans two egg whites, coddled, or cottage cheese fall menu _bright's dis-ease_ on rising concord (blue) grapes. breakfast an omelet of two whites and one yolk, rolled in cream and grated nuts; cook lightly corn-meal muffins luncheon a sweet potato, with fresh butter dinner a light vegetable soup celery or tender slaw carrots, parsnips, or turnips a potato or fresh corn winter menu _bright's dis-ease_ breakfast a pint of clabbered milk--lukewarm whole wheat, boiled two tablespoonfuls of bran luncheon a pint and a half of fresh milk corn bread--not sweetened dinner slaw, with nuts carrots, cauliflower, or winter squash a potato or bran meal gems menus for diabetes spring menu _diabetes_ the diabetic patient should observe the usual rules for vigorous exercise and deep breathing, and for copious water-drinking just after rising and just before retiring. the diet should consist as nearly as possible of foods in their natural condition, such as extremely ripe fresh fruits and fresh vegetables, and of the proteid group such as eggs, milk, cheese, gelatin, legumes, and now and then a limited quantity of fish. breakfast cherries, berries, or a baked apple, without sugar two or three extremely ripe bananas, with thin cream a spoonful or two of nuts, or nut butter a glass of milk; clabbered milk preferred luncheon a small portion of plain wheat, or oat groats (grains), boiled until well done one fresh vegetable--preferably onions, carrots, or peas dinner a liberal green salad, with nuts and oil one or two fresh vegetables, such as peas, asparagus, or okra an egg or a bit of fish a baked potato gelatin or junket the bowels should be kept in normal condition at all times, either by vigorous exercising or by the liberal use of wheat bran. avoid extreme acids, sweets, white bread, and heavy starches found in cereal products. summer menu _diabetes_ a glass of water and one or two very ripe peaches just after rising and just before retiring. devote thirty minutes, if possible, to deep breathing and vigorous exercise. breakfast melon, peaches, or any sweet fresh fruit two eggs, whipped very thoroughly, or two glasses of clabbered milk corn or a whole wheat muffin luncheon cauliflower, cabbage, or okra tender corn or string beans fish, chicken, egg, or clabbered milk a baked potato the fish, the chicken and the milk should be taken in limited quantities; vegetables should predominate. mastication should be very thorough, and a glass or two of water should be drunk at each meal. dinner vegetable soup salad, with nuts or oil corn or lima beans a potato--sweet or white fall menu _diabetes_ a glass or two of water and a bit of fruit just after rising, followed by vigorous exercises and deep breathing. breakfast peaches, plums, or persimmons eggs, boiled two minutes a bit of corn bread, bran meal gems, or a baked potato a cup of milk or chocolate luncheon two or three glasses of buttermilk a whole wheat gem or a muffin, with nuts dinner two fresh vegetables, such as beans, beets, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, okra, eggplant, or lima beans sliced tomatoes a bit of green salad two exceedingly ripe bananas, baked--eaten with nuts and cream half a cup of wheat bran winter menu _diabetes_ breakfast a cup of hot water wheat bran, cooked two eggs, whipped one exceedingly ripe banana, eaten with nuts and cream half a glass of cool milk luncheon a cup of hot water a baked potato a large creamed onion a cup of chocolate dinner onions, beans, carrots, or parsnips--any two of these one or two eggs, whipped a portion of wheat bran, cooked, or the whole wheat might be boiled until the grains burst open, and served with butter and cream. this is the best form in which cereal can be taken menus for consumption _weak lungs--consumption_ for many centuries consumption, or the various forms of tuberculosis have preyed upon the human race, yet science has so far failed to give us one reliable artificial remedy. we must perforce turn to nature, the only remedy now known being oxygen or common air. the consumptive or tubercular patient should provide some way to live out-of-doors, day and night, winter and summer, unless the weather is extremely cold. the next important factor in treating this dis-ease is food. the diet should consist of the richest and the most readily digestible foods, in the following groups, given in the order of their importance: proteids carbohydrates fats fruit-sugars eggs honey nuts figs oranges milk maple-sugar olive-oil raisins pears legumes whole wheat cream grapes plums rice butter persimmons peaches potatoes bananas apples corn fresh vegetables green salads asparagus beets lettuce peas carrots romaine beans parsnips parsley green corn squash watercress tomatoes celery turnips cabbage the patient should drink an abundance of water, take vigorous exercise and deep breathing, and eat liberally of grapes before breakfast, when they are in season. a spirometer should be secured, and an effort made to increase the capacity of the lungs one cubic inch each day until their utmost capacity has been reached. the following menus are merely suggestive. they may be changed, selecting the articles mentioned in the foregoing tables, when available during the several seasons of the year: general menus for weak lungs--consumption /first day/: breakfast a glass of clabbered milk, with a sprinkle of sugar two eggs whipped very thoroughly (see recipe, p. ) if constipated, take half a cup of coarse wheat bran, cooked. serve as a breakfast cereal with butter or cream. luncheon three eggs prepared as per recipe, p. ; add two glasses of milk; mix well; drink slowly dinner choice of two of the following vegetables: beets cabbage or celery carrots fresh corn or corn hominy lentils navy or lima beans parsnips turnips a baked white potato, rice, or corn one egg, prepared any way acceptable to the taste--preferably whipped something green should be taken at this meal, if possible, such as lettuce, spinach, kale, parsley, or watercress home-made ice-cream, in summer, or a tablespoonful of honey, in winter, may be eaten, if something sweet is desired drink from one to two glasses of water at each of these meals, but take no water into the mouth until mastication is perfect. just before retiring, drink a glass of water, and eat half a pound of grapes, then devote from ten to fifteen minutes to deep breathing exercises. /second day/: same as the first, slightly increasing or decreasing the quantity of food according to hunger. take an additional egg the second day for the noon meal; another the third day, then gradually decrease the quantity if the appetite rebels against them. do not overeat. assimilation is the primary object to be obtained. /fourth day/: on rising, drink water and eat grapes, as prescribed for the first day. devote much time to moderate exercise and deep breathing. breakfast two extremely ripe bananas, eaten with thin cream and either nuts or nut butter; also two or three figs or an equivalent quantity of raisins a spoonful or two of whole wheat, thoroughly cooked luncheon a large boiled onion, and a baked white potato, with butter and a dash of salt (if the onion cannot be procured, take carrots or parsnips) drink two or three glasses of milk if the bowels are not acting normally, drink a glass of water and take a spoonful or two of wheat bran, after each meal. dinner a liberal portion of baked white potatoes, eaten with butter four or five egg whites and two yolks, prepared as per recipe given for the first day a small portion of any two fresh vegetables (a little ice-cream may be taken at this meal, if there is a craving for something sweet) /fifth day/: same as the fourth, omitting ice-cream. /sixth day/: same as the first, repeating these menus for about sixteen or eighteen days. spring menu _tubercular tendency_ _constipation--nervousness--catarrh_ /first day/: immediately on rising, drink a glass of cool water, eat a few cherries or the juice of an orange, and devote five or ten minutes to exercises nos. and , as shown in vol. v, pp. and . breakfast (half an hour later) a cup of hot water very ripe berries, with sugar--no cream one exceedingly ripe banana, with nuts or nut butter a small, baked white potato, eaten with butter one egg, boiled two minutes a small portion of wheat bran, cooked luncheon one or two large spanish onions, boiled a small, baked white potato, eaten with butter one or two whole eggs, whipped dinner choice of string beans, peas, or asparagus; if these cannot be obtained, take choice of: beets carrots cabbage parsnips turnips spanish onions, boiled a baked white potato three egg whites, whipped one glass of water, taken during the meal just before retiring, take two tablespoonfuls of wheat bran, drink a glass of water, and devote from five to ten minutes to exercises as prescribed for the morning. /second day/: same as the first. /third day/: same as the second, slightly increasing the quantity of food if necessary. changes in the vegetables may be made, confining, however, to the vegetables mentioned, as nearly as possible, always taking fresh vegetables in preference to canned. /fourth day/: breakfast fruit--choice a small portion of plain boiled wheat, with butter and cream a cup of hot water two eggs, whipped or boiled two minutes luncheon three glasses of milk two eggs, whipped wheat bran, cooked (take milk and eggs very slowly) dinner one green vegetable a tablespoonful or two of "protoid" nuts junket, gelatin, or eggs just before retiring, devote from five to ten minutes to exercises prescribed for the first day. if the bowels have not become normal, continue taking the wheat bran just before retiring, and a spoonful or two just after rising. /fifth day/: the same as the fourth. /sixth day/: same as the first, and so on, repeating the diet so long as it appeals to the taste. if digestion will permit, the eggs and the milk may be increased. summer menu _tubercular tendency_ constipation--nervousness--catarrh_ choice of the following menus: menu i menu ii breakfast cantaloup or peaches one banana three or four egg whites, melon or peaches with thin whipped--mix with two cream glasses of fresh milk three eggs, whipped with a spoonful of nuts (choice) very little sugar and fruit juice luncheon choice of lima beans or a a very small piece of fish baked potato boiled corn, beets, or a a salad of lettuce and fresh baked potato tomatoes, eaten with one fig, with cream cheese lemon juice, sugar, and a spoonful of mixed nuts two eggs, whipped dinner choice of squash, boiled an ear of corn onions, or corn one and one-half glasses a salad of anything green of buttermilk with egg one glass of buttermilk, whites mixed with two whipped two or three very ripe egg whites peaches with cream and one or two tablespoonfuls sugar of nuts (choice) home-made ice-cream i would advise two or three very ripe peaches just before retiring at night, and just after rising in the morning. supplementary dinner (to be taken if there is a craving for flesh or salty food) one ear of corn (boiled) fish, lobster, or white meat of chicken a small baked potato a salad of lettuce or endive fall menu _tubercular tendency_ _constipation--nervousness--catarrh_ on rising, devote from three to five minutes to deep breathing exercises before an open window, preferably movements and , as shown in vol. v, pp. and . eat a bunch of grapes, thoroughly masticating the skins, swallowing seeds and pulp whole. drink two glasses of water. if the weather is cold, the water should be heated. breakfast half a cup of wheat bran, cooked, eaten with cream a small bunch of grapes two eggs, whipped about six or seven minutes; add a teaspoonful of sugar and a tablespoonful of olive-oil, while whipping one extremely ripe banana; serve with cream and either nut butter or nuts (the banana should be baked, if not very ripe) luncheon one fresh vegetable--carrots, parsnips, or turnips a boiled onion a baked potato one egg, cooked two minutes, eaten with the potato skins fresh butter a cup of hot water at the close of the meal dinner half a cup of wheat bran, cooked two or three eggs, prepared as for breakfast one extremely ripe banana and a few soaked prunes (a very small, baked white potato may be taken if something salty is desired) a bunch of grapes just before retiring, eat a small bunch of grapes and drink a cup of hot water. devote from three to five minutes to exercises which have already been prescribed for the morning. these meals may be varied by changing the vegetables, and now and then substituting for the eggs a portion of fresh fish or a glass of buttermilk. if the quantity of food prescribed does not seem sufficient, it might be slightly increased; however, do not increase it beyond the limits of normal hunger. the best combinations of food, when taken in excess of the bodily needs, undergo a form of decomposition, and become a prolific source of dis-ease. winter menu _tubercular tendency constipation--nervousness--catarrh_ breakfast two very ripe, red bananas, baked nuts, cream, raisins two whipped eggs; sugar; flavor to taste a spoonful of wheat bran luncheon three fresh eggs, whipped about six minutes, with sugar; pineapple juice added after whipping a small portion of wheat bran, cooked dinner celery a tablespoonful of olive-oil one fresh vegetable a potato whole wheat bread (very little) buttermilk or gelatin the above menus have been selected and combined so as to counteract constipation, catarrh, nervousness, biliousness, etc. there is no specific remedy in foods for consumption. foods will aid in curing this dis-ease only through the natural process of building up healthy tissue, and increasing the power of the body to resist all dis-eases. spring menu _weak lungs_ _tendency toward intestinal congestion_ immediately on rising drink a glass or two of water and take a very little of some juicy fruit. also take a brisk walk in the open air before breakfast. breakfast the strained juice of one sweet orange, or a few very ripe berries, without cream two or three coddled eggs a small whole wheat cracker one baked banana a spoonful of wheat bran luncheon a whole wheat muffin with butter, and a dessert-spoonful of honey a glass or two of milk wheat bran dinner bean soup or pea soup peas, asparagus, spinach, or any fresh vegetable corn bread or a very small portion of whole wheat one coddled egg a small portion of wheat bran, slightly cooked from one to two glasses of water should be drunk at each of the above meals. if there is a marked tubercular tendency, from six to nine eggs may be taken daily for about three days in each week, taking with the eggs a small quantity of acid fruits at each meal--either orange juice, berries, or a spoonful of strained pineapple juice. the acids should be diluted (half water), and taken without sugar. summer menu _weak lungs_ _tendency toward intestinal congestion_ take a brisk walk and deep breathing exercises before breakfast. breakfast a cantaloup or a pear wheat bran, cooked a liberal portion of baked sweet potatoes one whole egg, either coddled or whipped a pint of sour milk or a cup or two of chocolate luncheon a liberal portion of tender corn, steamed in the husk a lettuce and tomato salad nuts dinner string beans, corn, or carrots a baked potato a very small portion of tender fish, an egg, or clabbered milk melon or peaches if the patient is performing labor that would require more food than herein prescribed, the quantity may be increased. fall menu _weak lungs_ _tendency toward intestinal congestion_ the following menus are laid out with the view of giving the greatest amount of tissue-building food which require the least effort in digestion. there is nothing more valuable in the treatment of lung trouble than extreme deep breathing. after pure blood is made, the way to keep it pure is to keep it charged with oxygen, and the only way to do this is to breathe an abundance of fresh air into the lungs. breakfast a bunch of grapes three or four eggs, whipped five or six minutes, into which whip a teaspoonful of sugar, and a teaspoonful of cognac brandy or lemon juice, to each egg /note/: the brandy is germicidal and aids in the digestion of the egg yolks. luncheon from three to four eggs, prepared as for breakfast, slightly increasing the quantity of sugar and brandy. put in a heaping teaspoonful of sugar and a dessert-spoonful of brandy, and add a full glass of milk to each egg dinner any one or two fresh vegetables, including something green, as spinach or lettuce the fresh vegetables may consist of: a baked potato squash onions turnips parsnips the patient may have a few grapes between meals and a few an hour after dinner. he should swallow the seeds and pulp whole, and masticate and swallow the skins. he should eat plenty of fresh eggs, fresh milk, and ripe, sweet grapes. the milk and the eggs are good tissue-building foods, while sugar is a carbohydrate and makes a good winter food. the grapes are full of grape-sugar, which is an excellent nutrient, and also an aid to the digestion of other foods. /note/: these menus were given to a consumptive patient, and in a period of six weeks he had made a very substantial gain in both weight and strength. winter menu _weak lungs_ _tendency toward intestinal congestion_ take a bit of fruit, a glass of water, and a brisk walk immediately after rising. breakfast one or two exceedingly ripe bananas, baked, eaten with cream a service of corn hominy one coddled egg, if desired a cup of chocolate, or hot water, if preferred luncheon vegetable soup one fresh vegetable; preferably boiled onion or carrots one or two glasses of fresh buttermilk wheat bran dinner celery, slaw, or any green salad steamed rice or plain boiled wheat a whipped or coddled egg, or buttermilk nuts and raisins a small portion of wheat bran should be taken at breakfast and just before retiring. bran contains valuable mineral salts, and in winter can replace the chemistry of green salads. from one to two glasses of cool water should be drunk at each of these meals. menus for dis-eases of the skin spring menu _eczema_ whether or not eczema is a dis-ease caused by bacteria, it is obvious that the weapon with which to combat this disorder is pure blood with an abundance of the white corpuscles. these phagocytes of the blood may be properly called the police of the body. the patient should observe the following general rules: drink an abundance of pure water both at meals and between meals. omit cane-sugar and all acids. dress as lightly as possible, and do not wear woolen garments next to the skin. take sufficient vigorous exercise each day to cause perspiration. if this cannot be done, the turkish bath should be resorted to once a week. spend as much time in the open air as possible. the meals should be substantially as follows: breakfast a few spoonfuls of wheat bran, cooked, and eaten with cream two or three bran meal gems two or three egg whites, whipped very thoroughly, to which add a spoonful of cream one ripe banana luncheon a green salad, with nuts--liberal portion a fresh vegetable; preferably boiled onions or carrots a baked potato dinner a salad of any green succulent plant young onions peas or asparagus a baked potato or baked beans summer menu _eczema_ breakfast raspberries, blackberries, grapes, or cantaloup a potato--sweet or white a cup of cocoa or sassafras tea (see recipe, p. ) luncheon beets, asparagus, cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, or okra a potato--prepared choice dinner two fresh vegetables; choice of: asparagus corn beans eggplant beets onions carrots a very ripe peach or a cantaloup just before retiring, eat a few very ripe peaches, and take a tablespoonful of wheat bran. fall menu _eczema_ either of the following menus may be chosen for a period of ten or twenty days. they are designed especially for the removal of all forms of autointoxication or self-poisoning which sometimes manifest themselves by skin eruptions. while autointoxication may not be the primary cause of eczema, it augments all zymotic conditions. the chief purpose of these menus is to give to the body an opportunity to throw off the dis-ease by removing all obstacles. i would therefore advise that the use of tobacco, tea, coffee, and all alcoholic stimulants be omitted. menu i menu ii breakfast two egg whites, whipped three extremely ripe bananas very thoroughly, adding baked in a casserole a little heavy cream and dish; serve with thin a spoonful of sugar cream take this as a sauce over two exceedingly ripe bananas, with nuts or nut butter a bunch of california grapes (malagas) a cup of hot water at the beginning of the meal, and a glass of cool water at the close luncheon spinach or a green salad squash or turnips string beans or corn a salad (green) a potato baked beans dinner a green salad or cooked a small portion of fish, spinach white meat of chicken, or boiled onions, carrots, or an egg--egg preferred turnips a boiled onion and a baked a baked potato with fresh potato butter a bit of green salad from one to two glasses of water should be drunk at each of these meals, preferably a cup of hot water at the beginning, and a glass of cool water at the close. i would especially advise vigorous exercises night and morning, and deep breathing before an open window. winter menu _eczema_ /first day/: on rising, drink two or three glasses of water, eat a few grapes, and devote from three to five minutes to any one of the exercises shown in vol. v, pp. to , inclusive. breakfast baked white potatoes or bran meal gems a glass of rich milk luncheon baked beans bermuda onions a potato or corn bread dinner any two of the following: beans pumpkin beets squash carrots turnips parsnips a green salad--either lettuce and tomatoes, or celery; very small portion a baked white potato--eat skins and all (a cup of very thin cocoa may be taken, if something hot is desired; however, pure water would be preferable) just before retiring, devote from three to four minutes to the above-prescribed exercises. the lungs should be inflated to their extreme capacity. do not carry any of these exercises, however, to a point beyond ordinary fatigue. divide the exercise period, both night and morning, into three or four two-minute heats. exercise and deep breathing are second in importance to diet, and should be taken daily, night and morning. drink from one to two glasses of water at each meal, but do not take water into the mouth until mastication is perfect. /second day/: the same as the first, slightly increasing the quantity of food until normal hunger is satisfied. /third day/: practically the same as the first, varying the luncheon according to hunger. the luncheon may consist of any one or two fresh vegetables, such as carrots, turnips, beets, baked white or sweet potatoes. /fourth day/: breakfast a cup of hot water a sweet potato or two bran meal gems two or three tablespoonfuls of wheat bran, with thin cream luncheon boiled onions a baked potato choice of fish or an egg eat a pound of grapes ten minutes after this meal. the skins may be eliminated, but swallow the seeds and pulp. if grapes cannot be obtained, the juice of a sweet orange may be taken. dinner string beans or spinach, with egg, and a liberal piece of bermuda or spanish onion, uncooked (the onions and the beans should be made exceedingly hot with red pepper) a baked sweet or a white potato a small piece of corn bread, with one-half glass of buttermilk from one to two glasses of water should be drunk at each of these meals. just before retiring, devote from three to five minutes to the exercises prescribed for the first day. /fifth day/: the same as the fourth, slightly increasing the quantity of food if there is a return of normal hunger; if not, continue to follow the diet as herein given, until natural hunger is felt. /sixth day/: the same as the first, repeating the diet from eighteen to twenty days. spring menu _weak digestion--nervousness_ _slight eczema_ the following menus for spring, summer and fall are laid out on the two-meal-a-day plan. in addition to the purposes named in the heading, they are designed to promote vitality and endurance, thus enabling one to meet the requirements of hot weather. in order to aid the body in appropriating all the nourishment these menus contain, one should take, each day, at least one hour's vigorous exercise and deep breathing. menu i menu ii breakfast one or two very ripe peaches or cherries bananas baked in a casserole one whole egg dish; eat with steamed wheat--well tunis dates and thin cooked; serve with thin cream cream one whole egg, whipped a very ripe banana with half a glass of milk tunis dates, cream, and nuts dinner two vegetables--choice of a salad peas, beans, asparagus, peas in the pod (see recipe, onions, or beets page ) a baked potato a white potato, baked a very small portion of a small portion of ice-cream either fish or white meat (optional) of chicken one or two glasses of water should be drunk at each of the dinner meals. if constipated, two or three tablespoonfuls of wheat bran should be taken about twice a week with both the morning and the evening meal. this could be cooked five minutes, and may be made very palatable if eaten with a spoonful of cream. summer menu _weak digestion--nervousness_ _slight eczema_ menu i menu ii breakfast (about : ) very ripe peaches--no sugar a cup of hot water a cup of hot water one whipped egg whole wheat, cooked very a portion of gelatin, with thoroughly cream a medium-sized baked potato, with butter dinner (about : ) fresh peas, and either beans two of the following or asparagus vegetables--peas, baked potatoes or tender beans, asparagus, boiled onions, corn spinach, or carrots one whole egg or an a baked potato omelet--spanish style half a glass of buttermilk, one glass of water with one egg white whipped into it one glass of water just before retiring, drink a cup of hot water, and take two tablespoonfuls of bran. fall menu _weak digestion--nervousness_ _slight eczema_ menu i menu ii breakfast a very ripe banana with fruit--choice soaked prunes two tablespoonfuls of one dessert-spoonful of nuts--choice nuts--choice two very ripe baked bananas, one or two spoonfuls of with cream and steamed whole wheat nut butter two eggs--prepared choice one egg a glass of water one or two glasses of milk wheat bran dinner two or three fresh vegetables choice of two fresh vegetables tender corn a baked sweet or a white a baked sweet or a white potato potato a salad--lettuce or celery junket or gelatin a small portion of ice-cream all sweets may be omitted if they do not appeal especially to the taste, and other foods proportionately increased. if there is a tendency toward sour stomach or intestinal gas, all fruit except bananas should be omitted. winter menu _weak digestion--nervousness_ _slight eczema_ breakfast (very light) california grapes, or the strained juice of a sweet orange a baked sweet potato, with butter a cup of hot water into which put a spoonful of sugar and two tablespoonfuls of cream luncheon choice of the following: _a_ three whipped eggs. add a tablespoonful each of sugar and lemon juice _b_ a bowl of clabbered milk, with a sprinkle of sugar a cup of hot water, with sugar and cream dinner boiled onions, and either cabbage or carrots one egg, or an omelet a baked potato a cup of hot water or cocoa if small portions of the above foods are eaten, two egg whites and one yolk may be taken at the close of the evening meal. (see recipe, vol. iii, p. ). this makes an excellent dessert, delegating to the body much warmth, and aiding in the general digestion of other foods. menus for appendicitis spring menu _appendicitis_ breakfast a cup of hot water two tablespoonfuls of wheat bran, cooked thirty minutes; serve with thin cream a portion of prunes, soaked in clear hot water until soft a small, baked potato luncheon peas in the pod a cup of hot water dinner peas or asparagus carrots or turnips a potato a spoonful of bran summer menu _appendicitis_ just after rising take a tablespoonful of olive-oil and a cup of hot water. breakfast a cantaloup a tablespoonful of wheat bran, well cooked an egg a new potato, baked a glass of water luncheon lettuce or spinach boiled onions and carrots wheat bran dinner a salad of lettuce, with nuts spinach, string beans, or new peas a potato two tablespoonfuls of bran fall menu _appendicitis_ on rising one-half pound of concord grapes. breakfast a small portion of whole wheat, well cooked; serve with thin cream two egg whites, lightly poached a tablespoonful of wheat bran luncheon celery hearts a baked potato wheat bran, with cream dinner bran meal gems parsnips, en casserole onions, en casserole a potato a cup of hot water and a tablespoonful of olive-oil may be taken before each of these meals. winter menu _appendicitis_ breakfast a cup of hot water soaked prunes bran meal gems, with nuts a baked banana luncheon winter squash or stewed pumpkin a tablespoonful of bran dinner a spanish onion, en casserole carrots or parsnips bran meal gems or a potato (an hour after this meal, drink half a glass of prune juice) in cases of appendicitis the following articles should be omitted: tea, coffee, tobacco, all stimulants and intoxicants, white bread, rice, oatmeal, cornbread, sweets and confections of every kind. menus for the pregnant woman and for the nursing mother importance of food during pregnancy there is nothing so important, or that wields so much influence over the comfort, the health, and the life of the pregnant woman as her food, and there is nothing, perhaps, to which she gives so little attention. the diet of the prospective mother, of course, governs her digestion and assimilation of food, and elimination of waste matter from the body. these things control her health almost completely, and inasmuch as all mental conditions are principally governed by health, the intellectual faculties of the child are shaped largely by the condition of the mother's digestion. it is obvious, therefore, that the health of the mother and the entire future of the child depend more upon her diet during pregnancy than upon any other one thing. during pregnancy the prospective mother should avoid all such articles of food as she would withhold from her baby after birth. this would eliminate from her diet meat, condiments, sweets, especially pastries and rich desserts; tea, coffee, and all stimulating and intoxicating beverages. the pregnant woman should balance her diet carefully as to the proportion of proteids, carbohydrates, fats, and mineral salts. as leading foods containing these nutrients, i would recommend the following: vegetables rich in mineral proteids carbohydrates fats salts milk potatoes nuts lettuce eggs wheat (whole) butter celery pine nuts corn cream carrots peanuts rice olive-oil parsnips cheese oats cream cheese onions fish dried beans beets fowl dried peas fresh beans dried beans chestnuts fresh peas dried peas honey okra cream cheese sugar eggplant sirups turnips cauliflower some articles are listed under two headings. this is because they are rich in both classes of nutrition. the amount of grain products eaten by the prospective mother should be somewhat limited, ranging between four and eight ounces a day, governed by work or activity. cereals, especially corn, rice, and oats, are rich in phosphate of lime, which is the bone-making or structural food. while enough of this should be eaten to give the child sufficient bone-building material, too much makes birth difficult, and sometimes fatal. the following menus contain suggestions as to the selections, combinations, and proportions of food that would compose a healthy bill of fare for both mother and child for the several seasons of the year: spring menu _for the pregnant woman_ breakfast two eggs, cooked two minutes one whole-wheat muffin a glass or two of rich milk luncheon peas, asparagus, or turnips potatoes--two medium-sized one pint of clabbered milk dinner vegetable soup any two fresh vegetables named in the list above a potato milk or a very small portion of fish if constipated, take wheat bran at both the morning and the evening meal. summer menu _for the pregnant woman_ breakfast cantaloup three or four egg whites and one yolk whole wheat, boiled; serve with butter or cream a glass or two of milk luncheon string beans, peas, or asparagus tender corn or a potato milk dinner vegetable soup two green vegetables; selection from list given above corn, lima beans, or a potato milk or tender fish a small portion of ice-cream (optional) fall menu _for the pregnant woman_ breakfast cantaloup or pears rice, with cream milk two tablespoonfuls of wheat bran luncheon celery turnips or cauliflower fish or fowl a potato dinner a light vegetable soup lettuce, or celery, with nuts two fresh vegetables a baked potato cheese, raisins, and nuts winter menu _for the pregnant woman_ breakfast two or three baked bananas, with cream (see recipe, p. ) two eggs or two glasses of milk oatmeal--a small portion luncheon a sweet potato two or three glasses of milk dinner cream of rice soup two fresh vegetables a potato or bran meal gems milk or cheese nuts and raisins the nursing mother suggestions for the diet the nursing mother should omit all acid fruits, pickles, and condiments containing vinegar. she should eat sparingly of sweets, especially of the pastry and soda-fountain variety. she should omit such vegetables as radishes, cucumbers, cabbage, and sourcrout. fresh corn and dried beans often produce serious intestinal trouble in the young child. eggs should never be eaten when there is the slightest fever. the diet of the nursing mother should be confined chiefly to the more readily digestible foods such as are named in the menus which follow. suggestions for nursing the mother should remember that her baby should never be nursed when she is tired, fatigued, overheated, angry, frightened, excited, or laboring under any mental disturbance. both her mental and her physical condition are instantly conveyed to the child, through her milk, often in exaggerated form. children are sometimes thrown into convulsions by nursing the breast of an excited mother. suggestions for relieving intestinal congestion if either mother or child has a tendency toward intestinal congestion (constipation), the mother should take wheat bran, thoroughly cooked, with both the morning and the evening meal; or, a few drops of prune juice, given to the child, will often relieve this condition, while affording an excellent source of nourishment. spring menu _for the nursing mother_ breakfast plain boiled wheat, with cream fresh milk a baked potato or a baked banana luncheon fresh milk or eggs; milk preferred corn bread or bran meal gems onions, en casserole dinner cream of corn soup spinach or turnip greens a potato, peas, or asparagus plain gelatin, with cream summer menu _for the nursing mother_ breakfast cantaloup or a very ripe, sweet peach one egg flaked wheat, very thoroughly cooked a glass or two of milk luncheon vegetable soup corn bread or bran gems carrots, parsnips, or squash fresh milk a potato dinner fresh peas, beans, squash, asparagus, or beets a baked potato milk a whole wheat gem fall menu _for the nursing mother_ breakfast cantaloup or a very ripe banana, with cream and figs boiled rice or whole wheat milk luncheon soup--cream of corn, peas, or rice broiled fish a baked potato dinner celery, or lettuce, with nuts fresh beans, turnips, carrots, or squash corn bread or a baked potato milk or cocoa winter menu _for the nursing mother_ breakfast a dish of cereal, well cooked--simmered over night eggs or milk whole wheat gems or a corn muffin luncheon vegetable or cream soup winter squash or carrots a sweet or a white potato milk dinner parsnips, turnips, or squash a potato bran gems milk (egg custard, if something sweet is desired) miscellaneous menus spring menu _weak digestion (almost invalid)_ on rising, drink a cup of hot water. take deep breathing before an open window, and such exercises as the patient is able to perform. late breakfast choice of the following: _a_ baked bananas--very ripe _b_ baked omelet, served very rare (for recipe, see p. ) a cup of hot water luncheon a cup of vegetable juice from peas or asparagus (see recipe, p. ) dinner vegetable juice peas or asparagus a baked potato as digestion becomes stronger, the quantity of food may be increased, and a puree of carrots, turnips, parsnips, or squash added in limited quantities. recipe for vegetable juice grind vegetables fine, cover with water, cook ten to fifteen minutes, drain off the juice or water and serve. summer menu _weak digestion (almost invalid)_ on rising, drink two cups of water and eat one very ripe peach. take deep breathing and such exercises as will not cause too much fatigue. late breakfast a cup of hot water very ripe cantaloup, masticated exceedingly fine three or four egg whites, whipped thoroughly; add a dessert-spoonful of sugar while whipping a baked white potato luncheon vegetable juice (see recipe, p. ) dinner cantaloup or watermelon, discarding the pulp summer squash, or purée of tender peas or beans a cup of vegetable juice one or two egg whites fall menu _weak digestion (almost invalid)_ immediately on rising, drink a cup of hot water. take exercise and deep breathing, if possible. breakfast a cup of hot water two egg whites, whipped, and mixed with a cup of lukewarm milk one or two small, baked potatoes, eaten with fresh butter luncheon a cup of hot water a large boiled onion a baked potato one vegetable, such as carrots or parsnips, put through a colander dinner a cup of hot water a baked potato a boiled onion or any other fresh vegetable vegetable juice or purée (see recipe, p. ) this menu is for the purpose of building tissue. it contains enough carbohydrate matter to give a reasonable amount of fat and bodily warmth, provided it can be assimilated. eggs are an excellent proteid food, when taken uncooked, whipped with a very little sugar. the number may be increased as digestion improves. winter menu _weak digestion (almost invalid)_ on rising, drink a cup of hot water, and devote a few minutes to deep breathing and such exercises as can be taken. late breakfast a cup of hot water choice of the following: _a_ an extremely ripe banana, peeled, and baked in a very hot oven _b_ a baked potato, with butter luncheon a baked omelet (see recipe, p. ) dinner soup--cream of pea or celery; very small portion a whipped egg or shad roe a small baked potato if the bowels should become slightly constipated, a spoonful of wheat bran, thoroughly cooked, and served as an ordinary cereal, should be taken with both the morning and the evening meal. the quantity of food should be governed by the condition of the patient as to strength, and as to powers of digestion and assimilation. spring menu _building up the nervous system increasing vitality_ on rising, drink two glasses of water, eat a little of some juicy fruit, and devote as much time as possible to vigorous deep breathing exercises before dressing. in taking these movements, inflate the lungs to their fullest capacity, and hold the breath for half a minute while executing one or two movements. in this way the cell capacity of the lungs can, in many instances, be doubled. large lung capacity is of primary importance in cases of nervousness. choice of the following menus: menu i menu ii breakfast half a cup of boiled wheat, cherries or berries with with cream and nuts sugar and cream two "dead ripe" bananas, one whole egg, eaten with baked, eaten with thin a new potato cream and three or four a small portion of wheat tunis dates (the dates flakes, eaten with cream may be omitted, if desired) or butter a cup of sassafras tea, or one very ripe banana, with cocoa three or four dates, or an equivalent quantity of raisins a cup of sassafras tea, or cocoa luncheon one vegetable--choice of (to be taken in the office) boiled onions, carrots, or two extremely ripe bananas, spinach with nuts or raisins a baked potato cream cheese with dates one glass of buttermilk dinner a salad, if desired a green salad two of the following vegetables: two of the following vegetables: asparagus beans beans peas boiled onions peas beets spinach baked new white potatoes boiled onions one or two gems made from an egg, junket, or a very corn-meal or wheat bran small portion of fish half a glass of buttermilk a baked white potato--eat skins and all about two glasses of water should be drunk at each of these meals--half a glass at the beginning, a glass during the progress of the meal, and half a glass at the close. these meals are rather liberal, and if there should be the slightest fullness experienced after eating, the quantity should be reduced. the breakfasts are light, and one might add slightly to them if they do not satisfy normal hunger. mastication should be perfect. eating should be very deliberate. avoid heavy reading or earnest conversation while eating; these disturb the flow of saliva and prevent thorough mastication. a cup of wheat bran, well cooked, should be taken with the morning and the evening meal about twice or three times a week. a glass of water and the juice of a sweet orange may be taken just before retiring, and exercises as prescribed. summer menu _building up the nervous system increasing vitality_ breakfast a melon or peaches two or three tablespoonfuls of nuts one very ripe banana--red variety a baked sweet potato one egg, either cooked two minutes, or whipped with a little sugar and lemon juice luncheon one fresh vegetable--beans, beets, or corn a baked sweet or a white potato a glass of milk; buttermilk preferred a melon or very ripe peaches dinner a small green salad, with oil lima beans, okra, or corn a baked potato figs, with cream and nuts supplementary dinner if there is a desire for something salty or more pungent in taste and flavor, the following menu may be used: fish or chicken a potato a fruit salad ice-cream--home-made if the two-meal-a-day plan is desired, luncheon may be omitted entirely, and the proportions composing the morning meal slightly increased. fall menu _building up the nervous system_ _increasing vitality_ choice of the following menus: menu i menu ii breakfast a cantaloup or peaches one or two red bananas, a small portion of boiled eaten with soaked prunes whole wheat, with cream and cream two tablespoonfuls of nuts a liberal portion of with cream and figs gelatin--very little sugar one egg, either whipped or cooked two minutes luncheon an ear or two of tender corn one fresh vegetable--choice a baked sweet potato one egg, cooked two minutes nuts and raisins, with cream a baked potato or baked beans dinner endive or celery fish or lobster--a very lima beans and corn small portion whole wheat bread with a baked potato butter a fruit salad a cantaloup corn bread two egg whites, whipped with a particle of sugar and eaten with gelatin winter menu _building up the nervous system increasing vitality_ breakfast a very little sweet juicy fruit--winter pears or grapes one egg, prepared choice one or two exceedingly ripe bananas, baked, eaten with cream, dates, figs, or raisins a cup or two of cocoa luncheon any one or two fresh vegetables, such as: beans peas carrots squash onions turnips a slice of coarse bread, or preferably a baked sweet or white potato dinner one or two fresh vegetables choice of eggs or fish; eggs preferred a green salad a few nuts one extremely ripe banana, with cream gelatin, with cream spring menu _for aged person building up general health_ /first day/: breakfast a full glass of cool water a cup of junket, unsweetened one whole egg, lightly poached a very small, baked white potato a cup of hot water luncheon a large, boiled spanish onion a very rare omelet or a potato a cup of hot water dinner green peas, served in the pod a boiled onion steamed rice two egg whites, whipped, served with a glass of fresh milk just before retiring, drink half a glass of water, and devote from three to five minutes to some of the exercises shown in vol. v, pp. to . give special attention to deep breathing. /second day/: same as the first, slightly increasing the quantity of food, if the quantity named does not seem sufficient. /third day/: breakfast oatmeal simmered over night two extremely ripe bananas, baked, eaten with thin cream raisins, nut butter, and cream luncheon a small portion of asparagus or green peas, with a baked white potato a cup of junket dinner asparagus, green peas, or beans fish, lobster, white meat of chicken, or whipped eggs a potato from one and one-half to two glasses of cool water should be drunk at each of the above meals, or, if preferred, a cup or two of hot water. just before retiring, take vigorous deep breathing exercises. /fourth day/: same as the third, varying the menus by changing vegetables or fruits. /fifth day/: same as the first, repeating these menus so long as they appeal to the taste and satisfy normal hunger. summer menu _for aged person building up general health_ breakfast peaches or cantaloup corn hominy, with cream two glasses of milk luncheon spinach or lettuce lima beans or boiled corn a potato--sweet or white dinner one fresh vegetable--choice buttermilk or fish a potato sliced peaches or a melon where milk is not prescribed, i would advise drinking from one to two glasses of water at each meal. masticate every atom of food to extreme fineness. fall menu _for aged person building up general health_ breakfast a baked apple or soaked prunes one extremely ripe banana plain wheat, boiled until the grains burst open a pint of rich milk half a cup of wheat bran, cooked luncheon a baked potato or baked beans cooked spinach or a morsel of anything green in the way of a salad one fresh vegetable--carrots, string beans, parsnips, squash, or onions. string beans, with a spanish onion, preferred dinner vegetable soup a potato carrots, parsnips, or beans junket or gelatin the following are emergency meals which may be taken once or twice a week: emergency breakfast whole wheat gems a pint of milk a cup of cocoa (inasmuch as milk, in small quantities, may be constipating, some bran should be taken at this meal) emergency dinner choice of the following: _a_ tender fish, with baked or mashed potatoes (if something sweet is desired a very simple dessert, such as plain ice-cream, may be eaten) _b_ chicken or turkey mashed or baked potatoes a cup of chocolate winter menu _for aged person building up general health_ breakfast a cup of hot water a few malaga grapes or the juice of a very sweet orange two medium-sized, baked sweet potatoes, eaten with butter a glass of clabbered milk, or a cup of junket, with very little sugar a small portion of wheat bran luncheon a small quantity of something green--endive, lettuce, or celery, eaten with nuts, oil, and a very little salt boiled onions, carrots, or parsnips a baked potato a liberal portion of gelatin a cup of hot water dinner spinach, or a salad with oil turnips, beets, carrots, parsnips--any two of these a baked potato, with baked beans or rice a portion of junket, fish, or chicken a portion of gelatin, with cream--optional spring menu _strength and endurance (healthy person)_ breakfast half a glass of water choice of fruit--a small portion gems, cakes, or muffins made from coarse corn-meal or bran meal; serve with butter a red banana, with cream, nuts, and raisins milk luncheon peas, beans, or lentils--dried one green vegetable corn bread and butter buttermilk dinner cabbage, celery, lettuce, or romaine, with oil one or two fresh vegetables--peas, potatoes, etc. an egg, milk, fish, or gelatin--any two of these proteid foods rice, with honey, or raisins with cream, if something sweet is desired sufficient wheat bran should be taken to keep the bowels in normal condition. summer menu _strength and endurance (healthy person)_ breakfast peaches, plums, cantaloup, or berries steamed corn, scraped from the cob. recook lightly with whipped egg, stirring constantly a peeled banana, baked--cream luncheon okra, beets, or eggplant salad--tomato, cucumber, and lettuce peas or corn a potato--sweet or white /note/: the salad, with one vegetable, is sufficient if one is not engaged in strenuous work. dinner salad--green rice or corn hominy one or two fresh vegetables buttermilk, junket, or fresh eggs cantaloup, melon, or peaches fall menu _strength and endurance (healthy person)_ the following menus should be adhered to for about thirty days, choosing such vegetables from the selections named as appeal most to the taste. choice of either set of menus may be made; that is, menu i may be followed by menu ii at noon, returning to menu i for dinner and so on: menu i menu ii breakfast two eggs, cooked very choice of the following: lightly _a_ two medium-sized a small portion of boiled sweet or white potatoes, rice or whole wheat, eaten with butter eaten with cream and a or cream very little salt _b_ corn muffins, or corn a cup of wheat bran, with hominy, with either cream cream or fresh butter two eggs, cooked two minutes luncheon a large, boiled onion gems or whole wheat bread a liberal portion of baked a pint of rich milk beans half a cup of wheat bran dinner choice of two of the following baked navy or lima beans vegetables: a baked white potato carrots parsnips a green salad--a very small beets stewed portion pumpkin one fresh vegetable a boiled white potato a glass of buttermilk choice--fish, buttermilk, or eggs half a cup of wheat bran if something sweet is desired, plain ice-cream, egg custard, or gelatin may be eaten at either of the evening meals. from one to two glasses of water should be drunk at each of these meals. a cup of sassafras tea may be taken at breakfast. see recipe, vol. iii, p. . winter menu _strength and endurance (healthy person)_ breakfast california grapes or soaked prunes two eggs--prepared choice muffins of coarse cereal meal--butter luncheon corn hominy, with butter figs, cream, nuts dinner bean or pea soup whole wheat bread turnips, carrots, or onions potatoes or rice choice of eggs, fish, chicken, buttermilk gelatin or junket nuts, raisins, or cheese, with hard cracker spring menu _malassimilation and autointoxication_ manual labor or physical exercise is almost as important in these conditions as diet, therefore at least two hours during the day should be devoted to labor or vigorous motion of some kind, preferably useful labor, such as wood-chopping or cultivating the soil. breakfast a bran meal gem or boiled whole wheat one very ripe banana, baked in a very hot oven; eat with a very little butter or cream half a glass of rich milk a spoonful of nut-meats luncheon one fresh vegetable--choice; or a vegetable salad boiled corn, or hominy, with either butter or cream a small portion of wheat bran dinner a fresh green salad any fresh vegetable in season a new baked potato one egg, cooked two minutes, or a glass of kuymiss if there is a slight tendency toward constipation, a tablespoonful of wheat bran should be taken immediately on rising and just before retiring. this may be taken cooked as an ordinary cereal, or uncooked in hot water. summer menu _malassimilation and autointoxication_ vigorous exercise and water-drinking before breakfast. breakfast a melon or a very ripe peach a banana, with cream and figs--very ripe a liberal portion of nuts a glass or two of milk /note/: the nuts should be masticated exceedingly fine. luncheon two fresh vegetables, such as: asparagus eggplant beans okra carrots peas corn a potato, prepared choice, except fried a small green salad dinner a light vegetable soup choice of: asparagus onions beans peas beets spinach corn or a baked potato very tender fish, game, or chicken, if flesh food or something salty is desired if the weather is extremely warm, all fat foods should be reduced to the minimum, and an abundance of water drunk both at meals and between meals. at least an hour during the day should be devoted to moderate exercise and deep breathing. in all conditions of malassimilation, there is more or less autointoxication. if the diet has been leveled or balanced, the next most important thing is exercise. the best balanced menus will not be effective in removing the causes of these conditions unless there is sufficient time devoted to exercise to create natural hunger. fall menu _malassimilation and autointoxication_ breakfast a bunch of grapes (thoroughly masticate the skins, swallowing the seeds and pulp whole) two eggs or one glass of buttermilk a small, baked potato, sweet or white, with fresh butter a cup of hot water or chocolate luncheon one fresh vegetable--carrots, parsnips, squash, or boiled onions a baked potato a glass of buttermilk a cup of hot water /note/: if the occupation is sedative, the milk should be omitted. dinner cooked spinach or a very small portion of green salad fish, chicken, or buttermilk a baked potato boiled onions, or any fresh vegetable corn or corn bread a cup of hot water every atom of solid food herein named should be masticated to infinite fineness. do not overeat; eat slowly and do not engage in animated conversation while eating. every morning and every evening, immediately on rising and just before retiring, devote from three to five minutes to vigorous deep breathing exercises. if the bowels are constipated, take a tablespoonful of wheat bran on rising; also a small bunch of grapes and a glass of water. take a spoonful or two of wheat bran, cooked, with the breakfast and evening meals, and another spoonful in hot water just before retiring. the quantity of bran taken should be governed by the severity of the condition. when the bowels are once regulated, the quantity may be modified, or perhaps omitted entirely. winter menu _malassimilation and autointoxication_ on rising, drink two cups of hot water. this should be followed by vigorous exercise in a thoroughly ventilated room. breakfast the strained juice of a sweet orange (florida seedling preferred) two eggs, whipped very thoroughly, to which add one glass of milk and a tablespoonful each of sugar and of lemon juice half a cup of wheat bran luncheon a liberal portion of baked beans a cup of hot water or cocoa dinner carrots, parsnips, squash, or pumpkin--any two of these celery or slaw a very rare omelet, rolled in grated nuts and cream a baked potato spring menu _no appetite_ a very sharp distinction should be drawn between appetite and hunger. appetite is a cultivated desire expressed through a sense of /craving/. hunger is the normal demand for food, expressed through the salivary glands. appetite is the desire for liquor, coffee, tobacco, morphin, etc., and for food when one habitually overeats. it is expressed by an empty feeling or craving in the stomach, while hunger is felt only in the salivary glands, and in the region of the throat and the mouth. appetite weakens the body; hunger stimulates thought and action. normal hunger can be produced by limiting the quantity of food below the actual needs of the body, for three or four days, or perhaps a week. when normal hunger returns, the quantity may be increased, but the combinations should be observed for a week or two. the following are limited menus composed of foods that will produce hunger after the third or fourth day: on rising, devote at least five minutes to vigorous deep breathing exercise before an open window, or in the open air. take a bit of juicy fruit and a glass of water. breakfast cherries or berries (very ripe); neither cream nor sugar a banana, very ripe, eaten with two egg whites, thoroughly whipped, and a very little thin cream luncheon a green salad one fresh vegetable; peas or asparagus preferred a new potato dinner a green salad, with nuts two fresh vegetables a whipped egg or a cup of junket it may be well to omit the noon meal for the first three or four days. if there is the slightest tendency toward constipation, a tablespoonful or two of wheat bran, cooked, should be taken at both the morning and the evening meal. a glass of water should be drunk just before retiring, and at least ten minutes devoted to exercise and deep breathing. as appetite returns, the quantity of food may be increased, and a few heavier articles added, such as coarse cereal for breakfast, and a bit of fish or an omelet for dinner. summer menu _no appetite_ a cup of water and a very ripe peach or plum followed by vigorous deep breathing exercises, immediately after rising. breakfast melon or peaches, with a very little cream tender ear of boiled corn, scraped from the cob, and served with butter or a spoonful of cream luncheon lettuce and tomato salad, with grated nuts and dressing corn or beans dinner cucumber and lettuce salad, with dressing summer squash lima beans melon fall menu _no appetite_ breakfast a cup of hot water a bunch of grapes or a baked apple, without sugar one extremely ripe banana, eaten with cream, figs, and nuts luncheon a large spanish onion, boiled a baked potato (the potato should be made very hot with red pepper) dinner anything green, in the way of a salad, or a bit of spinach, cooked a bran meal gem--fresh butter; or a baked potato one extremely ripe banana, with cream and nuts a bunch of grapes an hour after eating. winter menu _no appetite_ on rising, take the juice of an orange, a glass of water, and such exercises as have been already prescribed in the spring menu. breakfast a teaspoonful of olive-oil a pint of clabbered milk or junket half a cup of wheat bran, cooked, served with cream one egg, either whipped or coddled luncheon soup, either vegetable or cream of tomato a small piece of a crisp cracker a tablespoonful of olive-oil dinner two or three bananas, peeled, and baked in a hot oven; eat with one whipped egg, to which might be added a very little whipped cream a glass of rich milk half a cup of wheat bran a glass of cool water or a cup of hot water should be drunk at each of these meals, and, as the appetite becomes normal, the egg and the milk products may be increased, and the heavier vegetables, such as sweet potatoes, baked beans, corn hominy, and plain boiled wheat may be added. spring menu _athletic diet_ an orange or an apple, on rising breakfast plain wheat, boiled eggs or buttermilk nuts and raisins luncheon lettuce and tomatoes, with oil corn bread or corn hominy baked beans, with butter dinner soup--cream of rice or corn peas, asparagus, or carrots a potato baked beans or lentils a red banana, with raisins and cream summer menu _athletic diet_ berries, melon, or peaches, on rising breakfast three or four whipped eggs; add sugar to taste, and flavor with fruit-juices a pint of milk a corn muffin or a small portion of coarse cereal--flaked wheat luncheon fresh corn or shelled beans buttermilk raisins and nuts peaches and cream dinner a small salad choice of one fresh vegetable: beans peas lentils corn bread a sweet potato cottage cheese and either raisins or currants nuts plain ice-cream fall menu _athletic diet_ grapes, melons, or pears, on rising breakfast corn hominy or steamed barley; serve with butter or cream a pint of milk a red banana, with cream, figs, and nuts luncheon lentil soup sweet potatoes, with butter whole wheat bread dates, cream cheese, and nuts dinner a salad of lettuce, tomatoes, and nuts green corn onions, en casserole rice steamed with raisins; serve with butter or cream winter menu _athletic diet_ an orange, on rising breakfast baked chestnuts, with butter two or three eggs, whipped; add sugar to taste a whole wheat muffin a banana, with dates and cream luncheon baked beans milk dinner soup--cream of pea or corn squash or stewed pumpkin fish or an omelet corn bread, with butter or oil ripe olives, celery, nuts, and raisins the primary purpose of fat in the diet is to produce body-heat. about three ounces of fat will maintain normal heat in the average-sized body for a period of twenty-four hours. the amount of fat taken by the athlete should be governed by exposure and temperature of the atmosphere. the best sources of fat are butter, nuts, and salad oil. spring menu _athletic diet_ (_chiefly uncooked_) breakfast berries or cherries three or four eggs, whipped eight minutes--sugar to taste; flavor of lemon or pineapple juice. add a pint of milk, after whipping very ripe bananas, with cream, nuts, and raisins luncheon a green salad, with oil boiled wheat, corn hominy, or rice asparagus, onions, or peas nuts, raisins, cream cheese dinner boiled wheat three or four eggs, prepared as for breakfast ice-cream, plain wheat bran summer menu _athletic diet_ (_chiefly uncooked_) breakfast melon or peaches a pint of junket or clabbered milk two eggs, whipped two red bananas, with cream and nuts luncheon two or three ears of tender corn, boiled one fresh vegetable--peas, beans, or carrots dinner a green salad, with oil and nuts a baked potato corn, peas, or beans fish or eggs a banana, with dates melon or peaches fall menu _athletic diet_ (_chiefly uncooked_) breakfast exceedingly ripe bananas, eaten with nut butter, dates, and cream two or three eggs, whipped. add to each egg a rounded teaspoonful of sugar, and a scant spoonful of lemon juice. whip thoroughly, and add a glass of milk to each egg luncheon two or three eggs, whipped, into which whip a teaspoonful each of honey and lemon juice; add a glass of milk to each egg one or two exceedingly ripe bananas, eaten with nut butter and raisins dinner a green salad or celery a fresh vegetable, cooked--squash, carrots, parsnips, or onions baked beans and a baked potato sufficient water should be drunk at each of these meals to bring the moisture up to per cent of the whole. tender carrots or cabbage, uncooked, may be eaten, with nuts and salt, at both luncheon and dinner. winter menu _athletic diet (chiefly uncooked)_ breakfast an orange or an apple, with olive-oil oatmeal or boiled wheat three eggs, whipped--sugar to taste; fruit flavor cream and nuts, with raisins luncheon corn bread--buttermilk a banana, with either seedless raisins or currants; cream, and either nuts or nut butter milk or chocolate dinner celery baked beans or lentils eggs or fish a potato nuts, raisins, and either cream or ice-cream spring menu _for invalid child--making muscular tissue--regulating bowels_ on awaking, have the child take a glass of water and the strained juice of an orange, or a few cherries or berries; deep breathing in the open air, and such exercises as it is able to endure. breakfast (late) cherries or berries--very few half a cup of hot water a heaping tablespoonful of boiled wheat, oatmeal, or rice a whipped egg, sweetened and flavored to taste half a glass of milk luncheon two glasses of fresh milk, taken slowly--half a glass every ten or fifteen minutes a heaping tablespoonful of wheat bran, cooked, served with cream dinner vegetable soup a cup of water green peas new potatoes eggs whipped, same as for breakfast--all the child will take; milk, if preferred (if milk is chosen, a tablespoonful of wheat bran should be taken to prevent constipation) summer menu _for invalid child--making muscular tissue--regulating bowels_ a very ripe peach or a bunch of grapes on awaking; exercise and deep breathing. breakfast cantaloup or peaches--very little sugar and cream whipped eggs, junket, or gelatin--all the child will take of either, or a portion of all luncheon tender corn, scraped from cob, made into a purée; season to taste milk and either eggs or gelatin dinner cantaloup or melon a pint of milk, with one whipped egg a spoonful of bran deep breathing in the open air just before retiring. fall menu _for invalid child--making muscular tissue--regulating bowels_ /first day/: the first thing after rising, give the body a thorough rubbing with a coarse towel or flesh brush, and a gentle massage. do not use water except on the face and hands. breakfast whip two fresh eggs very fine, adding slowly, while whipping, two teaspoonfuls of sugar, two and one-half teaspoonfuls of lemon juice, and two tablespoonfuls of cream. add half a glass of milk to each egg and mix thoroughly at usual breakfast hour begin taking not more than half a glass at first; in ten or fifteen minutes another half glass. continue taking half a glass every ten or fifteen minutes until the full amount is consumed luncheon a small, baked potato two eggs, prepared as for breakfast dinner a glass of milk a baked potato bit of any fresh vegetable that appeals to the taste drink liberally of water between meals or at meals. just before retiring, rub the body with a flesh brush, or give it a massage as prescribed for the morning. take about one tablespoonful of coarse wheat bran at the beginning of each meal. to keep the intestines thoroughly cleansed is of primary importance. increase the quantity until the desired result is produced, which should be an action once or twice a day. /second day/: the same as the first, decreasing the eggs and increasing the milk. /third day/: the same as the second, slightly varying the menus by increasing the quantity of eggs and milk, if these are agreeable, reducing the other articles correspondingly. /fourth day/: breakfast a glass or two of clabbered milk, slightly sweetened until it is palatable wheat bran, cooked luncheon choice of any fresh vegetable, especially such as sweet potatoes, pumpkin, or red banana, eaten with nut butter a little cream and either dates or figs dinner fruit and nuts, prepared any way they are palatable /fifth day/: the same as the first, repeating the diet herein given so long as it is agreeable. the body should be rubbed with a flesh brush and given massage every morning and evening. winter menu _for invalid child--making muscular tissue--regulating bowels_ choice of the following menus: menu i menu ii breakfast two egg whites and one rice boiled until very soft. yolk whipped rapidly put through a colander about two minutes. and make into a thin add two teaspoonfuls of purée by adding milk; sugar and whip three sugar and cream to taste minutes longer; then add slowly, while whipping, a teaspoonful of strained lemon juice or pineapple juice, and a very little olive-oil. serve two egg yolks and three whites, if the appetite will accept them luncheon any fresh vegetable of the a boiled onion sweet variety, such as a potato--sweet or white parsnips, sweet potatoes, carrots or parsnips, eaten squash, or pumpkin. with butter and salt (these may be made into a cup of chocolate a purée by putting through a colander and adding cream and sugar to taste) dinner one or two fresh vegetables--carrots, purée of rice and one egg parsnips, turnips, prepared as for breakfast or onions, prepared (menu i) anyway that will make them palatable clabbered milk with a sprinkle of sugar the articles composing these meals should be served in very small portions. spring menu _for mental worker to increase brain efficiency_ immediately on rising, take two or three tablespoonfuls of orange juice and drink two glasses of water. if there is a tendency toward fermentation, the orange juice should be omitted. exercise in the open air before breakfast. breakfast two eggs, cooked two minutes a small, baked potato--sweet or white one glass of milk a cup of water luncheon a large, boiled onion and either green peas or asparagus a glass of water dinner a small portion of fish a baked white potato--eat skins and all; masticate thoroughly one or two vegetables, such as peas, beans, or asparagus one egg white in half a glass of milk half a glass of water luncheon should be omitted unless quite hungry. summer menu _for mental worker to increase brain efficiency_ choice of the following menus: menu i menu ii breakfast peaches or plums a portion of wheat flakes. oatmeal, rice, or boiled (a spoonful or two of wheat wheat bran cooked with two glasses of milk the wheat flakes) one whole egg one banana, baked a glass of milk /note/: a few very ripe berries or the juice of an orange may be taken at the beginning of each of these meals. luncheon one fresh vegetable choice of one or two fresh a baked sweet or white vegetables potato a glass of buttermilk a very small portion of fish corn bread--a very little dinner choice of two fresh vegetables choice of two fresh vegetables two glasses of milk or a a baked white potato small portion of fish two or three egg whites two medium-sized baked baked peas, beans, or lentils white potatoes or baked beans every atom of food composing these meals should be masticated to exceeding fineness, and two glasses of water drunk at every meal. if something sweet is desired, a spoonful of raisins and nuts might be taken at the close of the dinner meal. fall menu _for mental worker to increase brain efficiency_ /first day/: on rising, take a bunch of grapes (swallow seeds and pulp without mastication), a glass of water, and devote from eight to ten minutes to exercises nos. and . see vol. v, pp. and . breakfast one or two exceedingly ripe bananas (red variety preferred), eaten with thin cream, raisins or figs, and butter two glasses of milk luncheon one whole egg, boiled two minutes whole wheat, thoroughly cooked; nut butter two glasses of milk /note/: if not hungry, omit both the whole wheat and the egg and take from two to three glasses of milk. for gaining weight, this would be preferable. dinner choice of carrots, squash, turnips, or parsnips one whole egg, boiled two minutes; or an omelet two medium-sized baked white potatoes one glass of milk /note/: from one to one and one-half glasses of water should be drunk at each of these meals. if constipated, eat two medium bunches of concord grapes, swallowing skins, seeds and pulp without mastication. drink a glass of water and spend from five to ten minutes in active exercise and deep breathing just before retiring. /second day/: the same as the first, slightly increasing the quantity of food if normal hunger requires it. bran biscuits may be taken instead of whole wheat if preferred. /third day/: the same as the first, omitting the egg at dinner time, and substituting a small quantity of fish (smelts preferred). /fourth day/: breakfast a cantaloup half a glass of water a small portion of oatmeal, very thoroughly cooked two exceedingly ripe bananas, eaten with figs, cream, and nuts a cup of chocolate luncheon two eggs--prepared choice two medium-sized potatoes dinner a salad with oil and nuts corn, beans, carrots, cabbage--any two of these a potato junket or gelatin /fifth day/: the same as the fourth, with the exception of dinner. at this meal a bit of fish, chicken, or an egg may be eaten. /sixth day/: the same as the first, repeating these menus for about two weeks, making such changes as the appetite demands in vegetables and fruit only. winter menu _for mental worker to increase brain efficiency_ eggs, milk, and sugar are the most readily convertible nutrients known to the science of food chemistry. in combination they represent the highest form of the nitrogenous (proteids and the carbohydrate) compounds, therefore to increase physical efficiency one should take as much of these as possible. if one is under weight, it would be advisable, especially during the cold weather, to take three eggs for breakfast, four eggs with a quart of milk for luncheon, and a vegetable dinner as laid out in menu ii. choice of the following menus: menu i menu ii breakfast a bunch of grapes two or three eggs, whipped, one very ripe banana with to which add a teaspoonful cream and nut butter of lemon juice, a teaspoonful a whole wheat gem, eaten each of olive-oil with one or two very soft and sugar, and one-half eggs glass of milk to each egg luncheon one fresh vegetable two eggs prepared as for a baked potato breakfast, menu ii boiled onions and a bit of fish a glass of milk or a cup of hot chocolate dinner spinach or a bit of salad the same as dinner, menu clabbered milk or a bit of i, choosing either clabbered fish milk, fish, eggs, or baked beans or baked white meat of chicken potatoes boiled onions or carrots a cup of chocolate where as many as four eggs are taken at once, a tablespoonful of cognac brandy will make the yolks more digestible and more assimilable, therefore in curative feeding its purpose is medicinal. spring menu _for a school teacher_ _anemia--sluggish liver--underweight_ _nervousness_ choice of the following menus: menu i menu ii breakfast cherries--sweet berries corn bread, with butter farina, or oatmeal with a cup of hot water cream a glass of milk one whole egg two cups of chocolate luncheon boiled rice, or corn hominy, a large, boiled onion with butter or cream. (a a baked white potato spoonful of sugar may be corn bread added, if desired) buttermilk one or two glasses of water dinner a pint of junket a small portion of fish or a small piece of corn bread chicken two or three glasses of milk a baked white potato half a cup of wheat bran choice of carrots or onions a green salad or a very small portion of spinach may be eaten at this meal, if desired drink one or two glasses of water at each of these meals. if the breakfast has not digested well, the noon meal should be very light. bran gems or plain wheat bran may be eaten at each meal until the liver is performing its normal functions. summer menu _for a school teacher_ _anemia--sluggish liver--underweight_ _nervousness_ menu i menu ii breakfast a cantaloup peaches or cantaloup tender corn scraped from two medium-sized baked cob--lightly cooked potatoes, with butter; a glass of milk; buttermilk eat skins and all preferred two eggs or two glasses of one extremely ripe banana, milk eaten with nut butter, cream, and raisins luncheon a vegetable salad a green salad tender corn, boiled one fresh vegetable a bran gem junket or gelatin dinner a green salad or spinach choice of two fresh vegetables choice of two vegetables: a baked potato beans corn a bit of fish or buttermilk boiled onions peas one baked banana, with a baked potato cream and nut butter a liberal quantity of water should be drunk at each of these meals. fall menu _for a school teacher_ _anemia--sluggish liver--underweight_ _nervousness_ on rising, take the juice of one sweet orange choice of the following menus: menu i menu ii breakfast bran meal gems, with butter a small portion of boiled milk wheat, with cream one egg, either whipped or boiled two minutes luncheon two extremely ripe bananas, two bananas eaten with nut butter half a dozen dates and raisins (cream cream cheese or cream cheese may be an ounce of nuts added, if desired) a cup of milk a whole wheat cracker and nut butter a glass of milk, if convenient dinner boiled onions, and either spinach or a green salad carrots or turnips baked beans or a baked a baked white potato potato a glass or two of milk onions, carrots, turnips, or squash one egg or a very small portion of fish immediately after dinner, eat a bunch of grapes and drink a cup of hot water. if there is a tendency toward constipation, take wheat bran just before retiring. winter menu _for a school teacher_ _anemia--sluggish liver--underweight_ _nervousness_ menu i menu ii breakfast boiled wheat, with cream one exceedingly ripe banana, two or three glasses of milk with thin cream and nut butter two glasses of milk one egg luncheon two exceedingly ripe bananas, with cream cheese and raisins whole wheat bread sandwiches, with nut butter; nuts or cream cheese, if preferred dinner a green salad one or two fresh vegetables--choice a baked potato or corn bread half a cup of wheat bran, cooked; serve with cream if the bowels should act too freely, rice, chestnuts, or sweet potatoes may be eaten liberally with the morning and the evening meal. spring menu _laboring man_ (_lunch in shop_) _underweight--anemic_ breakfast a baked apple boiled wheat or oatmeal wheat bran, cooked two whole eggs, either whipped or lightly poached a glass or two of milk or a cup or two of chocolate luncheon a pint of milk whole wheat bread two very ripe bananas, with nut butter or dates dinner a cup of hot water choice of two fresh vegetables: asparagus carrots beans onions beets peas a green salad a bit of fish one egg or a glass of buttermilk a new potato--baked a spoonful or two of wheat bran a spoonful of nuts and a few dates may be eaten at each of these meals. they should be masticated very thoroughly. summer menu _laboring man_ (_lunch in shop_) _underweight--anemic_ on rising, take two glasses of water, a spoonful or two of wheat bran, and a bit of fruit. /first day/: breakfast two glasses of fresh milk two eggs, whipped or boiled a small dish of whole wheat, cooked a spoonful of wheat bran luncheon four glasses of milk, with hard crackers two eggs, cooked a spoonful or two of wheat bran corn bread (drink two glasses of milk an hour before dinner) dinner two whipped eggs two glasses of milk two medium-sized, baked white potatoes; eat skins and all a sauce-dish of wheat bran, cooked just before retiring, take two or three tablespoonfuls of wheat bran, in a little water, provided there is a tendency toward constipation; if not, this should be omitted. /second day/: the same as the first, adding another egg to the morning meal, and a bit of fish to the evening meals. /third day/: the same as the second. /fourth day/: the same as the first, and so on for a period of a week or ten days. fall menu _laboring man_ (_lunch in shop_) _underweight--anemic_ the following menus are composed of but few articles; all of them, however, have a specific purpose. immediately on rising, drink a glass of water and eat a bunch of grapes, swallowing skins, seeds and pulp. do not masticate the seeds or pulp. choice of the following menus: menu i menu ii breakfast melon or pears a melon or a bunch of two or three eggs, cooked grapes one and a half minutes two or three eggs cooked a portion of whole wheat, one and a half minutes boiled or simmered over two medium-sized baked night; serve with cream white potatoes a small portion of wheat bran, cooked luncheon two or three eggs, taken two eggs uncooked from the shell, two exceedingly large bananas, with a little salt with either nut whole wheat bread with butter or nuts, and dates nut butter or raisins a banana, eaten with either cream cheese or nut butter, and raisins or dates dinner boiled onions, carrots, same as dinner menu i, squash, corn, turnips, or substituting chicken for beets--any two of these the egg or the fish, if a green salad or cooked desired spinach, with egg a very small portion of fish or an egg a liberal portion of baked potatoes from one to two glasses of water should be drunk at each of these meals. mastication should be very thorough. in the selection of articles composing the dinner, do not make them too numerous. three or four things are sufficient. about once a week take-- one fresh vegetable a baked potato one egg home-made ice-cream as dessert the noon meal could consist of three or four eggs whipped with a little sugar, adding a glass of milk to each egg. place this in a bottle and take a glass every fifteen or twenty minutes, from until /p. m./ winter menu _laboring man_ (_lunch in shop_) _underweight--anemic_ /first day/: immediately on rising, drink a glass of water, eat a bit of fruit, and devote from five to eight minutes to exercising and deep breathing. breakfast boiled wheat, with cream and nuts, or nut butter, if convenient; if not, use dairy butter from three to four glasses of milk (a tablespoonful of ordinary wheat bran at the close of the meal) luncheon a pint of milk a sandwich of whole wheat bread, with nut butter and cream cheese one or two bananas, with cream cheese, nuts, and dates dinner celery or a green salad carrots and boiled onions baked white potatoes or baked beans a glass of buttermilk an egg served on a baked potato it would be advisable to drink a glass of water at the close of each meal, and, just before retiring, to drink another glass of water and to eat a bit of fruit. take exercises as already suggested. /second day/: same as the first. /third day/: same as the second, varying the vegetables according to appetite or hunger. /fourth day/: breakfast two very ripe bananas, eaten with cream and nut butter four or five figs, eaten with cream and nuts two eggs, very softly boiled, or whipped, if preferred a potato, if something salty is desired luncheon a sandwich, as for luncheon first day two eggs soaked prunes, or figs, with nut butter or dairy butter dinner fish, eggs, or chicken choice of two fresh vegetables: beets squash carrots turnips, etc. a baked white potato or baked beans a cup of thin cocoa or gelatin a cup of hot water a bit of fruit, exercise, and deep breathing just before retiring. /fifth day/: the same as the fourth, slightly increasing or decreasing the quantity of food according to normal hunger. /sixth day/: the same as the first, repeating the diet until there is a perceptible gain in both strength and weight. it should then be changed or modified so as to prevent the appetite from rebelling against the general plan. these changes may be made by selecting different vegetables and fruits. the heavy or proteid part of the diet should be kept about the same as prescribed so long as the work is strenuous. diet for cold weather breakfast a cup of hot water a baked apple or persimmons an omelet, lightly cooked, rolled in grated nuts and whipped cream a coarse, cereal-meal waffle or corn bread and butter a heaping tablespoonful of coarse wheat bran, cooked (honey, if something sweet is desired) luncheon baked beans, with olive-oil or butter dinner a vegetable soup cabbage, cauliflower, or brussels sprouts a lettuce and tomato salad a potato, corn, or lima beans corn bread and buttermilk gelatin or junket wheat bran nuts, raisins, and cheese diet for hot weather breakfast melon, peaches, or cantaloup a whole wheat muffin or a gem a banana, with raisins, nuts, and cream luncheon peaches, with sugar and cream an ear of tender corn a glass of milk dinner a green salad, with nuts two fresh vegetables--peas, beans, or corn ice-cream or ices--fruit flavor (a melon or a cantaloup, before retiring) two glasses of cool water should be drunk at each of these meals. hot weather menu _for the prevention of sunstroke and heat prostration_ breakfast cantaloup peaches, or a small portion of berries, without sugar one or two extremely ripe bananas, eaten with nuts, cream, and raisins fresh milk luncheon a green salad or spinach any fresh vegetable, such as squash, onions, turnips, beets, carrots, or parsnips a new baked potato--eat skins and all dinner a green salad, with tomatoes and nuts two vegetables--corn, peas, beans, or asparagus (the vegetables to be cooked in a casserole dish) a potato--prepared choice one very ripe banana, with figs and either cream cheese or fresh cream suggestions for the prevention of sunstroke from one to two glasses of cool water should be drunk at each of these meals. mastication of every atom should be complete. hurried eating is the most prolific cause of fermentation. fermentation is the cause of intestinal gas, sour stomach and indigestion, also constipation and torpid liver. avoid stimulants such as tea, coffee, tobacco, beer, or liquors. these things excite heart activity, which causes excessive body-heat. avoid sweets, especially sweet soda-fountain drinks. sugar is composed largely of carbon, and carbon is one of nature's greatest heat-makers. confine the diet largely to semi-acid fruits, fresh vegetables, green salads, milk, eggs, nuts, and a very limited quantity of bread and cereal products. cereal starch is the most difficult of all carbohydrate matter to digest. drink an abundance of pure water at meals and between meals. avoid all mixed-up, sweetened and charged water. there is nothing better than plain spring or distilled water. do not eat too many things at the same meal. three or four articles are sufficient. avoid meat of all kinds, and eat a very limited quantity of fats. by all means do not overeat. every atom of food taken into the body that is not used must be cast off at a tremendous expense of energy. the casting-off process is what we call dis-ease. every housewife and mother should know enough about the chemistry of food to avoid serving at the same meal things which are chemically inharmonious. if these simple laws were observed, sunstrokes and heat prostrations would be almost unheard of. summer is the time when nature is rebuilding and revitalizing all forms of animal life; it is also the time when she is producing all of the material with which to do this building in its best and purest form, therefore summer should be the time when people are at their best. the reason they are not is because they do not understand the simple laws that govern human nutrition. spring menu _to build up sexual vitality and maintain it_ breakfast very ripe berries, with sugar rare omelet, rolled in whipped cream and grated nuts whole wheat bread or boiled whole wheat rich milk wheat bran luncheon two or three eggs, whipped; add a pint of fresh milk, a dash of sugar, and a flavor of pineapple juice; drink slowly dinner fish or lobster, broiled potato and peas junket or gelatin nuts, raisins, and cream cheese chocolate only plain water should be drunk at these meals. summer menu _to build up sexual vitality and maintain it_ breakfast peaches, plums, or any semiacid fruit whole wheat or a coarse cereal, cooked whipped eggs or tender fish a whole wheat cracker luncheon a green salad, with oil and nuts oysters, crabs, or lobster a potato or whole wheat dinner carrots, peas, beans, corn--any two of these a spanish omelet or white meat of chicken a potato a glass of rich milk a cantaloup or peaches fall menu _to build up sexual vitality and maintain it_ breakfast peaches or cantaloup two or three eggs, whipped six or seven minutes; sweeten to taste and flavor with fruit-juice a cup of junket or gelatin, unsweetened luncheon fish, broiled one fresh vegetable a potato dinner corn and either peas or beans fish or chicken buttermilk a potato winter menu _to build up sexual vitality and maintain it_ on rising, take half a glass of grape juice and a glass of cool water. devote about fifteen minutes to vigorous exercise and deep breathing. before eating, take a brisk walk, thinly clad, in the open air. /first day/: breakfast grapes or grape juice a small portion of plain wheat, boiled very thoroughly; serve with cream three fresh eggs (see fall menu) a cup of junket or buttermilk half a glass of water luncheon one egg, prepared as for breakfast two glasses of junket or buttermilk a liberal portion of gelatin dinner celery broiled fish; young variety--very tender a baked potato one egg whipped as for breakfast gelatin or junket--a liberal portion /second day/: same as the first, reducing--unless the digestion is perfect--the amount prescribed for the noon meal. /third day/: same as the second, varying the meals by changing fruits, or by adding another fresh vegetable to the evening meal; but, before adding another article, eat the full amount of proteids prescribed: eggs, fish, and gelatin. /fourth day/: breakfast one or two ripe bananas raisins or figs; or nuts or nut butter two or three glasses of fresh milk luncheon baked beans or lentils, with olive-oil or fresh butter two or three eggs; preferably uncooked dinner two or three eggs, with two teaspoonfuls of sugar; whip seven or eight minutes; add two glasses of milk; mix thoroughly; drink slowly bran meal gems half a cup of bran, cooked /fifth day/: same as the fourth. /sixth day/: same as the first. /seventh day/: same as the second, repeating the menus for a period of thirty to forty days, varying them by selecting such vegetables as appeal most to the taste. if the bowels should become constipated, take half a cup of cleansed wheat bran, cooked, with the breakfast, and, just before retiring, another half cup in hot water. if possible, spend from two to three hours each day in the open air, taking vigorous exercise. oxygen is nature's great stimulant and life-giver. eat slowly and masticate very thoroughly. if there is a tendency toward obesity, sugar should be omitted from the meals entirely. proteid foods should predominate in the diet. the following are the most soluble and readily assimilable group of proteid foods suitable for these menus, given in the order of richness and importance: eggs shell-fish gelatin milk fish fowl--white meat milk products transcriber's note: italic text is denoted by _underscores_. small capital text has been replaced with all capitals. minor typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected without note. irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as printed. the cover for the ebook version of this book was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain. * * * * * encyclopedia of diet _a treatise on the food question_ in five volumes explaining, in plain language, the chemistry of food and the chemistry of the human body, together with the art of uniting these two branches of science in the process of eating so as to establish normal digestion and assimilation of food and normal elimination of waste, thereby removing the causes of stomach, intestinal, and all other digestive disorders by eugene christian, f. s. d. volume ii new york city corrective eating society, inc. copyright by eugene christian entered at stationers hall, london september, by eugene christian, f. s. d. all rights reserved published august, contents volume ii _lesson viii_ _page_ foods of vegetable origin grains uses of grains: ( ) grain as a source of energy ( ) grain as a source of nitrogen ( ) grain as a remedial food nuts peanuts legumes fruits classification of fruits according to acidity vegetables classification of vegetables sugars and sirups beet-sugar honey confections vegetable oils _lesson ix_ drugs, stimulants, and narcotics alkaloids and narcotics opium cocain nux vomica and strychnin quinin acetanilid tobacco coffee tea cocoa and chocolate alcohols and related compounds alcohol chloroform, ether, and chloral poisonous mineral salts and acids mercury potassium iodid lead and copper purgatives and cathartics _lesson x_ importance of correct diagnosis and correct treatment _lesson xi_ common disorders--their cause and cure health and dis-ease defined overeating superacidity the cause the symptoms the remedy fermentation (superacidity) the cause the symptoms the remedy gas dilatation the symptoms importance of water-drinking constipation the cause the remedy foods that may be substituted for one another constipating and laxative foods constipating and laxative beverages gastritis the cause the symptoms the remedy nervous indigestion the cause the symptoms the remedy subacidity the cause the symptoms the remedy biliousness the cause the symptoms the remedy cirrhosis of the liver the cause the symptoms the treatment piles or hemorrhoids the cause the symptoms the treatment diarrhea the cause the treatment emaciation or underweight the cause the symptoms the remedy obesity or overweight the cause the remedy neurasthenia the cause the symptoms the remedy malnutrition cause and remedy locomotor ataxia the cause the symptoms the remedy colds, catarrh, hay fever, asthma, influenza colds--the cause the symptoms the remedy catarrh--the cause the symptoms the remedy hay fever--the cause the symptoms the remedy asthma--the cause the symptoms the remedy influenza--the cause the symptoms the remedy insomnia the cause the remedy rheumatism--gout rheumatism--the cause the symptoms gout--the cause the symptoms rheumatism, gout--the remedy bright's dis-ease the cause the symptoms the remedy diabetes the cause the symptoms the remedy consumption the treatment heart trouble the cause the remedy dis-eases of the skin the cause the treatment appendicitis the symptoms the treatment chronic or severe cases of appendicitis lesson viii foods of vegetable origin grains grains constitute the most important article of human food, not so much on account of their superior nutritive, curative or remedial value, but chiefly because of their prolific growth and abundant production in all civilized countries throughout the world. the variety of grain produced in the various countries depends largely upon the climate and the habits of the people. the predominant use of rice by the asiatics, wheat by the europeans, and maize by the aboriginal american, shows how people adapt themselves to the foods of prodigal growth. it also shows the effect different foods have upon the physical development of the various tribes that inhabit these remote countries. [sidenote: wheat] wheat is said by some writers to be a complete food. this is not strictly true. wheat contains a very small percentage of fat, and while fat can be made in the body from carbohydrates, it is more natural, and entails less work upon the digestive organs and the liver if the diet is balanced so as to contain the required amount of fat, and all other nutritive elements in the right or natural proportions. [sidenote: results of eating too much starch] a diet composed of wheat alone would contain per cent of carbohydrates, chiefly in the form of starch. while this would be perfectly wholesome, it would give the body an excess of starch which would ultimately result in intestinal congestion, gout, rheumatism, hardening of the arteries, and premature old age. wheat contains a larger quantity, and a greater variety of proteids than any other grain, but wheat proteids are more difficult to digest than the proteids of milk, eggs, or nuts. [sidenote: composition of wheat] wheat varies greatly in composition, according to the soil and the climate in which it is produced. this fact is not recognized or considered by the average writer on dietetics, who eulogizes wheat as the wonderful "staff of life," because certain food tables show that wheat contains per cent, while corn contains only per cent of proteids. it is neither the proteid nor the carbohydrate content that determines the value of any grain as food, but rather the proportions of the different elements of nutrition it contains, that being the best which is more nearly balanced to meet the requirements of the human organism. [sidenote: rye] rye may be considered in the same class as wheat. chemically, the contents are very similar, and the effects upon the body are very much the same. it contains a larger per cent of cellulose, and less gluten than wheat, therefore as a remedial food it is superior to all other grains for exciting intestinal peristalsis, thereby removing the causes of constipation. [sidenote: barley] the nutritive elements of barley are similar to those of wheat and rye. it contains less cellulose fiber, and therefore a larger per cent of digestible nutrients than any one of the cereal group except rice. it has never become popular as a bread-making grain because-- the nitrogenous or gluten substances are not tenacious enough to make the conventional "raised" bread the flour is dark in color the grain is so hard and "flinty" that it is very difficult to mill it down to the required fineness for these reasons barley has been greatly neglected as a food commodity. from a chemical standpoint it deserves a much higher place in our dietaries than it has hitherto been given. [sidenote: oats] the composition of oats varies somewhat from that of wheat, rye and barley. they contain a larger proportion of both fat and proteids, and form a desirable food if correctly prepared. the objection to oats as an article of diet is the hasty manner in which they are usually prepared, which converts them into a gummy mass of gelatinized starch, entangled with the peculiar gummy proteid of the oat grain. thus prepared the oat is a most prolific source of disturbed digestion. [sidenote: corn] corn is the cheapest material capable of nourishing the human body that is produced in the temperate zone. it is less digestible, and more deficient in the salts than the group of grains thus far mentioned. it is very wholesome, however, but in no way superior to other grains. in the future corn will probably play an increasing part in the problem of feeding the world, as a cheap source of carbohydrates, and for the purpose of manufacturing glucose. [sidenote: rice] in all tropical and semi-tropical countries rice occupies the same position that corn does in the temperate zone. it is more deficient in proteids and in fat than any other food grain, while the starch of rice is more easily digested than any other form of cereal starch. this grain, however, is almost entirely devoid of mineral constituents, and for this reason it is productive of serious nutritive derangements when indulged in too freely. this deficiency can be overcome by taking a liberal quantity of green salads, or fresh vegetables, whenever rice is eaten. [sidenote: buckwheat] buckwheat is a grain whose consumption is very limited, owing to the fact that it is dark in color. it compares favorably with wheat and corn as to nutritive elements, and is now much used as a winter food by the northern people. uses of grains the use of grains as an article of food may be considered under three headings: as a source of energy as a source of nitrogen grain as a remedial food; that is, as a source of cellulose or roughness, for the regulation of intestinal action ( ) grain as a source of energy [sidenote: too much grain consumed] all grains are composed largely of starch, therefore the question of energy to be derived from this source is one of assimilation and use. the use of grains in the diet deserves the most careful consideration, and the study should not be confined to any particular grain, but to the entire group, and especially to the method of preparation, and the quantity that should be consumed under the varying conditions of age, temperature of environment, and work or activity. the conventional american diet contains such an abnormal quantity of grain-starch, and the methods of preparation are so unnatural, that the food scientist, in practise, will find many people whose digestive organs have become so deranged that he may deem it necessary to prohibit grain-starch almost entirely. the grown person, pursuing the ordinary sedative occupation, should not eat more than three or four ounces of cereal food a day, while the manual laborer should not consume more than five or six ounces each twenty-four hours. this quantity contemplates cool, or winter weather. in summer this quantity should be reduced according to work or activity. ( ) grain as a source of nitrogen grain as a source of proteid has received undue consideration in hygienic works. upon an allowance of one-fourth of a pound of grain per day, which would make four vienos, with a nitrogen factor of six, we see that decigrams of nitrogen would be supplied from the grain. the variations between the proteids contained in two varieties of breakfast food is seldom more than two or three per cent. this would amount to a variation in the daily intake of nitrogen of about five decigrams, an amount too little to be worth consideration. [sidenote: digestibility of grain proteids] grain proteids are not so easily digested as are the proteids of eggs, milk and nuts. the following list of grains and grain products is given in the order of the digestible nitrogen they contain: gluten or dietetic foods barley macaroni white flour whole wheat--graham flour rye oatmeal corn products buckwheat rice pure starches ( ) grain as a remedial food [sidenote: remedial value of the whole grain] [sidenote: wheat bran a natural remedy for constipation] grain is constipating or laxative in effect according to the way it is prepared and eaten. whole grain, especially wheat and rye, will normalize intestinal action, and in some cases act as a laxative, while the same grains made into flour, and milled in the usual way, are constipating. ordinary wheat bran is one of the most effective remedies known for intestinal congestion, and it can be administered or regulated with much accuracy, according to the severity of the case. an intelligent understanding of the use of bran in treating constipation is quite necessary. the object should be to employ bran as a remedy in chronic cases, and to vary the quantity, the quality, and the cellulose content of the meals. in rare cases, bran may produce irritation; in such cases it should be cooked three or hours, and eaten only with hot water. in other cases the mechanical stimulation of the peristaltic action is not effective. the practitioner can usually determine these questions on the third or the fourth day. bran should be administered about as follows: in cases of severe constipation, one rounding tablespoonful in water, just after rising; one-half teacupful, cooked, taken at each meal, and a heaping tablespoonful in water just before retiring. the following table gives, in the order of their laxative effects, a few of the principal grains: flaked or whole rye flaked or whole wheat flaked or whole barley flaked or whole oats nuts [sidenote: nuts as heat producers] the true nut is the seed of trees and shrubs which stores the greater proportion of food material for nourishing the seedling in the form of vegetable oil. the nut is very largely a fuel food or heat producer, therefore among the primitive races, along the warmer belts of the earth's surface, the nut was not of so much importance, but in the northern or colder countries, where the body-heat meets with such powerful resistance from climatic environment, the nut is of equal, if not of more importance than fruits. there are a few miscellaneous articles of food that are classed as nuts, which do not belong primarily to this group. in the following discussion i will take up the several varieties of nuts in the order of their general value as articles of human nutrition: [sidenote: pine nuts] [sidenote: composition of the pine nut] [sidenote: the nitrogen factor in nuts] there are several species of pine seeds from many varieties of trees, and from many different countries. the italian pine seed or nut, called in italy "pignon," and in this country "pignolia," is the refined or cleansed nut, called by the writer "protoid" nut. this is a coined word given to it because it contains the highest percentage of protein of any other food that has yet been analyzed. the "protoid" nut contains per cent protein, per cent oil, per cent carbohydrates, per cent ash, and per cent water. the relative proportion of nitrogen to energy is not so great as in some other food products, such as eggs, or skimmed milk. these contain a large per cent of water, so that the protoid nut, while containing pound for pound more nitrogen than any other known food, has a lower nitrogen factor than foods which do not contain so large a percentage of fat. this same rule will apply to all nuts. they are rich in protein, but because of the large amount of fat which supplies energy in its most condensed form, the nitrogen factor, which is the relation between nitrogen and energy, is often lower in many nuts than in grain. the chief advantage of protoid nuts over other varieties is in their softness, consequently they are more digestible, and more assimilable than any other specimen of the nut family. the pine nuts which grow prodigally in the western part of the united states are not so rich in protein as the protoid nuts, but in other respects are very excellent food. the annual crop of these is about one million pounds, but is variable, a full crop being produced only about every third year. they are harvested in a very crude way, chiefly by indians, from the remote districts of new mexico, utah and california. [sidenote: almonds] the almond is a most desirable food. it contains per cent nitrogen, and per cent fat. the flavor is very agreeable, and the nuts, in digestibility, rank next to protoid nuts. they may be substituted for each other in many dietaries. [sidenote: pecans] the pecan, which is a species of hickory-nut, contains per cent protein, and per cent fat. it is a very delicious article of food, though somewhat inferior to pine nuts and almonds, in digestibility, and as a source of nitrogen. [sidenote: brazil-nuts] brazil-nuts contain per cent protein and per cent fat, and rank high as an article of body-heat and energy. [sidenote: white walnuts] soft-shelled or white walnuts are commonly known as "english walnuts," though they are chiefly grown in france and in california. these nuts contain per cent protein, per cent fat, and form one of the staple nut foods of both europe and america. [sidenote: hazelnuts] filberts or hazelnuts contain per cent protein, and per cent fat. they differ widely from the varieties hitherto named, and are less digestible. they should be masticated exceedingly fine, and should not be taken by one whose digestion is particularly weak. [sidenote: butternuts] butternuts are a species of walnut. they contain per cent protein, per cent fat, and rank in the dietary along with english walnuts and brazil-nuts. [sidenote: beechnuts] beechnuts contain per cent protein and per cent fat. owing to the difficulty of gathering or harvesting, these nuts have never become popular as an article of human food. they are in the grain class, therefore rank high as an energy-producing material. [sidenote: cocoanuts] the cocoanut is a product of the palm tree, and, while quite distinct from our nuts of the temperate climate, is a very valuable and abundant food, deserving more extended use. cocoanut is about one-half fat, contains per cent protein and per cent carbohydrates. the milk of the cocoanut is an excellent article of food, and used by the natives in the tropics in many remedial and medicinal ways. peanuts [sidenote: value of pea-nuts and soy-beans] peanuts, which are so widely used as food, are on the boundary line between nuts and legumes. they were classed as peas by some of the early botanists, and as nuts by others. the name indicates the compromise that was made between the two theories. another legume, which is largely used in japan and china is the soy-bean. both the peanut and the soy-bean are better balanced, and more nutritious than common beans and peas. they are similar in composition, and contain about equal quantities of protein and fat, some peanuts yielding as much as or per cent oil. neither are palatable in their natural state, but both are very delicious when their starch content is converted into dextrin by roasting. the japanese have a method of preparing the soy-bean by a process of fermenting, which renders the proteid material very digestible. soy-beans have not yet been introduced into this country, hence there will be little opportunity to use them, and they will, therefore, not be discussed here at length. legumes legumes are the seeds of a certain group of plants grown in pods. the term comes from a very ancient word, "legere," meaning _to gather_. beans and peas are the most familiar types of this group. [sidenote: legumes rich in nitrogen] legumes are rich in nitrogen, and some varieties are also very rich in oil. they are not equal to nuts in fuel or food value, however, because in the natural state they are hard, somewhat indigestible, and unpalatable. these qualities are due to the fact that the nitrogenous material of legumes are radically different from the nitrogen found in nuts, and belong to a class not so desirable as food. meat may be omitted from the diet and legumes adopted as the chief source of nitrogen, but this change requires some knowledge and careful feeding in the beginning. meat is digested wholly in the stomach and does not require mastication (only enough to be swallowed), while dried or mature legumes require much mastication, owing to the carbohydrates they contain. the best form in which legumes can be taken is in their green or immature state, owing to the fact that the immature starch they contain is readily soluble, while mature legume starch is rather difficult to digest. fruits the term "fruit" in a strictly botanical sense includes a very wide range of vegetable articles--the reproductive product of trees, or other plants, such as grains, legumes, nuts, berries, apples, peaches, plums, etc. in this lesson, however, i will apply the popular meaning to the term. [sidenote: general composition of fruit] the common succulent or juicy fruits, including both tree fruits and berries, have many properties in common. the chemical composition of these typical fruits consists of from to per cent water, to per cent sugar, to per cent organic or fruit-acids, and small quantities of protein, cellulose, and the numerous salts, a portion of which may be combined with the fruit-acids. some unripe fruits contain starch and various other carbohydrate substances, many of which are distasteful and unwholesome. on the other hand, when fruits become over-ripe, and decay sets in, the sugar is changed into carbon dioxid, alcohol, and acetic acid, and the fruit rapidly deteriorates in nutritive value and unwholesomeness. these changes, together with the loss of water, account for the sponginess and the tastelessness of cold storage and other long-kept fruits. all varieties of fruit are best when they have been allowed to ripen naturally on the trees, but modern commercial conditions demand that fruits for shipping purposes be picked slightly immature, and allowed to ripen in transit to the markets. [sidenote: dietetic value of fruits] the fruit-acids are composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and are burned in the body the same as sugar, or fats. the actual energy-producing content of fruit is not large, and depends almost entirely upon the sugar content. the nutrient elements of fruit consist of fruit-sugar, combinations of salts, organic acids, and various flavoring or aromatic substances. these same salts, acids, etc., purchased at the drug store, and administered separately, would be of no particular value, and might produce harmful results, but in the various combinations of fruits they have very important places in the diet. [sidenote: fruit as an aid to digestion] one of the most important functions that fruit performs in the body is that of an artificial solvent, or an aid to digestion. to make food serve this purpose well would require some knowledge in regard to chemical harmonies, quantity, etc. to illustrate: if the stomach does not secrete a sufficient quantity of hydrochloric acid, fruit-acid should be absolutely omitted, as any acid, except hydrochloric acid itself, tends to inhibit the formation of the normal stomach acid. and this in turn tends to fermentation of the sugars and starches--causing acid fermentation and all the symptoms that accompany this condition. [sidenote: effect of acid fruits] so it is very important to prevent all the causes and sources of fermentation if we would prevent the development of all the various diseases that arise from acid conditions of the stomach, and autointoxication. this explains why people of rheumatic tendency cannot take acid fruit. citrus fruits, however, and limes, lemons, oranges, grape-fruit, etc., are beneficial in rheumatism and conditions of lowered blood alkalinity, because they are changed to alkalis in the system, and reinforce the blood alkalinity. people of rheumatic tendency, therefore, should confine the diet as nearly as possible to starchless foods, omitting all but the citrus fruits. [sidenote: classification of fruit according to acidity] in the lesson on "vieno system of food measurement" i give the energy value of various fruits, and also the nitrogen factor. these tables consider fruits in the same light with other foods; that is, as sources of energy and nitrogen. in the table which follows, the more important fruits are grouped according to their total acidity. the _figures_ represent the _volume_ of _acidity_, not strength: acid fruits subacid fruits sweet and non-acid fruits limes raspberries grapes lemons plums prunes grapefruit cherries raisins cranberries peaches bananas pineapples blackberries persimmons oranges apples figs apricots pears strawberries dates the fruits in the above table are all reasonably wholesome, and the particular fruits to be used depend as much upon convenience as upon the nature of the food substances. the above groups, however, will be given much attention in dietetic prescriptions, and the food scientist should become thoroughly familiar with this classification. of the acid fruits, oranges are the best and most desirable, and cranberries perhaps the least. acid fruits are responsible for much stomach and intestinal trouble. food was prior to life. animal life on this globe has been fitted into, and is the net result of food; therefore, in the wonderful adaptations of nature, it is evident that life will develop higher and better by subsisting upon the food that grows in its respective country. acid fruits, such as lemons, limes, grapefruit, pineapples, and oranges, are grown in the tropical and semi-tropical countries, where the climate is warm, and where people subsist largely upon native vegetables. these fruits supply the acids and the fruit-sugars which the system requires in a warm climate. in the tropics the people live out of doors, the pores of the skin are kept open, and the effete matter produced by acids can be cast out of the body. [sidenote: evils of acid fruit in northern countries] in northern countries people live largely indoors, and are heavily clad except during a very short term in midsummer, therefore they do not eliminate freely. they subsist largely upon the heavier foods, such as flesh and grains, both of which require a large amount of hydrochloric acid for digestion, hence when the acid of fruits is added to the hydrochloric acid, of which most people have a deficiency, serious acid fermentation may result. acid fermentation is the beginning of nearly all stomach trouble, and is the primary cause of many other ills. (see "fermentation," p. .) [sidenote: value of subacid fruits] practically all the fruits of the subacid group are excellent; however, on account of the mechanical irritation of the seeds, berries should not be used in cases in which the stomach and the intestines are irritated or catarrhal. in such cases the juice should be pressed from the fruit and the seeds discarded. [sidenote: value of non-acid fruits] of the non-acid fruits, raisins, figs, and dates are excellent foods from the standpoint of furnishing a large amount of sugar in its very best form. _very ripe_ bananas and _ripe_ persimmons, especially the large japanese variety, are fruits which have a distinct nature, and are suited to a particular purpose in dietetics. these pulpy fruits are especially desirable in all cases of digestive irritations and disorders, because of the amount of nourishment contained in them, which is greater than that contained in the juicy fruits. in my practice i seldom, if ever, find a stomach so weak that it cannot digest ripe persimmons and very ripe bananas. i attribute much of my success in treating such cases to the skillful use of these products. the persimmon and the banana as remedial and nutritive articles, are the most valuable fruits grown. [sidenote: canned and evaporated fruits] raisins, prunes, figs, dates, apricots and peaches are common types of fruit preserved by the process of evaporation, and when soaked in clear water may be restored to almost their original condition. evaporated fruit should not be cooked. this is perhaps the most palatable and wholesome method of preserving fruit. next in purity and importance are the methods of canning, as practised by the housewife. the ordinary commercial preparations of canned fruits, together with the many jams, marmalades and jellies, are generally of doubtful, if not inferior quality. the pure food law has accomplished much to establish honesty in the preserving and the labeling of food, but these products are still far from ideal, and are not to be considered where fresh or evaporated fruits are obtainable. vegetables in this group we may conveniently class all food products not elsewhere discussed. [sidenote: composition of lettuce] beans, peas, and corn, when taken in the immature state, are classed as vegetables. the importance of this group of food products is not their great food value per pound (succulent vegetables contain anywhere from to per cent of water); it is the great variety of nutritive substances which they contain. lettuce contains cellulose, proteids, active chlorophyl, pentoses, sugars and starches, representing carbohydrates in various processes of transformation; small quantities of fat, and a relatively large per cent of mineral salts, besides numerous flavoring materials. all other edible plants contain many of the same elements in different proportions. edible vegetables may be conveniently grouped according to that portion of the plant which we consume. these groups are: a above ground b roots and tubers c leafy or succulent d cucurbita family melons, cantaloups, and tomatoes are on the border line between vegetables and fruits. the following groups of vegetables are made up according to these classifications: vegetables _(a) above ground_ beans-- dried green beets brussels sprouts cauliflower corn eggplant lentils (dried) okra peas dried green _(b) roots and tubers_ artichokes asparagus carrots onions potatoes-- sweet white parsnips radishes turnips _(c) leafy or succulent vegetables_ beet-tops cabbage celery dandelion kale lettuce parsley romaine radish-tops spinach turnip-tops watercress _(d) miscellaneous vegetables (of the cucurbita family)_ cantaloup muskmelon pumpkin squash watermelon [sidenote: value of succulent vegetables] succulent vegetables are very essential in a well-rounded bill of fare, and the neglect of their use is one of the errors in dietetics. the most important function of succulent or leafy vegetables is in the supply of pure water and mineral salts. they give to the body that which cannot be obtained elsewhere. [sidenote: vegetable juices aid the digestion of all food] the diet of the average person is composed of too many solids, especially of the carbohydrate class. cereal products compose a very large proportion of the civilized diet, especially in america, yet the starch of cereals is the most difficult of all starches to digest and to assimilate. the water and solvent juices in fresh vegetables and succulent plants are important factors in the digestion and the assimilation of cereal starches. the relative importance of salads and succulent plants in the diet may be graded according to the following table: spinach turnip-tops dandelion lettuce romaine endive celery cabbage kale watercress parsley beet-tops [sidenote: the white potato] the irish or white potato is the only true tuber that is used very extensively as an article of food. it is formed chiefly of starch and water. the starch of this tuber is very coarse and much softer, more soluble, and hence much more digestible than the starch of cereals or legumes. baking is the best method of preparing the white potato. the skins or peeling should be eaten in order to balance the diet as to cellulose, which is a most important article in the excitation of peristalsis of both the stomach and the intestines. [sidenote: the sweet potato] the sweet potato is a root, and differs chiefly from the irish potato in that it contains more sugar and less starch. the sweet potato is more wholesome than the irish variety. measured by its chemical contents, it is one of the best foods of all the tuber group. [sidenote: root vegetables] the root vegetables given in the order of my preference are: carrots, parsnips, turnips and beets. carrots are exceedingly nutritious and palatable in an uncooked state, eaten with nuts. tomatoes may be considered upon the border line between vegetables and fruits. they are exceedingly useful in cases of intestinal congestion and torpidity of the liver. [sidenote: the melon] the watermelon is very wholesome. the water is rich in sugar, while the pulp is composed of a soft fiber, which is a mild stimulant to the digestive and the excretory organs. muskmelons and cantaloups are rich in natural sugar. they are non-acid, hence in harmony with nearly every known article of food. considering their chemical neutrality and food value, they are about the best articles of diet in the watery or juicy class. the pumpkin and the squash, which are closely related to the melon, are of the genus cucurbita, and are divided into three species: pepo or pumpkin maxima or winter squash moschata, the pear-shaped squash with a slight variation of the water content, all of these varieties contain much the same elements of nutrition. however, the pumpkin is most important to the student of dietetics--( ) because of its food value, and ( ) because of its prolific and universal growth. sugars and sirups it will aid the student greatly in comprehending this subject if he will review the chemical composition of sugars as given in lesson iv under "carbohydrates," vol. i, p. .) sugar in its various forms is a very prolific food product. it is the principal substance contained in nearly all fruits, but we shall confine our discussion here to the various sugars and sirups as they appear in commerce, freed from the other materials with which they are associated in nature. beet-sugar [sidenote: origin of beet-sugar] contrary to common belief, the greatest proportion of the world's supply of sugar comes from the sugar-beet. sugar, which was once manufactured solely from the maple-sap and the sugar-cane, was discovered about one hundred years ago, to be present in beets. a very interesting historical fact is that the sugar-beet industry owes its origin to the efforts of napoleon to supply france with home-produced sugar, because of the tariff or embargo laid upon foreign commerce. as a result of this effort all of central europe is now a heavy sugar-producing region. the method of production and the quantity of sugar contained in the sugar-beet have been so greatly improved that the present industry is quite able to compete with the production of sugar from cane in the tropical regions. crude sugar from sugar-beets is very unpalatable, but the refined or crystallized form of beet sugar is chemically identical with cane-sugar. [sidenote: cane-sugar] sugar-cane, though not so important as formerly, is still grown very extensively in several of the southern states--cuba, porto rico, and many semi-tropical countries. the chief distinction between cane-sugar and beet-sugar is that the crude cane-sugar, before it is refined, is a very wholesome and palatable product. the brown sugar of commerce is uncrystallized, or unrefined cane-sugar, and is fully as wholesome, and to most tastes more palatable than the granulated product. it is to be regretted that fashion has decreed we should use white sugar. [sidenote: refined sugar] refined sugar, whether produced from beets or cane, is sometimes slightly contaminated with sulfurous acid and indigo, which are used for bleaching purposes, and if present in any quantity are very objectionable. [sidenote: maple-sugar] maple-sugar, which is made by boiling or evaporating the sap of the sugar-maple, is a product decidedly superior in natural flavor to either beet or cane-sugar. maple-sugar contains a small proportion of glucose and levulose, but its chief distinction from other sugars is a matter of flavor. the hickory tree contains flavors somewhat similar to the maple. a cheap substitute for maple-sugar has been manufactured by flavoring common sugar with the extract of hickory bark. the other forms of dry sugar obtainable in the market are milk-sugar and crystallized glucose. the chief use of milk-sugar as an article of diet is in humanizing cow's milk for infant feeding. the dry glucose, or, as it is sometimes called, grape-sugar, is not commonly seen in the market for the reason that it is difficult to crystallize, hence it is much cheaper to market glucose in the form of sirups. [sidenote: the manufacture, composition and uses of glucose] commercial glucose, as was explained in lesson iv, is made by treating starch with dilute acids, and its wholesomeness depends entirely upon the care with which this is done. theoretically, glucose is a very good food. in practise it is somewhat risky because cheap chemicals used in its manufacture may leave harmful and poisonous substances in the finished product. the manufacture of glucose is an excellent illustration of the objections to man-made foods as compared with natural foods. when we eat grapes we know that we are taking one of the most important substances required in the life-processes in a perfectly pure, unadulterated and wholesome form. science has taught man to manufacture the identical substance that is found in the grape from corn, which is a much cheaper product, but the temptation to economize for the sake of dividends, and to allow the commercial spirit to control in the manufacture of food products is always present. for this reason the manufactured article comes under suspicion, while the natural form we know to be "exactly as represented." the principal uses of glucose are for table sirups and confectionery. pure glucose as an article of food lacks flavor; for this reason the usual method of manufacturing sirups is to mix glucose and some other form of sirup or molasses. [sidenote: sirups and molasses] the original sources of sirups, besides commercial glucose, are cane-sirup, made directly by evaporating the juice of the sugar-cane; maple-sirup, made from the pure maple-sap; sorghum-sirup, or molasses, from the juice of the sorghum-cane, which is grown extensively in the south and central west; and last, yet perhaps most common, "new orleans" molasses, which is the residue from the manufacture of cane-sugar. this may be very wholesome if taken from the first drippings of the crystallized sugar, but if taken from sugar refineries it contains chemicals that have been used in the refining and the bleaching processes, and is a very doubtful product. an excellent quality of sirup can be made in the home by adding to the brown sugar a certain quantity of water, and boiling down to the desired consistency. honey [sidenote: honey, man's only food from the insect world] honey occupies a very unique place, as it is practically the only food substance which man utilizes from the insect world. honey cannot be strictly compared with milk and eggs as a food product, as the latter are complete foods for the nourishment of young and growing animals, hence must contain all food material necessary to construct the animal body. honey, which is a carbohydrate, is gathered and used as a food for the adult bee. pollen, or bee-bread, a nitrogenous substance, is the food of the larvae or young bees. this illustrates a very interesting fact in physiological chemistry. the insect differs radically from higher animals in that its life is divided into three complete stages. when the adult insect, with its wings, emerges from the cocoon or pupa, its growth is complete. some insects never take any food in the adult stage; but the adult bee takes food, which is practically pure carbohydrates, and which would not maintain the life of a young animal. honey is composed chiefly of glucose and levulose, with perhaps per cent of cane-sugar, depending upon the flowers from which it is gathered. honey is extensively adulterated with glucose, and sometimes with cane-sugar; thus the natural flavors are impaired and the product cheapened. confections [sidenote: evil effect of confections] under the general term of confections are included all products manufactured for the purpose of appealing chiefly to the sense of taste rather than to serve any special purpose as food. the chief products that enter into confections are the various forms of sugars, chiefly glucose, because of its cheapness; fruits, nut-kernels, flavoring extracts, and coloring materials. many of the substances used are very wholesome, yet the habit of eating confections as a general rule should be discouraged, if not condemned, the reasons being-- that the material from which they are made is usually unknown to the public, and the temptation of manufacturers to use cheap or adulterated material too often controls, therefore quality is sacrificed to profits. confections are usually eaten without regard to appetite, or the physical need of food. the combination of things from which confections are made shows that they are put together not for their food value, or nutritive virtue, but wholly for the purpose of appealing to an artificial sense of taste, rather than natural appetite. this destroys the appetite for similar products in simpler forms. the following are the best forms in which sugar can be found, given in the order of their importance: sweet fruits honey sorghum maple-sugar or sirup unrefined cane-sugar refined cane-sugar even glucose sirups are perfectly wholesome when free from adulterants. the mixing, fixing, refining and manufacturing all go to make our sugar supply more expensive and less wholesome than the plain fruit-sugars, honey and sorghum. [sidenote: application of the term "sweets" as herein used] in order to avoid repetition, all articles containing sugar are referred to throughout this work as _sweets_. by "sweets" i mean sugar, sirups, honey, and all foods containing sugars, such as desserts, soda-fountain drinks, and the limitless number of confections. while carbohydrates rank second in importance in the human diet, yet nature has made no provision for sugar being taken in its concentrated form. in this form it is the most severe article of human diet, and to its use can be traced the origin of a vast number of stomach, intestinal, and other disorders. superacidity, fermentation, intestinal gas, and the large number of sympathetic disorders that follow these conditions are caused largely by the overconsumption of sugars. it would be equally as important for the federal government, or the states, to regulate the manufacture and the sale of confections as to regulate the manufacture and the sale of intoxicating liquors. vegetable oils [sidenote: value of vegetable oils] vegetable oils form too small a portion of the modern bill of fare. oils of vegetable origin, whether taken in their natural form or pressed out, and used with other foods, are the most valuable nutrients known for the production of heat and energy. by this statement i mean to convey the idea that a given quantity of fat will produce more heat and energy than any other article of human nutrition, and that vegetable fats are more valuable than animal fats, because they are more adapted to the fat metabolism of the human body, and less likely to contain harmful substances. vegetable oils contain a larger per cent of olein, which is considered the most palatable and the most valuable fat known. [sidenote: olives and olive-oil] the olive is a unique plant, standing along the border line between fruits and nuts. ripe olives contain from to per cent oil, the best quality of which is extracted by cold pressure, the cheaper grades being pressed out at higher temperature. the superiority of olive-oil is due to the fact that it is composed almost wholly of olein; that it contains very little fatty acids and other impurities, and has a mild, sweet, and agreeable flavor. the adulteration of olive-oil has been extensively practised, but the agitation of pure food, and the demand for same are improving the quality of this excellent article of food. [sidenote: cottonseed-oil] cottonseed-oil is the largest vegetable oil industry in america. it is also the cheapest of vegetable oils. the cottonseed-kernel from which the oil is taken is not an edible product. though used as cattle feed, it contains alkaloid substances which sometimes have a poisonous effect when fed too generously. the methods of cottonseed-oil manufacture are more complex than those of olive-oil. the oil must be heated and bleached with certain chemical agents, and if designed for salad-oils, frequently a portion of the stearin is removed to make the oil more liquid. when the cottonseed-oil is carefully manufactured, it is considered to be entirely free from harmful substances. however, as the original material contains poisonous combinations, and as chemical agents are used in refining and bleaching, cottonseed-oil products are open to the same criticism as glucose and refined sirups; that is, they are wholesome when properly made, but cheap and careless production renders the product undesirable as food. manufactured under careful government supervision, cottonseed-oil will, no doubt, be one of the great foods of the future. i recommend the purer brands of cottonseed-oils, when pure olive-oil cannot be obtained or afforded. [sidenote: peanut-oil] peanut-oil is an excellent food substance which is almost entirely neglected in this country. it contains the best portion of the peanut. other vegetable oils, valuable as foods, and the use of which is to be recommended, are sesame-oil and sunflower-oil. these products are not produced extensively in this country. [sidenote: cocoa-butter] the cocoa-butter is pressed from the beans from which cocoa and chocolate are made. the butter has a flavor similar to these articles. cocoa-butter should not be confused with cocoanut-butter. these products are very different in origin. [sidenote: cocoanut-butter] cocoanut-butter is not extensively used in america as a food product, owing to the fact that the exposed fat globules oxidize very rapidly. it is extensively used in germany, however, and with the introduction of better methods of preservation, we expect to see cocoanut-butter more generally used in this country, as the source from which it is derived is almost unlimited. [sidenote: palm-oil] palm-oil comes from a different species of the palm plant than that which produces the cocoanut. it is a very inexpensive product and one which is chiefly used in the production of soap and candles, although it is perfectly wholesome as a food. such products have not been utilized in this country as food, because our boundless prairies and corn-fields have made the production of cattle and swine cheap, and our fat supply has swung toward points of least resistance. not all vegetable oils are edible or wholesome. some contain, in addition to olein, stearin and palmitin, and other fats quite as undesirable. castor-oil, for example, contains ricinolein, which is a poison, and to which its purgative action is due. croton-oil is the most powerful laxative known to medicine, owing to the fact that nature abhors a poison. [sidenote: linseed-oil] linseed-oil contains large quantities of linolein, which is the substance that oxidizes, forming the stiff, rubbery coat on the surface of linseed-oil when exposed to the air. this makes linseed-oil valuable matter to the painter, but objectionable as a food. lesson ix drugs, stimulants, and narcotics with the origin and the use of drugs in the treatment of dis-ease, most people are familiar. the purpose of this lesson, however, is to give brief but accurate information concerning the various chemical elements and compounds termed drugs or medicines. many of the medicines in common use are neutral, having no particular effect upon the body, and the effects attributed to them are largely imaginary. out of the many thousands of chemical materials found in nature, there are, however, certain substances, groups, and compounds which have most marked and violent effect upon all forms of living protoplasm. [sidenote: ancient belief concerning medicine] the general theory upon which the practise of medicine rests is that certain chemical substances which are not found in the animal body, and which have no natural place therein, have mysterious and beneficial effects; that they possess certain powers, among which are the rebuilding of dis-eased cells, and the purifying of dis-eased blood. this belief arose in a very remote age, when the mind was primitive; when man was ignorant, and controlled almost wholly by superstition--when every natural phenomenon was believed to be the work or whim of some god, and every dis-ease was thought to be the work of some devil. [sidenote: life the result of chemical harmony] modern science has proved all this to be untrue. we know by the selective processes through millions of years of evolution that those chemical substances which work in harmony have become associated so as to form life. we know that life is merely an assemblement of organic matter, very complex and little understood; that it is eternally undergoing chemical changes governed by the natural laws of development and decay. we know that conformity to certain natural laws will produce physical ease, and that violation of these laws will produce dis-ease. we know that ease is what we most desire, therefore the trend of thought, throughout the world, is to realize this desire by turning toward the natural. [sidenote: the material upon which life depends] true food furnishes the foundation or constructive material upon which all life depends. nearly all other substances which affect the human body are merely disturbing elements that interfere with the natural chemical processes of life. to illustrate more fully these general principles, we will take, for example, the chemical changes that may take place in the hemoglobin of the blood. hemoglobin is a proteid containing iron. it is a complex chemical compound and reacts with other substances very readily. in the lungs it combines with oxygen. in the muscles, this oxyhemoglobin is again received into the original body-substances. this life-giving process is only one of the many thousands selected by evolution from the millions of chemical changes possible in nature. [sidenote: effect of carbon monoxid upon the hemoglobin of the blood] when carbon monoxid, which is present in illuminating gas, is breathed into the lungs, it combines with hemoglobin, producing a compound which prevents the formation of oxyhemoglobin, thus stopping the process of oxidation in the body, and death is the result. [sidenote: drug theory declining] in proportion as science has shown the origin of life, and the methods by which it has been sustained and developed, the use of drugs as a remedial agent has declined. this line of reasoning followed to its logical end, points with unerring certainty to the total abandonment of the drug theory of treating dis-ease except, perhaps, as anesthetics and disinfectants. [sidenote: treatment of dis-ease by disinfection] the means of combating dis-ease by disinfection is sometimes confused with the general system of drugging. the modern methods of preventing and of combating contagious dis-eases by disinfection are in harmony with the best known sanitary laws. these results depend, not upon the ignorant and the harmful theories on which general drug medication was founded, but upon the latest and the most scientific knowledge. [sidenote: patent medicines and the doctor's prescription] in the recent magazine exposures of patent medicines, the chief trend of argument was that these stock remedies were evil because the user took opium, cocain, or whisky without a doctor's prescription. this standpoint is more amusing than instructive. just why a poison taken without a doctor's prescription should be dangerous, and its sale a crime, while the sale and the use of the same drug over a doctor's prescription should be highly recommended, is rather difficult to comprehend, and this the enterprising journals have not explained. the exposé that is most needed is not of a few poisonous patent preparations, but of the fundamental folly of interfering with nature's work by any form of poisoning. poison is poison whether advertised in a newspaper as a "new discovery," or prescribed by a reputable representative of the "ancient order of medicine men." in a lesson of this kind it is impractical to classify all drugs accurately according to their chemical nature. for convenience of the student, however, the drugs commonly used in medicine will be divided into three groups, which have common representatives, and whose general effect upon the human body are well understood. these three groups are: a alkaloids and narcotics b alcohols and related compounds c poisonous mineral salts and acids a alkaloids and narcotics [sidenote: effect of alkaloids upon the body] all alkaloids are of vegetable origin. they all contain nitrogen, and in some respects resemble ammonia. many of the alkaloid compounds are used in medicine. they affect primarily the nervous system, and may cause freedom from pain, or that abnormal state of exhilaration of which the cocain addict is a typical representative. substances of this alkaloid group doubtless have useful functions in the plant in which they grew, but in the animal body they are disturbing factors. among the most important alkaloids may be mentioned opium, cocain, nux vomica, and quinin. opium [sidenote: composition of opium] opium is the evaporated sap that flows from incisions made in the unripe capsules of certain asiatic species of poppy. it contains a large number of chemical compounds which belong to the alkaloid group. the chief alkaloids in opium are codein, narcotin, heroin, and morphin, the most active being heroin. other alkaloids are of similar composition. the general effects and the uses of the crude opium and the refined morphin may be considered together. the latter, being more concentrated, is used in much smaller quantities. [sidenote: effect of opium] the effect upon the body of either opium or of morphin is that of benumbing the nerves and producing sleep. opium illustrates in a typical manner the progressive stages by which both the body and the mind may become enslaved to the influence of a narcotic. the last stages of the opium or of the morphin slave is probably the lowest state of depravity into which the human being can sink. [sidenote: origin of the morphin habit] opium is eaten or smoked by the chinese and by other asiatic races to a very great extent. this habit is considered the worst form of slavery to drugs that is known except cocain. in this country the morphin habit is the more common form. morphin is either taken internally or is injected beneath the skin by a hypodermic syringe. it is estimated that the great majority of the morphin slaves in this country begin the use of this drug under "their" doctor's prescription. [sidenote: the several uses of morphin] the use of opium as prescribed by medical men is chiefly for the relief of either pain or of insomnia. its employment in cases of great agony is probably justifiable, but the repeated taking of this drug until the habit is formed becomes a criminal blunder for which the doctor who prescribed it should be held responsible. unfortunately this is only one of the uses to which opium is put by the medical profession. prescriptions containing either opium or morphin are frequently given to relieve pain, or to produce sleep, when the primary trouble is chronic, and should be treated by removing the causes, and not alleviated by stupifying the nerves. in the majority of such cases, if the diet is balanced according to age, activity, and climate, and vigorous intestinal peristalsis created, sleep will follow, and other disorders will gradually disappear. [sidenote: opium in patent medicines] the dangers that lurk in the use of opium are so well known, and the habit has become so unpopular, that tricks are resorted to by manufacturers of this drug to deceive the people into believing that they are using some "harmless" substance, while it is the influence of the opium that gives the medicine its apparent good effect. patent medicines which claim to kill pain, soothe nerves, and produce sleep, usually contain opium. the popular "soothing sirups" for children are nearly all opium products, and have been given to millions of babies in this country by deluded mothers, in the belief that because it soothed, their innocent child was being benefited. these are the crimes of greed passed on to innocent childhood through ignorance. cocain cocain is an alkaloid, the use and the influence of which are almost as noteworthy as that of morphin. cocain is derived from the leaves of the cocoa plant which grows in the andes of peru. just as the chinese use opium, so the peruvian indians use cocain. [sidenote: uses and effects of cocain] owing to its hydrochloric-acid salt, the effects of cocain differ somewhat from those of opium. it produces relative freedom from pain, and is used more particularly to produce insensibility in local parts of the body, as in the case of extracting teeth. the cocain slaves, which are increasing alarmingly in this country, usually take it by snuffing, or in an atomizer. the habit is usually acquired, as in the case of morphin, by the prescription of a physician. the patient, learning from experience the freedom from pain and the sense of exhilaration that can be produced by the drug, and not being warned by "his" physician of its baneful effects, continues the habit after the doctor's treatment has ceased, and awakes to find a monster owning his body and his mind. the cocain fiend, like the opium slave, develops an insatiable desire for the drug, and suffers extreme mental and physical pain when deprived of the usual allowance. the development of untruthfulness and trickery in a person desiring his allowance of a forbidden drug, is one of the marked traits of the narcotic slave. [sidenote: cocain in patent medicines] there are a number of different medicines which depend for their action wholly upon the cocain they contain. a large number of catarrhal powders in the market are diluted forms of cocain, and are used extensively both by those who do not realize the nature of the drug they are using, and by those who know that they are cocain slaves, but prefer to disguise the fact in this manner. nux vomica and strychnin [sidenote: effect of strychnin] nux vomica is derived from the seeds of a plant that grows in india. strychnin is the alkaloid which exists therein. strychnin is quite different in its effects from the above-mentioned alkaloids, for instead of benumbing the nerves, causing sleep or a pleasing sensation, the effect is a nerve stimulus which causes muscular convulsions. the medical use of strychnin is more of a stimulant than of a narcotic. it is one of the most widely used of all the drugs prescribed by the old school physicians, and is extremely dangerous in over-doses. indeed, thousands of people have been killed by strychnin poisoning. quinin quinin is derived from peruvian or cinchona-bark. this bark, like the juice of the poppy plant, contains a number of alkaloids. these alkaloids, in turn, may react with acids, forming salts. [sidenote: the uses of quinin] sulfate of quinin is the most common form of this drug. its principal use is for the destruction of the malarial germ, and it is, therefore, the standard drug in all malarious countries. the germs of malaria, however, are not bacteria (microscopic plants, as many suppose), but minute forms of animal life. aside from this particular use, the effect of quinin is to disturb the nervous system, produce insomnia, ringing of the ears--and even deafness, in a great many cases. it does not, however, produce an addiction, as do morphin, cocain, heroin, and other drugs. acetanilid [sidenote: composition and effects of acetanilid] acetanilid is one of the coal-tar poisons and is chemically related to anilin. this drug has come into use only within the past few years, and of all the coal tar group is one of the most remarkable in its physiological effects. its influence is to produce at first a deadening effect upon the nervous system, which puts it in the "pain-killer" class. its continued use destroys the hemoglobin of the blood and produces marked cell-destroying effects throughout the body. its medical use is for rheumatism, headache, severe coughs, and the like. a patent medicine now being widely exploited advertises, "we print our formula." so they do, and acetanilid is one of the ingredients. the general public does not know what acetanilid is. the habitué of this "healthful drug" experiences a craving similar to that of other narcotic drug fiends. a person who has long used a medicine containing acetanilid shows a bluish-white complexion caused by the destruction of red blood-corpuscles. i merely mention this as an example to show that a knowledge of the composition of patent medicines does not protect the public unless the public is made familiar with the ingredients that compose these medicines. acetanilid is the active principle in many popular headache powders, the formulas of which are not made public. the use of acetanilid by those claiming to cure suffering, or to relieve it, is one of the most glaring malpractises of the day. [sidenote: evil effects of coal-tar products] other coal-tar products chemically related to acetanilid are antipyrin, phenacetin, and various derivatives of benzol and phenol. the general uses of this class of drugs are to reduce fevers and to allay pain. they accomplish this by stupifying the nerves and the nerve fibers, which serve as telegraph wires to inform the brain that something is wrong. this is equivalent to killing the messenger that warns us of our sins. the following are a few of the toxic remedies used by old school physicians in the treatment of nearly all forms of dis-ease: laudanum--which is merely another name for opium paregoric--a standard baby medicine which is a tincture of opium with camphor and other drugs codein--an alkaloid manufactured from morphin lyoscine--the alkaloid of henbane atropin--an alkaloid extensively used by oculists. (it is contained with other alkaloids in belladonna, which, in turn, is prepared from the plant known as the "deadly nightshade") hellebore--a powerful alkaloid, is one of the old standard drugs used in the treatment of rheumatic gout tobacco tobacco belongs strictly to the narcotic class of drugs. with the possible exception of opium, tobacco is by far the most detrimental narcotic used by man. [sidenote: effect of nicotin] the active principle of tobacco is nicotin, which resides in the leaves in combination with malic acid. nicotin is an alkaloid, and one of the most deadly poisons known. in distilled form, nicotin, even in minute quantities, produces death almost instantaneously. the nicotin contained in a pound of tobacco is sufficient to kill several hundred men if administered in the form of pure nicotin, but in smoking and chewing tobacco only a small amount of this poison is absorbed into the body at one time, and, owing to the gradual growth of the tobacco habit, the system has time to partly adjust itself to the use of this powerful drug, enough at least to prevent acute narcotic poisoning. the violent sickness caused by the first use of tobacco evidences the poisonous effects of the nicotin upon a body not accustomed to its use. tobacco as a narcotic is not as drastic in its effect as opium, morphin, and cocain; for this reason its use is not so generally condemned. popular opinion, however, is now rapidly recognizing that all of these substances belong in the same general class and are deteriorating factors in human development. the rapid spread of the cigarette habit among young boys has done much to arouse popular agitation against the tobacco evil. [sidenote: general effect of tobacco] from the standpoint of health, nothing can be said in favor of the use of tobacco in any form, as it gradually deadens the sensitiveness and control of the nervous system. it preys with great violence upon the optic nerves, and more than any other drug known dethrones sexual vitality. the tobacco heart, which is readily recognized by medical practitioners, shows the effect of this narcotic upon the nervous system. the craving for tobacco is closely related to the craving for intoxicating liquors and for highly seasoned food--three of the most potent factors in perverting the true sense of taste and arousing abnormal cravings which destroy natural hunger. neither tobacco nor nicotin are now used by medical practitioners. tobacco was formerly used as a purgative, and also as a poultice to relieve swellings and inflammation. coffee [sidenote: composition of coffee] coffee is one of the most extensively used articles in the narcotic group. the alkaloid which gives coffee its characteristic properties is caffein. coffee also contains from three to four per cent of tannic acid. other substances in coffee, to which the pleasant odors and taste are due, are various forms of fats and carbohydrates, but these exist in such small quantities as to be negligible food elements. the effect of the caffein is that of a nervous stimulant, increasing the general nervous and mental activity. coffee is frequently used to keep people awake. it is given as an antidote for opium poisoning because it stimulates the nervous system and prevents sleep. [sidenote: effects of coffee-drinking] coffee, when used habitually, produces various forms of dyspepsia, especially hypersecretion of hydrochloric acid, tannic acid being the provoking factor. the effect of coffee upon the nervous system is that of continued stimulation or excitation. its continued use overworks and wears out the nervous system, thus causing a deterioration of both body and mind. if caffein were taken in a highly concentrated form, it would result in a narcotic habit quite as enslaving as the use of opium or cocain. tea [sidenote: composition of tea] tea, in its chemical composition, is similar to coffee, containing even a greater percentage of the alkaloid caffein, and also a larger percentage of tannic acid. tannic acid is present in larger quantities in green tea than in the black variety. in addition to the evil effects caused by the caffein which it contains, tea is more destructive to the normal activities of the stomach because of the tannic acid. the student may get some idea of what the stomach of the tea-user has to contend with, when it is stated that tannic acid gets its name from the essential action that this substance has in the process of tanning leather. cocoa and chocolate the cocoa bean, which was mentioned as the source of chocolate and cocoa-butter, is also the source of the beverage known as breakfast cocoa. the cocoa bean contains caffein, though the per cent is considerably less than in coffee or tea. cocoa is practically free from tannic acid. for these reasons, and because of its food value, it is decidedly the least harmful of the stimulant beverages. cocoa, though being in reality more tasteful and nutritious than either coffee or tea, is less used because it lacks the stimulating effect. the various alkaloid poisons thus far discussed form but an infinitesimal part of the great group of articles used by old school physicians in the treatment of dis-ease, and by civilized people as stimulating and sedative beverages. b alcohols and related compounds the second group of drugs which is associated with alcohol includes the ethers, chloroform, and coal-tar products. this group is also wholly of plant origin, alcohol being distilled from plant products, and coal-tar being formed from petrified plants. these drugs always contain the three elements carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen; some contain an additional element which gives them their peculiar property; for example, chloroform contains chlorin. coal-tar is the most wonderful source of drugs known. the distillation of this substance produces coloring matter, preservatives, poisons, and "pain killers" ad infinitum. alcohol the uses and the effects of alcohol will not be discussed at length in this lesson because the subject of alcohol is constantly before the public, and its evil effects universally known and acknowledged. however, i deem it well to examine a phase of the question which is not so well understood. [sidenote: alcohol a poison not a food] whether or not alcohol is a food has recently been discussed by a wide range of writers. the answer of science is that alcohol is a food in the sense that it can produce heat in the body. even if alcohol were a true food, the heat is produced, however, by the increased circulation of the blood, which is nature's warfare against a poison, and in the reaction the vitality of the body is lowered. thus the true effect of the poison is made manifest. starvation is not the danger that threatens mankind, but overfeeding and wrong feeding. were we in danger of starvation, whisky at one dollar a quart would not save us. the very fact that alcohol produces heat in the body, whether we call it a food or not, only adds another reason why it should not be used. it produces heat by stimulating heart action; rapid heart action is nature's defense against the intruding poison. alcohol taken in addition to food, and in connection with it, produces surplus heat, and overstimulates metabolism, which is very harmful. it also adds one more to the long list of detrimental effects traceable to intoxicating beverages. alcohol is a food in the same sense that dynamite is a fuel. dynamite produces heat, but it would be an unwise fireman who would use it under his boiler. [sidenote: correct eating the best treatment for the drink-habit] another point regarding the use of alcohol that is worthy of consideration, is the fact that improper nutrition, together with the over-ingestion of stimulating and heating foods such as meat and condiments, invariably increase the appetite for intoxicants. the appetite for alcohol seldom, if ever, develops in a perfectly nourished body, and the best treatment known for the drink-habit is a careful course of balanced dieting and hygienic methods of living. alcohol is purely a stimulant. it increases the heart action, the circulation, the production of heat, and the general vital activities. it is an offense to nature, and the body calls into activity all her powers to cast out the poison. when the influence of alcohol has run its course, there is a reaction or stupor which calls for more of the same drug. this indulgence cultivates the desire through both the body-functions and the appetite, and the blighting habit dethrones the reason, thus rendering useless the lives of millions of worthy people. [sidenote: why alcohol is used in patent medicines] the prescribing of alcohol by physicians has chiefly descended from the ancient idea that alcohol was strengthening and beneficial to the body. the practise is being discontinued by many reputable physicians, which proves that no great benefits, in dis-ease, can be derived from its use. the regular use of alcohol in small doses gives the patient the feeling of physical exhilaration, and is therefore an excellent means of making him believe that he is being benefited. for this reason, and because of its cheapness, low grade alcohol is the chief component of many medicines. the following table gives the percentage of alcohol contained in a few patent medicines, previous to the popular exposé of the subject. (i do not vouch for the accuracy of this table at the present time, as the manufacturers under the pressure of public opinion may have changed their formulas): peruna % hostetter's bitters % lydia pinkham's compound % hood's sarsaparilla % ayer's sarsaparilla % paine's celery compound % within the past few years these facts have been made public, resulting in a heavy decline in the sale of these concoctions. the number of good temperance people who have been innocently under the influence of alcohol for a goodly portion of their days can only be vaguely estimated. chloroform, ether, and chloral [sidenote: uses of chloroform, ether and chloral] these drugs are chemically related to alcohol, and are typical anesthetics, which mean that they produce temporary relief from pain when the vapors are inhaled. they are chiefly used in surgical operations, which is justified providing the operation is justified. one death in three thousand occurs from the administration of chloroform, and one in thirteen thousand from the administration of ether. these products have been used to some extent in patent medicines, particularly in consumptive cures, where they have been given with the idea of relieving the cough. poisonous mineral salts and acids the mineral acids and salts of certain metals, especially of mercury, lead, and copper, are powerful poisons. patent medicines are frequently labeled "pure vegetable compounds." this statement may be true, but it is deceptive because they are equally as poisonous as the coal-tar products which have become so popular. they are life-destroying in their final effects upon the human body. mercury [sidenote: uses of mercury and mercurial salts] the metal mercury or quicksilver is used very extensively as a medicine, chiefly in compounds of mercurial salts. all salts of mercury are extremely poisonous. calomel (mercuric chlorid) is a standard allopathic medicine. mercuric bichlorid or corrosive sublimate is more destructive to protoplasm, and is used as a germicide or disinfectant. the poisonous action of mercurial salts is probably due to the combination of mercury with the protoplasm of the body-cells. when mercurial compounds are taken in poisonous doses, the antidote is the white of egg with which the mercury combines in the stomach, thus sparing the human protoplasm. the mercurial salts, when given in small doses, produce very remarkable physiological disturbances, sometimes even loosening of teeth. because of their violent physiological action, these drugs are generally to be condemned. potassium iodid potassium iodid has a very destructive effect upon the natural functions of the body, and for this reason it has been associated with mercury in the treatment of syphilis, the usual method being to alternate between potassium iodid and mercurial salts. lead and copper the salts of lead and copper, like those of mercury, are poisonous. however, these salts are not extensively used in medicines. the mineral acids, such as sulfuric, are recognized poisons, but their destructive effects upon the living tissue are so apparent and so painful that they have never gained favor with physicians. purgatives and cathartics [sidenote: effects of salts] the popular term "salts" includes sodium sulfate (glauber's salt), and magnesium sulfate (epsom salts). these salts cause a large amount of watery mucus to be excreted from the mucous membrane of the intestines, the physiological purpose of which is to wash the offending substances from the body, thus producing a laxative effect. were the large doses usually taken of these salts absorbed into the blood, death would ensue within a few hours. the number of products that are used for the purpose of relieving constipation is almost unlimited. many poisons which react directly upon the mucous membrane of the alimentary canal have a laxative effect. [sidenote: why laxatives cause loss of vitality] laxative drugs do not act on the body--the body acts on the drug because it abhors a poison, and, in throwing out the drug, the food residues of the digestive tract are also thrown out, regardless of whether digestion is complete or not. the rapid loss of vitality and weight while taking physic is caused by this fact. [sidenote: object of this lesson] in this lesson i have examined only a few of the many thousand drugs in general use. i have omitted many drugs and compounds whose properties and uses would form interesting information, but the purpose of this book is to impart a knowledge of foods, not a knowledge of drugs. this lesson, however, is for the purpose of giving the reader some authentic information about the standard drugs and medicines, so that he may form his own conclusions in regard to the efficacy of drugs in curing dis-ease. if the reader will secure at a public library a copy of the "national standard dispensatory," the book used by practising druggists, and scan through its two thousand pages, he can form some idea of the limitless number of things, and the complex, uncertain, and unscientific methods used in the prescribing and in the dispensing of drugs. lesson x importance of correct diagnosis and correct treatment the word "diagnosis" is derived from two greek words, "dia," meaning _through_, and "gnosis," meaning _knowing_. it therefore means literally "through knowledge," "to know thoroughly," or, as we now say, "thorough knowledge." the old form of the word is still retained in the very common expression "to know it through and through." [sidenote: diagnosis may be a source of danger] the primary purpose of diagnosis is to locate a difficulty, to find an internal disorder that is causing unpleasant symptoms. it will readily be granted that this is only desirable when, after the internal disorder has been located, we are able to do something to correct it; that otherwise it is of no more importance than to learn by post-mortem examination what caused death. indeed, to know what the trouble is without knowing how to deal with it, is a very grave source of danger, and has caused many a death through resort to wrong methods. in a large percentage of cases nature will heal, if her processes are not interfered with, and in all cases she is the real physician; our only proper office is to supply the right materials, and to leave her to use them as she will. [sidenote: true diagnosis, merely an interpretation of nature's language] correct diagnosis is important because it is the guide--the beginning--the primary step in the treatment of dis-ease. wrong diagnosis is usually followed by wrong methods of treatment, while correct diagnosis simplifies, and points the practitioner, with certainty, to the interpretation of nature's language (symptoms). with an understanding of these, the remedy, in most cases, will suggest itself. [sidenote: the human body and the linotype machine compared] the linotype machine that set the matter you are now reading is composed of several thousand parts. the keyboard is operated by the compositor, in much the same manner as that of a typewriter, and the delicate mechanism produces the metal lines of type ready to be "made up" in "forms" for the press. where several such machines are in use, an expert machinist is usually employed to keep them in order. he can take them apart, study the mechanism at leisure, and reassemble them, yet it not infrequently happens that almost insurmountable difficulties are encountered. what would be the difficulties, then, if the machine were enclosed in a case that could not be opened, with only the keyboard exposed? what mechanical engineer in all the world could then make it work if something went wrong? one who could tell from the faulty action just what the matter was, and correct it from without, would be looked upon as a wizard. [sidenote: belief in the magical effect of drugs] the human body is incomparably more complex and delicate than any machine, yet it is a widespread superstition that one skilled in the art of locating disorders (diagnosis) can, almost invariably, correct them by the magical effect of drug applications. this is a superstition with no more foundation in fact than the parallel one that a man of vicious character can be made virtuous by a magical process. he may turn from vice to virtue in a moment, but he can become spiritually strong and wholesome only by growth, and by conformity to the moral law. in like manner bodily health comes not by magic, but by right living, by conformity to the laws of health. [sidenote: involuntary functions are perfectly performed] it is literally true that "the only perfectly performed functions of the body are the involuntary or the automatic functions." those that are even partly under the control of the will, such as breathing, are almost invariably ill done. the infinite wisdom is strikingly exemplified in the fact that the vital functions are quite independent of our volition except for "hindrances or ruinous urgence." we may, and we do hinder them constantly, and we subject them to "ruinous urgence" almost continuously. these two facts are responsible for nearly all the bodily ills from which we suffer. [sidenote: nature's marvelous methods beyond our comprehension] the marvelous metabolism by which energy is translated into life, by nature's processes, is not only beyond our control, but beyond our comprehension. we should make it an invariable rule, therefore, never to interfere in any way, but to confine our efforts to the task of supplying nature with material with which to do her wonderful work, and to an observance of the common laws of health and life. [sidenote: the blood-corpuscles like little workmen] the blood-corpuscles are like millions or tens of millions of little workmen in the body, each with a particular work to do; each on duty and quickly responsive to call every moment. when we recognize the fact that the body is constantly being broken down and rebuilt; that every atom of broken-down material must be floated away in the blood, and new atoms built in to keep the structure from deterioration; that all the broken-down material is poisonous, and must be eliminated from the body without delay, we realize that the internal activities are almost bewildering. when we consider that all the blood in the body passes through the heart every two or three minutes, carrying food to every cell, and at the same time carrying away the poisonous products of physical and mental activities, disposing of them by various processes; when we remember that the supply to every cell is delicately adjusted to constantly varying requirements; that all this goes on so quietly and so smoothly that we are unconscious of it--when we remember all this, we begin to have some appreciation of the psalmist's exclamation, "i am fearfully and wonderfully made." how faithful these little workmen are! not for an instant do they leave their tasks. verily, they are the sentinels forever at the portals. in our work, in our pleasures, they are ever active; in our sleep, they sleep not. not for an instant do they cease watch. is there a wound--be it a great rent or a tiny pin-prick, they are there in force to repair it, to wall up the breach and to make it whole--swarming to the rent as the lowlanders to a break in the dike. has a foreign substance penetrated the structure?--instantly they set about to expel it; but if this be impossible, they seal it in a capsule of impervious integument that it may do no harm, or, the least possible injury. [sidenote: a seeming consciousness in the automatic action of the blood] if these little workmen are not conscious as we know consciousness, at least their work shows purposeful action, and when we see an obvious purpose definitely carried out by every available agency, we may be sure there is a consciousness back of it, whether it be like ours or not. but while these workmen are faithful--while they will stand to their tasks to the end, they are limited in their power, and will break ranks under long-continued hindrances. [sidenote: the human body a power-plant] the human body is a power-plant, a combined engine and boiler, and there is a close analogy between this conscious, self-acting power-plant and the one that furnishes the power to generate electricity, or to turn the wheels of a factory. [sidenote: symptoms compared with electric light] when your electric lights grow dim, and the defect is not cured by renewing the lamps, then you are convinced that the trouble is elsewhere. if the lights in every part of the house are dim, you will know (if you are a skilful electrician--a good diagnostician) that the trouble is not in the electric nervous system of the house. it may be between your house and the electric station, but before taking the trouble to examine the line, ask those of your neighbors who are on a different line, whether their lights are dim. if they are, you may go to the electric station with reasonable certainty of finding the cause. [sidenote: the stomach and the lungs of this leviathan] suppose we have come to the station and are commissioned to locate the difficulty. we go into the engine room and find everything in good order. the engine is a fine piece of mechanism; it has no loose joints, no leaky valves, yet it seems to lack power; is overloaded. inquiry shows there are no more lights than formerly, while the service was satisfactory. you go at once to the boiler room. it may also be in good order so far as appearances go, but you look at the steam gage and find the pressure is low. "yes," says the fireman, "i simply can't keep the pressure up. i shovel in coal and keep the drafts on so that i have a roaring fire, but, in spite of all, my steam pressure runs down." look into the furnace (the stomach) of this leviathan! if the grate-bars are clean; if there is no accumulation of ashes, cinders, or clinkers to interfere with the combustion (digestion) of the black provender fed to it, you may close the furnace door and open another. look into the fire tubes (the lungs) of the laboring monster that has shown signs of weakness! if the fire tubes are clean, free from soot and dust, the trouble is not there. [sidenote: "scale," like an irritated mucous lining] [sidenote: "scale," the cause of dim light] we have now gone almost the full course; there is but one place left to explore and that is closed. the trouble is inside the boiler. it is lined with scale deposited from the water evaporated in producing steam. this scale, which may be likened unto an irritated mucous lining of the stomach, or the intestines, forms a coating upon the lower inside of the boiler, and the upper side of the fire tubes, just as it is deposited on the bottom of a teakettle, and it shuts out the heat from the water. the heat being the source of energy, and the steam only the means of applying it, the power-plant is crippled. seldom does it happen that so great a thickness of scale is to be found in a boiler as may be seen in almost every household teakettle, yet the effects (symptoms) are found in the dimmed lights miles away, and if the difficulty is not dealt with, it will rapidly increase until the service becomes intolerably inefficient. [sidenote: difficulty in dealing with the "scale"] had we found the grate-bars choked with ashes, cinders, and clinkers, and the fire tubes (lungs) smothered with soot and dust, we should have instructed the fireman to keep them clean and free. this is not a difficult thing to do, requiring only careful daily attention, but the scale inside the boiler is not so easily dealt with. it is completely enclosed, and there is no possibility of getting at it except by extinguishing the fire and letting the boiler cool--by making the boiler "dead," or "killing" it, as firemen term it. [sidenote: treating the "dim light" dis-ease] having diagnosed this case of the lighting system, starting with the symptoms of a dim light in a residence some miles away, and having located the difficulty inside of the boiler of the power-plant, we desire to treat it. the boiler can be "killed," and the scales removed by going into the boiler. it can then be revived by refilling it with water and rekindling the fire. then, too, let us assume that there are two boilers, and that we can keep the plant alive with one; a low ebb of life, to be sure, but not dead. we will then cool one boiler at a time, go into it, and remove the scale, thus restoring the plant to full efficiency. this method can be used where the boiler may be cooled, but as this cannot be done with the human power-plant, for the sake of our analogy, let us suppose that the steam boiler, like the human body, must always be kept under pressure that it cannot be "killed" and revived. what, then, shall be done? [sidenote: removing the cause of the scaly deposit] it is evident that the first thing to do is to cease the use of water containing the solution of mineral, which causes the scaly deposit. this will prevent the condition from growing gradually worse, and may be accomplished by distilling the water before introducing it into the boiler, or, by using rain-water. as to the scale already in the boiler, it must be dissolved, and gradually eliminated, or remain there. there are many so-called "boiler compounds" for the purpose, and every well-informed man in charge of such a "plant" knows how important it is to avoid using a compound that may cause damage to the boiler itself. a "compound" that would attack the steel, as well as the scale, would be a desperate remedy indeed. [sidenote: one degree of variation in temperature indicates dis-ease] [sidenote: the marvelous economy of nature] in the human body something happens very similar to the deposit of scale in a steam boiler. but the human body is a furnace as well as an engine. it is so intricate and so delicate that if the temperature rises or falls one degree above or below normal, the condition is one of dis-ease. as food is its fuel, how can we expect the mechanism to remain in order if we utterly disregard the body's requirements, not only as to the character of the fuel supplied, but also as to the quantity, especially if we so choke it with fuel that nature is unable to burn it up in the vital processes, and to dispose of the resulting ashes and cinders? nature is resourceful--full of expedients and makeshifts! if she were not, the span of life would be much shorter than it is. as previously stated, she will seal up a foreign substance that cannot be expelled, and not only will she do this with solids that have penetrated the flesh, but she will actually build "catch basins" in the body, called cysts--bags, somewhat like a bladder, in which the excess or refuse that cannot be eliminated may be impounded, and the ruin of the body postponed for months or even for years. [sidenote: true diagnosis locates a disorder; also the causes] the true office of diagnosis is not only to find the disorder, but to discover also the conditions that lead to it, or have a bearing upon it; hence that diagnosis is faulty which comes short of this, for the reason that even if the disorder be located and overcome, it will recur if its cause persists, just as the scale in the boiler will form again if the causes that produced it are not removed. as the blood is the life, as it brings to every cell life (nourishment), and carries away death (poisonous by-products of vital activities in the form of dead matter to be eliminated from the body); as it does this by its marvelously rapid circulation through every cell, it is obvious that every part of the body will be in a state of health if the blood itself is pure, and its supply and circulation such that every cell is abundantly fed. the supreme law of health, therefore, may be expressed in two statements, one positive and one negative: feed the body correctly do not interfere with the circulation of the blood [sidenote: both the storing of fat and the disposing of waste are expensive processes] if the blood is not a perfect building material it is because we have not put into the digestive mill the right materials; and if it is not properly circulated, it is because the circulation is impeded by positive constrictions, or, as is more frequently the case, because the composition of the blood is not perfectly suited to the demands of the vital activities. as a result, much of the material must be rejected as unusable, thus involving a great deal of extra work in disposing of it. if the excessive material is wholesome, though not at present usable, it may be packed away for future use as fat, this being the easiest, and perhaps the only possible way of disposing of it in the rush. the builders are not only overworked, but literally overwhelmed with excessive and unsuitable materials--and why?--that we may indulge perverted appetites. [sidenote: corpulency considered unhealthy] even the excessive material packed away in the wholesome form of fat may, merely by its bulk, become an impediment to the circulation. it not only reduces the efficiency of the bodily mechanism, but also is so potent a factor in shortening life that a corpulent person is likely to be rejected by an insurance company, even though his present state of health may be good. [sidenote: defective circulation reduces efficiency] a condition often found illustrates most forcibly the manner in which defective circulation reduces the efficiency of the human power-plant, even as the scaly deposit impairs the efficiency of the steam boiler. "that tired feeling" of which so many complain, is so called because the person thus afflicted has a sense of painful exhaustion upon slight exertion--is tired all the time. if our diagnosis shows a state of chronic exhaustion, and we endeavor to increase the body-efficiency by increasing the food, we shall make the same mistake as the fireman who shovels more coal under a scaly boiler. [sidenote: exhaustion, the accumulation of body-poisons] painful exhaustion in a perfectly healthy body results from violent, or too long-continued exercise of a muscle, and if there are no intervals of rest, excruciating pain results. the cells are broken down more rapidly than the resulting waste can be carried away by the circulation, hence the body-poisons and pain. the pain is a symptom, and where the condition of which it is the index is temporary, rest soon restores the normal condition of ease. [sidenote: rest is imperative] there would be no sense of exhaustion if the building and the eliminating processes could be carried on with sufficient rapidity concurrently to make good all the expenditures of mental and bodily activities. not only should we not need rest, but we should not even need sleep. the only occasion to stop, then, would be to take in more fuel (food), and if this could be taken while the body is in action, as fuel is fed to the steam boiler, there would be no necessity to stop. but apparently both the upbuilding and the elimination of waste normally lay behind the demands of even ordinary activity, so that a given muscle must have very frequent intervals of rest (every few seconds), and the organism, as a whole, must reduce activity to the minimum by sleep about one-third of the time. [sidenote: nature's devices to provide rest] as some of the muscles are used with practical continuity during the waking life, nature resorts to some very cunning devices to provide the necessary rest. the tension upon the muscle of the eye is relaxed for an instant in the unconscious act of winking, but by reason of the persistence of visual sensation, this does not interfere with vision. thus nature has always used the principle involved in the moving picture. the heart must perform its work every instant, from the time before we are born until the end, but each muscle rests about one-third of every second--when it relaxes, and the chamber of the heart expands with the inrush of blood. [sidenote: the body a pile of mysterious atomic masonry] nature alone is the builder, and will do all that should be done if she only has the proper materials in proper proportions. we may well stand in awe and admiration of her mysterious atomic masonry, but let us lay no sacrilegious hand upon her work. lesson xi common disorders--their cause and cure health and dis-ease defined health is that condition of the human body in which the functions or activities work together in perfect harmony. any serious interference with this condition we call dis-ease. dis-ease, therefore, in its final analysis, is merely the expression of violated natural law. [sidenote: three fundamental laws of life] the harmonious working of the life-processes in the human body depends upon three things--( ) nutrition; ( ) motion and ( ) oxidation. nutrition is the principal factor that controls the action of the living cells, for, if the body is kept up to its one hundred per cent of energy it will demand a certain amount of motion or exercise, and this will enforce the proper breathing (oxidation). we can see, therefore, that nutrition is the physical basis of all activities of life. by nutrition as here used i mean to include all chemical substances that may be supplied for the use of the body-cells, also the sum total of all chemical substances in solution in the circulating fluid or blood-plasma which bathes the body-cells. [sidenote: the phenomenon of death caused by self-poisoning] the stoppage of the heart beat causes the nutritive fluids of the body to cease circulating. the cells are then no longer supplied with nutritive material, and the poisons which they are constantly throwing off accumulate, cell activity ceases, and the phenomenon we call death ensues. suffocation acts in a very similar manner--oxygen ceases to be supplied to the blood; carbon dioxid accumulates; the vital fluids cease to flow, and death is the result. dis-ease has been defined to be an absence of harmonious activity in the body. it may result from the inactivity of some particular function. a stomach which secretes no hydrochloric acid is abnormal or dis-eased. again, a dis-ease may be due to an overdevelopment of some function, because the man whose stomach secretes more hydrochloric acid than digestion requires is as truly dis-eased as is the man whose stomach secretes too little. [sidenote: dis-ease is partial death] [sidenote: animals starve when fed on salt-free food] dis-ease may also be defined as partial death, for it is the disturbance or weakening of functions whose complete failure we call death. starvation illustrates one side of this process. when nutritive material ceases to be supplied, the cells have nothing with which to work, causing disturbance of function (dis-ease), and then partial, or complete death. the man in a desert under a hot sun will starve for water in one-tenth the time that he would starve for solid food. animals fed on a diet from which all salts have been chemically removed will die in a shorter time than will those from which all food is withheld. this rather interesting fact is due to the rapid utilization of the salts residual in the body during the digestion and the assimilation of the salt-free foods taken. the order in which the withdrawal of nutritive substances will produce starvation is about as follows: aerial oxygen water mineral salts organic nitrogen carbohydrates [sidenote: examples of drug poisoning] poisoning by drugs is an excellent illustration of dis-ease and death produced by specific starvation. when a man takes ether, this substance, passing to the brain, immediately interferes with the function of that organ. insensibility to pain results. if ether is taken in larger quantities, the functions of the brain may be still further interfered with, and the nervous control of the heart beat will be lost, and death will ensue. when castor-oil is taken into the alimentary canal, the irritating substances therein contained inflame the cells of the mucous membrane, and excite them to abnormal secretion, thus disturbing the harmony of the body-activities, and producing dis-ease. [sidenote: scientific definition of dis-ease] the examples here referred to are not commonly considered dis-ease, because we know the particular or immediate cause of the physical disturbance. modern knowledge now shows us that the most prolific cause of what is commonly known as dis-ease is but the interference with cell activities, either by the deficiency or by the excess of nutritive substances, or by the presence of irritating and disturbing poisons. this condition may be caused by an unbalanced diet containing too much of certain nutritive elements, or too little of others, causing surfeiting on the one hand and starvation on the other. [sidenote: man still in the childhood state of development] [sidenote: hunger, thirst, and taste are nature's language] health is the normal condition, and in spite of ingersoll's witticism, it is more "catching than dis-ease." were it not so, the race would long since have become extinct. with reference to body-health, however, we are still in the childhood stage of development, and the science, therefore, of building man to his highest estate--of lifting his mental, moral, and physical faculties to their highest possible attainment, is worthy the labor of the greatest minds. that person, then, who enjoys the best health, the keenest mentality and power of perception, the highest physical and emotional organism, is he who can select such articles of food as will supply all the constituent parts of the body most nearly in the right or natural proportions. the science of feeding, upon which this mainly depends, becomes possible only when food is taken in accordance with certain fixed, natural laws. these laws are not complicated--they are simple and easy to comprehend. nature is constantly endeavoring to aid us in their solution. hunger, thirst, taste--all the instincts and natural desires of the body are merely nature's language. to interpret this language, and to obey the laws it lays down is man's highest duty to himself and to his race. there are very few true dis-eases. nearly all of the abnormal physical expressions given off by the body can be traced to a few primary causes, and most of these causes can be removed by ascertaining and removing other causes that precede them. [sidenote: classification of dis-ease, a matter of convenience] the classification of dis-eases is merely a matter of convenience, and is of no practical importance between the food scientist and the patient. it merely enables the one who has studied these classifications to convey his knowledge or information to the lay mind. the dis-eases which will most interest the student will be those caused by a lack of nutrition, or by a surfeit of nutrition; that is to say, a form of starvation caused by a lack of certain nutritive elements, and overingestion caused by an excess of certain other nutritive elements. the only practical method of describing dis-ease is by indicating the organs afflicted and the impairment of their functions. beginning with the stomach, in which, as previously stated, originates probably ninety-one per cent of all human disorders, i will first take up the question of the abnormal action of food caused by overeating. overeating [sidenote: the resourcefulness of nature] fortunately nature does not demand exactness. she has made wonderful provision for our errors or our lack of precision. if we eat too much now and then she will cast out the excess. if, however, we habitually overeat, she will store away the surplus in the form of useless fat, or she will decompose it; that is, make an effort to volatilize it and cast it out through the pores of the skin. if our diet is unbalanced, nature has the power to convert one chemical into another--a secret yet unknown to modern science. [sidenote: injurious effects of congested waste matter] while the tendency of nature is to maintain normality by casting the debris out of the body, she demands that we obey the laws of motion and oxidation. if we do not observe these laws, the debris or matter she cannot use will accumulate, and congestion and constipation will take place. the excess of food thus actually clogs the system and generates in the intestines the poisons which cause autointoxication. the effects of overeating the effects of overeating are so far-reaching, and so common among civilized people that a volume might be devoted to this habit and the subject not exhausted. here, however, i will review only that which is of most importance to the student of dietetics, namely, the causes and a few of the effects of overeating. overeating is due to three specific causes: eating several articles of food at the same meal which are incompatible taking stimulants at meals eating too many things at the same meal ( ) incompatible foods: when foods are eaten together that are incompatible they usually result in superacidity and sometimes cause a gnawing sensation in the stomach. ( ) stimulants with meals: when one takes stimulants such as beer, liquor or wine with meals, the stomach-cells secrete a deficient amount of hydrochloric acid, causing food to leave the stomach too slowly, thereby allowing fermentation to take place and acid conditions to develop. ( ) too many things at same meal: too many things eaten at the same meal may exhaust the digestive juices and cause a condition of subacidity (lack of acid), which is true indigestion, or it may cause just the reverse, too much acid, and therefore produce the same result as in taking stimulants with meals. (see "causes of superacidity," item , p. ). abnormal appetite [sidenote: the cycle of cause and effect] in nearly all cases of overeating nature's only weapon with which to defend herself is hydrochloric acid, thus the stomach-cells become over-trained in the secretion of acid, and the constant irritation caused by acid fermentation produces abnormal appetite. the desire to satisfy this abnormal craving produces more acid, therefore the cycle of overeating and superacidity is complete. [sidenote: disorders originating in the stomach] standard medical works give about sixty different disorders arising from what is termed dis-eases of nutrition. these include diabetes, gout, arthritis, rheumatism, rickets, scurvy, obesity, emaciation, adiposis dolorosa, and various disorders of the liver, heart, and the circulatory system; also constipation and dozens of disorders under the broad term of autointoxication. the first step in the practise of scientific eating should be to limit the quantity of food, or, in many cases, to take a complete fast for a brief time. in the slow stages of human development, nature seems to have accommodated herself to man's omnivorous habits of eating. she will accept many things that are wholly unfit for food without apparent harm if the quantity is not too great. on the contrary, the results of the most scientific dieting will be injurious if a quantity be taken in excess of that which the body can use. superacidity we will first consider superacidity because it is usually the first disorder that appears in consequence of wrong eating. it is commonly known as "sour stomach." the chief cause of superacidity is a wrong combination of foods; and particularly an excess of starchy foods and sugars. the starch and sugar breaks down under the action of fermentation, and develops lactic acid. this further inhibits--or prevents--the normal secretion of hydrochloric acid, and, as a consequence, the albumen molecule is insufficiently converted--the transformation of the protein into peptones and proteoses is incomplete. as with all acid fermentation, gases are produced in the stomach, which give rise to belching and eructations. this fermentation sometimes occasions a feeling as though there were a solid lump in the stomach. this may come on immediately after eating. and then again, it may not come on for two or three hours after the meal--depending entirely upon the activity of the enzymes that are responsible for the fermentation. hyperchlorhydria occasionally the hyperacidity is caused by the presence of a superabundance of hydrochloric acid in the stomach. this condition is called hyperchlorhydria, and gives rise to a boring, gnawing sensation in the pit of the stomach, together with an abnormal desire for food. superacidity--the cause the chief causes of superacidity are-- too great a quantity of food wrong combinations and wrong proportions of food for instance, a diet consisting of an excess of acid fruits, or sweets and starches, and at the same time an insufficient quantity of other nutrients by poisoning from the use of tea or coffee, liquor, tobacco, and the various stimulating and narcotic drugs used by civilized man an excess of hydrochloric acid superacidity--the symptoms so far as the symptoms are concerned, all the above causes may be considered together, since the ultimate result is the same. the symptoms are named in the order of their various stages or the time acidity has endured: [ ]irritation of the mucous lining of the stomach, expressed by a burning sometimes called "heartburn" abnormal appetite caused by the irritation of too much hydrochloric acid in the irritated cells of the stomach many people mistake these symptoms for evidence of good health, until overeating produces nervous indigestion, and sometimes a complete breakdown. fevered mouth, and so-called fever-sores on the lips and tongue, both of which are a true mirror of the condition of the stomach [ ]a sour fluid rising in the throat from one to two hours after meals white coating on the tongue faintness, emptiness; in the language of the layman a "hollowness and an all-gone caved-in" feeling [ ] (see "fermentation--the symptoms," p. ) superacidity--the remedy in all cases of superacidity all fruit, especially that of an acid character, except citrus fruits, should be omitted, and also all sweets except a very limited quantity of maple-sugar and sweet fruits--and these never in conjunction with the meal. foods containing proteids (nitrogen, albumin and casein), together with fresh green vegetables, should form the principal part of the diet. [sidenote: one acid will not counteract another] it has been the theory with dietitians that those afflicted with hyperchlorhydria (supersecretion of hydrochloric acid) should not take sweets, but should take acids liberally. this is one of the few instances in which medical guesswork seems to have a foundation of fact. for there is no doubt but that the giving of hydrochloric acid, the normal stomach acid, _before_ a meal, tends to retard and restrict the development of hydrochloric acid _during_ the meal. it remains true, on the other hand, that the giving of hydrochloric acid after the meal tends always to increase the supply of free and combined hydrochloric acid in the stomach during the process of stomach digestion. for list of foods to be eaten and omitted in cases of overeating, superacidity, fermentation and gas dilatation, see p. . for the importance of water-drinking, see p. . fermentation fermentation is the effort of nature to dispose of or to dissolve things it cannot use; it is the first step in the process of decay. fermentation--the cause the common causes of fermentation are the same as those of superacidity (see p. ), the difference being that superacidity originates in the stomach, and is confined chiefly to it, while fermentation may take place throughout the entire intestinal tract. the causes are-- overeating too much acid fruit an excess of sweets stimulants of the alkaloid group overeating of cereal products fermentation--the symptoms [sidenote: difference between superacidity and fermentation] the first evidence of fermentation is a burning sensation in the stomach, almost exactly as in superacidity, the difference being that in cases of fermentation the symptoms appear later after eating. superacidity may appear immediately after eating, and the symptoms such as a lump in the stomach, or a sour fluid rising in the throat may also appear within an hour after meals, but fermentation, which produces the same symptoms, does not manifest itself until the acid has acted upon the food, which requires from two to four hours, governed by the time required to digest the different articles of which the meal is composed. the patient may also experience a fullness; an unpleasant and sometimes painful distention of the bowels. [sidenote: results of fermentation] the gas generated by fermentation sometimes passes along down the intestinal tract into the ascending colon, accumulating at the highest point, which is in the transverse colon. this causes the transverse colon to become very much distended and seriously interferes with the blood flow, both into and out of the heart and the lungs. (see "gastritis," p. ; also "heart trouble," p. ). in considering the symptoms of fermentation, it might be well to return to the question of causes. the primary cause of nearly all conditions of fermentation, either in the stomach or in the intestinal tract, is overeating, or an unbalanced dietary. this practise indulged in from day to day causes two specific conditions: fermentation followed by various disorders, usually toxic substances, and catarrh, and ulceration of the stomach intestinal congestion and physical emaciation if the stomach and other digestive organs are capable of assimilating this superabundance of food, they force into the tissues an excess which nature stores up in the form of fat, and if work or activity is not increased, or the food diminished, excessive fat or chronic obesity is the result. if the first warnings are not observed, and the remedy applied, nature gives to the disobedient one more impressive signals in the form of nervousness, irritability, abnormal appetite, and sometimes mental depression, which indicates one of the most advanced stages of superacidity. fermentation--the remedy the remedy for fermentation is first to eat only such foods as are in chemical harmony, and second to limit the quantity to the actual needs of the body. if the patient is _under_ normal weight, all acid fruits should be eliminated, and the diet should be about as follows: breakfast three or four egg whites and one yolk, whipped five or six minutes; add a large spoonful of sugar and one of cream while whipping a baked white potato or boiled wheat a tablespoonful of wheat bran luncheon one whole egg whipped five minutes; add sugar and cream to taste while whipping, mix with a glass of milk a large boiled onion a baked potato, with butter two tablespoonfuls of bran dinner two fresh vegetables--choice of carrots, corn, turnips, peas, beans, or squash spinach, or a salad of lettuce and celery the whites of two or three eggs, whipped; add sugar and cream while whipping a baked potato wheat bran, cooked as a cereal from two to three glasses of cool water should be drunk at each meal. it will be noticed that this bill of fare is composed largely of vegetables, which is right in cases of fermentation. [sidenote: despondency, the result of superacidity] the foods named in the above menus will remove the primary causes of fermentation, which in turn is the most prolific cause of that abnormal mental condition called despondency. under the most favorable social and financial conditions, when every environment is pleasant and seemingly conducive to the highest degree of pleasure and interest in life, the one afflicted with superacidity and fermentation has been known to destroy himself; all life seems gloomy, all effort useless, and the thought "why should i desire to live?" enters the mind unbidden, until it often takes tangible shape in some rash act. possibly within the memory of every individual one of these rash acts can be recalled. the practitioner should make it a special point to ascertain any adverse or depressed mental conditions of his patient and remove them, if possible, by encouragement, sympathetic counsel and optimistic views, all of which have a splendid psychological effect, and which, in nearly all cases of mental depression, are very important. as the supersecretion of hydrochloric acid becomes less and less, fermentation will gradually disappear; the patient will at once begin to gain weight; the mental conditions will show an immediate improvement, and every part of the anatomy will share in the general upbuilding. gas dilatation so closely related are gas dilatation, fermentation and superacidity that it might be said they all come from common causes, such as excessive eating, over-consumption of sweets, acid fruits, starches, and the use of tobacco, stimulating beverages and drugs. gas dilatation--the symptoms the symptoms of gas dilatation are practically the same as those given for fermentation, page . in addition thereto, however, there is often belching, loss of appetite, a weighty or draggy feeling, and vomiting sometimes an hour or two after meals, or late at night. scanty urine and constipation are frequently the results of gas dilatation. in severe cases the stomach drops down below its normal level, causing permanent stomach prolapsus. to the trained eye, in severe cases, the stomach may be outlined, especially when it is much distended. for remedy, see "fermentation," page . see also menus for gastritis. in cases of overeating, superacidity, fermentation and gas dilatation omit eat all acid fruits bananas, very ripe all sweets except sweet fruits green salads in limited quantities liberal quantity of fresh cane-sugar green vegetables condiments limited quantity of blood-less coffee and tea meat, such as fish and white meat cream of tender fowl fatty foods limited quantity of coarse cereals gravies limited quantity of eggs and pastries milk--sweet and sour stimulating and intoxicating melons beverages nuts subacid fruits in extreme cases potatoes tobacco sweet fruits--limited quantity white bread wheat bran whole wheat, thoroughly cooked whole wheat bread--sparingly importance of water-drinking the lack of body-moisture is one of the causes of supersecretion of acid, therefore water is of primary importance in removing the causes of the above disorders. it should be drunk freely immediately on rising, and just before retiring. from two to three glasses should also be drunk at each meal, especially in treating severe cases. copious water-drinking also relieves irritation of the stomach, thus reducing abnormal appetite. patients afflicted with superacidity never have natural thirst. constipation the cause this disorder might be called "civilizatis," so universal has it become among civilized people. several conditions may conspire to cause constipation-- premature stomach digestion neutralization of the bile by excessive acid eating too much starchy food flesh-eating sedentary habits or lack of proper exercise a diet too refined--lacking in roughness, cellulose or "fodder" the use of sedatives, stimulants, and narcotics, such as tea, coffee, liquor, tobacco, and drugs, especially of the alkaloid group while most of these are direct causes, the primary cause, however, goes back to superacidity--premature stomach-digestion. in cases of superacidity the liver is nearly always more or less inactive. just why this is so is not definitely known, but in the opinion of the writer it is caused by the neutralization of bile by the excess of acid. be this as it may, nearly all cases of superacidity are accompanied by intestinal congestion, commonly called constipation, or by intermittent diarrhea and constipation. constipation--the remedy [sidenote: laxative drugs an offense to the body] it is believed by the medical profession, and generally accepted by the public, that certain drugs act upon the alimentary tract with beneficial effect in cases of intestinal congestion. this is untrue. the facts are the intestines act upon the drug. the drug is an offense to nature, and when it is taken into the stomach and passed on to the intestines, the body-fluids are severely drawn upon to neutralize the poison, and to cast it out. the result, therefore, of taking poisons, miscalled "laxatives," is that each time the act is repeated, the liver and the peristaltic muscles are weakened, and rendered more and more abnormal, and less and less able to perform their natural functions. [sidenote: suggestions for the relief of constipation] that system of treatment which has been prescribed for fermentation will, in most cases, relieve constipation. the treatment should be varied, however, according to the age and the occupation of the patient, governed by the season of the year, or the foods available at the time of treatment. if diagnosis of the patient reveals the fact that constipation has been caused primarily by overeating, the quantity of food should be reduced, and the articles changed so as to include a generous quantity of cellulose (coarse foods). the following bill of fare may be given under ordinary conditions: immediately on rising, take two or three cups of water, the juice of one or two oranges, or half a pound of grapes, swallowing the seeds and pulp whole, masticating only the skins. devote from eight to ten minutes to vigorous exercise, especially movements nos. and , as shown in "exercise and re-creation," vol. v, pp. and . breakfast half a cup of coarse wheat bran, cooked ten minutes; serve with thin cream whole wheat, boiled five or six hours one or two very ripe bananas, with either nuts or thin cream luncheon one or two fresh vegetables a "two-minute" egg or a very small portion of fish a heaping tablespoonful of bran dinner two of the following vegetables: corn, carrots, peas, beans, parsnips, turnips, onions a baked potato celery, lettuce, or anything green, with nuts one egg a tablespoonful of wheat bran from one to two glasses of water should be drunk at each of these meals. these menus are merely suggestive. they may be varied according to judgment, depending upon the habits and the environments of the patient. curative feeding for constipation is one of the most important departments of this work, and will receive special consideration in the volume of menus. foods that may be substituted for one another the menus may also be varied by substituting the articles herein given for other things of the same general class. examples: {evaporated peaches dried fruits {evaporated apricots {prunes the above are all in the same general class, and may be substituted for one another. {dates sweet fruits {figs --all form another class {raisins {eggs dairy products {milk and meats {fish {fowl these compose the nitrogenous group, and may be substituted for one another. {carrots vegetables {parsnips --are in the same group {turnips {beans legumes {peas --are in the same general class {lentils {barley rice cereals {corn rye {oats wheat barley, corn, oats, rice, rye and wheat are the six great staples, which grouped are called cereals. they form the carbohydrate class of grains, and may be substituted for one another. in cases of constipation, however, whole wheat and rye are preferable, owing to the large amount of bran they contain. {dandelion {kale edible succulent {lettuce --belong to same class plants {parsley {romaine {spinach citrus fruits {grapefruit {lemons {limes {oranges all citrus-fruits (fruits containing citric acid), so far as their action upon the liver is concerned, have practically the same effects, and substantially the same nutritive value. [sidenote: milk may be laxative or constipating] whether or not milk is constipating depends entirely upon how it is taken, and the articles with which it is combined. in small quantities, from one to two glasses at a time, milk is constipating. however, if taken at intervals of fifteen or twenty minutes, a quantity is very soon taken, greater than the hydrochloric acid of the stomach can convert into curd, therefore the surplus quantity becomes rather laxative. in many years' experience i have rarely treated a case of constipation that would not readily yield to milk and to coarse vegetables, or bran, if taken in this way; however, the milk diet should not be given longer than two or three days at one time. after this period adopt the menus herein given, varying them by selecting different articles from the several groups named. when the bowel action has become regular, the milk period should be reduced, and the breadless diet extended until the milk is entirely withdrawn. (see "emaciation--the remedy," p. ) [sidenote: hernia due to abdominal pressure] man undoubtedly sprang from anthropoid stock. his original position of locomotion was upon his four feet. the intestines, therefore, rested upon a flexible belly surface, but since he has risen and changed his two front paws into hands, the intestines are inclined, with every step, to sag to the bottom of the abdominal cavity, and are prevented from so doing only by small ligaments attached to the abdominal walls. hernia or rupture is exceedingly common owing to this downward pressure in the lower part of the abdominal cavity. the position maintained while walking, therefore, is not conducive to the relief of that pressure in the abdomen, which is the direct cause of hernia, and often the cause of very stubborn intestinal congestion. [sidenote: remedial and counteractive exercises] it is obvious, therefore, that this condition needs remedial exercise. it will be observed that all the movements given in the lesson on "exercise and re-creation" bring the trunk to a horizontal position with the body leaning forward. all of these movements are designed to counteract this abdominal pressure. [sidenote: exercise a necessity in counteracting constipation] i go thus into detail for the purpose of showing the great necessity of these exercises, especially in cases of constipation, and of insisting that they be executed vigorously and regularly. _the most beneficial diet that could be prescribed will not relieve and cure constipation unless it is supplemented by certain remedial exercises or movements._ this is true because nature contemplates a certain amount of motion exactly as she contemplates a certain amount of nutrition, and her laws governing motion are just as mandatory and her penalties just as certain. [sidenote: proper nourishment promotes natural desire for exercise] nutrition is of more importance because it is more fundamental, and it is more fundamental because when the body is naturally nourished, there is created a surplus amount of energy which will compel a certain amount of motion, and this in turn will cause deep or full breathing. therefore the well-fed person will take his exercise because he has an appetite for it, or because the superabundance of energy forces him to do it in obedience to the same law that produces hunger. hence the perfectly nourished body will conform automatically to the other two great physical laws of motion and of oxidation. _constipating foods_ _laxative foods_ --------------------- --------------- all white flour products all green salads blackberries apples cheese apricots chestnuts beet-tops corn-starch celery fine corn-meal figs macaroni peaches oatmeal persimmons red meat plums rice prunes spaghetti spinach sweet potatoes turnips-tops white bread wheat bran whole wheat _constipating beverages_ _laxative beverages_ ------------------------ -------------------- all alcoholic stimulants mineral water containing magnesia chocolate unsweetened fruit-juice cocoa water--lime-free coffee cream lime-water milk (in small quantities) tea in cases of constipation: omit eat baked beans all fresh vegetables chestnuts apricots cheese bananas coffee, tea, chocolate grapes--seeds, skins and all corn products nuts cream peaches flesh food of all kinds plums intoxicants prunes milk succulent plants oatmeal tomatoes rice wheat bran sweet potato whole wheat tobacco rye white flour products drink plain water with meals. gastritis gastritis is a word meant to describe a chronic and a painful condition of stomach and of intestinal irritation. when the stomach becomes much irritated from constant fermentation of food, and from the resultant presence of acid, certain articles such as milk, fruit-acids, and starchy foods will cause rapid accumulation of gas, which becomes exceedingly painful and sometimes dangerous. [sidenote: gas, the primary cause of heart trouble] the majority of deaths from so-called heart-failure is caused directly by the accumulation of gas from the fermenting mass of food in the stomach and in the intestines. these organs become greatly inflated, and their pressure against all the vital organs, and against the arteries leading into and out of the lungs and the heart so impair the circulation that the heart action becomes very irregular--first slow and faint; sometimes skipping a beat, and again violent and palpitating. when the congested blood spurts through into the heart it is called "arterial overflow," and the old diagnostician seems to have been content with giving this a name. it is certain they have not yet given the world a remedy, as the regular profession is still prescribing such drugs as bicarbonate of soda, bismuth subnitrate, and nux vomica, none of which can give more than temporary relief, and that is accomplished by neutralizing the acid at the tremendous expense of the cells that secrete it. gastritis--the cause gastritis is caused: by the use of stimulants irritating foods, condiments, etc. overeating, especially of acid fruits, starches and sweets cirrhosis of the liver is sometimes one of the secondary causes of gastritis gastritis--the symptoms the symptoms are usually a dull pain in the region of the stomach and upper intestines, a swollen full feeling, now and then biting pains, followed by a dark vomit, especially when the attack comes late at night. gastritis is often confused with gastric cancer, and in diagnosis it is difficult to speak with authority as to whether the case is ordinary gastritis, as above described, gastric ulcer, or gastric cancer. the diagnostician in making up his opinion must be governed largely by the time the condition has endured, and the immediate causes, giving especial care to the food and drink that has been consumed just prior to the attack. gastritis--the remedy in severe cases the patient should be given a glass of cool water. in fact, one of the best means of allaying the inflammation of gastritis--or as a matter of fact any other inflammation--is cool water. all food should be omitted for at least twenty-four hours, then the patient should be given vegetable juice prepared as follows: grind spinach, carrots, squash, or turnips, any two or three of these, very fine; cook about ten minutes in enough water to make a pint of thin vegetable soup. put through a colander; strain through a coarse cloth, discarding the pulp. give this to the patient every two hours in quantities not more than one or two ounces, dependent upon the condition. the diet may be varied by changing vegetables, always selecting one green plant such as spinach, lettuce, beet or turnip-tops. as the patient improves more of the pulp may be used. after the second or third day a thin puree may be used, care being exercised not to overfeed. [sidenote: foods to be used in the treatment of gastritis] in milder cases the patient should be fed after the same methods, only more of the vegetable pulp may be used, thereby increasing the strength of the diet after four or five days; or, when the patient shows signs of substantial recovery, egg whites, baked potatoes, and the ordinary fresh vegetables may be given in moderate quantities. inasmuch as stomach fermentation is the beginning or parent cause of gastritis, the causes, symptoms, and menus given for fermentation would apply in cases of gastritis, limiting the quantity of food according to the severity of the condition. in cases of gastritis: omit (in severe cases) eat (in severe cases) coffee baked bananas condiments egg whites flesh foods lettuce fruit puree of tender beans intoxicants puree of tender carrots starchy foods puree of tender corn sweets puree of tender peas tea spinach tobacco squash vegetable juices in the earlier stages of acute gastritis, all foods should be omitted except, perhaps, vegetable juices. (see recipe, p. .) see also fermentation and superacidity, pp. and . nervous indigestion [sidenote: mental effects of nervousness] there are millions of nerve fibers leading out from the stomach and alimentary tract to every part of the anatomy, so that the nervous connection, especially between the stomach and the brain, is very direct and sensitive. the stomach seems to bear the same relation to the brain that a basket bears to a balloon so far as their nervous connection is concerned. thus it is that the irritated stomach produces an irritable temper, insomnia, forgetfulness, and a lack of ability to concentrate the thoughts. these are the milder symptoms or first warnings. nervous indigestion--the cause the use of stimulants or narcotics, such as tea, coffee, liquor and tobacco are most prolific causes of nervousness. these drugs act upon the body in a dual capacity: ( ) they excite or raise the nervous system above normal, only to drop it below when the reaction takes place. ( ) in addition to this, they irritate the stomach and the intestines by causing superacidity. nervousness caused by sedatives and narcotics acts both upon the mental and the physical organism, and the source of such nervousness can be easily traced by ascertaining the habits of the patient. [sidenote: abnormal appetite for sweets and starches] when the patient has used stimulants and narcotics long enough to cause nervousness, the mucous membrane of the stomach is usually in a state of irritation. the presence of blood, under these conditions, causes abnormal appetite, frequently followed by overeating, especially of sweets, starches, and acids, for which the patient usually has a great craving. this is followed by fermentation, and comes into or envelops superacidity and must necessarily be classed with it. overeating and the constant use of stimulants and narcotics will, after a time, cause a chronic state of fermentation, and the stomach will seldom be free from acid, the constant presence of which will ultimately cause gastric ulcer, and perhaps stomach carcinoma. nervous indigestion--the symptoms [sidenote: nature's final symptoms] the more advanced stages of stomach irritation which are expressed by nervousness cause melancholia and a gloomy sort of pessimism. these are among the last signals the stomach gives to the brain before final collapse, and if these signals are not heeded, the victim may expect to go down in the maelstrom of nervous prostration within twelve months from the time the first signals are given. these fits or spells of melancholia often come on suddenly. the palms of the hands become moist with a cold, clammy perspiration, and the mind is flooded with a train of thoughts such as "what's the use of living?" "why all this struggle for mere existence?" the victim of this condition invariably believes that his mind is becoming affected; that he is becoming insane, and will soon be a public charge, and shunned by those whom he loves. while under these spells many people take their own lives rather than face what they believe to be insanity and ostracism. the patient should be made acquainted with his true condition, and shown that it is only temporary, and that all such thoughts are mere mental aberrations which will disappear when the causes of stomach irritation are removed. the above-named symptoms always point with certainty to an irritated stomach, the severity of which can be determined by the symptoms above described. [sidenote: difference between stomach and intestinal irritation] _stomach irritation_ is expressed largely through the _mind_, as in irritability, nervousness and melancholia, while _intestinal irritation_ is generally expressed by some _physical symptom_, such as restlessness, twitching of the muscles and a general lack of physical tranquillity. there is another form of nervousness believed to be caused by overwork, business worries, etc. with these opinions the writer does not agree. if the body is properly fed one is not likely to overwork. nature will demand rest, and sleep will come while at the desk, or when following the plow. [sidenote: acidity the cause of worry] investigators are much divided on the question of whether worry causes superacidity, or superacidity causes worry. the experience of the writer in treating several thousand cases of stomach acidity has proved beyond a doubt that acid fermentation and stomach irritation are the primary causes, and what is commonly called "worry" is merely a symptom or result of this condition. it is quite evident, therefore, that all forms of nervousness must go back to the food question for final solution. nervous indigestion--the remedy nervous indigestion should be treated as follows: the patient should employ his time in pleasant but useful occupation as to diet, _omit_ the following: all red meats acid fruits bread and cereals condiments pickles {such as-- {candies sweets {cane or maple-sugar {dates and figs {desserts and pastries of all kinds {sirups the diet should consist of-- an abundance of green salads baked potatoes (including the skins) egg whites fats--limited quantity-- such as-- dairy butter nut butter olive-oil nuts fresh vegetables--not canned {beans legumes {peas {lentils in cases of nervous indigestion: omit eat acid fruits baked potatoes bread and cereals fats (limited quantity) coffee and tea fresh vegetables condiments green salads desserts and pastries legumes pickles limited quantity of milk (preferably red meats sour) stimulants of all kinds white of eggs sweets tobacco the experience of the writer for many years has been that the _fewer the articles composing the diet, the better the progress could be made in treating nervous indigestion. in many instances, the mono-diet system (eating only one kind of food at a meal) has been adopted with excellent results_. subacidity indigestion is a term used to describe the condition caused by food remaining in the stomach _over_ nature's time-limit. in such cases there is usually a lack of hydrochloric acid. this disorder is sometimes called hyperchlorhydria. the expression of indigestion, which is a lack of acid, and the expression superacidity or hyperchlorhydria, which is too much acid, are often confusing, inasmuch as both conditions cause a feeling of heaviness or a lump in the stomach. (see "superacidity," p. .) subacidity--the cause the most prolific cause of subacidity is sedentary habits or lack of activity. this is especially true of young people, while in adults, or those who have passed forty, the usual cause is incorrect eating, or an unbalanced diet. another cause of subacidity is the overconsumption of flesh foods. flesh requires considerable acid for dissolution; sometimes more than is normally supplied by the stomach, and consequently results in indigestion or non-dissolution. the over-consumption of either starchy foods or sweets may produce the same result. it is therefore obvious that this particular disorder is caused primarily either by overeating or by an unbalanced dietary. subacidity--the symptoms brown coating on the tongue-- the _white_ coating on the tongue always indicates too much acid, hence predigestion; while the _brown_ coating indicates insufficient acid, hence indigestion. the _white_ coating shows the action of the acid on the stomach lining, while the _brown_ coating shows the decomposition of food matter in the stomach, usually accompanied by an offensive breath. gas in the stomach-- gas sometimes appears in the stomach immediately after eating. this shows that food, in a state of fermentation, remains in the stomach from a previous meal. it also shows that the stomach may be prolapsed; that is, dropped down below its normal level. a sort of pocket is thus frequently formed in which a small quantity of food remains from one meal to another, causing an immediate formation of gas after eating. subacidity--the remedy the logical remedy is to limit the amount of food to the actual requirements of the body, and especially to balance the daily bill of fare in conformity to the chemistry of nutrition. [sidenote: diet in cases of subacidity] in cases of chronic indigestion or impoverished acid secretions, it often becomes necessary to prescribe a counteractive diet, the composition of which should be determined by the cause of the disorder. if the cause be over-consumption of meat, the patient should be given a breakfast of acid fruits, and nuts and salads; while if the cause be over-consumption of starchy foods, all legumes and grain products of every kind should be omitted, and a diet of subacid fruits, an abundance of green salads, and even some flesh now and then, such as tender fish or fowl, should be prescribed. in all cases the special object should be to prescribe an amount of food for the first few days somewhat below the normal requirements of the body, and after the counteractive diet has been taken for three or four days, the menu should be balanced daily as to nutritive elements. by observance of these rules, together with a reasonable observance of the laws of exercise, fresh air and deep breathing, the most obstinate cases of indigestion or subacidity can be overcome. in cases of subacidity: omit eat cereals all acid fruits with meals coffee and tea buttermilk flesh foods fish liquors fresh vegetables sweets potatoes tobacco sautern wine, sparingly white bread succulent plants tea tomatoes wheat bran whole wheat see "diet in cases of subacidity," p. . biliousness biliousness is the supersecretion of bile; that is to say, more of this fluid is secreted by the liver than is required for the ordinary processes of digestion, and the excess passes into the stomach. biliousness--the cause biliousness is caused, in a majority of cases, by the overconsumption of fats, milk, eggs, and sweets, or by taking stimulants, especially such as malted or brewed liquors. biliousness--the symptoms the presence of bile in the stomach interferes with the stomach-secretion, thus causing faulty digestion and severe headache, usually starting at the back of the head and ending in a severe pain over the eyes. the complexion becomes sallow and there is a general decline in strength and vitality. biliousness--the remedy the logical remedy is to remove the above causes by eliminating from the diet such articles as tea, coffee, distilled, brewed and malted liquors of every character, and sweets, selecting such foods as will give to the body all the elements of nutrition, and so combining them as to furnish these elements in the right proportions. (see menus for "constipation," vol. iii, p. ). in cases of biliousness: omit eat coffee and tea bananas cream coarse cereals egg yolks egg whites fats fresh vegetables intoxicants fruit milk melons sweets nuts wines and liquors of all kinds succulent plants wheat bran cirrhosis of the liver the cause cirrhosis of the liver, or hanot's disease, is a condition characterized by degeneration of the liver cells, usually associated with a fatty infiltration. while there are many conditions that may cause cirrhosis, the principal one, perhaps, is excessive indulgence in alcohol. thus the disease is frequently called "hob-nailed liver," "gin-liver," etc. cirrhosis of the liver is a disease that is almost invariably fatal in from one to two years--although, if the process is not far advanced, and the cause is removed, the patient may recover tolerable health. it is absolutely necessary that further irritation of the liver, caused by the drinking of alcohol, be stopped. close attention should be paid to the catarrhal condition of the stomach and bowels, which is usually associated with cirrhosis. (see chapter on catarrh.) cirrhosis of the liver--the symptoms the symptoms are usually pain in the epigastrium; nausea and sometimes vomiting in the morning; general loss of vitality and ambition; sallow complexion. a dull aching or a throbbing pain is often experienced, followed by a heavy, sluggish feeling, especially on rising in the morning. alternate constipation and diarrhea, and enlargement of the liver are frequent symptoms. in the atrophic variety, however, the liver shrinks in size. cirrhosis of the liver--the treatment the diet should be nutritious, yet simple, so as to put as little labor as possible upon the already impaired digestion. fats should be restricted, and starchy foods should be closely limited, so as not to set up additional fermentation. a liberal service of plain wheat bran should be taken at least twice a week in order to insure active intestinal peristalsis. all stimulants, narcotics, sweets, condiments and irritating foods of every character should be omitted. the patient should drink copiously of pure water at meals, omitting all other beverages. in cases of cirrhosis of the liver: omit eat acid fruits, except the all legumes citrus fruits edible succulent plants condiments fresh vegetables fats green corn gravies liberal quantity of wheat red meats bran stimulants and narcotics limited quantity of-- sweets apples oranges white bread bananas peaches grapes pears grape fruit plums lemons nuts potatoes salads whole wheat thoroughly cooked cirrhosis of the liver is always aggravated by the overconsumption of sweets, starches, fats and intoxicating beverages. sweet and starchy foods should be limited and intoxicants of all kinds should be entirely omitted. an abundance of pure water should be taken at meals. piles or hemorrhoids the cause piles or hemorrhoids are usually the result of chronic constipation; or, they may occur from violent exercise, or a shock. the straining at stool when constipated has a most potent influence in causing piles, as well as the passage of hard, dry feces. in both of these cases the rectal mucous surfaces are torn loose or detached from the supporting walls, and the cells fill with blood, thereby becoming very greatly distended. piles or hemorrhoids--the symptoms the first symptoms are usually itching of the mucous membrane of the anus. in the second stage a bloody discharge will appear with the feces, and in the more advanced cases the rectal mucous membrane will protrude. piles or hemorrhoids--the treatment [sidenote: how to relieve the strain upon the rectal lining] when it is first discovered that there is a slight protrusion of the rectal mucous membrane from the anus, great care should be taken in evacuation of the feces. the first or direct cause of this condition is usually congestion; that is, the feces in the rectal cavity forms into a hard mass. when this condition appears, just before each evacuation, inject into the rectum, with a small rectal syringe, a tablespoonful of olive-oil, followed by a pint or two of lukewarm water, taken as an ordinary enema, and retain two or three minutes. then place the first and the middle fingers, one on each side of the anus, and press gently so as to relieve the strain upon the rectal lining. the feces, if very hard, can be worked back and forth until broken up, and evacuation made easy. by this means i have known many cases of bleeding piles or hemorrhoids to be permanently cured. it is exceedingly difficult to cure chronic cases in which the membrane has been torn from the walls for many years. however, nature never tires of doing her work of repair, and if these suggestions are religiously observed, even chronic cases can be greatly relieved, and sometimes permanently cured. for diet, see menus for constipation and fermentation. every night, just before retiring, take a light enema and retain it over night; also, take an enema just after rising. diarrhea the cause diarrhea is in reality not a dis-ease, but a symptom behind which there are always primary causes, usually-- overeating irritating condiments wrong combinations of food at meals poisonous laxative drugs excess of acids excess of sweets sometimes nervous excitement diarrhea caused by the last-named condition is usually of temporary duration. sudden attacks of diarrhea are often caused by exposure, by changes of diet, or by the overconsumption of acids in the form of berries. [sidenote: errors in eating the cause of diarrhea] there is no abnormal condition of the alimentary tract that is more directly traceable to errors in eating and drinking than diarrhea and all forms of dysentery. this condition is most generally caused by chronic fermentation, or by the presence of some non-nutritive or foreign substance. it matters not whether this condition comes from the use of poisonous drugs called laxative remedies, or from foods containing foreign or non-nutritive substances, the result is the same. the habitual taking of drugs sufficiently poisonous to cause the intestinal machinery to exert enough action to cast them out, is a painful and slow process of self-destruction. it frequently happens that the peristaltic muscles become relaxed and give way completely from the habitual use of poisonous cathartics, and chronic diarrhea or dysentery is the result. diarrhea--the treatment in ordinary cases of diarrhea one can pursue his usual work provided he observes the suggestions in regard to diet, given below, but in severe cases one should avoid labor or exercise, and remain most of the time in a reclining position. drink copiously of pure water, and eat very sparingly. omit eat acid fruits boiled rice (thoroughly cooked) all green salads boiled sweet milk coarse foods, such as cabbage, cottage cheese celery, turnips, spinach ordinary white bread condiments potatoes-- desserts, pastry, etc. sweet (baked) pickles and all foods preserved in white acids puree of rice red meat and flesh food of ever sweet clabbered milk, including kind except very tender fish the cream and white meat of chicken and very tender white meat of chicken, turkey or turkey, or fish relishes sweets tuber vegetables except sweet and white potatoes omit all beverages at meals except plain water, taking only about one glass. emaciation or underweight underweight, or lack of adipose tissue, is a condition with which the practitioner will often have to deal, as under nearly all abnormal conditions of the body, called dis-ease, the first result or evidence is loss of weight. the tendency of a perfectly normal body, after it passes the forty-fifth year, is to become muscular, or what is termed "thin." in all countries those who have lived to a very great age have been termed emaciated. however, there is a normal body-weight that can be maintained, and which indicates normal health. [sidenote: effects of emaciation] emaciation is usually followed by general anemia and a weakening of nearly all the functions of the body. the memory, sight, hearing, all become impaired, while the taste or appetite usually becomes keener or more sensitive. this is caused by irritation of the mucous membrane of the stomach and the consequent presence of too much blood therein, the same as when intoxicating liquors are taken just before meals. overwork, loss of sleep, unbalanced diet, worry, grief, or a period of extreme emotional tension, all have a tendency to disturb and derange the processes of metabolism. under these conditions the body is very likely to lose weight, but there is always a fundamental cause which should be discovered and removed. emaciation or underweight--the cause there are a number of things which usually conspire to cause emaciation. named in the order of their generality, they are as follows: [sidenote: physical causes of emaciation] overeating superacidity stomach and intestinal fermentation constipation autointoxication under-drinking of pure water the use of tobacco, coffee and tea all of these things tend to cause malassimilation, which is the secondary cause of emaciation. in a majority of cases the loss of weight begins while the body is surfeited with food. in fact, it is nothing uncommon for those suffering most from this condition to consume from three to four times the necessary quantity of food; overeating becomes a habit, and consequent fermentation and toxic substances, usually known as autointoxication, are the results. the causes of emaciation, according to most authorities, are impoverished blood and malnutrition. with these opinions the writer fully agrees, but the intelligent reader will naturally inquire--what are the causes of impoverished blood and malnutrition? the answer goes directly back to the food question. [sidenote: mental causes of emaciation] all mental influences, business, social, or financial worry, contribute their share toward physical emaciation, but when the body is perfectly nourished it is more capable of withstanding these drains because it is made fearless by perfect health. behind all forms of business and financial trouble is the demon "fear," and fear rests on the uncertainty of our ability to provide creature comforts and necessities; therefore when we have mastered the science of feeding our bodies, and have learned how simply and cheaply this may be done, the mere possession of such knowledge does more than all else to make of us philosophers and students, eliminating fear and worry of every kind, as in health the mind is usually in a state of optimism and tranquillity. emaciation or underweight--the symptoms the symptoms of emaciation, of course, are so apparent that it is only necessary to say that when the above-named errors are corrected, and the following symptoms are observed, the normal weight can nearly always be maintained. so-called cold-sores, fevered lips and canker-sores on the tongue, intestinal congestion, torpidity of the liver, slight headaches, fullness after eating, alternate constipation and diarrhea, are all symptoms that point to the causes of emaciation. emaciation or underweight--the remedy emaciation is sometimes caused by organic or hereditary dis-eases, but the usual causes are to be found within the field of dietetics. the remedy, therefore, is first to naturalize or normalize the diet as to quantity, selection, proportion, and combinations of food. in the majority of cases, those who come to the food scientist for treatment will be those who have tried every conceivable remedy except the natural one, therefore they come in a chronic state of emaciation, poisoned by overeating. never having been instructed in regard to diet, exercise, breathing, bathing, or any other hygienic law, they will, in most cases, require a counteractive or remedial diet. there may be a number of supplementary causes to be considered, but the most important things for the practitioner to ascertain are: time the patient rises hour the first meal is eaten of what that meal consists time the second meal is eaten of what the second meal consists time the third meal is eaten of what this meal consists all mental influences under which the patient is laboring, especially fear or worry the condition of the bowels as to congestion the amount of liquid taken during the day and at meals in nearly all emaciated cases it will be found that the patient is suffering from premature fermentation, intestinal and stomach gas, and a congested condition of the bowels commonly known as constipation. [sidenote: foods that are necessary in the treatment of emaciation] the first remedy lies in the selection and the combination of foods which are readily soluble and assimilable, and which contain the best flesh and cell-building properties. the chemical properties or elements most necessary are albumin, phosphorus, casein, proteids and carbohydrates. these elements are supplied best by milk, eggs, nuts, sweet fruits and coarse cereals, followed by a limited quantity of fresh green vegetables. [sidenote: value of milk and eggs in the remedial diet] the nutriment contained in the egg is all that is required for the young chick, while the nutrient contents of milk is all that is necessary for the young animal. therefore these two articles contain the most reliable and speedy counteractive elements known to chemistry, but in dealing with the adult they should be supplemented by fresh vegetables, coarse grain, wheat bran, raisins, and the seeds and skins of grapes. [sidenote: constipation must be overcome in cases of emaciation] it must be remembered that milk has a constipating tendency when taken in ordinary quantities--from one to two glasses at a meal. therefore in laying out the diet for the emaciated, it is vitally important to avoid constipation, which may be done by giving milk during the first two or three days in quantities ranging from two and one-half to three and one-half quarts a day, together with a liberal quantity of coarse cereal. (see "constipation--the remedy," p. .) these remedial methods may be repeated day by day until a substantial gain in weight is noticed, when the diet may be normalized--such articles selected as will give to the body all the required elements of nourishment in the right proportions. [sidenote: chronic emaciation--its cause and remedy] it sometimes happens that the body is thrown into a chronic state of emaciation on account of a catarrhal formation over the mucous membrane of the intestines, which closes the "winking valves" that take up nutriment from the alimentary tract. in such cases coarse cereal or wheat bran, the seeds and skins of fruit, especially grapes, together with milk and eggs, form the best foods known. the milk and the eggs may be forced, not only beyond the limitations of hunger, but beyond the normal needs of the body. by thus forcing them for a short period of time (twenty to thirty days) a physical "trial balance" can be reached, and the body brought to its normal weight, which can be maintained for an indefinite period of time, if the bill of fare is again balanced or leveled according to the chemical requirements governed by the three natural laws, namely, age, temperature of environment, and work. [sidenote: diet for extreme constipation in emaciated cases] there is another condition of chronic emaciation which, in the beginning, should sometimes be treated in exactly the opposite way. for instance, when the forcing of casein proteids, albumin and nitrogen (the principal nutrient elements in milk and eggs) produces complications, such as extreme constipation, it becomes necessary to put the patient on a diet composed of coarse cellulose articles and fruit for a period of from three to six days. this should be done in the following manner: immediately on rising drink two or three cups of water--lime-free. breakfast (one hour later) the strained juice of two or three sweet oranges, or a bunch of grapes; grapes preferred a cup of wheat bran, cooked; serve hot, with thin cream luncheon plain wheat and an equal quantity of coarse wheat bran, cooked until very soft; preferably simmered over night a salad of celery, lettuce and tomatoes, with nuts dinner about four tablespoonfuls of boiled wheat; also one of bran a baked potato one fresh vegetable drink copiously of water at all meals. just before retiring, eat half a pound of grapes, when in season. after the first or second day this bill of fare may be increased in quantity, and heavier fruits added, such as pears, prunes, and very ripe bananas. after the fourth or fifth day, a salad and a few of the lighter vegetables, such as onions, romaine or cabbage, celery, carrots, or other fibrous vegetables may be included. after the first week the diet should be composed of fresh vegetables, coarse cereals, eggs, bananas, nuts, salads, and wheat bran. those who are emaciated should drink an abundance of water immediately on rising and at meals. they should also take a sufficient quantity of plain wheat bran, or grapes if in season (concord preferred), eating skins, seeds, and pulp, in order to keep the bowels in normal condition. in cases of extreme emaciation, loss of appetite, or fermentation, the patient should, for a time, adopt a diet of milk and eggs, alternating as follows: the first, second, and third days, drink from two and a half to four quarts of milk, in small quantities--one glass at a time. for the next three days, reduce the quantity of milk, and begin taking six eggs a day, increasing the number, until twelve eggs are taken. alternate between the milk and the eggs, for a month or more, unless the patient responds in weight in a shorter time. when there is a perceptible gain in weight, and normal hunger has been restored, reduce the milk and the eggs, and add the solid foods already suggested. in cases of emaciation: omit eat acid fruits bananas coffee cheese condiments coarse cereals tea eggs tobacco fruits wines and liquors dates, figs, raisins milk sweet milk or buttermilk nuts vegetables, such as-- beets lettuce cabbage parsnips carrots potatoes celery spinach cauliflower turnips green beans green peas the proteid and the carbohydrate foods should predominate in the diet. obesity or overweight [sidenote: diet, the governing law of body-weight] it is generally supposed that obesity is a natural result of modern civilization. this theory has no foundation in fact or physiology. man can be genuinely modern without being obese. the law that governs the growth and graceful symmetry of the human body is based upon dietetics, and the indispensable adjuncts of diet are exercise, oxidation and elimination. a body that is filled with vitality by a perfectly balanced diet will experience the same appetite for motion or exercise that it does for food or drink. exercise forces more blood to the lungs, and more thorough oxidation is the result. the properly fed young animal, whether brute or human, plays and exercises involuntarily, and the older animal, adequately nourished without being overfed, does not lose its youthful instincts. an observance of the above laws will prevent the accumulation of an excess of fatty tissue. the following table gives the normal weight of natural healthy adults according to height, also the weights considered thin and obese: -----------+-------------------+------------------- | males | females -----------+-------------------+------------------- height | weight | weight -----------+-----+------+------+-----+------+------ feet inches| thin| fat |normal| thin| fat |normal -----------+-----+-----+-------+-----+------+------ -- -- | | | | | | -- | | | | | | -- | | | | | | -- | | | | | | -- | | | | | | -- | | | | | | -- | | | | | | -- | | | | | | -- | | | | | | -- | | | | | | -- | | | | | | -- | | | | | | -- -- | | | | | | -- | | | | | | -- | | | | | | -- | | | | | | -----------+-----+------+------+-----+------+------ obesity--the cause a very exhausting treatise could be written upon the cause of obesity, but, summing it all up briefly, corpulency is invariably induced through a direct or indirect violation of the laws of nutrition, as exemplified in their wonderful processes of transforming material called food into pulsating life. a combination of commissions and omissions generally conspire to produce the obese body. they may be mentioned in the order of their importance: overingestion of fat-producing foods omission of the proper amount of motion or exercise imperfect oxidation (breathing) the overconsumption of fluids [sidenote: obesity caused by overeating] in every case of obesity, one or more of these causes are present. if one is blessed with good digestion and good assimilation, or, in other words, if all the nutriment taken into the body is absorbed into the tissues, then the quantity must be regulated by one's work or labor, otherwise any excess of fat-producing food is stored up by provident nature, contemplating future use; and if it is not used, by actual work, the result is a gradual accumulation of fatty tissue. again, if a quantity of food commensurate only with the requirements of mental labor be consumed, and only ordinary body-activity indulged in, there is likely to be a gradual decrease in weight, because a considerable percentage of energy is consumed by the mere carrying on of the vital processes. [sidenote: obesity caused by drinking malted liquors] the worst form of obesity, however, is that caused by overconsumption of fermented wines or malted liquors. this form of enlarged tissue contributes no strength whatever to its own support. it is as much of a dead weight as a hod of mortar, and much more useless; in fact, all forms of obesity are not only useless weight, but dangerous to life. the obese body is much more liable to contagious and infectious dis-eases, and when once affected, less able to defend itself than the normal body. obesity--the remedy the control of body-weight rests upon three distinct and separate laws, the first and most important of which is nutrition, the second exercise, and the third oxidation. [sidenote: the storing of fat regulated by labor or activity] while at the outset body-weight may be controlled by increasing the amount of activity sufficiently to use the surplus which nature is storing away, if however, the activity ceases and the surplus is not used, then the storing process becomes chronic, and radical remedies both in regard to dietetics and activity must be applied in order to bring the body back to normal. [sidenote: amount of fat required daily in different climates] a man of normal weight, say pounds, doing ordinary work in a tropical country, would not need to consume more than an ounce of fat each twenty-four hours, while the same man in a northern climate, where the thermometer ranges from zero to below, could use up, with similar labor, from three to four ounces of pure fat daily. fats, however, do not produce fat in the human body unless taken largely in excess of its needs. their primary purpose is to keep up the temperature of the body. [sidenote: dietetic suggestions for chronic obesity] where the weight is only from ten to fifteen pounds above normal, a substantial reduction can be made by merely balancing the diet, but where the accumulation of adipose tissue has become chronic, and the body has taken on from twenty to fifty pounds, or more, above normal, then a diet composed largely of non-acid fruits and fresh vegetables should be adopted for a period of from twenty to thirty days. [sidenote: foods that produce fat] carbohydrates, that is to say starch and sugar, are the principal fat-making nutrients, and all people inclined to take on abnormal weight, as a rule, are very fond of, and eat an excess of starchy foods. a great amount of the casein in milk and the phosphorus in eggs are converted into fat, especially if a quantity be taken in excess of the amount used in effort or work. the fat-producing staple foods are: all cereal products all legumes bread eggs milk potatoes in order, therefore, to remove the causes of obesity, one must begin with the diet. [sidenote: foods that reduce fat] eliminate meat and animal fat; ascertain as nearly as possible the amount of carbohydrates necessary for each day and take none in excess of this quantity. this will stop the accumulation of fatty tissue. if the body is obese, and a reduction of weight is desired, the diet should consist of nuts, fruits, salads, fresh vegetables, and a very limited quantity of eggs, omitting starchy foods entirely. after a week or two of this diet, discontinue the use of eggs, reducing the diet entirely to nuts, fruits, fresh vegetables and salads, which in nearly every case will bring a very substantial reduction in weight, even if the patient takes but little exercise and fresh air. if, however, he can be induced to adopt the above diet, and at the same time take two hours' moderate exercise, either in gymnastics or useful labor, with a reasonable amount of exposure to fresh air, the reduction in weight will be greater, and the muscular tissue and vitality will increase. inasmuch as fat contributes no item of strength to its own support, if the patient will take a reasonable amount of exercise and fresh air, muscular tissue will increase in the same ratio that fatty tissue decreases. [sidenote: how menus for obesity may be varied] the menus for obesity may be varied according to the fruits and vegetables at one's command. fish is the one article among animal food that has much to recommend it, insomuch that it contains an excellent form of proteid and phosphorus. if the taste of the patient should rebel against natural foods, fish would supply these elements better than any form of flesh. the following articles should compose the general diet for the obese under ordinary conditions: buttermilk eggs or fish--limited quantity fruits green salads nuts { such as-- { { asparagus { beans { beets { carrots fresh vegetables { celery { parsnips { peas { pumpkins { spinach { squash { turnips the ordinary obese person should adopt either of the following menus, varying them according to vegetables in season: menu i menu ii breakfast an orange, or grapes choose two of the following: one or two eggs, whipped berries, grapes, peaches, plums, pears, apples, melons, soaked evaporated apricots, peaches, or prunes luncheon choice of two fresh vegetables, one fresh vegetable cooked a small portion of fish a baked potato a baked potato one very ripe banana, with two tablespoonfuls of nuts dinner a salad of lettuce or romaine spanish onions peas, beans, beets, carrots, or an egg, or a small portion turnips of fish two tablespoonfuls of nuts tablespoonful of nuts one egg one or two vegetables a green salad [sidenote: foods should be selected according to vocation] if the patient is doing manual labor, the proteid foods, such as milk, cheese, nuts, fish and eggs should be increased according to the work. if, however, the labor is sedative, such as followed by the average business man, the amounts herein prescribed are sufficient. the breakfast should be taken an hour after rising, and the luncheon early, not later than noon, and the dinner not later than p.m. the symptoms during the first two or three days will be that of weakness and perhaps hunger, leaving the impression of under-nourishment. this will disappear after the third or fourth day, and strength will not only return to normal, but the body will feel more energetic than before, and there will be a marked increase in the powers of endurance. if the patient can be induced to "fight it out" for a week on these lines, favorable symptoms will develop so fast that the practitioner will be aided in his work by the mental conviction of the patient, and success will be assured. in cases of obesity: omit eat bread products eggs--limited quantity cereals fish or lobster dried beans fresh vegetables flesh food fruit milk melons sweets nuts succulent vegetables wheat bran whole wheat thoroughly cooked (sparingly) do not drink at meals. neurasthenia that disorder of the nerves known as neurasthenia is expressed in general anemia, or a breaking down of the nervous vitality. this does not indicate, however, that neurasthenia is wholly a dis-ease of the nerves; it merely means that through the nerves the symptoms are given to the brain. [sidenote: neurasthenia a last or final warning] neurasthenia is a signal or warning given by the united voice of all the functions of digestion, secretion, and excretion. therefore, this disorder does not appear until the body has given fair warning in many other ways, and if proper heed had been given the preceding signals, the nerves would have performed their functions without an outcry. every so-called dis-ease of the human body, especially of the nervous system, is in reality the voice of nature telling us of our mistakes, and giving us the opportunity to correct them. dis-ease, therefore, is not an enemy to the race, but a friend. it is an effort, as it were, in our behalf, of provident nature to prevent race extinction. nearly every seeming misfortune with which we are afflicted can be turned to our benefit. we never take a step upward until we are mentally prepared for it; we never become mentally prepared until we have passed through a certain amount and kind of experience. [sidenote: education defined] education reduced to its last analysis is merely the accumulation and co-ordination of useful knowledge; useful knowledge is accumulated only by and through the art of comparison. the more experience we have, the more comparisons we can make. [sidenote: ability to make comparisons, measures, ability to enjoy] country-raised people control the great industries of the city and lead in the nation's great work because they never become _blase_. they have always their homely and primitive child life to draw upon for comparisons. every good thing, every invention, every step forward and upward, every advancement is appreciated and realized exactly according to their ability to compare these things with their opposites. if the patient should be suffering from mental disturbances called worry, he should be reminded that he is merely a floating mote in the abyss of space, and if the matter composing his form should change from organic to inorganic, from active to inactive; in other words, if he should die, the great planets would move on in their majestic courses and the cosmic scheme would in nowise be interfered with. neurasthenia--the cause neurasthenia is caused by a violation of the laws of nutrition, such as overeating, taking intoxicants, tea, coffee, tobacco, stimulating and sedative drugs; an oversupply of certain elements of nourishment and an undersupply of others; failure to eliminate waste; a lack of activity or motion, and improper oxidation. these causes removed, nervousness and all neurasthenic tendencies disappear, and nature asserts herself and produces physical normality. neurasthenia--the symptoms neurasthenic symptoms are excitability, irritability, mental depression, insomnia, fatigue, exhaustion, emaciation and sometimes hysteria, which very often result in other local disorders, such as extreme constipation or chronic hyperchlorhydria, with a tendency toward weakened sexuality. neurasthenia--the remedy in medical literature there are hundreds of alleged remedies for nervous disorders, yet not one of them attempts to ascertain the causes and to suggest their removal. drugs only paralyze and stupify the delicate, sensitive nerve fibers that are conveying the intelligence to the brain that something is wrong, and the average man mistakes this for a remedy or a cure. [sidenote: unbalanced diet, a primary cause] in the opinion of the writer, neurasthenia would be almost impossible if the body were thoroughly nourished, and the daily bill of fare kept level, or, as we would say in our cash system, "balanced." but when one labors under heavy mental strains, especially that character of burden called worry, and is not properly fed and nourished, the expenditure of force on one side and the lack of supplying it on the other, are very likely to result in an abnormal physical condition called neurasthenia. it is safe to say that all cases of neurasthenia can be traced to improper nourishment on the one hand and abnormal mental tension on the other. [sidenote: diet more important than rest] the rest cure has been employed quite successfully for these conditions for many years, and if the proper diet, or what might be called a counteractive or remedial diet, were employed in all the rest cure establishments, they undoubtedly would meet with greater success, but unfortunately some of the best institutions in the country--those best equipped to take care of neurasthenic patients--do not attach any great importance to diet. this comes, no doubt, from the universal lack of information concerning the natural laws governing food chemistry, and their particular application to animal life. [sidenote: suggestions for the neurasthenic] neurasthenic patients should first be given rest, which means complete or total diversion from business cares, worry, financial or social responsibility. they should be induced, if possible, to become interested in some special eleemosynary work; some "hobby" that has for its purpose the uplifting of people. the best remedy for the weary or discouraged mind, or the neurasthenic body, is the praise and esteem of people. the suggestions hitherto given for all kindred disorders will apply in most cases of neurasthenia. (see also "nervousness--its cause and cure," vol. v, p. .) the patient should be advised to spend at least from three to four hours a day in the open air and sunshine, when the weather will permit, in some quiet way, walking, driving, or in moderate exercise. most important of all is the diet. it should be balanced according to age, labor, and temperature of the atmosphere, and should consist of-- such foods as will cause normal action of the bowels green corn nuts rich fresh milk yolks of eggs young beans, peas, or any legume before it hardens immature starch composes the best form of carbohydrate food, which is exceedingly necessary in most cases of neurasthenia, unless the patient be obese, in which event it should be reduced to meet only the requirements of the body, and nitrogenous foods should predominate. a passive form of exercise is very highly recommended, such as all forms of swedish or mechanical electrical massage. in connection with this the body should be given an olive-oil rub at least twice a week. in cases of neurasthenia: omit eat confections all legumes desserts cheese fatty foods eggs (yolk) hot drinks fish--very tender fresh milk fresh vegetables pastries green corn rich gravies nuts red meat potatoes stimulants tea and coffee white flour products malnutrition cause and remedy malnutrition is caused mainly by errors in eating, sedentary habits, and lack of fresh air. the remedy, therefore, suggests itself. level or balance the diet according to the patient's requirements, and advise from two to three hours' vigorous exercise every day, and deep breathing in the open air. all the causes as well as the cure of malnutrition were discussed under the subject of emaciation. (see "emaciation," p. .) locomotor ataxia the cause the principal cause of locomotor ataxia is syphilis, the treatment of which has not been sufficiently thorough. so, after lying latent--sometimes for as long a period as twenty years--the disease breaks out again, the germs (which are called _spirochaeta pallida_) assume new virulence, and attack the nervous system--usually the posterior column of the spinal cord. not infrequently, the optic nerve is also affected, developing what is known as gray atrophy of the nerves. this causes a gradual loss of vision, and finally, relative blindness. locomotor ataxia may occasionally be brought on by long-continued exposures to wet and cold, injuries to the spinal column, and by excesses of various kinds. but its chief origin is in syphilis--indeed, most european authorities claim that this is its only origin. locomotor ataxia--the symptoms among the earliest symptoms of ataxia are the so-called lightning or lancinating pains--which come on in paroxyms of varying duration--lasting for hours, or even days at a time. these pains may be burning, tearing, cutting or boring in their nature--and usually affect only the upper half of the body. there is generally, also, a sense of constriction in the throat--as of a choking by the clutch of a hand--and sometimes regurgitation of food, intense pains around the heart or in the epigastrium--with flatulence, eructations, and hiccough. a very common symptom is the so-called "girdle," a sensation as though a rope or band were tightly drawn around the body at the waist. one of the earliest noticeable symptoms is the want of co-ordination--ataxia. this is most pronounced in the lower extremities, and is responsible for the unsteadiness of ataxics in walking or standing. the gait in ataxia is staggering--resembling somewhat the inco-ordination of a man under the influence of alcohol, and there is an exaggerated lifting of the feet and legs with each step. the normal "knee-jerk" reflex--that quick jerk of the foot and lower leg that follows a sharp blow struck below the knee when the leg is held free--is generally abolished. in fact, this failure of the reflexes is usually one of the earliest diagnostic symptoms. later in the disease the sphincters of the bladder and the anus lose their power to contract, and there is incontinence of both urine and feces. the importance of diet as with any other disease in which there are serious trophic changes, and the generation within the system of toxic products from food decay, it is absolutely indispensable in ataxia to observe the utmost care in the selection of the diet. the food should be light, but nutritious--nourishing and strengthening the system, without, at the same time, putting too great a tax upon the organs of digestion and assimilation. particular care should be taken to insure daily movements of the bowels, and to see that the kidneys are flushed with a plentiful supply of water drunk each day. locomotor ataxia--the remedy the generally accepted opinion among medical men is that locomotor ataxia is an incurable disease, and that there is little or nothing that any form of treatment can accomplish that will tend to restore function--or even to arrest the course of the disease, and postpone its fatal termination. with this opinion i beg leave to differ. i am convinced that, by the proper regulation of the diet, limiting the system only to that which it requires for its complete nourishment--giving ample quantities of those foods that are rich in lecithin (or nerve-fat) and phosphorus--such as eggs, milk, whole wheat bread, fish, roe, etc.--much may be done to arrest the progress of the disease. this, in combination with the proper kind of exercise--particularly those forms of which the "fraenkel movement system" is an example,--will do a wonderful amount of good in re-educating such groups of nerves in the spinal column as have not yet suffered degenerative changes. the following diet is a mere suggestion, subject to change in order to meet the conditions of temperature, age, and activity. immediately on rising, the patient should take a few spoonfuls of strained orange juice and drink a cup of hot water. he should also devote a few minutes to deep breathing, and such moderate exercises as he is able to endure. breakfast the whites of four eggs and the yolks of two (if digestion is good, the whites of six eggs may be taken--one yolk to each two whites) a glass of milk a tablespoonful of nuts one very ripe banana with cream three or four dates luncheon three or four eggs whipped eight minutes; to each egg add one teaspoonful of lemon juice, and a heaping teaspoonful of sugar; whip this mixture into a quart of milk; drink slowly dinner smelts, or any small fish a spanish onion, baked in casserole dish corn bread buttermilk or skimmed milk one fresh vegetable, cooked plain in addition to this diet, there should be a regular daily schedule of exercise and deep breathing, which the patient should be required to carry out with rigid precision and regularity. [sidenote: value of exercise and massage] in nearly all cases of locomotor ataxia the body is unable to cast off the generated poisons, or used-up tissue, the result being that the new building material (food) taken in is not appropriated. this condition of atrophy must be overcome by exercise, massage, fomentation (wrapping the patient in a hot, wet blanket), or by anything that will induce excessive superficial circulation. if one afflicted with locomotor ataxia can be induced to arise from his lethargy and exert himself, following the methods herein suggested, a gradual increase in strength is very likely to be experienced inside of two or three months, and sometimes a complete arrest of the process may be expected in time. the writer had a patient, a retired ship captain, who came under his treatment after suffering for twelve years with locomotor ataxia, and after twelve months declared himself cured. the only evidence remaining of his former condition at this writing is shown when he attempts to turn around suddenly, and his control of the lumbar and motor muscles are undergoing such improvement that even this symptom, it seems, will finally disappear. in cases of locomotor ataxia: omit eat drugs of every character carbohydrates--limited quantity intoxicants corn hominy sex indulgence dates, figs, honey stimulants and narcotics {beans {buckwheat foods {cheese rich in {eggs proteids {fresh corn and {fish albuminoids {milk such as {nuts {peas {potatoes {whole wheat rice rye colds, catarrh, hay fever, asthma, influenza [sidenote: overeating a common cause of capillary congestion] these disorders are grouped under a general heading because there are a few fundamental laws that affect them all alike. capillary congestion is a common cause in all these disorders, and anything that will produce this condition will cause, or at least augment catarrh, hay fever, asthma, influenza, and colds. as overeating is the primary cause of congestion throughout the capillary system, it, rather than exposure, is the most common cause of all these disorders. the treatment that will remove or prevent this form of congestion will, therefore, remove a primary cause, when such remedial measures may be employed as each case demands. colds--the cause that condition commonly known as a cold is merely a congestion of effete matter and toxic substances in the body-cells, coming from two causes, and, so far as my experience has been able to guide me, from two causes only, namely: overeating exposure to violent atmospheric changes colds--the symptoms the symptoms from both causes manifest themselves in exactly the same way, therefore it becomes very necessary to ascertain what the sufferer has been eating, both as to quantity and as to kind of foods during the previous forty-eight hours. [sidenote: colds caused by overeating] it often occurs that colds from overeating are cumulative, that is, the patient habitually takes too much fat, sweets, or meat, especially the two latter articles, and these may have been digested, and their nutritive elements may have passed into the circulation, but the body being unable to use them, they finally begin to decompose and are converted into alcohol and other decomposition products. an excess of this effete matter brought to the lungs is called a "cold." if one who is blessed with good digestion and assimilation should habitually take an amount of nutrition in excess of his needs, it will manifest itself first, perhaps, in the growth of adipose tissue, and later in the various disorders called autointoxication, among which are colds, catarrh, etc. [sidenote: colds caused by exposure] if the body be exposed to a violent draft of cold air, and sufficient motion is not exerted to keep the circulation active, or if the feet be exposed to cold and wet, nature, in obedience to the law of self-defense, closes the pores of the skin against the intrusion, hence the poisonous and effete matter that is constantly passing off through these openings cannot escape, but it is picked up by the blood and carried to the lungs to be oxidized or burned in the process of breathing. [sidenote: colds from overeating and exposure, identical] if the amount of poisons thus brought to the lungs be in excess of the amount that can be consumed or burned, a form of congestion will take place (in the lungs) causing first irritation, then suppuration, which must be thrown off in the form of mucus. it matters not whether the congestion is caused by exposure or overeating, the effects are identically the same, and nature's method of ridding the body of these poisons is the same in either case. the only difference between an ordinary cold and pneumonia is one of degree. colds--the remedy since colds are merely a form of congestion, first in the capillary vessels and next in the lungs, the first thing to be done is to cease eating. the misunderstanding of the old adage "stuff a cold and starve a fever" has killed thousands of ignorant but innocent people. its real meaning is, if you stuff a cold, you will have to starve an internal fever. in the treatment of colds, i would suggest the following method of procedure: (a) omit all food except-- {such as-- {apples juice of subacid fruits {grapes {peaches {plums this should be continued until the congestion is relieved, whether it be one day or a week. (for list of subacid fruits, see lesson viii, p. .) (b) drink copiously of pure, cool water select a light diet of-- nuts salads white of eggs fresh watery vegetables limited quantity of carbohydrates if the cold is severe, a turkish bath or any treatment that will produce liberal perspiration, will aid in the elimination of body-poisons and the relief of congestion. [sidenote: remedial value of fresh air and exercise] inasmuch as the blood is conveying an excessive amount of poisons to the lungs for oxidation, much depends upon the amount of pure air that is breathed and the cell capacity of the lungs for oxidation; therefore the sufferer, if unable to be out of doors, should be warmly clad and placed before an open window, or on a veranda in the sunshine, if possible, where every breath will be of fresh air. if, however, the patient is able to go out, every moment possible should be spent walking briskly in the open air. every morning the patient should be given a vigorous "sponge" with a towel dipped in cold water, and rubbed down with a dry one. this should be done in a warm room, with the body well protected from undue exposure. the room should be thoroughly ventilated at night, and in severe cases all garments and sheets used during the day should be thoroughly aired or changed at night. the old methods of drugging and of excluding the air and sunshine, which is in reality poisoning the patient both within and without, is little less than criminal. a cool shower, or a sponge bath, together with a vigorous rub every morning immediately on rising, and a normal quantity of natural food, render the body almost entirely immune from colds, la grippe, and all forms of capillary congestion and effete and toxic (poisonous) substances. (for diet, see volume of menus, p. .) in cases of colds: omit eat confections coarse cereals (very little) desserts fresh vegetables fatty foods fruit (see p. ) flesh foods light vegetable soups heavy starchy foods nuts intoxicants wheat bran whites of eggs catarrh--the cause [sidenote: decomposition of unused food the primary cause of catarrh] the causes of catarrh are attributed by all old school writers to acute coryza and exposure to irritating dust, or cold, moist, and perhaps infectious air. these may be secondary causes and may augment catarrh after it has appeared, but experience has proved that the primary cause of catarrh is the decomposition of unused food material, and that nature throws off the decomposition products resulting therefrom, through the nasal passage, in the form of mucus. in the support of this theory i may refer to many cases of ordinary stomach trouble, constipation, torpidity of the liver, etc., that have had my personal care. in nearly all these cases i found that, when the diet was balanced according to the age and the occupation of the patient, with the climate or time of the year, practically all catarrhal symptoms disappeared, and exposure to atmospheric changes, dust, and the usual things that had formerly brought on catarrhal conditions, did not affect the patient. catarrh--the symptoms the symptoms of catarrh are constant secretion of nasal mucus, which often passes off into the postnasal and nasopharyngeal spaces. this mucus is usually thin and of a light-colored watery character, varying in quantity according to exposure or activity, the quantity of food eaten, and the temperature of the atmosphere. catarrh--the remedy in the treatment of catarrh, avoid the following: all meats heavy starchy foods (especially white flour products) sweets (see lesson viii, p. ) the diet should consist of-- a reasonable quantity of proteid foods in the form of-- beans peas eggs sour milk nuts bananas coarse cereals--twice a day; such as entire wheat and rye fish (small quantity, occasionally) fresh vegetables green watery salads non-acid fruits wheat bran-- (enough to keep the bowels in normal condition) [sidenote: nasal breathing] deep breathing through the nostrils and vigorous exercise should be taken freely, especially just after rising and just before retiring. special attention should be given to breathing through the nose. when the air is pure, there is nothing more healing and remedial in the treatment of catarrh than the abundant passage of air through the nasal cavities. in cases of catarrh: omit eat all meats a reasonable {beans heavy starchy foods (white flour quantity of {eggs and grain products) proteids {nuts stimulants and narcotics such as {peas sweets {sour milk bananas coarse cereals--entire wheat and rye fish, occasionally fresh vegetables green watery salads non-acid fruits take vigorous exercise, together with deep breathing through the nose. hay fever hay fever might be called autumnal catarrh. it is popularly supposed to be irritation of the nasal passages and the bronchial tubes, caused by the flying pollen from various flowers and plants. hay fever--the symptoms the symptoms of hay fever are usually a salty discharge from the eyes and the nostrils, followed by severe irritation of the mucous lining of the nasal cavity, a sense of fullness in the head, and violent sneezing. hay fever--the remedy it has not been the writer's opportunity to examine deeply into the actual causes of hay fever, but it has been his good fortune to cure many cases. the remedy should be confined to-- fresh air and sunshine close observation of the rules of diet total abstinence from all forms of stimulants and narcotics i would suggest the following diet: berries eggs fish (limited quantity) green and fresh vegetables sour milk (buttermilk) (where this kind of milk cannot be obtained, the ordinary sweet milk will suffice) the diet must be governed, as already explained in many other cases, by the individual requirements of the patient in regard to the amount of exercise, the temperature of the atmosphere, and the age of the patient. in spring and summer is the ideal time to remove the causes of hay fever and effect its cure. (see catarrh.) in cases of hay fever: omit eat coffee {bananas confections {berries condiments abundance {fresh liquors and wines of {vegetables tea {green salads tobacco {sweet fruits white flour products limited {eggs quantity {fish {sour milk (buttermilk) the diet should be governed by amount of exercise, temperature, etc. asthma the cause the cause of asthma is congestion in, or constriction of, the bronchial tubes. this congestion is usually caused by overeating and the excessive use of narcotics and stimulants such as tobacco, liquors, and beer. the excessive use of sugar and starches, or what is generally known as carbohydrates, will set up a form of difficult breathing, or at least augment asthmatic tendencies. this condition is more likely to occur among those whose lungs are weakened and who have a tendency toward consumption. asthma--the symptoms there are but few conditions preceding asthma that can properly be called symptoms. the attacks are usually violent and frequently come on late at night. the patient suffers with a sense of asphyxia, which causes the impression of death from suffocation. asthma--the remedy the causes of asthma can be removed by diet, fresh air and exercise. if the patient can take a reasonable amount of exercise, sunshine and fresh air, the cure will be more rapid, but if this cannot be done, the diet can be limited so that there will be but little waste, therefore little congestion, and the necessity for exercise and fresh air will be reduced to the minimum. in cases of asthma, the diet should be confined to-- egg albumin limited quantity of nuts (no more than two ounces per day) an abundance of-- fresh and green vegetables fruits salads if meat be taken at all, it should be confined to fish, young and tender game, or fowl, although these articles are not recommended. if the patient be obese or above normal weight, the diet given for obesity should be rigidly observed. if of normal weight, the body should be fed somewhat below its physical requirements, even if a radical loss in weight should be experienced for the first three or four weeks. if the patient is emaciated, then the diet should consist of six or eight eggs, and about one quart of milk daily, together with sweet fruits and fresh vegetables. milk may be given in larger quantities, up to three quarts daily, if all other food except eggs be omitted. in cases of asthma: omit eat all intoxicants about two ounces of nuts per day (no more) coffee condiments {fruits confections abundance {salads red meat of {fresh green vegetables tobacco egg albumin if any meat, it should be fish or tender fowl influenza the cause [sidenote: bacteria the result, not the cause] this disorder is popularly supposed to be of bacteriological origin, but upon this question the scientific world is much divided. in the opinion of the writer the cause of influenza cannot be traced to bacteria or any other form of germ life. bacteria is nearly always present in decomposing animal matter. it is the opinion of the writer, therefore, that bacteria is the result and not the cause of influenza. it might be described as an acute activity of the entire system in throwing off accumulated waste or toxic substances. this process of excretion will become more difficult at certain times, during violent changes in temperature, and many people in small communities may be similarly afflicted, which no doubt gives rise to the theory that it is a disease of germ origin. influenza--the symptoms the symptoms are headache, languor, sometimes nausea and congestion in the lungs, together with acute irritation of the nasal passages. influenza--the remedy the logical remedy is normal temperature of environment, abundance of fresh air, and omission of all solid food. there are two specific forms of diet to be recommended-- a liquid diet entirely, such as-- juice of berries orange juice milk very thin vegetable soups confine diet entirely to-- nuts fruits fresh green vegetables eliminate fats, starches, sugars either of the above suggestions will be sufficient to control an ordinary case of influenza if it is rigidly adhered to. in the spring and summer, the latter diet would be recommended, while in winter, when green and fresh vegetables, fruits, etc., cannot be procured, the milk diet should be given. in cases of influenza, see menus for colds, hay fever, and catarrh. take choice, giving preference to those prescribed for hay fever. whichever menu is chosen, it should be taken in its entirety; that is, do not select the meals from two or three menus. insomnia the cause the inability to sleep is caused: by intestinal congestion or sluggish intestinal peristalsis by irritation of the mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines by the presence of gas, superacidity, and the consequent irritation and excitation of the nerves leading out from the digestive tract by the use of tobacco by the consumption of stimulants and narcotics, which are so universal and so life-destroying the effects of ( ) and ( ) upon the stomach are much the same as those of overeating, in that they invariably cause supersecretion of acid, and, in the majority of instances, produce false appetite, thus augmenting the baneful habit of overeating. insomnia--the remedy the logical remedy for insomnia is first to eliminate the use of tea, coffee, tobacco, distilled and malted liquors, and drugs of every kind whatsoever, as the ultimate effect upon the stomach of all these things is the same. when this has been done, the amount of food required by the body, governed by the three laws of age, work, and temperature of environment, should be accurately laid out so that the quantity of food may be controlled and overeating avoided. [sidenote: cases necessitating a special remedial diet] the diet should also be balanced according to the chemical needs of the body heretofore mentioned. in a a majority of cases, when the food scientist can prevail upon his patient to confine himself to a normal quantity of food, reasonably well balanced as to nutrient elements, the stomach will perform its natural functions, and fermentation with its long train of ills will gradually disappear. this can, in many instances, be accomplished by merely standing out of nature's way, but in some cases the stomach, liver, intestines, and nervous system have been so long abused and so impaired that they seem to have entered into a conspiracy for mutual protection, hence may not yield to the "normal quantity" or "balanced dietary" remedy. in these cases a remedial diet must be followed, such as will restore the balance by omitting altogether the elements on which the patient had been overfed, and taking an excessive quantity of the elements for the lack of which the patient had been suffering. the following menus should be adopted in the treatment of ordinary cases of insomnia: summer winter breakfast breakfast cantaloup hot water a baked banana wheat bran, cooked wheat bran, cooked whole wheat, thoroughly cooked thin cream luncheon luncheon a baked potato or fresh corn vegetable soup dinner dinner choice of one of the following: choice of one of the following: beans peas cabbage parsnips carrots spinach carrots turnips corn squash eggplant a potato--eat skins and all one two-minute egg wheat bran a baked potato in cases of insomnia: omit eat distilled and malted liquors all fresh vegetables drugs of every kind coarse cereals, boiled whole desserts egg whites flesh foods leafy salads soda-fountain drinks nuts tea and coffee wheat bran, if constipated white bread mastication should be very thorough. eat sparingly at the evening meal. two meals a day preferred, a.m. and p.m. drink plain water. rheumatism--gout these disorders are grouped under the same heading because they are of identical origin. [sidenote: why rheumatism manifests itself largely in the joints] in the average body of five feet eight inches in height, there are about , miles of tubing, classified under the various names of arteries, veins, capillaries, and nerves. altogether this is called the circulatory system. a vast amount of this system is infinitely small. every atom of food taken into the circulation that is not used or converted into energy passes into some of these infinitely small tubes and nerve fibers. these tubes are susceptible of considerable expansion in the fleshy part of the body, but where they pass through the joints or cartilage, there is but little expansion. there these undissolved atoms are most likely to congest, therefore the first expression of rheumatism is usually in the joints. if it takes place at the terminals (fingers or toes), it is called gout; if in the muscles, it is called muscular or inflammatory rheumatism. this congestion accounts for the stiffness and lack of elasticity in the joints. these accumulated atoms become in time almost as hard as bone. rheumatism--the cause the cause of both rheumatism and gout are practically the same--that is, overeating, especially of flesh and starchy foods. _meat_ and _bread_ are the two things that cause nearly all rheumatism, though rheumatic symptoms often appear among vegetarians, caused by the overconsumption of starchy food, especially when acid fruits are used. the ideal diet for producing rheumatism is cereals, white bread, meat, acid fruit and eggs. rheumatism--the symptoms the symptoms of rheumatism often manifest themselves a year or more before an attack comes on. the _earlier_ symptoms are-- languor, stupidity and dulness in the morning impaired circulation and a sense of body-heaviness the _later_ symptoms are pain in the joints or muscles, often followed by inflammation and severe soreness and stiffness. the rheumatic usually has good digestion. in fact, it is the ability of the digestive organs to force more nutrition into the circulation than is needed, that produces this dis-ease. in nearly all cases of rheumatism and gout the patient will be found to have been a large consumer of starchy food, especially of the cereal family, which is the most difficult of all starches to dissolve. gout--the cause [sidenote: an excess of starch causes an excess of acid] the primary cause of gout is faulty metabolism; behind this, however, are other causes. the metabolic process is rendered faulty or incomplete by the overingestion of heavy starchy foods. this excess of starch, which the body is not able to appropriate or use, becomes acted upon by the excess of acid which is always present when too much starch is consumed. this harmful process is often augmented by the eating of fruit-acids such as grapefruit, lemons, oranges, pineapples, and other citrus-fruits. in addition to these causes the uric acid residual in meat and in the yolk of eggs is an important factor in the causation of gouty or rheumatic conditions. gout--the symptoms the earlier symptoms of gout are nervousness, irritability, and sometimes insomnia. in the second stages, shooting pains through the fingers and toes are experienced, and later a swelling or a slight inflammation of these terminals. after this acute condition has existed for perhaps a year, the pain may cease and the joints may begin to swell. knots are also often formed, especially upon the hands, and sometimes upon the feet. rheumatism, gout--the remedy the remedy for these disorders may be said to lie wholly within the realm of diet, exercise and oxidation, supplemented by a liberal superficial application of heat, such as turkish and electric light baths. in all cases of rheumatism and gout, the following should be omitted: all acid fruits, such as, grapefruit lemons limes oranges pineapples eggs red meats starchy foods (carbohydrate class) the diet should be confined to-- fish and white meat of fowl fresh vegetables nuts salads sweet and non-acid fruits (see lesson viii, p. ) [sidenote: how to prevent the active principle of rheumatism] if the diet were confined wholly to green salads, fresh vegetables and white meats, it would remove the causes of these disorders, and inasmuch as nature is always striving to create perfect health, the cause being removed, she would begin at once to apply the remedy, by removing the congested mass of undissolved calcareous matter, atom by atom. thus the active principle of rheumatism would disappear. where the joints have become enlarged, the best that can be done is to render them flexible. it is almost impossible to take out of them all the accumulated deposits, and to reduce them to their natural or normal size. [sidenote: natural perspiration vs. artificial in the treatment of rheumatism] in addition to the above-named restrictive diet, the patient should be given sufficient exercise each day to generate enough heat to cause perspiration. it is well to remember that one drop of perspiration forced out of the body by activity is worth a dozen drawn out of the body by the application of superficial heat, such as the turkish bath. natural perspiration should come from exercise (muscular friction). this is the method designed by nature to throw poisonous substances to the surface in the form of sweat, thereby demolishing the old cell and making a place for the new. the turkish bath and massage is the lazy man's method of cheating nature, and cannot possibly bring as good results as can obedience to the natural law of motion. in cases of rheumatism and gout: omit eat all acid fruits-- buttermilk grapefruit fish and white meat of fowl lemons fresh vegetables limes nuts oranges potatoes pineapples salads (green) coffee sweet fruits (non-acid) eggs liquors, wines, beers red meat starchy foods tobacco eat rather sparingly, especially at the evening meal. bright's dis-ease this disorder is confined entirely to the kidneys. in its final analysis it is nothing more than consumption or destruction of the kidneys by thrusting upon them a greater amount of waste matter than they are capable of throwing off, the result being ( ) irritation; ( ) ulceration; ( ) suppuration or consumption. bright's dis-ease--the cause the causes of bright's dis-ease are overingestion of food, especially sweets, starches and meats; the taking of stimulants and narcotics, and the consequent failure of the body to eliminate the poisons or waste accumulating therefrom. bright's dis-ease--the symptoms the symptoms of bright's dis-ease are scant amount of urine, heavily laden with solids and fatty granules, while leucocytes and even red blood-corpuscles are often shown, especially in advanced cases. dull pains in the small of the back, and a general weakening in the lumbar regions are common symptoms. bright's dis-ease--the remedy [sidenote: prevention of bright's dis-ease by correct feeding] it has been popularly supposed, and announced from many alleged sources of authority, that there is no remedy for this dis-ease, and from the standpoint of materia medica this probably is correct, but from the standpoint of the natural scientist there is a remedy. however, bright's dis-ease, like all others herein discussed, can better be prevented than cured, and under a correct dietetic regimen, with plenty of exercise and fresh air, the kidneys, like every other organ of the body, will perform their normal functions. when bright's dis-ease has made its appearance, the first thing to be ascertained is the character of the diet and the general habits of eating and drinking during the previous two or three years; secondly, the occupation or habits of exercise, especially exposure to fresh air and sunshine. bright's dis-ease--the treatment a very restricted diet should be observed, consisting largely of the following: fresh vegetables green salads subacid fruits the fine cereals--(such as barley and rice) milk and eggs--(limited quantity) all _sweets_ taken should be in the form of sweet fruits. (see lesson viii, p. ). milk is very beneficial in this condition--especially when taken in the form of buttermilk, clabbered milk, koumyss or zoolak. the lactic acid ferments in the sour milk help to destroy the germs of putrefaction in the intestines, which are always one of the aggravating causes of bright's disease. sometimes an exclusive acid milk diet for a while works wonders. [sidenote: suggestions for diet in different seasons] if the patient is under treatment in the spring and summer, as many green plants and fresh sweet fruits as possible should be taken, in connection with the milk, eliminating cereal starch entirely. in the fall and winter, the many varieties of apples and autumn vegetables may be taken in liberal quantities. general suggestions for bright's dis-ease in the majority of cases it is well to first put the patient on a short fast of about twenty-four hours, and then begin the diet with articles containing a liberal quantity of cellulose, such as the entire wheat, boiled; celery, cooked in casserole dish. keep the bowels open by the use of wheat bran, or grapes, if they are in season, swallowing skins, seeds and pulp. as in all sympathetic disorders, an abundance of pure, cool water should be taken and as much time as possible should be spent in the open air and sunshine. care should be taken to limit the diet to the minimum so that the excretory organs can easily eliminate all waste matter, and so that there may be no further poisonous accumulations. in cases of bright's dis-ease: omit eat drugs abundance of nuts (italian pine nut) flesh of every kind fine cereals--barley, rice intoxicants fresh vegetables rich desserts green salads sweets limited quantity of milk and eggs sweets in form of fruit-sugar, such as dates, figs, raisins (limited quantity) subacid fruits wheat bran with evening meal the diet should be somewhat restricted. drink an abundance of pure water. diabetes this disorder may be described as one of malassimilation from the stomach, liver, kidneys, and intestines, but to the trained student it is better described as a condition in which the capacity of the body to burn or use grape-sugar has become chronically depressed. it is usually supplemented by a lack of physical exercise and elimination of body-poisons. diabetes--the cause from the above explanation it will be seen that diabetes, like all other dis-eases of the digestive organs, is caused directly by errors in eating--overconsumption of carbohydrates (sweets and starches), and albuminoids. these errors are augmented by inactivity, causing lack of assimilation or utilization of nutritive elements. diabetes--the symptoms the symptoms of diabetes are intense thirst and appetite, copious passing of urine and the presence of excessive quantities of sugar and uric acid therein. diabetes--the remedy the selecting, proportioning and balancing of the daily menu, together with an observance of the natural laws hitherto laid out, will prevent diabetes, but after it has made its appearance the remedy lies in simple and limited feeding. the sufferer should be put upon a rigid diet of fresh vegetables, nuts, fruits, and salads. if the body has not been trained to accept these foods, the diet might consist of the following: bloodless (white) meats eggs fats--reasonable quantity (olive-oil, butter, cream) fish fresh vegetables green salads--generous quantity nuts if the patient be _overweight_, the diet should consist largely of subacid fruits and nuts. if _underweight_, a liberal quantity of sour milk should be given, especially whole soured milk in which the cream is also present. [sidenote: diet in extreme cases of diabetes] in extreme cases the patient should be required to subsist upon pignolia (the pine) nuts, and green or fresh vegetables uncooked. the writer knows of a gentleman suffering from a very advanced case of diabetes, who, in utter despair, adopted a diet consisting entirely of pine nuts, merely because they appealed to his taste, while nothing else did. a noticeable change for the better was seen in a week, especially in regard to the amount of sugar passed in the urine. he adhered rigidly to this diet for nearly three months. he then added green salads and carrots, and the seventh and eighth months a few fresh cooked vegetables, and was pronounced thoroughly cured before the year had expired. this might have been due partly to the limited bill of fare, but undoubtedly it was largely due to the food elements contained in this wonderful product of the italian pine. in cases of diabetes: omit eat condiments all fresh vegetables, cooked-- confections preferably in casserole dish irritants nuts pastries baked potatoes red meats coarse whole cereals thoroughly stimulants and narcotics cooked--small quantity sweets fish white flour products milk (sour) very ripe subacid fruit white meat of fowl drink an abundance of pure water. in treating diabetes, foods containing starch and sugar should not be wholly eliminated from the diet, but should be administered in limited proportions, or such quantities as the body could use. starches and sugars contained in cereals and legumes, however, should in extreme cases be omitted because they are difficult to digest and to assimilate. if the digestion is impaired, the body is likely to cast out these valuable nutrients through the kidneys, rather than labor to digest and to assimilate them. the starches and sugars found in fresh vegetables (see table, vol. iii, p. ), are easily digested and assimilated, therefore in cases of diabetes the body will use or appropriate them, as this entails less energy than that required to cast them out. consumption for many centuries chemists, scientists, and medical men generally have been vainly battling with this dis-ease. it is only within the past decade that it has been understood or successfully treated. consumption is an infection of the lungs by the bacteria called bacillus tuberculosis. the local inflammation produces lesions, and the formation of small growths (nodules) of gray, white, or yellowish tubercles. [sidenote: authorities differ concerning the bacillus] it is yet an open question and a matter of grave doubt in the minds of various authorities on this subject as to whether the bacilli is the real _cause_, or the _result_ of the dis-ease. the fact that a person or an animal afflicted with tuberculosis was in "susceptible condition" is much emphasized by all authorities. [sidenote: predisposing conditions and occupations] such disorders as catarrh, influenza, chronic colds, etc., are all predisposing conditions. such trades as metal grinding, spinning, weaving, cleaning grain, street sweeping, or any vocation necessitating the breathing of large quantities of dust, are termed predisposing occupations, which show very clearly that all writers are practically agreed that the real cause is undoubtedly due to imperfect oxidation or impaired use of the lungs. the above conditions may be brought on from two specific causes-- by the habitual overingestion of food, and the consequent congestion of effete matter in the lungs, brought thither by the circulation in its effort to dispose of the waste-products by burning them with oxygen. through the agency of foreign substances breathed in, which gradually congest, and prevent thorough oxidation and normal activity of the excretory function of the lungs. [sidenote: bacilli the result, not the cause of consumption] the opinion of the writer is that the bacillus above referred to is the result and not the cause of this dis-ease, and that such living organisms (bacilli) are created in the economy of nature to dispose of this congested matter, just as she, in her provident economy, disposes of the carcass of a dead animal. [sidenote: facts shown by experiments and by modern treatment of consumption] the fact that a tuberculosis culture, deposited in the lungs of another animal, reproduces the dis-ease, proves nothing, as it may have been planted in susceptible soil, well prepared for the growth and the development of the bacteria. the fact that some very healthy animals did not contract the dis-ease by this method, supports the theory that if conditions are not favorable the culture is killed by the process of oxidation. this sustains the theory that the bacillus tuberculosis is the result, and not the cause of this dread dis-ease. this theory is further supported by the results of the most modern and only successful methods of treating it. consumption--the treatment when beginning treatment, the tubercular patient should be restricted as to diet for the purpose of giving nature an opportunity to make use of every atom of food taken into the body, leaving nothing to go to waste. the diet should consist almost wholly of vegetable fats, sour milk, nuts, fruits, salads, and eggs, with a limited amount of readily digestible carbohydrates. the following menu is given as a fair example of selection as to quantity and combinations: breakfast cantaloup, orange, grapes, pears, or persimmons two or three eggs, whipped five minutes, adding a teaspoonful of lemon juice, and one of sugar to each egg luncheon a green salad eaten with nuts, a dash of lemon juice and olive-oil one or two fresh vegetables, including a baked potato one egg prepared as for breakfast a glass of sour milk dinner a green salad, with nuts and oil eggs or buttermilk one or two fresh vegetables a baked potato the above menus may be increased in quantity after the first week or ten days, at least sufficient to meet all physical requirements, and the articles may be changed according to seasons. [sidenote: dietetic suggestions for spring and summer in consumptive cases] in spring and summer all kinds of fruits and berries may be used, and such vegetables as squash, asparagus, spinach, beets, green peas and beans, turnips, parsnips, carrots, and green corn. all of these vegetables should be cooked in a casserole dish. the bowels should be kept free. (see treatment for "constipation," p. .) drink copiously of pure water. [sidenote: suggestions for the treatment of mild cases of consumption] if the patient is not far advanced, he should seek employment which affords constant exercise in the open air, preferably in the hills or mountains, and the labor should be of such a character as to cause normal activity of the liver and the bowels, and to enforce deep respiration. a spirometer or lung-measuring machine should be secured, and the patient should practise upon this night and morning, endeavoring each day to register from one to five cubic inches more than the previous day, until every air cell of the lungs is opened and the full capacity is reached, which should be about cubic inches for the average man, and for the woman of normal size. [sidenote: general rules of hygiene in consumptive cases] contrary to usual customs and theories, the patient should take a cool sponge bath every morning, in a warm room, except in very cold weather. it should be followed by a vigorous rub down and deep breathing. wear thin cotton under-clothes. dress as lightly as possible, except when exposed where exercise or motion cannot be taken, such as riding in an open car or vehicle. nature's method of producing hardihood and increasing endurance is by means of exposure. the house-plant life is conducive and favorable to tuberculosis. [sidenote: importance of perfect oxidation] the most important thing in the treatment of this dis-ease is perfect oxidation (breathing). every cell of the lungs should be filled at every breath. the lungs should be filled to their extreme capacity, one hundred or more times a day, with pure, fresh, dustless air. the patient should never breathe the same breath twice; especially should he not breathe the air that has been used by other people, or by pet animals in a closed room. in order to carry out this regimen, it is necessary to live out of doors day and night, winter and summer. the tubercular patient should sleep in a tent, or upon an open piazza every night, regardless of the weather or the temperature of the atmosphere. if these rules were observed the white plague would lose some of its terrors. in cases of consumption: omit eat coffee cheese meat eggs stimulants { preferably-- sweets { carrots tea { dried beans, tobacco fresh { onions vegetables { peas { parsnips { potatoes { pumpkin { squash figs milk raisins heart trouble [sidenote: the heart, a sentinel of the body] the heart may well be called the thermometer of the body. under normal conditions it is never heard from, but under abnormal conditions it is the first and the most reliable sentinel of the body. it stands eternally on duty and sends its danger signals to the brain with truthful accuracy, whether the trouble be of physical, mental, or emotional origin. a word or a sound sent through the air enters the ear and is analyzed by the brain, but the heart registers accurately its effect upon the physical body. we see a face or an occurrence a block away, and through the optic nerves it is comprehended by the brain, but the heart alone registers or gives back to the brain the effect upon the body. [sidenote: necessity for heeding the symptoms of the heart] this little engine, but little bigger than one's fist, pumps about twenty tons of blood every day above its own level in every body of average size, besides sending the life fluids of the blood-serum with lightning speed to the parts of the remotest anatomy, carting away the effete and poisonous matter to the lungs to be burned with oxygen, and carrying new building material from cell to cell for repairs. should we not, therefore, take good care of, and heed the warnings of so wonderful a piece of automatic mechanism? should we not study all its symptoms told in a language sympathetic and truthful, and as unerring as the laws that govern the movement of worlds in space? [sidenote: some undefined technical terms] the heart gives off various symptoms indicating the different kinds of sins we commit against the natural laws of our organisms. medical men have named some of these symptoms as follows: dilation, hypertrophy, atrophy, aneurism, inflammation, valvular derangement, etc., but in none of their reference works are the causes of these so-called dis-eases clearly defined. fatty degeneration is the only one that is explained, the term meaning that the heart has been deprived of room in which to do its work, owing to surrounding fatty accumulations. heart trouble--the cause the blood enters the heart through the superior venae cavae flowing to the right lobe or auricle, then it is pumped by the heart beats to the right ventricle. from here it is forced through the pulmonary artery to the lungs where it is purified and charged with the oxygen we breathe. from the lungs the blood returns through the pulmonary veins to the left auricle of the heart, and then to the left ventricle. having passed once through the purifying plant and twice through the distributing station, it is now sent out through the large systematic artery and distributed to every capillary cell of the body. [sidenote: heart trouble caused by (carbon dioxid) gas] from the accumulation of gas caused by fermenting food the transverse colon becomes very much distended. this interferes with the free flow of blood into and out of the heart, causing at times a very faint heart action from a lack of inflow, and again a very heavy, rapid action when the blood spurts through. this produces dizziness and vertigo, and sometimes where the inflow is greater than the heart can discharge, there is arterial overflow; the heart ceases action, and the victim falls prostrate, and sometimes dies. (see "fermentation--the symptoms," p. .) [sidenote: heart trouble caused by calcareous substances] many cases of serious heart trouble are caused by habitual overeating, especially of grain and grain products. the calcareous substances from these products are deposited in the capillary vessels and in the joints, causing rheumatism, rheumatoid arthritis, sciatica, lumbago, gout, and other evidences of our lack of knowledge. when the one thus afflicted follows a sedentary occupation, taking but little fresh air and exercise, a hardening or stiffening of the arteries is usually the result. it is safe to say that if one would eat moderately, omit stimulants and narcotics, take but a limited quantity of starchy foods, a liberal amount of fresh air, deep breathing and exercise, heart trouble would be unknown. heart trouble--the remedy [sidenote: diet for heart trouble] for the treatment of those who are afflicted with heart trouble i would suggest a very limited diet of nuts, fruits, salads, fresh tuber and green vegetables, eggs, and a limited quantity of coarse foods, such as boiled whole wheat, wheat bran, grapes (seeds and all), and all coarse vegetables, with an abundance of mild exercise and fresh air. [sidenote: exercise for heart trouble] in cases of heart trouble no greater mistake can be made than to cease exercise, as is often prescribed by well-meaning doctors. this is compromising with the enemy, with absolute certainty of ultimate defeat. exercise, above all, is the very thing that is most needed. the patient should begin moderately at first, daily increasing the time and the tensity of the work until a balance is established between the intake and the outflow of blood to the heart. for foods to be eaten and omitted in cases of heart trouble, see p. . also see menus for fermentation. dis-eases of the skin there are two distinct kinds of skin dis-eases, namely-- local constitutional the _local_ is that which manifests itself in the form of pimples or eruptions which come and go, and are of only a few days' duration. the second, or _constitutional_ kind, is that which manifests itself by a permanent irritation or inflammation, which is classified as eczema, psoriasis, etc. dis-eases of the skin--the cause [sidenote: local disorders] the local or temporary disorders are caused and controlled entirely by diet, usually overeating. sometimes overingestion of some one particular food; for instance, too much acid taken in the form of berries, or citrus-fruits, will often produce an eruption or a rash within a few hours after eating. [sidenote: eruptions augmented by autointoxication] that form of pimples or eruptions caused by overeating is usually augmented by constipation or by some form of intestinal congestion, which has been given the impressive title of autointoxication. autointoxication is a broad word that seems to have been invented, not for the purpose of explaining, but for the purpose of evading the necessity of explaining. the meaning of this word (self-poisoning) has been narrowed down by the profession to describe the above conditions, but in reality it should be applied to all forms of self-poisoning by overeating; eating the wrong combinations of food; the use of all stimulants and narcotics, such as tobacco, tea, coffee, liquor and wines of all kinds. in fact, self-poisoning from the last-named sources is as common as from errors in eating, and much more difficult to control. nearly all dis-eases are traceable directly to unexcreted poisons which the body has been unable to throw off. these poisons are from two sources: the natural poisons or gases that accumulate in the body under normal conditions, which, if prevented in any manner from passing off, will cause some kind of disorder which would come under the head of autointoxication. the poisons that accumulate under abnormal conditions, such as hitherto described, and which are very often made manifest by eruptions of the skin. [sidenote: constitutional disorders] that form of skin dis-ease known as eczema has baffled the medical world for many centuries. it has hitherto been treated locally by the most skilled and learned specialists, in the belief that it was of bacteriological origin, but modern experiments in the field of food chemistry have demonstrated the fact that it can be cured by scientific feeding, therefore it is only fair to assume that its origin or primary cause is due to some form of self-poisoning, caused by errors in eating and faulty metabolism. dis-eases of the skin--the treatment if a rash should appear on the skin after eating acid fruit or berries, one would naturally know the remedy; namely, omit acids, limit the quantity of food at the next meal, drink copiously of pure water and breathe an abundance of fresh air. the same general remedy should be observed in all cases. [sidenote: preliminary treatment for dis-eases of the skin] the pimples or eruptions will gradually disappear when the causes are removed, and the same rule will apply to eczema or any chronic form of skin irritation. the patient should first be put upon a short fast of two or three days' duration, and caused to perspire freely each day for an hour or so. this can be accomplished by the aid of the turkish bath, but preferably by exercise. on the first day the fast should be broken by taking either the juice of such fruits as plums, peaches, apples, grapes, and pears, or the juice of cantaloup and watermelon. diet for dis-eases of the skin the diet should be gradually broadened by the addition of green salads, uncooked carrots, onions and turnips, and a limited quantity of such cooked vegetables as spinach, asparagus, squash, fresh corn, green peas or beans when in season. later, the diet should be confined mainly to egg whites, skimmed milk, nuts, sweet fruits, salads, fresh green vegetables, including a very limited quantity of sugar and coarse cereals, two or three times a week. diet for chronic eczema in extreme and chronic cases of eczema the diet should be confined entirely to green salads, sweet fruits, fresh vegetables, and about two ounces of olive-oil daily, feeding the body always somewhat below its normal requirements as indicated by hunger. under this diet and regimen the patient will, of course, lose weight and possibly strength, but the body will so completely make use of all nutrition and the elimination of all waste will be made so completely, through the excretory channels, that the dis-ease will gradually disappear, owing to the removal of its primary causes. for "sweet fruits," see lesson viii, p. . appendicitis there are three large colons in the intestinal tract which form an inverted u, the "ascending," "transverse," and "descending" colons. the descending colon is situated on the left side, its lower part opening into the rectal cavity. the ascending colon, located on the right side, connects with the small intestines, while the transverse colon goes across at a point opposite the navel, connecting the two. [sidenote: the vermiform appendix a useful organ] to the lower part of the ascending colon is attached the vermiform appendix. authorities are much divided as to the function of this organ. many claim that it is a relic of anthropoid man, while others contend that it is a useful and important part of the anatomy. in the opinion of the writer it secretes a valuable digestive fluid and therefore performs a function valuable both to digestion and to alimentation. in the ascending colon is the only place in the thirty-six feet of intestinal tubing where the fecal matter must rise against the law of gravity, therefore, if there is any congestion throughout this canal, it is most likely to occur in this colon. while the bowels may seem to act normally, yet, owing to the tremendous amount of waste matter necessary to be conveyed from the body, and the peristaltic action involved in moving it along, especially at this point, some of the fecal matter often lodges under the small folds and in the flexuous surfaces of this colon, decomposing and causing an acute form of inflammation. the vermiform appendix, being attached to this inflamed colon, becomes inflamed also. in other words, this inoffensive and useful little organ suffers the penalty of being in bad company. [sidenote: old diagnosis correct] thus it is seen that appendicitis, so-called, is merely a form of fevered or irritated colon; hence the old-fashioned diagnosis--"bowel inflammation"--before appendicitis became popular, and profitable, was in reality correct. knowing the cause--the physiology of appendicitis--the remedy becomes a simple one. appendicitis--the symptoms the symptoms of appendicitis (bowel inflammation) are usually pain, at times sharp, but generally dull, in the lower abdomen on the right side. appendicitis--the treatment (in mild cases) if the pain is dull and intermittent, the patient should cease work, especially that vocation which necessitates being on foot, and spend at least twenty-four hours, most of the time in a sitting or reclining position. all such substances as meat, cereal and cereal products, sweets, milk, tea, coffee, cocoa, and all stimulating beverages should be omitted. [sidenote: a natural remedy] the patient should take high enemas (knee or chest position) of lukewarm water, thus removing as much of the congested fecal matter as possible. take from two to three tablespoonfuls of olive-oil, and two or three cups of hot water several times a day. the application of an ice-bag will sometimes afford much relief, and has a tendency to reduce the inflammatory process. too much emphasis cannot be laid upon the fact that in any inflammatory condition of the stomach or intestines, rest for these organs is imperatively demanded. appendicitis--the diet after the first day or two, the following diet should be adopted and continued for a few days until the pain has ceased and the bowels are restored to normal action: breakfast a cup of hot water one or two exceedingly ripe bananas peeled and baked in a hot oven one egg, whipped five minutes; sugar to taste; flavor with lemon or fruit-juice a glass of water luncheon a salad of anything green liberal portion of boiled onions dinner spinach, or a green salad, same as at luncheon green beans, or peas, if in season, rejecting all the fiber; or, carrots or parsnips two whipped eggs baked banana, with butter or oil these menus are intended as a general guide. they may be modified by selecting such articles, in the same general class, as are in season. the following list of foods may be drawn upon to compose the menus, at the various seasons of the year: ----------------+----------------+----------------+---------------- | | | spring | summer | fall | winter | | | ----------------+----------------+----------------+---------------- | | | asparagus | carrots | artichokes | carrots beets | cauliflower | beets | parsnips cabbage | eggplant | brussels | potatoes dandelion | lettuce | sprouts | pumpkin lettuce | okra | carrots | squash onions | onions | cauliflower | peas | romaine | eggplant | potatoes | spinach | okra | spinach | squash | potatoes | | tomatoes | squash | | | sweet potatoes | | | tomatoes | | | | ----------------+----------------+----------------+---------------- chronic or severe cases of appendicitis the errors in diet that cause fermentation and superacidity in the stomach will also cause fermentation and inflammation in the intestines. a constipated condition in the intestines so hinders the natural flow of food-matter that in extreme cases of inflammation and suppuration the congested matter might be forced into the vermiform appendix, thus causing what is termed "appendicitis," and under these conditions the removal of the appendix might be advisable, but in the opinion of the writer more lives have been sacrificed on the operating table than the old-fashioned doctors ever lost from "bowel inflammation" before this dis-ease was named "appendicitis," and before the knife was applied as a remedy. [sidenote: treatment in severe cases] there should be injected into the rectum a tablespoonful of olive-oil, followed immediately by an enema of hot water at a temperature of about degrees. this should be retained as long as possible. in order to aid in this process, the head might be lowered, and the feet slightly elevated so as to relieve the strain upon the rectal muscles. in very severe cases an ice pack may be placed over the lower abdomen for five minutes. the ice pack should be kept in place until the temperature is lowered and the pain relieved. the diet in severe cases of appendicitis from three to four quarts of cool water should be taken the first day and all food omitted. the second day fruit-juices and olive-oil should be administered. this treatment should be continued for several days, or until the pain is relieved, when the diet for milder cases may be adopted in a reduced or limited form. dangers of intestinal congestion [sidenote: causes of appendicitis] all conditions of bowel inflammation are caused primarily by congestion of fecal matter in the intestinal tract. that which will relieve congestion, therefore, will, by removing the causes, relieve inflammation. intestinal congestion has become one of the most common disorders among civilized people, because of the fact that a large percentage of the coarse material known as cellulose fiber has been removed from their food by super-civilized methods of preparation. for instance, in modern milling methods, every trace of cellulose is removed from the grain, leaving nothing but a white mass of unbalanced food material, largely carbohydrates, and the peelings are removed from all kinds of fruits and vegetables. thus the diet of civilized man has become woefully impoverished in cellulose and mineral salts, with the result that there is nothing left in the diet to stimulate the liver and the peristaltic activity of the intestinal tract. [sidenote: evils of the civilized diet] this condition is largely augmented by flesh food, all sedative drugs, and intoxicating drinks which have become so conspicuous in the diet of modern civilization. [sidenote: why coarse food is necessary] the intestinal (digestive and eliminative) organs of man, through the millions of years of his development, have been built up on the primitive plan. they have been shaped by the process of ages to accommodate coarse food, therefore a generous amount of non-nutritive cellulose is absolutely necessary to both the digestion of food and the elimination of waste. the liberal use of cereal bran puts back into the diet that which modern milling methods have taken out of it. [sidenote: remedial value of coarse food] the use of wheat bran and the seeds of grapes in the treatment of appendicitis has both a scientific and a common-sense basis. the bran and the seeds pass into the various folds, wrinkles and turns of the intestines, and sweep out the congested fecal matter which is undergoing decomposition and causing inflammation. after the bowels have been thoroughly cleansed, the patient should adopt a fresh vegetable diet selected from the list heretofore given, drinking an abundance of water both at meals and between meals. under these conditions most symptoms of appendicitis will disappear, and if the diet is made to consist of a sufficient quantity of coarse food, all causes of bowel inflammation will be removed. vegetable diet: as sanctioned by medical men, and by experience in all ages. including a system of vegetable cookery. by dr. wm. a. alcott, author of the young man's guide, young woman's guide, young mother, young housekeeper, and late editor of the library of health. second edition, revised and enlarged. new york: fowler and wells, publishers, no. broadway . entered, according to act of congress, in the year , by fowlers & wells, in the clerk's office of the district court for the southern district of new york. banes & palmer, stereotypers, william st. corner frankfort, n. y. preface the following volume embraces the testimony, direct or indirect, of more than a hundred individuals--besides that of societies and communities--on the subject of vegetable diet. most of this one hundred persons are, or were, persons of considerable distinction in society; and more than fifty of them were either medical men, or such as have made physiology, hygiene, anatomy, pathology, medicine, or surgery a leading or favorite study. as i have written other works besides this--especially the "young house-keeper"--which treat, more or less, of diet, it may possibly be objected, that i sometimes repeat the same idea. but how is it to be avoided? in writing for various classes of the community, and presenting my views in various connections and aspects, it is almost necessary to do so. writers on theology, or education, or any other important topic, do the same--probably to a far greater extent, in many instances, than i have yet done. i repeat no idea for the _sake_ of repeating it. not a word is inserted but what seems to me necessary, in order that i may be intelligible. moreover, like the preacher of truth on many other subjects, it is not so much my object to produce something new in every paragraph, as to explain, illustrate, and enforce what is already known. it may also be thought that i make too many books. but, as i do not claim to be so much an originator of _new_ things as an instrument for diffusing the _old_, it will not be expected that i should be twenty years on a volume, like bishop butler. i had, however, been collecting my stock of materials for this and other works--published or unpublished--more than twenty-five years. besides, it might be safely and truly said that the study and reading and writing, in the preparation of this volume, the "house i live in," and the "young house-keeper," have consumed at least three of the best years of my life, at fourteen or fifteen hours a day. several of my other works, as the "young mother," the "mother's medical guide," and the "young wife," have also been the fruit of years of toil and investigation and observation, of which those who think only of the labor of merely _writing them out_, know nothing. even the "mother in her family"--at least some parts of it--though in general a lighter work, has been the result of much care and labor. the circumstance of publishing several books at the same, or nearly the same time, has little or nothing to do with their preparation. when i commenced putting together the materials of this little treatise on diet--thirteen years ago--it was my intention simply to show the safety of a vegetable and fruit diet, both for those who are afflicted with many forms of chronic disease, and for the healthy. but i soon became convinced that i ought to go farther, and show its superiority over every other. this i have attempted to do--with what success, the reader must and will judge for himself. i have said, it was not my original intention to prove a vegetable and fruit diet to be any thing more than _safe_. but i wish not to be understood as entertaining, even at that time, any doubts in regard to the superiority of such a diet: the only questions with me were, whether the public mind was ready to hear and weigh the proofs, and whether this volume was the place in which to present them. both these questions, however, as i went on, were settled, in the affirmative. i believed--and still believe--that the public mind, in this country, is prepared for the free discussion of all topics--provided they are discussed candidly--which have a manifest bearing on the well-being of man; and i have governed myself accordingly. an apology may be necessary for retaining, unexplained, a few medical terms. but i did not feel at liberty to change them, in the correspondence of dr. north, for more popular language; and, having retained them thus far, it did not seem desirable to explain them elsewhere. nor was i willing to deface the pages of the work with explanatory notes. the fact is, the technical terms alluded to, are, after all, very few in number, and may be generally understood by the connection in which they appear. the author. west newton mass. advertisement to the second edition. the great question in regard to diet, viz., whether any food of the animal kind is absolutely necessary to the most full and perfect development of man's whole nature, being fairly up, both in europe and america, and there being no practical, matter-of-fact volume on the subject, of moderate size, in the market, numerous friends have been for some time urging me to get up a new and revised edition of a work which, though imperfect, has been useful to many, while it has been for some time out of print. such an edition i have at length found time to prepare--to which i have added, in various ways, especially in the form of new facts, nearly fifty pages of new and original matter. west newton, mass., . contents page chapter i. origin of this work. experience of the author, and his studies.--pamphlet in .--prize-question of the boylston medical committee.--collection of materials for an essay.--dr. north.--his letter and questions.--results, - chapter ii. letters to dr. north. letter of dr. parmly.--dr. w. a. alcott.--dr. d. s. wright.--dr. h. n. preston.--dr. h. a. barrows.--dr. caleb bannister.--dr. lyman tenny.--dr. j. m. b. harden.--joseph ricketson, esq.--joseph congdon, esq.--george w. baker, esq.--john howland, jr., esq.--dr. wm. h. webster.--josiah bennet, esq.--wm. vincent, esq.--dr. george h. perry.--dr. l. w. sherman, - chapter iii. remarks on the foregoing letters. correspondence.--the "prescribed course of regimen."--how many victims to it?--not one.--case of dr. harden considered.--case of dr. preston.--views of drs. clark, cheyne, and lambe, on the treatment of scrofula.--no reports of injury from the prescribed system.--case of dr. bannister.--singular testimony of dr. wright.--vegetable food for laborers.--testimony, on the whole, much more favorable to the vegetable system than could reasonably have been expected, in the circumstances - chapter iv. additional intelligence. letter from dr. h. a. barrows.--dr. j. m. b. harden.--dr. j. porter.--dr. n. j. knight.--dr. lester keep.--second letter from dr. keep.--dr. henry h. brown.--dr. franklin knox.--from a physician.--additional statements by the author. - chapter v. testimony of other medical men, both of ancient and modern times. general remarks.--testimony of dr. cheyne.--dr. geoffroy.--vauquelin and percy.--dr. pemberton.--sir john sinclair.--dr. james.--dr. cranstoun.--dr. taylor.--drs. hufeland and abernethy.--sir gilbert blane.--dr. gregory.--dr. cullen.--dr. rush.--dr. lambe.--prof. lawrence.--dr. salgues.--author of "sure methods."--baron cuvier.--dr. luther v. bell.--dr. buchan.--dr. whitlaw.--dr. clark.--prof. mussey.--drs. bell and condie.--dr. j. v. c. smith.--mr. graham.--dr. j. m. andrews, jr.--dr. sweetser.--dr. pierson.--physician in new york.--females' encyclopedia.--dr. van cooth.--dr. beaumont.--sir everard home.--dr. jennings.--dr. jarvis.--dr. ticknor.--dr. coles.--dr. shew.--dr. morrill.--dr. bell.--dr. jackson.--dr. stephenson.--dr. j. burdell.--dr. smethurst.--dr. schlemmer.--dr. curtis.--dr. porter, - chapter vi. testimony of philosophers and other eminent men. general remarks.--testimony of plautus.--plutarch.--porphyry.--lord bacon.--sir william temple.--cicero.--cyrus the great.--gassendi.--prof. hitchcock.--lord kaims.--dr. thomas dick.--prof. bush.--thomas shillitoe.--alexander pope.--sir richard phillips.--sir isaac newton.--the abbé gallani.--homer.--dr. franklin.--mr. newton.--o. s. fowler.--rev. mr. johnston.--john h. chandler.--rev. j. caswell.--mr. chinn.--father sewall.--magliabecchi.--oberlin and swartz.--james haughton.--john bailies.--francis hupazoli.--prof. ferguson.--howard, the philanthropist.--gen. elliot.--encyclopedia americana.--thomas bell, of london.--linnæus, the naturalist.--shelley, the poet.--rev. mr. rich.--rev. john wesley.--lamartine, - chapter vii. societies and communities on the vegetable system. the pythagoreans.--the essenes.--the bramins.--society of bible christians.--orphan asylum of albany.--the mexican indians.--school in germany.--american physiological society, - chapter viii. vegetable diet defended. general remarks on the nature of the argument.-- . the anatomical argument.-- . the physiological argument.-- . the medical argument.-- . the political argument.-- . the economical argument.-- . the argument from experience.-- . the moral argument.--conclusion, - * * * * * vegetable cookery. class i. farinaceous or mealy substances. bread of the first order.--bread of the second order.--bread of the third kind.--boiled grains.--grains in other forms--baked, parched, roasted, or torrefied.--hominy.--puddings proper, - class ii. fruits. the large fruits--apple, pear, peach, quince, etc.--the smaller fruits--strawberry, cherry, raspberry, currant, whortleberry, mulberry, blackberry, bilberry, etc., - class iii. roots. the common potato.--the sweet potato, - class iv. miscellaneous articles of food. buds and young shoots.--leaves and leaf stalks.--cucurbitaceous fruits.--oily seeds, etc., - vegetable diet. chapter i. origin of this work. experience of the author, and his studies.--pamphlet in .--prize question of the boylston medical committee.--collection of materials for an essay.--dr. north.--his letter and questions.--results. twenty-three years ago, the present season, i was in the first stage of tuberculous consumption, and evidently advancing rapidly to the second. the most judicious physicians were consulted, and their advice at length followed. i commenced the practice of medicine, traveling chiefly on horseback; and, though unable to do but little at first, i soon gained strength enough to perform a moderate business, and to combine with it a little gardening and farming. at the time, or nearly at the time, of commencing the practice of medicine, i laid aside my feather bed, and slept on straw; and in december, of the same year, i abandoned spirits, and most kinds of stimulating food. it was not, however, until nineteen years ago, the present season, that i abandoned all drinks but water, and all flesh, fish, and other highly stimulating and concentrated aliments, and confined myself to a diet of milk, fruits, and vegetables. in the meantime, the duties of my profession, and the nature of my studies led me to prosecute, more diligently than ever, a subject which i had been studying, more or less, from my very childhood--the laws of human health. among other things, i collected facts on this subject from books which came in my way; so that when i went to boston, in january, , i had already obtained, from various writers, on materia medica, physiology, disease, and dietetics, quite a large parcel. the results of my reflections on these, and of my own observation and experience, were, in part--but in part only--developed in july, of the same year, in an anonymous pamphlet, entitled, "rational view of the spasmodic cholera;" published by messrs. clapp & hull, of boston. in the summer of , the boylston medical committee of harvard university offered a prize of fifty dollars, or a gold medal of that value, to the author of the best dissertation on the following question: "what diet can be selected which will ensure the greatest health and strength to the laborer in the climate of new england--quality and quantity, and the time and manner of taking it, to be considered?" at first, i had thoughts of attempting an essay on the subject; for it seemed to me an important one. circumstances, however, did not permit me to prosecute the undertaking; though i was excited by the question of the boylston medical committee to renewed efforts to increase my stock of information and of facts. in , i accidentally learned that dr. milo l. north, a distinguished practitioner of medicine in hartford, connecticut, was pursuing a course of inquiry not unlike my own, and collecting facts and materials for a similar purpose. in correspondence with dr. north, a proposition was made to unite our stock of materials; but nothing for the present was actually done. however, i agreed to furnish dr. north with a statement of my own experience, and such other important facts as came within the range of my own observations; and a statement of my experience was subsequently intrusted to his care, as will be seen in its place, in the body of this work. in february, , dr. north, in the prosecution of his efforts, addressed the following circular, or letter and questions, to the editor of the boston medical and surgical journal, which were accordingly inserted in a subsequent number of that work. they were also published in the american journal of medical science, of philadelphia, and copied into numerous papers, so that they were pretty generally circulated throughout our country. "to the editor of the boston medical and surgical journal. "sir,--reports not unfrequently reach us of certain individuals who have fallen victims to a prescribed course of regimen. those persons are said, by gentlemen who are entitled to the fullest confidence, to have pertinaciously followed the course, till they reached a point of reduction from which there was no recovery. if these are facts, they ought to be collected and published. and i beg leave, through your journal, to request my medical brethren, if they have been called to advise in such cases, that they will have the kindness to answer, briefly, the following interrogatories, by mail, as early as convenient. "should the substance of their replies ever be embodied in a small volume, they will not only receive a copy and the thanks of the author, but will have the pleasure to know they are assisting in the settlement of a question of great interest to the country. if it should appear probable that their patient was laboring under a decline at the commencement of the change of diet, this ought, in candor, to be fully disclosed. "it will be perceived, by the tenor of the questions, that they are designed to embrace not only unfortunate results of a change of diet, but such as are favorable. there are, in our community, considerable numbers who have entirely excluded animal food from their diet. it is exceedingly desirable that the results of such experiments, so difficult to be found in this land of plenty, should be ascertained and thrown before the profession and the community. will physicians, then, have the kindness, if they know of any persons in their vicinity who have excluded animal food from their diet for a year or over, to lend them this number of the journal, and ask them to forward to milo l. north, hartford, connecticut, as early as convenient, the result of this change of diet on their health and constitution, in accordance with the following inquiries? " . was your bodily strength either increased or diminished by excluding all animal food from your diet? " . were the animal sensations, connected with the process of digestion, more--or less agreeable? " . was the mind clearer; and could it continue a laborious investigation longer than when you subsisted on mixed diet? " . what constitutional infirmities were aggravated or removed? " . had you fewer colds or other febrile attacks--or the reverse? " . what length of time, the trial? " . was the change to a vegetable diet, in your case, preceded by the use of an uncommon proportion of animal food, or of high seasoning, or of stimulants? " . was this change accompanied by a substitution of cold water for tea and coffee, during the experiment? " . is a vegetable diet more--or less aperient than mixed? " . do you believe, from your experience, that the health of either laborers or students would be promoted by the exclusion of animal food from their diet? " . have you selected, from your own observation, any articles in the vegetable kingdom, as particularly healthy, or otherwise? "n.b.--short answers to these inquiries are all that is necessary; and as a copy of the latter is retained by the writer, it will be sufficient to refer to them numerically, without the trouble of transcribing each question. "hartford, february , ." this circular, or letter, drew forth numerous replies from various parts of the united states, and chiefly from medical men. in the meantime, the prize of the boylston medical committee was awarded to luther v. bell, m.d., of derry, new hampshire, and was published in the boston medical and surgical journal, and elsewhere, and read with considerable interest. in the year , while many were waiting--some with a degree of impatience--to hear from dr. north, his health so far failed him, that he concluded to relinquish, for the present, his inquiries; and, at his particular request, i consented to have the following card inserted in the boston medical and surgical journal: "dr. north, of hartford, connecticut, tenders his grateful acknowledgments to the numerous individuals, who were so kind as to forward to him a statement of the effects of vegetable diet on their own persons, in reply to some specific inquiries inserted in the boston medical and surgical journal of march , , and in the philadelphia journal of the same year. although many months elapsed before the answers were all received, yet the writer is fully aware that these communications ought to have been published before this. his apology is a prolonged state of ill health, which has now become so serious as to threaten to drive him to a southern climate for the winter. in this exigency, he has solicited dr. w. a. alcott, of boston, to receive the papers and give them to the public as soon as his numerous engagements will permit. this arrangement will doubtless be fully satisfactory, both to the writers of the communications and to the public. "hartford, november , ." various circumstances, beyond my control, united to defer the publication of the contemplated work to the year . it is hoped, however, that nothing was lost by delay. it gave further opportunity for reflection, as well as for observation and experiment; and if the work is of any value at all to the community, it owes much of that value to the fact that what the public may be disposed to regard as unnecessary, afforded another year for investigation. not that any new discoveries were made in that time, but i was, at least, enabled to verify and confirm my former conclusions, and to review, more carefully than ever, the whole argument. it is hoped that the work will at least serve as a pioneer to a more extensive as well as more scientific volume, by some individual who is better able to do the subject justice. it will be my object to present the facts and arguments of the following volume, not in a distorted or one-sided manner, but according to truth. i have no private interests to subserve, which would lead me to suppress, or falsely color, or exaggerate. if vegetable food is not preferable to animal, i certainly do not wish to have it so regarded. this profession of a sincere desire to know and teach the truth may be an apology for placing the letters in the order in which they appear--which certainly is such as to give no unfair advantages to those who believe in the superiority of the vegetable system--and for the faithfulness with which their whole contents, whether favoring one side or other of the argument, have been transcribed. the title of the work requires a word of explanation. it is not intended, or even intimated, that there are no facts here but what rest on medical authority; but rather, that the work originated with the medical profession, and contains, for the most part, testimony which is exclusively medical--either given by medical men, or under their sanction. in fact, though designed chiefly for popular reading, it is in a good degree a medical work; and will probably stand or fall, according to the sentence of approbation or disapprobation which shall be pronounced by the medical profession. the following chapter will contain the letters addressed to dr. north. they are inserted, with a single exception, in the precise order of their date. the first, however, does not appear to have been elicited by dr. north's circular; but rather by a request in some previous letter. it will be observed that several of the letters include more than one case or experiment; and a few of them many. thus the whole series embraces, at the least calculation, from thirty to forty experiments. the replies of nearly every individual are numbered to correspond with the questions, as suggested by dr. north; so that, if there should remain a doubt, in any case, in regard to the precise point referred to by the writer of the letter, the reader has only to turn to the circular in the present chapter, and read the question there, which corresponds to the number of the doubtful one. thus, for example, the various replies marked , refer to the length or duration of the experiment or experiments which had been made; and those marked , to the aperient effects of a diet exclusively vegetable. and so of all the rest. chapter ii. letters to dr. north. letter of dr. parmly.--dr. w. a. alcott.--dr. d. s. wright.--dr. h. n. preston.--dr. h. a. barrows.--dr. caleb bannister.--dr. lyman tenny.--dr. j. m. b. harden.--joseph ricketson, esq.--joseph congdon, esq.--george w. baker, esq.--john howland, jr., esq.--dr. wm. h. webster.--josiah bennet, esq.--wm. vincent, esq.--dr. geo. h. perry.--dr. l. w. sherman. letter i.--from dr. parmly, dentist. to dr. north. my dear sir,--for two years past, i have abstained from the use of all the diffusible stimulants, using no animal food, either flesh, fish, or fowl; nor any alcoholic or vinous spirits; no form of ale, beer, or porter; no cider, tea, or coffee; but using milk and water as my only liquid aliment, and feeding sparingly, or rather, moderately, upon farinaceous food, vegetables, and fruit, seasoned with unmelted butter, slightly boiled eggs, and sugar or molasses; with no condiment but common salt. i adopted this regimen in company with several friends, male and female, some of whom had been afflicted either with dyspepsia or some other chronic malady. in every instance within the circle of my acquaintance, the _symptoms_ of disease disappeared before this system of diet; and i have every reason to believe that the disease itself was wholly or in part eradicated. in answer to your inquiry, whether i ascribe the cure, in the cases alleged, to the abstinence from animal food or from stimulating drinks, or from both, i cannot but give it as my confident opinion that the result is to be attributed to a general abandonment of the _diffusive stimuli_, under every shape and form. an increase of flesh was one of the earliest effects of the _anti-stimulating_ regimen, in those cures in which the system was in low condition. the animal spirits became more cheerful, buoyant, and uniformly pleasurable. mental and bodily labor was endured with much less fatigue, and both intellectual and corporeal exertion was more vigorous and efficient. in the language of addison, this system of ultra temperance has had the happy effect of "filling the mind with inward joy, and spreading delight through all its faculties." but, although i have thus made the experiment of abstaining wholly from the use of liquid and solid stimulants, and from every form of animal food, i am not fully convinced that it should be deemed improper, on any account, to use the more slightly stimulating forms of animal food. perhaps fish and fowl, with the exception of ducks and geese, turtle and lobster, may be taken without detriment, in moderate quantities. and i regard good mutton as being the lightest, and, at the same time, the most nutritious of all meats, and as producing less inconvenience than any other kind, where the energies of the stomach are enfeebled. and yet there are unquestionably many constitutions which would be benefited by living, as i and others have done, on purely vegetable diet and ripe fruits. in relation to many of the grosser kinds of animal food, all alcoholic spirits, all distilled and fermented liquors, tea and coffee, opium and tobacco,--i feel confident in pronouncing them not only useless, but noxious to the animal machine. yours, etc., eleazer parmly new york, january , . letter ii--from dr. w. a. alcott. boston, december , . dear sir,--i received your communication, and hasten to reply to as many of your inquiries as i can. allow me to take them up in the very order in which you have presented them. answer to question . i was bred to a very active life, from my earliest childhood. this active course was continued till about the time of my leaving off the use of flesh and fish; since which period my habits have, unfortunately, been more sedentary. i think my muscular strength is somewhat less now than it was before i omitted flesh meat, but in what proportion i am unable to say; for indeed it varies greatly. when more exercise is used, my strength increases--sometimes almost immediately; when less exercise is used, my strength again diminishes, but not so rapidly. these last circumstances indicate a more direct connection between my loss of muscular strength and my neglect of exercise than between the former and my food. . rather more agreeable; unless i use too large a quantity of food; to which however i am rather more inclined than formerly, as my appetite is keener, and food relishes far better. a sedentary life, moreover, as i am well satisfied, tends to bring my moral powers into subjection to the physical. . my mind has been clearer, since i commenced the experiment to which you allude, than before; but i doubt whether i can better endure a "laborious investigation." a little rest or exercise, perhaps less than formerly, restores vigor. i am sometimes tempted to _break my day into two_, by sleeping at noon. but i am not so apt to be cloyed with study, or reflection, as formerly. . several. . an eruptive complaint, sometimes, at one period of my life, very severe. . irritation of the lungs; probably, indeed most certainly, incipient phthisis. . rheumatic attacks, though they had never been very severe. the eruptive disease, however, and the rheumatic attacks, are not wholly removed; but they are greatly diminished. the irritation at the lungs has nearly left me. this is the more remarkable from the fact that i have been, during almost the whole period of my experiment, in or about boston. i was formerly somewhat subject to palpitations; these are now less frequent. i am also less exposed to epidemics. formerly, like other scrofulous persons, i had nearly all that appeared; now i have very few. you will observe that i merely state the facts, without affirming, positively, that my change of diet has been the cause, though i am quite of opinion that this has not been without its influence. mental quiet and total abstinence from all drinks but water, may also have had much influence, as well as other causes. . very few colds. last winter i had a violent inflammation of the ear, which was attended with some fever; but abstinence and emollient applications soon restored me. in july last, i had a severe attack of diarrhoea unattended with much fever, which i attributed to drinking too much water impregnated with earthy salts, and to which i had been unaccustomed. when i have a cold, of late, it affects, principally, the nasal membrane; and, if i practice abstinence, soon disappears. in this respect, more than in any other, i am confident that since i commenced the use of a vegetable diet i have been a very great gainer. . the experiment was fully begun four years ago last summer; though i had been making great changes in my physical habits for four years before. for about three years, i used neither flesh nor fish, nor even eggs more than two or three times a year. the only animal food i used was milk; and for some long periods, not even that. but at the end of three years i ate a very small quantity of flesh meat once a day, for three or four weeks, and then laid it aside. this was in the time of the cholera. the only effect i perceived from its use was a slight increase of peristaltic action. in march last, i used a little dried fish once or twice a day, for a few days; but with no peculiar effects. after my attack of diarrhoea, in july last, i used a little flesh several times; but for some months past i have laid it aside entirely, with no intention of resuming it. nothing peculiar was observed, as to its effects, during the last autumn. . i never used a large proportion of animal food, except milk, since i was a child; but i have been in the habit, at various periods of my life, of drinking considerable cider. for some months before i laid aside flesh and fish, i had been accustomed to the use of more animal food than usual, but less cider; though, for a part of the time, i made up the deficiency of cider with ale and coffee. for several months previous to the beginning of the experiment, i had drank nothing but water. . rather less. but here, again, i fear i am in danger of attributing to one cause what is the effect of another. my neglect of exercise may be more in fault than the rice and bread and milk which i use. still i must think that vegetable food is, in my own case, less aperient than animal. . in regard to students, my reply is, yes, most certainly. so i think in regard to laborers, were they trained to it. but how far _early habits_ may create a demand for the continuance of animal food through life, i am quite at a loss for an opinion. were i a hard laborer, i should use no animal food. when i travel on foot forty or fifty miles a day, i use vegetable food, and in less than the usual quantity. this i used to do before i commenced my experiment. . i use bread made of unbolted wheat meal, in moderate quantity, when i can get it; plain indian cakes once a day; milk once a day; rice once a day. my plan is to use as few things as possible at the same meal, but to have considerable variety at different meals. i use no new bread or pastry, no cheese, and but little butter; and very little fruit, except apples in moderate quantity. . the answer to this question, though i think it would be important and interesting, with many other particulars, i must defer for the present. the experiments of dr. f., a young man in this neighborhood, and of several other individuals, would, i know be in point; but i have not at my command the time necessary to present them. letter iii.--from dr. d. s. wright. whitehall, washington co., n. y., march , . dear sir,--i noticed a communication from you in the boston medical and surgical journal of the th instant, in which you signify a wish to collect facts in relation to the effects of a vegetable diet upon the human system, etc. i submit for your consideration my own experience; premising, however, that i am a practicing physician in this place--am thirty-three years old--of a sanguine, bilious temperament--have from youth up usually enjoyed good health--am not generally subject to fevers, etc. i made a radical change in my diet three years ago this present month, from a mixed course of animal and vegetable food, to a strictly vegetable diet, on which i subsisted pretty uniformly for the most part of one year. i renewed it again about ten moths ago. my reasons for adopting it were: st. i had experienced the beneficial effects of it for several years before, during the warm weather, in obviating a dull cephalalgic pain, and oppression in the epigastrium. dly. i had recently left the salubrious atmosphere of the mountains in essex county, in this state, for this place of _musquitoes_ and _miasmata_. dly, and prominently. i had frequent exposures to the variolous infection, and i had a _dreadful_ apprehension that i might have an attack of the varioloid, as at that time i had never experimentally tried the protective powers of the vaccine virus, and had _too_ little confidence in those who recommended its prophylactic powers. the results i submit you, in reply to your interrogatories. . i think each time i tried living on vegetable food exclusively, that for the first month i could not endure fatigue _as well_. afterward i could. . the digestive organs were always more agreeably excited. . the mind uniformly clearer, and could endure laborious investigations longer, and with less effort. . i am constitutionally healthy and robust. . i believe i have more colds, principally seated on the mucous membranes of the lungs, fauces, and cavities of the head. (i do not, however, attribute it to diet.) . the first trial was one year. i am now ten months on the same plan, and shall continue it. . i never used a large quantity of animal food or stimulants, of any description. . i have for several years used tea and coffee, usually once a day--believe them healthy. . vegetable diet is less aperient than a mixed diet, if we except _indian corn_. . i do not think that common laborers, in health, could do as well without animal food; but i think students might. . i have selected _potatoes_, when _baked_ or _roasted_, and all articles of food usually prepared from _indian meal_, as the most healthy articles on which i subsist; particularly the latter, whose aperient and nutritive qualities render it, in my estimation, an invaluable article for common use. yours, etc., d. s. wright. letter iv.--from dr. h. n. preston.[ ] plymouth, mass., march , . dear sir,--when i observed your questions in the boston medical and surgical journal, of the th of march, i determined to give you personal experience, in reply to your valuable queries. in the spring of , while engaged in more than usual professional labor, i began to suffer from indigestion, which gradually increased, unabated by any medicinal or dietetic course, until i was reduced to the very confines of the grave. the disease became complicated, for a time, with chronic bronchitis. i would remark, that, at the time of my commencing a severe course of diet, i was able to attend to my practice daily. in answer to your inquiries, i would say to the st--very much diminished, and rapidly. . rather less; distinct local uneasiness--less disposition to drowsiness; but decidedly more troubled with cardialgia, and eructations. . i think not. . my disease was decidedly increased; as cough, headache, and emaciation; and being of a scrofulous diathesis, was lessening my prospect of eventual recovery. . my febrile attacks increased with my increased debility. . almost four months; when i became convinced death would be the result, unless i altered my course. . i had taken animal food moderately, morning and noon--very little high seasoning--no stimulants, except tea and coffee. the latter was my favorite beverage; and i usually drank two cups with my breakfast and dinner, and black tea with my supper. . i drank but one cup of weak coffee with my breakfast, none with dinner, and generally a cup of milk and water with supper. . with me _much less aperient_; indeed, costiveness became a very serious and distressing accompaniment. . from somewhat extensive observation, for the last seven years, i should say, of laborers never; students seldom. . among dyspeptics, potatoes nearly boiled, then mashed together, rolled into balls, and laid over hot coals, until a second time cooked, as easy as any vegetable. if any of the luxuries of the table have been noticed as particularly injurious, it has been cranberries, prepared in any form, as stewed in sauce, tarts, pies, etc. crude as these answers are, they are at your service; and i am prompted to give them from the fact, that very few persons, i presume, have been so far reduced as myself, with dyspepsia and its concomitants. in fact, i was pronounced, by some of the most scientific physicians of boston, as past all prospect of cure, or even much relief, from medicine, diet, or regimen. my attention has naturally been turned with anxious solicitude to the subject of diet, in all its forms. since my unexpected restoration to health, my opportunities for observation among dyspeptics have been much enlarged; and i most unhesitatingly say, that my success is much more encouraging, in the management of such cases, since pursuing a more liberal diet, than before. plain animal diet, avoiding condiments and tea, using mucilaginous drink, as the irish moss, is preferable to "absolute diet,"--cases of decided chronic gastritis excepted. yours, etc., h. n. preston. letter v.--from dr. h. a. barrows. phillips, somerset co., me., april , . dear sir,--i have a brother-in-law, who owes his life to abstinence from animal food, and strict adherence to the simplest vegetable diet. my own existence is prolonged, only (according to human probabilities) by entire abstinence from flesh-meat of every description, and feeding principally upon the coarsest farinacea. numberless other instances have come under my observation within the last three years, in which a strict adherence to a simple vegetable diet has done for the wretched invalid what the best medical treatment had utterly failed to do; and in no one instance have i known permanently injurious results to follow from this course, but in many instances have had to lament the want of firmness and decision, and a gradual return to the "_flesh-pots of egypt_." with these views, i very cheerfully comply with your general invitation, on page , volume , of the boston medical and surgical journal. the answers to your interrogatories will apply to the case first referred to, to my own case, and to nearly every one which has occurred within my notice. . increased, uniformly; and in nearly every instance, without even the usual debility consequent upon withdrawing the stimulus of animal food. . more agreeable in every instance. . affirmative, _in toto_. . none aggravated, except flatulence in one or two instances. all the horrid train of dyspeptic symptoms uniformly mitigated, and obstinate constipation removed. . fewer colds and febrile attacks. . three years, with my brother; with myself, eighteen months partially, and three months wholly; the others, from one to six months. . negative. . cold water--my brother and myself; others, hot and cold water alternately. . more aperient,--no exceptions. . i believe the health of _students_ would uniformly be promoted--and the days of the laborer, to say the least, would be lengthened. . i have; and that is, simple bread made of wheat meal, ground in corn-stones, and mixed up precisely as it comes from the mill--with the substitution of fine flour when the bowels become too active. yours, etc., horace a. barrows. letter vi.--from dr. caleb bannister. phelps, n. y., may , . sir,--my age is fifty-three. my ancestors had all melted away with hereditary consumption. at the age of twenty, i began to be afflicted with pain in different parts of the thorax, and other premonitory symptoms of phthisis pulmonalis. soon after this, my mother and eldest sister died with the disease. for myself, having a severe attack of ague and fever, all my consumptive symptoms became greatly aggravated; the pain was shifting--sometimes between the shoulders, sometimes in the side, or breast, etc. system extremely irritable, pulse hard and easily excited, from about ninety to one hundred and fifty, by the stimulus of a very small quantity of food; and, to be short, i was given up, on all hands, as lost. from reading "rush" i was induced to try a milk diet, and succeeded in regaining my health, so that for twenty-four years i have been entirely free from any symptom of phthisis; and although subject, during that time, to many attacks of fever and other epidemics, have steadily followed the business of a country physician. i would further remark, before proceeding to the direct answer to your questions, that soon perceiving the benefit resulting from the course i had commenced, and finding the irritation to diminish in proportion as i diminished not only the quality, but quantity of my food, i took less than half a pint at a meal, with a small piece of bread, amounting to about the quantity of a boston cracker; and at times, in order to lessen arterial action, added some water to the milk, taking only my usual quantity in _bulk_. a seton was worn in the side, and a little exercise on horseback taken three times every day, as strength would allow, during the whole progress. the appetite was, at all times, not only _craving_, it was _voracious_; insomuch that all my sufferings from all other sources, dwindled to a point when compared with it. the quantity that i ate at a time so far from satisfying my appetite, only served to increase it; and this inconvenience continued during the whole term, without the least abatement;--and the only means by which i could resist its cravings, was to live entirely by myself, and keep out of sight of all kinds of food except the scanty pittance on which i subsisted. and now to the proposed questions. . increased. . more agreeable, hunger excepted. . to the first part of this question, i should say evidently clearer; to the latter part, such was the state of debility when i commenced, and such was it through the whole course, i am not able to give a decisive answer. . this question, you will perceive, is already answered in my preliminary remarks. . fewer, insomuch that i had none. . two full years. . my living, from early life, had been conformable to the habits of the farmers of new england, from which place i emigrated, and my habits in regard to stimulating drinks were always moderate; but i occasionally took them, in conformity to the customs of those "_times of ignorance_." . i literally drank _nothing_; the milk wholly supplying the place of all liquids. . state of the bowels good before adopting the course, and after. . i do not. . i have not. caleb bannister. letter vii.--from dr. lyman tenny. franklin, vermont, june , . sir,--in answer to your inquiries, in the boston medical and surgical journal, vol. xii., page , i can say that i have lived entirely upon a bread and milk diet, without using any animal food other than the milk. . at first, my bodily strength was diminished to a certain degree, and required a greater quantity of food, and rather oftener, than when upon a mixed diet of animal food (strictly so called) and vegetables. . the animal sensations, attending upon the process of digestion, were rather more agreeable than when upon a mixed diet. . my mind was more clear, but i could not continue a laborious investigation as long as when i used animal food more plentifully. . at this time there were no constitutional infirmities which i was laboring under, except those which more or less accompany the rapid growth of the body; such as a general lassitude, impaired digestion, etc., which were neither removed nor aggravated, but kept about so, until i ate just what i pleased, without any regard to my indigestion, etc., when i began to improve in the strength of my whole system. . i do not recollect whether i was subject to more or fewer colds; but i can say i was perfectly free from all febrile attacks, although febrile diseases often prevailed in my vicinity. but since that time, a period of six years, i have had three attacks of fever. . the length of time i was upon this diet was about two years. . before entering upon this diet, i was in the habit of taking a moderate quantity of animal food, but without very high seasoning or stimulants. . while using this diet, i confined myself entirely and exclusively to cold water as a drink--using neither tea, coffee, nor spirits of any kind whatever. . i am inclined to think that a vegetable diet is more aperient than an animal one; indeed, i may say i know it to be a fact. . from what i have experienced, i do not think that laborers would be any more healthy by excluding animal food from their diet entirely; but i believe it would be much getter if they would use less. as to students, i believe their health would be promoted if they were to exclude it almost, if not entirely. . i never have selected any vegetables which i thought to be more healthy than others: nor indeed do i believe there is any one that is more healthy than another; but believe that all those vegetables which we use in the season of them, are adapted to supply and satisfy the wants of the system. we are carnivorous, as well as granivorous animals, having systems requiring animal, as well as vegetable food, to keep all the organs of the body in tune; and perhaps we need a greater variety than other animals. yours, etc., lyman tenny. letter viii.--from dr. j. m. b. harden. liberty county, georgia, july , . sir,--having observed, in the may number of the "american journal of the medical sciences," certain inquiries in relation to diet, proposed by you to the physicians of the united states, i herewith transmit to you an account of a case exactly in point, which i hope may prove interesting to yourself, and in some degree "assist in the settlement of a question of _great interest_ to the _country_." the case, to which allusion is made, occurred in the person of a very intelligent and truly scientific gentleman of this county, whose regular habits, both of mind and body, added to his sound and discriminating judgment, will tend to heighten the value and importance of the experiment involved in the case i am about to detail. before proceeding to give his answers to your interrogatories, it may be well to premise, that at the time of commencing the experiment, he was forty-five years of age; and being an extensive cotton planter, his business was such as to make it necessary for him to undergo a great deal of exercise, particularly on foot, having, as he himself declares, to walk seldom less than ten miles a day, and frequently more; and this exercise was continued during the whole period of the experiment. his health for two years previously had been very feeble, arising, as he supposed, from a diseased _spleen_; which organ is at this time enlarged, and somewhat indurated. his digestive powers have _always_ been _good_, and he had been in the habit of making his meals at times entirely of _animal food_. his bowels have always been regular, and rather inclined to looseness, but never disordered. he is five feet eight inches high, of a very thin and spare habit of body, with thin dark hair, inclining to baldness; complexion rather dark than fair; eyes dark hazel; of _very studious_ habits when free from active engagements; with great powers of mental abstraction and attention, and of a temper _remarkably even_. in answer to your interrogatories, he replies,-- . that his bodily strength was increased, and general health became better. . he perceived no difference. . he is assured of the affirmative. . his spleen was diminished in size, and frequent and long-continued attacks of _lumbago_ were rendered _much milder_, and have so continued. . had fewer colds and febrile attacks. . three years. . no; with the slight exception mentioned above. . no. . in his case rather less. . undoubtedly. . no; has made his meals of cabbages entirely, and found them as easily digested as any other article of diet. i may remark, that _honey_ to him is a poison, producing, _invariably_, symptoms of cholera. after three years' trial of this diet, without having any previous apparent disease, but on the contrary as strong as usual, he was taken, somewhat suddenly, in the winter of and , with symptoms of extreme debility, attended with oedematous swellings of the lower extremities, and painful cramps, at night confined to the gastrocnemii of both legs, and some feverishness, indicated more by the beatings of the _carotids_ than by any other symptom. his countenance became very pallid, and indeed he had every appearance of a man in a very low state of health. yet, during the whole period of this apparent state of disease, there were no symptoms indicative of disorder in any function, save the general function of innervation, and perhaps that of the lymphatics or absorbents of the lower extremities. nor was there any manifest disease of any organ, unless it was the spleen, which was not then remarkably enlarged. i was myself disposed to attribute his symptoms to the spleen, and possibly to the want of animal food; but he himself attributes its commencement, if not its continuance, to the inhalation of the vapor of arseniuretted and sulphuretted hydrogen gases, to which he was subjected during some chemical experiments on the ores of cobalt, to which he has been for a long time turning his attention; a circumstance which i had not known until lately. however it may be, he again returned to a mixed diet (to which however he ascribes no agency in his recovery), and, after six months' continuance in this state, he rapidly recovered his usual health and strength, which, up to this day--two full years after the expiration of six months--have continued good. in the treatment of his case no medicine of any kind was given, to which any good effect can be attributed; and indeed he may be said to have undergone no medical treatment at all. yours, etc., j. m. b. harden. letter ix.--from joseph ricketson, esq. new bedford, th month, th, . respected friend,--perhaps before giving answers to thy queries in the american journal of medical science, it may not be amiss to give thee some account of my family and manner of living, to enable thee to judge of the effect of a vegetable diet on the constitution. i have a wife, a mother aged eighty-eight, and two female domestics. it is now near three years since we adopted what is called the graham or vegetable diet, though not in its fullest extent. we exclude animal food from our diet, but sometimes we indulge in shell and other fish. we use no kind of stimulating liquors, either as drink or in cookery, nor any other stimulants except occasionally a little spice. we do not, as professor hitchcock would recommend, nor as i believe would be most conducive to good health, live entirely simple; sometimes, however, for an experiment, i have eaten only rice and milk; at other times only potatoes and milk for my dinner; and have uniformly found i could endure as much fatigue, and walk as far without inconvenience, as when i have eaten a greater variety. we, however, endeavor to make our varieties mostly at different meals. for breakfast and tea we have some hot water poured upon milk, to which we add a little sugar, and cold bread and butter; but in cold weather we toast the bread, and prefer having it so cool as not to melt the butter. we seldom eat a meal without some kind of dried or preserved fruit, such as peaches, plums, quinces, or apples; and in the season, when easily to be procured, we use, freely, baked apples, also berries, particularly blackberries stewed, which, while cooking, are sweetened and thickened a little. our dinners are nearly the same as our other meals, except that we use cold milk, without any water. we have puddings sometimes made of stale bread, at others of graham or other flour, or rice, or ground rice, usually baked; we have also hasty puddings, made of indian meal, or graham flour, which we eat with milk or melted sugar and cream; occasionally we have other simple puddings, such as tapioca, etc. custards, with or without a crust, pies made of apple, and other fruits either green or preserved; but we have no more shortening in the crust than just to make it a little tender. i have two sons; one lived with us about fifteen months after we adapted this mode of living; it agreed remarkably well with him; he grew strong and fleshy. he married since that time, and, in some measure, returned to the usual manner of living; but he is satisfied it does not agree so well with him as the graham diet. the coarse bread he cannot well do without. my other son was absent when we commenced this way of living; he has been at home about six weeks, and has not eaten any animal food except when he dined out. he has evidently _lost_ flesh, and is not very well; _he_ thinks he shall not be able to live without animal food, but i think his indisposition is more owing to the season of the year than diet. he never drank any tea or coffee until about four years since, when he took some coffee for a while, but no tea. for the last two years he has not drank either, when he could get milk. he is generally healthy, and so is his brother: both were literally brought up on gingerbread and milk, never taking animal food of choice, until they were fifteen or sixteen years of age. dr. keep, of fairhaven, connecticut, was here about a year since, in very bad health, since which i learn he has recovered by abstaining from animal food and other injurious diet. as he is a scientific man, i think he can give thee some useful information. . the strength of both myself and wife has very materially increased, so that we can now walk ten miles as easily as we could five before; possibly it may in part be attributed to practice. our health is, in every respect, much improved. one of our women enjoys perfect health; the other was feeble when we commenced this way of living, and she has not gained much if any in the time; but this may be owing to her attendance on my mother, both day and night, who, being blind and feeble, takes no exercise except to walk across the room; but we are very sure she would not have lived to this time had she not adopted this way of living. . the process of digestion is much more agreeable, if we do not indulge in eating too much. we seldom have occasion to think of it after rising from the table. . i do not perceive much effect on the mind, other than what would naturally be produced by the restoration of health; but have no doubt a laborious investigation might be continued as long, if not longer, on this than any other diet. . i was formerly very much afflicted with the headache, and sometimes was troubled with rheumatism. i have very seldom, for the last two years especially, been troubled with either; and when i have had a turn of headache, it is light indeed compared with what it was before we adopted this system of living. my wife was very dyspeptic, and often had severe turns of palpitation of the heart; the latter is entirely removed, and she seldom experiences any inconvenience from the former. our nurse was formerly, and still is, troubled with severe turns of headache, though not so bad as formerly; and i think she would have much less of it if she were placed in a different situation. . we scarcely know what it is to have a cold; my wife in particular. previously to our change of diet, i was very subject to severe colds, attended with a hard cough, which lasted, sometimes, for several weeks. . as before stated, we exclude animal food from our diet, as well as tea and coffee. . before we adopted a vegetable diet, we always had meat for dinner, and generally with breakfast; and not unfrequently with tea. tea and coffee we drank very strong. . we have substituted milk and water sweetened, for tea and coffee. . most vegetables i find have a tendency (especially when graham or unbolted wheaten flour is used) to keep the bowels open; to counteract which, we use rice once or twice a week. potatoes, when eaten freely, are flatulent, but not inconvenient when eaten moderately. . i think the health of students, by the exclusion of animal food from their diet, would be promoted, especially if they excluded tea and coffee also; and i can see no good reason why it should not be beneficial to laboring people. i have conversed with two or three mechanics, who confirm me in this belief. . graham bread, as we call it, eaten with milk, or baked potatoes and milk, for most people, i think would be healthy; to which should be added such a proportion of rice as may be found necessary. thy friend, joseph ricketson. letter x.--from joseph congdon, esq. new bedford, sept., . answers to dr. north's inquiries on diet. . increase of strength and activity, connected with, and perhaps in some good degree a consequence of, an increase of daily exercise. . process of digestion more regular and agreeable. . mental activity greater; no decisive experiments on the ability to _continue_ a laborious investigation. . dyspepsia of long continuance, and also difficult breathing; inflammation of the eyes. . fewer colds; febrile attacks very slight; great elasticity in recovering from disease. some part of the effect should undoubtedly be ascribed to greater attention to the skin by bathing and friction. . twenty-six months of _entire abstinence_ from all animal substances, excepting butter and milk. salt is used regularly. . through life inclined to a vegetable diet, with few stimulants. . drinks have been milk, milk and water, or cold water. . a _well-selected_ vegetable diet appears to produce a very regular action of the stomach and bowels. . i think the health of laborers and students would be promoted by a _great_ reduction of the usual quantity of animal food, and perhaps by discontinuing its use entirely. i feel no want. . from my experience, i can very highly recommend bread made of coarse wheat flour. among fruits, the blackberry, as peculiarly adapted to the state of the body, at the time of the year when it is in season. my range of food has been confined. i avoid green vegetables. age . joseph congdon. letter xi.--from george w. baker, esq. new bedford, th month, , . dr. m. l. north,--agreeably to request, the following answers are forwarded, which i believe to be correct as far as my experience has tested. . at first it was diminished; but after a few months it was restored, and i think increased. . more. . it could. . pretty free from constitutional infirmities before the change, and no increase since. . i have had no cold, of any consequence, for the last three years; at which time i substituted cold water for tea and coffee, and commenced using cold water for washing about my head and neck and for shaving, which i continued through the year. . i have not eaten animal food for about eighteen months. . two years previous to the entire change the quantity was great, but there had been a gradual diminution. . it was. (see fifth answer.) . more so, in my case. . i believe the health of both laborers and students would be improved. . i have generally avoided eating cucumbers; otherwise i have not. thy assured friend, geo. w. baker. letter xii--from john howland, jr., esq. new beford, th month, th day, . friend,--as i have lived nearly three years upon a vegetable diet, i cheerfully comply with thy request. . my bodily strength has been increased; and i can now endure much more exercise than formerly, without fatigue. . they are more agreeable; and i am now free from that dull, heavy feeling, which i used to experience after my meals. . my mind is much clearer; and i am free from that depression of spirits, to which i was formerly subject. . i was of a costive, dyspeptic habit, which has been entirely removed. i had frequent and severe attacks of headache, which i now rarely have; and when they do occur they are very light, compared with what they formerly were. . i have had fewer colds, and those much lighter than formerly. . about three years. . i used to eat animal food for breakfast and dinner, with coffee for drink, at those meals; and tea for my third meal, with bread and butter. . milk for breakfast, and cold water for the other two meals. . i have found it more so; inasmuch as the use of it, with the substitution of bread, made from _coarse, unbolted wheat flour_, instead of superfine, has removed my costiveness entirely. . i do. . i consider potatoes and rice as the most healthy, and confine myself principally to the former. i would remark that during the season of fruits, i eat freely of them, with milk; and consider them to be healthy. john howland, jr. letter xiii.--from dr. w. h. webster. batavia, n. y., oct. , . sir,--some months since, i read your inquiries on diet in the boston medical and surgical journal; and subsequently in the journal of medical sciences, philadelphia. i will answer your questions, numerically, from my knowledge of a case somewhat in point, and with which i am but too familiar, as it is my own. but, first, let me premise a few points in the history of my health, as a kind of key to my answers. it is about fifteen years since i was called a _dyspeptic_; this was while engaged in my academical studies. not being instructed by my medical friend to make any alteration in diet and regimen, i merely swallowed his cathartics for one month, and his anodynes for the next month, as the bowels were constipated or relaxed. in short, i left college more dead than alive--a confirmed dyspeptic. in , i commenced the practice of physic. from this time, to the winter of - , i found it necessary gradually to diminish my indulgence in the luxuries of the table--especially in animal food, and distilled and fermented liquors. on one of the most inclement nights of the winter of - , a fire broke out in our village, at which i became very wet by perspiration, and the ill-directed efforts of some to extinguish it. this was followed by a severe inflammatory attack upon the digestive organs generally, and especially upon the renal region, which confined me to the house for more than eight months; and, for the greatest share of that time, with the most excruciating torture. on getting out again, i found myself in a wretched condition indeed--reduced to a skeleton--a voracious appetite, which could not be indulged, and which had scarcely deserted me through the whole eight months. i could not regain my flesh or strength but by almost imperceptible degrees; indeed, loaf-sugar and crackers were almost the only food i could use with impunity for the first year. it is now nearly four years since i have eaten animal food, unless it be here and there a little, as an experiment, with the sole exception of oysters, in which i can indulge, but with all due deference to the stricter rules of temperance. still my appetite for animal food seems unabated. i have ever been a man unusually temperate in the use of intoxicating drinks; and by no means intemperate in the luxuries of the table. i take no meat, no alcoholic or fermented drinks, not even cider; and, for a year past, my health has been better than for three years previous; and i think that about one third the amount of nourishment usually taken by men of my age, might subserve the purposes of food for _me_ better than a larger quantity. the more i eat, the more i desire to eat; and abstinence is my best medicine. but i have already surpassed my limits, and here are my answers. . my strength is invariably diminished by animal food, and in almost direct proportion to the quantity, with the exception named above. . pain has been the uniform attendant upon the digestion of an animal diet, with feverish restlessness and constipation. . decidedly more fit for energetic action. . an irritation, or subacute inflammation of the digestive apparatus, which is aggravated by animal food. . can endure hardship, exposure, and fatigue, much better without meat. . about four years, with the exception stated above. . it was not. . partially at the commencement; but not of late, if not taken hot. . much more aperient. . both classes take too much; and students and sedentaries should take little or none. . for myself farinaceous articles first, then the succulent sub-acid ripe fruits, then the less oily nuts are most healthful--and animal food, strong coffee and tea, and unripe or hard fruits, in any considerable quantities, are most pernicious. yours, etc., w. h. webster. letter xiv.--from josiah bennet, esq. mount-joy, pa., oct. , . sir,--i hereby transmit to you, answers to a series of dietetic queries which you have recently submitted. . my physical strength was at least equal (i am rather inclined to think greater) after abstaining from animal food. i was, i am certain, not subject to such general debility and lassitude of the system, after considerable bodily exercise. . more agreeable--not being subject to a sense of vertigo, which frequently (with me) followed the use of animal food. there is, generally, more cheerfulness and vivacity. . the mind is more clear, and is not so liable to be confused when intent upon any intricate subject; and, of course, "can continue a laborious investigation longer." there is at no time such a propensity to incogitancy. . i am not aware of being the subject of any "constitutional infirmities;" yet, that the change of diet had a very great effect upon the system, is obvious, from the fact of my having been, formerly, subject to an eruptive disease of the skin, principally on the shoulders and upper part of the back, for a number of years, which is not the case at present, nor do i think will be, as long as i continue my present mode of living. . i think i have not had as many colds and febrile attacks as before, nor have they been so severe; yet i cannot be very decisive on this point, on account of the length of time in the trial not being fully sufficient. . between seven and eight months. i must here state that animal food was not _entirely_ excluded. i probably partook, in very moderate quantities, once or twice a week. . the quantity of animal food which would be considered "an uncommon proportion," i am unable to determine; but i was accustomed to make use of it, not _less_ than twice, and sometimes three times a day, moderately seasoned. no other stimulants, of any account. . cold water has been the only substitute for tea and coffee, with the exception of an occasional cup; probably as often as once or twice a week. i was, on several occasions, by personal experience, induced to believe that the use of strong coffee retarded the process of digestion. . more aperient. previous to the general exclusion of animal food from my diet, i was subject to inveterate costiveness; cases of which are now neither frequent nor severe. . i do firmly believe it would. . my diet, principally, during the trial, consisted of wheat bread, of the proper age, with a moderate quantity of fresh butter. potatoes, beans, and some other esculent roots, etc., i found to be nutritious and healthy. the following substances i found to produce a contrary effect, or to possess different qualities: cabbage, when not well boiled; cucumbers, raw or pickled; radishes, beets, and the whole catalogue of preserves. fresh bread was particularly hurtful to me. yours, etc., josiah bennett. letter xv.--from william vincent, esq.[ ] hopkinton, r. i., dec. , . sir,--the following answer to the interrogations in the boston medical and surgical journal of march , on diet, etc., as proposed by yourself, has been through the press of business, neglected until this late period. trusting they may be of some use, i now forward them. . rather increased, if any change. . ---- . i think i have retained the vigor of my mind more, in consequence of an abstemious diet. . i thought i had the appearance of scurvy, which gradually disappeared. . ---- . from may , , (more than twenty-four years.) . small in quantity, and dressed and cooked simply. . i have drank nothing but warm tea, for seven years. . bowels uniformly open. . i should not think it would. . i have lived principally on bread, butter, and cheese, and a few dried vegetables. i was born march , . in , when mowing, to quench thirst, i drank about a gill of cold water, _after_ about as much milk and water; and the same year, some molasses and water; but they did not answer the purpose. but when i rinsed my mouth with cold water, it allayed my thirst. (signed) wm. vincent. letter xvi.--from l. r. bradley, by dr. geo. h. perry. hopkinton, r. i., dec. , . sir,--i deem it necessary, first, to mention the situation of my health, at the time of commencing abstinence from animal food. i was recovering from an illness of a _nervous fever_. a sudden change respecting my food not sitting well, rendered it necessary for me to abstain from all kinds, excepting dry wheat bread and gruel, for several weeks. by degrees i returned to my former course of diet, but as yet not to its full extent, as i cannot partake of animal food of any kind whatever, nor of vegetables cooked therewith. . diminished. . ---- . i do not perceive the mind to be clearer, and the power of investigation less. . distress in the stomach and pain in the head removed. . ---- . six years and ten months. . unusual proportion of animal food. . the first year, i drank only warm water, sweetened; since that, tea. . ---- . i do not. . i find _beets_ particularly hard to digest. l. r. b. the foregoing statements and answers are in her own way and manner. yours, etc., geo. h. perry. letter xvii.--from dr. l. w. sherman. falmouth, mass., march , . sir,--in compliance with the request you recently made in the medical journal, i inclose the following answers to the queries relative to regimen you have propounded. they are given by a lady, whose experience, intelligence, and discernment, have eminently qualified her to answer them. she, with myself, is equally interested with you in having this important question settled, and is extremely happy that you have undertaken to do it. this lady is now fifty years of age; her constitution naturally is good; her early habits were active, and her diet simple, until twenty years of age. after that, until within a few years, her living consisted of all kinds of meats and delicacies, with wine after dinners, etc., etc. . her bodily strength was greatly increased by excluding animal food from her diet. . the animal sensations connected with the process of digestion have been decidedly more agreeable. . the mind is much clearer, the spirits much better, the temper more even, and "less irritability pervades the system." the mind can continue a laborious investigation longer than when she subsisted on a mixed diet. . her health, which was before feeble, has, by the change, been decidedly improved. . she has certainly had fewer colds, and no febrile attacks of any consequence, since she has practiced rigid abstinence from meats. . she has abstained entirely for three years, and has taken but little for seven or eight years; and whenever she has, from necessity (in being from home, where she could procure nothing else), indulged in eating meat, she has universally suffered severely in consequence. . the change to a vegetable diet was preceded, in her case, by the use of an uncommon proportion of animal food, highly seasoned with stimulants. . tea and coffee she has not used for thirteen years. she has used, for substitutes, water, milk and water, barley water, and gruel. she found tea and coffee to have an exceedingly pernicious effect upon her nervous and digestive system. . a vegetable diet is more aperient than a mixed. habitual constipation has been entirely removed by the change. . she sincerely believes, from her experience, that the health of laborers and students would be generally promoted by the exclusion of animal food from their diet. . she considers _hominy_, as prepared at the south, particularly healthy; and subsists upon this, with bread made from coarse flour, with broccoli, cauliflower, and all kinds of vegetables in their season. be assured, dear sir, that these answers have come from a high source, to which private reference may at any time be made, and consequently are entitled to the highest consideration. yours, etc., l. w. sherman. note.--if i have not been minute enough in the relation of this case, i shall hereafter be happy to answer any questions you may think proper to propose. it is a very interesting and important case, in my opinion. the lady has been under my care a number of times, while laboring under slight indisposition. she has always been very regular and systematic in all her habits. she is healthy and robust in appearance, and looks as though she might not be more than forty. this is the only case of the kind within my knowledge. i have practiced on her plan for a few weeks at a time, and, so far as my experience goes, it precisely comports with hers. but i love the "good things" of this world too well to abstain from their use, until some formidable disease demands their prohibition. yours, etc., l. w. s. footnotes: [ ] dr. preston has since deceased. [ ] mr. vincent is of stonington, ct. chapter iii. remarks on the foregoing letters. correspondence.--the "prescribed course of regimen."--how many victims to it?--not one.--case of dr. harden considered.--case of dr. preston.--views of drs. clark, cheyne, and lambe, on the treatment of scrofula.--no reports of injury from the prescribed system.--case of dr. bannister.--singular testimony of dr. wright.--vegetable food for laborers.--testimony, on the whole, much more favorable to the vegetable system than could reasonably have been expected, in the circumstances. "reports not unfrequently reach us," says dr. north, "of certain individuals who have fallen victims to a prescribed course of regimen. these persons are said, by gentlemen who are entitled to the fullest confidence, to have pertinaciously followed the course, till they reached a point of reduction from which there was no recovery." "if these are facts," he adds, "they ought to be known and published." it was in this view, that dr. north, himself a medical practitioner of high respectability, sent forth to every corner of the land, through standard and orthodox medical journals, to regular and experienced physicians--his "medical brethren"--his list of inquiries. these inquiries, designed to elicit truth, were couched in just such language as was calculated to give free scope and an acceptable channel for the communication of every fact which seemed to be opposed to the vegetable system; for this, we believe, was distinctly understood, by every medical man, to be the "prescribed course of regimen" alluded to. the results of dr. north's inquiries, and of an opportunity so favorable for "putting down," by the exhibition of sober facts, the vegetable system, are fully presented in the foregoing chapter. let it not be said by any, that the attempt was a partial or unfair one. let it be remembered that every effort was made to obtain _truth in facts_, without partiality, favor, or affection. let it be remembered, too, that nearly two years elapsed before dr. north gave up his papers to the author; during which time, and indeed up to the present hour--a period, in the whole, of more than fourteen years--a door has been opened to every individual who had any thing to say, bearing upon the subject. let us now review the contents of the foregoing chapter. let us see, in the first place, what number of persons have here been reported, by medical men, as having fallen victims to the said "prescribed course of regimen." the matter is soon disposed of. not a case of the description is found in the whole catalogue of returns to dr. n. this is a triumph which the friends of the vegetable system did not expect. from the medical profession of this country, hostile as many of them are known to be to the "prescribed course of regimen," they must naturally have expected to hear of at least a few persons who were supposed to have fallen victims to it. but, i say again, not one appears. it is true that dr. preston, of plymouth, mass., thinks he should have fallen a victim to his abstinence from flesh meat, had he not altered his course; and dr. harden, of georgia, relates a case of sudden loss of strength, and great debility, which he thought, _at the time_, might "possibly" be ascribed to the want of animal food: though the individual himself attributed it to quite another cause. these are the only two, of a list of thirty or forty, which were detailed, that bear the slightest resemblance to those which report had brought to the ear of dr. n., and about which he so anxiously and earnestly solicited inquiry of his medical brethren. as to the case mentioned by dr. harden, no one who examined it with care, will believe for a moment, that it affords the slightest evidence against a diet exclusively vegetable. the gentleman who made the experiment had pursued it faithfully three years, without the slightest loss of strength, but with many advantages, when, of a sudden, extreme debility came on. is it likely that a diet on which he had so long been doing well, should produce such a sudden falling off? the gentleman himself appears not to have had the slightest suspicion that the debility had any connection with the diet. he attributes its commencement, if not its continuance, to the inhalation of poisonous gases, to which he was subjected in the process of some chemical experiments. but why, then, it may be asked, did he return to a mixed diet, if he had imbibed no doubts in regard to a diet exclusively vegetable; and, above all, how happened he to recover on it? to this it may be replied, that there is every reason to believe, from the tenor of the letter, that he acted against his own inclination, and contrary to his own views, at the request of his friends, and of dr. harden, his physician; though dr. harden does not expressly say so. besides, it does not appear that under his mixed diet there was any favorable change, till something like six months had elapsed. this was a period, in all probability, just sufficient to allow the poison of the gases to disappear; after which he might have been expected to recover on any diet not positively bad. if this is not a true solution of the case, how happens it that there was no disease of any organ or function, except the nervous function? there is every reason for believing that dr. harden, at the date of his letter, had undergone a change of opinion, and was himself beginning to doubt whether the regimen had any agency in producing the debility.[ ] the case of dr. preston is somewhat more difficult. at first view, it seems to sustain the old notion of medical men, that, with a scrofulous habit, a diet exclusively vegetable cannot be made to agree. this, i say, seems to be a natural conclusion, _at first view_. but, on looking a little farther, we may find some facts that justify a different opinion. dr. preston was evidently timid and fearful--foreboding ill--during the whole progress of his experiment. we think his story fully justifies this conclusion. in such circumstances, what could have been expected? there is no course of regimen in the world which will succeed happily in a state of mind like this. it should be carefully observed by the reader, that dr. preston speaks of entering upon a "severe course of diet;" and also, that, in attempting to give an opinion as to the best kind of vegetable food, he speaks of potatoes, prepared in a certain specified manner, as being preferable to any other. now, i think it obvious, that dr. preston's "severe course" partook largely of _crude_ vegetables, instead of the richer and better farinaceous articles--as the various sorts of bread, rice, pulse, etc.--and, if so, it is not to be wondered at that it was so unsuccessful. in short, i do not think he made any thing like a fair experiment in vegetable diet. his testimony, therefore, though interesting, seems to be entitled to very little weight. this conclusion is stated with the more confidence, from the fact that some of the best medical writers, not only of ancient times, but of the present day, appear to entertain serious doubts in regard to the soundness of the popular opinion in favor of the "beef-steak-and-porter" system of curing scrofulous patients. dr. clark, in the progress of his "treatise on consumption," almost expresses a belief that a judicious vegetable diet is preferable even for the scrofulous. he would not, of course, recommend a diet of _crude_ vegetables, but one, rather, which would partake largely of farinaceous grains and fruits. nor do i suppose he would, in every case, entirely exclude milk. dr. cheyne, in his writings, not only gives it as his opinion that a milk diet, long continued, or a milk and vegetable diet and mild mercurials, are the best means of curing scrofula; but he also says, expressly, that "in all countries where animal food and strong fermented liquors are too freely used, there is scarcely an individual that hath not scrofulous glands." a sad story to relate, or to read! but, dr. lambe, of london, and other british physicians, entertain similar sentiments; and dr. lambe practices medicine largely, while entertaining these sentiments. i could mention more than one distinguished physician, in boston and elsewhere, who prescribes a vegetable and milk diet in scrofula. but, granting even the most that the friends of animal food can claim, what would the case of dr. preston prove? that the healthy are ever injured by the vegetable system? by no means. that the sickly would generally be? certainly not. dr. preston himself even specifies one disease, in which he thinks a vegetable diet would be useful. what, then, is the bearing of _this single and singular case_? why, at the most, it only shows that there are some forms of dyspepsia which require animal food. dr. preston does not produce a single fact unfavorable to a diet exclusively vegetable for the healthy.[ ] it is also worthy of particular notice, that not a fact is brought, or an experiment related, in a list of from thirty to forty cases, reported too by medical men, which goes to prove that any injury has arisen to the healthy, from laying aside the use of animal food. this kind of information, though not the principal thing, was at least a secondary object with dr. north; as we see by his questions, which were intended to be put to those who had excluded animal food from their diet for a year or more. but, let us take a general view of the replies to the inquiries of dr. north. the sum of his first three questions, was,--what were the effects of excluding animal food from your diet on your bodily strength, your mental faculties, and your appetite and animal spirits? the answers to the three questions, of which this is the same, are, as will be seen, remarkable. in almost every instance the reply indicates that bodily and mental labor was endured with less fatigue than before, and that an increased activity of mind and body was accompanied with increased cheerfulness and animal enjoyment. in nearly every instance, strength of body was actually increased; especially after the first month. a result so uniformly in favor of the vegetable system is certainly more than could have been expected. one physician who made the experiment, indeed, says, that though his mind was clearer than before, he could not endure, so long, a laborious investigation. another individual says, he perceived no difference in this respect. a third says, she found her bodily strength and powers of investigation somewhat diminished, though her disease was removed. with these exceptions, the testimony on this point is, as i have already said, most decidedly--i might say most overwhelmingly--in favor of the disuse of animal food. to the question, whether any constitutional infirmities were aggravated or removed by the new course of regimen, the replies are almost equally favorable to the vegetable system. it is true that one of the physicians, dr. parmly, thinks the beneficial effects which appeared in the circle of his observation were the results of a simultaneous discontinuance of fermented drinks, tea and coffee, and condiments. but i believe every one who reads his letter will be surprised at his conclusions. no matter, however; we have his facts, and we are quite willing they should be carefully considered. the singular case of dr. preston, i now leave wholly out of the account. it was, as i have since learned, the story of a _very singular man_. among the diseases and difficulties which were removed, or supposed to be removed, by the new diet, were dyspepsia, with the constipation which usually attends it, general lassitude, rheumatism, periodical headache, palpitations, irritation of the first passages, eruptive diseases of the skin, scurvy, and consumption. the case of dr. bannister, who was, in early life, decidedly consumptive, is one of the most remarkable on record. though evidently consumptive, and near the borders of the grave, between the ages of twenty and twenty-nine, he so far recovered as to be, at the age of fifty-three, entirely free from every symptom of phthisis for twenty-four years; during which whole period, he was sufficiently vigorous to follow the laborious business of a country physician. the confidence of dr. wright in the prophylactic powers of a diet exclusively vegetable, so far as the mere opinion of one medical man is to be received as testimony in the case, is also remarkable. he not only regards the vegetable system as a defence against the diseases of miasmatic regions, but also against the varioloid disease. on the latter point, he goes, it seems, almost as far as mr. graham, who appears to regard it not only as, in some measure, a preventive of epidemic diseases generally, in which he is most undoubtedly correct, but also of the small-pox. the testimony on another point which is presented in the replies to dr. north's questions, is almost equally uniform. in nearly every instance, the individuals who have abandoned animal food have found themselves less subject to colds than before; and some appear to have fallen into the habit of escaping them altogether. when it is considered how serious are the consequences of taking cold--when it is remembered that something like one half of the diseases of our climate have their origin in this source--it is certainly no trifling evidence in favor of a course of regimen, that, besides being highly favorable in every other respect, it should prove the means of freeing mankind from exposure to a malady at once troublesome in itself and disastrous in its consequences. in reply to the question,--is a vegetable diet more or less aperient than a mixed one,--the answers have been the same, in nearly every instance, that it is more so. the answers to the question whether it was believed the health of either laborers or students would be promoted by the exclusion of animal food from their diet, are rather various. it will be observed, however, that many of the replies, in this case, are medical _opinions_, and come from men who, though they felt themselves bound to state facts, were doubtless, with very few exceptions, prejudiced against an exclusively vegetable regimen for the healthy. it is, therefore, to me, a matter of surprise, to find some of them in favor of the said prescribed course of regimen, both for students and laborers, and many of them in favor of the discontinuance of animal food by students. those who have themselves made the experiment, with hardly an exception, are decidedly in favor of a vegetable regimen for all classes of mankind, particularly the sedentary. and in regard to the necessity of diminishing the proportion of animal food consumed by all classes, there seems to be but one voice. on one more important point there is a very general concurrence of opinion. i allude to the choice of articles from the vegetable kingdom. the farinacea are considered as the best; especially wheat, ground without bolting. the preference of dr. preston is an exception; and there are one or two others. on the whole--i repeat it--the testimony is far more favorable to the "prescribed course of regimen," both for the healthy and diseased than under the circumstances connected with the inquiry the most thorough-going vegetable eater could possibly have anticipated. if this is a fair specimen--and i know no reason why it may not be regarded as such--of the results of similar experiments and similar observations among medical men throughout our country, could their observations and experiments be collected, it certainly confirms the views which some among us have long entertained on this subject, and which will be still more strongly confirmed by evidence which will be produced in the following chapters. had similar efforts been made forty or fifty years ago, to ascertain the views of physicians and others respecting the benefits or safety of excluding wine and other fermented drinks in the treatment of several diseases, in which not one in ten of our modern practitioners would now venture to use them, as well as among the healthy, i believe the results would have been of a very different character. the opinions, at least, of the physicians themselves, would most certainly have been, nearly without a dissenting voice, that the entire rejection of wine and fermented liquors was dangerous to the sick, and unsafe to many of the healthy, especially the hard laborer. and there is quite as much reason to believe that animal food will be discarded from our tables in the progress of a century to come, as there was, in , for believing that all drinks but water would be laid aside in the progress of the century which is now passing. footnotes: [ ] see a more recent letter from dr. harden, in the next chapter. [ ] besides, it is worthy of notice, that dr. preston did not long survive on his own plan. he died about the year . chapter iv. additional intelligence. letter from dr. h. a. barrows.--dr. j. m. b. harden.--dr. j. porter.--dr. n. j. knight.--dr. lester keep.--second letter from dr. keep.--dr. henry h. brown.--dr. franklin knox.--from a physician.--additional statements by the author. during the years and i wrote to several of the physicians whose names, experiments, and facts appear in chapter ii. their answers, so far as received, are now to be presented. i have also received interesting letters from several other physicians in new england and elsewhere--but particularly in new england--on the same general subject, which, with an additional statement of my own case, i have added to the foregoing. i might have added a hundred authentic cases, of similar import. i might also have obtained an additional amount of the same sort of intelligence, had it not been for the want of time, amid numerous other pressing avocations, for correspondence of this kind. besides, if what i have obtained is not satisfactory, i have many doubts whether more would be so. the first letter i shall insert is from dr. h. a. barrows, of phillips, in maine. it is dated october , , and may be considered as a sequel to that written by him to dr. north, though it is addressed to the author of this volume. letter i.--from dr. h. a. barrows. dear sir,--as to food, my course of living has been quite uniform for the last two or three years--principally as follows. wheat meal bread, potatoes, butter, and baked sweet apples for breakfast and dinners; for suppers, old dry flour bread, which, eaten very leisurely without butter, sauce, or drink, sits the lightest and best of any thing i eat. but i cannot make this my principal diet, because the bowels will not act (_without physic_) unless they have the spur of wheat bran two thirds of the time. i have at times practiced going to bed without any third meal; and have found myself amply rewarded for this kind of fasting, and the consequent respite thereby afforded the stomach, in quiet sleep and improved condition the next day. and as to drink, i still use cold water, which i take with as great a zest, and as keen a relish, as the inebriate does his stimulus. i seldom drink any thing with my meals; and if i could live without drinking any thing between meals, i think i should be rid of the principal "thorn in my side," the acetous fermentation so constantly going on in my epigastric storehouse. as to exercise, i take abundance; perform all my practice (except in the winter) on horseback, and find this the very best kind of exercise for me. i seldom eat oftener than at intervals of six hours, and am apt to eat too much--have at various times attempted don cornaro's method of weighing food, but have found it rather dry business, probably on account of its conflicting with my appetite; but i actually find that my stomach does not bear watching at all well. my brother continues to practice nearly total abstinence from animal food. i have seen him but once in two and a half years, but learn his health has greatly improved, so that he was able to take charge of a high school in the fall of , of an academy in the spring of the present year, and also again this fall. during his vacation last july, he took a tour into the interior of worcester county, mass., and came home entirely on foot by way of the notch of the white hills, traveling nearly three hundred miles. this speaks something in favor of rigid abstinence--as when he commenced this regimen he was extremely low. yours sincerely, h. a. barrows. letter ii.--from dr. john m. b. harden. georgia, liberty co., oct. , . dear sir,--i stated in my letter to dr. north, if i recollect correctly, that the use of animal food was resumed in consequence of a protracted indisposition brought on, _as was supposed_, by the inhalation of arseniuretted hydrogen gas. the gentleman had begun to recover some time previously; and in a short time after he commenced the use of the animal food, he was restored to his usual health. he has continued the use of it ever since to the same extent as in the former part of his life. he has lately passed his fifty-fifth year, and is now in the enjoyment of as good health as he has ever known. i know of a gentleman in an adjoining county, who with his lady has been living for some time past on a purely vegetable diet. they have not continued it long enough, however, to make the experiment a fair one. no case of injury from the inhalation of arseniuretted hydrogen has come under my own personal observation, if we except the one above alluded to. i find, however, that gehlen, a celebrated french chemist, fell a victim to it in the year . his death is thus announced in the "philosophical magazine" for that year. "we lament to have to announce the death of gehlen, many years the editor of an excellent journal on chemistry and other sciences, and a profound chemist. he fell a victim to his ardent desire to promote the advancement of chemical knowledge. he was preparing, in company with mr. rehland, his colleague, some arsenated hydrogen gas, and while watching for the full development of this air from its acid solution, trying every moment to judge from its particular smell when that operation would be completed, he inhaled the fatal poison which has robbed science of his valuable services." vide tillock's phil. mag., vol. , p. . some further notice is taken of his death in a paper extracted from the "annales de chimie et de physique," and published in a subsequent volume of the same magazine. vide vol. , p. , in which are given his last experiments on that subject, by m. gay lussac. i regret that no account is given in the same work of the symptoms arising from the poison in his case. i presume, however, they are on record. in the subject of the case i mention, the general and prominent symptoms were an immediate and great diminution of muscular strength, with pallor of countenance and constant febricula, the arteries of the head beating with violence, particularly when lying down at night, the pulse always moderately increased in frequency, and full, but not tense; and digestion for the most part good. this state continued for about three months, during which time he was attending to his usual business, although not able to take as much exercise as before. at the end of this time he began to recover slowly, but it was six months before he was restored entirely. yours, etc., john m. b. harden. letter iii.--from dr. joshua porter. north brookfield, oct. , . though i would by no means favor the propensity for book-making, so prevalent in our day, yet i have been long of the opinion that a work on vegetable diet for general readers was greatly needed. i need it in my family; and there are many others in this vicinity who would be materially benefited by such a work. i have had no means of ascertaining the good or bad effects of a "diet exclusively vegetable in cases of phthisis, scrofula, and dyspepsia," for i have had none of the above diseases to contend with. but, since your letter was received, i have been called to prescribe for a man who has been a flesh eater for more than half a century. he was confined to his house, had been losing strength for several months, still keeping up his old habits. the disease which was preying upon him was chronic inflammation of the right leg; the flesh had been so long swollen and inflamed that it had become hard to the touch. there were ulcers on his thigh, and some had made their appearance on the hip. this disease had been of _seven months'_ standing, though not in so aggravated a form as it now appeared. during this time, all the local applications had been made that could be thought of by the good ladies in the neighborhood; and after every thing of the kind had failed, they concluded to send for "the doctor." after examining the patient attentively, i became convinced that the disease, which developed itself locally, was of a constitutional origin, and of course could not be cured by local remedies. all local applications were discontinued; the patient was put on a vegetable diet after the alimentary canal was freely evacuated. i saw this man three days afterward. the dark purple appearance of the leg had somewhat subsided; the red and angry appearance about the base of the ulcers was gone, his strength improved, etc. three days after i called, i found him in his garden at work. he is now--two weeks since my first prescription--almost well. all the ulcers have healed, with the exception of one or two. this man, who thinks it wicked not to use the good things god has given us--such as meat, cider, tobacco, etc.--is very willing to subsist, for the present, on vegetable food, because he finds it the only remedy for his disease. early in the spring of , while a student at amherst college, i was attacked with dyspepsia, which rendered my life wretched for more than a year, and finally drove me from college; but it had now so completely gained the mastery, that no means i resorted to for relief afforded even a palliation of my sufferings. after i had suffered nearly two years in this way, i was made more wretched, if possible, by frequent attacks of colic, with pains and cramps extending to my back; and so severe had these pains become, that the prescriptions of the most eminent physicians afforded only partial relief. on the th of february, , after suffering from the most violent paroxysm i had ever endured, i left my home for brunswick, maine, to attend a course of medical lectures. for several days i boarded at a public house, and ate freely of several substantial dishes that were before me. the consequence was a fresh attack of colic. from some circumstances that came up at this time, i was convinced that flesh meats had much to do with my sufferings, and the resolution was formed at once to change my diet and "starve" out dyspepsia. i took a room by myself, and made arrangements for receiving a pint of milk per day; this, with coarse rye and indian bread, constituted my only food. after living in this way a week or two, i had a free and natural evacuation. thus nature began to effect what medicine alone had done for nearly three years. the skin became moist, and my voracious appetite began to subside. i returned home to my friends at the close of the term well, and have been well ever since--have never had a colic pain or any costiveness since that time. my powers of digestion are good, and though i do not live so rigidly now as when at brunswick, i always feel best when my food is vegetables and milk. i can endure fatigue and exposure as well as any man. on this mild diet, too, my muscular strength has considerably increased; and every day is adding new vigor to my constitution. having experienced so much benefit from a mild diet, and being rationally convinced that man was a fruit-eating animal naturally, i made my views public by a course of lectures on physiology, which i delivered in the lyceum soon after i came to this place (three years ago). the consequence was, that quite a number of those who heard my lectures commenced training their families as well as themselves to the use of vegetables, etc., and i am happy to inform you that, at this day, many of our most active influential business-doing men are living in the plainest and most simple manner. one of my neighbors has taken no flesh for more than three years. he is of the ordinary height, and sanguine temperament, and usually weighed, when he ate flesh, one hundred and eighty pounds. after he changed his diet, his countenance began to change, and his cheeks fell in; and his meat-eating friends had serious apprehensions that he would survive but a short time, unless he returned to his former habits. but he persevered, and is now more vigorous and more athletic than any man in the region, or than he himself has ever been before. his muscular strength is very great. a few days since, a number of the most athletic young men in our village were trying their strength at lifting a cask of lime, weighing five hundred pounds. all failed to do it, with the exception of one, who partly raised it from the ground. after they were gone, this vegetable eater without any difficulty raised the cask four or five times. more than three years ago this man lost his daughter, who fell a prey to cholera infantum; he has now a daughter rather more than a year old, whom he has trained on strictly physiological principles; and though very feeble at birth, and for three months subsequently, she is now the most healthy child in the town. this child had some of the first symptoms of consumption last august, owing to the too free indulgence of the mother in improper articles of food; but being treated with demulcents, at the same time correcting the mother's system, she recovered, and is now the "picture of health." i was conversing with this gentleman the other day respecting his health--says he is perfectly well, weighs one hundred and sixty-five pounds; and though he was called well when eating flesh, he was not so in reality; for every few weeks he was troubled with headache and a sense of fullness in the region of the stomach, for which he was obliged to take an active cathartic. for a few months before he adopted the vegetable system, he had decided symptoms of congestion in the head, such as precede apoplexy. i questioned him as to his appetite. he informed me, that when he ate meat he had such an unconquerable desire for food about eleven o'clock, that he could not wait till noon. this he calls "meat hunger," for it disappeared soon after he came to the present style of living. he has no craving now; but when he begins to eat, the zest is exquisite. yours, joshua porter. letter iv.--from dr. n. j. knight, of truro. dated at truro, october, . dr. alcott: sir,--i hasten to comply so far with your request as to show my decided approbation of a fruit and farinaceous diet, both in health and sickness. the manner in which nutritious vegetables are presented to us for our consumption and support, evince to a demonstration the simplicity of our corporeal systems. through every medium of correct information, we learn that the most distinguished men, both in ancient and modern times, were pre-eminently distinguished for their abstemiousness, and the simplicity of their diet. it was not, however, a consideration of this kind that first induced me to relinquish flesh meat and fish. some three years previous to my forming a determination to subsist upon farinacea, i had been laboring under an aggravated case of dyspepsia; and about six months previous, also, an attack of acute rheumatism. i was harassed with constant constipation of the bowels, and ejection of food after eating, together with occasional pain in the head. under all these circumstances, i came to this determination, which i committed to paper: "november , . this day ceased from strengthening this mortal body by any part of that which ever drew breath." to the above i rigidly adhered until last november, when my health had become so perfect that i thought myself invincible, so far as disease was concerned. all pains and aches had left me, and all the functions of the body seemed to be performed in a healthy manner. my diet had consisted of rye and indian bread, stale flour bread, sweet bread without shortening, milk, some ripe fruit, and occasionally a little butter. during this time, while i devoted myself to considerable laborious practice and hard study, there was no deficiency of muscular strength or mental energy. i am fully satisfied my mind was never so active and strong. since last november i have, at times, taken animal food, in order that i might be absolutely satisfied that my mode of living acted decidedly in favor of my perfect health, and that a different course would produce organic derangement. i had only taken animal food about two months after the usual custom, before i had a severe attack, and only escaped an inflammatory fever by the most rigid antiphlogistic treatment. i again lived as i ought, and felt well; and having continued so some time, i resorted the second time to an animal diet. in two months' time, i was taken with the urticaria febrilis, of bateman, which lasted me more than two weeks, and my suffering was sufficient to forever exclude from my stomach every kind of animal food. i am now satisfied, to all intents and purposes, that mankind would live longer, and enjoy more perfectly the "sane mind in a sound body," should they never taste flesh meat or fish. a simple farinaceous diet i have ever found more efficient in the cure of chronic complaints, where there was not much organic lesion, than every other medical agent. mrs. a., infected with scrofula of the left breast, and in a state of ulceration, applied to me two years since. the ulcer was then the size of a half-dollar, and discharged a considerable quantity of imperfect pus. the axillary glands were much enlarged, and, doubting the practicability of operating with the knife in such cases, i told her the danger of her disease, and ordered her to subsist upon bread and milk and some fruit, drink water, and keep the body of as uniform temperature as possible. i ordered the sore to be kept clean by ablutions of tepid water. in less than three months, the ulcer was all healed, and her general health much improved. the axillary glands are still enlarged, though less so than formerly. she still lives simply, and enjoys good health; but she tells me if she tastes flesh meat, it produces a twinging in the breast. many cases, like the above, have come under my observation and immediate attention, and suffice it to say, i have never failed to ameliorate the condition of every individual that has applied to me, who was suffering under chronic affections, if they would follow my prescriptions--unless the system was incapable of reaction. yours, truly, n. j. knight. letter v.--from dr. lester keep. fair haven, jan. , . dear sir,--agreeably to your request, i will inform you that from september, , to june, , i used no meat at all, except occasionally in my intercourse with society, i used a little to avoid attracting notice. when i commenced my studies, life was burdensome. i knew not, for months, and i may say years, what enjoyment comfortable health affords. in a great many ways i can now see that i very greatly erred in my course of living. i am surprised that the system will hold out in its powers during so long a process in the use of what i should now consider the means best calculated to break it down. i cannot now particularize. but in college, and during my professional studies, and since, during six or eight years of practice in an arduous profession, i have been greatly guilty, and neglected those means best calculated to promote and preserve health; and used those means best fitted to destroy it. the summers of , , and , were pretty much lost, from wretched health. i was growing worse every year, and no medicines that i could prepare for myself, or that were prescribed by various brother physicians, had any thing more than a temporary effect to relieve me. all of the year , until september, i used opium for relief; and i used three and four grains of sulphate of morphine per day, equal to about sixteen grains of opium. spirit, wine, and ale i had tried, and journeys through many portions of the state of maine, with the hope that a more northern climate would invigorate and restore a system that i feared was broken down forever, and that at the age of thirty-seven. but, without further preamble, i will say, i omitted at once and entirely the use of tea, coffee, meat, butter, grease of all sorts, cakes, pies, etc., wine, cider, spirits, opium (which i feared i must use as long as i lived), and tobacco, the use of which i learned in college. of course, from so sudden and so great a change, a most horrid condition must ensue for many days, for the relief of which i used the warm bath at first several times a day. i had set no time to omit these articles, and made no resolutions, except to give this course a trial, to find out whether i had many native powers of system left, and what was their character and condition when unaffected by the list of agents mentioned. i pursued this plan of living faithfully for one year and a half, and with unspeakable joy i found a gradual return of original vigor and health. now, i cannot say that the omission of meat of all kinds, for a year and a half, caused this improvement in health; it is possible that it had but little to do with it. i know i was guilty of many bad habits; and probably all combined caused my bad condition. at the close of the year and a half, i married my present second wife, and then commenced living as do others, in most respects, and continued this course most of the time until i received your letter. i then again omitted the use of all animal food, tea, coffee, and tobacco; and for the last month, it is a clear case, my health is better; that is, more vigorous to bear cold. i also bear labor and care better. i have not investigated the subject of dietetics very much, but i have no doubt that the inhabitants of our whole land make too much use of animal food. no doubt it obstructs the vital powers, and tends to unbalance the healthful play and harmony of the various organs and their functions. there is too much nutriment in a small space. an unexpected quantity is taken; for with most people a sense of fullness is the test of a sufficient quantity. i am satisfied that i am better without animal food than with the quantity i ordinarily use. if i should use but a small quantity once or twice a day, it is possible it would not be injurious. this i have not tried; for i am so excessively fond of meat, that i always eat _more_ than a small quantity, when i eat it at all. healthy, vigorous men, day laborers in the field, or forest, may perhaps require some meat to sustain the system, during hard and exhausting labor. of this i cannot say. i am now pretty well convinced, from two or three years' observation, that a large portion of my business, as a physician, arises from intemperance in the use of food. too much and too rich nutriment is used, and my constant business is, to counteract its bad effects. two cases are now in mind of the great benefit of dieting for the recovery of health, the particulars of which i cannot now give you. one of them i think would be willing to speak for himself on the subject. i am, sir, yours, etc., lester keep. letter vi.--second letter from dr. keep. fair haven, ct., jan. , . sir,--since i wrote you, a few days ago, i have learned of several individuals who have, for some length of time, used no flesh meat at all. amos townsend, cashier of the new haven bank, has, as i am told, lived almost entirely upon bread, crackers, or something of that kind, and but little of that. he can dictate a letter, count money, and hold conversation with an individual, all at the same time, with no embarrassment; and i know him to have firm health. our minister, rev. b. l. swan, during the whole of two years of his theological studies at princeton, made crackers and water his only food, and was in good health. mr. hanover bradley, of this village, who has been several years a missionary among the indians, has, for i think, eight or ten years, lived entirely on vegetable food. he had been long a dyspeptic. there are some other cases of less importance, and probably very many in new haven; but i am situated a mile from the city, and have never inquired for vegetable livers. yours, etc., lester keep. letter vii.--from dr. henry h. brown west randolph, vt., feb. , . dear sir,--it has been about two years and a half since i adopted an exclusively vegetable diet, with no drink but water; and my food has been chiefly prepared by the most simple forms of cookery. previously to this, i used a large proportion of flesh meat, and drank tea and coffee. i had much impaired my health by such indulgences. i hardly need to say that my health has greatly improved, and is now quite good and uniform. i think that physicians, in prescribing for the removal of disease, should pay much more regard to the diet of their patients, and administer less of powerful medicine, than is customary with gentlemen of this profession at large. yours, etc., henry h. brown. letter viii.--from dr. franklin knox. kinston,[ ] n. c., june , . dear sir,--your letter of the d july has been hitherto unanswered, through press of business. i consider an exclusive vegetable diet as of the utmost consequence in most diseases, especially in those chronic affections or morbid states of the system which are not commonly considered as diseases; and i think that, in these cases, such a diet is too often overlooked, even by physicians. yours, truly, f. knox. letter ix.--from a highly respectable physician. [the following letter, received last autumn, is from a medical gentleman, in a distant part of the country, whose name, for particular reasons, we stand pledged not to give to the world. the facts, however, may be relied on; and they are exceedingly important and interesting.] dear sir,--your letter was duly received. i proceed to say that, since i settled in this town, my attacks of epilepsy[ ] have occurred in the following order: . nov. . one at p. m. severe. " . " " " " . nineteen, from a. m. to p. m. frightful. . jan. . one at a. m. } " . " " } milder. " . two at and a. m. } thus it appears that i have enjoyed a longer immunity since the last, than for some years prior. i have maintained total abstinence from flesh, fish, or fowl, for two and a half years, namely, from march to the present time. that this happy immunity from a most obstinate disease is to be attributed solely to my abstinence from animal food, i do not feel prepared to assert; but that my general health has been better, my attacks of disease far milder, my vigor of mind and body greater, my mental perceptions clearer and more acute, and my enjoyment of life, on the whole, very essentially increased, i am fully prepared to prove. i have, however, found it nearly as essential for me to abstain from many kinds of vegetable food as from animal, namely, from all kinds of flatulent vegetables; from all kinds of fruits and berries, except the very mildest--as, perfectly ripe and well baked sweet apples--and from all kinds of pies, sauces, and preserves. of these, however, i am not able to say, as i do of the animal varieties, that i have practiced total abstinence; by no means. i have often ventured to indulge, and generally suffer more or less for my temerity. my severest sufferings for the last two years have been in the form of colic, of which i have had frequent slight attacks; but none to confine me over twenty-four hours. * * * * * additional statements.--by the author.[ ] from the age of five or six months to that of two years, i was literally crammed with flesh meat; usually of the most gross kind. such a course was believed, by the fond parents and others, as likely to be productive of the most healthful and happy consequences. the result was an accumulation of adipose substance, that rendered me one of the most unsightly, not to say monstrous productions of nature. i ought not to say _nature_, perhaps; for, if not perverted, she produces no such monsters. at the age of six months, my weight was twenty-five pounds; and it rose soon after to thirty or more. when i was about two years of age, i had the whooping-cough, and, having been brought up to the height, and more than the height of my condition, by over-feeding with fat meat, i suffered exceedingly. i? recovered, at length, but i had lost my relish, as i am informed, for flesh meat; and from this time till the age of fourteen, i seldom ate any but the leanest muscle. i was tolerably healthy, but, from the age of two years, was slender; so much so that, at five or six, i only weighed fifty pounds; and was constantly either found fault with, or pitied, because i did not eat meat in quality and quantity like other people. nor was it without much effort, even at the age of fourteen, that i could bring myself to be reconciled to it. i was also trained to the early use of much cider, and to the moderate use of tea and spirits. i have spoken of my slender constitution;--i believe this was in part the result of excessive early labor, and that it was not wholly owing to a premature use of flesh meat. i had suffered so much, however, from the belief that i was feeble from the latter cause, that i had no sooner become reconciled to the use of flesh and fish--which was at the age of fourteen--than i indulged in it quite freely. about this time i had a severe attack of measles, which came very near carrying me off. i was left with anasarca, or general dropsy, and with weak eyes. to cure the former the physicians plied me, for a long time, with blue pill, and with mercurial medicine in other forms, and also with digitalis; and finally filled my stomach to overflowing with diuretic drinks. however, in spite of them all, i recovered during the next year; except that a foundation was laid for premature decay of the teeth, and for a severe eruptive disease. this last, and the weakness of the eyes, were, for some time, very troublesome. the eruptive complaint was soon discovered to be less severe, even in hot weather, and while i was using a great deal of exercise, in proportion as i abstained from all drinks but water, and ate none but mild food. owing to the discovery of this fact and to other causes, i chiefly discontinued the use of stimulating food and drink, during the hottest part of the season; though i committed much error in regard to the quantity of my food, and drank quite too freely of cold water. still i always found my health best, and my body and mind most vigorous at the end of summer, or the beginning of autumn, notwithstanding the very hard labor to which i was subjected on the farm. this increase of vigor was, at that time, attributed chiefly to a free use of summer fruits; for, so deeply had the belief been infixed by early education, that highly stimulating food and drink were indispensable to the full health and strength of mankind, and especially to people who were laboring hard, that, though i sometimes suspected they were not true friends to the human system, my conscience always condemned the suspicion, and pronounced me guilty of a species of high treason for harboring it. this brings up my dietetic history, to the period at which it commences, in the letter to dr. north. the study of medicine, however, from the age of twenty-four to twenty-seven, and the subsequent study and practice of it for a few years, joined to the changes i made at the same time in my physical habits, and my observations on their effects, led me to reject, one after another, and one group after another, the whole tribe of extra stimulants--solid and fluid. the sequel of my story remains to be told. it is now nearly fifteen years since i wrote the letter, which is found at page d, to dr. north. during this long period, and for several years before, amounting, in all, to about nineteen years, i have not only abstained entirely from flesh, fish, and fowl--not having eaten a pound of any one of these during the whole time, except the very few pounds i used in the time of the first visitation of our country with cholera, as before mentioned--but i have almost entirely abstained from butter, cheese, eggs, and milk. butter, especially, i _never_ taste at all. the occasional use of milk, in very small quantities, once a day, has, however, been resorted to; not from necessity, indeed, or to gratify any strong desire or inclination for it, but from a conviction of its happy medicinal effects on my much-injured frame. hot food of every kind, and liquids, with the exception just made, i rarely touch. nearly every thing is taken in as solid a form and in as simple a state as possible; with no condiments, except a very little salt, and with no sweets, sauces, gravies, jellies, preserves, etc. i seldom use more than one sort of food at a time, unless it be to add fruit as a second article; and this is rarely done, except in the morning. i have for ten or twelve years used no drinks with my meals; and sometimes for months together have had very little thirst at all.[ ] and as to the effects, they are such, and have all along been such, as to make me wonder at myself, whenever i think of it. instead of being constantly subject to cold, and nearly dying with consumption in the spring, i am almost free from any tendency to take cold at all. during the winter of - , by neglecting to keep the temperature of my room low enough, and by neglecting also to take sufficient exercise in the open air, i became unusually tender, and suffered to some extent from colds. but i was well again during the spring, and felt as if i had recovered or nearly recovered my former hardihood. in regard to other complaints, i may say still more. of rheumatism, i have scarcely had a twinge in twelve or fourteen years. my eruptive complaint is, i believe, _entirely_ gone. the weakness of my eyes has been wholly gone for many years. indeed, the strength and perfection of my sight and of all my senses, till nearly fifty years of age--hearing perhaps excepted, in which i perceive no alteration--appeared to be constantly improving. my stomach and intestines perform their respective duties in the most appropriate, correct, and healthful manner. my appetite is constantly good, and as constantly improving;--that is, going on toward perfection. i can detect, especially by taste, almost any thing which is in the least offensive or deleterious in food or drink; and yet i can receive, without immediate apparent disturbance, and readily digest, almost any thing which ever entered a human stomach--knives, pencils, clay, chalk, etc., perhaps excepted. i can eat a full meal of cabbage, or any other very objectionable crude aliment, or even cheese or pastry--a single meal, i mean--with apparent impunity; not when fatigued, of course, or in any way debilitated, but in the morning and when in full strength. it is true, i make no experiments of this sort, except occasionally _as_ experiments. in my former statements i gave it as my opinion that vegetable food was less aperient than animal. my opinion now is, that if we were trained on vegetable food, and had never received substances into the stomach which were unduly stimulating, we should find the intestinal or peristaltic action quite sufficient. the apparent sluggishness of the bowels, when we first exchange an animal diet for a vegetable one, is probably owing to our former abuses. at present, i find my plain vegetable food, in moderate and reasonable quantity, quite as aperient as it ought to be, and, if i exceed a proper quantity, too much so. i have now no remaining doubts of the vast importance that would result to mankind, from an universal training from childhood, to the exclusive use of vegetable food. i believe such a course of training, along with a due attention to air, exercise, cleanliness, etc., would be the means of improving our race, physically, intellectually, and morally, beyond any thing of which the world has yet conceived. but my reasons for this belief will be seen more fully in another place. they are founded in science and the observation of facts around me, much more than on a narrow individual experience. there is one circumstance which i must not omit, because it is full of admonition and instruction. i have elsewhere stated that, twenty-three years ago, i had incipient phthisis. of this fact, and of the fact that there were considerable inroads made by disease on the upper lobe of the right lung, i have not the slightest doubt. the symptoms were such at the time, and subsequently, as could not have been mistaken. besides, what was, as i conceive, pretty fully established by the symptoms which existed, is rendered still more certain by auscultation. the sounds which are heard during respiration, in the region to which i have alluded, leave no doubt on the minds of skillful medical men, of their origin. still i doubt whether the disease has made any considerable progress for many years. but, during the winter of - , my employments became excessively laborious; and, for the whole winter and spring, were sufficient for at least two healthy and strong men. they were also almost wholly sedentary. at the end of may, i took a long and rather fatiguing journey through a country by no means the most healthy, and came home somewhat depressed in mind and body, especially the former. i was also unusually emaciated, and i began to have fears of a decline. still, however, my appetite was good, and i had a good share of bodily strength. the more i directed my attention to myself, the worse i became; and i actually soon began to experience darting pains in the chest, together with other symptoms of a renewal of pulmonary disease. perceiving my danger, however, from the state of my mind, i at length made a powerful effort to shake off the mental disturbance--which succeeded. this, together with moderate labor and rather more exercise than before, seemed gradually to set me right. again, in the spring of , after lecturing for weeks and months--often in bad and unventilated rooms and subjecting myself, unavoidably, to many of those abuses which exist every where in society, i was attacked with a cough, followed by great debility, from which it cost me some three months or more of labor with the spade and hoe, to recover. with this and the exceptions before named, i have now, for about twenty years, been as healthy as ever i was in my life, except the slight tendency to cold during the winter of which i have already taken notice. i never was more cheerful or more happy; never saw the world in a brighter aspect; never before was it more truly "morning all day" with me. i have paid, in part, the penalty of my transgressions; and may, perhaps, go on, in life, many years longer. i now fear nothing in the future, so far as health and disease are concerned, so much as excessive alimentation. to this evil--and it is a most serious and common one in this land of abundance and busy activity--i am much exposed, both from the keenness of my appetite, and the exceeding richness of the simple vegetables and fruits of which i partake. but, within a few years past, i seem to have gotten the victory, in a good measure, even in this respect. by eating only a few simple dishes at a time, and by measuring or weighing them with the eye--for i weigh them in no other way--i am usually able to confine myself to nearly the proper limits. this caution, and these efforts at self-government, are not needed because their neglect involves any immediate suffering; for, as i have already stated, there was never a period in my life before, when i was so completely independent--apparently so, i mean--of external circumstances. i can eat what i please, and as much or as little as i please. i can observe set hours, or be very irregular. i can use a pretty extensive variety at the same meal, and a still greater variety at different meals, or i can live perpetually on a single article--nay, on almost any thing which could be named in the animal or vegetable kingdom--and be perfectly contented and happy in the use of it. i could in short, eat, work, think, sleep, converse, or play almost all the while; or i could abstain from any or all of these, almost all the while. let me be understood, however. i do not mean to say that either of these courses would be best for me, in the end; but only that i have so far attained to independence of external circumstances that, for a time, i believe i should be able to do or bear all i have mentioned. one thing more, in this connection, and i shall have finished my remarks. i sleep too little; but it is because i allow my mind to run over the world so much, and lay so many schemes for human improvement or for human happiness; and because i allow my sympathies to become so deeply enlisted in human suffering and human woe. i should be most healthy, in the end, by spending six hours or more in sleep; whereas i do not probably exceed four or five. i have indeed obtained a respite from the grave of twenty-three years, through a partial repentance and amendment of life, and the mercy of god; but did i obey all his laws as well as i do a part of them, i know of no reason why my life might not be lengthened, not merely fifteen years, as was hezekiah's, or twenty-three merely, but forty or fifty. footnotes: [ ] dr. knox has since removed to st. louis, missouri. [ ] the reader will find another remarkable cure of epilepsy in a subsequent chapter of this volume. the case was that of dr. taylor, of england. [ ] see pages and . [ ] this fact, and certain discussions on the subject of temperance, led me to abstain, about the years and , entirely from all drink for a long time. indeed, i made two of these experiments; in one of which i abstained nine months and nineteen days, and in the other fourteen months and one or two days; except that in the latter case i ate, literally, for one or two successive days, while working hard at haying, one or two bowls a day of bread and water. but these were experiments _merely_--the experiments made by a medical man who preferred making experiments on himself to making them on others; and they never deserved the misconstruction which was put upon them by several persons, who, in other respects, were very sensible men. "the author" never believed with dr. lambe, of london, that man is not a drinking animal. chapter v. testimony of other medical men, both of ancient and modern times. general remarks.--testimony of dr. cheyne.--dr. geoffroy.--vanquelin and percy.--dr. pemberton.--sir john sinclair.--dr. james.--dr. cranstoun.--dr. taylor.--drs. hufeland and abernethy.--sir gilbert blane.--dr. gregory.--dr. cullen.--dr. rush.--dr. lambe.--prof. lawrence.--dr. salgues.--author of "sure methods."--baron cuvier.--dr. luther v. bell.--dr. buchan.--dr. whitlaw.--dr. clark.--prof. mussey.--drs. bell and condie.--dr. j. v. c. smith.--mr. graham.--dr. j. m. andrews, jr.--dr. sweetser.--dr. pierson.--physician in new york.--females' encyclopedia.--dr. van cooth.--dr. beaumont.--sir everard home.--dr. jennings.--dr. jarvis.--dr. ticknor.--dr. coles.--dr. shew.--dr. morrill.--dr. bell.--dr. jackson.--dr. stephenson.--dr. j. burdell.--dr. smethurst.--dr. schlemmer.--dr. curtis.--dr. porter. general remarks. the number of physicians, and surgeons, and medical men, whose testimony is brought to bear on the subject of diet, in the chapter which follows, is by no means as great as it might have been. there are few writers on anatomy, physiology, materia medica, or disease, who have not, either directly or indirectly, given their testimony in favor of a mild and vegetable diet for persons affected with certain chronic diseases. and there is scarcely a writer on hygiene, or even on diet, who has not done much more than this, and at times hinted at the safety of such a diet for those who are in health; particularly the studious and sedentary. but my object has been, not so much to collect all the evidence i could, as to make a judicious selection--a selection which should present the subject upon which it bears, in as many aspects as possible. i have aimed in general, also, to procure the testimony of intelligent and philanthropic men; or, at least of men whose names have by some means or other been already brought before the public. if there are a few exceptions to this rule, if a few are men whose names have been hitherto unknown, it is on account of the _aspect_, as i have already said, of their testimony, or on account of their peculiar position, as regards country, age of the world, etc., or to secure their authority for certain anecdotes or facts. in the arrangement of the testimony, i have been guided by no particular rule, unless it has been to present first that of some of the older and most accredited writers, such as cheyne, cullen, and rush. the testimony of certain living men and authors, particularly of our own country, has been presented toward the close of the chapter, and in a very brief and condensed form, from design. the propriety of inserting their names at all was for a time considered doubtful. it is believed, however, that they could not, in strict justice, have been entirely omitted. but let not the meagre sketch of their views i have given, satisfy us. we want a full development of their principles from their own pens--such a development as, i hope, will not long be withheld from a world which is famishing for the want of it. but now to the testimony. dr. george cheyne. this distinguished physician, and somewhat voluminous writer, flourished more than a hundred years ago. he may justly be esteemed the father of what is now called the "vegetable system" of living; although it is evident he did not see every thing clearly. "in the early part of his life," says prof. hitchcock, in his work on dyspepsia, "he was a voluptuary; and before he attained to middle age, was so corpulent that it was necessary to open the whole side of his carriage that he might enter; and he saw death inevitable, without a change of his course. he immediately abandoned all ardent spirits, wine, and fermented liquors, and confined himself wholly to milk, vegetables, and water. this course, with active exercise, reduced him from the enormous weight of four hundred and forty-eight pounds, to one hundred and forty; and restored his health and the vigor of his mind. after a few years, he ventured to change his abstemious diet for one more rich and stimulating. but the effect was a recurrence of his former corpulence and ill health. a return to milk, water, and vegetables restored him again; and he continued in uninterrupted health to the age of seventy-two." the following is his account of himself, at the age of about seventy: "it is now about sixteen years since, for the last time, i entered upon a milk and vegetable diet. at the beginning of this period, i took this light food as my appetite directed, without any measure, and found myself easy under it. after some time, i found it became necessary to lessen the quantity; and i have latterly reduced it to one half, at most, of what i at first seemed to bear. and if it shall please god to spare me a few years longer, in order, in that case, to preserve that freedom and clearness which, by his, blessing, i now enjoy, i shall probably find myself obliged to deny myself one half of my present daily substance--which is precisely three winchester pints of new cows' milk, and six ounces of biscuit made of fine flour, without salt or yeast, and baked in a quick oven." it is exceedingly interesting to find an aged physician, especially one who had formerly been in the habit of using six pints of milk, and twelve ounces of unfermented biscuit, and of regarding that as a low diet, reducing himself to one half this quantity in his old age, with evident advantages; and cheerfully looking forward to a period, as not many years distant, when he should be obliged to restrict himself to half even of that quantity. how far he finally carried his temperance, we do not exactly know. we only know that, after thirty years of health and successful medical practice, he strenuously contended for the superiority of a vegetable and milk diet over any other, whether for the feeble or the healthy. but his numerous works abound with the most earnest exhortations to temperance in all things, and with the most interesting facts and cogent reasonings; and--i repeat it--if there be any individual, since the days of pythagoras, whose name ought to be handed down to posterity as the father of the vegetable system of living, it is that of dr. cheyne. among his works are, a work on fevers; an essay on the true nature and proper method of treating the gout; a work on the philosophical principles of religion; an essay of health and long life; a work called the english malady; and another entitled the natural method of cure in the diseases of the body, and the distempers of the mind depending thereon. the latter, and his essay of long life are, in my view, his greatest works; though the history of his own experience is chiefly contained in his english malady. i shall now proceed to make such extracts from his works, as seem to me most striking and important to the general reader. they are somewhat numerous, and there may be a few repetitions; but i was more anxious to preserve his exact language--which is rather prolix--than to abridge too much, at the risk of misrepresenting his sentiments. "when i see milk, oil, emulsion, mild watery fluids, and such like soft liquors run through leathern tubes or pipes (for such animal veins and arteries indeed are) for years, without destroying them, and observe on the other hand that brine, inflammable or urinous spirits, and the like acrimonious and burning fluids corrode, destroy, and consume them in a very short time; when i consider the rending, burning, and tearing pains and tortures of the gout, stone, colic, cancer, rheumatism, convulsions, and such like insufferably painful distempers; when i see the crises of almost all acute distempers happen either by rank and fetid sweats, thick lateritious and lixivious sediments in the urine, black, putrid, and fetid dejections, attended with livid and purple spots, corrosive ulcers, impostumes in the joints or muscles, or a gangrene and mortification in this or that part of the body; when i see the sharp, the corroding and burning ichor of scorbutic and scrofulous sores, fretting, galling, and blistering the adjacent parts, with the inflammation, swelling, hardness, scabs, scurf, scales, and other loathsome cutaneous foulnesses that attend, the white gritty and chalky matter, and hard stony or flinty concretions which happen to all those long troubled with severe gouts, gravel, jaundice, or colic--the obstructions and hardnesses, the putrefaction and mortification that happen in the bowels, joints, and members in some of these diseases, and the rottenness in the bones, ligaments, and membranes that happen in others; all the various train of pains, miseries, and torments that can afflict any part of the compound, and for which there is scarce any reprieve to be obtained, but by swallowing a kind of poison (opiates, etc.); when i behold with compassion and sorrow, such scenes of misery and woe, and see them happen only to the rich, the lazy, the luxurious, and the inactive, those who fare daintily and live voluptuously, those who are furnished with the rarest delicacies, the richest foods, and the most generous wines, such as can provoke the appetites, senses, and passions, in the most exquisite and voluptuous manner; to those who leave no desire or degree of appetite unsatisfied, and not to the poor, the low, the meaner sort, those destitute of the necessaries, conveniences, and pleasures of life; to the frugal, industrious, temperate, laborious, and active, inhabiting barren and uncultivated countries, deserts, and forests under the poles or under the line;--i must, if i am not resolved to resist the strongest conviction, conclude that it must be something received into the body that can produce such terrible appearances in it--some flagrant and notable difference in the food that so sensibly distinguishes them from the latter; and that it is the miserable man himself that creates his miseries and begets his torture, or at least those from whom he has derived his bodily organs. "nothing is so light and easy to the stomach, most certainly, as the farinaceous or mealy vegetables; such as peas, beans, millet, oats, barley, rye, wheat, sago, rice, potatoes, and the like." milk is not included in the foregoing list of light articles; although dr. c. was evidently extremely fond of prescribing it in chronic diseases. it does not fully appear, so far as i can learn from his writings, that he regarded it as by any means indispensable to those who were perfectly healthy, except during infancy and childhood. the following extract will give us--more than any other, perhaps--his real sentiments, though modestly expressed in the form of a conjecture, rather than a settled belief. "i have sometimes indulged the conjecture that animal food, and _made_ or artificial liquors, in the original frame of our nature and design of our creation, were not intended for human creatures. they seem to me neither to have those strong and fit organs for digesting them (at least, such as birds and beasts of prey have that live on flesh); nor, naturally, to have those voracious and brutish appetites, that require animal food and strong liquors to satisfy them; nor those cruel and hard hearts, or those diabolical passions, which could easily suffer them to tear and destroy their fellow-creatures; at least, not in the first and early ages, before every man had corrupted his way, and god was forced to exterminate the whole race by an universal deluge, and was also obliged to shorten their lives from nine hundred or one thousand years to seventy. he wisely foresaw that animal food and artificial liquors would naturally contribute toward this end, and indulged or permitted the generation that was to plant the earth again after the flood the use of them for food; knowing that, though it would shorten their lives and plait a scourge of thorns for the backs of the lazy and voluptuous, it would be cautiously avoided by those who knew it was their duty and happiness to keep their passions low, and their appetites in subjection. and this very era of the flood is that mentioned in holy writ for the indulgence of animal food and artificial liquors, after the trial had been made how insufficient alone a vegetable diet--which was the first food appointed for human kind after their creation--was, in the long lives of men, to restrain their wickedness and malice, and after finding that nothing but shortening their duration could possibly prevent the evil. "it is true, there is scarce a possibility of preventing the destroying of animal life, as things are now constituted, since insects breed and nestle in the very vegetables themselves; and we scarcely ever devour a plant or root, wherein we do not destroy innumerable animalculæ. but, besides what i have said of nature's being quite altered and changed from what was originally intended, there is a great difference between destroying and extinguishing animal life by choice and election, to gratify our appetites, and indulge concupiscence, and the casual and unavoidable crushing of those who, perhaps, otherwise would die within the day, or at most the year, and who obtain but an inferior kind of existence and life, at the best. "whatever there may be, in this conjecture, it is evident to those who understand the animal economy of the frame of human bodies, together with the history, both of those who have lived abstemiously, and of those who have lived freely, that indulging in flesh meat and strong liquors, inflames the passions and shortens life, begets chronical distempers and a decrepit age. "for remedying the distempers of the body, to make a man live as long as his original frame was designed to last, with the least pain and fewest diseases, and without the loss of his senses, i think pythagoras and cornaro by far the two greatest men that ever were:--the first, by vegetable food and unfermented liquors; the latter, by the lightest and least of animal food, and naturally fermented liquors. both lived to a great age. but, what is chiefly to be regarded in their conduct and example, both preserved their senses, cheerfulness, and serenity to the last; and, which is still more to be regarded, both, at least the last, dissolved without pain or struggle; the first having lost his life in a tumult, as it is said by some, after a great age of perfect health. "a plain, natural, and philosophical reason why vegetable food is preferable to all other food is, that abounding with few or no salts, being soft and cool, and consisting of parts that are easily divided and formed into chyle without giving any labor to the digestive powers, it has not that force to open the lacteals, to distend their orifices and excite them to an unnatural activity, to let them pass too great a quantity of hot and rank chyle into the blood, and so overcharge and inflame the lymphatics and capillaries, which is the natural and ordinary effect of animal food; and therefore cannot so readily produce diseases. there is not a sufficient stimulus in the salts and spirits of vegetable food to create an unnatural appetite, or violent cramming; at least, not sufficient to force open and extend the mouths of the lacteals, more than naturally they are or ought to be. such food requires little or no force of digestion, a little gentle heat and motion being sufficient to dissolve it into its integral particles: so that, in a vegetable diet, though the sharp humors, in the first passages, are extended, relaxed stomach, and sometimes a delightful piquancy in the food, may tempt one to exceed in quantity; yet rarely, if spices and sauces--as too much butter, oil, and sugar--are not joined to seeds[ ] and vegetables, can the mischief go farther than the stomach and bowels, to create a pressed load, sickness, vomiting, or purging, by its acquiring an acrimony from its not being received into the lacteals;--so that on more being admitted into the blood than the expenses of living require, life and health can never be endangered by a vegetable diet. but all the contrary happens under a high animal diet." now i will not undertake to vouch--as indeed i cannot, conscientiously, do it--for the correctness of all dr. c.'s notions in physiology or pathology. the great object i have in view, by the introduction of these quotations, may be accomplished without it. his preference for vegetable food, or for what he calls a milk and seed diet, is the point which i wish to make most prominent. in the following paragraphs, he takes up and considers some of the popular objections of the day, to his doctrines and practice. "one of the most terrible objections some weak persons make against this regimen and method, is, that upon accidental trials, they have always found milk, fruit, and vegetables so inflate, blow them up, and raise such tumults and tempests in their stomach and bowels, that they have been terrified and affrighted from going on. i own the truth and fact to be such, in some as is represented; and that in stomachs and entrails inured only to hot and high meats and drinks, and consequently in an inflammatory state and full of choler and phlegm, this sensation will sometimes happen--just as a bottle of cider or fretting wine, when the cork is pulled out, will fly up, and fume, and rage; and if you throw in a little ferment or acid (such as milk, seeds, fruit, and vegetables _to them_), the effervescence and tempest will exasperate to a hurricane. "but what are wind, flatulence, phlegm, and choler? what, indeed, but stopped perspiration, superfluous nourishment, inconcocted chyle, of high food and strong liquors, fermented and putrifying? and when these are shut up and corked, with still more and more solid, strong, hot, and styptic meats and drinks, is the corruption and putrefaction thereby lessened? will it not then, at last, either burst the vessel, or throw out the cork or stopples, and raise still more lasting and cruel tempests and tumults? are milk and vegetables, seeds and fruits, harder of digestion, more corrosive, or more capable of producing chyle, blood, and juices, less fit to circulate, to perspire, and be secreted? "but what is to be done? the cure is obvious. begin by degrees; eat less animal food--the most tender and young--and drink less strong fermented liquors, for a month or two. then proceed to a _trimming_ diet, of one day, seed and vegetables, and another day, tender, young animal food;--and, by degrees, slide into a total milk, seed, and vegetable diet; cooling the stomach and entrails gradually, to fit them for this soft, mild, sweetening regimen; and in time your diet will give you all the gratification you ever had from strong, high, and rank food, and spirituous liquors. and you will, at last, enjoy ease, free spirits, perfect health, and long life into the bargain. "seeds of all kinds are fittest to begin with, in these cases, when dried, finely ground, and dressed; and, consequently, the least flatulent. lessen the quantity, even of these, below what your appetite would require, at least for a time. bear a little, and forbear. "virtue and good health are not to be obtained, without some labor and pains, against contrary habits. it was a wild bounce of a pythagorean, who defied any one to produce an instance of a person, who had long lived on milk and vegetables, who ever cut his own throat, hanged, or made way with himself; who had ever suffered at tyburn, gone to newgate, or to moorfields; (and, he added rather profanely,) or, would go to eternal misery hereafter. "another weighty objection against a vegetable diet, i have heard, has been made by learned men; and is, that vegetables require great labor, strong exercise, and much action, to digest and turn them into proper nutriment; as (say they) is evident from their being the common diet of day-laborers, handicraftsmen, and farmers. this objection i should have been ashamed to mention, but that i have heard it come from men of learning; and they might have as justly said, that freestone is harder than marble, and that the juice of vegetables makes stronger glue than that of fish and beef! "do not children and young persons, that is, tender persons, live on milk and seeds, even before they are capable of much labor and exercise? do not all the eastern and southern people live almost entirely on them? the asiatics, moors, and indians, whose climates incapacitate them for much labor, and whose indolence is so justly a reproach to them,--are these lazier and less laborious men than the highlanders and native irish? "the truth is, hardness of digestion principally depends on the minuteness of the component particles, as is evident in marble and precious stones. and animal substances being made of particles that pass through innumerable very little, or infinitely small excretory ducts, must be of a much finer texture, and consequently harder, or tougher, in their composition, than any vegetable substance can be. and the flesh of animals that live on animals, is like double distilled spirits, and so requires much labor to break, grind, and digest it. and, indeed, if day-laborers, and handicraftsmen were allowed the high, strong food of men of condition, and the quiet and much-thinking persons were confined to the farmer and ploughman's food, it would be much happier for both. "another objection, still, against a milk and vegetable diet is, that it breeds phlegm, and so is unfit for tender persons, of cold constitutions; especially those whose predominant failing is too much phlegm. but this objection has as little foundation as either of the preceding. phlegm is nothing but superfluous chyle and nourishment, as the taking down more food than the expenses of living and the waste of the solids and fluids require. the people that live most on such foods--the eastern and southern people and those of the northern i have mentioned--are less troubled with phlegm than any others. superfluity will always produce redundancy, whether it be of phlegm or choler; and that which will digest the most readily, will produce the least phlegm--such as milk, seeds, and vegetables. by cooling and relaxing the solids, the phlegm will be more readily thrown up and discharged--more, i say, by such a diet than by a hot, high, caustic, and restringent one; but that discharge is a benefit to the constitution, and will help it the sooner and faster to become purified, and so to get into perfect good health. whereas, by shutting them up, the can or cask must fly and burst so much the sooner. "the only material and solid objections against a milk, seed, and vegetable diet, are the following: "_first_, that it is particular and unsocial, in a country where the common diet is of another nature. but i am sure sickness, lowness, and oppression, are much more so. these difficulties, after all, happen only at first, while the cure is about; for, when good health comes, all these oddnesses and specialities will vanish, and then all the contrary to these will be the case. "_secondly_, that it is weakening, and gives a man less strength and force, than common diet. it is true that this may be the result, at first, while the cure is imperfect. but then the greater activity and gayety which will ensue on the return of health, under a milk and vegetable diet, will liberally supply that defect. "_thirdly_, the most material objection against such a diet is, that it cools, relaxes, softens, and unbends the solids, at first, faster than it corrects and sweetens the juices, and brings on greater degrees of lowness than it is designed to cure; and so sinks, instead of raising. but this objection is not universally true; for there are many i have treated, who, without any such inconvenience, or consequent lowness, have gone into this regimen, and have been free from any oppression, sinking, or any degree of weakness, ever after; and they were not only those who have been generally temperate and clean, free from humors and sharpnesses, but who, on the decline of life, or from a naturally weak constitution or frame, have been oppressed and sunk from their weakness and their incapacity to digest common animal food and fermented liquors. "i very much question if any diet, either hot or cool, has any great influence on the solids, after the fluids have been entirely sweetened and balmified. sweeten and thin the juices, and the rest will follow, as a matter of course." at page of dr. cheyne's natural method of curing diseases, he thus says: "people think they cannot possibly subsist on a little meat, milk, and vegetables, or on any low diet, and that they must infallibly perish if they should be confined to water only; not considering that nine tenths of the whole mass of mankind are necessarily confined to this diet, or pretty nearly to it, and yet live with the use of their senses, limbs, and faculties, without diseases, or but few, and those from accidents or epidemical causes; and that there have been nations, and now are numbers of tribes, who voluntarily confine themselves to vegetables only; as the essenes among the jews, some hermits and solitaries among the christians of the first ages, a great number of monks in the chartreux now in europe, banians among the indians and chinese, the guebres among the persians, and of old, the druids among ourselves." to illustrate the foregoing, i may here introduce the following extracts from the sixth london edition of dr. cheyne's essay on health and long life. "it is surprising to what a great age the eastern christians, who retired from the persecutions into the deserts of egypt and arabia, lived healthful on a very little food. we are informed, by cassian, that the common measure for twenty-four hours was about twelve ounces, with only pure water for drink. st. anthony lived to one hundred and five years on mere bread and water, adding only a few herbs at last. on a similar diet, james the hermit lived to one hundred and four years. arsenius, the tutor of the emperor arcadius, to one hundred and twenty--sixty-five years in society, and fifty-five in the desert. st. epiphanius, to one hundred and fifteen; st. jerome, about one hundred; simon stylites, to one hundred and nine; and romualdus, to one hundred and twenty. "it is wonderful in what sprightliness, strength, activity, and freedom of spirits, a low diet, even here in england, will preserve those who have habituated themselves to it. buchanan informs us of one laurence, who preserved himself to one hundred and forty, by the mere force of temperance and labor. spotswood mentions one kentigern (afterward called st. mongah, or mungo, from whom the famous well in wales is named), who lived to one hundred and eighty-five years; and who, after he came to years of understanding, never tasted wine or strong drink, and slept on the cold ground. "my worthy friend, mr. webb, is still alive. he, by the quickness of the faculties of the mind, and the activity of the organs of his body, shows the great benefit of a low diet--living altogether on vegetable food and pure water. henry jenkins lived to one hundred and sixty-nine years on a low, coarse, and simple diet. thomas parr died at the age of one hundred and fifty-two years and nine months. his diet was coarse bread, milk, cheese, whey, and small beer; and his historian tells us, that he might have lived a good while longer if he had not changed his diet and air; coming out of a clear, thin air, into the thick air of london, and being taken into a splendid family, where he fed high, and drank plentifully of the best wines, and, as a necessary consequence, died in a short time. dr. lister mentions eight persons in the north of england, the youngest of whom was above one hundred years old, and the oldest was one hundred and forty. he says, it is to be observed that the food of all this mountainous country is exceeding coarse." dr. c., in his natural method, at page , thus continues his remarks: "and there are whole villages in this kingdom, even of those who live on the plains, who scarce eat animal food, or drink fermented liquors a dozen times a year. it is true, most of these cannot be said to live at ease and commodiously, and many may be said to live in barbarity and ignorance. all i would infer from this is, that they do live, and enjoy life, health, and outward serenity, with few or no bodily diseases but from accidents and epidemical causes; and that, being reduced by voluntary and necessary poverty, they are not able to manage with care and caution the rest of the non-naturals, which, for perfect health and cheerfulness, must all be equally attended to, and prudently conducted; and their ignorance and brutality is owing to the want of the convenience of due and sufficient culture and education in their youth. "but the only conclusion i would draw from these historical facts is, that a low diet, or living on vegetables, will not destroy life or health, or cause nervous and cephalic distempers; but, on the contrary, cure them, as far as they are curable. i pretend to demonstrate from these facts, that abstinence and a low diet is the great antidote and universal remedy of distempers acquired by excess, intemperance, and a mistaken regimen of high meats and drinks; and that it will greatly alleviate and render tolerable the original distempers derived from diseased parents; and that it is absolutely necessary for the deep thinking part of mankind, who would preserve their faculties sound and entire, ripe and pregnant to a green old age and to the last dregs of life; and that it is, lastly, the true and real antidote and preservative from heavy-headedness, irregular and disorderly intellectual functions, from loss of the rational faculties, memory, and senses, and from all nervous distempers, as far as the ends of providence and the condition of mortality will allow. "let two people be taken as nearly alike as the diversity and the individuality of nature will admit, of the same age, stature, complexion, and strength of body, and under the same chronical distemper, and i am willing to take the seeming worse of the two; let all the most promising nostrums, drops, drugs, and medicines known among the learned and experienced physicians, ancient or modern, regular physicians or quacks, be administered to the best of the two, by any professor at home or abroad; i will manage my patient with only a few naturally indicated and proper evacuations and sweetening innocent alternatives, which shall neither be loathsome, various, nor complicated, require no confinement, under an appropriate diet, or, in a word, under the 'lightest and the least,' or at worst under a milk and seed diet; and i will venture reputation and life, that my method cures sooner, more perfectly and durably, is much more easily and pleasantly passed through, in a shorter time, and with less danger of a relapse than the other, with all the assistance of the best skill and experience, under a full and free, though even a commonly reputed moderate diet, but of rich foods and generous liquors; much more, under a voluptuous diet." but i am unwilling to dismiss this subject without inserting a few more extracts from dr. cheyne, to show his views of the treatment of diseases. and first, of the scurvy, and other diseases which he supposes to arise from it. "there is no chronical distemper, whatsoever, more universal, more obstinate, and more fatal in britain than the scurvy, taken in its general extent. scarce any one chronical distemper but owes its origin to a scorbutic tendency, or is so complicated with it, that it furnishes the most cruel and most obstinate symptoms. to it we owe all the dropsies that happen after the meridian of life; all diabetes, asthmas, consumptions of several kinds; many sorts of colics and diarrhoeas; some kinds of gouts and rheumatisms, all palsies, various kinds of ulcers, and possibly the cancer itself; and most cutaneous foulnesses, weakly constitutions, and bad digestions; vapors, melancholy, and almost all nervous distempers whatsoever. and what a plentiful source of miseries the last are, the afflicted best can tell. and scarce any one chronical distemper whatever, but has some degree of this evil faithfully attending it. the reason why the scurvy is peculiar to this country and so fruitful of miseries, is, that it is produced by causes mostly special and particular to this island, to wit: the indulging so much in animal food and strong fermented liquors, sedentary and confined employments, etc. "though the inhabitants of britain live, for the most part, as long as those of a warmer climate, and probably rather longer, yet scarce any one, especially those of the better sort, but becomes crazy and suffers under some chronical distemper or other, before he arrives at old age. "nothing less than a very moderate use of animal food, and that of the least exciting kind, and a more moderate use of spirituous liquors, due exercise, etc., can keep this hydra under. and nothing else than a total abstinence from animal food and alcoholic liquors can totally extirpate it." the following are extracted from his "natural methods." i do not lay them down as recipes, to be followed in the treatment of diseases; but to show the views of dr. cheyne in regard to vegetable regimen. " . _cancer._--any cancer that can be cut out, contracted, and healed up with common, that is, soft, cool, and gently astringent dressings, and at last left as an issue on the part, may, by a cow's milk and seed diet continued ever afterward, be made as easy to the patient, and his life and health as long preserved, almost, as if he had never been afflicted with it; especially if under fifty years of age. " . _cancer._--a total ass's milk diet--about two quarts a day, without any other meat or drink--will in time cure a cancer in any part of the body, with mere common dressings, provided the patient is not quite worn out with it before it is begun, or too far gone in the common duration of life and even in that case, it will lessen the pain, lengthen life, and make death easier, especially if joined with small interspersed bleedings, millepedes, crabs' eyes prepared, nitre and rhubarb, properly managed. but the diet, even after the cure, must be continued, and never after greatly altered, unless it be into cow's milk with seeds. " . _consumption._--a total milk and seed diet, gentle and frequent bleedings, as symptoms exasperate, a little ipecacuanha or thumb vomit repeated once or twice a week, chewing quill bark in the morning, and a few grains of rhubarb at night, will totally cure consumptions, even when attended with tubercles, and hemoptoe, and hectic, in the first stage; will greatly relieve, if not cure, in the second stage, especially if riding and a warm clear air be joined; and make death easier in the third and last stage. " . _fits._--a total cow's milk diet--about two quarts a day--without any other food, will at last totally cure all kinds of fits, epileptical, hysterical, or apoplectic, if entered upon before fifty. but the patient, if near fifty, must ever after continue in the same diet, with the addition only of seeds; otherwise his fits will return oftener and more severely, and at last cut him off. " . _palsy._--a total cow's milk diet, without any other food, will bid fairest to cure a hemiplegia or even a dead palsy, and consequently all the lesser degrees of a partial one, if entered upon before fifty. and this distemper i take to be the most obstinate, intractable, and disheartening one that can afflict the human machine; and is chiefly produced by intemperate cookery, with its necessary attendant, habitual luxury. " . _gout._--a total milk and seed diet, with gentle vomits before and after the fits, chewing bark in the morning and rhubarb at night, with bleeding about the equinoxes, will perfectly cure the gout in persons under fifty, and greatly relieve those farther advanced in life; but must be continued ever after, if such desire to get well. " . _gravel._--soap lees, softened with a little oil of sweet almonds, drunk about a quarter of an ounce twice a day on a fasting stomach; or soap and egg-shell pills, with a total milk and seed diet, and bristol water beverage, will either totally dissolve the stone in kidneys or bladder, or render it almost as easy as the nail on one's finger, if the patient is under fifty, and much relieve him, even after that age. "in about thirty years' practice, in which i have, in some degree or other, advised this method in proper cases, i have had but two patients in whose total recovery i have been mistaken, and these were both scrofulous cases, where the glands and tubercles were so many, so hard, and so impervious that even the ponderous remedies and diet joined could not discuss them; and they were both also too far gone before they entered upon them;--and i have found deep scrofulous vapors the most obstinate of any of this tribe of these distempers. and indeed nothing can possibly reach such, but the ponderous medicines, joined with a liquid, cool, soft, milk and seed regimen; and if these two do not, in due time, i can boldly affirm it, nothing ever will." dr. cheyne goes on to speak of the cure, on similar principles, of a great many other difficult or dangerous diseases, as asthma, pleurisy, hemorrhage, mania, jaundice, bilious colic, rheumatism, scurvy, and venereal disease; but he modestly owns that, in his opinion on these, he does not feel such entire confidence as in the former cases, for want of sufficient experiments. he, however, closes one of his chapters with the following pretty strong statement: "i am morally certain, and am myself entirely convinced, that a milk and seed, or milk and turnip diet, duly persisted in, with the occasional helps mentioned (elsewhere) on exacerbations, will either totally cure or greatly relieve every chronical distemper i ever saw or read of." another chapter is thus concluded, and with it i shall conclude my extracts from his writings. "some, perhaps, may controvert, nay, ridicule the doctrine laid down in these propositions. i shall neither reply to, nor be moved with any thing that shall be said against them. if they are of nature and truth, they will stand; if not, i consent they should come to nought. i have satisfied my own conscience--the rest belongs to providence. possibly time and bodily sufferings may justify them;--if not to this generation, perhaps to some succeeding one. i myself am convinced, by long and many repeated experience, of their justness and solidity. if what has been advocated through this whole treatise does not convince others, nothing i can add will be sufficient. i will leave only this reflection with my readers. "all physicians, ancient and modern, allow that a milk and seed diet will totally cure before fifty, and infinitely alleviate after it, the consumption, the rheumatism, the scurvy, the gout--these highest, most mortal, most painful, and most obstinate distempers; and nothing is more certain in mathematics, than that which will cure the greater will certainly cure the lesser distempers." dr. geoffroy. dr. geoffroy, a distinguished french physician and professor of chemistry and medicine in some of the institutions of france, flourished more than a hundred years ago. the bearing of the following extract will be readily seen. it is from the memoirs of the royal academy for the year ; and i am indebted for it to the labors of dr. cheyne. "m. geoffroy has given a method for determining the proportion of nourishment or true matter of the flesh and blood, contained in any sort of food. he took a pound of meat that had been freed from the fat, bones, and cartilages, and boiled it for a determined time in a close vessel, with three pints of water; then, pouring off the liquor, he added the same quantity of water, boiling it again for the same time; and this operation he repeated several times, so that the last liquor appeared, both in smell and taste, to be little different from common water. then, putting all the liquor together, and filtrating, to separate the too gross particles, he evaporated it over a slow fire, till it was brought to an extract of a pretty moderate consistence. "this experiment was made upon several sorts of food, the result of which may be seen in the following table. the weights are in ounces, drachms, and grains; sixty grains to a drachm, and eight drachms to an ounce. kind of food. amount of extract. oz. dr. gr. one lb. beef . . . " veal . . . " mutton . . . " lamb . . . " chicken . . . " pigeon . . . " pheasant . . . " partridge . . . " calves' feet . . . " carp . . . " whey . . . " bread . . . "the relative proportion of the nourishment will be as follows: beef veal mutton lamb chicken pigeon pheasant partridge calves' feet carp whey bread "from the foregoing decisive experiments it is evident that white, young, tender animal food, bread, milk, and vegetables are the best and most effectual substances for nutrition, accretion, and sweetening bad juices. they may not give so strong and durable mechanical force, because being easily and readily digestible, and quickly passing all the animal functions, so as to turn into good blood and muscular flesh, they are more transitory, fugitive, and of prompt secretion; yet they will perform all the animal functions more readily and pleasantly, with fewer resistances and less labor, and leave the party to exercise the rational and intellectual operations with pleasure and facility. they will leave nature to its own original powers, prevent and cure diseases, and lengthen out life." now if this experiment proves what dr. c. supposes in favor of the lighter meats and vegetables taken together, how much more does it prove for bread alone? for it cannot escape the eye of the least observing that this article, though placed last in the list of dr. geoffroy, is by far the highest in point of nutriment; nay, that it is about three times as high as any of the rest. i am not disposed to lay so much stress on these experiments as dr. c. does; nevertheless, they prove something connected with the more recent experiments of messrs. percy and vauquelin and others, how strikingly do they establish one fact, at least, viz., that bread and the other farinaceous vegetables cannot possibly be wanting in nutriment; and how completely do they annihilate the old-fashioned doctrine--one which is still abroad and very extensively believed--that animal food is a great deal more nourishing than vegetable! no careful inquirer can doubt that bread, peas, beans, rice, etc., are twice as nutritious--to say the least--as flesh or fish. messrs. percy and vauquelin. as i have alluded, in the preceding article, to the experiments of messrs. percy and vauquelin, two distinguished french chemists, their testimony in this place seems almost indispensable, even though we should not regard it, in the most strict import of the term, as medical testimony. the result of their experiments, as communicated by them to the french minister of the interior, is as follows: in bread, every one hundred pounds is found to contain eighty pounds of nutritious matter; butcher's meat, averaging the different sorts, contains only thirty-five pounds in one hundred; french beans (in the grain), ninety-two pounds in one hundred; broad beans, eighty-nine pounds; peas, ninety-three pounds; lentils (a species of half pea little known with us), fifty-four pounds in one hundred; greens and turnips only eight pounds of solid nutritious substance in one hundred; carrots, fourteen pounds; and one hundred pounds of potatoes yield only twenty-five pounds of nutriment. i will just affix to the foregoing one more table. it is inserted in several other works which i have published; but for the benefit of those who may never yet have seen it, and to show how strikingly it corresponds with the results of the experiments of geoffroy, percy, and vauquelin, i deem it proper to insert it. of the best wheat, one hundred pounds contain about eighty-five pounds of nutritious matter; of rice, ninety pounds; of rye, eighty; of barley, eighty-three; of beans, eighty-nine to ninety-two; peas, ninety-three; lentils, ninety-four; meat (average), thirty-five; potatoes, twenty-five; beets, fourteen; carrots, ten; cabbage, seven; greens, six; and turnips, four. dr. pemberton. dr. pemberton, after speaking of the general tendency, in our highly fed communities, to scrofula and consumption, makes the following remarks, which need no comment: "if a child is born of scrofulous parents, i would strongly recommend that it be entirely nourished from the breast of a healthy nurse, for at least a year. after this, the food should consist of milk and farinaceous vegetables. by a perseverance in this diet for three years, i have imagined that the threatened scrofulous appearances have certainly been postponed, if not altogether prevented." sir john sinclair. sir john sinclair, an eminent british surgeon, says, "i have wandered a good deal about the world, my health has been tried in all ways, and, by the aid of temperance and hard work, i have worn out two armies in two wars, and probably could wear out another before my period of old age arrives. i eat no animal food, drink no wine or malt liquor, or spirits of any kind; i wear no flannel; and neither regard wind nor rain, heat nor cold, when business is in the way." dr. james, of wisconsin. dr. james, of wisconsin, but formerly of albany, and editor of a temperance paper in that city, one of the most sensible, intelligent, and refined of men, and one of the first in his profession, is a vegetable eater, and a man of great simplicity in all his physical, intellectual, and moral habits. i do not know that his views have ever been presented to the public, but i state them with much confidence, from a source in which i place the most implicit reliance. dr. cranstoun. dr. cranstoun, a worthy medical gentleman in england, became subject, by some means or other, to a chronic dysentery, on which he exhausted, as it were, the whole materia medica, in vain. at length, after suffering greatly for four or five years, he was completely cured by a milk and vegetable diet. the following is his own brief account of his cure, in a letter to dr. cheyne: "i resolutely, as soon as capable of a diet, held myself close to your rules of bland vegetable food and elementary drink, and, without any other medicine, save frequent chewing of rhubarb and a little bark, i passed last winter and this summer without a relapse of the dysentery; and, though by a very slow advance, i find now more restitution of the body and regularity in the economy, on this primitive aliment, than ever i knew from the beginning of this trouble. this encourages much my perseverance in the same method, and that so religiously, as, to my knowledge, now for more than a year and a half i have not tasted of any thing that had animal life. there is plenty in the vegetable kingdom." dr. taylor, of england. this gentleman, who had studied the works of dr. sydenham, and was therefore rather favorably inclined toward a milk and vegetable diet, became at last subject to epileptic fits. not being willing, however, to give up his high living and his strong drinks, he tried the effects of medicine, and even consulted all the most eminent of his brethren of the medical profession in and about london; but all to no purpose, and the fits continued to recur. he used frequently to be attacked with them while riding along the road, in pursuance of the business of his profession. in these cases he would fall from his horse, and often remain senseless till some passenger or wagon came along and carried him to the nearest house. at length his danger, not only from accidents, but from the frequency and violence of the attacks, became so imminent that he was obliged to follow the advice of his master, sydenham. he first laid aside the use of all fermented and distilled liquors; then, finding his fits became less frequent and violent, he gave up all flesh meat, and confined himself entirely to cows' milk. in pursuance of this plan, in a year or two the epilepsy entirely left him. "and now," says dr. cheyne, from whom i take the account, "for seventeen years he has enjoyed as good health as human nature is capable of, except that once, in a damp air and foggy weather in riding through essex, he was seized with an ague, which he got over by chewing the bark." he assured dr. c. that at this time--and he was considerably advanced in life--he could play six hours at cricket without fatigue or distress, and was more active and clear in his faculties than ever he had been before in his whole life. he also said he had cured a great many persons, by means of the same diet, of inveterate distempers. drs. hufeland and abernethy. the celebrated dr. hufeland taught that a simple vegetable diet was most conducive to health and long life. the distinguished dr. abernethy has expressed an opinion not very unlike it, in the following eccentric manner: "if you put improper food into the stomach it becomes disordered, and the whole system is affected. vegetable matter ferments and becomes gaseous, while _animal_ substances are changed into a putrid, abominable, and acrid stimulus. now, some people acquire preposterous noses; others, blotches on the face and different parts of the body; others, inflammation of the eyes; all arising from the irritations of the stomach. i am often asked why i don't practice what i preach. i reply by reminding the inquirer of the parson and sign-post--both point the way, but neither follows its course." dr. gregory. dr. gregory, a distinguished professor and practitioner of medicine in scotland, in a work published more than seventy years ago, strongly recommends plain and simple food for children. till they are three years old, he says, their diet should consist of plain milk, panada, good bread, barley meal porridge, and rice. he also complains of pampering them with animal food. the same arguments which are good for forming them to the habits of vegetable food exclusively for the first three years of life, would be equally good for its continuance. dr. cullen, of edinburgh. the name of dr. cullen is well known, and he has long been regarded as high authority. yet this distinguished writer and teacher expressly says, that a very temperate and _sparing_ use of animal food is the surest means of preserving health and obtaining long life. but i will quote his own language, in various parts of his writings. and first, from his materia medica: "vegetable aliment, as never over-distending the vessels or loading the system, never interrupts the stronger emotions of the mind, while the heat, fullness, and weight of animal food, is an enemy to its vigorous efforts. temperance, then, does not consist so much in the quantity, for that will always be regulated by our appetite, as in the _quality_, viz., a large proportion of vegetable aliment." i will not stop here to oppose dr. c.'s views in regard to the quantity of our food; for this is not the place. it is sufficient to show that he admits the importance of _quality_, and gives the preference to a diet of vegetables. he seems in favor, in another place in his works, of sleeping after eating--perhaps a heresy, too--and inclines to the opinion that the practice would be hardly hurtful if we ate less animal food. but his "first lines of the practice of physic," abounds in testimonies in favor of vegetable food. in speaking, for example, of the cure of rheumatic affections, he has the following language: "the cure, therefore, requires, in the first place, an antiphlogistic regimen, and particularly, a total abstinence from animal food, and from all fermented or spirituous liquors." "antiphlogistic regimen," in medical language, means that food and drink which is most cooling and quieting to the stomach and to the general system. in the treatment of gout, dr. cullen recommends a course like that which has been stated, except that instead of proposing vegetable food as a means of cure, he recommends it as _preventive_. he says-- "the gout may be entirely prevented by constant bodily exercise, and by a low diet; and i am of opinion that this prevention may take place even in persons who have a hereditary disposition to the disease. i must add, here, that even when the disposition has discovered itself by severe paroxysms of inflammatory gout, i am persuaded that labor and abstinence will absolutely prevent any returns of it for the rest of life." again, in reference to the same subject, he thus observes: "i am firmly persuaded that any man who, early in life, will enter upon the constant practice of bodily labor and of abstinence from animal food, will be preserved entirely from the disease." and yet once more. "if an abstinence from animal food be entered upon early in life, while the vigor of the system is yet entire, i have no doubt of its being both safe and effectual." to guard against the common opinion that by vegetable food, he meant raw, or crude, or bad vegetables, dr. c. explains his meaning by assuring the reader that by a vegetable diet he means the "farinaceous seeds," and "milk;" and admits that green, crude, and bad vegetables are not only less useful, but actually liable to produce the very diseases, which good, mealy vegetable food will prevent or cure. this is an important distinction. many a person, who wishes to be abstemious, seems to think that if he only abstains from flesh and fish, that is enough. no matter, he supposes, what vegetables he uses, so they are vegetables; nor how much he abuses himself by excess in quantity. nay, he will even load his stomach with milk, or butter, or eggs; sometimes with fish (we have often been asked if we considered fish as animal food); and sometimes, worse still, with hot bread, hot buckwheat cakes, hot short-cakes, swimming, almost, in butter;--yes, and sometimes he will even cover his potatoes with gravy, mustard, salt, etc. it is in vain for mankind to abstain from animal food, as they call it, and yet run into these worse errors. the lean parts of animals not much fattened, and only rarely cooked, eaten once a day in small quantity, are far less unwholesome than many of the foregoing. but to return to dr. c. in speaking of the proper drink for persons inclined to gout, he thus remarks: "with respect to drink, fermented liquors are useful only when they are joined with animal food, and that by their acescency; and their stimulus is only necessary from custom. when, therefore, animal food is to be avoided, fermented liquors are unnecessary, and by increasing the acescency of vegetables, these liquors may be hurtful. the stimulus of fermented or spirituous liquors is not necessary to the young and vigorous: and, when much employed, impairs the tone of the system." dr. c. might have added--what indeed we should infer by parity of reasoning--that when fermented liquors are avoided, animal food is no longer necessary, and by increasing the alkaline state of the stomach and fluids, may be hurtful. the truth is, they go best together. if we use flesh and fish, which are alkaline, a small quantity of gently acid drink, as weak cider or wine, taken either _with_ our meals, or _between_ them, may be useful. it is better, however, to abstain from both. for if a purely vegetable aliment, with water alone for drink, is safe to all young persons inclining at all to gout, to whom is it unsafe? if it tends to render a young person at all weaker, that very weakness would predispose to the gout, in some of its forms, if a person were constitutionally inclined to that disease--if not to some other complaint, to which he was more inclined. it cannot, therefore, be unsafe to any, if dr. c. is right. but if those who are trained to it, _lose_ nothing, even in the high latitude of scotland--where dr. c. wrote--by confining themselves to good vegetables and water, then they must necessarily _gain_, on his own principles, by this way of living, because they get rid of any sort of necessity (he might have added, lose their appetite) for fermented liquors. more than this, as the doctor himself concludes, in another place, they prevent many acute diseases. his words are these:--"it is animal food which especially predisposes to the plethoric and inflammatory state; and that food is therefore to be especially avoided." it is true, he is here speaking of gouty persons: but his principles are also fairly susceptible, as i have shown, of a general application. in short, it is an undeniable fact, that even a thorough-going vegetable eater might prove every thing he wished, from old established writers on medicine and health, though themselves were feeders on animal food; just as a teetotaler may prove the doctrine of abstinence from all drinks but water, from the writings of medical men, though themselves are still, in many cases, pouring down their cider, their beer, or their wine--or at least, their tea and coffee. dr. benjamin rush. i find nothing in the writings of this great man which shows, with certainty, what his views were, in regard to animal food. the presumption is, that he was sparing in its use, and that he encouraged a very limited use of it in others. this is presumed, , from the general tenor of his writings--deeply imbued as they are with the great doctrine of temperance in all things; and, , from the fondness he seems to have manifested in mentioning the temperance and even abstinence of individuals of whom he was speaking. of ann woods, for example, who died at the age of ninety-six years, he says, "her diet was simple, consisting chiefly of weak tea, milk, cheese, butter, and vegetables. meat of all kinds, except veal, disagreed with her stomach. she found great benefit from frequently changing her aliment. her drinks were water, cider and water, and molasses and vinegar in water. she never used spirits. her memory (at her death) was but little impaired. she was cheerful, and thankful that her condition in life was happier than that of hundreds of other people." in his account of benjamin lay, a philosopher of the sect of the friends, in pennsylvania, dr. r. relates, that "he was extremely temperate in his diet, living chiefly upon vegetables. turnips boiled and afterward roasted, were his favorite dinner. his drink was pure water. he lived above eighty years." it appears, also, that he was exceedingly healthy. he relates of anthony benezet, a distinguished teacher of philadelphia, who lived to an advanced age, that his sympathy was so great with every thing that was capable of feeling pain, that he resolved, toward the close of his life, to eat no animal food. he also relates the following singular anecdote of him. upon coming into his brother's house, one day, when the family were dining upon poultry, he was asked by his brother's wife to sit down and dine with them. what! said he, would you have me eat my neighbors? dr. caleb bannister, in another part of this work, tells us that he was led to adopt a milk and vegetable diet, in incipient consumption, from reading the writings of dr. rush; and i have little doubt that dr. r. himself lived quite abstemiously, if not altogether on vegetables. nor is this _incidental_ testimony from dr. rush quite all. in his work "on the diseases of the mind," he speaks often of the evils of eating high-seasoned food, and especially animal food. and in stating what were the proper remedies for debility in young men, when induced by certain forms of licentiousness, he expressly insists on a diet consisting simply of vegetables, and prepared without condiments; and he even encourages the disuse of salt. had dr. rush lived to this day, he would, ere now, in all probability, have fully adopted and defended the vegetable system. with views like his on the subject of intemperance, and a mind ever open to conviction, the result could hardly have been otherwise. dr. william lambe, of london. dr. william lambe, of london, is distinguished both as a physician and a general scholar, and is a prominent member of the "college of physicians." he was a graduate of st. john's college, cambridge, and a fellow-student with the immortal clarkson. dr. lambe is the author of several valuable works, among which are his "reports on cancer," and a more recent work entitled, "additional reports on the effects of a peculiar regimen, in cases of cancer, scrofula, consumption, asthma, and other chronic diseases." he has also made and published numerous experiments, especially in chemistry, which is, with him, a favorite science; and it is said that he has spent fortunes in this way. dr. l. is now eighty-four years of age, and has lived on vegetable diet forty-two years. he commenced this course to cure himself of internal gout, and continued it because he found it better for his health. he is now only troubled with it slightly, at his extremities, which he thinks highly creditable to a vegetable course--having thrown it off from his vital organs. he is cheerful and active, and able to discharge the duties of an extensive medical practice. he walks into town, a distance of three miles from his residence, every morning, and back at night; and thinks himself as likely to live twenty years longer as he was, twenty years ago, to live to his present age. the following is a condensed account of dr. l.'s views, as obtained from his "additional reports," above mentioned. some of the first paragraphs relate to the effects of vegetable food on those who are predisposed to scrofula, consumption, etc. "we see daily examples of young persons becoming consumptive who never went without animal food a single day of their lives. if the use of animal food were necessary to prevent consumption, we should expect, where people lived almost entirely upon such a diet, the disease would be unknown. "now, the indian tribes visited by mr. hearne live in this manner. they do not cultivate the earth. they subsist by hunting, and the scanty produce of spontaneous vegetation. but, among these tribes consumption is common. their diseases, as mr. hearne informs us, are principally fluxes, scurvy, and consumption. "in the last four years, several cases of glandular swellings have occurred to me at the general dispensary, and i have made particular inquiries into the mode of living of such children. in the majority, they had animal food. in opposition to the accusation of vegetable food causing tumefaction of the abdomen, i must testify, that twice in my own family i have seen such swellings disappear under a vegetable regimen, which had been formed under a diet of animal food. "increasing the strength, for a time, is no proof of the salubrity of diet. the increased strength may not continue, though the diet should be continued. on the contrary, there is a sort of oscillation; the strength just rising, then sinking again. this is what is experienced by the trainers of boxers. a certain time is necessary to get these men into condition; but this condition cannot be maintained for many weeks together, though the process by which it was formed is continued. the same is found to hold in the training of race-horses, and fighting-cocks. "it seems certain that animal food predisposes to disease. timoric, in his account of the plague at constantinople, asserts that the armenians, who live chiefly on vegetable food, were far less disposed to the disease than other people. the typhus fever is greatly exasperated by full living. "it seems, moreover, highly probable that the power inherent in the human living body, of restoring itself under accidents or wounds, is strongest in those who use most a vegetable regimen. "contagions act with greater virulence upon bodies prepared by a full diet of animal food. "since fishing has declined in the isles of ferro, and the inhabitants have lived chiefly on vegetables, the elephantiasis has ceased among them. "those monks who, by the rules of their institution, abstain from the flesh of animals, enjoy a longer mean term of life, as the consequence. of this there can be no doubt. of one hundred and fifty-two monks, taken promiscuously in all times and all sorts of climates, there lives produced a total, according to baillot (a writer of eminence), of , years, or an average of seventy-six years and a little more than three months. "those bramins who abstain most scrupulously from the flesh of animals attain to the greatest longevity. "life is prolonged, under incurable diseases, about one tenth by vegetable diet; so that a person who would otherwise die at seventy, will reach seventy-seven. in general, however, the proportion is about one sixth. "abstaining from animal food palliates, when it does not cure, all constitutional diseases. "the use of animal food hurries on life with an unnatural and unhealthy rapidity. we arrive at puberty too soon; the passions are developed too early; in the male, they acquire an impetuosity approaching to madness; females become mothers too early, and too frequently; and, finally, the system becomes prematurely exhausted and destroyed, and we become diseased and old, when we ought to be in middle life. "it affords no trifling ground of suspicion against the use of animal food that it so obviously inclines us to corpulency. corpulency itself is a species of disease, and a still surer harbinger of other diseases. it is so even in animals. when a sheep has become fat, the butcher knows it must be killed or it will rot and decline. it is rare indeed for the corpulent to be long-lived. they are at the same time sleepy, lethargic, and short-breathed. even hippocrates says, 'those who are uncommonly fat die more quickly than the lean.' "as a general, rule, the florid are less healthy than those who have little color; an increase of color having ever been judged, by common sense, to be a sign of impending illness. some, however, who are lean upon animal food, thrive upon vegetables, and improve in color. "all the notions of vegetable diet affording only a deficient nutriment--notions which are countenanced by the language of cullen and other great physicians--are wholly groundless. "man is herbivorous in his structure. "i have observed no ill consequences from the relinquishment of animal food. the apprehended danger of the change, with which men scare themselves and their neighbors, is a mere phantom of the imagination. the danger, in truth, lies wholly on the other side. "there is no organ of the body which, under the use of vegetable food, does not receive an increase of sensibility, or of that power which is thought to be imparted to it by the nervous system. "socrates, plato, zeno, epicurus, and others of the masters of ancient wisdom, adhered to the pythagorean diet (vegetable diet), and are known to have arrived at old age with the enjoyment of uninterrupted health. celsus affirms that the bodies which are filled with much animal food become the most quickly old and diseased. it was proverbial that the ancient athletæ were the most stupid of men. the cynic diogenes, being asked what was the cause of this stupidity, is reported to have answered, 'because they are wholly formed of the flesh of swine and oxen.' theophrastus says that feeding upon flesh destroys the reason, and makes the mind more dull. "animal food is unfavorable to the intellectual powers. the effect is, in some measure, instantaneous; it being hardly possible to apply to any thing requiring thought after a full meal of meat; so that it has been not improperly said of vegetable feeders, that _with them it is morning all day long_. but the senses, the memory, the understanding, and the imagination have also been observed to improve by a vegetable diet. "it will not be disputed that, for consumptive symptoms, a vegetable diet, or at least a vegetable and milk diet, is the most proper. "it has been said, that the great fondness men have for animal food, is proof enough that nature intended them to eat it. as if men were not fond of wine, ardent spirits, and other things which we know cut short their days! "in every period of history it has been known that vegetables alone are sufficient for the support of life; and the bulk of mankind live upon them at this hour. the adherence to the use of animal food is no more than a gross persistence in the customs of savage life, and an insensibility to the progress of reason and the operation of intellectual improvement. this habit must be considered as one of the numerous relics of that ancient barbarism which has overspread the face of the globe, and which still taints the manners of civilized nations. "the use of fermented liquors is, in some measure, a necessary concomitant and appendage to the use of animal food. animal food, in a great number of persons, loads the stomach, causes some degree of oppression, fullness, and uneasiness; and, if the measure of it be in excess, some nausea and tendency to sickness. such persons say meat is too heavy for the stomach. fish is still more apt to nauseate. the use of fermented liquors takes off these uneasy feelings, and is thought to assist digestion. in short, in the use of animal food, man having deviated from the simple aliment offered him by the hand of nature, and which is the best suited to his organs of digestion, he has brought upon himself a premature decay, and much intermediate suffering connected with it. to this use of animal food almost all nations that have emerged from a state of barbarism, have united the use of spirituous and fermented liquors." it is but justice to dr. l., however, as the above was written by him over thirty years ago, to say, that though he still adheres to the same views, he thinks pure distilled water a very important addition to the vegetable diet, in the cure of chronic diseases. the following are his remarks in a letter to mr. graham, dated ten or twelve years ago. "my doctrine is, that for the preservation of health, and more particularly for the successful treatment of chronic diseases, it is necessary to attend to the _whole_ ingesta--to the _fluid_ with as much care as the solid. and i am persuaded that the errors into which men have fallen with regard to supposed mischiefs or inconveniences (as weakness, for example), as resulting from a restriction to a vegetable diet, have, to a very considerable extent arisen from a want of a proper attention to the quality of the water they drank. so far back as the year , i found that the use of pure distilled, instead of common water, relieved a state of habitual suffering of the stomach and bowels. on this account, i always require that _distilled_ water shall be joined to the use of a vegetable diet; and consider this to be essential to the treatment." professor lawrence. professor lawrence is the author of a work entitled lectures on physiology, zoology, and the natural history of man. he is a member of the royal college of surgeons, london, professor of anatomy and surgery to the college, and surgeon to several hospitals. in his work above mentioned, after much discussion in regard to the natural dietetic character of man, he thus remarks: "that animal food renders man strong and courageous, is fully disproved by the inhabitants of northern europe and asia, the laplanders, samoiedes, ostiacs, tungooses, burats, and kamtschadales, as well as by the esquimaux in the northern, and the natives of terra del fuego in the southern extremity of america, which are the smallest, weakest, and least brave people of the globe, although they live almost entirely upon flesh, and that often raw. "vegetable diet is as little connected with weakness and cowardice, as that of animal matter is with physical force and courage. _that men can be perfectly nourished, and their bodily and mental capabilities fully developed in any climate, by a diet purely vegetable, admits of abundant proof from experience._ in the periods of their greatest simplicity, manliness, and bravery, the greeks and romans appear to have lived almost entirely on plain vegetable preparations. indifferent bread, fruits, and other produce of the earth, are the chief nourishment of the modern italians, and of the mass of the population in most countries in europe. of those more immediately known to ourselves, the irish and scotch may be mentioned, who are certainly not rendered weaker than their english fellow-subjects by their free use of vegetable aliment. the negroes, whose great bodily powers are well known, feed chiefly on vegetable substances; and the same is the case with the south sea islanders, whose agility and strength were so great that the stoutest and most expert english sailors had no chance with them in wrestling and boxing." the concession of prof. l., which i have placed in italic, is sufficient for our purpose; we ask no more. nevertheless, i am willing to hear his views of the indications afforded by our anatomical character, which are, as will be seen, equally decisive in favor of vegetable eating. "physiologists have usually represented that our species holds a middle rank, in the masticatory and digestive apparatus, between the flesh-eating and herbivorous animals--a statement which seems rather to have been deduced from what we have learned by experience on the subject, than to result from an actual comparison of men and animals. "the teeth and jaws of men are, in all respects, much more similar to those of monkeys than of any other animal. the number is the same as in man, and the form so closely similar, that they might easily be mistaken for human. in most of them, except the ourang-outang, the canine teeth are much larger and stronger than in us; and so far, these animals have a more carnivorous character than man. "thus we find, that whether we consider the teeth and jaws, or the immediate instruments of digestion, the human structure closely resembles that of the simiæ (monkey race), all of which, in their natural state, are completely herbivorous. man possesses a tolerably large coecum, and a cellular colon; which i believe are not found in any herbivorous animal." the ourang-outang naturally prefers fruits and nuts, as the professor himself shows by extracts from the statements of travelers and naturalists. he is also fond of bread. on board a ship or elsewhere, _in confinement_, he may, however, be taught, like men, to eat almost any thing;--not only to eat milk and suck eggs, but even to eat raw flesh. it is true, indeed, after all these foregoing statements and concessions in regard to man's native character and the wholesomeness of a diet exclusively vegetable--and after admitting that the human body and mind can be fully and perfectly nourished and _developed_ on it, this distinguished writer goes on to say that it is still doubtful which diet--animal, vegetable, or mixed--is on the whole _most_ conducive to health, and strength--which is best calculated to avert or remove disease--whether errors in quantity or quality are most pernicious, etc. he says the solution of these and other analogous questions, can only be expected from experimental investigation. he proceeds to say-- "_mankind are so averse to relinquish their favorite indulgences, and to desert established habits_, that we cannot entertain very sanguine expectations of any important discovery in this department. we must add to this, that there are many other causes affecting human health, besides diet. before venturing to draw any inferences on a subject beset with so many obstacles, it would be necessary to observe the effects of a purely animal and a purely vegetable diet on several individuals of different habits, pursuits, and modes of life; to note their state, both bodily and mental; and to learn the condition of two or three generations fed in the same manner." now, the only difference between this opinion and what i conceive to be the truth in the case is, that just such experimental investigations as those to which he refers have, to all intents and purposes, been already made; as, i trust, will be distinctly shown in the sequel of this work. dr. salgues. dr. salgues, physician, and professor of anatomy, physiology, etc., etc., to the institute of france, some years ago wrote a book, entitled "rules for preserving the health of the aged," which contained many very judicious remarks on diet. there is nothing in the volume, however, which is decidedly in favor of a diet exclusively vegetable, unless it is a few anecdotes; and i have introduced his name chiefly as a sort of authority for those anecdotes. they are the following: "josephus informs us that the essenes were very long lived; many lived upward of one hundred years, solely from their simple habits and sobriety. aristotle and plato speak of herodicus the philosopher, who, although of a feeble and consumptive habit, lived, in consequence of his sobriety, upward of one hundred years. phabrinus, mentioned by athenius, lived more than one hundred years, drinking milk only. zoroaster, according to pliny, remained twenty years in a desert, living on a small quantity of cheese only." the author of "sure methods," etc. the british author of "sure methods of improving health and prolonging life," supposed by many to be the distinguished dr. johnson, speaks thus: "it must be confessed that, in temperate climates, at least, an animal diet is, in one respect, more wasting than a vegetable, because it excites, by its stimulating qualities, a temporary fever after every meal, by which the springs of life are urged into constant, preternatural, and weakening exertions. again; persons who live chiefly on animal food are subject to various acute and fatal disorders, as the scurvy, malignant ulcers, inflammatory fevers, etc., and are likewise liable to corpulency, more especially when united to inordinate quantities of liquid aliment. there appears to be also a tendency in an animal diet to promote the formation of many chronic diseases; and we seldom find those who indulge much in this diet to be remarkable for longevity. "in favor of vegetables, it may be justly said, that man could hardly live entirely on animal food, but we know he may on vegetable. vegetable aliment has likewise no tendency to produce those constitutional disorders which animal food so frequently occasions. and this is a great advantage, more especially in our country (he means in great britain), where the general sedentary mode of living so powerfully contributes to the formation and establishment of numerous severe chronic maladies. any unfavorable effects vegetable food may have on the body, are almost wholly confined to the stomach and bowels, and rarely injure the system at large. this food has also a beneficial influence on the powers of the mind, and tends to preserve a delicacy of feeling, and liveliness of imagination, and acuteness of judgment, seldom enjoyed by those who live principally on meat. it should also be added, that a vegetable diet, when it consists of articles easily digested, as potatoes, turnips, bread, biscuit, oatmeal, etc., is certainly favorable to long life." baron cuvier.[ ] perhaps it is not generally known that baron cuvier, the prince of naturalists, in the progress of his researches came to the most decisive conclusion, that, so far as any thing can be ascertained or proved by the investigation of science in regard to the natural dietetic character of man, he is a fruit and vegetable eater. i have not seen his own views; but the following are said, by an intelligent writer, to be a tolerably faithful transcript of them, and to be derived from his comparative anatomy. "man resembles no carnivorous animal. there is no exception, unless man be one, to the rule of herbivorous animals having cellulated colons. "the ourang-outang perfectly resembles man, both in the order and number of his teeth. the ourang-outang is the most anthropomorphous of the ape tribe, all of which are strictly frugivorous. there is no other species of animals, which live on different food, in which this analogy exists. in many frugivorous animals, the canine teeth are more pointed and distinct than those of man. the resemblance also of the human stomach to that of the ourang-outang, is greater than to that of any other animal. "the intestines are also identical with those of herbivorous animals, which present a large surface for absorption, and have ample and cellulated colons. the coecum also, though short, is larger than that of carnivorous animals; and even here the ourang-outang retains its accustomed similarity. "the structure of the human frame, then, is that of one fitted to a pure vegetable diet, in every essential particular. it is true, that the reluctance to abstain from animal food, in those who have been long accustomed to its stimulus, is so great in some persons of weak minds, as to be scarcely overcome; but this is far from being any argument in its favor. a lamb, which was fed for some time on flesh by a ship's crew, refused its natural diet at the end of the voyage. there are numerous instances of horses, sheep, oxen, and even wood-pigeons, having been taught to live upon flesh, until they have loathed their natural aliment." no one will deny that baron cuvier was in favor of flesh eating; but it was not because he ever believed, for one moment, that man was _naturally_ a flesh-eating animal. man is a reasoning animal (he argues), and intended to be so. if left to the guidance of his instincts, the same yielding to the law of his structure which would exclude flesh meats, should also exclude cookery. or, in other words, if he is not permitted to depart from the line of life which his structure indicates, he must no more cook his vegetables than eat animal food. besides, he is made, as cuvier supposes, for artificial society, and the creator designed him to _improve_ his food; and, if i understand his reasoning, he is better able, with his present structure of teeth, jaws, stomach, intestines, etc., to make this improvement, and rise above his nature, and yield to the force and indications of reason and experience, than if he possessed any other known living structure. to this structure, however, as well as to the same power of adaptation, the monkey race, and especially the ourang-outang, closely typo approximates. cuvier's reasoning, in my view, applies only to the adaptability (if i may be allowed the expression) of the human animal, without deciding how far he should avail himself of his power to make changes. dr. luther v. bell. i have alluded, in another part of this work, to the prize essay of dr. bell, awarded to him by the boylston medical committee on the subject of the diet of laborers in new england. dr. bell is a physician of respectable talents, and is at present the physician to an insane hospital in charlestown, near this city. dr. bell admits, with the most distinguished naturalists and physiologists of europe,--cuvier, lawrence, blumenbach, bell of london, richerand, marc, etc.,--that the structure of man resembles closely that of the monkey race; and hence objects to the conclusion to which some of these men have arrived (by jumping over, as it were), that man is an omnivorous animal. he freely allows--i use his own words--"that man does approximate more closely to the frugivorous animals than to any others, in physical organization." but then he insists that the conclusion which ought to be drawn from this similarity "is, that he is designed to have his food in about the same state of mechanical cohesion, requiring about the same energy of masticatory organs, as if it consisted of fruits, etc., alone." but, wherefore should we draw even this conclusion, if structure and instinct prove nothing, and if we are to be governed solely by reason, without regard to structure and instinct? for my own part, i believe reason is never true reason, when it turns wholly out of doors either instinct or the indications of organization. in other words, an enlightened reason would look both to the structure and organization of man, and to a large and broad experience, for the solution of a question so important as what diet is, on the whole, best for man. and the experience of the world, both in the present and all former ages, leads me to a conclusion entirely different from that to which dr. bell, and those who entertain the same views with him, seem to have arrived--a conclusion which is indicated by structure, and confirmed by facts and universal experience. but this subject will be further discussed and developed in another place. it is sufficient for my present purpose, to bring testimony in favor of the safety of vegetable eating, and of the doctrine that man is naturally a vegetable and fruit-eating animal; and especially if i produce, to this end, the testimony of flesh-eaters themselves. dr. william buchan, author of "domestic medicine." "indulgence in animal food, renders men dull and unfit for the pursuits of science, especially when it is accompanied with the free use of strong liquors. i am inclined to think that _consumptions_, so common in england, are, in part, owing to the great use of animal food. but the disease most common to this country is the scurvy. one finds a dash of it in almost every family, and in some the taint is very deep. a disease so general must have a general cause, and there is none so obvious as the great quantity of animal food which is devoured. as a proof that scurvy arises from this cause, we are in possession of no remedy for that disease equal to the free use of fresh vegetables. by the uninterrupted use of animal food, a putrid diathesis is induced in the system, which predisposes to a variety of disorders. i am fully convinced that many of those obstinate complaints for which we are at a loss to account, and which we find it still more difficult to cure, are the effects of a scorbutic taint, lurking in the habit. "the choleric disposition of the english is almost proverbial. were i to assign a cause, it would be, their living so much on animal food. there is no doubt but this induces a ferocity of temper unknown to men whose food is taken chiefly from the vegetable kingdom.[ ] "experience proves that not a few of the diseases incident to the inhabitants of this country, are owing to their mode of living. the vegetable productions they consume, fall considerably short of the proportion they ought to bear to the animal part of their food. the major part of the aliment ought to consist of vegetable substances. there is a continual tendency in animal food, as well as in the human body itself, to putrefaction; which can only be counteracted by the free use of vegetables. all who value health, ought to be contented with making one meal of animal food in twenty-four hours; and this ought to consist of one kind only. "the most obstinate scurvy has often been cured by a vegetable diet; nay, milk alone, will frequently do more in that disease than any medicine. hence it is evident that if vegetables and milk were more used in diet, we should have less scurvy, and likewise fewer putrid and inflammatory fevers. "such as abound with blood (and such are almost all of us), should be sparing in the use of every thing which is highly nourishing--as fat meat, rich wines, strong ales, and the like. their food should consist chiefly of bread and other vegetable substances; and their drink ought to be water, whey, or small beer." dr. b. also insists on a vegetable diet, as a preventive of many diseases; particularly of consumption. when there is a tendency to this disease, in the young, he says "it should be counteracted by strictly adhering to a diet of the farinacea, and ripe fruits. animal food and fermented liquors ought to be rigidly prohibited. even milk often proves too nutritious." dr. charles whitlaw. dr. whitlaw is the author of a work entitled "new medical discoveries," in two volumes, and of a "treatise on fever." he has also established medical vapor baths in london, new york, and elsewhere; and is a gentleman of much skill and eminence in his profession. dr. whitlaw says-- "all philosophers have given their testimony in favor of vegetable food, from pythagoras to franklin. its beneficial influence on the powers of the mind has been experienced by all sedentary and literary men. "but, that which ought to convince every one of the salubrity of a diet consisting of vegetables, is the consideration of the dreadful effects of totally abstaining from it, unless it be for a very short time; accounts of which we meet with, fully and faithfully recorded, in the most interesting and most authentic narratives of human affairs--wars, sieges of places, long encampments, distant voyages, the peopling of uncultivated and maritime countries, remarkable pestilences, and the lives of illustrious men. to this cause the memorable plague at athens was attributed; and indeed all the other plagues and epidemical distempers, of which we have any faithful accounts, will be found to have originated in a deprivation of vegetable food. "the only objections i have ever heard urged (the only plausible ones, he must mean, i think), is the notion of its inadequacy to the sustenance of the body. but this is merely a strong prejudice into which the generality of mankind have fallen, owing to their ignorance of the laws of life and health. agility and constant vigor of body are the effect of health, which is much better preserved by a herbaceous, aqueous, and sparing tender diet, than by one which is fleshy, vinous, unctuous, and hard of digestion. "so fully were the romans, at one time, persuaded of the superior goodness of vegetable diet, that, besides the private example of many of their great men, they established laws respecting food, among which were the _lex fannia_, and the _lex licinia_, which allowed but very little animal food; and, for a period of five hundred years, diseases were banished along with the physician from the roman empire. nor has our own age been destitute of examples of men, brave from the vigor both of their bodies and their minds, who at the same time have been drinkers of water and eaters of vegetables.[ ] "nothing is more certain than that animal food is inimical to health. this is evident from its stimulating qualities producing, as it were, a temporary fever after every meal; and not only so, but from its corruptible qualities it gives rise to many fatal diseases; and those who indulge in its use seldom arrive at an advanced age. "we have the authority of the scripture for asserting that the proper aliment of man is vegetables. see genesis. and as disease is not mentioned as a part of the cause, we have reason to believe that the antediluvians were strangers to this evil. such a phenomenon as disease could hardly exist among a people who lived entirely on a vegetable food; consequently all the individuals made mention of in that period of the world, are said to have died of old age; whereas, since the day of noah, when mankind were permitted to eat animal food, such an occurrence as a man dying of old age, or a natural decay of the bodily functions, does not occur probably once in half a century. "its injurious effects on the mind are equally certain. the tartars, who live principally on animal food, are cruel and ferocious in their disposition, gloomy and sullen minded, delighting in exterminating wars and plunder; while the bramins and hindoos, who live entirely on vegetable aliment, possess a mildness and gentleness of character and disposition directly the reverse of the tartar; and i have no doubt, had india possessed a more popular form of government, and a more enlightened priesthood, her people, with minds so fitted for contemplation, would have far outstripped the other nations of the world in manufactures, and in the arts and sciences. "but we need only look at the peasantry of ireland, who, living as they do, chiefly on a vegetable--and to say the least of it, a very suspicious kind of aliment, i mean the potatoe--are yet as robust and vigorous a race of men as inherit any portion of the globe. "the greater part of our bodily disease is brought on by improper food. this opinion has been strongly confirmed by my daily experience in the treatment of those diseases to which the people of england are peculiarly subject, such as scrofula, consumption, leprosy, etc. these disorders are making fearful and rapid strides; so much so, that not a single family may now be considered exempt from their melancholy ravages." this is fearful testimony, but it is the result of much observation and of twenty years' experience. but the same causes are producing the same effects--at least, so far as scrofula and consumption are concerned--in this country, at the present time, of which dr. w. complains so loudly in england. i could add much more from his writings, but what i have said is sufficient. dr. james clark. dr. clark, physician to the king and queen of belgium, in a treatise on pulmonary consumption, has the following remarks: "there is no greater evil in the management of children than that of giving them animal diet very early. by persevering in the use of an over-stimulating diet, the digestive organs become irritated, and the various secretions immediately connected with and necessary to digestion are diminished, especially the biliary secretion; and constipation of the bowels and congestion of the abdominal viscera succeed. children so fed, moreover, become very liable to attacks of fever and of inflammation, affecting particularly the mucous membranes; and measles and the other diseases incident to childhood are generally severe in their attack." the suggestion that a mild or vegetable diet will render certain diseases incident to childhood more mild than otherwise they would be, is undoubtedly an important one; and as just as it is important. but the remark might be extended, in its application. both children and adults would escape all sorts of diseases, especially colds and epidemics, with much more certainty, or, if attacked, the attacks would be much more mild, on an exclusively vegetable diet than on a mixed one. dr. clark does not, indeed, say so; but i may say it, and with confidence. and dr. c. could not probably show any reason why, on his own principles, it should not be so. prof. mussey, of dartmouth college. prof. r. d. mussey, of hanover, new hampshire, whose science and skill as a surgeon and physician are well known and attested all over new england, has for many years taught, both directly and indirectly, in his public lectures, that man is naturally a fruit and vegetable eater. this he proves, first, from the structure of his teeth and intestines--next from his physiological character, and finally, from various facts and considerations too numerous to detail here. he thinks the bible doctrines are in favor of the disuse of flesh and fish; that the jews were required to abstain from pork, and from all fat and blood, for physiological no less than other reasons. an infant, he says, naturally has a disrelish for animal food. he says that, in all probability, animal food was not permitted, though used, before the flood; and that its use, contrary to the wish of the creator, was probably one cause of human degeneracy. animal food, he says, is apt to produce diseases of the skin--makes people passionate and violent--excites the nervous system too much--renders the senses and faculties more dull--and favors the accumulation of what is mired tartar on the teeth, and thus causes their early and certain decay. the blood and breath of carnivorous animals emit an unpleasant odor, while those of vegetable eaters do not. the fact that man _does eat_ flesh no more proves its necessity, than the fact that cows, and sheep, and horses can be taught it, proves its necessity to them. the africans bear the cold better the first winter after their arrival in a northern climate than afterward. may not this be owing to their simple vegetable living? dr. condie, of philadelphia. the journal of health, edited by some of the ablest physicians of philadelphia, has the following remarkable language on the subject of vegetable food. see vol. , page . "it is well known that vegetable substances, particularly the farinaceous, are fully sufficient, of themselves, for maintaining a healthy existence. we have every reason for believing that the fruits of the earth constituted, originally, the only food of man. animal food is digested in a much shorter period than vegetables; from which circumstance, as well as its approaching much nearer in its composition to the substance of the body into which it is to be converted, it might at first be supposed the most appropriate article of nourishment. it has, however, been found that vegetable matter can be as readily and perfectly _assimilated_ by the stomach into appropriate _nutriment_ as the most tender animal substances; and confessedly with a less heating effect upon the system generally. "as a general rule, it will be found that those who make use of a diet consisting chiefly of vegetable matter have a vast advantage in looks, in strength, and spirits, over those who partake largely of animal food. they are remarkable for the firm, healthy plumpness of their muscles, and the transparency of their skins. this assertion, though at variance with popular opinion, is amply supported by experience." at page of the same volume of the journal of health we find the following remarks. the editors were alluding to those persons who think they cannot preserve their health and strength without flesh or fish, and who believe their children would also suffer without it: "for the information of all such misguided persons, we beg leave to state, that the large majority of mankind do not eat any animal food; or, if any, they use it so sparingly, and at such long intervals, that it cannot be said to form their nourishment. millions in asia are sustained by rice alone, with perhaps a little vegetable oil for seasoning. "in italy and southern europe, generally, bread, made of the flour of wheat or indian corn, with lettuce and the like mixed with oil, constitutes the food of the most robust part of its population. "the lazzaroni of naples, with forms so actively and finely proportioned, cannot even calculate on this much. coarse bread and potatoes is their chief reliance. their drink of luxury is a glass of iced water, slightly acidulated. "hundreds of thousands--we might say millions--of irish do not see flesh-meat or fish from one week's end to another. potatoes and oatmeal are their articles of food: if milk can be added it is thought a luxury. yet where shall we find a more healthy and robust population, or one more enduring of bodily fatigue, and exhibiting more mental vivacity? what a contrast between these people and the inhabitants of the extreme north--the timid laplanders, esquimaux, and samoideans, whose food is almost entirely animal?" again, at page we are told that "the more simple the aliment, and the less _altered_ by culinary processes, the slower is the change in digestion; but, at the same time, the less is the stimulation and wear of the powers of life. the bramins of hindostan, who live on exceedingly simple food, are long livers, even in a hot and exhausting climate. the peasants of switzerland and of scotland, nourished on bread, milk, and cheese, attain a very old age, and enjoy great bodily strength. "where there is too much excitement of the body, generally, from fullness of the blood-vessels, or of any one of the organs, owing to a wrong direction of the blood to it (and in one or the other of these conditions we find almost every body now-a-days), animal food, by being long retained in the stomach, and calling into greater action other parts during digestion, as well as furnishing them with more blood afterward, must be obviously improper. the more of this kind of food is taken under such circumstances, the greater will be the oppression; and the weakness, different from that of a healthy person long hungered, will only be increased by the increased amount of blood carried to the diseased part." it is true that the editors of the journal of health connect with the foregoing paragraphs the statement that, "if it be desirable to give nutriment in a small bulk, to obtund completely the sensation of hunger and restore strength to the body, a small quantity of animal will be preferable to much vegetable food." but then it is only in a few diseased cases that any such thing is desirable. and even then, if we look carefully at the language used, the comparison is not made between animal and vegetable food in moderate or reasonable quantities, but between a _small quantity_ of the former and _much_ of the latter. dr. j. v. c. smith, of boston. the following remarks are extracted from the boston medical intelligencer, at a period when dr. j. v. c. smith was the editor. they have the appearance of being from dr. smith's own pen. dr. s. is at present the editor of the boston medical and surgical journal: "it is true[ ] that animal food contains a greater portion of nutriment, in a given quantity, than vegetables; but the digestive functions of the human system become prematurely exhausted by constant action, and the whole system eventually sinks under great or uninterrupted excitement. if, for the various ragouts with which modern tables are so abundantly furnished, men would substitute _wholesome vegetables and pure water_, we should see health walking in paths that are now crowded with the bloated victims of voluptuous appetite. millions of gentoos have lived to an advanced age without having tasted any thing that ever possessed life, and been wholly free from a chain of maladies which have scourged every civilized nation on the globe. the wandering arabs, who have traversed the barren desert of sahara, subsisting on the scanty pittance of milk from the half-famished camel that carried them, have seen two hundred years roll round without a day of sickness." sylvester graham. although mr. graham does not, so far as i know, lay claim to the "honors" of any medical institution, it cannot be doubted that his knowledge of physiology, to say nothing of anatomy, pathology, and medicine, is such as to entitle him to a high rank among medical men; and i have, therefore, without hesitation, concluded to insert his testimony in this place. of his views, however, on the subject before us, it seems almost superfluous to speak, as they are set forth, and have been set forth for many years, so conspicuously, not only in his public lectures, but in his writings, that the bare mention of his name, in almost any part of the country, is to awaken the prejudices, if not the hostilities, of every foe, and of some friends (supposed friends, i mean), of "temperance in all things." it is sufficient, perhaps, for my present purpose, to say of him, that, after the most rigid and profound examination of the subject which he is capable of making--and his capabilities are by no means very limited--it is his unhesitating belief, that in every climate, and in all circumstances in which it is proper for man to be placed, an exclusively farinaceous and fruit diet is the best adapted to the development and improvement of all his powers of body, mind, and soul; provided, however, he were trained to it from the first. and even at any period of life, unless in the case of certain forms of diseases, he believes it would be preferable to exchange, in a proper manner, every form of mixed diet for one purely vegetable. such opinions as these, as a part of his views in relation to the physical duties of man, he publicly, and strenuously, and eloquently, announces and defends. dr. john m. andrew. dr. andrew is a practitioner of medicine in remsen, oneida county, state of new york. his letter was intended for chapter iv., but came too late. this fact is the only apology for inserting it in this place. several interesting cases of dietetic reform accompanied the letter, but i must omit them, for want of room, in this work. remsen, april , . dear sir--it is now about sixteen months since i adopted an exclusively vegetable diet. i have, however, never been very much inclined to animal food; and, indeed, before i ever heard of the graham system i laid it aside, during summer, when farming--which, by the by, had always been my occupation till i commenced my professional course, about four years ago. i have, to the best of my knowledge, enjoyed what is commonly called good health, and possessed a degree of strength surpassed only by few; and in connection with the assiduous cultivation of my mental faculties, i have carefully sought to improve my physical powers, which i deem of incalculable worth to the student, as well as to the laborer. my attention was first called to the subject of vegetable eating by professor mussey, in a lecture before the medical class of the western medical college of new york, while fulfilling the duties of the professorship, to which he was called in . in that lecture our adaptations, and the design of the creator in regard to our mode of subsistence, were clearly held forth, and such was the impression made on my mind, that i was induced at once to adopt the vegetable system, both in practice and theory. in my change of diet i did not suffer any inconvenience. the fact that i had, for some length of time, been living mostly on vegetables, will account for that circumstance, however. but the great advantages derived from the change were soon perceptible, though not appreciated by others. i met with much opposition from my friends, frequently being told that i was fast losing my flesh and all my youthful vigor and vivacity. and yet, for one year and more, i have not lost a pound of flesh. i was gazed upon as an anomaly in society; some anxiously looking, and others fearfully expecting my downfall and destruction; but both are alike disappointed. the system, though i have not been able to follow it so strictly as i could wish, from the circumstances in which i have been placed, has far exceeded my expectations. one year and more has rolled away, and i thank god i can look back, with some degree of satisfaction, on the time spent in the enjoyment of that alone which sweetens the cup of life. my most able advocacy has been my manual exertions and i have demonstrated the utility of the _system_ alike to the professional and laboring classes of community. i do not go beyond the truth when i say, that i cannot find a man to vie with me in the field, with the scythe, the fork, or the axe. i do not want any thing but potatoes and salt; and i can cut and put up four cords of wood in a day, with no very great exertion. i have frequently been told, by friends, that my _potato and salt system_ would not stand the test of the field; but i have silenced their clamor by actual demonstration with all the implements above named. at present, no consideration would induce me to return to my former mode of living. john m. andrew. dr. william sweetser, of boston. dr. sweetser is the author of a "treatise on consumption," and of a "treatise on digestion." he has also been a medical professor in the university of vermont, and a public lecturer on health, in boston. in his work on consumption, while speaking of the prevailing belief of a necessity for the use of animal food to those children who possess the scrofulous or consumptive tendency, he thus remarks: "a diet of milk and mild farinaceous articles, with perhaps light animal decoctions, appears best suited to the early years of life. whenever there exists an evident inflammatory tendency, as is the case in some scrofulous systems, solid animal food, if used at all, should be taken with the greatest precaution. "and again--how often is it that fat, plethoric, meat-eating children, their faces looking as though the blood was just ready to ooze out, are with the greatest complacency exhibited by their parents as patterns of health! but let it ever be remembered, that the condition of the system popularly called rude or full health, and which is the result of high feeding, is too often closely bordering on a state of disease." in his work on digestion he seems to regard man as naturally an omnivorous animal; and, taking this for granted, he speaks as follows respecting his diet: "one would hardly assert that even in temperate climates his (man's) system requires animal food. i doubt whether any instance can be adduced--unless man be regarded as such--of an omnivorous animal incapable of being adequately nourished by a sufficient and proper vegetable diet. "man, dwelling in a temperate climate, and with the power to choose, almost uniformly employs a mixture of animal and vegetable food; but how much early education may have to do in forming his taste for a mixed diet it is difficult to estimate. habit has certainly great influence in attaching us to particular kinds of aliment. one who has long been accustomed to animal food cannot at once abstain from it without experiencing some feebleness for the want of its stimulation, and perhaps even temporary emaciation. and, on the other hand, he who has long been confined to a vegetable diet is apt to lose his relish for flesh, and, on recurring suddenly to its use, to find it too exciting. "the liberal use of animal food has been generally thought requisite in arctic climes, to stimulate the functions, and thus furnish a more abundant supply of animal heat, to preserve against the extremity of external temperature. northern voyagers mostly believe that fat animal food and oils are essential to the maintenance of health and life in the inhabitants of those frozen regions. but to me it would seem that their habits, in respect to diet, prove the _capabilities_, rather than the necessities, of their systems. they learn to eat their coarse fare because they can get no other. their food, moreover, as is generally the case in savage life, is precarious; and thus, being at times exposed to extreme want, they are stimulated to greater excesses when their supplies are ample. "the fact of man's dwelling in them (the arctic regions), and eating what he can get there, no more proves him to be naturally a flesh-eating animal than the circumstance of some cattle learning to eat fish, when they are in situations where they can obtain no other food, proves them to be piscivorous. "haller conceived it necessary that human life should be sustained by animal and vegetable food, so apportioned that neither should be in excess; and he asserts that abstinence from animal food causes great weakness in the body, and usually a troublesome diarrhoea. but such an opinion is certainly incorrect, since not only particular individuals, but even numbers of people, dwelling in temperate climates, from various causes, subsist almost wholly on vegetable substances, and yet preserve their health and vigor. "were we educated to its exclusive use, i am persuaded that a vegetable diet would afford us ample support; but whether, if restrained from animal food, we should, _as a consequence_, in the course of time, and under equally favoring circumstances in other respects, rise still higher in our moral and physical nature, remains, as i conceive, to be proved." these views of dr. s. were repeated, in substance, in a course of lectures given by him at the masonic temple, in boston, in . it will be seen that he concedes what the friends of the vegetable system deem a very important point, viz., that man's whole powers, physical, intellectual, and moral, can be well developed on a diet exclusively vegetable. we do not ask him to grant more. if man is as well off on vegetable food as without it, we have moral reasons of so much weight to place against animal food, as, when duly considered, will be, by all candid persons, sufficient to lead to its rejection. true, we do not believe, with dr. s.--at least i do not--that "whether a diet purely vegetable, or one comprehending both animal and vegetable food, would be most conducive to health, longevity, and intellectual, moral, and physical development, is a question only to be determined by a long course of experiments, made by various individuals in equal health, and placed, in all other respects, under as nearly similar circumstances as practicable." i believe this course of experiment does not remain _to be_ made, but that it has been made, most fully, during the last four or five thousand years, and that the question is settled in favor--wholly so--of vegetable food. still i do not ask physicians and other medical men to grant more than dr. s. has; it is quite as much as we ought to expect of them. dr. a. l. pierson. dr. pierson, of salem, in massachusetts, a physician and surgeon of considerable eminence, in a lecture some time ago, before the american institute of instruction, observed that "young men who were anxious to avail themselves of the advantages of a liberal education, and were therefore compelled to consult economy, had found out that it was not necessary to pay three or four dollars a week for mere board, when the most vigorous and uniform health may be secured by a diet of mere vegetable food and water." i know not that dr. p. avows himself an advocate for the exclusive use of vegetable food, but if what i have quoted is not enough to satisfy us in regard to his opinion of its safety, and its full power to develop body and mind, i know not what would be. if the most vigorous and uniform health can be secured on vegetable food, what individual in the world--in view of the moral considerations at least--would ever resort to the carcasses of animals? statement of dr. c. byington, of philadelphia. a physician of some eminence, residing in philadelphia, has been heard to say that it was his decided opinion that mankind would live longest, and be healthiest and happiest, on mere bread and water. i may add here, that there was every evidence but one that he was sincere in this statement, although i do not fully accord with him, believing that the best health requires variety of food--not, indeed, at the same meal, but at different ones. the exception i make in regard to his sincerity, is in reference to the fact, that while he professed to believe a bread and vegetable diet to be best for mankind, he did not adopt it. testimony of a physician in new york. in the work entitled "hints to a fashionable lady," by a physician--his name not given--we find the following testimony: "young persons invariably do best on simple but moderately nutritious fare. too large a proportion of animal food and fatty substances are pernicious to the complexion. on the contrary, a diet which is principally vegetable, with the luxuries of the dairy (not butter, surely, for that is elsewhere prohibited), is most advantageous. nowhere are finer complexions to be found than in those parts of england, scotland, and ireland, where the living is almost exclusively vegetable. "those who subsist entirely on vegetable food have seldom, if ever, a constantly bad breath, or an offensive perspiration. it has been ascertained that the teeth are uniformly best in those countries where least animal food is used." the female's cyclopedia. from a fugitive volume, entitled "the female's cyclopedia," i have concluded to make the following extract, because i have reason to believe the writer to have been a physician: "animal food certainly gives most strength; but its stimulancy excites fever, and produces plethora and its consequences. the system is sooner worn out by a repetition of its stimuli, and those who indulge greatly in such diet are more likely to be carried off early by inflammatory diseases; or if, by judicious exercise, they qualify its effects, they yet acquire such an accumulation of putrescent fluids as becomes the foundation for the most inveterate chronic diseases in after age. "the most valuable state of the mind, however, appears to be connected with somewhat less of firmness and vigor of body. vegetable aliment, as never over-distending the vessels or loading the system, does not interrupt the stronger emotions of the mind; while the heat, fullness, and weight of animal food, are inimical to its vigorous exertion. temperance, therefore, does not so much consist in the quantity--since the appetite will regulate that--as in the quality; namely, in a large proportion of vegetable aliment." dr. van cooth. dr. van cooth, a learned european writer--i believe a hollander--has recently maintained, incidentally, in a learned medical dissertation, that the great body of the ancient egyptians and persians "confined themselves to a vegetable diet." to be sure, dr. v. does not seem to be a vegetable eater himself, but the friends of the latter system are not the less indebted to him for the concession. the physical and moral superiority of those vegetable eating nations, in the days of their glory, are well known; and every intelligent reader of history, and honest inquirer after truth, will make his own inferences from the facts which i have mentioned. dr. william beaumont. the work of this gentleman, entitled "experiments and observations on the gastric juice, and the physiology of digestion," is well known--at least to the medical community. the following are some of the conclusions to which his experiments conducted him: "solid aliment, thoroughly masticated, is far more salutary than soups, broths, etc. "fat meats, butter, and oily substances of every kind, are difficult of digestion, offensive to the stomach, and tend to derange that organ and induce disease. "spices, pepper, stimulating and heating condiments of every kind, retard digestion and injure the stomach. "coffee and tea debilitate the stomach and impair digestion. "simple water is the only fluid called for by the wants of the economy; the artificial drinks are all more or less injurious--some more so than others; but none can claim exemption from the general charge." if it should be said that this testimony of dr. beaumont is by no means directly in favor of a diet exclusively vegetable. i admit it. but he certainly goes very far toward conceding every thing which i claim, when he says that "fat meats, butter, and oily substances of every kind, are difficult of digestion, offensive to the stomach, and tend to derange that organ and induce disease;" and especially when he speaks so highly of farinaceous substances and good fruits. pray, what animal food can be eaten which does not contain, at least, a small quantity of oil? and if this oil tends to induce disease, and farinaceous food does not, why should not animal food be excluded? sir everard home. this distinguished philosopher and medical gentleman, though, like many others, he insisted that vegetable food did not produce full muscular development, yet admitted the natural character of man to be that of a vegetable eater, in the following, or nearly the following, terms: "in the history of man--in the bible--we are told that dominion over the animal world was bestowed upon him at his creation; but the divine permission to indulge in animal food was not given till after the flood. the observations i have to make accord strongly with this tradition; for, while mankind remained in a state of innocence, there is every ground to believe that their only food was the produce of the vegetable kingdom." dr. jennings. dr. jennings is the author of a work published at oberlin, ohio, in , entitled "medical reform." in this volume, at page , we find the following facts and statements. the author is comparing the effects of animal food on the human system with those of alcohol, from which we learn his views concerning the former: "position i.--animal food, in common with alcohol, creates a feverish diathesis, evidences of which are-- . an impaired state of the respiratory function. . the pulse is rendered more frequent and irregular, both by alcohol and meat. . a feverish heat is generated in the system, and persons are made more thirsty, by the use of both these substances. . both substances equally induce what is called the digestive fever. "position ii.--alcoholic drinks lay the foundation for occasional disturbances in the system, of different kinds and grades, as bilious bowel affections, etc., and so do flesh meats. in the production of colds, animal food is far the most efficient. "position iii.--animal food tends, quite as strongly as the moderate use of alcoholic liquors, to weaken and disturb the balance of action between the secerning and excerning systems of vessels, by which some persons become leaner and others fleshier than they should be. "position iv.--with about equal potency alcohol and flesh meats weaken the force of the capillaries of the system, on which healthy action so much depends. "position v.--a flesh diet, in common with the use of strong drink, impairs the tone of the nutritive apparatus, by which its ability to work up raw material and manufacture it into sound, well finished vital fabric, is diminished, and of course the appetite or call for food is satisfied with a less quantity of the raw material. this fact has given rise to the opinion that animal food contains more nutriment than vegetable. "position vi.--the total abandonment of an habitual use of animal food is attended with all the perplexing, uncomfortable, and distressing difficulties that follow the giving up of an habitual use of strong drink. a change from one kind of simple nutriment to another has no such effect. it is only when the constant use of some stimulating substance is abandoned that such difficulties are experienced." dr. jarvis. this gentleman, in his "practical physiology," at page , has the following thoughts: "some have contended that man was designed to eat only of the fruits and vegetables of the earth; while others maintain, with equal confidence, that he should add to these the flesh of beasts. there are many individuals, both in this and other countries, who confine themselves to vegetable diet. they believe they enjoy better health, and maintain greater strength of body and mind, than those who live on a mixed diet. the experiment has not been tried on a sufficiently extensive range to determine its value. it has not proved a failure, nor has it demonstrated, to the satisfaction of all, that flesh is injurious."[ ] dr. ticknor. "from the fact," says this author, "that animal food is proper and necessary for health in polar regions, and that a vegetable diet is equally proper and necessary in the torrid zone, we may conclude that in winter, in our own climate, an animal diet is the best; while vegetables are more conducive to health in the summer season." it would not be difficult to prove, from the very concessions of dr. t., that vegetable food is better adapted to health, in _general_, than animal; but i forbear to do so, in this place. the subject will be fully discussed in the concluding chapter. dr. coles. the author of a small volume recently published at boston, entitled the "philosophy of health; or, health without medicine," is more decided in his views on diet than any late writer i have seen, except dr. jennings and o. s. fowler. he says, at page : "man, in his original, holy state, was provided for from the vegetables of that happy garden which was given him to prune. this was the creator's original plan; * * * * the eating of flesh was one of the consequences of the fall. living on vegetable food is undoubtedly the most natural and healthy method of subsistence." again, at page --"the objections, then, against meat-eating are threefold--intellectual, moral, and physical. its tendency is to check intellectual activity, to depreciate moral sentiment, and to derange the fluids of the body." dr. shew. this active physician is zealously devoted to the propagation of hydropathy. he uses no medicine in the management of disease--nothing at all but water. to this, however, he adds great attention to diet. in his journal,[ ] and elsewhere, he is a zealous and able advocate of the vegetable system, preferring it himself, and recommending it to his patients and followers. dr. shew's opinion, in this particular, is entitled to the more weight from the fact of his having been very familiar with disease and diet, both in the old world and the new. he has been twice to germany; and has spent much time at graefenberg, with priessnitz, the founder of the system which he so zealously defends and practices, and so strongly advocates. dr. morrill. dr. c. morrill, in a recent work entitled, "physiology of woman, and her diseases," says much in favor of an exclusively vegetable diet in some of the diseases of woman; and among other things, makes the following general remarks: "even by those who labor (referring here to the healthy), meat should be taken moderately, and but once a day. the sedentary, generally, do not need it." dr. bell. this gentleman's testimony has been given elsewhere. i only subjoin the following: "by far the greater number of the inhabitants of the earth have used, in all ages, and continue to use, at this time, vegetable aliment alone." dr. bradley. dr. d. b. bradley, the distinguished missionary at bangkok, in siam, though not exactly a vegetable eater, is favorably disposed to the vegetable system. he has read graham and myself with great care, and is an anxious inquirer after all truth. dr. stephenson. dr. chauncy stephenson, of chesterfield, massachusetts, in what he calls his "new system of medicine," commends to all his readers, for their sustenance, "pure air, a proper temperature, good vegetable food, and pure cold water." and lest he should be misunderstood, he immediately adds--"the best articles of food for general use are good, well-baked cold bread, made of rye and indian corn, wheat or barley meal; rice, good ripe fruits of all kinds, both fresh and dried, and a proper proportion of good roots, such as potatoes, parsneps, turnips, onions, etc." even milk he regards as a questionable food for adults or middle aged persons. again, he says: "animal food, in general, digests sooner than most kinds of vegetables; and not being so much in accordance with man's nature, constitution, and moral character, it is very liable, finally, to generate disease, inflammation, or fever, even when it is not taken to excess." he closes by advising all persons to content themselves with "pure vegetable food;" and that in the least quantity compatible with good health. dr. j. burdell, a distinguished dentist of new york, has long been a vegetable eater, and a zealous defender of the faith (in this particular) which he professes. dr. thomas smethurst, in a work entitled hydrotherapia, says, "children thrive best upon a simple, moderately nourishing vegetable diet." and if children thus thrive the best, why not adults? dr. schlemmer. dr. c. v. schlemmer, a german by birth, but now an adopted son of old england, in giving an account of the diet of himself, his three sons of eleven, ten, and four years of age, with their tutor, observes: "raw peas, beans, and fruit are our food: our teeth are our mills; the stomach is the kitchen." and all of them, as he affirms, enjoy the best of health. for himself, as he says, he has practiced in this way six years. dr. curtis, and others. dr. curtis, a distinguished botanic physician of ohio, with several other physicians, both of the old and the new school, whom i have not named, do not hesitate to regard a pure vegetable diet, in the abstract, as by far the best for all mankind, both in health and disease. dr. porter, of waltham, for example, when i meet him, always concedes that a well-selected vegetable diet is superior to every other. he has repeatedly told me of an experiment he made, of three months, on mere bread and water. never, says he, was i more vigorous in body and mind, than at the end of this experiment. but the reader well knows that i am not an advocate of a diet of mere bread and water. i regard fruits, or fruit juices--unfermented--almost as necessary, to adults, as bread. prof. c. u. shepard. the reputation of this gentleman, in the scientific world, is so well known, that no apology can be necessary for inserting his testimony. as a chemist, he is second to very few, if any, men in this country. the following are his remarks: "start not back at the idea of subsisting upon the potato alone, ye who think it necessary to load your tables with all the dainty viands of the market--with fish, flesh, and fowl, seasoned with oil and spices, and eaten, perhaps, with wines;--start not back, i say, with disgust, until you are able to display in your own pampered persons a firmer muscle, a more beau-ideal outline, and a healthier red than the potato-fed peasantry of ireland and scotland once showed you, as you passed by their cabin doors! "no; the chemical physiologist will tell you that the well ripened potato, when properly cooked, contains every element that man requires for nutrition; and in the best proportion in which they are found in any plant whatever. there is the abounding supply of starch for enabling him to maintain the process of breathing, and for generating the necessary warmth of body; there is the nitrogen for contributing to the growth and renovation of organs; the lime and phosphorus for the bones; and all the salts which a healthy circulation demands. in fine, the potato may well be called the universal plant." blackwood, in his magazine. "chemistry," says blackwood's magazine, "has already told us many remarkable things in regard to the vegetable food we eat--that it contains, for example, a certain per centage of the actual fat and lean we consume in our beef, or mutton, or pork--and, therefore, that he who lives on vegetable food may be as strong as the man who lives on animal food, because both in reality feed on the same things, in a somewhat different form." there is this difference, however, that in the one case--that is, in the use of the vegetables which contain the elements referred to--we save the trouble of running it through the body of the living animal, and losing seven eighths of it, as we do, practically in the process; whereas in the other we do not. we also save ourselves the necessity of training the young and the old to scenes of butchery and blood. prof. johnston. this gentleman, in a recent edition of his "elements of agricultural chemistry and geology," tells us that from experiments made in the laboratory of the agricultural association of scotland, wheat and oats, when analyzed, contain of nutritious properties the following proportion: musc. matter. fat. starch. wheat, pounds, pounds, pounds. oats, " " " thus oats, and even wheat, are quite rich in that which forms muscular matter in the human body. simeon collins, of westfield, mass. this gentleman, in his fifty-first year, states that having been for several years afflicted with a severe cough, which he supposed bordered upon consumption, he "discontinued the use of flesh meat, fish, fowl, butter, gravy, tea, and coffee, and made use of a plain vegetable diet." "my bread," says he, "is made of unbolted wheat meal; my drink is pure cold water; my bed, for winter and summer, is made of the everlasting flower; and my health is, and ever has been, perfect, since i got fairly cleansed from the filthiness of flesh meat, and other pernicious articles of diet in common use. "my business requires a great degree of activity, and i can truly say that i am a stranger to weariness or languor. at the time of entering upon this system, i had a wife and five children, the youngest eight years of age;--they all soon entered upon the same course of living with myself, and soon were all benefited in health. i have now six children--the youngest fifteen months old, and as happy as a lark. previous to the time of our adopting the present system of living, my expenses for medicine and physicians would range from $ to $ a year--for the last four years it has been nothing worth naming." rev. joseph emerson. mr. emerson was a teacher of eminence, known throughout the united states, but particularly so in massachusetts and connecticut. he died in the latter state, in , aged about fifty-five. he had long been a miserable dyspeptic, but was probably kept alive amid certain strange violations of physical law, such as studying hard till midnight, for example, for many years, by his great care in regard to his diet. mrs. banister, late miss z. p. grant (the associate, at ipswich, of miss lyon, who died recently at south hadley, who was his pupil), thus speaks of his rigid habits: "he not only uniformly rejected whatever food he had decided to be injurious to him, but whatever he deemed necessary for his food or drink, was always taken, whether at home or abroad. as his diet, for several years, consisted generally, either of bread and milk, or of bread and butter, what solid food he wanted could be supplied at any table."[ ] it is also testified of him, by his brother, prof. emerson, of andover, that "for more than thirty years he adopted the practice of eating but one kind at a meal." if i do not misremember, for i knew him well, he was in favor of banishing flesh and fish, and substituting milk and fruits in their stead, on bible ground.--i refer here to the divine arrangement in the first chapter of genesis; and which has never, that i am aware, been altered. tak sisson. tak sisson, as he was called, was a slave in the family of a man in rhode island, before and during the revolution. from early childhood he could never be prevailed on to eat any flesh or fish, but he subsisted on vegetable food and milk; neither could he be persuaded to eat high seasoned food of any kind. when he was a child, his parents used to scold him severely, and threaten to whip him because he refused to eat flesh. they said to him (as i have been told a thousand times), that if he did not eat meat he would never be good for any thing, but would always be a poor, puny creature. but tak persevered in his vegetable and unstimulating diet, and, to the surprise of all, grew fast, and his body was finely developed and athletic. he was very stout and robust, and altogether the most vigorous and dexterous of any of the family. he finally became more than six feet high, and every way well proportioned, and remarkable for his agility and strength. he was so uncommonly shrewd, bright, strong, and active, that he became notorious for his shrewdness, and for his feats of strength and agility. indeed, he was so full of his playful mischief as greatly to annoy his overseer. during the revolutionary war it became an object to take gen. prescott. a door was to be forced where he was quartered and sleeping, and tak was selected for the work. having taken his lesson from the american officer, he proceeded to the door, plunged his thick head against it, burst it open, roused gen. p., like a tiger sprung upon him, seized him in his brawny arms, and in a low, stern voice, said, "one word, and you are a dead man." then hastily snatching the general's cloak and wrapping it round him, at the same time telling a companion to take care of the rest of his clothes, he took him in his arms, as if a child, and ran with him to a boat which was waiting, and escaped with his prisoner without rousing even the british sentinels. tak lived on his vegetable fare to a very advanced age, and was remarkable, through life, for his activity, strength, and shrewdness. footnotes: [ ] by seed, dr. c. means the farinaceous grains; wheat, corn, rye, etc. [ ] cuvier was not a medical man, but i have classed him with medical men, on account of his profound knowledge of comparative anatomy and physiology. [ ] "unless," as a writer in the graham journal very justly observes, "these latter indulge, habitually and freely, in the use of intoxicating substances." [ ] such was gen. elliot, so distinguished at the famous siege of gibraltar. such, too, was mr. shillitoe, of whom honorable mention will be made in another place;--besides many more. [ ] so he thinks, but i think otherwise. animal food, as i have shown elsewhere, is not so nutritious as some of the farinaceous vegetables. [ ] dr. j. here overlooks one important fact, viz., that the testimony of all those who have tried the exclusive use of vegetable food is _positive_ in its nature; while that of others, who have not tried it, is, and necessarily must be, negative. [ ] the water-cure journal. [ ] an aged lady, of dedham--a pillar in every good cause--has, for twelve or fifteen years, carried abroad with her, when traveling, some plain bread and apples; and no entreaties will prevail with her, at home or abroad, to eat luxuries. chapter vi. testimony of philosophers and other eminent men. general remarks.--testimony of plautus.--plutarch.--porphyry.--lord bacon.--sir william temple.--cicero.--cyrus the great.--gassendi.--prof. hitchcock.--lord kaims.--dr. thomas dick.--prof. bush.--thomas shillitoe.--alexander pope.--sir richard phillips.--sir isaac newton.--the abbé gallani.--homer.--dr. franklin.--mr. newton.--o. s. fowler.--rev. mr. johnston.--john h. chandler.--rev. j. caswell.--mr. chinn.--father sewall.--magliabecchi.--oberlin and swartz.--james haughton.--john bailies.--francis hupazoli.--prof. ferguson.--howard, the philanthropist.--gen. elliot.--encyclopedia americana.--thomas bell, of london.--linnæus, the naturalist.--shelley, the poet.--rev. mr. rich.--rev. john wesley.--lamartine. general remarks. this chapter might have been much more extended than it is. i might have mentioned, for example, the cases of daniel and his three brethren, at the court of the babylonian monarch, who certainly maintained their health--if they did not even improve it--by vegetable food, and by a form of it, too, which has by many been considered rather doubtful. i might have mentioned the case of paul,[ ] who, though he occasionally appears to have eaten flesh, said, expressly, that he would abstain from it while the world stood, where a great moral end was to be gained; and no one can suppose he would have done so, had he feared any injury would thereby result to his constitution of body or mind. the case of william penn, if i remember rightly what he says in his "no cross no crown," would have been in point. jefferson, the third president of the united states, was, according to his own story, almost a vegetable eater, during the whole of his long life. he says he abstained principally from animal food; using it, if he used it at all, only as a condiment for his vegetables. and does any one, who has read his remarks, doubt that his "convictions" were in favor of the exclusive use of vegetable food? however, to prevent the volume from much exceeding the limits originally assigned it, i will be satisfied--and i hope the public will--with the following selections of testimonies, ancient and modern; some of more, some of less importance; but all of them, as it appears to me, worthy of being collected and incorporated into a volume like this, and faithfully and carefully examined. plautus. plautus, a distinguished dramatic roman writer, who flourished about two thousand years ago, gives the following remarkable testimony against the use of animal food, and of course in favor of the salubrity of vegetables; addressed, indeed, to his own countrymen and times, but scarcely less applicable to our own: "you apply the term wild to lions, panthers, and serpents; yet, in your own savage slaughters, you surpass them in ferocity; for the blood shed by them is a matter of necessity, and requisite for their subsistence. "but, that man is not, by nature, destined to devour animal food, is evident from the construction of the human frame, which bears no resemblance to wild beasts or birds of prey. man is not provided with claws or talons, with sharpness of fang or tusk, so well adapted to tear and lacerate; nor is his stomach so well braced and muscular, nor his animal spirits so warm, as to enable him to digest this solid mass of animal flesh. on the contrary, nature has made his teeth smooth, his mouth narrow, and his tongue soft; and has contrived, by the slowness of his digestion, to divert him from devouring a species of food so ill adapted to his frame and constitution. but, if you still maintain that such is your natural mode of subsistence, then follow nature in your mode of killing your prey, and employ neither knife, hammer, nor hatchet--but, like wolves, bears, and lions, seize an ox with your teeth, grasp a boar round the body, or tear asunder a lamb or a hare, and, like the savage tribe, devour them still panting in the agonies of death. "we carry our luxury still farther, by the variety of sauces and seasonings which we add to our beastly banquets--mixing together oil, wine, honey, pickles, vinegar, and syrian and arabian ointments and perfumes, as if we intended to bury and embalm the carcasses on which we feed. the difficulty of digesting such a mass of matter, reduced in our stomachs to a state of liquefaction and putrefaction, is the source of endless disorders in the human frame. "first of all, the wild, mischievous animals were selected for food; and then the birds and fishes were dragged to slaughter; next, the human appetite directed itself against the laborious ox, the useful and fleece-bearing sheep, and the cock, the guardian of the house. at last, by this preparatory discipline, man became matured for human massacres, slaughters, and wars." plutarch. "it is best to accustom ourselves to eat no flesh at all, for the earth affords plenty enough of things not only fit for nourishment, but for enjoyment and delight; some of which may be eaten without much preparation, and others may be made pleasant by adding divers other things to them. "you ask me," continues plutarch, "'for what reason pythagoras abstained from eating the flesh of brutes?' for my part, i am astonished to think, on the contrary, what appetite first induced man to taste of a dead carcass; or what motive could suggest the notion of nourishing himself with the flesh of animals which he saw, the moment before, bleating, bellowing, walking, and looking around them. how could he bear to see an impotent and defenceless creature slaughtered, skinned, and cut up for food? how could he endure the sight of the convulsed limbs and muscles? how bear the smell arising from the dissection? whence happened it that he was not disgusted and struck with horror when he came to handle the bleeding flesh, and clear away the clotted blood and humors from the wounds? "we should therefore rather wonder at the conduct of those who first indulged themselves in this horrible repast, than at such as have humanely abstained from it." porphyry, of tyre. porphyry, of tyre, lived about the middle of the third century, and wrote a book on abstinence from animal food. this book was addressed to an individual who had once followed the vegetable system, but had afterward relinquished it. the following is an extract from it: "you owned, when you lived among us, that a vegetable diet was preferable to animal food, both for preserving the health and for facilitating the study of philosophy; and now, since you have eat flesh, your own experience must convince you that what you then confessed was true. it was not from those who lived on vegetables that robbers or murderers, sycophants or tyrants, have proceeded; but from _flesh-eaters_. the necessaries of life are few and easily acquired, without violating justice, liberty, health, or peace of mind; whereas luxury obliges those vulgar souls who take delight in it to covet riches, to give up their liberty, to sell justice, to misspend their time, to ruin their health and to renounce the joy of an upright conscience." he takes pains to persuade men of the truth of the two following propositions: st. "that a conquest over the appetites and passions will greatly contribute to preserve health and to remove distempers. d. "that a simple vegetable food, being easily procured and easily digested, is a mighty help toward obtaining this conquest over ourselves." to prove the first proposition, he appeals to experience, and proves that many of his acquaintance who had disengaged themselves from the care of amassing riches, and turning their thoughts to spiritual subjects, had got rid entirely of their bodily distempers. in confirmation of the second proposition, he argues in the following manner: "give me a man who considers, seriously, what he is, whence he came, and whither he must go, and from these considerations resolves not to be led astray nor governed by his passions; and let such a man tell me whether a rich animal diet is more easily procured or incites less to irregular passions and appetites than a light vegetable diet! but if neither he, nor a physician, nor indeed any reasonable man whatsoever, dares to affirm this, why do we oppress ourselves with animal food, and why do we not, together with luxury and flesh meat, throw off the incumbrances and snares which attend them?" lord bacon. lord bacon, in his treatise on life and death, says, "it seems to be approved by experience, that a spare and almost a pythagorean diet, such as is prescribed by the strictest monastic life, or practiced by hermits, is most favorable to long life." sir william temple. "the patriarchs' abodes were not in cities, but in open countries and fields. their lives were pastoral, and employed in some sorts of agriculture. they were of the same race, to which their marriages were generally confined. their diet was simple, as that of the ancients is generally represented. among them flesh and wine were seldom used, except at sacrifices at solemn feasts. "the brachmans, among the old indians, were all of the same races, lived in fields and in woods, after the course of their studies was ended, and fed only upon rice, milk, and herbs. "the brazilians, when first discovered, lived the most natural, original lives of mankind, so frequently described in ancient countries, before laws, or property, or arts made entrance among them; and so their customs may be concluded to have been yet more simple than either of the other two. they lived without business or labor, further than for their necessary food, by gathering fruits, herbs, and plants. they knew no other drink but water; were not tempted to eat or drink beyond common appetite and thirst; were not troubled with either public or domestic cares, and knew no pleasures but the most simple and natural. "from all these examples and customs, it may probably be concluded that the common ingredients of health and long life are, great temperance, open air, easy labor, little care, simplicity of diet--rather fruits and plants than flesh, which easier corrupts--and water, which preserves the radical moisture without too much increasing the radical heat. whereas sickness, decay, and death proceed commonly from the one preying too fast upon the other, and at length wholly extinguishing it." cicero. this eminent man sometimes, if not usually, confined himself to vegetable food. of this we have evidence, in his complaints about the refinements of cookery--that they were continually tempting him to excess, etc. he says, that after having withstood all the temptations that the noblest lampreys and oysters could throw in his way, he was at last overpowered by paltry beets and mallows. a victory, by the way, which, in the case of the eater of plain food, is very often achieved. cyrus the great. this distinguished warrior was brought up, like the inferior persians, on bread, cresses, and water; and, notwithstanding the temptations of a luxurious and voluptuous court, he rigorously adhered to his simple diet. nay, he even carried his simple habits nearly through life with him; and it was not till he had completely established one of the largest and most powerful empires of antiquity that he began to yield to the luxuries of the times. had he pursued his steady course of temperance through life, the historian, instead of recording his death at only seventy, might have told us that he died at a hundred or a hundred and fifty. peter gassendi. two hundred and twenty years ago, peter gassendi, a famous french philosopher--and by the way, one of the most learned men of his time--wrote a long epistle to van helmont, a dutch chemist, on the question whether the teeth of mankind indicate that they are naturally flesh-eaters. in this epistle, too long for insertion here,[ ] gassendi maintains, with great ingenuity, that the human teeth were not made for flesh. he does not evade any of the facts in the case, but meets them all fairly and discusses them freely. and after having gone through with all parts of the argument, and answered every other conceivable objection, he thus concludes: "and here i feel that it may be objected to me: why, then, do you not, yourself, abstain from flesh and feed only on fruits and vegetables? i must plead the force of habit, for my excuse. in persons of mature age nature appears to be so wholly changed, that this artificial habit cannot be renounced without some detriment. but i confess that if i were wise, and relinquishing the use of flesh, should gradually accustom myself to the gifts of the kind earth, i have little doubt that i should enjoy more regular health, and acquire greater activity of mind. for truly our numerous diseases, and the dullness of our faculties, seem principally produced in this way, that flesh, or heavy, and, as i may say, too substantial food, overloads the stomach, is oppressive to the whole body, and generates a substance too dense, and spirits too obtuse. in a word, it is a yarn too coarse to be interwoven with the threads of man's nature." i know how it strikes many when they find such men as gassendi, admitting the doctrines for which i contend, in theory, and even strenuously defending them, and yet setting them at naught in practice. surely, say they, such persons cannot be sincere. for myself, however, i draw a very different conclusion. their conduct is perfectly in harmony with that of the theoretic friends of cold water, plain dress, and abstemiousness in general. they are compelled to admit the truth; but it is so much against their habits, as in the case of gassendi, besides being still more strongly opposed to their lusts and appetites, that they cannot, or rather, will not conform to what they believe, in their daily practice. their testimony, to me, is the strongest that can be obtained, because they testify against themselves, and in spite of themselves. prof. hitchcock. this gentleman, a distinguished professor in amherst college, is the author of a work, entitled "dyspepsia forestalled and resisted," which has been read by many, and execrated by not a few of those who are so wedded to their lusts as to be unwilling to be told of their errors. i am not aware that professor h. has any where, in his writings, urged a diet exclusively vegetable, for all classes of the community, although i believe he does not hesitate to urge it on all students; and one might almost infer, from his works of various kinds, that if he is not already a believer in the doctrines of its universal superiority to a mixed diet, he is not very far from it. in a sermon of his, in the national preacher, for november, , he calls a diet exclusively vegetable, a "proper course of living." i propose to add here a few anecdotes of his, which i know not how to find elsewhere. "pythagoras restricted himself to vegetable food altogether, his dinner being bread, honey, and water; and he lived upward of eighty years. matthew (st. matthew, i suppose he means), according to clement, lived upon vegetable diet. galen, one of the most distinguished of the ancient physicians, lived one hundred and forty years, and composed between seven and eight hundred essays on medical and philosophical subjects; and he was always, after the age of twenty-eight, extremely sparing in the quantity of his food. the cardinal de salis, archbishop of seville, who lived one hundred and ten years, was invariably sparing in his diet. one lawrence, an englishman, by temperance and labor lived one hundred and forty years; and one kentigern, who never tasted spirits or wine, and slept on the ground and labored hard, died at the age of one hundred and eighty-five. henry jenkins, of yorkshire, who died at the age of one hundred and sixty-nine, was a poor fisherman, as long as he could follow this pursuit; and ultimately he became a beggar, living on the coarsest and most sparing diet. old parr, who died at the age of one hundred and fifty-three, was a farmer, of extremely abstemious habits, his diet being solely milk, cheese, coarse bread, small beer, and whey. at the age of one hundred and twenty he married a second wife by whom he had a child. but being taken to court, as a great curiosity, in his one hundred and fifty-second year, he very soon died--as the physicians decidedly testified, after dissection, in consequence of a change from a parsimonious to a plentiful diet. henry francisco, of this country, who lived to about one hundred and forty, was, except for a certain period, remarkably abstemious, eating but little, and particularly abstaining almost entirely from animal food; his favorite articles being tea, bread and butter, and baked apples. mr. ephraim pratt, of shutesbury, mass., who died at the age of one hundred and seventeen years, lived very much upon milk, and that in small quantity; and his son, michael pratt, attained to the age of one hundred and three, by similar means." speaking, in another place, of a milk diet, professor h. observes, that "a diet chiefly of milk produces a most happy serenity, vigor, and cheerfulness of mind--very different from the gloomy, crabbed, and irritable temper, and foggy intellect, of the man who devours flesh, fish, and fowl, with ravenous appetite, and adds puddings, pies, and cakes to the load." lord kaims. henry home, otherwise called lord kaims, the author of the "elements of criticism," and of "six sketches on the history of man," has, in the latter work, written eighty years ago, the following statements respecting the inhabitants of the torrid zone: "we have no evidence that either the hunter or shepherd state were ever known there. the inhabitants at present subsist upon vegetable food, and probably did so from the beginning." in speaking of particular nations or tribes of this zone, he tells us that "the inhabitants of biledulgerid and the desert of sahara, have but two meals a day--one in the morning and one in the evening;" and "being temperate," he adds, "and strangers to the diseases of luxury and idleness, they generally live to a great age."[ ] sixty, with them, is the prime of life, as thirty is in europe. "some of the inland tribes of africa," he says, "make but one meal a day, which is in the evening." and yet "their diet is plain, consisting mostly of rice, fruits, and roots. an inhabitant of madagascar will travel two or three days without any other food than a sugar-cane." so also, he might have added, will the arab travel many days, and at almost incredible speed, with nothing but a little gum-arabic; and the peruvians and other inhabitants of south america, with a little parched corn. but i have one more extract from lord kaims: "the island of otaheite is healthy, the people tall and well made; and by temperance--vegetables and fish being their chief nourishment--they live to a good old age, with scarcely an ailment. there is no such thing known among them as rotten teeth; the very smell of wine or spirits is disagreeable; and they never deal in tobacco or spiceries. in many places indian corn is the chief nourishment, which every man plants for himself." dr. thomas dick. dr. dick, author of the "philosophy of religion," and several other works deservedly popular, gives this remarkable testimony: "to take the life of any sensitive being, and to feed on its flesh, appears incompatible with a state of innocence, and therefore no such grant was given to adam in paradise, nor to the antediluvians. it appears to have been a grant suited only to the degraded state of man, after the deluge; and it is probable that, as he advances in the scale of moral perfection in the future ages of the world, the use of animal food will be gradually laid aside, and he will return again to the productions of the vegetable kingdom, as the original food of man--as that which is best suited to the rank of rational and moral intelligence. and perhaps it may have an influence, in combination with other favorable circumstances, in promoting health and longevity." professor george bush. professor bush, a writer of some eminence, in his "notes on genesis," while speaking of the permission to man in regard to food, in genesis i. , has the following language: "it is not perhaps to be understood, from the use of the word _give_, that a _permission_ was now granted to man of using that for food which it would have been unlawful for him to use without that permission; for, by the very constitution of his being, he was made to be sustained by that food which was most congenial to his animal economy; and this it must have been lawful for him to employ, unless self-destruction had been his duty. the true import of the phrase, therefore, doubtless is, that god had _appointed_, _constituted_, _ordained_ this, as the staple article of man's diet. he had formed him with a nature to which a vegetable aliment was better suited than any other. it cannot perhaps be inferred from this language that the use of flesh-meat was absolutely forbidden; but it clearly implies that the fruits of the field were the diet most adapted to the constitution which the creator had given." thomas shillitoe. mr. shillitoe was a distinguished member of the society of friends, at tottenham, near london. the first twenty-five years of his life were spent in feeble health, made worse by high living. this high living was continued about twenty years longer, when, finding himself fast failing, he yielded to the advice of a medical friend, and abandoned all drinks but water, and all food but the plainest kinds, by which means he so restored his constitution that he lived to be nearly ninety years of age; and at eighty could walk with ease from tottenham to london, six miles, and back again. the following is a brief account of this distinguished man, when at the age of eighty, and nearly in his own words: it is now nearly thirty years since i ate fish, flesh, or fowl, or took fermented liquor of any kind whatsoever. i find, from continued experience, that abstinence is the best medicine. i don't meddle with fermented liquors of any kind, even as medicine. i find i am capable of doing better without them than when i was in the daily use of them. "one way in which i was favored to experience help in my willingness to abandon all these things, arose from the effect my abstinence had on my natural temper. my natural disposition is very irritable. i am persuaded that ardent spirits and high living have more or less effect in tending to raise into action those evil propensities which, if given way to, war against the soul, and render us displeasing to almighty god." alexander pope. pope, the poet, ascribes all the bad passions and diseases of the human race to their subsisting on the flesh, blood, and miseries of animals. "nothing," he says, "can be more shocking and horrid than one of our kitchens, sprinkled with blood, and abounding with the cries of creatures expiring, or with the limbs of dead animals scattered or hung up here and there. it gives one an image of a giant's den in romance, bestrewed with the scattered heads and mangled limbs of those who were slain by his cruelty." sir richard phillips. sir richard phillips, in his "million of facts," says that "the mixed and fanciful diet of man is considered as the cause of numerous diseases, from which animals are exempt. many diseases have abated with changes of natural diet, and others are virulent in particular countries, arising from peculiarities. the hindoos are considered the freest from disease of any part of the human race. the laborers on the african coast, who go from tribe to tribe to perform the manual labor, and whose strength is wonderful, live entirely on plain rice. the irish, swiss, and gascons, the slaves of europe, feed also on the simplest diet; the former chiefly on potatoes." he states, also, that the diseases of cattle often afflict those who subsist on them. "in ," he observes, "the venetian government, to stop a fatal disease among the people, prohibited the sale of meat, butter, or cheese, on pain of death." sir isaac newton. this distinguished philosopher and mathematician is said to have abstained rigorously, at times, from all but purely vegetable food, and from all drinks but water; and it is also stated that some of his important labors were performed at these seasons of strict temperance. while writing his treatise on optics, it is said he confined himself entirely to bread, with a little sack and water; and i have no doubt that his remarkable equanimity of temper, and that government of his animal appetites, throughout, for which he was so distinguished to the last hour of his life, were owing, in no small degree, to his habits of rigid temperance. the abbe gallani. the abbé gallani ascribes all social crimes to animal destruction--thus, treachery to angling and ensnaring, and murder to hunting and shooting. and he asserts that the man who would kill a sheep, an ox, or any unsuspecting animal, would, but for the law, kill his neighbor. homer. even homer, three thousand years ago, says dr. cheyne, could observe that the homolgians--those pythagoreans, those milk and vegetable eaters--were the longest lived and the honestest of men. dr. benjamin franklin. dr. franklin, in his younger days, often, for some time together, lived exclusively on a vegetable diet, and that, too, in small quantity. during his after life he also observed seasons of abstinence from animal food, or _lents_, as he called them, of considerable length. his food and drink were, moreover, especially in early life, exceedingly simple; his meal often consisting of nothing but a biscuit and a slice of bread, with a bunch of raisins, and perhaps a basin of gruel. now, dr. f. testifies of himself; that he found his progress in science to be in proportion to that clearness of mind and aptitude of conception which can only be produced by total abstinence from animal food. he also derived many other advantages from his abstinence, both physical and moral. mr. newton. this author wrote a work entitled "defence of vegetable regimen." it is often quoted by shelley, the poet, and others. i know nothing of the author or of his works, except through shelley, who gives us some of his views, and informs us that seventeen persons, of all ages, consisting of mr. newton's family and the family of dr. lambe, who is elsewhere mentioned in this work, had, at the time he wrote, lived seven years on a pure vegetable diet, and without the slightest illness. of the seventeen, some of them were infants, and one of them was almost dead with asthma when the experiment was commenced, but was already nearly cured by it; and of the family of mr. n., shelley testifies that they were "the most beautiful and healthy creatures it is possible to conceive"--the girls "perfect models for a sculptor"--and their dispositions "the most gentle and conciliating." the following paragraph is extracted from mr. newton's "defence," and will give us an idea of his sentiments. he was speaking of the fable of prometheus: "making allowance for such transposition of the events of the allegory as time might produce after the important truths were forgotten, the drift of the fable seems to be this: man, at his creation, was endowed with the gift of perpetual youth, that is, he was not formed to be a sickly, suffering creature, as we now see him, but to enjoy health, and to sink by slow degrees into the bosom of his parent earth, without disease or pain. prometheus first taught the use of animal food, and of fire, with which to render it more digestible and pleasing to the taste. jupiter and the rest of the gods, foreseeing the consequences of these inventions, were amused or irritated at the short-sighted devices of the newly-formed creature, and left him to experience the sad effects of them. thirst, the necessary concomitant of a flesh diet, ensued; other drink than water was resorted to, and man forfeited the inestimable gift of health, which he had received from heaven; he became diseased, the partaker of a precarious existence, and no longer descended into his grave slowly." o. s. fowler. o. s. fowler, the distinguished phrenologist, in his work on physiology, devotes nearly one hundred pages to the discussion of the great diet question. he endeavors to show that, in every point of view, a flesh diet--or a diet partaking of flesh, fish, or fowl, in any degree--is inferior to a well-selected vegetable diet; and, as i think, successfully. he finally says: "i wish my own children had never tasted, and would never taste, a mouthful of meat. increased health, efficiency, talents, virtue, and happiness, would undoubtedly be the result. but for the fact that my table is set for others than my own wife and children, it would never be furnished with meat, so strong are my convictions against its utility." i believe that l. n. fowler, the brother and associate of the former, is of the same opinion; but my acquaintance with him is very limited. both the fowlers, with mr. wells, their associate in book-selling, seem anxiously engaged in circulating books which involve the discussion of this great question. rev. mr. johnston. mr. johnston, who for some fifteen or twenty years has been an american missionary in different foreign places--trebizond, smyrna, etc.--is, from conviction, a vegetable eater. the author holds in his possession several letters from this gentleman, on the subject of health, from which, but for want of room, he would be glad to make numerous extracts. he once sent, or caused to be sent, to him, at trebizond, a barrel of choice american apples, for which the missionary, amid numerous eastern luxuries, was almost starving. happy would it be for many other american and british missionaries, if they had the same simple taste and natural appetite. john h. chandler. this young man has been for eight or ten years in the employ of the baptist foreign missionary board, and is located at bangkok, in siam. for several years before he left this country he was a vegetable eater, sometimes subsisting on mere fruit for one or two of his daily meals. and yet, as a mechanic, his labor was hard--sometimes severe. since he has been in siam he has continued his reformed habits, as appears from his letters and from reports. the last letter i had from him was dated june , . the following are extracts from it: "i experienced the same trials (that is, from others) on my arrival in burmah, in regard to vegetable diet, that i did in the united states. this i did not expect, and was not prepared for it. through the blessing of god we were enabled to endure, and have persevered until now. "myself and wife are more deeply convinced than ever that vegetable diet is the best adapted to sustain health. i cannot say that we have been much more free from sickness than our associates; but one thing we can say--we have been equally well off, and our expenses have been much less." after going on to say how much his family--himself and wife--saved by their plain living, viz., an average of about one dollar a week, he makes additional remarks, of which i will only quote the following: "my labors, being mostly mechanical, are far more fatiguing than those of my brethren; and i do not think any of them could endure a greater amount of labor than i do." it deserves to be noticed, in this connection, that mr. chandler has slender muscles, and would by no means be expected to accomplish as much as many men of greater vigor; and yet we have reason to believe that he performs as much labor as any man in the service of the board. rev. jesse caswell. mr. caswell went out to india about thirteen years ago, a dyspeptic, and yet perhaps somewhat better than while engaged in his studies at andover. for several years after his arrival he suffered much from sickness, like his fellow-laborers. his station was bangkok. he was an american missionary, sent out by the american board, as it is called, of boston. about six years ago he wrote me for information on the subject of health. he had read my works, and those of mr. graham, and seemed not only convinced of the general importance of studying the science of human life, but of the superiority of a well selected vegetable diet, especially at the east. he was also greatly anxious that missionaries should be early taught what he had himself learned. the following is one of his first paragraphs: "i feel fully convinced that you are engaged in a work second to few if any of the great enterprises of the day. if there be any class of men standing in special need of correct physiological knowledge, that class consists of missionaries of the cross. what havoc has disease made with this class, and for the most part, as i feel convinced, because, before and after leaving their native land, they live so utterly at variance with the laws of their nature." he then proceeds to say, that the american missionaries copy the example of the english, and that they all eat too much high-seasoned food, and too much flesh and fish; and argues against the practice by adducing facts. the following is one of them: "my siamese teacher, a man about forty years old, says that those who live simply on rice, with a little salt, enjoy better health, and can endure a greater amount of labor, than those who live in any other way. * * * the great body of the siamese use no flesh, except fish. of this they generally eat _a very little_, with their rice." the next year i had another letter from him. he had been sick, but was better, and thought he had learned a great deal, during his sickness, about the best means of preserving health. he had now fully adopted what he chose to call the graham system, and was rejoicing--he and his wife and children--in its benefits. he says, "if a voice from an obscure corner of the earth can do any thing toward encouraging your heart and staying your hands, that voice you shall have." he suggests the propriety of my sending him a copy of "vegetable diet." "i think," says he, "it might do great good." he wished to lend it among his friends. it must suffice to say, that he continued to write me, once or twice a year, as long as he lived. he also insisted strongly on the importance of physiological information among students preparing for the ministry, and especially for missions. he even wrote once or twice to rev. dr. anderson, and solicited attention to the subject. but the board would neither hear to him nor to me, except to speak kind words, for nothing effective was ever done. they even refused a well-written communication on the subject, intended for the missionary herald. let me also say, that as early as march, , he told me that dr. bradley, his associate (now in this country), with his family, were beginning to live on the vegetable system; and added, that one of the sisters of the mission, who was no "grahamite," had told him she thought there was not one third as much flesh used in all the mission families that there was a year before. mr. caswell became exceedingly efficient, over-exerted himself in completing a vocabulary of the siamese language, and in other labors, and died in september last. he was, according to the testimony of dr. bradley, a "_noble man_;" and probably his life and health, and that of his family, were prolonged many years by his improved habits. but his early transgressions--like those of thousands--at length found him out. i allude to his errors in regard to exercise, eating, drinking, sleeping, taking medicine, etc. mr. samuel chinn. this individual has represented the town of marblehead, mass., in the state legislature, and is a man of respectability. he is now, says the "lynn washingtonian," above forty years of age, a strong, healthy man, and, to use his own language, "has neither ache nor pain." for the ten years next preceding our last account from him he had lived on a simple vegetable diet, condemning to slaughter no flocks or herds that "range the valley free," but leaving them to their native, joyous hill-sides and mountains. but mr. chinn, not contented with abstinence from animal food, goes nearly the full length of dr. schlemmer and his sect, and abjures cookery. for four years he subsisted--we believe he does so now--on nothing but unground wheat and fruit. his breakfast, it is said, he uniformly makes of fruit; his other two meals of unground wheat; patronizing neither millers nor cooks. a few years since, being appointed a delegate to a convention in worcester, fifty-eight miles distant, he filled his pocket with wheat, walked there during the day, attended the convention, and the next day walked home again, with comparative ease. father sewall. this venerable man--jotham sewall, of maine, as he styles himself, one of the fathers of that state--is now about ninety years of age, and yet is, what he has long been, an active home missionary. he is a man of giant size and venerable appearance, of a green old age, and remarkably healthy. he is an early riser, a man of great cheerfulness, and of the most simple habits. he has abstained from tea and coffee--poisonous things, as he calls them--forty-seven years. his only drinks are water and sage tea. these, with bread, milk, and fruits, and perhaps a little salt, are the only things that enter his stomach. how long he has abstained from flesh and fish i have not learned, but i believe some thirty or forty years. such is the appearance of this venerable man, that no one is surprised to find in him those gigantic powers of mind, and that readiness to give wise counsel on every important occasion, for which he has so long been distinguished. it has sometimes seemed to me that no one would doubt the efficacy of a well-selected vegetable diet to give strength, mental or bodily, who had known father sewall. magliabecchi, an italian, who died in the beginning of the eighteenth century, abjured cookery at the age of forty years, and confined himself chiefly to fruits, grains, and water. he never allowed himself a bed, but slept on a kind of settee, wrapped in a long morning gown, which served him for blanket and clothing the year round. i would not be understood as encouraging the anti-cookery system of dr. schlemmer and magliabecchi; but it is interesting to know _what can be done_. magliabecchi lived to the age of from eighty to one hundred years. oberlin and swartz. these two distinguished men were essentially vegetable eaters. of the habits of oberlin, the venerable pastor and father of waldbach, i am not able to speak, however, with so much certainty as of those of swartz. his income, during the early part of his residence in india, was only forty-eight pounds a year, which, being estimated by its ability to procure supplies for his necessities, was only equal to about one hundred dollars. he not only accepted of very narrow quarters, but ate, drank, and dressed, in the plainest manner. "a dish of rice and vegetables," says his biographer, "satisfied his appetite for food." the irish. much has been said of the dietetic habits of the irish, of late years, especially of their potato. now, we have abundant facts which go to prove that good potatoes form a wholesome aliment, equal, if not superior, to many forms of european and american diet. yet it cannot be that a diet consisting wholly of potatoes is as well for the race as one partaking of greater variety. mr. gamble, a traveler in ireland, in his work on irish "society and manners," gives the following statement of an old friend of his, whom he visited: "he was upward of eighty years when i had last seen him, and he was now in his ninety-fourth year. he found the old gentleman seated on a kind of rustic seat, in the garden, by the side of some bee-hives. he was asleep. on his waking i was astonished to see the little change time had wrought on him; a little more stoop in his shoulders, a wrinkle more, perhaps, in his forehead, a more perfect whiteness of his hair, was all the difference since i had seen him last. flesh meat in my venerable friend's house was an article never to be met with. _for sixty years past he had not tasted it_, nor did he by any means like to see it taken by others. his food was vegetables, bread, milk, butter, and honey. his whole life was a series of benevolent actions, and providence rewarded him, even here, by a peace of mind which passeth all understanding, by a judgment vigorous and unclouded, and by a length of days beyond the common course of men." james haughton, i believe of dublin--a correspondent of henry c. wright, of philadelphia, who is himself in theory a vegetable eater--has, for some time past, rejected flesh, and pursued a simple course of living, as he says, with great advantage. i have been both amused and instructed by his letters. i have met with several irish people of intelligence who were vegetable eaters, but their names are not now recollected. they have not, however, in any instance, confined themselves to potatoes. one of the most distinguished of these was a female laborer in the family of a merchant at barnstable. she was, from choice, a very rigid vegetable eater; and yet no person in the whole neighborhood was more efficient as a laborer. those who know her, and are in the habit of thinking no person can work hard without flesh and fish, often express their astonishment that she should be able to live so simply and yet perform so much labor. john bailies. john bailies, of england, who reached the great age of one hundred and twenty-eight, is said to have been a strict vegetarian. his food, for the most part, consisted of brown bread and cheese; and his drink of water and milk. he had survived the whole town of northampton (as he was wont to say), where he resided, three or four times over; and it was his custom to say that they were all killed by tea and coffee. flesh meat at that time had not come into suspicion, otherwise he would doubtless have attributed part of the evil to this agency. francis hupazoli. this gentleman was a sardinian ecclesiastic, at the first; afterward a merchant at scio; and finally venetian consul at smyrna. much has been said of lewis cornaro, who, having broken down his constitution at the age of forty, renewed it by his temperance, and lasted unto nearly the age of a century. his story is interesting and instructive; but little more so than that of hupazoli. his habits were all remarkable for simplicity and truth, except one. he was greatly licentious; and his licentiousness, at the age of eighty-five, had nearly carried him off. yet such was the mildness of his temper, and so correct was he in regard to exercise, rest, rising, eating, drinking, etc., that he lived on, to the great age of one hundred and fifteen years, and then died, not of old age, but of disease. hupazoli did not entirely abstain from flesh; and yet he used very little, and that was wild game. his living was chiefly on fruits. indeed, he ate but little at any time; and his supper was particularly light. his drink was water. he never took any medicine in his whole life, not even tobacco; nor was he so much as ever bled. in fact, till late in life, he was never sick. mary caroline hinckley. this young woman, a resident of hallowell, in maine, and somewhat distinguished as a poet, is, from her own conviction and choice both, a vegetable eater. her story, which i had from her friends, is substantially as follows: when about eleven years of age she suddenly changed her habits of eating, and steadfastly refused, at the table, all kinds of food which partook of flesh and fish. the family were alarmed, and afraid she was ill. when they made inquiry concerning it, she hesitated to assign the reasons for her conduct; but, on being pressed closely, she confessed that she abstained for conscience' sake; that she had become fully convinced, from reading and reflection, that she ought not to eat animal food. it was in vain that the family and neighbors remonstrated with her, and endeavored, in various ways, to induce her to vary from her purpose. she continued to use no fowl, flesh, or fish; and in this habit she continues, as i believe, to this day, a period of some twelve or fifteen years. john whitcomb. john whitcomb, of swansey, n. h., at the age of one hundred and four was in possession of sound mind and memory, and had a fresh countenance; and so good was his health, that he rose and bathed himself in cold water even in mid-winter. his wounds, moreover, would heal like those of a child. and yet this man, for eighty years, refused to drink any thing but water; and for thirty years, at the close of life, confined himself chiefly to bread and milk as his diet. capt. ross, of the british navy. it is sometimes said that animal food is indispensably necessary in the polar regions. we have seen, however, in the testimony of professor sweetser, that this view of the case is hardly correct. but we have positive testimony on this subject from capt. ross himself. this navigator, with his company, spent the winter of - above ° of north latitude, without beds, clothing (that is, extra clothing), or animal food, and with no evidence of any suffering from the mere disuse of flesh and fish. henry francisco. this individual, who died at whitehall, n. y., in the year , at the age of one hundred and twenty-five years, was, during the latter part of his life, quite a grahamite, as the moderns would call him. his favorite articles of food were tea, bread and butter, and baked apples; and he was even abstemious in the use of these. professor ferguson. professor adam ferguson, an individual not unknown in the literary world, was, till he was fifty years of age, regarded as quite healthy. brought up in fashionable society, he was very often invited to fashionable dinners and parties, at which he ate heartily and drank wine--sometimes several bottles. indeed, he habitually ate and drank freely; and, as he had by nature a very strong constitution, he thought nothing which he ate or drank injured him. things went on in this manner, as i have already intimated, till he was fifty years of age. one day, about this time, having made a long journey in the cold, he returned very much fatigued, and in this condition went to dine with a party, where he ate and drank in his usual manner. soon after dinner, he was seized with a fit of apoplexy, followed by palsy; but by bleeding, and other energetic measures, he was partially restored. he was now, by the direction of his physician, put upon what was called a low diet. it consisted of vegetable food and milk. for nearly forty years he tasted no meat, drank nothing but water and a little weak tea, and took no suppers. if he ventured, at any time, upon more stimulating food or drink, he soon had a full pulse, and hot, restless nights. his bowels, however, seemed to be much affected by the fit of palsy; and not being inclined, so far as i can learn, to the use of fruit and coarse bread, he was sometimes compelled to use laxatives. when he was about seventy years of age, however, all his paralytic symptoms had disappeared; and his health was so excellent, for a person of his years, as to excite universal admiration. this continued till he was nearly ninety. his mind, up to this time, was almost as entire as in his younger days; none of his bodily functions, except his sight, were much impaired. so perfect, indeed, was the condition of his physical frame, that nobody, who had not known his history, would have suspected he had ever been apoplectic or paralytic. when about ninety years of age, his health began slightly to decline. a little before his death, he began to take a little meat. this, however, did not save him--nature being fairly worn out. on the contrary, it probably hastened his dissolution. his bowels became irregular, his pulse increased, and he fell into a bilious fever, of which he died at the great age of ninety-three. probably there are, on record, few cases of longevity more instructive than this. besides showing the evil tendency of living at the expense of life, it also shows, in a most striking manner, the effects of simple and unstimulating food and drink, even in old age; and the danger of recurring to the use of that which is more stimulating in very advanced life. in this last respect, it confirms the experience of cornaro, who was made sick by attempting, in his old age, and at the solicitation of kind friends, to return to the use of a more stimulating diet; and of parr, who was destroyed in the same way, after having attained to more than a hundred and fifty years. but the fact that living at the expense of life, cuts down, here and there, in the prime of life, or even at the age of fifty, a few individuals, though this of itself is no trivial evil, is not all. half of what we call the infirmities of old age--and thus charge them upon him who made the human frame _subject_ to age--have their origin in the same source; i mean in this living too fast, and exhausting prematurely the vital powers. when will the sons of men learn wisdom in this matter? never, i fear, till they are taught, as commonly as they now are reading and writing, the principles of physiology. howard, the philanthropist. although individual cases of abstinence from animal food prove but little, yet they prove something in the case of a man so remarkable as john howard. if he, with a constitution not very strong, and in the midst of the greatest fatigues of body and mind, could best sustain himself on a bread and water, or bread and tea diet, who is there that would not be well sustained on vegetable food? and yet it is certain that howard was a vegetable eater for many years of the latter part of his life; and that had he not exposed himself in a remarkable manner, there is no known reason why he might not have lasted with a constitution no better than his was, to a hundred years of age. gen. elliott. the following extract exhibits in few words, the dietetic history of that brave and wise commander, general george augustus elliott, of the british army: "during the whole of his active life, gen. elliott had inured himself to the most rigid habits of order and watchfulness; seldom sleeping more than four hours a day, and never eating any thing but vegetable food, or drinking any thing but water. during eight of the most anxious days of the memorable siege of gibraltar, he confined himself to four ounces of rice a day. he was universally regarded as one of the most abstemious men of his age. "and yet his abstemiousness did not diminish his vigor; for, at the above-mentioned siege of gibraltar, when he was sixty-six years of age, he had nearly all the activity and fire of his youth. nor did he die of any wasting disease, such as full feeders are wont to say men bring upon them by their abstinence. on the contrary, owing to a hereditary tendency, perhaps, of his family, he died at the age of seventy-three, of apoplexy." encyclopedia americana. the following testimony is from the encyclopedia. i do not suppose the writer was the friend of a diet exclusively vegetable; but his testimony is therefore the more interesting. his only serious mistake is in regard to the tendency of vegetable food to form weak fibres. "sometimes a particular kind of food is called wholesome, because it produces a beneficial effect of a particular character on the system of an individual. in this case, however, it is to be considered as a medicine; and can be called wholesome only for those whose systems are in the same condition. "aliments abounding in fat are unwholesome, because fat resists the operation of the gastric juice. "the addition of too much spice makes many an innocent aliment injurious, because spices resist the action of the digestive organs, and produce an irritation of particular parts of the system. "the kind of aliment influences the health, and even the character of man. he is fitted to derive nourishment both from animal and vegetable aliment; but can live exclusively on either. "experience proves that animal food most readily augments the solid parts of the blood, the fibrine, and therefore the strength of the muscular system; but disposes the body, at the same time, to inflammatory, putrid, and scorbutic diseases; and the character to violence and coarseness. on the contrary, vegetable food renders the blood lighter and more liquid, but forms weak fibres, disposes the system to the diseases which spring from feebleness, and tends to produce a gentle character. "something of the same difference of moral effect results from the use of strong or light wines. but the reader must not infer that meat is indispensable for the support of the bodily strength. the peasants of some parts of switzerland, who hardly ever taste any thing but bread, cheese, and butter, are vigorous people. "the nations of the north are inclined, generally, more to animal aliment; those of the south and the orientals, more to vegetable. the latter are generally more simple in their diet than the former, when their taste has not been corrupted by luxurious indulgence. some tribes in the east, and the caste of bramins in india, live entirely on vegetable food." mr. thomas bell, of london. mr. thomas bell, fellow of the royal society, member of the royal college of surgeons in london, lecturer on the anatomy and diseases of the teeth, at guy's hospital, and surgeon dentist to that institution, in his physiological observations on the natural food of man, deduced from the character of the teeth, says, "the opinion which i venture to give, has not been hastily formed, nor without what appeared to me sufficient grounds. it is not, i think, going too far to say, that every fact connected with human organization goes to prove that man was originally formed a frugiverous (fruit-eating) animal, and therefore, probably, tropical or nearly so, with regard to his geographical situation. this opinion is principally derived from the formation of his teeth and digestive organs, as well as from the character of his skin and general structure of his limbs." linnÆus, the naturalist. linnæus, in speaking of fruits and esculent vegetables, says--"this species of food is that which is most suitable to man, as is evinced by the structure of the mouth, of the stomach, and of the hands." shelley, the poet. the following are the views of that eccentric, though in many respects sensible writer, shelley, as presented in a note to his work, called queen mab. i have somewhat abridged them, not solely to escape part of his monstrous religious sentiments, but for other reasons. i have endeavored, however, to preserve, undisturbed, his opinions and reasonings, which i hope will make a deep and abiding impression: "the depravity of the physical and moral nature of man, originated in his unnatural habits of life. the language spoken by the mythology of nearly all religions seems to prove that, at some distant period, man forsook the path of nature, and sacrificed the purity and happiness of his being to unnatural appetites. milton makes raphael thus exhibit to adam the consequence of his disobedience: '----immediately, a place before his eyes appeared; and, noisome, dark, a lazar-house it seemed; wherein were laid numbers of all diseased; all maladies of ghastly spasm, or racking torture, qualms of heart-sick agony, all feverous kinds, convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs, intestine stone and ulcer, colic pangs, demoniac frenzy, moping melancholy, and moon-struck madness, pining atrophy, marasmus, and wide-wasting pestilence, dropsies and asthmas, and joint-racking rheums.' "the fable of prometheus, too, is explained in a manner somewhat similar. before the time of prometheus, according to hesiod, mankind were exempt from suffering; they enjoyed a vigorous youth; and death, when at length it came, approached like sleep, and gently closed the eyes. prometheus (who represents the human race) effected some great change in the condition of his nature, and applied fire to culinary purposes. from this moment his vitals were devoured by the vulture of disease. it consumed his being in every shape of its loathsome and infinite variety, inducing the soul-quelling sinkings of premature and violent death. all vice arose from the ruin of healthful innocence. "man, and the animals which he has infected with his society, or depraved by his dominion, are alone diseased. the wild hog, the bison, and the wolf are perfectly exempt from malady, and invariably die, either from external violence or natural old age. but the domestic hog, the sheep, the cow, and the dog are subject to an incredible number of distempers, and, like the corrupters of their nature, have physicians, who thrive upon their miseries. "the supereminence of man is like satan's supereminence of pain,--and the majority of his species, doomed to penury, disease, and crime, have reason to curse the untoward event, that, by enabling him to communicate his sensations, raised him above the level of his fellow animals. but the steps that have been taken are irrevocable. "the whole of human science is comprised in one question: how can the advantages of intellect and civilization be reconciled with the liberty and pure pleasures of natural life? how can we take the benefits and reject the evils of the system, which is now interwoven with our being? i believe that _abstinence from animal food and spirituous liquors would, in a great measure, capacitate us for the solution of this important question_. "it is true, that mental and bodily derangement is attributable in part to other deviations from rectitude and nature than those which concern diet. the mistakes cherished by society respecting the connection of the sexes, whence the misery and diseases of celibacy, unenjoying prostitution, and the premature arrival of puberty, necessarily spring; the putrid atmosphere of crowded cities; the exhalations of chemical processes: the muffling of our bodies in superfluous apparel; the absurd treatment of infants; all these, and innumerable other causes, contribute their mite to the mass of human evil. "comparative anatomy teaches us that man resembles frugiverous animals in every thing, and carnivorous in nothing; he has neither claws wherewith to seize his prey, nor distinct and pointed teeth to tear the living fibre. a mandarin of the first class, with nails two inches long, would probably find them, alone, inefficient to hold even a hare. it is only by softening and disguising dead flesh by culinary preparations that it is rendered susceptible of mastication and digestion, and that the sight of its bloody juices does not excite intolerable loathing, horror, and disgust. let the advocate of animal food force himself to a decisive experiment on its fitness, and, as plutarch recommends, tear a living lamb with his teeth, and, plunging his head into its vitals, slake his thirst with the steaming blood; when fresh from the deed of horror, let him revert to the irresistible instincts of nature that would rise in judgment against it, and say, nature formed me for such work as this. then, and then only, would he be consistent. "young children evidently prefer pastry, oranges, apples, and other fruit, to the flesh of animals, until, by the gradual depravation of the digestive organs, the free use of vegetables has, for a time, produced serious inconveniences. _for a time_, i say, since there never was an instance wherein a change from spirituous liquors and animal food to vegetables and pure water has failed ultimately to invigorate the body, by rendering its juices bland and consentaneous, and to restore to the mind that cheerfulness and elasticity which not one in fifty possesses on the present system. a love of strong liquor is also with difficulty taught to infants. almost every one remembers the wry faces which the first glass of port produced. unsophisticated instinct is invariably unerring; but to decide on the fitness of animal food from the perverted appetites which its constrained adoption produces, is to make the criminal a judge in his own cause; it is even worse--it is appealing to the infatuated drunkard in a question of the salubrity of brandy. "except in children, however, there remain no traces of that instinct which determines, in all other animals, what aliment is natural or otherwise; and so perfectly obliterated are they in the reasoning adults of our species, that it has become necessary to urge considerations drawn from comparative anatomy to prove that we are naturally frugiverous. "crime is madness. madness is disease. whenever the cause of disease shall be discovered, the root, from which all vice and misery have so long overshadowed the globe, will be bare to the axe. all the exertions of man, from that moment, may be considered as tending to the clear profit of his species. no sane mind, in a sane body, resolves upon a crime. it is a man of violent passions, blood-shot eyes, and swollen veins, that alone can grasp the knife of murder. the system of a simple diet is not a reform of legislation, while the furious passions and evil propensities of the human heart, in which it had its origin, are unassuaged. it strikes at the root of all evil, and is an experiment which may be tried with success, not alone by nations, but by small societies, families, and even individuals. in no case has a return to a vegetable diet produced the slightest injury; in most it has been attended with changes undeniably beneficial. "should ever a physician be born with the genius of locke, he might trace all bodily and mental derangements to our unnatural habits, as clearly as that philosopher has traced all knowledge to sensation. what prolific sources of disease are not those mineral and vegetable poisons, that have been introduced for its extirpation! how many thousands have become murderers and robbers, bigots and domestic tyrants, dissolute and abandoned adventurers, from the use of fermented liquors, who, had they slaked their thirst only with pure water, would have lived but to diffuse the happiness of their own unperverted feelings! how many groundless opinions and absurd institutions have not received a general sanction from the sottishness and intemperance of individuals! "who will assert that, had the populace of paris satisfied their hunger at the ever-furnished table of vegetable nature, they would have lent their brutal suffrage to the proscription-list of robespierre? could a set of men, whose passions were not perverted by unnatural stimuli, look with coolness on an _auto da fe_? is it to be believed that a being of gentle feelings, rising from his meal of roots, would take delight in sports of blood? "was nero a man of temperate life? could you read calm health in his cheek, flushed with ungovernable propensities of hatred for the human race? did muley ismail's pulse beat evenly? was his skin transparent? did his eyes beam with healthfulness, and its invariable concomitants, cheerfulness and benignity? "though history has decided none of these questions, a child could not hesitate to answer in the negative. surely the bile-suffused cheek of bonaparte, his wrinkled brow, and yellow eye, the ceaseless inquietude of his nervous system, speak no less plainly the character of his unresting ambition than his murders and his victories. it is impossible, had bonaparte descended from a race of vegetable feeders, that he could have had either the inclination or the power to ascend the throne of the bourbons. "the desire of tyranny could scarcely be excited in the individual; the power to tyrannize would certainly not be delegated by a society neither frenzied by inebriation nor rendered impotent and irrational by disease. pregnant, indeed, with inexhaustible calamity is the renunciation of instinct, as it concerns our physical nature. arithmetic cannot enumerate, nor reason perhaps suspect, the multitudinous sources of disease in civilized life. even common water, that apparently innoxious _pabulum_, when corrupted by the filth of populous cities, is a deadly and insidious destroyer. "there is no disease, bodily or mental, which adoption of vegetable diet and pure water has not infallibly mitigated, wherever the experiment has been fairly tried. debility is gradually converted into strength, disease into healthfulness; madness, in all its hideous variety, from the ravings of the fettered maniac, to the unaccountable irrationalities of ill-temper, that make a hell of domestic life, into a calm and considerate evenness of temper, that alone might offer a certain pledge of the future moral reformation of society. "on a natural system of diet, old age would be our last and our only malady; the term of our existence would be protracted; we should enjoy life, and no longer preclude others from the enjoyment of it; all sensational delights would be infinitely more exquisite and perfect; the very sense of being would then be a continued pleasure, such as we now feel it in some few and favored moments of our youth. "by all that is sacred in our hopes for the human race, i conjure those who love happiness and truth, to give a fair trial to the vegetable system. reasoning is surely superfluous on a subject whose merits an experience of six months should set forever at rest. "but it is only among the enlightened and benevolent that so great a sacrifice of appetite and prejudice can be expected, even though its ultimate excellence should not admit of dispute. it is found easier by the short-sighted victims of disease, to palliate their torments, by medicine, than to prevent them by regimen. the vulgar of all ranks are invariably sensual and indocile; yet i cannot but feel myself persuaded, that when the benefits of vegetable diet are mathematically proved--when it is as clear, that those who live naturally are exempt from premature death, as that nine is not one, the most sottish of mankind will feel a preference toward a long and tranquil, contrasted with a short and painful life. "on the average, out of sixty persons, four die in three years. hopes are entertained, that in april, ,[ ] a statement will be given that sixty persons, all having lived more than three years on vegetables and pure water, are then in _perfect health_. more than two years have now elapsed; _not one of them has died_; no such example will be found in any sixty persons taken at random. "when these proofs come fairly before the world, and are clearly seen by all who understand arithmetic, it is scarcely possible that abstinence from aliments demonstrably pernicious should not become universal. "in proportion to the number of proselytes, so will be the weight of evidence; and when a thousand persons can be produced, living on vegetables and distilled water, who have to dread no disease but old age, the world will be compelled to regard animal flesh and fermented liquors as slow but certain poisons. "the change which would be produced by simple habits on political economy, is sufficiently remarkable. the monopolizing eater of animal flesh would no longer destroy his constitution by devouring an acre at a meal, and many loaves of bread would cease to contribute to gout, madness, and apoplexy, in the shape of a pint of porter, or a dram of gin, when appeasing the long-protracted famine of the hard-working peasant's hungry babes. "the quantity of nutritious vegetable matter, consumed in fattening the carcass of an ox, would afford ten times the sustenance, undepraving indeed, and incapable of generating disease, if gathered immediately from the bosom of the earth. the most fertile districts of the habitable globe are now actually cultivated by men for animals, at a delay and waste of aliment absolutely incapable of calculation. it is only the wealthy that can, to any great degree, even now, indulge the unnatural craving for dead flesh, and they pay for the greater license of the privilege, by subjection to supernumerary diseases. "again--the spirit of the nation that should take the lead in this great reform would insensibly become agricultural; commerce, with its vices, selfishness, and corruption, would gradually decline; more natural habits would produce gentler manners, and the excessive complication of political relations would be so far simplified that every individual might feel and understand why he loved his country, and took a personal interest in its welfare. "on a natural system of diet, we should require no spices from india; no wines from portugal, spain, france, or madeira; none of those multitudinous articles of luxury, for which every corner of the globe is rifled, and which are the cause of so much individual rivalship, and such calamitous and sanguinary national disputes. "let it ever be remembered, that it is the direct influence of excess of commerce to make the interval between the rich and the poor wider and more unconquerable. let it be remembered, that it is a foe to every thing of real worth and excellence in the human character. the odious and disgusting aristocracy of wealth, is built upon the ruins of all that is good in chivalry or republicanism; and luxury is the forerunner of a barbarism scarce capable of cure. is it impossible to realize a state of society, where all the energies of man shall be directed to the production of his solid happiness? "none must be intrusted with power (and money is the completest species of power), who do not stand pledged to use it exclusively for the general benefit. but the use of animal flesh and fermented liquors, directly militates with this equality of the rights of man. the peasant cannot gratify these fashionable cravings without leaving his family to starve. without disease and war, those sweeping curtailers of population, pasturage would include a waste too great to be afforded. the labor requisite to support a family is far lighter than is usually supposed. the peasantry work, not only for themselves, but for the aristocracy, the army, and the manufacturers. "the advantage of a reform in diet is obviously greater than that of any other. it strikes at the root of the evil. to remedy the abuses of legislation, before we annihilate the propensities by which they are produced, is to suppose that by taking away the effect, the cause will cease to operate. "but the efficacy of this system depends entirely on the proselytism of individuals, and grounds its merits, as a benefit to the community, upon the total change of the dietetic habits in its members. it proceeds securely from a number of particular cases to one that is universal, and has this advantage over the contrary mode, that one error does not invalidate all that has gone before. "let not too much, however, be expected from this system. the healthiest among us is not exempt from hereditary disease. the most symmetrical, athletic, and long-lived is a being inexpressibly inferior to what he would have been had not the unnatural habits of his ancestors accumulated for him a certain portion of malady and deformity. in the most perfect specimen of civilized man, something is still found wanting by the physiological critic. can a return to nature, then, instantaneously eradicate predispositions that have been slowly taking root in the silence of innumerable ages? indubitably not. all that i contend for is, that from the moment of relinquishing all unnatural habits, no new disease is generated; and that the predisposition to hereditary maladies gradually perishes for want of its accustomed supply. in cases of consumption, cancer, gout, asthma, and scrofula, such is the invariable tendency of a diet of vegetables and pure water. "those who may be induced by these remarks to give the vegetable system a fair trial, should, in the first place, date the commencement of their practice from the moment of their conviction. all depends upon breaking through a pernicious habit resolutely and at once. dr. trotter asserts, that no drunkard was ever reformed by gradually relinquishing his dram. animal flesh, in its effects on the human stomach, is analogous to a dram; it is similar to the kind, though differing in the degree of its operation. the proselyte to a pure diet must be warned to expect a temporary diminution of muscular strength. the subtraction of a powerful stimulus will suffice to account for this event. but it is only temporary, and is succeeded by an equable capability for exertion, far surpassing his former various and fluctuating strength. "above all, he will acquire an easiness of breathing, by which such exertion is performed, with a remarkable exemption from that painful and difficult panting now felt by almost every one, after hastily climbing an ordinary mountain. he will be equally capable of bodily exertion or mental application, after, as before his simple meal. he will feel none of the narcotic effects of ordinary diet. irritability, the direct consequence of exhausting stimuli, would yield to the power of natural and tranquil impulses. he will no longer pine under the lethargy of _ennui_, that unconquerable weariness of life, more to be dreaded than death itself. "he will no longer be incessantly occupied in blunting and destroying those organs from which he expects his gratification. the pleasures of taste to be derived from a dinner of potatoes, beans, peas, turnips, lettuce, with a dessert of apples, gooseberries, strawberries, currants, raspberries, and in winter, oranges, apples, and pears, is far greater than is supposed. those who wait until they can eat this plain fare with the sauce of appetite, will scarcely join with the hypocritical sensualist at a lord mayor's feast, who declaims against the pleasures of the table." rev. ezekiel rich. this gentleman, once a teacher in troy, n. h., now nearly seventy years of age, is a giant, both intellectually and physically, like father sewall, of maine. the following is his testimony--speaking of what he calls his system: "such a system of living was formed by myself, irrespective of graham or alcott, or any other modern dietetic philosophers and reformers, although i agree with them in many things. it allows but little use of flesh, condiments, concentrated articles, complex cooking, or hot and stimulating drinks. on the other hand, it requires great use of milk, the different bread stuffs, fruits, esculent roots and pulse, all well, simply, and neatly cooked." rev. john wesley. the habits of this distinguished individual, though often adverted to, are yet not sufficiently known. for the last half of his long life (eighty-eight years) he was a thorough going vegetarian. he also testifies that for three or four successive years he lived entirely on potatoes; and during that whole time he never relaxed his arduous ministerial labors, nor ever enjoyed better health. lamartine. lamartine was educated a vegetarian of the strictest sort--an education which certainly did not prevent his possessing as fine a physical frame as can be found in the french republic. of his mental and moral characteristics it is needless that i should speak. true it is that lamartine ate flesh and fish at one period of his life; but we have the authority of douglas jerrold's london journal for assuring our readers that he is again a vegetarian. footnotes: [ ] some, however, represent the great apostle to have been a rigid vegetable eater. on this point i have no settled opinion. [ ] it may be found at full length at page of the th volume of the library of health. [ ] instances, he says, are not rare (but this i doubt), of two hundred children born to a man by his different wives, in some parts of the interior of africa. [ ] a date but little later than that of the work whence this article is extracted. chapter vii. societies and communities on the vegetable system. the pythagoreans.--the essenes.--the bramins.--society of bible christians.--orphan asylum of albany.--the mexican indians.--school in germany.--american physiological society. general remarks. the following chapter did not come within the scope of my plan, as it was originally formed. but in prosecuting the labors of preparing a volume on vegetable diet, it has more and more seemed to me desirable to add a short account of some of the communities and associations of men, both of ancient and modern times, who, amid a surrounding horde of flesh-eaters, have withstood the power of temptation, and proved, in some measure, true to their own nature, and the first impulses of mercy, humanity, and charity. i shall not, of course, attempt to describe all the sects and societies of the kind to which i refer, but only a few of those which seem to me most important. one word may be necessary in explanation of the term communities. i mean by it, smaller communities, or associations. there have been, and still are, many whole nations which might be called vegetable-eating communities; but of such it is not my purpose to speak at present. the pythagoreans. pythagoras appears to have flourished about years before christ. he was, probably, a native of the island of samos; but a part of his education, which was extensive and thorough, was received in egypt. he taught a new philosophy; and, according to some, endeavored to enforce it by laying claim to supernatural powers. but, be this as it may have been, he was certainly a man of extraordinary qualities and powers, as well as of great and commanding influence. in an age of great luxury and licentiousness, he taught, both by example and precept, the most rigid doctrines of sobriety, temperance, and purity. he abstained from all animal food, and limited himself entirely to vegetables; of which he usually preferred bread and honey. nor did he allow the free use of every kind of vegetable; for beans, and i believe every species of pulse, were omitted. water was his only drink. he lived, it is said, to the age of eighty; and even then did not perish from disease or old age, but from starvation in a place where he had sought a retreat from the fury of his enemies. his disciples are said to have been exceedingly numerous, in almost all quarters of the then known world, especially in greece and italy. it is impossible, however, to form any conjecture of their numbers. the largest school or association of his rigid followers is supposed to have been at the city of crotona, in south italy. their number was six hundred. they followed all his dietetic and philosophical rules with the utmost strictness. the association appears to have been, for a time, exceedingly flourishing. it was a society of philosophers, rather than of common citizens. they held their property in one common stock, for the benefit of the whole. the object of the association was chiefly to aid each other in promoting intellectual cultivation. pythagoras did not teach abstinence from all hurtful food and drink, and an exclusive use of that which was the _best_, for the sole purpose of making men better, or more healthy, or longer-lived _animals_; he had a higher and nobler purpose. it was to make them better rationals, more truly noble and god-like--worthy the name of rational men, and of the relation in which they stood to their common father. and yet, after all, his doctrines appear to have been mingled with much bigotry and superstition. the essenes. the following account of this singular sect of the ancient jews is abridged from an article in the annals of education, for july, . the number of this vegetable-eating sect is not known, though, according to philo, there were four thousand of them in the single province of judea. "pliny, says that the essenes of judea fed on the fruit of the palm-tree. but, however this may have been, it is agreed, on all hands, that, like the ancient pythagoreans, they lived exclusively on vegetable food, and that they were abstinent in regard to the quantity even of this. they would not kill a living creature, even for sacrifices. it is also understood that they treated diseases of every kind--though it does not appear that they were subject to many--with roots and herbs. josephus says they were long-lived, and that many of them lived over a hundred years. this he attributes to their 'regular course of life,' and especially to 'the simplicity of their diet.'" the bramins. the bramins, or brahmins, are, as is probably well known, the first of the four _castes_ among the hindoos. they are the priests of the people, and are remarkable, in their way, for their sanctity. of their number i am not at present apprised, but it must be very great. but, however great it may be, they are vegetable eaters of the strictest sect. they are not even allowed to eat eggs; and i believe milk and its products are also forbidden them; but of this i am not quite certain. besides adhering to the strictest rules of temperance, they are also required to observe frequent fasts of the most severe kind, and to practice regular and daily, and sometimes thrice daily ablutions. they subsist much on green herbs, roots, and fruits; and at some periods of their ministry, they live much in the open air. and yet those of them who are true bramins--who live up to the dignity of their profession--are among the most healthy, vigorous, and long-lived of their race. the accounts of their longevity may, in some instances, be exaggerated; but it is certain that, other things being equal, they do not in this respect fall behind any other caste of their countrymen. society of bible christians. this society has existed in great britain nearly half a century. they abstain from flesh, fish, and fowl--in short, from every thing that has animal life--and from all alcoholic liquors. of their number in the kingdom i am not well informed. in manchester they have three churches that have regular preachers; and frequent meetings have been held for discussing the diet question within a few years, some of which have been well attended, and all of which have been interesting. among those who have adopted "the pledge" at their meetings, are some of the most distinguished men in the kingdom, and a few of the members of parliament. through these and other instrumentalities, the question is fairly up in england, and will not cease to be discussed till fairly settled. a branch or colony from the parent society, under the pastoral care of rev. wm. metcalfe, consisting of only eight members, came in and established itself in philadelphia. they were incorporated as a society in . in the number of their church members was about seventy, besides thirty who adhered to their abstemious habits, but were not in full communion. during the thirty years ending in , twelve of their number died--four children and eight adults. the average age of the latter was fifty-seven years. of the seventy now belonging to the society, nineteen are between forty and eighty years of age; and forty, in all, over twenty-five. of the whole number, twelve have abstained from animal food thirty-seven years, seven from twenty to thirty years, and fifty-one never tasted animal food or drank intoxicating drinks. and yet they are all--if we except mr. metcalfe, their minister--of the laboring class, and hard laborers, too. their strength and power of endurance is fully equal to their neighbors in similar circumstances, and in several instances considerably superior. mr. fowler, the phrenologist, testifies, concerning one of them, that he is regarded as the strongest man in philadelphia. i have long had acquaintance with this sect, through mr. m., of philadelphia, and mr. simpson, one of their leading men in england, and have not a doubt of the truth of what has been publicly stated concerning them. they are a modest people, and make few pretensions; and yet they are a very meritorious people. one thing very much to their advantage, as it shows the health-giving, health-preserving tendency of their practice and principles, remains to be related. when the yellow fever prevailed in philadelphia, in and , the infection seemed specially rife in the immediate vicinity of the bible christians. so, also, in , with the cholera. and yet none of them fled. there they remained during the whole period of suffering, and afforded their sick neighbors all the relief in their power. their minister, in particular, was unwearied in his efforts to do good. yet not one of their little number ever sickened or died of either yellow fever or cholera. till within a few years, they have been governed solely by regard to religious principle, having known little of physiology or any other science bearing on health. of late, however, they have turned their attention to the subject, and have among them a respectable physiological society, which holds its regular meetings, and is said to be flourishing. from one of their publications, entitled "vegetable cookery," i have extracted the following very brief summary of their views concerning the use of animals for sustenance. "the society of bible christians abstain from animal food, not only in obedience to the divine command, but because it is an observance, which, if more generally adopted, would prevent much cruelty, luxury, and disease, besides many other evils which cause misery in society. it would be productive of much good, by promoting health, long life, and happiness, and thus be a most effectual means of reforming mankind. it would entirely abolish that greatest of curses, _war_; for those who are so conscientious as not to kill animals, will never murder human beings. on all these accounts the system cannot be too much recommended. the practice of abstaining cannot be wrong; it must therefore be some consolation to be on the side of duty. if we err, we err on the sure side; it is innocent; it is infinitely better authorized and more nearly associated with religion, virtue, and humanity, than the contrary practice--and we have the sanction of the wisest and the best of men--of the whole christian world, for several hundred years after the commencement of the christian era." orphan asylum of albany. i class this as a community, because it is properly so, and because i cannot conveniently class it otherwise. the facts which are to be related are too valuable to be lost. they were first published, i believe, in the northampton courier; and subsequently in the boston medical and surgical journal, and in the moral reformer. in the present case, the account is greatly abridged. the orphan asylum of albany was established about the close of the year , or the beginning of the year . shortly after its establishment, it contained seventy children, and subsequently many more. the average number, from its commencement to august , was eighty. for the first three years, the diet of the inmates consisted of fine bread, rice, indian puddings, potatoes, and other vegetables and fruits, with milk; to which was added flesh or flesh-soup once a day. considerable attention was also paid to bathing and cleanliness, and to clothing, air, and exercise. bathing, however, was performed in a perfect manner, only once in three weeks. as many of them were received in poor health, not a few continued sickly. in the fall of , the diet and regimen of the inmates were materially changed. daily ablution of the whole body, in the use of the cold shower or sponge bath--or, in cases of special disease, the tepid bath was one of the first steps taken; then the fine bread was laid aside for that made of unbolted wheat meal; and soon after flesh and flesh-soups were wholly banished; and thus they continued to advance, till, in about three months more, they had come fully upon the vegetable system, and had adopted reformed habits in regard to sleeping, air, clothing, exercise, etc. on this course, then, they continued to august, , and, for aught i know, to the present time. the results were as follows: during the first three years, or while the old system was followed, from four to six children were continually on the sick list, and sometimes more; and one or two assistant nurses were necessary. a physician was needed once, twice, or three times a week, uniformly; and deaths were frequent. during this whole period there were between thirty and forty deaths. after the new system was fairly adopted, the nursery was soon entirely vacated, and the services of the nurse and physician no longer needed; and for more than two years no case of sickness or death took place. in the succeeding twelve months there were three deaths, but they were new inmates, and were diseased when they were received; and two of them were idiots. the report of the managers says, "under this system of dietetics (though the change ought not to be wholly attributed to the diet) the health of the children has not only been preserved, but those who came to the asylum weakly, have become healthy and strong, and greatly increased in activity, cheerfulness, and happiness." the superintendents also state, that "since the new regimen has been fully adopted, there has been a remarkable increase of health, strength, activity, vivacity, cheerfulness, and contentment among the children. indeed, they appear to be, uniformly, perfectly healthy and happy; and the strength and activity they exhibit are truly surprising. the change of temper is very great. they have become less turbulent, irritable, peevish, and discontented; and far more manageable, gentle, peaceable, and kind to each other." one of them further observes, "there has been a great increase in their mental activity and power; the quickness and acumen of their perception, the vigor of their apprehension, and the power of their retention daily astonish me." such an account hardly needs comment; and i leave it to make its own impression on the candid and unbiassed mind and heart of the reader. the mexican indians. the indian tribes of mexico, according to the traveler humboldt, live on vegetable food. a spot of ground, which, if cultivated with wheat, as in europe, would sustain only ten persons, and which by its produce, if converted into pork or beef, would little more than support one, will in mexico, when used for banana, sustain equally well two hundred and fifty. the reader will do well to take the above fact, and the estimates appended to it, along with him when he comes to examine what i have called the economical argument of the great diet question, in our last chapter, under the head, "the moral argument." we shall do well to remember another suggestion of humboldt, that the habit of eating animals diminishes our natural horror of cannibalism. school in germany. there is, in the annals of education for august, , an account of a school in which the same simple system which was pursued in the orphan asylum at albany was adopted, and with the same happy results. i say the _same_ system; i believe plain meat was allowed occasionally, but it was seldom. their food was exceedingly simple, consisting chiefly of bread and other vegetables, fruits and milk. great attention was also paid to daily cold bathing. the following is the teacher's statement in regard to the results: "i am at present the foster father of nearly seventy young people, who were born in all the varieties of climate from lisbon to moscow, and whose early education was necessarily very different. these young men are all healthy; not a single eruption is visible on their faces; and three years often pass, during which not a single one of them is confined to his bed; and in the twenty-one years that i have been engaged in this institution, not one pupil has died. yet, i am no physician. during the first ten years of my residence here, no physician entered my house; and, not till the number of my pupils was very much increased, and i grew anxious not to overlook any thing in regard to them, did i begin to seek at all for medical advice. "it is the mode of treating the young men here, which is the cause of their superior health; and this is the reason why death has not yet entered our doors. should we ever deviate from our present principles--should we approach nearer the mode of living common in wealthy families--we should soon be obliged to establish, in our institution, as it is in others, medicine closets and nurseries. instead of the freshness which now adorns the cheeks of our youth, paleness would appear, and our church-yards would contain the tombs of promising young men, who, in the bloom of their years, had fallen victims to disease." the american physiological society. this association was formed in . when first formed, it consisted of one hundred and twenty-four males, and forty-one females; in all, one hundred and sixty-five. their number soon increased to more than two hundred. most of these individuals were more or less feeble, and a very large proportion of them were actually suffering from chronic disease when they became members of the society. not a few joined it, indeed, as a last resort, after having tried every thing else, as drowning men are said to catch at straws. nearly if not quite all the members of this society, as well as most of their families, abstained for a time from animal food. some of them even adopted the vegetable system a year or so earlier. and there were a few who adopted it much sooner--one or two of them eight years earlier. of the individuals belonging to the physiological society or to their families, and adhering to the same principles, two adults only died, and one child, during the first two years. i will not be quite positive, but there were four in all, two adults, and two children; but this was the extent of mortality among them for about fifteen months. the whole number of those who belonged to the society, with those members of their families who adhered to their principles (estimating families, as is usually done, at five members to each), is believed to have been from three hundred and twenty to three hundred and fifty. the average mortality for the same number of healthy persons, during the same period, in boston and the adjacent places, was about six or seven; though in some places it was much greater. in a single parish in roxbury--and without any remarkable sickness--the mortality, for the same number of persons, was equal to ten or twelve. now, we must not forget, what i have already stated, that this society of vegetable-eaters--the two hundred adults, i mean--were generally invalids, and some of them given over by physicians. instead, therefore, of only half the usual proportion of deaths among them, we might naturally enough have expected twice or three times the usual number. and this expectation would have appeared still better founded when it was considered that many made the change in their habits, and especially in their diet, very suddenly. but the whole story is not yet told. not only was the number of deaths very small, as above stated, but there were a great number of remarkable recoveries. some, who had very obstinate complaints, appeared, for a time, to be entirely well. others were getting well as fast as could be expected. some, who were broken down and prematurely old, seemed to renew their youth. many became free from colds and eruptive complaints, to which they were formerly subject. and those who had acute diseases, of whom, however, the number was very small, did not suffer so much as is usually the case with flesh-eaters in circumstances otherwise apparently similar. but a reverse at length came. they were led into their abstemious course by mere impulse in very many cases, and though a library was formed and meetings held, nobody, hardly, would read, and the meetings grew thin. they had no joe smith or gen. taylor to lead them--and mankind without leaders and without deep-toned principle, soon grow tired of war. few will fight in such circumstances. chapter viii. vegetable diet defended. general remarks on the nature of the argument-- . the anatomical argument.-- . the physiological argument.-- . the medical argument.-- . the political argument.-- . the economical argument.-- . the argument from experience.-- . the moral argument.--conclusion. in the progress of a work like this, it may not be amiss to present, in a very brief manner, the general arguments in defence of a diet exclusively vegetable. some of them have, indeed, already been adverted to in the testimony of the preceding chapters; but not all. besides, it seemed to me desirable to collect the whole in a general view. there are various ways of doing this, according to the different aspects in which the subject is viewed. every one has his own point of observation. i have mine. conformably to the view i have taken, therefore, i shall endeavor to arrange my remarks under the nine following heads, viz., the anatomical, the physiological, the medical, the political, the economical, the experimental, the moral, the millennial, and the bible arguments. dr. cheyne relied principally on what i have called the medical argument--though what i mean by this may not be quite obvious, till i shall have presented it in its proper place. not that he wholly overlooked any thing else; but this, as it seems to me, was with him the grand point. nearly the same might be said of dr. lambe, and of several others. dr. mussey seems to place the anatomical and physiological arguments in the foreground. it is true he makes much use of the medical and the moral arguments; but the former appear to be his favorites. dr. whitlaw, and some others, incline to make the moral and political arguments more prominent. mr. graham, who has probably done more to reduce the subject of vegetable dietetics to a _system_ than any other individual,--though he makes much use of _all_ the rest, especially the moral and medical,--appears to dwell with most interest on the physiological argument. this seems to be, with him, the strong-hold--the grand citadel. and it must be confessed that the point of defence is very strong indeed, as we shall see in the sequel. if i have a favorite, with the rest, it is the moral argument, or perhaps a combination of this with the economical. but then i dwell on the latter with so much interest, chiefly on account of the former. i would give very little to be able to bring the world of mankind back to nature's true simplicity, if it were only to make them better and more perfect animals; though i know not but an attempt of this sort would be as truly laudable as the attempt so often made to improve the breed of our domestic animals. i suppose man, considered as a mere animal, is superior, in point of importance to all the others. but, after all, i would reform his dietetic habits principally to make him better, morally; to make him better, in the discharge of his varied duties to his fellow-beings and to god. i would elevate him, that he may become as truly god-like, or godly as he now too often is, by his unnatural habits, earthly or beastly. i would render him a rational being, fitted to fill the space which he appears to have been originally designed to fill--the gap in the great chain of being between the higher quadrupeds and the beings we are accustomed to regard as angelic. i would restore him to his true dignity. i would make him a child of god, and an _heir_ of a glorious immortality. but i now proceed to the discussion of the subject which i have assigned to this chapter. i. the anatomical argument. there has been a time when the teeth and intestines of man were supposed to indicate the necessity of a mixed diet--a diet partly animal and partly vegetable. four out of thirty-two teeth were found to resemble slightly, the teeth of carnivorous animals. in like manner, the length of the intestinal tube was thought to be midway between that of the flesh-eating, and that of the herb-eating quadrupeds. but, unfortunately for this mode of defending an animal diet, it has been found out that the fruit and vegetable-eating monkey race, and the herb-eating camel, have the said four-pointed teeth much more pointed than those of man and that the intestines, compared with the real length of the body, instead of assigning to man a middle position, would place him among the herbivorous animals. in short--for i certainly need not dwell on this part of my subject, after having adduced so fully the views of prof. lawrence and baron cuvier--there is no intelligent naturalist or comparative anatomist, at present, who attempts to resort for one moment to man's structure, in support of the hypothesis that he is a flesh-eater. none, so far as i know, will affirm, or at least with any show of reason maintain, that anatomy, so far as that goes, is in favor of flesh eating. we come, then, to another and more important division of our subject. ii. the physiological argument. one of the advantages of vegetable-eaters over others, is in the superior appetite which they enjoy. there are many flesh-eaters who have what they call a good appetite. but i never knew a person of this description, who made the change from a mixed diet to one purely vegetable, who did not afterward acknowledge that he never once knew, while he was an eater of animal food, a truly perfect appetite. this testimony in favor of vegetable diet is positive; whereas that of the multitude, who have never made the change i speak of, but who are therefore the more ready to laugh at the conclusions, is merely negative. a person of perfect appetite can eat at all times, and under all circumstances. he can eat of one thing or another, and in greater or less quantity. were there no objections to it, he could make an entire meal of the coarsest and most indigestible substances; or, he could eat ten or fifteen times a day; or, he could eat a quantity at once which would astonish even a siberian; or, on the contrary, he could abstain from food entirely, for a short time; and any of these without serious inconvenience. he would, indeed, feel a slight want of something (in the case of total abstinence), when the usual hour arrived for taking a meal; but the sensation is not an abiding one; when the hour has passed by, it entirely disappears. nor is there ever, at least for a day or two of abstinence, that gnawing at the stomach, as some express it, which is so often felt by the flesh-eater and the devourer of other mixed and injurious dishes and which is so generally mistaken for true and genuine hunger. i have said that the vegetable-eater finds no serious inconvenience from the quality or quantity of his food; but i mean to speak here of the _immediate_ effects solely. no doubt every error of this sort produces mischief, sooner or later. the more perfect the appetite is, the greater should be our moral power of commanding it, and of controlling the quality and quantity of our food and drink, as well as the times and seasons of receiving it. these statements, i am aware, are contrary to the received and current opinion; but that they are true, can be proved, not by one person merely,--though if that person were to be entirely relied on, his positive affirmation would outweigh a thousand _negative_ testimonies,--but by many hundreds. it is more generally supposed that he who confines himself to a simple diet, soon brings his stomach into such a state that the slightest departure from his usual habits for once only, produces serious inconveniences; and this indeed is urged as an argument against simplicity itself. yet, how strange! how much more natural to suppose that the more perfect the health of the stomach, the better it will bear, for a time, with slight or even serious departures from truth and nature! how much more natural to suppose that perfect health is the very best defence against all the causes which tend to invite or to provoke disease! and what it would be natural to infer, is proved by experience to be strictly true. the thorough-going vegetable-eater can make a meal for once, or perhaps feed for a day or so, on substances which would almost kill many others; and can do so with comparative impunity. he can make a whole meal of cheese, cabbage, fried pudding, fried dough-nuts, etc., etc.; and if it be not in remarkable excess, he will feel no immediate inconvenience, unless from the mental conviction that he must pay the full penalty at some distant day. i repeat it, the appetite of the vegetable-eater, if true to his principles, and temperate in regard to quantity, is always, at all moments of his life, perfect. to be sure, he is not always _hungry_. hunger, indeed, as i have already intimated--what most people call hunger, a morbid sensation, or gnawing--is unknown to him. but there is scarce a moment of his life, at least, when he is awake, in which he could not enjoy the pleasures of eating, even the coarsest viands, with a high relish; provided, however, he knew it was _proper_ for him to eat. nor is his appetite fickle, demanding this or that particular article, and disconcerted if it cannot be obtained. it is satisfied with any thing to which the judgment directs; and though gratified, in a high degree, with dainties, when nothing better and more wholesome cannot be obtained, never demanding them in a peremptory manner. the vegetable-eater has a more quiet, happy, and perfect digestion than the flesh-eater. on this point there has been much mistake, even among physiologists. richerand and many others suppose that a degree of constitutional disturbance is indispensable during the process of digestion; and some have even said that the system was subjected at every meal--nay, at every healthy meal--to a species of miniature fever. the remarks of richerand are as follows. i have slightly abridged them, but have not altered the sense: "while the alimentary solution is going on, a slight shivering is felt; the pulse becomes quicker and more contracted; the vital power seems to forsake the other organs, to concentrate itself on that which is the seat of the digestive process. as the stomach empties itself, the shivering is followed by a gentle warmth; the pulse increases in fullness and frequency; and the insensible perspiration is augmented. digestion brings on, therefore, a general action, analogous to a febrile paroxysm." and what is it, indeed, _but_ a febrile paroxysm? nay, richerand himself confirms this by adding, "this fever of digestion, noticed already by the ancients, is particularly observable in women of great sensibility." that is, the fever is more violent in proportion to the want of power in the person it attacks to resist its influence; just as it is with fever in all other circumstances, or when induced by any other causes. but, can any one believe the author of nature has so made us, that in a steady and rational obedience to his laws, it is indispensable that we should be thrown into a fever three times a day, one thousand and ninety-five times in a year, and seventy-six thousand six hundred and fifty in seventy years? no wonder, if this were true, that the vitality of our organs was ordained to wear out soon; for we see by what means the result would be accomplished. the fever, however, of which richerand speaks, does very generally exist, because mankind very generally depart from nature and her laws. but it is not necessary. the simple vegetable-eater--if he lives right in all other respects--if he errs not as to quantity, knows nothing of it; nor should it be known by any body. we should leave it to the animals below man to err, in quantity and quality, to an excess which constitutes a surfeit or a fever, and causes fullness and drowsiness, and a recumbent posture. the self-styled lord of the animal world should rise superior to habits which have marked, in every age, certain orders of the lower animals. but the chyle which is produced from vegetable aliment is better--all other things being equal--than that which is produced from any other food. for proof of this, we need but the testimony of oliver and other physiologists. they tell us, unhesitatingly, that under the same circumstances, chyle which is formed from vegetables will be preserved from putrefaction many days longer--the consequence of greater purity and a more perfect vitality--than that which is formed from any admixture of animal food. is it not, then, better for the purposes of health and longevity? can it, indeed, be otherwise? i will say nothing at present, for want of space to devote to it, of the indications which are afforded by the other sensible properties of the chyle which is produced from vegetables. the single fact i have presented is enough on that point. the best solids and fluids are produced by vegetable eating. on this single topic a volume might be written, without exhausting it, while i must confine myself to a page or two. in the first place, it forms better bones and more solid muscles, and consequently gives to the frame greater solidity and strength. compare, in evidence of the truth of this statement, the vegetable-eating millions of middle and southern europe, with the other millions, who, supposed to be more fortunate, can get a little flesh or fish once a day. especially, make this comparison in ireland, where the vegetable food selected is far from being of the first or best order; and whose sight is so obtuse as not to perceive the difference? i do not say, compare the enervated inhabitant of a hot climate, as spain or italy, with the inhabitant of england, or scotland, or russia, for that would be an unfair comparison, wholly so; but compare italian with italian, frenchman with frenchman, german with german, scotchman with scotchman, and hibernian with hibernian. in like manner, compare the millions of japanese of the interior, who subsist through life chiefly on rice, with the few millions of the coasts who eat a little fish with their rice. make a similar comparison in china and in hindostan. notice, in particular, the puny chinese, who live in southern china, on quite a large proportion of shell-fish, compared with the chinese of the interior. extend your observations to hindostan. do not talk of the effeminate habits and weak constitutions of the rice and curry eaters there--bad as the admixture of rice and curry may be--for that is to compare the hindoo with other nations; but compare hindoo with hindoo, which is the only fair way. compare the porters of the mediterranean, both of asia and europe, who feed on bread and figs, and carry weights to the extent of eight hundred or one thousand pounds, with the porters who eat flesh, fish, and oil. compare african with african, american indian with american indian; nay, even new englander with new englander; for we have a few here who are trained to vegetable eating. in short, go where you will, and institute a fair comparison, and the results will be, without a single exception, in favor of a diet exclusively vegetable. it is necessary, however, in making the comparison, to place _good_ vegetable food in opposition to good animal food; for no one will pretend that a diet of crude, miserable, or imperfect, or sickly vegetables will be as wholesome as one consisting of rich farinaceous articles and fruits; nor even as many kinds of plain meat. the only instance which, on a proper comparison, will probably be adduced to prove the incorrectness of these views, will be that of a few tribes of american indians, who, though they have extremely robust bodies, are eaters of much flesh. but they live also in the open air, and have many other good habits, and are healthy in spite of the inferiority of their diet. but perfect, physically, as they seem to be, and probably are, examine the vegetable-eaters among them, of the same tribe, and they will be found still more so. in the next place, the fluids are all in a better and more healthy state. in proof of this, i might mention in the first place that superior agility, ease of motion, speed, and power of endurance which so distinguish vegetable-eaters, wherever a fair comparison is instituted. they possess a suppleness like that of youth, even long after what is called the juvenile period of life is passed over. they are often seen running and jumping, unless restrained by the arbitrary customs of society, in very advanced age. their wounds heal with astonishing rapidity in as many days as weeks, or even months, in the latter case. all this could not happen, were there not a good state of the fluids of the system conjoined, to a happy state of the solids. the vegetable-eater, if temperate in the use of his vegetables, and if all his other habits are good, will endure, better than the flesh-eater, the extremes of heat and cold. this power of endurance has ever been allowed to be a sure sign of a good state of health. the most vigorous man, as it is well known, will endure best both extremes of temperature. but it is a proof also of the greater purity of his solids and fluids. the secretions and excretions of his body are in a better state; and this, again, proves that his blood and other fluids are healthy. he does not so readily perspire excessively as other men, neither is there any want of free and easy perspiration. profuse sweating on every trifling exertion of the body or mind, is as much a disease as an habitually dry skin. but the vegetable-eater escapes both of these extremes. the saliva, the tears, the milk, the gastric juice, the bile, and the other secretions and excretions--particularly the dejections--are as they should be. nay, the very exhalations of the lungs are purer, as is obvious from the breath. that of a vegetable-eater is perfectly sweet, while that of a flesh-eater is often as offensive as the smell of a charnel-house. this distinction is discernible even among the brute animals. those which feed on grass, grain, etc., have a breath incomparably sweeter than those which prey on animals. compare the camel, and horse, and cow, and sheep, and rabbit, with the tiger (if you choose to approach him), the wolf, the dog, the cat, and the hawk. one comparison will be sufficient; you will never forget it. but there is as much difference between the odor of the breath of a flesh-eating human being and a vegetable-eater, as between those of the dog and the lamb. this, however, is a secret to all but vegetable-eaters themselves, since none but they are so situated as to be able to make the comparison. but, betake yourself to mealy vegetables and fruits a few years, and live temperately on them, and then you will perceive the difference, especially in riding in a stage-coach. this, i confess, is rather a draw-back upon the felicity of vegetable-eaters; but it is some consolation to know what a mass of corruption we ourselves have escaped. there is one more secretion to which i wish to direct your attention, which is, the fat or oil. the man who lives rightly, and rejects animal food among the rest, will never be overburdened with fat. he will neither be too corpulent nor too lean. both these conditions are conditions of disease, though, as a general rule, corpulence is most to be dreaded; it is, at least, the most disgusting. fat, i repeat it, is a secretion. the cells in which it is deposited serve for relieving the system of many of the crudities and abuses, not to say poisons, which are poured into it--cheated; as it were, in some degree into the blood, secreted into the fat cells, and buried in the fat to be out of the way, and where they can do but little mischief. yet, even here they are not wholly harmless. the fat man is almost always more exposed to disease, and to _severe_ epidemic disease in particular, than the lean man. let us leave it to the swine and other kindred quadrupeds, to dispose of gross half poisonous matter, by converting it into, or burying it in fat; let us employ our vital forces and energies in something better. above all, let us not descend to swallow, as many have been inclined to do, besides the ancient israelites, this gross secretion, and reduce ourselves to the painful necessity of carrying about, from day to day, a huge mass of double-refined disease, pillaged from the foulest and filthiest of animals. vegetable-eaters--especially if they avoid condiments, as well as flesh and fish--are not apt to be thirsty. it is a common opinion among the laboring portion of the community, that they who perspire freely, must drink freely. and yet i have known one or two hard laborers who were accustomed to sweat profusely and freely, who hardly ever drank any thing, except a little tea or milk at their meals, and yet were remarkably strong and healthy, and attained to a great age. one of this description (frederick lord, of hartford, conn.), lived to about the age of eighty-five. how the system is supplied, in such cases, with fluid, i do not know; but i know it is not necessary to drink perpetually for the purpose; for if but one healthy man can dispense with drinking, others may. the truth is, we seldom drink from real thirst. we drink chiefly either from habit, or because we have created a morbid or diseased thirst by improper food or drink, among which animal food is pretty conspicuous. i have intimated that, in order to escape thirst, the vegetable-eater must abstain also from condiments. this he will be apt to do. it is he who eats flesh and fish, and drinks something besides water, who feels such an imperious necessity for condiments. the vegetable and milk eater, and water-drinker, do not need them. it is in this view, that the vegetable system lies at the foundation of all reform in the matter of temperance. so long as the use of animal food is undisturbed and its lawfulness unquestioned, all our efforts to heal the maladies of society are superficial. the wound is not yet probed to the bottom. but, renounce animal food, restore us to our proper condition, and feed us on milk and farinaceous articles, and our fondness for excitement and our hankering for exciting drinks and condiments will, in a few generations, die away. animal food is a root of all evil, so far as temperance is concerned, in its most popular and restricted sense. the pure vegetable-eaters, especially those who are trained as such, seldom drink at all. some use a little water with their meals, and a few drink occasionally between them, especially if they labor much in the open air, and perspire freely. some taste nothing in the form of drink for months, unless we call the abundant juices of apples and other fruits, and milk, etc., by that name--of which, by the way, they are exceedingly fond. the reason is, they are seldom thirsty. dr. lambe, of london, doubts whether man is naturally a drinking animal; but i do not carry the matter so far. still i believe that ninety-nine hundredths of the drink which is used, _as_ now used, does more harm than good. he who avoids flesh and fish, escapes much of that languor and faintness, at particular hours, which others feel. he has usually a clear and quiet head in the morning. he is ready, and willing, and glad to rise in due season; and his morning feelings are apt to last all day. he has none of that faintness between his meals which many have, and which tempts thousands to luncheons, drams, tobacco, snuff, and opium, and ultimately destroys so much health and life. the truth is, that vegetable food is not only more quiet and unstimulating than any other, but it holds out longer also. i know the contrary of this is the general belief; but it is not well founded. animal food stimulates most, and as the stimulus goes off soon, we are liable to feel dull after it, and to fancy we need the stimulus of drink or something else to keep us up till the arrival of another meal. and, having acquired a habit of relying on our food to stimulate us immediately, much more than to give us real, lasting, permanent strength, it is no wonder we feel, for a time, a faintness if we discontinue its use. this only shows the power of habit, and the over-stimulating character of our accustomed food. nor does the simple vegetable-eater suffer, during the spring, as other people say they do. all is cheerful and happy with him, even then. nor, lastly, is he subject to hypochondria or depression of spirits. he is always lively and cheerful; and all with him is bright and happy. as it has been expressed elsewhere, with the truly temperate man it is "morning all day." the system of diet in question, greatly improves, exalts, and perfects the senses. the sight, smell, and taste are rendered greatly superior by it. the difference in favor of the hearing and the touch may not be so obvious; nevertheless, it is believed to be considerable. but the change in the other senses--the first three which i have named--even when we reform as late as at thirty-five or forty, is wonderful. i do not wish to encourage, by this, a delay of the work of reformation; we can never begin it too early. vegetable diet favors beauty of form and feature. the forms of the natives of some of the south sea islands, to say nothing of their features, are exceedingly fine. they are tall and well proportioned. so it is with the japanese and chinese, especially of the interior, where they subsist almost wholly on rice and fruits. the japanese are the finest men, physically speaking, in asia. the new hollanders, on the contrary, who live almost wholly on flesh and fish, are among the most meagre and ugly of the human race, if we except the flesh-eating savages of the north, and the greenlanders and laplanders. in short, the principle i have here advanced will hold, as a _general rule_, i believe, other things being equal, throughout the world. if it be asked whether i would exalt beauty and symmetry into virtues, i will only say that they are not without their use in a virtuous people; and i look forward to a period in the world's history, when all will be comparatively well formed and beautiful. beauty is exceedingly influential, as every one must have observed who has been long in the world; at least, if he has had his eyes open. and it is probably right that it should be so. our beauty is almost as much within our control, as a race, as our conduct. a vegetable diet, moreover, promotes and preserves a clearness and a generally healthful state of the mental faculties. i believe that much of the moral as well as intellectual error in the world, arises from a state of mind which is produced by the introduction of improper liquids and solids into the stomach, or, at least, by their application to the nervous system. be this as it may, however, there is nothing better for the brain than a temperate diet of well-selected vegetables, with water for drink. this sir isaac newton and hundreds of others could abundantly attest. it also favors an evenness and tranquillity of temper, which is of almost infinite value. the most fiery and vindictive have been enabled, by this means, when all other means had failed, to transform themselves into rational beings, and to become, in this very respect, patterns to those around them. if this were its only advantage, in a physiological point of view, it would be of more value than worlds. it favors, too, simplicity of character. it makes us, in the language of the bible, to remain, or to become, as little children, and it preserves our juvenile character and habits through life, and gives us a green old age. finally and lastly, it gives us an independence of external things and circumstances, that can never be attained without it. in vain may we resort to early discipline and correct education--in vain to moral and religious training--in vain, i had almost said, to the promises and threatenings of heaven itself, so long as we continue the use of food so unnatural to man as the flesh of animals, with the condiments and sauces, and improper drinks which follow in its train. our hope, under god, is, in no small degree, on a radical change in man's dietetic habits--in a return to that simple path of truth and nature, from which, in most civilized countries, those who have the pecuniary means of doing it have unwisely departed. iii. the medical argument. if perfect health is the best preventive and security against disease, and if a well-selected and properly administered vegetable diet is best calculated to promote and preserve that perfect health, then this part of the subject--what i have ventured to call the medical argument--is at once disposed of. the superiority of the diet i recommend is established beyond the possibility of debate. now that this is the case--namely, that this diet is best calculated to promote perfect health--i have no doubt. for the sake of others, however, it may be well to adduce a few facts, and present a few brief considerations. it is now pretty generally known, that howard, the philanthropist, was, for about forty years a vegetable-eater, subsisting for much of this time on bread and tea, and that he went through every form of exposure to disease, contagious and non-contagious, perfectly unharmed. and had it not been for other physical errors than those which pertain to diet, i know of no reason why his life might not have been preserved many years longer--perhaps to this time. rev. josiah brewer, late a missionary in smyrna, was very much exposed to disease, and, like mr. howard, to the plague itself; and yet i am not aware that he ever had a single sick day as the consequence of his exposure. i do not know with certainty that he abstains entirely from flesh meat, but he is said to be rigidly temperate in other respects. those who have read rush's inquiries and other writings, are aware that he was very much exposed to the yellow fever in philadelphia, during the years in which it prevailed there. now, there is great reason for believing that he owed his exemption from the disease, in part, at least, to his great temperance. mr. james, a teacher in liberia, in africa, had abstained for a few years from animal food, prior to his going out to africa. immediately after his arrival there, and during the sickly season, one of his companions who went out with him, died of the fever. mr. james was attacked slightly, but recovered. another vegetable-eater--the rev. mr. crocker--went out to a sickly part of africa some years since, and remained at his station a long time in perfect health, while many of his friends sickened or died. at length, however, he fell. gen. thomas sheldon, of this state, a vegetable-eater, spent several years in the most sickly parts of the southern united states, with an entire immunity from disease; and he gives it as his opinion that it is no matter where we are, so that our dietetic and other habits are correct. mr. g. mcelroy, of kentucky, spent several months of the most sickly season in the most unhealthy parts of africa, in the year , and yet enjoyed the best of health the whole time. while there and on his passage home, he abstained wholly from animal food, living on rice and other farinaceous vegetables and fruits. in view of these facts and many others, mr. graham remarks: "under a proper regimen our enterprising young men of new england may go to new orleans or liberia, or any where else they choose, and stay as long as they choose, and yet enjoy good health." and there is no doubt he is right. but it is hardly worth while to cite single facts in proof of a point of this kind. there is abundant testimony to be had, going to show that a vegetable diet is a security against disease, especially against epidemics, whether in the form of a mere influenza or malignant fever. nay, there is reason to believe that a person living according to _all_ the creator's laws, physical and moral, could hardly receive or communicate disease of any kind. how could a person in perfect health, and obeying to an iota all the laws of health--how could he contract disease? what would there be in his system which could furnish a nidus for its reception? i am well aware that not a few people suppose the most healthy are as much exposed to disease as others, and that there are some who even suppose they are much more so. "death delights in a shining mark," or something to this effect, is a maxim which has probably had its origin in the error to which i have adverted. to the same source may be traced the strange opinion that a fatal or malignant disease makes its first and most desperate attacks upon the healthy and the robust. the fact is--and this explains the whole riddle--those who are regarded, by the superficial and short-sighted in this matter, as the most healthy and robust, are usually persons whose unhealthy habits have already sown the seeds of disease; and nothing is wanting but the usual circumstances of epidemics to rouse them into action. more than all this, these strong-looking but inwardly-diseased persons are almost sure to die whenever disease does attack them, simply on account of the previous abuses of their constitutions. during the prevalence of the cholera in new york, about the year , all the grahamites, as they were called, who had for some time abstained from animal food--and their number was quite respectable--and who persevered in it, either wholly escaped the disease, or had it very lightly; and this, too, notwithstanding a large proportion of them were very much exposed to its attacks, living in the parts of the city where it most prevailed, or in families where others were dying almost daily. this could not be the result of mere accident; it is morally impossible. but flesh-eaters--admitting the flesh were wholesome--are not only much more liable to contract disease, but if they contract it, to suffer more severely than others. there is yet another important consideration which belongs to the medical argument. animal food is much more liable than vegetable food, to those changes or conditions which we call poisonous, and which are always, in a greater or less degree, the sources of disease; it is also more liable to poisonous mixtures or adulterations. it is true, that in the present state of the arts, and of agriculture and civic life generally, vegetables themselves are sometimes the sources of disease. i refer not to the spurred rye and other substances, which occasionally find their way into our fields and get mixed with our grains, etc., and which are known to be very active poisons,--so much as to the acrid or otherwise improper juices which are formed by forced vegetation, especially about cities, whether by means of hot-beds, green-houses, or new, strong, or highly-concentrated manures. i refer also to the crude, unripe, and imperfect fruits and other things with which our markets are filed now-a-days; and especially to _decaying_ fruits and vegetables. but i cannot enlarge; a volume would be too little to do this part of the subject justice. nothing is more wanted than light on this subject, and a consequent reform in our fashionable agriculture and horticulture. and yet, although i admit, most cheerfully, the danger we are in of contracting disease by using diseased vegetables, the danger is neither so frequent nor so imminent, in proportion to the quantity of it consumed, as from animal food. let us briefly take a view of the facts. milk, in its nature, approaches nearest to the line of the vegetable kingdom, and is therefore, in my view, the least objectionable form of animal food. i am even ready to admit that for persons affected with certain forms of chronic disease, and for all children, milk is excellent. and yet, excellent as it is, it is very liable to be injurious. we are told, by the most respectable medical men of france, that all the cows about paris have tubercles (the seeds or beginning of consumption) in their lungs which is probably owing to the unnatural state in which they are kept, as regards the kind, and quantity, and hours of receiving their food; and especially as regards air, exercise, and water. cows cannot be healthy, nor any other domestic animals, any more than men, when long subjected to the unnatural and unhealthy influences of bad air, want of exercise, etc. hence, then, most of our cows about our towns and cities must be diseased, in a greater or less degree--if not with consumption, with something else. and of course their milk must be diseased--not, perhaps, as much as their blood and flesh, but more or less so. but if milk is diseased, the butter and cheese made from it must be diseased also. but milk is sometimes diseased through the vegetables which are eaten by the cow. every one knows how readily the sensible properties of certain acrid plants are perceived in the milk. hence as i have elsewhere intimated, we are doubly exposed to danger from eating animal food; first, from the diseases of the animal itself, and secondly, from the diseases which are liable to be induced upon us by the vegetables they use, some of which are not poisonous to them, but are so to us. so that, in avoiding animal food, we escape at least a part of the danger. besides the general fact, that almost all medical and dietetic writers object to fat, and to butter among the rest, as difficult of digestion and tending to cutaneous and other diseases,--and besides the general admission in society at large that it makes the skin "break out,"--it must be obvious that it is liable to retain, in a greater or less degree, all the poisonous properties which existed in the milk from which it was made. next to fat pork, butter seems to me one of the worst things that ever entered a human stomach; and if it will not, like pork, quite cause the leprosy, it will cause almost every other skin disease which is known. cheese is often poisoned now-a-days by design. i do not mean to say that the act of poisoning is accompanied by malice toward mankind; far from it. it is added to color it, as in the form of anatto; or to give it freshness and tenderness, as in the case of arsenic.[ ] eggs, when not fresh, are more or less liable to disease. i might even say more. when not fresh, they _are_ diseased. on this point we have the testimony of drs. willich and dunglison. the truth is, that the yolk of the egg has a strong tendency to decomposition, and this decomposing or putrefying process _begins_ long before it is perceived, or even suspected, by most people. there is much reason for believing that a large proportion of the eggs eaten in civic life,--except when we keep the poultry ourselves,--are, when used, more or less in a state of decomposition. and yet, into how many hundred forms of food do they enter in fashionable life, or in truth, in almost every condition of society! the french cooks are said to have six hundred and eighty-five methods of cooking the egg, including all the various sorts of pastry, etc., of which it forms a component part. one of the grand objections against animal food, of almost all sorts, is, that it tends with such comparative rapidity to decomposition. such is at least the case with eggs, flesh, and fish of every kind. the usual way of preventing the decomposition is by processes scarcely less hurtful--by the addition of salt, pyroligneous acid, saltpetre, lime, etc. these, to be sure, prevent putrefaction; but they render every thing to which they are applied, unless it is the egg, the more indigestible. it is a strange taste in mankind, by the way, which leads them to prefer things in a state of incipient decomposition. and yet such a taste certainly prevails widely. many like the flesh beaten; hence the origin of the cruel practice of the east of whipping animals to death.[ ] and most persons like fresh meat kept till it begins to be _tender_; that is, begins to putrefy. so most persons like fermented beer better than that which is unfermented, although fermentation is a step toward putrefaction; and they like vinegar, too, which is also far advanced in the same road. that diseased food causes diseases in the persons who use it, needs not, one would think, a single testimony; and yet, i will name a few. dr. paris, speaking of fish, says,--"it is not improbable that certain cutaneous diseases may be produced, or at least aggravated by such diet." dr. dunglison says, bacon and cured meats are often poisonous. he speaks of the poisonous tendency of eggs, and says that all _made_ dishes are more or less "rebellious." in aurillac, in france, not many years since, fifteen or sixteen persons were attacked with symptoms of cholera after eating the milk of a certain goat. the goat died with cholera about twenty-four hours after, and two men, no less eminent than professors orfila and marc, gave it as their undoubted opinion that the cholera symptoms alluded to, were caused by the milk. i have myself known oysters at certain times and seasons to produce the same symptoms. during the progress of a mortal disease among the poultry on edisto island, s. c., in , all the dogs and vultures that tasted of the flesh of the dead poultry sickened and died. chrisiston mentions an instance in which five persons were poisoned by eating beef; and dunglison one in which fourteen persons were made sick, and some died, from eating the meat of a calf. between the years and , it is on record that there were in the kingdom of wurtemberg alone, no less than two hundred and thirty-four cases of poisoning, and one hundred and ten deaths, from eating sausages. but i need not multiply this sort of evidence, the world abounds with it; though for one person who is poisoned so much as to be made sick immediately, hundreds perhaps are only slightly affected; and the punishment may seem to be deferred for many years. the truth, in short, is, that every fashionable process of fattening and even of domesticating animals, induces disease; and as most of the animals we use for food are domesticated or fattened, or both, it follows that most of our animal food, whether milk, butter, cheese, eggs, or flesh, is diseased food, and must inevitably, sooner or later, induce disease in those who receive it. those which are most fattened are the worst, of course; as the hog, the goose, the sheep, and the ox. the more the animal is removed from a natural state, in fattening, the more does the fat accumulate, and the more it is diseased. hence the complaints against every form of animal oil or fat, in every age, by men who, notwithstanding their complaints, for the most part, continue to set mankind an example of its use. let me here introduce a single paragraph from dr. cheyne, which is very much to my present purpose. "about london, we can scarce have any but crammed poultry or stall-fed butchers' meat. it were sufficient to disgust the stoutest stomach to see the foul, gross, and nasty manner in which, and the fetid, putrid, and unwholesome materials _with_ which they are fed. perpetual foulness and cramming, gross food and nastiness, we know, will putrefy the juices, and corrupt the muscular substance of human creatures--and sure they can do no less in brute animals--and thus make our food poison. the same may be said of hot-beds, and forcing plants and vegetables. the only way of having sound and healthful animals, is to leave them to their own natural liberty in the free air, and their own proper element, with plenty of food and due cleanliness; and a shelter from the injuries of the weather, whenever they have a mind to retire to it." the argument then is, that, for healthy adults at least, a well-selected vegetable diet, other things being equal, is a preventive of disease, and a security against its violence, should it attack us, in a far greater degree than a diet which includes animal food in any of its numerous forms. it will either prevent the common diseases of childhood, including those which are deemed contagious, or render their attacks extremely mild: it will either prevent or mitigate the symptoms of the severe diseases of adults, not excepting malignant fevers, small-pox, plague, etc.; and it will either prevent such diseases as cancer, gout, epilepsy, scrofula, and consumption, or prolong life under them. who that has ever thought of the condition of our domestic animals, especially about towns and cities--their want of good air, abundant exercise, good water, and natural food, to say nothing of the butter-cup and the other poisonous products of over-stimulating or fresh manures which they sometimes eat--has not been astonished to find so little disease among us as there actually is? animal food, in its best state, is a great deal more stimulating and heating to the system than vegetable food;--but how much more injurious is it made, in the circumstances in which most animals are placed? do we believe that even a new zealand cannibal would willingly eat flesh, if he knew it was from an animal that when killed was laboring under a load of liver complaint, gout, consumption, or fever? and yet, such is the condition of most of the animals we slay for food. they would often die of their diseases if we did not put the knife to their throats to prevent it. one more consideration. if the exclusive use of vegetable food will prevent a multitude of the worst and most incurable diseases to which human nature, in other circumstances, seems liable; if it will modify the diseases which a mixed diet, or absolute intemperance, or gluttony had induced,--by what rule can we limit its influence? how know we that what is so efficacious in regard to the larger diseases, will not be equally so in the case of all smaller ones? and why, then, may not its universal adoption, after a few generations, banish disease entirely from the world? every person of common observation, knows that, as a general rule, they who approach the nearest to a pure vegetable and water diet, are most exempt from disease, and the longest-lived and most happy. how, then, can it otherwise happen than that a still closer approximation will afford a greater exemption still, and so on indefinitely? at what point of an approach toward such diet and regimen, and toward perfect health at the same time, is it that we stop, and more temperance still will injure us? in short, where do we cross the line? iv. the political argument. i have dwelt at such length on the physiological and medical arguments in defence of the vegetable system, that i must compress my remaining views into the smallest space possible; especially those which relate to its political, national, or general advantages. political economists tell us that the produce of an acre of land in wheat, corn, potatoes, and other vegetables, and in fruits, will sustain animal life sixteen times as long as when the produce of the same acre is converted into flesh, by feeding and fattening animals upon it. but, if we admit that this estimate is too high, and if the real difference is only eight to one, instead of sixteen to one, the results may perhaps surprise us; and if we have not done it before, may lead us to reflection. let us see what some of them are. the people of the united states are believed to eat, upon the average, an amount of animal food equal at least to one whole meal once a day, and those of great britain one in two days. but taking this estimate to be correct, great britain, by substituting vegetable for animal food, might sustain forty-nine instead of twenty-one millions of inhabitants, and the united states sixty-six millions instead of twenty; and this, too, in their present comfort, and without clearing up any more new land. here, then, we are consuming that unnecessarily--if animal food is unnecessary--which would sustain seventy-nine millions of human beings in life, health, and happiness. now, if life is a blessing at all--if it is a blessing to twenty-two millions in great britain, and twenty millions in the united states--then to add to this population an increase of seventy-nine millions, would be to increase, in the same proportion, the aggregate of human happiness. and if, in addition to this, we admit the very generally received principle, that there is a tendency, from the nature of things, in the population of any country, to keep up with the means of support, we, of great britain and america, keep down, at the present moment, by flesh-eating, sixty-three millions of inhabitants. we do not destroy them, in the full sense of the term, it is true, for they never had an existence. but we prevent their coming into the possession of a joyous and happy existence; and though we have no name for it, is it not a crime? what! no crime for thirty-five millions of people to prevent and preclude the existence of sixty-three millions? i see no way of avoiding the force of this argument, except by denying the premises on which i have founded my conclusions. but they are far more easily denied than disproved. the probability, after all, is, that my estimates are too low, and that the advantages of an exclusively vegetable diet, in a national or political point of view, are even greater than is here represented. i do not deny, that some deduction ought to be made on account of the consumption of fish, which does not prevent the growth or use of vegetable products; but my belief is, that, including them, the animal food we use amounts to a great deal more than one meal a day, or one third of our whole living. suppose there was no _crime_ in shutting human beings out of existence by flesh-eating, at the amazing rate i have mentioned--still, is it not, i repeat it, a great national or political loss? or, will it be said, in its defence, as has been said in defence of war, if not of intemperance and some of the forms of licentiousness, that as the world is, it is a blessing to keep down its population, otherwise it would soon be overstocked? the argument would be as good in one case as in the other; that is, it is not valid in either. the world might be made to sustain, in comfort, even in the present comparatively infant state of the arts and sciences, at least forty or fifty times its present number of inhabitants. it will be time enough a thousand or two thousand years to come, to begin to talk about the danger of the world's being over-peopled; and, above all, to talk about justifying what we know is, in the abstract, very wrong, to prevent a distant imagined evil; one, in fact, which may not, and probably will not ever exist. v. the economical argument. the economy of the vegetable system is so intimately connected with its political or national advantages; that is, so depends on, or grows out of them, that i hesitated for some time before i decided to consider it separately. whatever is shown clearly to be for the general good policy and well-being of society, cannot be prejudicial to the best interests of the individuals who compose that society. still, there are some minor considerations that i wish to present under this head, that could not so well have been introduced any where else. there is, indeed, one reason for omitting wholly the consideration of the pecuniary advantages of the system which i am attempting to defend. the public, to some extent, at once consider him who adverts to this topic, as parsimonious or mean. but, conscious as i am of higher objects in consulting economy than the saving of money, that it may be expended on things of no more value than the mere indulgence or gratification of the appetites or the passions, in a world where there are minds to educate and souls to save, i have ventured to treat on the subject. it must be obvious, at a single glance, that if the vegetable products of an acre of land--such as wheat, rye, corn, barley, potatoes, beans, peas, turnips, beets, apples, strawberries, etc.--will sustain a family in equal health eight times as long as the pork, or beef, or mutton, which the same vegetables would make by feeding them to domestic animals, it must be just as mistaken a policy for the individual to make the latter disposition of these products as for a nation to do so. nations are made of individuals; and, as i have already said, whatever is best, in the end, for the one, must also be the best, as a general rule, for the other. but who has not been familiar from his very infancy with the maxim, that "a good garden will half support a family?" and who that is at all informed in regard to the manners and customs of the old world, does not know that the maxim has been verified there, time immemorial? but again: who has not considered, that if a garden of a given size will half support a family, one twice as large would support it wholly? the truth is, it needs but a very small spot indeed, of good soil, for raising all the necessaries of a family. i think i have shown, in another work,[ ] that five hundred and fifty pounds of indian or corn meal, or ten bushels of the corn, properly cooked, will support, or more than support, an adult individual a year. four times this amount is a very large allowance for a family of five persons; nay, even three times is sufficient. but how small a spot of good soil is required for raising thirty bushels of corn! it is true, no family would wish to be confined a whole year to this one kind of food; nor do i wish to have it so; not that i think any serious mischiefs would arise as the consequence; but i should prefer, for my own part, a greater variety. but this does not materially alter the case. suppose an acre and a half of land were required for the production of thirty bushels of corn. let the cultivator, if he chooses, raise only fifteen bushels of corn, and sow the remainder with barley, or rye, or wheat. or, if he prefer it, let him plant the one half of the piece with beans, peas, potatoes, beets, onions, etc. the one half of the space devoted to the production of some sort of grain would still half support his family; and it would require more than ordinary gluttony in a family of five persons to consume the produce of the other half, if the crops were but moderately abundant. a quarter of an acre of it ought to produce, at least, sixty bushels of potatoes; but this alone, would give such a family about ten pounds of potatoes, or one sixth of a bushel a day, for every day in the year, which is a tolerable allowance of food, without the grain and other vegetables. but suppose a whole family were to live wholly on grain, as corn, or even wheat, for the year; the whole expenditure would hardly, exceed fifty dollars, in dear places and in the dearest times. of course, i am speaking now of expenses for food and drink merely, the latter of which usually costs nothing, or need not. how small a sum is this to expend in new york, or boston, or philadelphia, in the maintenance of a family! and yet, it is amply sufficient for the vegetable-eater, unless his family live exclusively on wheat bread, or milk, when it might fall a little short. of corn, at a dollar a bushel, it would give him eight pounds a day--far more than a family ought to consume, if they ate nothing else; and of potatoes, at forty cents a bushel, above twenty pounds, or one third of a bushel--more than sufficient for the family of an hibernian. now, let me ask how much beef, or lamb, or pork, or sausages, or eggs, or cheese, this would buy? at ten cents a pound for each, which is comparatively low, it would buy five hundred pounds; about one pound and six ounces for the whole family, or four or five ounces each a day. this would be an average amount of nutriment equal to that of about two ounces of grain, or bread of grain, a day, to each individual. in so far as laid out in butter, or chicken, or turkey, at twenty cents a pound, it would give also about two or three ounces a day! further remarks under this head can hardly be necessary. he who considers the subject in its various aspects, will be likely to see the weight of the argument. there is a wide difference between a system which will give to each member of a family, upon the average, only about four or five ounces of food a day, and one which will give each of them more than twenty-five ounces a day, each ounce of the latter containing twice the nutriment of the former, and being much more savory and healthy at the same time. there is a wide difference, in matters of economy, at least, between one and ten. i will only add, under this head, a few tables. the first is to show the comparative amount of nutritious matter contained in some of the leading articles of human food, both animal and vegetable. it is derived from the researches of such men as mm. percy and vauquelin, of france, and sir humphrey davy, of england. pounds of wheat contain pounds of nutritious matter. " " rice " " " " " " rye " " " " " " barley " " " " " " peas " " " " " " lentils " " " " " " beans to " " " " " bread (average) " " " " " meat (average) " " " " " potatoes contain " " " " " beets " " " " " " carrots to " " " " " cabbage " " " " " " greens, turnips to " " of course, it does not follow that every individual will be able to extract just this amount of nutriment from each article; for, in this respect, as well as in others, much will depend on circumstances. the second table is from mr. james simpson, of manchester, england, in a small work entitled, "the products of the vegetable kingdom versus animal food," recently published in london. its facts are derived from dr. playfair, boussingault, and other high authorities. it will be seen to refute, entirely, the popular notions concerning the liebig theory. the truth is, liebig's views are misunderstood. his views are not so much opposed to mine as many suppose. besides, neither he nor i are infallible. flesh heat ashes forming forming for solid matter. water. principle. principle. the bones. potatoes, per ct. per ct. per ct. per ct. per ct. turnips, " " " " " barley meal, - / " - / " " - / " " beans, " " " - / " " oats, " " " " " wheat, - / " - / " " " - / " peas, " " " - / " - / " carrots, " " " " " veal, " " { beef, " " { mutton, " " { lamb, " " { blood, " " vi. the argument from experience. a person trained in the united states or in england--but especially one who was trained in new england--might very naturally suppose that all the world were flesh-eaters; and that the person who abstains from an article which is at almost every one's table, was quite singular. he would, perhaps, suppose there must be something peculiar in his structure, to enable him to live without either flesh or fish; particularly, if he were a laborer. little would he dream--little does a person who has not had much opportunity for reading, and who has not been taught to reflect, and who has never traveled a day's journey from the place which gave him birth, even so much as dream--that almost all the world, or at least almost all the hard-laboring part of it, are vegetable-eaters, and always have been; and that it is only in a few comparatively small portions of the civilized and half-civilized world, that the bone and sinew of our race ever eat flesh or fish for any thing more than as a condiment or seasoning to the rest of their food, or even taste it at all. and yet such is the fact. it is true, that in a vast majority of cases, as i have already intimated, laborers are vegetable-eaters from necessity: they cannot get flesh. almost all mankind, as they are usually trained, are fond of extra stimulants, if they can get them; and whether they are called savages or civilized men, will indulge in them more or less, if they are to be had, unless their intellectual and moral natures have been so well developed and cultivated, as to have acquired the ascendency. spirits, wine, cider, beer, coffee, tea, condiments, tobacco, opium, snuff, flesh meat, and a thousand other things, which excite, for a time, more pleasurable sensations than water and plain vegetables and fruits, will be sought with more or less eagerness according to the education which has been received, and according to our power of self-government. i have said that most persons are vegetable-eaters from necessity, not from choice. there are some tribes in the equatorial regions who seem to be exceptions to this rule; and yet i am not quite satisfied they are so. some children, among us, who are trained to a very simple diet, will seem to shrink from tea or coffee, or alcohol, or camphor, and even from any thing which is much heated, when first presented to them. but, train the same children to the ordinary, complex, high-seasoned diet of this country, and it will not take long to find out that they are ready to acquire the habit of relishing the excitement of almost all sorts of _unnaturals_ which can be presented to them. and if there are tribes of men who at first refuse flesh meat, i apprehend they do so for the same reasons which lead a child among us, who is trained simply to refuse hot food and drink, or at least, hot tea and coffee, when the latter are first presented to him. gutzlaff, the chinese traveler and missionary, has found that the chinese of the interior, who have scarcely ever tasted flesh or fish, soon acquire a wonderful relish for it, just as our children do for spirituous or exciting drinks and drugs, and as savages do for tobacco and spirits. but he has also made another discovery, which is, that flesh-eating almost ruins them for labor. instead of being strong, robust, and active, they soon become lazy, self-indulgent, and effeminate. this is a specimen--perhaps a tolerably fair one--of the natural tendency of such food in all ages and countries. man every where does best, nationally and individually, other things being equal, on a well-chosen diet of vegetables, fruits, and water. in proportion as individuals or families, or tribes or nations, depart from this--other things being equal--in the same proportion do they degenerate physically, intellectually, and morally. such a statement may startle some of my new england readers, perhaps, who have never had opportunity to become acquainted with facts as they are. but can it be successfully controverted? is it not true, that, with a few exceptions--and those more apparent than real--nations have flourished, and continued to flourish, in proportion as they have retained the more natural dietetic habits to which i have alluded; and that they have been unhappy or short-lived, as nations, in proportion as exciting food and drink have been used? is it not true, that those individuals, families, tribes, and nations, which have used what i call excitements, liquid or solid, have been subjected by them to the same effects which follow the use of spirits--first, invigoration, and subsequently decline, and ultimately a loss of strength? why is it that the more wealthy, all over europe, who get flesh more or less, deteriorate in their families so rapidly? why is it that every thing is, in this respect, so stationary among the middle classes and the poor? in short--for the case appears to me a plain one--it is the simple habits of some, whether we speak of nations, families, or individuals, which have preserved the world from going to utter decay. in ancient times, the egyptians, the most enlightened and one of the most enduring of nations, were what might properly be called a vegetable-eating nation; so were the ancient persians, in the days of their greatest glory; so the essenes, among the jews; so the romans, as i have said elsewhere, and the greeks. if either moses or herodotus is to be credited, men lived, in ancient times, about a thousand years. indeed, empire seems to have departed from among the ancient nations precisely when simplicity departed. so it is with nations still. a flesh-eating nation may retain the supremacy of the world a short time, as several european and american nations have done; just as the laborer, whose brain and nerves are stimulated by ardent spirits, may for a time retain--through the medium of an artificial strength--the ascendency among his fellow-laborers; but the triumph of both the nation and the individual must be short, and the debility which follows proportionable. and if the united states, as a nation, seem to form an exception to the truth of this remark, it is only because the stage of debility has not yet arrived. let us be patient, however, for it is not far off. but to come to the specification of facts. the japanese of the interior, according to some of the british geographers, live principally on rice and fruits--a single handful of rice often forming the basis of their frugal meal. flesh, it is said, they either cannot get, or do not like; and to milk, even, they have the same sort of aversion which most of us have to blood. it is only a few of them, comparatively, and those principally who live about the coasts, who ever use either flesh or fish. and yet we have the concurring testimony of all geographers and travelers, that in their physical and intellectual development, at least, to say nothing of their moral peculiarities, they are the finest men in all asia. in what other country of asia are schools and early education in such high reputation as in japan? where are the inhabitants so well formed, so stout made, and so robust? compare them with the natives of new holland, in the same, or nearly the same longitude, and about as far south of the equator as the japanese are north of it, and what a contrast! the new hollanders, though eating flesh liberally, are not only mere savages, but they are among the most meagre and wretched of the human race. on the contrary, the japanese, in mind and body, are scarcely behind the middle nations of europe. nearly the same remarks will apply to china, and with little modification, to hindostan. in short, the hundreds of millions of southern asia are, for the most part, vegetable-eaters; and a large proportion of them live chiefly, if not wholly on rice, though by no means the most favorable vegetable for exclusive use. what countries like these have maintained their ancient, moral, intellectual, and political landmarks? grant that they have made but little improvement from century to century; it is something not to have deteriorated. let us proceed with our general view of the world, ancient and modern. the jews of palestine, two thousand years ago, lived chiefly on vegetable food. flesh, of certain kinds, was indeed admissible, by their law; but, except at their feasts and on special occasions, they ate chiefly bread, milk, honey, and fruits. lawrence says that "the greeks and romans, in the periods of their greatest simplicity, manliness, and bravery, appear to have lived almost entirely on plain vegetable preparations." the irish of modern days, as well as the scotch, are confined almost wholly to vegetable food. so are the italians, the germans, and many other nations of modern europe. yet, where shall we look for finer specimens of bodily health, strength, and vigor, than in these very countries? the females, especially, where shall we look for their equals? the men, even--the scotch and irish, for example--are they weaker than their brethren, the english, who use more animal food? it will be said, perhaps, the vegetable-eating europeans are not always distinguished for vigorous minds. true; but this, it may be maintained, arises from their degraded physical condition, generally; and that neglect of mental and moral cultivation which accompanies it. a few, even here, like comets in the material system, have occasionally broken out, and emitted no faint light in the sphere in which they were destined to move. but we are not confined to europe. the south sea islanders, in many instances, feed almost wholly on vegetable substances; yet their agility and strength are so great, that it is said "the stoutest and most expert english sailors, had no chance with them in wrestling and boxing." we come, lastly, to africa, the greater part of whose millions feed on rice, dates, etc.; yet their bodily powers are well known. in short, more than half of the , , of human beings which inhabit our globe live on vegetables; or, if they get meat at all, it is so rarely that it can hardly have any effect on their structure or character. out of europe and the united states--i might even say, out of the latter--the use of animal food is either confined to a few meagre, weak, timid nations, like the esquimaux, the greenlanders, the laplanders, the samoiedes, the kamtschadales, the ostiacs, and the natives of siberia and terra del fuego; or those wealthier classes, or individuals of every country, who are able to range lawlessly over the creator's domains, and select, for their tables, whatever fancy or fashion, or a capricious appetite may dictate, or physical power afford them. vii. the moral argument. in one point of view, nearly every argument which can be brought to show the superiority of a vegetable diet over one that includes flesh or fish, is a moral argument. thus, if man is so constituted by his structure, and by the laws of his animal economy, that all the functions of the body, and of course all the faculties of the mind, and the affections of the soul, are in better condition--better subserve our own purposes, and the purposes of the great creator--as well as hold out longer, on the vegetable system--then is it desirable, in a moral point of view, to adopt it. if mankind lose, upon the average, about two years of their lives by sickness, as some have estimated it,[ ] saying nothing of the pain and suffering undergone, or of the mental anguish and soul torment which grow out of it, and often render life a burden; and if the simple primitive custom of living on vegetables and fruits, along with other good physical and mental habits, which seem naturally connected with it, will, in time, nearly if not wholly remove or prevent this amazing loss, then is the argument deduced therefrom, in another part of this chapter, a moral argument. if, as i have endeavored to show, the adoption of the vegetable system by nations and individuals, would greatly advance the happiness of all, in every known respect, and if, on this account, such a change in our flesh-eating countries would be sound policy, and good economy,--then we have another moral argument in its favor. but, again; if it be true that all nations have been the most virtuous and flourishing, other things being equal, in the days of their simplicity in regard to food, drink, etc.; and if we can, in every instance, connect the decline of a nation with the period of their departure, as a nation, into the maze of luxurious and enervating habits; and if this doctrine is, as a general rule, obviously applicable to smaller classes of men, down to single families, then is the argument we derive from it in its nature a moral one. whatever really tends, without the possibility of mistake, to the promotion of human happiness, here and hereafter, is, without doubt, moral. but this, though much, is not all. the destruction of animals for food, in its details and tendencies, involves so much of cruelty as to cause every reflecting individual--not destitute of the ordinary sensibilities of our nature--to shudder. i recall: daily observation shows that such is not the fact; nor should it, upon second thought, be expected. where all are dark, the color is not perceived; and so universally are the moral sensibilities which really belong to human nature deadened by the customs which prevail among us, that few, if any, know how to estimate, rightly, the evil of which i speak. they have no more a correct idea of a true sensibility--not a _morbid_ one--on this subject, than a blind man has of colors; and for nearly the same reasons. and on this account it is, that i seem to shrink from presenting, at this time, those considerations which, i know, cannot, from the very nature of the case, be properly understood or appreciated, except by a very few. still there are some things which, i trust, may be made plain. it must be obvious that the custom of rendering children familiar with the taking away of life, even when it is done with a good degree of tenderness, cannot have a very happy effect. but, when this is done, not only without tenderness or sympathy, but often with manifestations of great pleasure, and when children, as in some cases, are almost constant witnesses of such scenes, how dreadful must be the results! in this view, the world, i mean our own portion of it, sometimes seems to me like one mighty slaughter-house--one grand school for the suppression of every kind, and tender, and brotherly feeling--one grand process of education to the entire destitution of all moral principle--one vast scene of destruction to all moral sensibility, and all sympathy with the woes of those around us. is it not so? i have seen many boys who shuddered, at first, at the thought of taking the life, even of a snake, until compelled to it by what they conceived to be duty; and who shuddered still more at taking the life of a lamb, a calf, a pig, or a fowl. and yet i have seen these same boys, in subsequent life, become so changed, that they could look on such scenes not merely with indifference, but with gratification. is this change of feeling desirable? how long is it after we begin to look with indifference on pain and suffering in brutes, before we begin to be less affected than before by human suffering? i am not ignorant that sentiments like these are either regarded as morbid, and therefore pitiable, or as affected, and therefore ridiculous. who that has read the story of anthony benezet, as related by dr. rush, has not smiled at what he must have regarded a feeling wholly misplaced, if nothing more? and yet it was a feeling which i think is very far from deserving ridicule, however homely the manner of expressing it. but i have related this interesting story in another part of the work. i am not prepared to maintain, strongly, the old-fashioned doctrine, that a butcher who commences his employment at adult age, is necessarily rendered hardhearted or unfeeling; or, that they who eat flesh have their sensibilities deadened, and their passions inflamed by it--though i am not sure that there is not some truth in it. i only maintain, that to render children familiar with the taking away of animal life,--especially the lives of our own domestic animals, often endeared to us by many interesting circumstances of their history, or of our own, in relation to them,--cannot be otherwise than unhappy in its tendency. how shocking it must be to the inhabitants of jupiter, or some other planet, who had never before witnessed these sad effects of the ingress of sin among us, to see the carcasses of animals, either whole or by piece-meal, hoisted upon our very tables before the faces of children of all ages, from the infant at the breast, to the child of ten or twelve, or fourteen, and carved, and swallowed; and this not merely once, but from day to day, through life! what could they--what would they--expect from such an education of the young mind and heart? what, indeed, but mourning, desolation, and woe! on this subject the first annual report of the american physiological society thus remarks--and i wish the remark might have its due weight on the mind of the reader: "how can it be right to be instrumental in so much unnecessary slaughter? how can it be right, especially for a country of vegetable abundance like ours, to give daily employment to twenty thousand or thirty thousand butchers? how can it be right to train our children to behold such slaughter? how can it be right to blunt the edge of their moral sensibilities, by placing before them, at almost every meal, the mangled corpses of the slain; and not only placing them there, but rejoicing while we feast upon them?" one striking evidence of the tendency which an habitual shedding of blood has on the mind and heart, is found in the fact that females are generally so reluctant to take away life, that notwithstanding they are trained to a fondness for all sorts of animal food, very few are willing to gratify their desires for a stimulating diet, by becoming their own butchers. i have indeed seen females who would kill a fowl or a lamb rather than go without it; but they are exceedingly rare. and who would not regard female character as tarnished by a familiarity with such scenes as those to which i have referred? but if the keen edge of female delicacy and sensibility would be blunted by scenes of bloodshed, are not the moral sensibilities of our own sex affected in a similar way? and must it not, then, have a deteriorating tendency? it cannot be otherwise than that the circumstances of which i have spoken, which so universally surround infancy and childhood, should take off, gradually, the keen edge of moral sensibility, and lessen every virtuous or holy sympathy. i have watched--i believe impartially--the effect on certain sensitive young persons in the circle of my acquaintance. i have watched myself. the result has confirmed the opinion i have just expressed. no child, i think, can walk through a common market or slaughter-house without receiving moral injury; nor am i quite sure that any virtuous adult can. how have i been struck with the change produced in the young mind by that merriment which often accompanies the slaughter of an innocent fowl, or lamb, or pig! how can the christian, with the bible in hand, and the merciful doctrines of its pages for his text, "teach me to feel another's woe," --the beast's not excepted--and yet, having laid down that bible, go at once from the domestic altar to make light of the convulsions and exit of a poor domestic animal? is it said, that these remarks apply only to the _abuse_ of a thing, which, in its place, is proper? is it said, that there is no necessity of levity on these occasions? grant that there is none; still the result is almost inevitable. but there is, in any event, one way of avoiding, or rather preventing both the abuse and the occasion for abuse, by ceasing to kill animals for food; and i venture to predict that the evil never will be prevented otherwise. the usual apology for hunting and fishing, in all their various and often cruel forms,--whereby so many of our youth, from the setters of snares for birds, and the anglers for trout, to the whalemen, are educated to cruelty, and steeled to every virtuous and holy sympathy,--is, the necessity of the animals whom we pursue for food. i know, indeed, that this is not, in most cases, the true reason, but it is the reason given--it is the substance of the reason. it serves as an apology. they who make it may often be ignorant of the true reason, or they or others may wish to conceal it; and, true to human nature, they are ready to give every reason for their conduct, but the real and most efficient one. it must not, indeed, be concealed that there is one more apology usually made for these cruel sports; and made too, in some instances, by good men; i mean, by men whose intentions are in the main pure and excellent. these sports are healthy, they tell us. they are a relief to mind and body. perhaps no good man, in our own country, has defended them with more ingenuity, or with more show of reason and good sense, than dr. comstock, in his recent popular work on human physiology. and yet, there is scarcely a single advantage which he has pointed out, as being derived from the "pleasures of the chase," that may not be gained in a way which savors less of blood. the doctor himself is too much in love with botany, geology, mineralogy, and the various branches of natural history, not to know what i mean when i say this. he knows full well the excitement, and, on his own principles, the consequent relief of body and mind from their accustomed and often painful round, which grows out of clambering over mountains and hills, and fording streams, and climbing trees and rocks, to need any very broad hints on the subject; to say nothing of the delights of agriculture and horticulture. how could he, then, give currency to practices which, to say the least,--and by his own concessions, too,--are doubtful in regard to their moral tendencies, by inserting his opinions in favor of sports, for which he himself happens to be partial, in a school-book? is this worthy of those who would educate the youth of our land on the principles of the bible? viii. the millennial argument i believe it is conceded by most intelligent men, that all the arguments we bring against the use of animal food, which are derived from anatomy, physiology, or the laws of health, or even of psychology, are well founded. but they still say, "man is not what he once was; he is strangely perverted; that custom, or habit, which soon becomes second nature, and often proves stronger to us than first nature, has so changed him that he is more a creature of art than of nature, or at least of _first_ nature. and though animal food was not necessary to him at first--perhaps not in accordance with his best interests--yet it has become so by long use; and as a creature of art rather than of nature, he now seems to require it." this reasoning, at first view, appears very _specious_. but upon second view, we see it is wanting--greatly so--in solidity. it takes for granted, as i understand it, that what we call civilization, has rendered animal food necessary to man. but is it not obvious that the condition of things which is thus supposed to render this species of food necessary, is not likely to disappear--nay, that it is every century becoming more and more the law, so to speak, of the land? who is to stop the labor-saving machine, the railroad car, or the lightning flash of intelligence? and do not these considerations, if they prove any thing, prove quite too much? for if, in the onward career of what is thus called civilization, we have gone from a diet which scarcely required the use of animal food in order to render it both palatable and healthful, to one in whose dishes it is generally blended in some one or more of its forms, must we not expect that a still further progress in the same course will render the same kind of diet still more indispensable? if flesh, fish, fowl, butter, cheese, eggs, lard, etc., are much more necessary to us now, than they were a thousand years ago, will they not be still more necessary a thousand years hence? i do not see how we can avoid such a conclusion. and yet such a conclusion will involve us in very serious difficulties. in japan and china--the former more especially--if the march of civilization should be found to have rendered animal food more necessary, it has at the same time rendered it less accessible to the mass of the population. the great increase of the human species has crowded out the animals, even the domestic ones. some of the old historians and geographers tell us that there are not so many domestic animals in the whole kingdom of japan, as in a single township of sweden. and must not all nations, as society progresses and the millennium dawns, crowd out the animals in the same way? it cannot be otherwise. true, there may remain about the same supply as at present from the rivers and seas, and perchance from the air; but what can these do for the increasing hundreds of millions of such large countries? what do they for japan? in short, if the reasoning above were good and valid, it would seem to show that precisely at the point of civilization where animal food becomes most necessary, at precisely that point it becomes most scarce. these things do not seem to me to go well together. we must reject the one or the other. if we believe in a millennium, we must, inevitably, give up our belief in animal food, at least the belief that its necessity grows out of the increasing wants of society. or if, on the other hand, we believe in the increasing necessity of animal food, we must banish from our minds all hope of what we call a millennium, at least for the present. ix. the bible argument. it is not at all uncommon for those who find themselves driven from all their strong-holds, in this matter, to fly to the bible. our saviour ate flesh and fish, say they; and the god of the new testament, as well as of the old, in this and other ways, not only permitted but sanctioned its use. but, to say nothing of the folly of going, for proof of every thing we wish to prove, to a book which was never given for this purpose, or of the fact that in thus adducing scripture to prove our favorite doctrines, we often go too far, and prove too much; is it true that the saviour ate flesh and fish? or, if this could be proved, is it true that his example binds us forever to that which other evidence as well as science show to be of doubtful utility? paul did not think so, most certainly. it is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine, he says, if it cause our brother to offend. did not paul understand, at least as well as we, the precepts and example of our saviour? and as to a permission to noah and his descendants, the jews, to use animal food--was it not for the hardness of the human heart, as our saviour calls it? from the beginning, was it so? is not man, in the first chapter of genesis, constituted a vegetable-eater? was his constitution ever altered? and if so, when and where? will they who fly to the bible for their support, in this particular, please to tell us? but it is idle to go to the bible, on this subject. i mean, it is idle to pretend to do so, when we mean not so much. men who _incline_ to wine and other alcoholic drinks, plead the example and authority of the bible. yet you will hardly find a man who drinks wine simply because he believes the bible justifies its use. he drinks it for other reasons, and then makes the foolish excuse that the bible is on his side. so in regard to the use of flesh meat. find a man who really uses flesh or fish _because_ the bible requires him to do so, and i will then discuss the question with him on bible ground. till that time, further argument on this direction is unnecessary. conclusion. but i must conclude this long essay. there is one consideration, however, which i am unwilling to omit, although, in deciding on the merits of the question before us, it may not have as much weight--regarded as a part of the moral argument--on every mind, as it has on my own. suppose the great creator were to make a new world somewhere in the regions of infinite space, and to fit it out in most respects like our own. it is to be the place and abode of such minerals, vegetables, and animals as our own. instead, however, of peopling it gradually, he fills it at once with inhabitants; and instead of having the arts and the sciences in their infancy, he creates every thing in full maturity. in a word, he makes a world which shall be exactly a copy of our own, with the single exception that the , , of free agents in it shall be supposed to be wholly ignorant in regard to the nature of the food assigned them. but the new world is created, we will suppose, at sunrise, in october. the human inhabitants thereof have stomachs, and soon, that is, by mid-day or before night, feel the pangs of hunger. now, what will they eat? the world being mature, every thing in it is, of course, mature. around, on every hand, are cornfields with their rich treasures; above, that is, in the boughs of the orchards, hang the rich russets, pippins, and the various other excellent kinds of the apple, with which our own country and other temperate climates abound. in tropical regions, of course, almost every vegetable production is flourishing at that season, as well as the corn and the apple. or, he has but to look on the surface of the earth on which he stands, and there are the potatoe, the turnip, the beet, and many other esculent roots; to say nothing of the squash, the pumpkin, the melon, the chestnut, the walnut, the beechnut, the butternut, the hazelnut, etc.,--most of which are nourishing, and more or less wholesome, and are in full view. around him, too, are the animals. i am willing even to admit the domestic animal--the horse, the ox, the sheep, the dog, the cat, the rabbit, the turkey, the goose, the hen, yes, and even the pig. and now, i ask again, what will he eat? he is destitute of experience, and he has no example. but he has a stomach, and he is hungry: he has hands and he has teeth; the world is all before him, and he is the lord of it, at least so far as to use such food in it as he pleases. does any one believe that, in these circumstances, man would prey upon the animals around him? does any person believe--can he for one moment believe--he would forthwith imbrue his hands in blood, whether that of his own species or of some other? would he pass by the mellow apple, hanging in richest profusion every where, inviting him as it were by its beauties? would he pass by the fields, with their golden ears? would he despise the rich products of field, and forest, and garden, and hasten to seize the axe or the knife, and, ere the blood had ceased to flow, or the muscles to quiver, give orders to his fair but affrighted companion within to prepare the fire, and make ready the gridiron or the spider? or, without the knowledge even of this, or the patience to wait for the tedious process of cooking to be completed, would he eat raw the precious morsel? does any one believe this? can any one--i repeat the question--can any one believe it? on the contrary, would not every living human being revolt, at first, from the idea, let it be suggested as it might, of plunging his hands in blood? can there be a doubt that he would direct his attention at first--yes, and for a long time afterward--to the vegetable world for his food? would it not take months and years to reconcile his feelings--his moral nature--to the thought of flesh-mangling or flesh-eating? at least, would not this be the result, if he were a disciple of christianity? although professing christians, as the world is now constituted, do not hesitate to commit such depredations, would they do so in the circumstances we have supposed? i am sure there can be but one opinion on this subject; although i confess it impossible for me to say how it may strike other minds constituted somewhat differently from my own. with me, this consideration of the subject has weight and importance. it is not necessary, however. the argument--the moral argument, i mean--is sufficient, as it seems to me, without it. what then shall we say of the anatomical, the physiological, the medical, the political, the economical, the experimental, the bible, the millennial, and the moral arguments, when united? have they not force? are they not a nine-fold cord, not easily broken? is it not too late in the day of human improvement to meet them with no argument but ignorance, and with no other weapon but ridicule? footnotes: [ ] for proof that arsenic or ratsbane is sometimes added to cheese, see the library of health, volume ii., page . in proof of the poisonous tendency of milk and butter, see whitlaw's theory of fever, and clark's treatise on pulmonary consumption. [ ] see dunglison's hygiene, page . [ ] the young housekeeper. [ ] or, more nearly, perhaps, a year and a half, in this country. in england, it is one year and five-sevenths. outlines of a new system of food and cookery. in the work of revising and preparing the foregoing volume for publication, the writer was requested to add to it a system of vegetable cookery. at first he refused to do so, both on account of the difficulty of bringing so extensive a subject within the compass of twenty or thirty pages, and because it did not seem to him to be called for, in connection with the present volume. but he has yielded his own judgment to the importunity of the publishers and other friends of the work, and prepared a mere outline or skeleton of what he may hereafter fill up, should circumstances and the necessary leisure permit. but there is one difficulty to be met with at the very threshold of the subject. vegetable eaters are not so hard driven to find whereon to subsist, as many appear to suppose. for the question is continually asked, "if you dispense wholly with flesh and fish, pray what can you find to eat?" now, while we are aware that one small sect of the vegetarians--the followers of dr. schlemmer--eat every thing in a raw state, we are, for ourselves, full believers in plain and simple cookery. that a potato, for example, is better cooked than uncooked, both for man and beast, we have not the slightest doubt. we believe that a system of preparing food which renders the raw material more palatable, more digestible, and more nutritious, or perhaps all this at once, must be legitimate, and even preferable--if not for the individual, at least for the race. but the difficulty alluded to is, how to select a few choice dishes from the wide range--short of flesh and fish--which god and nature permit. for if we believed in the use of eggs when commingled with food, we should hardly deem it proper to go the whole length of our french brethren, who have nearly seven hundred vegetable dishes, of which eggs form a component part; nor the whole length even to which our own powers of invention might carry us; no, nor even the whole length to which the writer of an english work now before us, and entitled "vegetable cookery," has gone--the extent of about a thousand plain receipts. we believe the whole nature of man, and even his appetite, when unperverted, is best served and most fully satisfied with a range of dishes which shall hardly exceed hundreds. it is held by dr. dunglison, dr. paris, and many of the old school writers, that all made dishes--all mixtures of food--are "more or less rebellious;" that is, more or less indigestible, and consequently more or less hurtful. if they mean by this, that in spite of the accommodating power of the stomach to the individual, they are hurtful to the race, i go with them most fully. but i do _not_ believe that _all made dishes, to all persons_, are so directly injurious as many suppose. god has made man, in a certain sense, omnivorous. his physical stomach can receive and assimilate, like his mental stomach, a great variety of substances; and both can go on, without apparent disease, for a great many years, and perhaps for a tolerably long life in this way. there is, however, a higher question for man to ask as a rational being and as a christian, than whether this or that dish will hurt him directly. it is, whether a dish or article is _best_ for him--best for body, mind, and heart--best for the whole human nature--best for the whole interests of the whole race--best for time, and best for eternity. startle not, reader, at this assertion. if west could properly say, "i paint for eternity," the true disciple of christ and truth can say, "i eat and drink for eternity." and a higher authority than any that is merely human has even required us to do so. this places the subject of preparing food on high ground. and were i to carry out my plan fully, i should exclude from a christian system of food and cookery all mixtures, properly so called, and all medicines or condiments. not that all mixtures are equally hurtful to the well-being of the race, nor all medicines. indeed, considering our training and habits, some of both, to most persons, have become necessary. i know of many whose physical inheritance is such, that salt, if not a few other medicinal substances, have become at least present necessaries to them. and to those mixtures of substances closely allied, as farina with farina--meal of one kind with meal of another--i could scarcely have any objection, myself. nature objects to incompatibles, and therefore i do; and medicine, and all those kinds of food which are opposed one to another, are incompatible with each other. when one is in the stomach, the other should not be. i have spoken of carrying out my plan, but this i cannot now fully do. it would not be borne, till, as lord bacon used to say, "some time be passed over." but, on the other hand, i am unwilling to give directions, as i did ten or twelve years ago, in my young housekeeper, such as shall pander to a perverted--most abominably perverted--public taste. man is made for progress, and it is high time the public standard were raised in regard to food and cookery. although grains and fruits are the natural food of man, yet there are a variety of shapes in which the grains or farinacea may be presented to us; and there are a few substances fit for food which do not properly belong to either of these classes. i shall treat first of the different kinds of food prepared from grain or farinaceous substances; secondly, of fruits; thirdly, of roots; and fourthly, speak of a few articles that do not properly belong to any of the three. while, therefore, as will be seen by the remarks already made, i have many things to say that the community cannot yet bear, it need not escape the observation of the most careless reader, that i aim at nothing less than an entire ultimate subversion of the present system of cookery, believing it to be utterly at war with the laws of god, and of man's whole nature. class i.--farinaceous, or mealy substances. the principal of these are wheat, oats, indian corn, rice, rye, barley, buckwheat, millet, chestnuts, peas, beans, and lentils. they are prepared in various forms. division i.--bread. the true idea of bread is that coarse or cracked and unbolted meal, formed into a mass of dough by means of water, and immediately baked in loaves of greater or less thickness, according to the fancy. some use bolted meal; most raise bread by fermentation; many use salt; some saleratus, or carbonate of potash; and, in the country, many use milk instead of water to form the paste. i might also mention several other additions, which, like saleratus, it is becoming fashionable to make. all these things are a departure, greater or less, from the true idea of a bread; and bread made with any of these changes, is so much the less perfectly adapted to the promotion of health, happiness, and longevity. bolting is objectionable, because bread made from bolted meal, especially when eaten hot, is more apt, when the digestive powers are not very vigorous, to form a paste, which none but very strong stomachs can entirely overcome. besides, it takes out a part of the sweetness, or life, as it is termed, of the flour. they who say fine flour bread is sweetest, are led into this mistake by the force of habit, and by the fact that the latter comes in contact, more readily than coarse bread, with the papillæ of the tongue, and seems to have more taste to it because it touches at more points. raising bread by inducing fermentation, wastes a part of the saccharine matter; and the more it is raised, the greater is the waste. by lessening the attraction of cohesion, it makes it more easy of digestion, it is true; but the loss of nutriment and of pleasure to the true appetite more than counterbalances this. bakers, in striving to get a large loaf, rob the bread of most of its sweetness. salt is objectionable, because it hardens the bread, and renders it more difficult of digestion. our ancestors, in this country, did not use it at all; and many are the families that will not use it now. those who use salt in bread, tell us how _flat_ it would taste without it. this idea of flatness has two sources. . we have so long given our bread the taste of salt, as we have most other things, that it seems tasteless without it. . the flatness spoken of in an article of food is oftentimes the true taste of the article, unaltered by any stimulus. if any two articles need to be stimulated with salt, however, it is rice and beans--bread never. if saleratus is used in bread where no acidity is present, it is a medicine; or, if you please, a poison both to the stomach and intestines. if it meets and neutralizes an acid either in the bread-tray or the stomach, the residuum is a new chemical compound diffused through the bread, which is more or less injurious, according to its nature and quantity. milk is objectionable on the score of its tendency to render the bread more indigestible than when it was wet with water, and perhaps by rendering it too nutritious. for good bread without the milk is already too nutritious for health, if eaten exclusively, for a long time. that man should not live on bread alone, is as true physically as it is morally. no bread should be eaten while new and hot--though the finer it is, the worse for health when thus eaten. old bread, heated again, is less hurtful. but if eaten both new and hot, and with butter or milk, or any thing which soaks and fills it, the effect is very bad. mrs. howland, in her economical housekeeper, says much about _ripe_ bread. and i should be glad to say as much, had i room, about ripe bread, and about the true philosophy of bread and bread-making, as she has. section a.--_bread of the first order._ this is made of coarse meal--as coarse as it can well be ground, provided the kernels are all broken. the grain should be well washed, and it may be ground in the common way, or according to the oriental mode, in hand-mills. the latter mode is preferable, because you can thus have it fresh. meal is somewhat injured by being kept long ground. if great pains is not taken to have the grain clean when ground, it needs to be passed through a coarse sieve, that all foreign bodies may be carefully separated. the hulls of corn, and especially the husks of oats and buckwheat, should also be separated in some way. in no case, however, should meal be bolted. good health requires that we eat the innutritious and coarser parts as well as the finer. receipt .--take a sufficient quantity of good, recent wheat meal;[ ] wet it well, but not too soft, with pure water; form it into thin cakes, and bake it as hard as the teeth will bear. remember, however, that the saliva aids the teeth greatly, especially when you masticate your food slowly. the cakes should be very thin--the thinner the better. many, however, prefer them an inch thick, or even more. receipt .--oat meal prepared in the same manner. procure what is called the scotch kiln dried oat meal, if you can. no matter if it is manufactured in new england, if it is well done. receipt .--indian meal cakes, otherwise called hoe cakes, or johnny cakes, are next in point of value to bread made of wheat and oats. they are most healthy, however, in cold weather. receipt .--rye cakes come next. warm instead of cold water is often used to wet all the above. some even choose to scald the meal. fancy may be indulged in this particular, only you must remember that warm water in warm weather may soon give rise, if the mass stands long, to a degree of fermentation, which, for the best bread, should be avoided. receipt .--barley meal bread comes next in order in the unleavened series. in regard to this species of bread, however, i do not speak from experience, but from report. receipt .--of millet bread i know still less. cakes made of it, as above, must certainly be wholesome. receipt .--buckwheat cakes are last in the series of the best breads. the meal is always too fine, and hence makes heavy bread, except when hot. few use it without fermentation. unleavened bread may be made as above, of all the various kinds of grain, finely ground; but it is apt to be heavy, whereas, when made properly, of coarse meal, it is only firm, never heavy; that is, it never has a lead-like appearance. they may make and use it who have iron stomachs. section b.--_bread of the second order._ this consists essentially of mixtures of the various coarse meals. true it is, that made or mixed food is objectionable; but the union of one farinaceous substance with another to form bread, can hardly be considered a mixture. it is, essentially, the addition of farina to farina, with some change in the proportion of the gluten and other properties. receipt .--wheat meal and indian, in about the proportion of two parts of wheat to one of indian. receipt .--wheat meal and oat meal, about equal parts. receipt .--wheat meal and indian, equal parts. receipt .--wheat meal and rye meal; two parts, quarts, or pounds of the former to one of the latter. receipt .--rye and indian, equal parts of each. receipt .--rye, two thirds; indian, one third. receipt .--wheat meal and rice. three quarts of wheat meal to one pint of good clean rice, boiled till it is soft. receipt .--three parts of wheat meal to one of indian. receipt .--four parts of wheat to one of indian. the proportion of the ingredients above may be varied to a great extent. i have inserted some of the best. the following are _irregulars_, but may as well be mentioned here as any where. receipt .--two quarts of wheat meal to one pound of well boiled ripe beans, made soft by pounding or otherwise. receipt .--seven pounds of wheat meal and two and a half pounds of good, mealy, and well boiled and pounded potatoes. receipt .--equal parts of coarse meal from rye, barley, and buckwheat. this is chiefly used in westphalia. receipt .--seven parts of wheat meal (as in receipt ), with two pounds of split peas boiled to a soup, and used to wet the flour. receipt .--wheat meal and apples, in the proportion of about three of the former (some use two) to one of the latter. the apples must be first pared and cored, and stewed or baked. see my "young housekeeper," seventh edition, page . receipt .--wheat meal and boiled chestnuts; three quarts of the former to one of the latter. receipt .--wheat meal, four quarts, and one quart of well boiled and pounded marrow squash. receipt .--wheat, corn, or barley meal; three quarts to one quart of powdered comfrey root. this is inserted from the testimony of rev. e. rich, of troy, n. h. receipt .--wheat meal, three pounds, to one pound of pounded corn, boiled and pounded green. this is the most doubtful form which has yet been mentioned. receipt .--receipt describes rice bread. bell, in his work on diet and regimen, says the best and most economical rice bread is made thus: wheat meal, three pounds; rice, well boiled, one pound--wet with the water in which the rice is boiled. i wish to say here, once for all, that any kind of bread may be salted, if you will _have_ salt, except the patented bread mentioned in the beginning of the next section, which is salted in the process. molasses in small quantity may also be added, if preferred. section c.--_bread of the third kind._ of this there are several kinds. those which are made by a simple effervescence, provided the residuum is not injurious, are best, and shall accordingly be placed first in order. next will follow various kinds of bread made by the ordinary process of fermentation, salting, etc. receipt .--wheat meal, seven pounds; carbonate of soda or saleratus[ ] three quarters of an ounce to one ounce; water, two and three quarter pints; muriatic acid, to drops. mix the soda with the meal as intimately as possible, by means of a wooden spoon or stick. then mix the acid and water, and add it slowly to the mass, stirring it constantly. make three loaves of it, and bake it in a quick oven. receipt .--wheat meal, one pound; sesquicarbonate of soda, forty grains; muriatic acid, fifty drops; cold water, half a pint, or a sufficient quantity. mix in the same way, and with the same caution, as in receipt . make one loaf of it, and bake in a quick oven.[ ] receipt .--wheat meal, one quart; cream of tartar, two tea-spoonfuls; saleratus, one tea-spoonful; and two and a half teacups full of milk. mix well, and bake thirty minutes. if the meal is fresh, as it ought to be, the milk may be omitted. receipt .--coarse rye meal, indian meal, and oat meal, may be formed into bread in nearly a similar manner. so, in fact, may fine meal and all sorts of mixtures. receipt .--professor silliman more than intimates, that carbonic acid gas _might_ be made to inflate bread, without either an effervescence or a fermentation. the plan is, to force carbonic acid, by some means or other, into the mass of dough, or, as bakers call it, the sponge. i do not know that the experiment has yet been made. receipt .--coarse indian meal may be formed into small, rather thin loaves, and prepared and baked as in receipt . let us now proceed to common fermented bread: receipt .--wheat meal, six pounds; good yeast, a teacup full; and a sufficient quantity of pure water. knead thoroughly. bake it in small loaves, unless you have a very strong heat. receipt .--another way: wheat meal, six quarts; molasses and yeast, each a teacup full. mould into loaves half the thickness you mean they shall be after they are baked. place them in the pans, in a temperature which will cause a moderate fermentation. when risen enough, place them in the oven. a strong heat is required. receipt .--rye bread may be made in a similar way. it must, however, be well kneaded, to secure an intimate mixture with the yeast. does not require quite so strong a heat as the former. receipt .--oat meal bread may be prepared by mixing good kiln dried oat meal, a little salt and warm water, and a spoonful of yeast. beat till it is quite smooth, and rather a thick batter; cover and let it stand to rise; then bake it on a hot iron plate, or on a bake stove. be careful not to burn it. receipt .--barley, or black bread, as it is called in europe, makes a wholesome article of food. it may be fermented or unfermented. receipt .--corn bread is sometimes made thus: six pints meal, four pints water, one spoonful of salt; mix well, and bake in oblong rolls two inches thick. bake in a hot oven. it should be added to this division of my subject, that in baking bread sweet oil may be used (a vegetable oil) as a substitute for animal oil, to prevent the bread from adhering too closely. or you may sift a quantity of indian meal into the pans. if you use sweet, or olive oil, be sure to get that which is not rancid. much of the olive oil of the shops is unfit to be used. division ii.--whole grains. some have maintained that since man is made to live on grain, fruits, etc., and since the most perfect mastication is secured by the use of uncooked grains, it is useless, and worse than useless, to resort to cookery at all, especially the cookery of bread. i have mentioned dr. schlemmer and his followers already as holding this opinion. many of these people confine themselves to the use of uncooked grains and fruits. they do not cook their beans and peas. nor can it be denied that they enjoy thus far very good health. now, while i admit that man, as an individual, can get along very well in this way, i am most fully persuaded that many kinds of farinaceous food are improved by cookery. of the potato, i have already, incidentally, spoken. but are not wheat and corn, and many other grains, as well as the potato, improved by cookery? a barrel of flour (one hundred and ninety-six pounds) will make about two hundred and seventy pounds of good dry bread. it does not appear that the bread contains more water than the grain did from which it was made. whence, then, the increase of weight by seventy-four pounds? is not the water--a part of it, at least--which is used in making bread, rendered solid, as water is in slacking lime; or at least so incorporated with the flour or meal as to add both to its weight, and to its nutritious properties? or if, in the present infancy of the science of domestic chemistry, we are not able to give a satisfactory answer to the question, is not an affirmative highly probable? such an answer would give no countenance, i believe, to the custom of raising our bread, since the increase of weight in making unfermented cakes or loaves, is about as great as in the case of fermented ones. one of the strongest arguments ever yet brought against bread-making is, that it relieves us from the necessity of mastication. but to this we reply, that such cakes as may be made (and such loaves even) require more mastication than the uncooked grains. pereira, in his excellent work on diet, endeavors to support the doctrine that cooking bursts the grains of the farinacea, so as to bring them the better within the power of the stomach. this is specious, if not sound. in any event, i think it pretty certain, that though man can do very well on raw grains, yet there is a gain by cookery which more than repays the trouble. but though baking the flour or meal into cakes or bread, is the best method of preparation, there are other methods, secondary to this, which deserve our notice. one of these i will now describe. section a.--_boiled grains._ these require less mastication than those which are submitted to other processes; but they are more easy of digestion, and to some more palatable, and even more digestible. receipt .--take good perfect wheat; wash clean, and boil till soft in pure soft water. those who are accustomed to salt their food, use sugar, etc., will naturally salt and sweeten this. receipt .--rye or barley may be prepared in the same way, but it is not quite so sweet. receipt .--indian corn may be boiled, but the process requires six hours or more, even after it has soaked all night, and there has been a frequent change of the water. and with all this boiling, the skins sometimes adhere rather strongly, unless you boil with them some ashes, or other alkali. receipt .--rice, carefully cleaned, and well boiled, is good food. imperfectly boiled, it is apt to disorder the bowels. and so unstimulating is it, and so purely nutritious, that they who eat it exclusively, without salt or curry, or any other condiment, are apt to become constipated. potatoes go well with it. receipt .--chestnuts, well selected, and well boiled, are highly palatable, greatly nutritious, and easy of digestion. they are best, however, soon after they are ripe. receipt .--boiled peas, when ripe, either whole or split, make a healthy dish. they are best, however, when they have been cooked several days. when boiled enough, drain them through a sieve, but not very dry. some housekeepers soak ripe peas over night, in water in which they have dissolved a little saleratus. if you boil new or unripe peas, be careful not to cook them too much. receipt .--beans, whether ripe or green (unless in bread or pudding), are not so wholesome as peas. they lead to flatulence, acidity, and other stomach disorders. and yet, eaten in moderate quantities, when ripe, they are to the hard, healthy laborer very tolerable food. eaten green, they are most palatable, but least healthy. receipt .--green corn boiled is bad food. sweet corn, cooked in this way, is the best. receipt .--lentils are nutritious, highly so; but i know little about them practically. section b.--_grains, etc., in other forms. they may be baked, parched, roasted, or torrefied._ receipt .--dry slowly, with a pretty strong heat, till they become so dry and brittle as to fall readily into powder. corn is most frequently prepared in this way for food; but this and several other grains are often torrefied for coffee. care should be taken to avoid burning. receipt .--roasted grains are more wholesome. it is not usual or easy to roast them properly, however, except the chestnut, as the expanded air bursts or parches them. by cutting through the skin or shell, this result may be avoided, as it often is in the case of the chestnut. to roast well, they should be laid on the hearth or an iron plate, covered with ashes, and by building a fire slowly, all burning may be prevented. receipt .--corn and buckwheat are often parched, and they form, especially the former, a very good food. in south america, and in some semi-barbarous nations, parched corn is a favorite dish. receipt .--green corn is often roasted in the ear. it is less wholesome, however, than when boiled. sweet corn is the best for either purpose. receipt .--of baking grains i have little to say, because i _know_ little on that subject.[ ] division iii.--cakes this species of farinaceous food is much used, and is fast coming into vogue. the term, in its largest sense, would include the unleavened bread or cakes, of which i have spoken so freely in division . they are for the most part, however, made by the addition of butter, eggs, aromatics, milk, etc., to the dough; and in proportion as they depart from simple bread, are more and more unhealthy. i shall mention but a few, though hundreds might be named which would still be vegetable food, as good olive oil, in preparing them, may be substituted for butter. i shall treat of them under one head or section. receipt .--take of dough, prepared according to the english patented process, mentioned in division i., section c, receipt and receipt , and bake in a thin form and in the usual manner. receipt .--fruit cakes, if people will have them, may be made in the same manner. no butter would be necessary, even to butter eaters, when prepared in this patented way. if any have doubts, let them consult pereira on food and diet, page . receipt .--gingerbread may be made in the same way, and without alum or potash. it is thus comparatively harmless. coarse meal always makes better gingerbread than fine flour. receipt .--buckwheat cakes may be raised in the same general way. receipt .--cakes of millet, rice, etc., are said to have been made by this process; but on this point i cannot speak from experience. receipt .--biscuits, crackers, wafers, etc., are a species of cake, and might be made so as to be comparatively wholesome. receipt .--biscuits may be made of coarse corn meal, with the addition of an egg and a little water. make it into a stiff paste, and roll very thin. division iv.--puddings. these are a species of bread, only made thinner. they are usually unfermented. i shall speak of two kinds--hominy and puddings proper. section a.--_hominy._ this is usually eaten hot; but it improves on keeping a day or two. it may be warmed over, if necessary. receipt .--wheat hominy, or cracked wheat, may be made into a species of pudding thus: stir the hominy into boiling water (a little salted, if it must be so), very gradually. boil from fifteen minutes to one hour. if boiled too long, it has a raw taste. receipt .--corn hominy, or, as it is sometimes called, samp. two quarts of hominy; four quarts of water; stir well, that the hulls may rise; then pour off the water through a sieve, that the hulls may separate. pour the same water again upon the hominy, stir well, and pour off again several times. finally, pour back the water, add a little salt, if you use salt at all, and if necessary, a little more water, and hang it over a slow fire to boil. during the first hour it should be stirred almost constantly. boil from three to six hours. receipt .--another way: take white indian corn broken coarsely, put it over the fire with plenty of water, adding more boiling water as it wastes. it requires long boiling. some boil it for six hours the day before it is wanted, and from four to six the next day. salt, if used at all, may be added on the plate. receipt .--another way still of making hominy is to soak it over night, and boil it slowly for four or five hours, in the same water, which should be soft. there are other ways of making hominy, but i have no room to treat of them. section b.--_puddings proper._ these are of various kinds. indeed, a single work i have before me on vegetable cookery has not less than receipts for dishes of this sort, to say nothing of its pancakes, fritters, etc. i shall select a few of the best, and leave the rest. the greatest objection to puddings is, that they are usually swallowed in large quantity, unmasticated, after we have eaten enough of something else. they are also eaten new and hot, and with butter, or some other mixture almost as injurious. some puddings, from half a day to a day and a half old, are almost as good for us as bread. one of the best puddings i know of, is a stale loaf of bread, steamed. another is good sweet kiln dried oat meal, without any cooking at all. but there are some good cooked puddings, i say again, such as the following: receipt .--boiled indian pudding: indian meal, a quart; water, a pint; molasses, a teacup full. mix it well, and boil four hours. receipt .--another indian pudding. indian meal, three pints; scald it, make it thin, and boil it about six hours. receipt .--another of the same: to one quart of boiling milk, while boiling, add a teacup full of indian meal; mix well, and add a little molasses. boil three hours in a strong heat. receipt .--hominy: take a quart of milk and half a pint of indian meal; mix it well, and add a pint and a half of cooked hominy. bake well in a moderate oven. receipt .--baked indian pudding may be made by putting together and baking well a quart of milk, a pint of indian meal, and a pint of water. add salt or molasses, if you please. receipt .--oat meal pudding: pour a quart of boiling milk over a pint of the best fine oat meal; let it soak all night; next day add two beaten eggs; rub over, with pure sweet oil, a basin that will just hold it; cover it tight with a floured cloth, and boil it an hour and a half. when cold, slice and toast, or rather dry it, and eat it as you would oat cake itself. this may be the proper place to say, that all coarse meal puddings are healthiest when twelve or twenty hours old; but are all improved--and so is brown bread--by drying, or almost toasting on the stove. receipt .--rice pudding: to one quart of new milk add a teacup full of rice, sweetened a little. no dressings are necessary without you choose them. bake it well. receipt .--wheat meal pudding may be made by wetting the coarse meal with milk, and sweetening it a little with molasses. bake in a moderate heat. receipt .--boiled rice pudding may be made by boiling half a pound of rice in a moderate quantity of water, and adding, when tender, a coffee-cup full of milk, sweetening a little, and baking, or rather simmering half an hour. add salt if you prefer it. receipt .--_polenta_--corn meal, mixed with cheese--grated, as i suppose, but we are not told in what proportion it is used--baked well, makes a pudding which the italians call polenta. it is not very digestible. receipt .--pudding may be made of any of the various kinds of meal i have mentioned, except those containing rye, by adding from one fourth to one third of the meal of the comfrey root. see division i of this class, section b, receipt . receipt .--bread pudding: take a loaf of rather stale bread, cut a hole in it, add as much new milk as it will soak up through the opening, tie it up in a cloth, and boil it an hour. receipt .--another of the same: slice bread thinly, and put it in milk, with a little sweetening; add a little flour, and bake it an hour and a half. receipt .--another still: three pints of milk, one pound of baker's bread, four spoonfuls of sugar, and three of molasses. cut the bread in slices; interpose a few raisins, if you choose, between each two slices, and then pour on the milk and sweetening. if baked, an hour and a half is sufficient. if boiled, two or three hours. use a tin pudding boiler. receipt .--rice and apple pudding: boil six ounces of rice in a pint of milk, till it is soft; then fill a dish about half full of apples pared and cored; sweeten; put the rice over them as a crust, and bake it. receipt .--stirabout is made in scotland by stirring oat meal in boiling water till it becomes a thick pudding or porridge. this, with cakes of oat meal and potatoes, forms the principal food of many parts of scotland. receipt .--hasty pudding is best made as follows: mix five or six spoonfuls of sifted meal in half a pint of cold water; stir it into a quart of water, while boiling; and from time to time sprinkle and stir in meal till it becomes thick enough. it should boil half or three quarters of an hour. it may be made of indian or rye meal. receipt .--potato pudding: take two pounds of well boiled and well mashed potato, one pound of wheat meal; make a stiff paste, by mixing well; and tie it in a wet cloth dusted with flour. boil it two hours. receipt .--apple pudding may be made by alternating a layer of prepared apples with a layer of dough made of wheat meal, till you have filled a tin pudding boiler. boil it three hours. receipt .--sago pudding: take half a pint of sago and a quart of milk. boil half the milk, and pour it on the sago; let it stand half an hour; then add the remainder of the milk. sweeten to your taste. receipt .--tapioca pudding may be prepared in a similar manner. receipt .--to make cracker pudding, to a quart of milk add four thick large coarse meal crackers broken in pieces, a little sugar, and a little flour, and bake it one hour and thirty minutes. receipt .--sweet apple pudding is made by cutting in pieces six sweet apples, and putting them and half a pint of indian meal, with a little salt, into a pint of milk, and baking it about three hours. receipt .--sunderland pudding is thus made: take about two thirds of a good-sized teacup full of flour, three eggs, and a pint of milk. bake about fifteen minutes in cups. dress it as you please--sweet sauce is preferred. receipt .--arrow root pudding may be made by adding two ounces of arrow root, previously well mixed with a little cold milk, to a pint of milk boiling hot. set it on the fire; let it boil fifteen or twenty minutes, stirring it constantly. when cool, add three eggs and a little sugar, and bake it in a moderate oven. receipt .--boiled arrow root pudding: mix as before, only do not let it quite boil. stir it briskly for some time, after putting it on the fire the second time, at a heat of not over degrees. when cooled, add three eggs and a little salt. receipt .--cottage pudding: two pounds of potatoes, pared, boiled, and mashed, one pint of milk, three eggs, and two ounces of sugar, and if you choose, a little salt. bake it three quarters of an hour. receipt .--snow balls: pare and core as many large apples as there are to be balls; wash some rice--about a large spoonful to an apple will be enough; boil it in a little water with a pinch of salt, and drain it. spread it on cloths, put on the apples, and boil them an hour. before they are turned out of the cloths, dip them into cold water. macaroni is made into puddings a great deal, and so is vermicelli; but they are at best very indifferent dishes. those who live solely to eat may as well consult "vegetable cookery," where they will find indulgences enough and too many, even though flesh and fish are wholly excluded. they will find soups, pancakes, omelets, fritters, jellies, sauces, pies, puddings, dumplings, tarts, preserves, salads, cheese-cakes, custards, creams, buns, flummery, pickles, syrups, sherbets, and i know not what. you will find them by hundreds. and you will find directions, too, for preparing almost every vegetable production of both hemispheres. and if you have brains of your own you may invent a thousand new dishes every day for a long time without exhausting the vegetable kingdom. division v.--pies. pies, as commonly made, are vile compounds. the crust is usually the worst part. the famous peter parley (s. g. goodrich, esq.), in his fireside education, represents pies, cakes, and sweetmeats as totally unfit for the young. within a few years attempts have been made to get rid of the crust of pies--the abominations of the crust, i mean--by using indian meal sifted into the pans, etc.; but the plan has not succeeded. it is the pastry that gives pies their charm. divest them of this, and people will almost as readily accept of plain ripe fruit, especially when baked, stewed, or in some other way cooked. as pies are thus objectionable, and are, withal, a mongrel race, partaking of the nature both of bread and fruit, and yet, as such, unfit for the company of either, i will almost omit them. i will only mention two or three. receipt .--squashes, boiled, mashed, strained, and mixed with milk or milk and water, in small quantity, may be made into a tolerable pie. they may rest on a thick layer of indian meal. receipt .--pumpkins may be made into pies in a similar manner; but in general they are not so sweet as squashes. receipt .--potato pie: cut potatoes into squares, with one or two turnips sliced; add milk or cream, just to cover them; salt a little, and cover them with a bread crust. sweet potatoes make far better pies than any other kind. almost any thing may be made into pies. plain apple pies--so plain as to become mere apple sauce--are far from being very objectionable. see the next class of foods. class ii.--fruits. so far as fruits, at least in an uncooked state, have been used as food, they have chiefly been regarded as a dessert, or at most as a condiment. until within a few years, few regarded them as a principal article--as standing next to bread in point of importance. in treating of these substances as food, i shall simply divide them into domestic and foreign. division i.--domestic fruits. section a.--_the large fruits--apple, pear, peach, quince, etc._ receipt .--the apple. may be baked in tin pans, or in a common bake pan. the sweet apple requires a more intense heat than the sour. the skin may be removed before baking, but it is better to have it remain. the best apple pie in the world is a baked apple. receipt .--it may be roasted before the fire, by being buried in ashes, or by throwing it upon hot coals, and quickly turning it. the last process is sometimes called _hunting_ it. receipt .--it may be boiled, either in water alone, or in water and sugar, or in water and molasses. in this case the skin is often removed, that the saccharine matter may the better penetrate the body of the apple. receipt .--it may also be pared and cored, and then stewed, either alone or with molasses, to form plain apple sauce--a comparatively healthy dish. receipt .--lastly, it may be pared and cored, placed in a deep vessel, covered with a plain crust, as wheat meal formed into dough, and baked slowly. this forms a species of pie. receipt .--the pear is not, in every instance, improved by cookery. several species, however, are fit for nothing, till mid-winter, when they are either boiled, baked, or stewed. the peach can hardly be cooked to advantage. it is sometimes cut up, and sprinkled with sugar and other substances. receipt .--a tolerably pleasant sauce can be made by stewing or baking the quince, and adding sugar or molasses, but it is not very wholesome. section b.--_the smaller fruits. the strawberry, cherry, raspberry, currant, whortleberry, mulberry, blackberry, bilberry, etc._ none of these, so far as i know, are improved by cookery. it is common to stew green currants, to make jams, preserves, sauces, etc., but this is all wrong. the great creator has, in this instance, at least, done his own work, without leaving any thing for man to do. there is one general law in regard to fruits, and especially these smaller fruits. those which melt and dissolve most easily in the mouth, and leave no residuum, are the most healthy; while those which do not easily dissolve--which contain large seeds, tough or stringy portions, or hulls, or scales--are in the same degree indigestible. i have said that fruits were next to bread in point of importance. they are to be taken, always, as part of our regular meals, and never between meals. nor should they be eaten at the end of a meal, but either in the middle or at the beginning. and finally, they should be taken either at breakfast or dinner. according to the old adage, fruit is gold in the morning, silver at noon, and lead at night. division ii.--foreign fruits. the more important of these are the banana, pine-apple, and orange, and fig, raisin, prune, and date. the first three need no cooking, two of the last four may be cooked. the date is one of the best--the orange one of the worst, because procured while green, and also because it is stringy. receipt .--the prune. few things sit easier on the feeble or delicate stomach than the stewed prune. it should be stewed slowly, in very little water. receipt .--the good raisin is almost as much improved by stewing as the prune. i do not know that the fig has ever yet been subjected to the processes of modern cookery. it is, however, with bread, a good article of food. fruits, in their juices, may be regarded as the milk of adults and old people, but are less useful to young children and to the _very_ old. but to be useful they must be perfectly ripe, and eaten in their season. thus used, they prevent a world of summer diseases--used improperly, they invite disease, and do much other mischief. in general, fruits and milk do not go very well together. the baked sweet apple and whortleberry seem to be least objectionable. class iii.--roots. division i.--mealy roots. these are the potato, in its numerous varieties, the artichoke, the ground-nut, and the comfrey. of these the potato is by far the most important. section a.--_the common potato._ this may be roasted, baked, boiled, steamed, or fried. it is also made into puddings and pies. roasting in the ashes is the best method of cooking it; frying by far the worst. i take this opportunity to enter my protest against all frying of food. com. nicholson, of revolutionary memory, would never, as his daughters inform me, have a frying-pan in his house. the potato is best when well roasted in the ashes, but also excellent when baked, and very tolerable when boiled or steamed. there are many ways of preparing the potato and cooking it. some always pare it. it may be well to pare it late in the winter and in the spring, but not at other times. for, in paring, we lose a portion of the richest part of the potato, as in the case of paring the apple. there is much tact required to pare a potato properly, that is, thinly. receipt .--to boil a potato, see that the kettle is clean, the water pure and soft, and the potatoes clean. put them in as soon as the water boils.[ ] when they are soft, which can be determined by piercing them with a fork, pour off the water, and let them steam about five minutes. receipt .--to roast in the ashes, wash them clean, then dry them, then remove the heated embers and ashes quite to the bottom of the fire-place, and place them as closely together as possible, but not on top of each other. cover as quickly as possible, and fill the crevices with hot embers and small coals. let them be as nearly of a size as possible, and cover them to the depth of an inch. then build a hot fire over them. they will be cooked in from half an hour to three quarters of an hour, according to the size and heat of the fire. receipt .--baking potatoes in a stove or oven, is a process so generally known, that it hardly needs description. receipt .--steaming is better than boiling. some fry them; others stew them with vegetables for soup, etc. section b.--_the sweet potato._ this was once confined to the southern states, but it is now raised in tolerable perfection in new jersey and on long island. it is richer than the common potato in saccharine matter, and probably more nutritious; but not, it is believed, quite so wholesome. still it is a good article of food. receipt .--roasting is the best process of cooking these. they may be prepared in the ashes or before a fire. the last process is most common. they cook in far less time than a common potato. receipt .--baking and roasting by the fire are nearly or quite the same thing as respects the sweet potato. steaming is a little different, and boiling greatly so. the boiled sweet potato is, however, a most excellent article. division ii.--sweet and watery roots. these are far less healthy than the mealy ones; and yet are valuable, because, like potatoes, they furnish the system with a good deal of innutritious matter, to be set off against the almost pure nutriment of bread, rice, beans, peas, etc. receipt .--the beet is best when boiled thoroughly, which requires some care and a good deal of time. it may be roasted, baked, or stewed, however. it is rich in sugar, but is not very easily digested. receipt .--the parsnep. the boiled parsnep is more easily _dissolved_ in the stomach than the beet; but my readers must know that many things which are dissolved in the stomach are nevertheless very imperfectly digested. receipt .--the turnip, well boiled, is watery, but easily digested and wholesome. it may also be roasted or baked, and some eat it raw. receipt .--the carrot is richer than the turnip, but not therefore more digestible. it may be boiled, stewed, fried, or made into pies, puddings, etc. it is a very tolerable article of food. receipt .--the radish, fashionable as it is, is nearly useless. receipt .--for the sick, and even for others, arrow root jellies, puddings, etc., are much valued. this, with sago, tapioca, etc., is most useful for that class of sick persons who have strong appetites.[ ] class iv.--miscellaneous articles of food. under this head i shall treat briefly of the proper use of a few substances commonly and very properly used as food, but which cannot well come under any of the foregoing classes. they are chiefly found in the various chapters of my young housekeeper, as well as in dr. pereira's work on food and diet, under the heads of "buds and young shoots," "leaves and leaf stalks," "cucurbitaceous fruits," and "oily seeds." receipt .--asparagus, well boiled, is nutritious and wholesome. salt is often added, and sometimes butter. the former, to many, is needless; the latter, to all, injurious. receipt .--some of the varieties of the squash are nutritious and wholesome, especially when boiled. its use in pies and puddings is also well known. receipt .--a few varieties of the pumpkin, especially the sweet pumpkin, are proper for the table. made into plain sauce, they are highly valued by most, but they are best known as ingredients of pies and puddings. a few eat them when merely baked. receipt .--the tomato is fashionable, but a sour apple, if equal pains were taken with it, and it were equally fashionable, might be equally useful. it adds, however, to nature's vast variety! receipt .--watermelons, coming as they do at the end of the hot season, when eaten with bread, are happily adapted (as most other ripe fruits are, when eaten in the same way, and at their own proper season) to prevent disease, and promote health and happiness. receipt .--muskmelons are richer than watermelons, but not more wholesome. of the canteloupe i know but little. receipt .--the cucumber. taken at the moment when ripe--neither green nor acid--the cucumber is almost, but not quite as valuable as the melon. it should be eaten in the same way, rejecting the rind. the orientals of modern days sometimes boil them, but in former times they ate them uncooked, though always ripe. unripe cucumbers are a _modern_ dish, and will erelong go out of fashion. receipt .--onions have medicinal properties, but this should be no recommendation to healthy people. raw, they are unwholesome; boiled, they are better; fried, they are positively pernicious. receipt .--nuts are said to be adapted to man in a state of nature; but i write for those who are in an artificial state, not a natural state. of the chestnut i have spoken elsewhere. the hazelnut is next best, then perhaps the peanut and the beechnut. the butternut, and walnut or hickory-nut, are too oily. nor do i see how they can be improved by cookery. receipt .--cabbage, properly boiled, and without condiments, is tolerable, but rather stringy, and of course rather indigestible. receipt .--greens and salads are stringy and indigestible. besides, they are much used, as condiments are, to excite or provoke an appetite--a thing usually wrong. a feeble appetite, say at the opening of the spring, however common, is a great blessing. if let alone, nature will erelong set to rights those things, which have gone wrong perhaps all winter; and then appetite will return in a natural way. but the worst thing about greens, salads, and some other things, is, they are eaten with vinegar. vinegar and all substances, i must again say, which resist or retard putrefaction, retard also the work of digestion. it is a universal law, and ought to be known as such, that whatever tends to preserve our food--except perhaps ice and the air-pump--tends also to interfere with the great work of digestion. hence, all pickling, salting, boiling down, sweetening, etc., are objectionable. pereira says, "by drying, salting, smoking, and pickling, the digestibility of fish is greatly impaired;" and this, except as regards _drying_, is but the common doctrine. it should, however, be applied generally as well as to fish. footnotes: [ ] formerly called graham meal. [ ] i shall use these terms indiscriminately, as they mean in practice the same thing. [ ] both these processes are patented in great britain. the bread thus retains its sweetness--no waste of its saccharine matter, and no residuum except muriate of soda or common salt. sesquicarbonate of soda is made of three parts or atoms of the carbonic acid, and two of the soda. [ ] keep butter and all greasy substances away from every preparation of food which belongs to this division--especially from green peas, beans, corn, etc. [ ] some prepare them, and soak them in water over the night. [ ] in general, the appetites of the sick are taken away by design. in such cases there should be none of the usual forms of indulgence. a little bread--the crust is best--is the most proper indulgence. if, however, the appetite is raging, as in a convalescent state it sometimes is, puddings and even gruel may be proper, because they busy the stomach without giving it any considerable return for its labor. fowler and wells, publishers of scientific and popular standard works, broadway, new york. in order to accommodate "the people" residing in all parts of the united states, the publishers will forward, by return of the first mail, any book named in this list. the postage will be prepaid by them at the new york post-office. by this arrangement of paying postage in advance, fifty per cent. is saved to the purchaser. the price of each work, including postage, is given, so that the exact amount may be remitted. fractional parts of a dollar may be sent in postage-stamps. all letters containing orders should be post-paid, and directed as follows: fowler and wells, broadway, new york. _works on phrenology._ phrenology proved, illustrated and applied; 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or, the philosophy of charming. illustrating the principles of life, in connection with spirit and matter. by j. b. newman, m. d. cents. philosophy of mesmerism. six lectures. with an introduction. by rev. john bovee dods. paper. price, cents. psychology; or, the science of the soul. considered physiologically and philosophically. with an appendix containing notes of mesmeric and psychical experience. by joseph haddock, m.d. cts. * * * * * these works may be ordered in large or small quantities. a liberal discount will be made to agents, and others, who buy to sell again. they may be sent by express, or as freight, by railroad, steamships, sailing vessels, by stage, or canal, to any city, town, or village, in the united states, the canadas, to europe, or any place on the globe. checks or drafts, for large amounts, on new york, philadelphia, or boston, always preferred. we pay cost of exchange. all letters should be post paid, and addressed as follows: boston: } fowler and wells, { philadelphia: washington st.} broadway, new york. { chestnut st. encyclopedia of diet _a treatise on the food question_ in five volumes explaining, in plain language, the chemistry of food and the chemistry of the human body, together with the art of uniting these two branches of science in the process of eating so as to establish normal digestion and assimilation of food and normal elimination of waste, thereby removing the causes of stomach, intestinal, and all other digestive disorders by eugene christian, f. s. d. volume v new york city corrective eating society, inc. copyright by eugene christian entered at stationers hall, london september, by eugene christian, f. s. d. all rights reserved published august, contents volume v _lesson xvi_ _page_ adapting food to special conditions infant, old age, and athletic feeding; sedentary occupations, climatic extremes normal diet infant feeding general rules for the prospective mother special rules for the prospective mother the nursing mother care of the child constipation exercise clothing temperature of baby's food bandage emaciation general instructions for children after one year general diet from ages one to two simplicity in feeding old age three periods of old age athletics sedentary occupations general directions for sedentary worker climatic extremes _lesson xvii_ nervousness--its cause and cure causes the remedy suggestions for spring suggestions for summer suggestions for fall suggestions for winter _lesson xviii_ points on practise introduction to points on practise suggestions for the practitioner value of experience value of diagnosis educate your patient effect of mental conditions publicity be courteous and tolerant _lesson xix_ evolution of man what is evolution? the three great proofs of the evolution of animal life man's animal kinship _lesson xx_ sex and heredity the origin of sex a rational view of sexual health embryological growth--prenatal culture heredity what heredity is summary of facts regarding sex and heredity _lesson xxi_ rest and sleep rest the old physiology rest and recreation sleep some reasons oxidation and air _lesson xxii_ a lesson for business men a good business man the routine life of the average business man some suggestions for a good business man _lesson xxiii_ exercise and re-creation exercise constructive exercises exercise for repair physiology of exercise systems of physical culture program for daily exercise re-creation lesson xvi <sc>adapting food to special conditions</sc> infant, old age, and athletic feeding, sedentary occupations, climatic extremes diet may be divided into three distinct classes--normal, preventive, and curative. in order to understand the application of diet to these several conditions, it is necessary to observe the following rules: foods must be selected which contain all the desired nutritive elements. they must be so combined as to produce chemical harmony, or should at least produce no undesirable chemical action. they must be proportioned so as to level or balance their nutritive elements; that is, to prevent overfeeding on some elements of nourishment, and underfeeding on others. many fine specimens of men and women have been produced without knowledge of these laws, but in nearly every case it may have been observed that the person was normal as to habits, and temperate in eating, therefore led aright by instinct. if one lives an active life, spending from three to five hours a day in the open air, the body will cast off and burn with oxygen much excess nutrition, and will also convert or appropriate certain nutritive elements to one purpose, which, according to all known chemical laws, nature intended for another. much better results, however, will be obtained by giving nature the right material with which to work, thus pursuing lines of least resistance. what foods to select, how they should be combined and proportioned, is determined mainly by laws dependent upon the following conditions: age. temperature of environment--time of year or climate. work or activity. ( ) as to age: if we wish the best results we must select and proportion our food according to age, because the growing child or youth needs much structural material--calcium phosphates--with which to build bone, teeth, and cartilage. this is found in cereals and in all grain foods. the middle-aged person needs but little of these--just enough for repair, and the aged person needs practically none. while the growing child needs calcium phosphate, he also needs milk and natural sweets, which named in the order of their preference are honey, maple-sugar, dates, figs, and raisins. this does not mean that a generous quantity of vegetables and fruit cannot be taken, but that the articles first mentioned (cereals and starchy foods) should form a conspicuous part of the child's diet. the adult needs a much less quantity of the heavier starchy foods, because the structural part of the body has been built up. the diet of the adult should consist of vegetables, nuts, and a normal quantity of sweets, a normal quantity of fruits, milk and eggs, with rather a limited amount of cereal or bread products, while the aged, or those having passed sixty, could subsist wholly upon a non-starch diet (non-cereal starch), such as vegetables, milk, nuts, eggs, salads, and fruits, including bananas, which is not a fruit, but a vegetable, and which contains a splendid form of readily soluble starch. ( ) as to time of year: in selecting and proportioning our food we should observe the laws of temperature or time of the year. we should not eat foods of a high caloric or heating value at a time when the sun is giving us this heat direct, thus building a fire inside, while the sun is giving us the same heat outside. the violation of this simple law is the cause of all sunstroke and heat prostrations. on the contrary, if we are going to be exposed to zero weather, we should build a fire inside by eating foods of a high caloric value. ( ) as to work or activity: we should select and proportion our food according to the work we do, because eating is a process of making energy, while work is a process of expending energy, and we should make these two accounts balance. the normal diet [sidenote: effects of overfeeding on starchy foods and sweets] while in some respects each body is a law unto itself, there are a few fundamental rules and laws that apply to all alike. for instance, overeating of starchy foods, in every case, will produce too much uric acid, and finally rheumatism. also the overeating of sweets and starches will cause the stomach to secrete an over-supply of fermentative acids, the effects of which have been discussed in a previous lesson. [sidenote: temporary disturbances caused by radical changes in diet] in laying out the diet, under all conditions, the practitioner must be governed by the above-named rules. he should exercise his judgment, however, in each case according to the prevailing conditions. in prescribing diet it is well to remember that nature will not tolerate, without protest, any radical change. it often occurs, therefore, that the most correct and thoroughly balanced menu will cause violent physical disturbances which the inexperienced may consider as unfavorable symptoms, but in a majority of cases this is merely the adjusting process, similar to that which occurs when the body is suddenly deprived of narcotics and stimulants after their habitual use. the practitioner should exercise much care in diagnosis. he should study all symptoms and lay out the diet so as to counteract prevailing conditions, and to produce normality. [sidenote: the stomach should agree with natural food] the tendency of the body, that has been incorrectly fed for many years, to protest against the right kind and the right combinations of food, is often very deceptive. it is not always correct to say that the food did not agree with the stomach, but more correct to say that the different foods did not agree with themselves. the patient should be thoroughly acquainted with these facts, and mentally prepared for some temporary discomforts or physical protest against the new system. infant feeding [sidenote: large percentage of infant mortality due to incorrect feeding] the tremendous mortality among infants and children is due to incorrect feeding more than to all other causes. in the process of reproducing animal life, nearly all abnormal conditions are eliminated. the best that is in the mother is given to the child. the trend of nature is upward toward higher intelligence and more perfect physical development. for this reason infants are usually healthier than their parents, though millions of babies are rapidly broken in health by improper feeding. the economy of nature is perfect, therefore all natural forces conspire to preserve the life of the young. this is the natural law governing the preservation and the development of human life, and that this condition does not obtain is the most striking evidence of our lack of knowledge in feeding the young. [sidenote: point of view to be considered in infant feeding] infant feeding must be considered from two points of view: ( ) dealing with the child or infant as we find it, where the mother has so violated nature's laws of nutrition and hygiene as to afford no breast-milk for her child; ( ) where this condition does not prevail, and the child receives ample nourishment from the breast of the mother. we will first consider the diet and the conduct of the mother during pregnancy and prior to it. preparation for motherhood is one of woman's most sacred duties, because it involves not only the happiness and health of herself, but it shapes, in a large degree, the mental and the physical conditions of another being which will wield an influence over its whole life. [sidenote: the unwelcome child] the common error of most women is that they do not desire children when they are first married, and in the pursuit of other pleasures they violate and disregard the laws of nature; the baby is a mere accident--probably unwelcome. during the entire embryonic period the same old habits and diet are indulged in; the mental and the physical condition of the being-to-be has received no consideration, and, unwelcome in a strange world, the little eyes are opened. then the instinctive love of the mother is kindled and lavished; the child's every want is law; it needs maternal nourishment and the mother desires to give it, but the natural fountain is insufficient, and probably dry. the mother's thoughts and inspirations can no longer become a part of the child, except through education in later years--they are two separate beings; the opportunity to endow it with a part of her life is forever gone. [sidenote: resistance to infant life should be removed as much as possible] under the most favorable conditions we meet a constant resistance to life, and the higher we ascend in the scale of civilization the greater is the resistance encountered. it is therefore the duty of the mother, as also of the father, to remove every obstacle that would offer resistance to the physical and mental growth of the child. in order to do this it is necessary to carry out certain well-established laws concerning diet, exercise, fresh air, sunshine, and mental training. general rules for the prospective mother from the time conception is recognized the following general rules should be observed: the corset or all tight-fitting garments that would in any way interfere with freedom of exercise and thorough development of the abdominal muscles should be discarded. as much time as possible--at least two hours each day--should be spent in the open air, and a system of moderate trunk exercises followed, together with deep breathing, calculated to expand the lungs to their fullest cell capacity, which is nature's method of burning or oxidizing waste matter, and thereby keeping the blood pure. the mental occupation should be an important factor in the daily regimen. some congenial study should be chosen with the view of making it useful, while some remunerative employment should be sought and indulged in for a portion of each day. avoid idleness by all means, or an idle roaming of the mind and spirit. learn to think, to concentrate, to work, and to do something for others, as it is from these things that all happiness is gained. the diet of the future mother should be governed somewhat by the laws laid out in the first part of this lesson; that is, age, temperature of environment, and occupation should be considered in its selection. special rules for the prospective mother [sidenote: suggestions for the diet] there are some specific rules in regard to diet, however, which every mother should observe. the diet should be balanced so as to contain all the needed elements of nourishment in approximately the right proportions. the proportions, however, should differ in many cases from that which she would take if she were in a normal state, especially in regard to starchy foods or calcareous matter. an abundance of green salads, sweet ripe fruits, fresh vegetables in season, eggs, milk, nuts, and not more than two ounces of bread, potatoes, or dried beans should be taken daily. if flesh food or something salty is craved, tender chicken, or fish, may be allowed in small quantities. [sidenote: abnormal appetite during pregnancy] it should be borne in mind that i do not advocate the use of flesh foods, but during pregnancy the appetite is varying and sometimes tyrannical, and it has been found better to compromise with this condition than to combat it. the use of a limited quantity of tender meat, or any other article of good food for which there should arise a craving, is therefore advisable. [sidenote: flesh of young animals preferred] in the selection of meats, the flesh of young animals is best, for the reason that young animals are more healthy and less liable to contamination by dis-ease. the meat of either fowl or fish is rather appetizing, and often satisfies the craving that many pregnant women have for the heavier meats such as pork or veal, which are, of course, very much more difficult to digest. there is, notwithstanding the opinion foolishly held by many doctors, no difference in the nutritive qualities of white or dark meat, as either variety is nourished by identically the same blood supply, and contains the same sort of protoplasm. so it is a mistaken idea to think that there is any appreciable difference in the digestibility of white meat as compared with dark, except as the effect of mental suggestion may be operative. of course, we know that if you tell a person often enough that a certain thing is true, eventually he will act upon it automatically. and so it is with the white and dark meat fetich. the nursing mother [sidenote: breast milk vs. artificial foods] if the mother supplies enough milk, this is infinitely superior to any artificial combination of so-called infant foods. unfortunately a large majority of children are not breast-fed, and must depend upon the various commercial infant-foods, or upon the judgment of the untrained nurse, or the mother. [sidenote: the lives of babies often depend upon the mother's diet] the majority of mothers, if so disposed, could, by studying their own diet, supply the most robust child with ample breast-nourishment until it is ten or twelve months old, after which period the infantile crisis would be passed, and millions of little lives would thereby be saved. however, the confinement and the trouble to which the mother is subjected by the nursing baby causes the majority of infants to be weaned within a few weeks after birth, and turned over to the hazard of prepared food, soporific drugs, and nurses. [sidenote: child-love stimulated by nursing] if mothers could realize the love that is daily kindled and strengthened; if they could be made to know how much more their children would love them, and they would love their children; if they could look into the years and see how the link of love between them and their children had been shaped, molded, and fashioned by the simple act of nurturing them from the breast (to say nothing of the lives that would be saved), the artificially-fed baby would be a rarity, and the mother would be queen in the hearts of the nation's children. the most beautiful thing that ever graced the canvas of art, or shed its love into the cold realism of nature, is a nursing baby pushing from its satisfied lips the mother's breast, and smiling its sweet content into her face. it is almost criminal to withdraw the breast from an infant, and to turn it over to the treachery of prepared foods, when, by devoting a little time each day to the study of the science of eating, it is possible for the mother to supply the child with her own milk. care of the child the following are general rules for feeding the infant from birth to about one year of age. these rules cannot be made inflexible because all children differ in temperament, vitality, and as to prenatal influences, but if the mother will observe these instructions with reasonable care, her child can be brought healthfully through the most critical period of its life, and will enter the solid food age with good digestion, a strong body, and an excellent chance to withstand all children's dis-eases. where artificial feeding becomes necessary, then the preparation of the baby-food is of primary importance. cow's milk is, of course, the logical food, but taken whole, that is, the entire milk, it is too high in proteids, and deficient in sugar; therefore, in order to make a healthful infant-food, it must be modified according to the requirements of the infant body. the nurse or the mother should prepare a quantity sufficient for only one day's supply at a time, after the following formula: cream ounces milk ounces water ounces milk-sugar level teaspoonfuls lime-water teaspoonfuls or / ounce this should be thoroughly mixed, placed in the bottle, and set in warm water until it is brought to the temperature of breast-milk. the above formula may be used during the first month of the baby's life. the quantity and the frequency of feedings should be according to the following table: age feedings ounces intervals of st day to or hours d day to - / to hours d to th day to - / to - / hours d, d, and th weeks to hours formula for the second and the third months: cream - / ounces milk - / ounces water ounces milk-sugar teaspoonfuls lime-water - / teaspoonfuls quantity and frequency of feeding should be about as follows: months feedings ounces intervals d and d to to or hours formula for period from the fourth to the twelfth month: cream to ounces milk to ounces water ounces milk-sugar to teaspoonfuls lime-water to teaspoonfuls quantity and frequency of feedings should be about as follows: months feedings ounces intervals th, th, and th to to to - / hours th, th, and th to to - / hours th, th, and th to to - / hours the above formulas for infant-food are the best that can be made from ordinary cow's milk. the milk-sugar and the lime-water herein named can be purchased at any first-class drug store. [sidenote: avoid too frequent feeding] these tables are not given as exact. the mother should exercise careful vigilance and judgment, especially in reference to the quantity of each feeding, and the frequency. the moment the child shows symptoms of overfeeding, which symptoms are usually evidenced by vomiting or discomfort, the quantity of cream and the amount at each feeding should be reduced. in fact, it is healthful, and often necessary for the child to allow it the opportunity to get hungry. the digestion of many a baby is totally ruined by continuous feeding, which is done out of motherly sympathy, or merely to keep it quiet. [sidenote: importance of cleanliness in preparing child's food] the mother or the nurse should exercise great care in the cleanliness and the hygienic preparation of children's foods. milk should be fresh, and of the very best. it should not be left uncovered or exposed. it should be kept continually on ice until ready for use. the cream should be taken from the top of the bottle, or from fresh milk. this insures better quality of butter-fat than is generally supplied in ordinary commercial daily cream. as the child advances in age, whole milk, cereal gruel, and egg mixture (two whites to one yolk) may be administered according to the child's normal appetite and digestion. the egg may be prepared by whipping the whites and the yolks separately, adding to the yolk a teaspoonful of cream and one of sugar, then whipping the beaten whites into this, and serving. constipation the stools of natural, healthy children should be bright yellow and perfectly smooth. if grainy and soft, food should be made richer. if in curds, it evidences too rapid coagulation; therefore an alkali should be added. if the stools are white and oily, it indicates an excess of cream. if hard and dry, it indicates an insufficient amount of cream. if green, reduce the quantity of milk, or omit it altogether, and increase the quantity of barley-water. the majority of bottle-fed children suffer greatly from constipation, caused largely by the milk, or the failure to modify the milk properly, or to make it contain the constituent elements of breast-milk. this condition can be relieved by giving the child sweet orange juice every night and morning, or the juice from soaked prunes, if preferred. this should be administered in quantities ranging from a dozen drops to two or three teaspoonfuls, according to the age of the child and the severity of the condition. intestinal congestion can often be relieved, however, by giving the abdomen gentle massage, preferably with a rotary or kneading motion. in cases of diarrhea, infants from three to eight months old should be given first an enema, and then a diet entirely of boiled milk mixed with rice or barley-water. exercise all infants need some exercise. they should be gently rubbed and rolled about after the morning bath, before they are dressed. there is nothing more healthful than exposure of the baby-skin to fresh air in a normal temperature. clothing next in importance to the food of the infant is its clothing. the usual style of dressing babies the first three months of their lives is positively barbaric; not that it imitates uncivilized people, but because it evidences the grossest ignorance and cruelest vanity. the mother seems to have no way of expressing her pride in her child except by bedecking it with elaborate garments. these usually consist of three long skirts, two of them attached to bands which are fastened around the body. the weight of this clothing prevents the free use of the baby's feet and legs, putting it into a kind of civilized strait-jacket, thus preventing it from exercising the only part of its anatomy that it can freely move. it is nothing uncommon to see a beautiful baby sore, irritated, and broken out with heat all over its little body by being heavily enveloped in barbaric rags. the child, therefore, is made to suffer merely that it may please a proud mother, and conform to an ignorant custom a thousand years old. the only purpose clothing should serve is that of bodily warmth. when it is made the instrument of painful adornment it is serving the same purpose as "rings in the ears and bells on the toes," and the mind of the mother who thus afflicts her child is in the same class as that of the ignorant barbarian whom she imitates. temperature of baby's food it should be remembered that all liquid food for a child up to twelve or fifteen months old should be administered at a temperature no lower than blood-heat. the liquid mixtures named herein may be made in advance of the needs, and placed upon ice merely to preserve them, but should be warmed to a temperature of at least ninety-nine degrees fahrenheit before administering to the child. pure water should be given to all children from the time they are two weeks old. bandage the bandage should be removed about the close of the third month. emaciation in case of slight emaciation or lack of fat, the child should be given an olive-oil rub once or twice a week, rubbing gently into the skin about one teaspoonful of oil. general instructions for children after one year all children, whether breast-fed or bottle-fed, are subject to practically the same health rules after they are about one year old. therefore i will now consider all children in the same class, and lay out for them what may be termed general instructions in health and hygiene. care should be exercised to omit from the diet of children just beginning to take solid food, all articles that will not dissolve readily without mastication. general diet from ages one to two the diet from the first to the second year should consist of: baked apples baked potatoes--sweet or white cereal--limited quantity (thoroughly cooked) cream soups--home-made, such as: cream of celery onion potato rice tomato, etc. eggs milk pulp of soft ripe fruits vegetables--thoroughly mashed, such as: {asparagus fresh {squash {spinach the above vegetables contain much cellulose or pulp which should be entirely discarded, leaving only the meat or purée; but to the child from eleven to fifteen months old, they should be administered in very limited quantities. simplicity in feeding especial attention should be given to simplicity in feeding: avoid giving too many things at the same meal; from three to four articles at one time are sufficient mothers should be especially cautioned against giving a child bread made with yeast, or baking powder, and against the old diet of milk toast all meat, flesh food, stimulants or narcotics of every kind should be omitted from the diet of children the crowning mistake of the doting mother is often made in feeding her child from the conventional table, on such things as weakened coffee or tea, meats, and condiments the custom of giving children an excess of sweets has ruined millions of little stomachs, and has given them a heritage of dis-ease and suffering before they have entered their 'teens all condiments, such as pepper, salt, vinegar, pickles, and all pungent things should be eliminated from the diet of children--the taste of the child is very susceptible to cultivation, and with very little encouragement it will accept things that have no place in the human economy, and which are positively harmful when a child begins teething, it may be given a small piece of hard water-cracker with safety if the above rules are observed, it is reasonable to assume that normal hunger of the child will guide it very correctly in selecting, proportioning, and combining its food through the period of childhood until it enters the period of youth. old age [sidenote: necessity for old age diet] there seems to be two critical periods in every life--the ages of thirty and sixty. if the sixtieth year can be turned with good digestion, normal assimilation and excretion, it is fair to assume that with reasonable care the century mark may be easily reached. it is also reasonable to assume that experience will have taught most thoughtful people what to eat and what not to eat, but the mortality tables of nearly all civilized countries, of which the writer has made a careful study, prove that a majority of people do not reach their sixtieth year, and but a very small per cent of those who do are blessed with good digestion. therefore an old age diet is quite as important to the student as infant feeding. for purposes of convenience, i will put all cereal products, legumes, and white potatoes in the starch or bread class, and henceforth they will be referred to as such. [sidenote: meat and bread produce old age] the majority of disorders that mark the difference between youth and age may be traced directly to the overconsumption of meat and bread, especially cereal starch. the hardening of the arteries, the stiffening of the cartilage, the enlargement of the joints, and the general lack of flexibility throughout the body is due almost wholly to the overconsumption of these two staples. [sidenote: uric acid in rheumatic conditions] uric acid is always present in gouty and rheumatic conditions, but it is there as nature's defense against our sins, and not as a primary cause. meat is not the cause of uric acid as has been popularly taught. uric acid is one of the constituent elements of all animal bodies, and when the normal supply in the human body is supplemented by that which is contained in the body of the animal upon which we prey, we are oversupplied. this is as far as meat-eating contributes toward uric acid poisoning. [sidenote: soluble starches desirable] when the body is young and growing, it can consume and appropriate a considerable quantity of starchy or structural material, but when it is fully grown, or has turned forty, it can subsist healthfully upon a diet containing only from three to five per cent of starch, and as one becomes older the more soluble forms of starch should be taken, such as the starch contained in green peas, beans, and corn, which, immature, is readily soluble and assimilable. the starch in the banana is also easily appropriated and easily oxydized, and will be found to agree with many who cannot eat starch in any other form without producing fermentation. after the fiftieth year the diet becomes more and more a factor needing special attention in the daily regimen, both as to selection and quantity; and with advancing age the quantity of food should be gradually reduced until the minimum which will support life healthfully is reached. [sidenote: importance of diet with advancing age] in old age the diet should be governed by the same general rules as those of younger people; that is, elderly people should select, combine, and proportion their food according to temperature of environment, labor, and age. those performing manual labor can use and eliminate food material which would produce uric acid and other poisons in the body of the sedentary worker. three periods of old age [sidenote: diet from fifty to sixty] old age may be divided into three periods. from fifty to sixty the diet should consist of a very limited quantity of bread products (not more than two per cent); fresh green vegetables, fresh mild fruits, nuts, a normal quantity of milk and eggs, a limited quantity of sugar, and a moderate amount of fats. [sidenote: diet from sixty to seventy] from sixty to seventy the amount of cereal starch should be reduced to one per cent, or not more than two per cent, while the other articles named may be taken as suggested from fifty to sixty, gradually eliminating starchy foods, and increasing foods containing proteids, casein, and albumin. [sidenote: diet from seventy to one hundred] between the ages of seventy and one hundred, the same general suggestions as those above laid out should be followed, eliminating entirely all cereal products. the more soluble forms of starchy or carbohydrate foods, such as potatoes, bananas, and green peas, beans, corn, etc., may be taken. (see lesson xiii, vol. iii, p. .) the necessary amount of fats, albumin, casein, and proteids must be governed by activity and temperature of environment. the following are suggestions for one day's menu, in spring and summer, age between fifty and sixty. choice of menus may be exercised, but each menu should be taken in its entirety. menu i menu ii breakfast melon or subacid fruit one or two very ripe bananas, one egg--coddled with figs, cream, a potato or a very little and nuts coarse bread choice of fruit--non-acid a glass of clabbered milk or two glasses of milk buttermilk two tablespoonfuls of raisins, with cream and nuts luncheon choice of peas, corn, beans, choice of carrots, parsnips, or creamed onions beans, squash, or asparagus eggs or buttermilk a baked sweet or a white a baked potato potato a salad or something green, a glass of buttermilk with nuts cream cheese, dates, and a banana, with cream, nuts nuts and dates a very small portion of green salad, with grated nuts dinner one fresh vegetable--spinach, a green salad cooked ten minutes two fresh vegetables one egg or a very small a sweet or a white potato, portion of fish with sweet butter a baked potato a glass of sour milk choice of dates, figs, or raisins, with cream cheese and nuts in cases of constipation, two or three tablespoonfuls of coarse wheat bran (cooked, if desired) should be taken with the breakfast and the evening meal, and a spoonful just before retiring, taken in a glass of water. such fruits as plums, peaches, or berries should be taken daily, just after rising and just before retiring. the following are suggestions for fall and winter menus, for a person between the ages of fifty and sixty: breakfast oranges, apples, pears, or soaked prunes an egg and a small portion of either plain boiled wheat or rice a very ripe banana, with nuts and raisins note: sweet fruits may be taken instead of the acid fruits suggested, and milk instead of eggs. luncheon one or two fresh vegetables, such as carrots, onions, turnips, cabbage, or beans celery or any coarse plant a potato or a very small portion of corn if not very active, the luncheon may consist of two glasses of buttermilk and a spoonful of wheat bran. dinner choice of two fresh vegetables a baked potato choice of fish, eggs, or buttermilk corn bread or a very small portion of coarse cereal all fresh, watery vegetables should be cooked in a casserole dish. a sufficient quantity of water should be drunk at each of these meals to bring the moisture up to about sixty-six per cent of the meal--two to three glasses. these meals are mere suggestions, and are therefore subject to many variations. all green salads may be substituted for one another; all starchy products--grain, potatoes, and legumes--may also be substituted for one another. athletics [sidenote: every diet should be an athletic diet] the diet for the athlete really differs but little from that which should be taken by every person in normal health, the object in all cases being to secure the greatest degree of energy from the least quantity of food. in order to do this, the laws governing the selecting, the combining, and the proportioning of foods should be observed. when the digestive, the assimilative, and the excretory organs are properly performing their functions, the object should be to gain the highest efficiency in food with the least amount of loss or waste. every diet, therefore, should be made an athletic diet. in dealing with the public at large, the work of the practitioner will be confined very largely to prescribing for those who, by violation of nature's laws, have become dis-eased, or in some way physically abnormal, and in these cases, of course, a remedial or counteractive diet first becomes necessary. [sidenote: general diet for normal athlete] in dealing with the athlete as a special class, however, we must consider him as a normal creature, somewhere between the ages of twenty and forty. we must also consider that his digestion and assimilation of food, and elimination of waste are normal. under these conditions, the diet should consist of highly nitrogenous and proteid compounds, leveled or balanced by the requisite amount of carbohydrates and fats. [sidenote: quantity of fat required at different seasons] if the athlete is training for action in summer, the quantity of fat should be reduced according to temperature or climate. when the thermometer ranges in the seventies and eighties, one ounce of fat each twenty-four hours would probably be sufficient, while if the mercury is down in the twenties or thirties, from two or three ounces may be required to keep up bodily heat. the following are suggestions for summer athletic diet: breakfast fruit or melon *corn, or boiled wheat, with nuts and cream eggs, whipped, with sugar and cream--lemon juice flavor luncheon break from four to six eggs into a bowl, adding a heaping teaspoonful of sugar to each egg; whip five minutes; while whipping, add slowly one teaspoonful of lemon juice to each egg; to this add half a glass of milk to each egg, and drink slowly *corn or a potato dinner fruit, berries, or melon a salad of lettuce, tomato, and grated carrots; serve with dressing of lemon juice, grated nuts and olive-oil one fresh vegetable an egg or tender fish a baked potato buttermilk [footnote: note: corn to be prepared as follows: cut lightly from cob with a sharp knife and scrape down with a dull one; serve uncooked with a little salt, sugar and cream.] the following are suggestions for winter athletic diet: breakfast a baked apple or an orange one coarse cereal, with nuts and cream two eggs, either whipped or boiled two minutes very ripe bananas, with dates, nuts and cream (if bananas are not very ripe, they should be peeled and baked) see recipe, vol. iii, p. luncheon beans or lentils carrots, turnips, squash, or corn fish or eggs a baked potato buttermilk dinner two fresh vegetables a green salad, with oil omelet, with grated nuts a banana, with nuts and cream, and either dates or raisins buttermilk these menus, like those given for summer, are merely for the purpose of suggesting selections, combinations, and proportions of food that will meet the exigencies of temperature, environment, and work. the quantity of food required will depend largely upon the size (physique) of the individual, the severity of training, and the feats to be performed. it is especially important that these suggestions be well considered at least one day before engaging in any athletic event or work requiring extraordinary physical effort, as the human body appropriates or uses food from twenty-four to thirty-six hours after it is eaten. [sidenote: exposure to extreme cold or exertion] if one is to be exposed to extreme cold, an excess of fats should be taken, beginning thirty-six hours before exposure. if much physical effort is to be exerted, the diet should be balanced as to all nutritive elements, with an excess of nitrogenous foods. in fact, these rules should be observed by every one who desires to make feeding scientific, and to make food his servant instead of his master, as our civilized habits have a tendency to do. sedentary occupations [sidenote: cessation of activity means disintegration] nature demands from every form of life a certain amount of activity or motion. any transgression of this law means disintegration. rest is merely the process adopted by nature to reconvert matter into its original elements. to whatever extent one ceases activity, nature, under normal conditions, inflicts this penalty. [sidenote: the penalty of civilization] man's civilized habits and customs have produced a class of workers who, while at work, are deprived of their requisite amount of motion, and who, therefore, pay the penalty by shortened periods of life, and by numerous disorders which we have come to characterize as dis-ease. there is but one method known to science by which these penalties may be avoided, and by which the worker whose occupation must be sedentary may become as healthful as his brother who can order his life in conformity with nature's laws. that method lies in the ordering of his diet. [sidenote: dis-ease is merely congestion] all dis-ease may be called _congestion_, or the failure of the body to eliminate poisons and waste matter. the process of elimination is assisted by activity (work or play). the accumulation of waste and poisons in the body is measured or determined almost wholly by the diet. [sidenote: diet governed by work] the man who is swinging a pick or a sledge hammer in the open air may eat or drink almost anything, because his powers of eliminating waste are aided by his work. it follows, therefore, that those whose work is of a sedentary nature must procure their nutrition from substances containing the minimum of waste, and producing the maximum of energy, and the quantity must be measured accurately by the demands of the body, or autointoxication (self-poisoning) will result. intestinal congestion (constipation), which is almost universal among sedentary workers, is caused in nearly all cases by consuming a quantity of food in excess of the physical demands, and which cannot be thrown off owing to the lack of exercise. it is at this point that science must lay out the dietetic regimen so as to make it conform to the occupation, or to the lack of physical activity. the following are suggestions for a spring or summer diet for the average sedentary worker: breakfast cantaloup, berries or peaches, with sugar and cream an egg one or two bananas, with nuts, cream, and raisins (bananas should be baked, if not very ripe) luncheon peas, beans, or asparagus a heaping tablespoonful of nuts a salad of lettuce and tomatoes, with nuts a baked potato, tender corn, or a very little coarse bread dinner melon or cantaloup two tablespoonfuls of nuts one or two fresh vegetables, including an ear of tender corn fish, eggs, or buttermilk plain ice-cream, if something sweet is desired general directions for sedentary worker the student will recognize that in these menus the heavier foods are prescribed sparingly, while the lighter or the more readily soluble articles predominate. from these suggestions a fair idea of a fall and winter diet can be drawn. indigestion, sour stomach (hyper-chlorhydria), constipation, malassimilation, and general anemia are the disorders with which the sedentary worker is most commonly afflicted. in dealing with each and all of these conditions, including obesity, which is often the result of sedentary habits, the first thing to be done is to limit the quantity of food to the normal requirements of the body, and in extreme cases a diet below the normal should be observed; no one was ever made ill by underfeeding. then, with proper care as to the selection, combination, and proportions of food, and an increased amount of exercise and deep breathing, the person of sedentary habits should be made as healthy and strong as the outdoor worker in the fields of manual labor. climatic extremes in considering a diet to meet the requirements of climatic extremes, either hot or cold, it is necessary to reckon from normality, both as to climate and as to the health of the individual. all the foregoing lessons, taken as a whole, are designed to teach one method or theory, involving two principles: selections, combinations, and proportions of food that will counteract and remove the causes of unnatural conditions called dis-ease selections, combinations, and proportions of food that will bring the body up to its highest degree of development and there maintain it under normal conditions the temperature of the body may be thoroughly controlled by feeding. the principal process of metabolism is that of making heat out of the fuel given to the "human boiler." the amount of heat, therefore, that a given quantity of food will produce is determined very largely by the amount of resistance that is met from natural environment. [sidenote: amount of fat required in different temperatures] the human body, under ordinary conditions, in a temperature of ° fahrenheit, will use about two ounces of pure fat every twenty-four hours. if the temperature should drop to ° fahrenheit, it would require about three ounces of fat every twenty-four hours to keep the temperature of the body at normal. under certain conditions of exposure it might require as much as five and even six ounces of pure fat to maintain normal temperature of the body, and in the extreme north, where the temperature ranges in winter from ° to ° below zero, the natives often take as much as sixteen ounces of fat during the day. fat being the principal heat-producing element, it is, therefore, the most necessary thing to consider in a temperature of extreme cold. the student will readily understand that, in order to maintain a normal standard of vitality and endurance, the selection of foods must be made according to age, activity, and temperature. for a person undergoing a reasonable amount of exposure, and working in a climate where the temperature is ranging between ° and ° fahrenheit, the following menus, covering one day, may be suggested: immediately on rising, drink a cup of hot water, then take vigorous deep breathing exercises, followed by a cool sponge bath and rub down. breakfast (an hour later) add half an ounce of sugar to two or three eggs, and whip five minutes; add a tablespoonful of lemon juice while whipping; mix with this two glasses of rich milk a tablespoonful of nuts one very ripe banana, with cream luncheon one fresh vegetable lima or navy beans a salad, with either olive-oil or nuts a baked potato or boiled wheat (a liberal supply of butter or cream) dinner a baked sweet potato one or two vegetables eggs, or buttermilk, unskimmed a baked white potato, with either olive-oil or butter dates, with cream cheese, or gelatin, with cream as the temperature becomes lower, the amount of fats and proteids should be increased according to exposure and activity. the student should bear in mind that carbohydrates, proteids, and fats are the most important factors in the winter dietary. other articles can be held level over a wide range of temperature, provided these three staple nutrients are taken in the requisite proportions. [sidenote: summer diet requires scientific consideration] nearly all people in normal health instinctively avoid heat-producing foods in hot weather, and as in warm or hot climates people live more in the open air, oxidation is therefore more perfect, and has a tendency to aid elimination, so the errors of diet are not so serious. nevertheless, the food to be taken in hot climates, or the heated term of summer, should receive scientific consideration. anthropoid life, of which man is the highest type, originated in the tropics, and nearly everything necessary for his highest physical development grew prodigally in that country. his natural or primitive diet was nuts, fruits, and salads (edible plants). civilization has transplanted him in the north, and has laid heavier burdens upon him, therefore he needs, in many instances, heavier and different foods, such as the carbohydrates, proteids, fats, and the albumin and the phosphorus in eggs. as the temperature becomes warmer, the heat-producing factors, such as fats and carbohydrates (starch and sugar), should be gradually reduced. the following menus are suitable for the average person, in normal health, between the ages of thirty and sixty, when the temperature is ranging from ° to ° fahrenheit: breakfast cantaloup, peaches, or berries very ripe bananas, with grated nuts and cream a glass of milk luncheon one whipped egg a fresh vegetable a teaspoonful of nuts a lettuce and tomato salad a baked sweet or white potato dinner peas, beans, asparagus, or corn a salad, with grated nuts and carrots a potato one whipped egg half a glass of milk a service of gelatin these menus are mere suggestions, not invariable, and in following them it should be remembered that all green salads may be substituted for one another, and as a general rule such underground articles as beets, carrots, turnips, and parsnips may be substituted for one another. also green corn, peas, and beans are in the same general class. (see "constipation," vol. iii, p. .) observation of these rules will give the student rather a wide range of articles to draw upon in selecting a diet for the normal person. lesson xvii nervousness its cause and cure the nerves of the human body are the most important, the most complex, and probably the least understood of any part of the human anatomy. in conditions of health they are never heard from, therefore every expression of the nervous system is a symptom of some abnormal physical condition. [sidenote: true meaning of nervousness] the usual term "nervousness" conveys to the mind of the average person such conditions as sleeplessness, restlessness, lack of mental and physical tranquillity, but to the trained mind of the food scientist or physician, it means mental aberration, hallucinations, morbidity, mental depression, lack of self-confidence, uncertainty, loss of memory, fear of poverty, anticipation of accident, tragedy, death, insanity, and a multitude of things that never happen. language cannot adequately describe or convey to the mind of another person the strange impressions that sweep o'er the mind--the mental anguish caused by an ordinary case of nervous indigestion. those only who can understand why many good men and women sometimes take their own lives, or commit some great crime, are those who have experienced the same affliction. if we could correctly interpret the various symptoms given to the brain from the nervous system, and would heed these symptoms, the body might be kept in almost perfect health under all conditions of civilized life. [sidenote: relation of nutrition to nervousness] the lack of fresh air and exercise is always told by nervous expression, but the most important and significant message conveyed by the nerves at the brain is that concerning food and general nutrition. instinct often leads us to fresh air and exercise, but with our food it is vastly different. we acquire a taste for certain things; the habit grows upon us, and though the nerves tell the story to our senses over and over, we heed it not because we are held behind the bars of habit by the tyranny of appetite. in this respect the tobacco fiend, the drug fiend, and the food fiend are all in the same class. causes nervousness usually has its origin in disorders of the functions of metabolism, assimilation and elimination. in other words, somewhere between the time the food is first taken into the system, and the time the poisonous débris of the food and the body waste is finally eliminated, there are some grievous faults of function. some deficiency in the activity and in the secreting power of any of the digestive organs; some defect in the assimilation of the finished pabulum; some short-coming in the process by which oxygen is carried through the system to convert the "end-products" into less toxic substances for final excretion--any or all of these causes may conspire to produce nervousness. these may again, in their turn, be due to causes that arise within the mind, inhibiting the proper functional activity of the body. but overfeeding, or eating the wrong combinations of food, and lack of proper elimination, are probably the most frequent causes of nervousness. when we take into the system more food than the body requires, there is bound to be a certain amount of it which cannot be utilized to build tissue, or furnish heat, or supply mineral salts. this excess food, under the influence of fermentative processes, breaks down into various poisonous products. this is especially true of the albuminous elements of the food. for these, in the heat and moisture of the small intestine, rapidly undergo a process of rotting--this is exactly what it is--and develop some of the most virulent organic poisons known to man. they exercise a profound depression upon all the physiological functions, and cause an actual toxic degeneration of the nervous protoplasm. this, in turn, causes nerve irritability, insomnia, and many of those protean symptoms roughly grouped under the head of neurasthenia. to completely relieve the condition means that a thorough reform in habits,--and particularly in dietetic habits--must be undertaken. excesses of every kind--even of play or work--must be stopped. all possible sources of worry must be removed. rest and recreation should be made quite as important--in fact more so, than house-work or business. sleep, and plenty of it, should be secured at all costs. eight hours are none too many--although ten would be better. needless to say, the question of diet is of prime importance. the use of tea, coffee, tobacco, alcohol, and all stimulant beverages, as well as condiments, should be discontinued. plain, wholesome food--with an ample supply of lecithin (or nerve fat) such as eggs, milk, olive oil, etc., should be taken liberally. all sources of fermentation--especially those forms due to an excess of starch, sugars, and acids, should be avoided. careful attention should be given to securing free bowel movement. and, above all, an equable frame of mind should be cultivated; the way to defeat this purpose is to overwork and worry in order to accumulate the thing called property. [sidenote: working for wealth alone defeats its purpose] the desire to accumulate property has for its excuse immunity from work at some future time so that we can enjoy life, but experience teaches us that the physical cost of this effort defeats the very purpose for which we are striving. the remedy the victim of nervousness should first seek a complete change of environment, and engage in pleasant, and, if possible, profitable occupation. [sidenote: therapeutic value of working for the public good] thousands of people become nervous wrecks by pursuing work for which they have no natural taste or ability, and many become nervous from the monotony of environment. this is especially true with women, and while it is exceedingly difficult for countless housewives and mothers to escape from this monotony, yet they can secure relief by becoming interested in some work of a public or quasi-public nature, or by taking up a "hobby" that has for its purpose some form of public good. all people love the plaudits and esteem of their fellow-creatures, and there is nothing that will relieve the monotony and bring that satisfaction which all of us desire more quickly than earnest labor in a worthy cause. therefore, this is one of the first and the best remedies for that character of nervousness caused by the monotony and narrowed life of the average woman. [sidenote: the effects of wrong eating and drinking] the most prolific cause of nervousness, however, is incorrect, unnatural habits of eating and drinking, therefore, the logical remedy must be found in simplifying, leveling, and making the diet conform to the requirements of the body governed, of course, by age, occupation, etc. the nervous person should eliminate from the diet acids, sweets (see lesson viii, vol. ii, pp. and ), flesh foods, and all stimulating beverages. the following menus, with variations according to the available supply of fruits and vegetables in season, should be adopted: suggestions for spring choice of the following menus: menu i menu ii breakfast a cup of hot water very little farina or oatmeal, two baked bananas with cream steamed wheat--cream a glass of buttermilk luncheon corn hominy, with butter a white potato, baked or cream a large, boiled onion raisins, nuts, cream cheese corn bread one or two glasses of water a glass of milk dinner a pint of junket one egg or a morsel of fish bran gems a baked potato a coddled egg (for bran choice of carrots, parsnips, meal and coddled eggs, or onions see vol. iii, pp. and (a green salad or spinach ) may be eaten at this hot water meal, if desired) one or two glasses of water should be drunk at each of these meals. if there is a tendency toward constipation, a liberal portion of wheat bran, thoroughly cooked, should be taken at both the morning and the evening meal. bran possesses valuable nutritive properties, such as mineral salts, iron, protein and phosphates, and it harmonizes chemically with all other foods. suggestions for summer breakfast melon, or any mild subacid or non-acid fruit, such as pears, baked apples, sweet grapes, very ripe peaches, japanese plums, or persimmons choice of whipped egg or junket a banana--natural, or baked, if the digestion is slightly impaired luncheon a fresh green salad, such as celery or lettuce, with oil or nuts onions, uncooked a whipped egg carrots, peas, or beans dinner corn, carrots, peas, beans, or squash half a cup of plain wheat bran, cooked a baked potato a glass of water suggestions for fall in adopting the two-meals-a-day system, the noon meal should be omitted. this gives the stomach and the irritated nerves a rest, and creates natural hunger which augments both digestion and assimilation. (see lesson xiii, p. ). breakfast melon or peaches a very ripe banana, with soaked prunes and cream a spoonful of nuts one or two spoonfuls of whole wheat, cooked very thoroughly one egg, prepared choice--preferably whipped one glass of water a green salad or some sweet fruit may be eaten at noon if very hungry. dinner squash or pumpkin, cooked en casserole fresh string beans a baked sweet potato one or two tablespoonfuls of nuts--choice junket or gelatin a glass of water suggestions for winter first day: on rising, drink two cups of cool water, and devote from five to ten minutes to vigorous exercises and deep breathing. breakfast a cup of hot water or thin chocolate a small portion of boiled wheat one exceedingly ripe banana, eaten with cream one or two eggs, whipped--cream and sugar added one or two figs, with cream and either nuts or nut butter luncheon two eggs, whipped; add a flavor of sugar, orange juice, and a glass of milk a cup of hot water dinner turnips, carrots, parsnips, onions--any two of these a baked potato or baked beans a small portion of fish, white meat of chicken, or an egg just before retiring, take exercises as prescribed for the morning, and, if constipated, two or three tablespoonfuls of wheat bran. second day: the same as the first, slightly increasing the quantity of food if hungry. third day: the same as the second, adding one or two baked bananas to the morning meal, and varying the vegetables according to the appetite for the noon and the evening meal. nearly all vegetables such as turnips, beets, carrots and parsnips may be substituted for one another. fourth day: breakfast tokay or malaga grapes a cup of hot water two eggs, lightly poached, or a very rare omelet a whole wheat muffin or a bran gem a cup of chocolate a liberal portion of wheat bran (one-fourth oatmeal), cooked and served as an ordinary cereal, eaten with butter luncheon choice of either _a_ or _b_: _a_ two eggs, prepared as follows: break into a bowl. add a teaspoonful of sugar to each egg. whip five minutes very rapidly with a rotary egg beater. add a glass of milk and a teaspoonful of orange juice to each egg _b_ a quart of milk and half a cup of bran one baked banana dinner any green salad--celery or shredded cabbage (very little), with salt and nuts choice of any two fresh vegetables choice of: _a_ one or two exceedingly ripe bananas, baked, eaten with butter or cream _b_ figs or raisins, with cream a glass of water exercise the same as prescribed for the first day. fifth day: the same as the fourth day. sixth day: the same as the first, repeating these menus for a period of three or four weeks. the nervous person should eat very sparingly of bread and cereal products, with the exception of bran and a few coarse articles, such as flaked or whole wheat or rye, and these should be taken sparingly while under treatment. a generous quantity of water should be drunk at meals, and mastication should be very thorough. if the body is overweight or inclined toward obesity, the diet should consist of fewer fat-producing foods, such as grains, potatoes, milk, eggs, and an excess of vegetable proteids. if underweight or inclined toward emaciation, the fat-producing foods should predominate. under all conditions of nervousness the patient should take an abundance of exercise and deep breathing in the open air, and sleep out of doors, if possible. an abundance of fresh air breathed into the lungs is the best blood purifier known, and if the blood is kept pure, and forced into every cell and capillary vessel of the body by exercise, the irritated nerves will share in the general improvement. the cool shower or sponge bath in the morning, preceded and followed by a few minutes' vigorous exercise, is a splendid sedative for irritated nerves. recreation the nervous person should divide the day as nearly as possible into three equal parts--eight hours' pleasant but useful work; eight hours' recreation, and eight hours' sleep. [sidenote: necessity for true recreation] under modern civilized conditions the majority of people do not seem to understand recreation. the summer seashore resorts, with their expensive attractions and whirling life, the great hostelries in the hills and mountains, and the lakes where thousands of people congregate, entail upon them certain duties, anxieties, expectations, disappointments, and often financial strain that deprive these places of all features of recreation, and make the sojourn there one of labor and strife. the real purpose that takes most people to these resorts is to be seen; to "star" themselves before the multitude, which in its last analysis is a kind of vanity, and it is obvious that from any effort in this direction no recreation can be obtained. the nervous person should seek a few congenial and thoughtful companions, and get back into the great heart of nature where everything moves in obedience to supreme law. associate intimately with animals; study their habits, and notice how they respond to kindness; admire their honesty; analyze the love and fidelity of a dog. this is true diversion and recreation. this defines the purpose of life, if there be purpose behind it. this draws a sharp distinction between the condition that makes nervousness and the condition that makes honest, thoughtful, useful human beings. lesson xviii points on practise introduction to points on practise the preceding lessons were written through a period of many years' active practise in treating dis-eases by scientific feeding. they were intended as a normal course to qualify doctors, nurses, and those who wished to treat dis-ease by this method. however, the demand for this class of information has come from people in every walk of life, therefore the lessons, and all technical matter composing this entire work have been most carefully revised and rewritten in simple language so that any person of ordinary intelligence can comprehend them. the following lesson is intended for the guidance of the practitioner in beginning his work in this branch of the healing art. inasmuch as nearly all human ills are caused by errors in eating, the preceding lessons have been confined almost wholly to dis-eases that originate in the digestive organs. lesson xviii points on practise [sidenote: dietetic treatment is reconstructive] there are a great many abnormal conditions of the human body classed as dis-eases that bear a very remote relation to diet, but in practise the student will soon learn that many of these conditions, which have not been considered in these lessons, will entirely disappear when the diet is perfected. this is true because dietetic treatment, based upon the fundamental laws of nutrition, is reconstructive, hence every part of the anatomy shares in the general improvement. [sidenote: scope of scientific feeding] there are many logical arguments to support the theory that there are no incurable dis-eases. there are many cases, however, where the vitality has become so low that recovery from dis-ease is impossible, but if the patient could be taken in time, the correct diagnosis made, and the proper food, air, and exercise given, nature would begin her work of rebuilding at once. in view of these facts it is somewhat difficult to fix a limit to the scope of scientific feeding. suggestions for the practitioner [sidenote: the value of letters] the science of prescribing diet is a work that can be best conveyed to the patient in writing, hence one of the first and most important things for the new practitioner to do is to study the art of polemics--acquire the ability to write plain, convincing literature and letters. this is one of the greatest arts within the scope of human learning, and is probably susceptible of greater development than any other branch of human endeavor. every person has his own individual method of expression that should be preserved and cultivated. select some good author and copy his logic, but not his language. for this purpose i would recommend the works of henry george, the great economic philosopher--and probably one of the greatest polementitians that ever lived. [sidenote: writing is mental calisthenics] the student should begin by taking up some simple branch or certain subject of his work, and writing a short argument or essay upon it, using every fact that he can possibly command to convince imaginary readers of the correctness of his theories. select a new subject and write something on it every day. this is merely mental calisthenics, and after a month's training the thoughts and the language will flow with a freedom that will enable the student to write just as he feels. [sidenote: a booklet describing your work] it would be well to arrange an argument based upon each lesson separately, dividing it into short chapters. these arguments or essays should be logically arranged to form a booklet, with proper title, as such representative literature is vitally necessary to the growth and the success of your work. it will also be found that this will be splendid mental exercise, and will serve well in presenting your work, either orally, or by letter. [sidenote: the personality of the writer] every one should endeavor to be original in his literature; in other words, no special effort should be made to quote any "authority" or to copy the style of other writers. put your own personality into your work, for the most successful writer is not always the one who uses the most learned, polished or scholarly language, but the one who can convey his thoughts to the minds of others in the simplest and the most comprehensive language. language at best is but a vehicle for conveying the thoughts of one person to the mind of another, and while there are accepted standards in literature and letters, from which one should not make too radical a departure, yet the ability to present one's convictions, or position convincingly should be of first consideration. the most important thing in writing is to have something to say; then to say it so that it can be understood. value of experience experience is the only method by which theory can be converted into knowledge. the best possible source of information, therefore, is personal experimentation. if the student should have any disorder, especially of digestion and assimilation of food, or elimination of waste, he should experiment upon himself along the lines laid out in this course. he should keep an accurate record of selections, combinations, and proportions of food, with results or symptoms. he may thus be able to arrange menus for himself, even more effective than those given as examples or guides throughout the course. if there are no personal disorders that will permit of such experiments, then they should be made upon some other person with whom the student is sufficiently familiar in order that accurate information concerning the results may be secured. though the student may be normal and healthy, it is possible to make many valuable experiments in regard to special adaptations of diet, such as combinations to induce natural sleep; to produce and to relieve constipation and diarrhea; to produce excessive body-heat when exposed to cold, or the minimum of heat in summer, or in warm climates. value of diagnosis correct diagnosis is one of the most important factors in the practise of applied food chemistry, and when a correct diagnosis has been made the remedy will suggest itself if the student has a thorough understanding of causes. [sidenote: causes sometimes very remote] in diagnosis it is often necessary to ascertain the patient's general habits of eating during the few years prior to the appearance of the disorders. as an example, rheumatic conditions are often superinduced by an overconsumption of starch, usually cereal starch and acids. this overindulgence may have continued for several years before the appearance of any rheumatic symptoms. the primary causes being residual in the body, exposure, low vitality, or extreme climatic changes may give expression to them in the form of rheumatism, or some kindred trouble. [sidenote: value of limited feeding] after determining the causes, a diet should be designed which will counteract existing conditions. this may usually be accomplished by limiting the quantity of food somewhat below the demands of normal hunger. this will give the digestive organs less work to do, and the body an opportunity to take up or consume any excess of food matter that may have become congested. in cases accompanied by loss of hunger, it is sometimes necessary to put the patient upon an absolute fast from one to three days, but in the majority of cases a semi-fast is best, prescribing light, nutritious foods of a remedial character. educate your patient in beginning treatment each patient should be made acquainted with the fact that the radical change in diet may bring slight discomfort. while the system is adjusting itself to the new regimen, there is usually a slight loss of weight and a feeling of weakness or lassitude. [sidenote: curing a slow process] it should be impressed upon the mind of the patient that regaining health and strength is in reality a process of growth or evolution, hence slow and gradual; that when one has violated the laws of health for many years, nature will not, or probably cannot forgive all these sins and repair all these wrongs in a month or two. however, when one gets in harmony with the physical universe, and conforms to the laws of his organization, nature will construct (cure) much more rapidly than she formerly destroyed (produced dis-ease). [sidenote: the patient should agree with the diet] the practitioner may have many cases that for some seemingly mysterious reason will not respond to a perfectly natural diet and will, therefore, be called upon to change the diet from time to time in the vain hope of finding combinations of food that will agree. in these cases the student should not be led to deviate too far from what he knows to be a natural and chemically harmonious regimen. if such a diet does not produce the desired results, it is not always the fault of the food, but the fault of the patient. if the food is right, and does not agree, it is the patient that is wrong, hence the logical thing to do is to make the rebellious patient agree with the food, instead of searching for a food to agree with the patient. these facts should be impressed strongly upon the mind of the one under treatment, and he should be prevailed upon, if possible, to conform strictly to a correct diet until nature is given time and opportunity to bring about an adjustment between the individual and his food. it has been the custom of the medical profession for centuries to shroud its work in mystery, to write prescriptions in a dead language, to keep patients in ignorance of the remedies being applied. this seems to be necessary, probably because an intelligent discussion of allopathic drugs, their sources and their constituent elements would, no doubt, prove fatal to their administration. the food scientist should follow exactly the opposite course. he should make a very careful diagnosis, taking into account the diet, habits of exercise and exposure to fresh air prior to the appearance of the dis-ease, as well as at the time of treatment. by giving the patient a thorough understanding of your work, you gain his confidence and faith, which wield a very powerful influence over the body. effect of mental conditions [sidenote: worry or fear causes stomach trouble] a very careful examination should also be made of the mental conditions. worry, fear, or anxiety often produce serious digestive trouble which is generally attributed to other causes, and which should be treated very differently from the same trouble caused by errors in eating. during my professional work many patients have come to me laden with fear, caused by the thoughtless or perhaps reckless statement of some physician. it is indeed as great a crime for a doctor to pass the "sentence of death" upon a man who comes to him for help as it would be for the judge of a court to pronounce the death sentence upon a prisoner without hearing the evidence, and some day when the power of the mind or suggestion is understood, it will be so considered. [sidenote: what christian science has done] it is impossible to fully estimate the effects of fear on the human body. each year, i become more and more impressed with the fact that fear is one of the most potent factors in the cause of dis-ease. christian science has relieved thousands of people through the simple presentation of a philosophy that induces the individual to throw off this burden of fear. it matters not whether this burden is cast upon the gentle nazarene or john doe, the fact that it has been disposed of often leads to relief and recovery. christian science has done the world a great service--it has put out the fires of an orthodox hell by pouring into it orthodox medicine. with a clear knowledge of the powerful psychological law, and the laws of human nutrition, the student has at his command two of the greatest forces in nature for the relief of human suffering. publicity [sidenote: value of truthful advertising] judicious and truthful advertising is another important factor in the success of the food scientist. advertising has been considered unethical by medical men for years. it has been discredited, not because it is wrong, or because there is any harm in telling the public the truth about one's business, but because so many spurious nostrums and patent medicines were exploited by "quack" doctors, that the respectable physician deemed it best to adopt the other extreme in his effort to keep entirely out of this class. advertising, however, is rapidly acquiring a more honest and upright character. the best magazines and some weekly newspapers will no longer accept advertisements of a questionable character, especially regarding medical remedies. many of these excellent publications go so far as to vouch for and guarantee the honesty of everything exploited in their pages. such methods are gradually purifying the advertising atmosphere. [sidenote: advertising both virtuous and necessary] there is no logical reason why anybody who has a virtuous and useful article, or who has discovered anything in the realm of science that would be a benefit to humanity, as well as a profit to himself, should not make it known as widely as possible through the instrumentality of advertising. in preparing advertising literature, whether for magazines, booklets, or letters, facts and truth concerning your work are all that is necessary. no statement should be made that can in any way jeopardize your reputation; nothing should be stated or claimed that cannot actually be made good. for many years it has been my policy to keep my advertising conservatively below the full limit of facts; in other words, the whole truth concerning that which can be accomplished by scientific feeding sometimes seems so startling to the lay mind that the experienced advertiser will not state it as it really is. a patient of mine who had been in a wheel chair for twelve years, and afflicted for twenty years with locomotor ataxia, was so much improved within a year's time that he walked from brooklyn to my office in new york city to exhibit himself. he gave me a testimonial letter and the privilege of using it in my advertisements. i wrote up the facts in regard to his case and submitted them to my agent, who was an expert advertiser, and he advised me not to state the facts as they were; the public, he contended, would not accept them as true. be courteous and tolerant it is almost impossible to estimate the moral effect of a broad-minded, tolerant and courteous attitude toward others engaged in the practise of the healing art. medical doctors seldom agree, especially those of different schools. they accuse each other of ignorance and incompetence, and the public is sometimes inclined to concede that they are right. in certainty and in truth one has confidence and strength which is always conducive to tolerance. the food scientist, knowing the laws of cause and effect in regard to nutrition, and knowing the proper use of natural methods of diet and hygiene in the prevention and the cure of specific dis-eases, needs neither to dispute with a fellow practitioner, nor to argue with his patient. he can afford to state his position and quietly allow nature to prove his claims. lesson xix evolution of man the following lessons, while they do not treat directly of either the chemistry of food or the chemistry of the body, are so closely allied to these subjects that this work would not be complete without them. lesson xix evolution of man what is evolution? if a resident of a city, who is not familiar with modern farm machinery, should see a grain-binder at work, he would be impressed with the skill and the ingenuity of man. in all probability he would think that the machine was the product of one inventive mind. in this, however, he would be mistaken. the reaper in its modern form is the result of gradual development or growth. [sidenote: an example of evolution] the earliest method of gathering grain was pulling it up by the roots. later, as cutting tools were invented, a rough knife was used to sever the stalks just above the ground. an improvement upon this method was the cycle; then came the scythe, then the cradle; and next came the mower which was operated by horse-power. from the mower was developed the self rake, which bunched the grain so that the hand-binders could work with greater facility. the next improvement was a self-binding machine. in the present machine we have all of these and many other improvements, which give greater speed with less waste of labor and time. this development of the grain-binder is a process of evolution. in order to understand a machine so as to use it intelligently, or to make improvements upon it, it is necessary not only to know the machine as it actually is, but also to know the history of its development up to its present form. [sidenote: to know man is to know evolution] the story of the evolution of a machine is, at best, but a crude illustration of the evolution of man. nevertheless, the conclusion is the same. if we are to understand man, we must study not only his present physical and mental state, but also the history of his development. yet those whose work is concerned directly with man--whether they be teachers, guiding the growth of the child; statesmen, formulating the laws and regulations by which men are to be controlled in their public actions; or physicians, who are supposed to instruct and to guide men in the care of their physical well-being--are often densely ignorant of the most rudimentary knowledge of the evolution of man as it is now known and understood by the leading scientists of the world. our entire system of education, our ideas of health and dis-ease, our social customs, the principles of our form of government; our ideas of right and wrong, of rewards and punishments, are all fundamentally concerned with the evolution of man, and when this knowledge is studied with as much application as are the ancient languages, we may expect to see humanity progress at a rate hitherto unknown. [sidenote: significance of the term "evolution"] the evolution of man has been very much misunderstood. the term "evolution" is a broad one. it may refer to the growth of the individual, or to the race. it may mean the development of strictly physical organs, or of mental habits, of social customs, or of material products of man's genius, as the great works of civilization in the form of recorded learning, and the wonderful products of man's building ingenuity as seen in modern cities. the subject of the evolution of the human race may be grouped into three general kinds of development or growth: the development of the physical man the development of the mind the development of custom and of external civilization evolution in these three directions has taken place simultaneously. the mind and the body depend upon each other for their life and actions; while customs are merely the product of many minds working together and communicating their ideas to each other. * * * * * the human race is but the sum of the individuals composing it. we cannot consider the development of the individual without considering him in his relation to the race, neither can we understand the development of the race without understanding the growth of the individual. [sidenote: difference between inherited and acquired characteristics] one distinction too often overlooked by those who are not familiar with physiological science is the difference between actual physical inheritance and external customs. i wish to dwell at length upon this distinction, because a lack of understanding upon this point has been the source of many errors of judgment on the part of those who have been interested in the subject of physical training and food science. at birth the individual inherits an organism with certain tendencies, both physical and mental, but this inheritance should not be confused with the physical habits which the child acquires by training from its parents and its associates. thus, the child may inherit a brilliant mind, a weak stomach, or a sixth finger, but the child does not inherit a liking for broiled lobster, or a fondness for golf, or for driving an aeroplane. these are acquired and developed as habits, the same as the child would learn english or french, or would cultivate a fancy for parting his hair in the middle, or on the left side. the three great proofs of the evolution of animal life at the present time scientists are agreed upon the general theory of the evolution of man. the discussions pro and con regarding this, which exist today, are either discussions of minor points which have not yet been clearly worked out, or are the discussions of people who have grasped only a portion of the idea of evolution, and who are ignorant of its broader conception and of the facts which science has brought to the light of day. the three great proofs of evolution are: the actual history of the past recorded as fossils in the rocks and in the relics of pre-historic races the existence in the world today of a range of animals and plants which shows living examples of earlier types the repetition of the development of man as found in the growth of the individual these three separate records of the development of living beings are considered by scientists as a most conclusive proof of the truth of evolution. recorded as fossils in the rocks, we find the story of the development of all life upon the earth, from its simplest to its highest forms of plants and animals that live today, among which is man. [sidenote: the earliest forms of animal life] the first forms of animal life were, in all probability, minute one-celled organisms; these left no visible fossil remains. as soon as animals developed hard parts in their bodies, such as shells and bones, we find a record of their existence as fossils. the earliest recorded forms of life were various kinds of sea-creatures, of which the modern crustacea (lobsters, etc.), snails, clams, and various shell-fishes are types. later were developed boneless fishes, on the order of skates. after these came true fishes; then amphibia (frogs, etc.); then reptiles, birds, and, last of all, mammals, including man. the facts are the same, whether we take the history of the successive forms as recorded as fossils in the rocks, or the living representatives that remain to tell the story in another form. [sidenote: the single cell is the nucleus] the third proof, which is the story of evolution recorded in the growth and development of the individual, is yet more interesting. as life developed from simpler forms, each individual animal or plant became more complex, or carried a little further the process of growth. but the method of reproduction of new individuals remained fundamentally the same. each individual began, like its ancestors, as a single-cell being. by the process of nutrition these single cells in each case would grow, divide, and produce various tissues and organs, but always repeating the general story of the development of the race. [sidenote: gills in the human embryo] the growth of the human embryo offers many proofs of evolution, which are wholly unexplainable upon any other theory of the origin of man, and would in themselves prove the truth of this view of man's creation were the proofs of geology entirely lacking. a single example will serve as an illustration. the human embryo at a certain period develops gill slits in the neck, the same as the embryo of a fish. this formation of unused or rudimentary organs which are afterwards outgrown, is very common throughout the animal world. in the upper jaw of a calf there are formed at a certain period incisor teeth, which never grow through the gums, but are reabsorbed and disappear as the calf develops. i will not go further into the proofs and facts of the general theory of the evolution of animal life, but will now consider the later period of the development of man, which will show us his relation to other animals, and from which we can derive much valuable information regarding his natural physiological requirements. man's animal kinship the conception of man being descended from a monkey has been the subject of much wit and mirth. [sidenote: man's relation to anthropoid apes] the scientist is not concerned with this theory; he only claims that man is very closely related to certain monkey-like forms known as anthropoid apes. the proofs of this assertion are abundant and conclusive. in fact, anthropoid apes, such as gorillas, chimpanzees and orang-outangs, are much more closely related to man than they are to other kinds of monkeys. this relation is shown by very close resemblance between the anatomy of man and apes, especially as to the teeth and digestive organs. other facts are now known, of which darwin and early investigators were ignorant, which prove this relation in a much more striking manner. [sidenote: comparison of blood from man and apes] late studies upon the growth of the embryo of anthropoid apes have shown that they were at certain periods almost indistinguishable from human embryos. another proof, quite striking and interesting, is in the similarity of the parasites and dis-eases of men and apes. scientists have, within the past few years, made a series of comparative investigations upon the blood and serum of men and apes, which have resulted in most remarkable discoveries. there are certain accurate tests known to the physiological chemist by which human blood may be distinguished from the blood of all other animals, but the blood of these man-like apes is an exception to this, and cannot be distinguished from human blood. [sidenote: difference in the development of man and apes] from these facts it is clear that the earlier types of men were creatures whose physical development and whose habits were not very different from those of apes. the development that has taken place since that time is truly very wonderful and has resulted in a widening gap between man and apes that today seems very great. the truth remains, however, that this gap is not so much one of anatomy and physiology as it is one of mentality and of external habits and material aids to living that have resulted from man's greatly developed mental faculties. [sidenote: power of speech a factor in man's evolution] thus, when the mind of man reached the stage of development in which the use of articulate speech became possible, the evolution of intelligence proceeded at a very much more rapid pace than had been possible before. he could communicate his ideas to his fellow-creatures; concerted action became possible, and the faculty of reason, or the ability to think was multiplied by the number of beings who could communicate with each other. the power of reason and the ability to communicate ideas resulted in the formation of those habits which distinguish man from other animals. when one primitive man learned the use of a club as a weapon, found how to use sharp-edged stones as cutting tools, or discovered the wonders and power of fire, he communicated his new-found knowledge to the other members of his tribe, with the result that new ideas became common property. [sidenote: man's bad habits have kept pace with his progress] this spreading of habits or customs took place very rapidly among men and was the source of the various changes which distinguished civilized life from savage life. but we must here point out that not only good habits were so spread, but bad ones as well. the origin and the use of opium and of alcohol, the injuries of fashionable dress and the economic wrongs of tyrannical government originated along with the birth of language, art, science, and all that uplifts and benefits mankind. clearly, then, that man is misinformed who defends a wrong by referring to its age and reasons that, if certain things were harmful, they would not have survived. to the young thinker the existence of harmful ideas and habits among mankind may at first seem inconsistent with the principles of the survival of the fittest, but this difficulty will disappear upon further investigation. [sidenote: factors that determine the survival of races] since the beginning of recorded history many factors have helped to determine what kind of individuals and races should survive. war, economic wealth and poverty, intellectual beliefs, religions, and social institutions have all been potent factors in determining who should survive. with wealth and conquest came the opportunity to gratify tastes and passions of which the poor individuals of weaker races could not avail themselves. [sidenote: many habits and customs detrimental to life and health] many of the habits and customs which man has developed are not necessary to life, and may be positively detrimental to health and longevity. they have been handed down from generation to generation, not because of their benefit to man, but in spite of their detriment. such condition of affairs would not be possible if man were not the dominant animal. man's intellectual supremacy has given him power over the rest of nature, which has resulted in making his struggle for existence much less severe. his use of weapons and of artificial protection from natural destructive forces, as severe heat or cold, has made it possible for him to live and to produce offspring in spite of wrong habits and wrong methods of living, and the natural resistance of life. [sidenote: man's organs have a limited power of adaptation] a prevalent error that is due to an incomplete knowledge of the facts of evolution is the belief that organs readily change or adapt themselves to the habits or environment of the individual. this is not true to the extent that it is ordinarily believed. each individual has a certain limited power of adaptation. he may develop his lungs to a greater breathing capacity, or train his hand for certain skilled work, but these particular acquired habits of the individual are not inherited. evolution of the race proceeds by the law of natural selection. thus, if those who are born with great vigor and strong lungs are enabled to live where their weak-lunged neighbors will die, the result will be that their offspring, having greater lung capacity, will form a race with increased lung capacity. but the individual training of the lungs, or of the hand, or of any other organ of the body, will not of itself change the inherited tendency, or, to use a common term of the scientist, the germ-plasm of the race. organs and functions will change or become evolved by natural selections; that is, where it is a matter of life and death. but where the selective agencies depend upon other things, an organ may be used or abused for thousands of successive generations, and yet the natural inherited organ of the new-born child will be identical in development and function to that of the remote ancestor. [sidenote: acquired characteristics are not inherited] there are abundant proofs that so called "acquired characteristics" are not inherited. were acquired characteristics inherited, chinese women would be born with small feet and the babies of the flathead indians would inherit the flat head which has for generations been produced by binding a flat stone on the soft skull of the new-born infant. in the light of this fact we may understand how it has been possible for man to live through the varying dietetic habits and customs that the constantly changing ideas and tastes of civilization have thrust upon his physical organism. each individual has transmitted to his offspring the same type of digestive organs and functions that he himself inherited from his remote anthropoid ancestors. [sidenote: meaning of expression "natural" diet] thus, such terms as "back to nature," "natural diet," etc., only mean to the food scientist the habits of life or the dietary which is most suited to the unperverted physical organism of man. they do not imply the meaning that is popularly given to the term, of casting aside all the habits and customs of civilized man, but only the adapting of these customs to the inherited physiological organism of man. indeed, science may actually improve upon primitive conditions, and still not be inconsistent with the requirements of the inherited physiological machine. no intelligent man will dispute the advantage of a house in a snowstorm. yet the house is artificial. it is not "natural" in the sense that the term is commonly used. or, again, man has by the aid of civilization rendered it possible for us to use foods far removed from their source of production, or, by preservation, to have them at seasons of the year when nature does not provide them. these artificial results of civilization are good. they are a part of the story of evolution, the benefit of which no one can question. [sidenote: man's dietetic development] but the great majority of the dietetic "frills" of modern man are actually unsuited to his physiological make-up, and exceedingly harmful. they have been developed as have habits of drink or personal adornment and may be in direct antagonism to the ultimate well-being of the human race. i have briefly reviewed the history of the evolution of man. the facts to be remembered are: that men are descended from earlier and more primitive types of beings and are governed by the same general laws of heredity and nutrition as are other forms of animals man, being a distinct species of animal, has particular laws that apply only to him, and therefore we should be careful not to judge him too closely by facts regarding other forms of animal life man has changed very materially in the few thousand years of his civilization, in his external habits and customs, but very little in his fundamental physiological processes; therefore we should be able to judge what will be best suited for his needs by studying the process of the development of his organs during the millions of years that preceded the historic period. this plane of life is best seen today in the case of savages unacquainted with fire, and in the case of anthropoid apes. with this general survey of evolution, and a clear understanding of the principles involved, i trust the reader will consider the facts here presented in the unprejudicial spirit of the true scientist. lesson xx sex and heredity the origin of sex that part of human life and living that is associated with the functions of sex and reproduction is at once the cause of the world's greatest misery and the world's greatest happiness. it is the subject of the greatest popular ignorance and superstition, and at the same time the field of the most wonderful of all scientific knowledge. for the origin of sex we must look back into the remote ages of creation in the early stages of organic evolution. [sidenote: fundamental function of the cell] the first essential property of matter that makes life possible is the power of nutrition, which means the ability of the living cell to transform other chemical substances into its own protoplasm or living substances. but this world would have remained a barren mass of igneous rock if nutrition had been the only function with which the earlier forms of life were endowed. not only must the living cell be enabled to grow by absorbing other substances, but it must reproduce itself, or multiply the number of living individuals. [sidenote: first form of reproduction] the first method by which this was accomplished was undoubtedly one of simple division; that is, the living cell grew by absorbing other substances and when sufficient size had been attained, divided, forming two daughter-cells. this division process of reproduction is the form by which all bacteria (so-called dis-ease germs) and many other lower forms of life increase their numbers. [sidenote: second form of reproduction] [sidenote: strength in fusion of cells] this process of reproduction, by simple division, was early supplemented by another process of reproduction in which two living cells first fused or combined and then divided to form two or more daughter-cells. this form of reproduction seems to have added stimulus or vitality to the organisms. the supposed reason for this is that the isolated cell was inclined to weaken or lose its chemical balance or tone. the exact nature of this deterioration is not very clearly understood, but in a higher form of life it is well illustrated by the tendency of certain plants to "run out" when grown continually in the same soil, or of animals to become weakened when inbred. at least, all scientists concede that with the process of fusion or the combining of two cells there is added a stimulating and invigorating force which enables life to combat more successfully the unfavorable elements of its environment, and to change or evolve into higher forms. [sidenote: sexual reproduction in plants] [sidenote: fertilization of orchids] throughout the range of plant and animal life this process of cell union, or sexual reproduction, has grown and become elaborated into most varied and wonderful forms. large volumes could be written describing the many wonderful adaptations of plant and animal life, the purpose of which is to secure sexual reproduction. all those who have studied botany are familiar with the many ways in which the seeds of plants are fertilized by pollen. for instance, certain species of orchids have a receptacle in the blossom, shaped like a teapot, which is filled with a fluid resembling water. this little teapot has an entrance and an exit. near the entrance is sweet-scented nectar which attracts the bee. as the bee passes through this gateway he is tripped up on a little trap-door arrangement and precipitated into the fluid. his wings having become wet, he is obliged to crawl out through the exit. [sidenote: the wonderful process of flower fertilization] the object of this elaborate device is as follows: in the entrance passageway is located the stigma (female organ), while in the exit passageway the male or pollen-bearing organ of the orchid is found. the bee visits several of these flowers consecutively, and, as he makes his exit from each flower, he bears away on his body a portion of the pollen, which is transferred to the stigma of the next flower visited; while the bee, being forced to go through a "plunge bath" before visiting another flower, acquires a fresh load of pollen in each case. this scheme is a certain means of securing fertilization or sexual reproduction, and positively prevents inbreeding (the fertilization of a flower by its own pollen). this is merely one of the wonderful adaptations of nature in the solution of the sex problem. [sidenote: reproduction among fishes] [sidenote: nature's wasteful methods] in the animal kingdom the methods of sexual reproduction are also varied and wonderful. in many of the lower forms of animals, such as the various sea-creatures, the methods of reproduction may be those of division, as first mentioned, or a method combining division with true sexual reproduction. in the case of fishes, the eggs of the female are deposited in the bottom of a stream and are later fertilized by the sperm-cells of the male fishes. this involves a tremendous waste of reproductive cells, scarcely less extravagant than the waste of pollen in plants, such as is seen in a corn-field when the ground becomes yellow, during the tasseling season, with the myriads of pollen grains that failed to secure lodgment upon the silks of the young ears of corn. [sidenote: reproduction in higher forms of life] in the types of animals that are of higher form than fishes, that is, reptiles, birds, and mammals, the fertilization of the germ-cell (egg) takes place within the body of the female. in the case of the latter group--mammals--the true egg is hatched within the body of the female, and the offspring, or embryo as it is known to scientists, grows there for a considerable period before birth. a rational view of sexual health the anatomy and the physiology of reproduction will not be considered in detail in this work, as this would require a very lengthy and technical treatise. the remainder of the lesson will be devoted to the relation of the reproductive functions to general health and happiness. [sidenote: development of reproductive instincts] in the process of evolution this function of reproduction was vitally essential to the life of the race. as a result there developed in all animal life strong sexual or reproductive instincts. as is plainly evident, all animals, including man, with such instincts most strongly developed would be the most successful in producing young, and through these offsprings the race or species would inherit like reproductive desires. [sidenote: kinship of the sexual, paternal and social instinct] in the case of man and the higher form of animals, this general instinct, the purpose of which was to produce offspring, became diversified in to many instincts. not only does the reproductive instinct in this broad sense include what is commonly known as sexual passion in man, but it may very truly be said to be the essence of sexual love and parental love. broad-minded scientists are even inclined to believe that the so-called social instinct or love for our fellowmen is but a distant reflection or shadow, as it were, of the original or natural instinct to produce offspring. there has arisen among civilized man a tendency to separate and class as two distinct things the strictly physical element of sexual desire, and the associate emotion of intellectual love between the sexes. as a matter of fact there is no distinct line of demarcation. [sidenote: overindulgence, degenerating and destructive] that the former instinct has grown into disrepute and has come to be considered a forbidden topic in polite society, is due to the fact that sexual passion, like all other human acts which may be a source of gratification, can degenerate by overindulgence into a destructive and demoralizing vice. this is equally true of other forms of appetite, but the reason that the instinct of sex, when degenerated, becomes such a tremendous source of destruction and death is because of the important part played in the game of life by the reproductive function. [sidenote: relation of sexual functions to the nervous system] the functions of reproduction are, in both sexes, very intimately and closely associated with the nervous or vital mechanism of the entire body. for this reason, when the sexual function are perverted or abused the result is serious injury to the general nerve tone or vital force of the system. likewise the contrary proposition is true; therefore, when for any reason, the general nervous tone or vital force of the body is deranged, the associated result is frequently abnormal passion or weakened sexual functions. [sidenote: necessity for popular knowledge concerning sex] a great deal of literature has been written and circulated throughout the country by well-intentioned individuals purporting to give popular knowledge regarding the subject of sex. but such literature has greatly exaggerated the evils and the dangers connected with sexual health. outside of specific germ dis-eases transmitted through the sexual organs, and which, while serious, have been painted much darker than the facts justify, there is little excuse for all this horror and scare about sexual weakness and perversion. [sidenote: relation of nutrition to sexual health] sexual health, like mental or muscular health, is a matter of common sense and right living. proper feeding, proper oxidation, proper circulation (exercise), perfect elimination of waste-products, and a suitable distribution of both mental and physical work will result in perfect nutrition. this means normal, wholesome body-fluids and body-cells. with these things gained, the sexual organs and sex-function will have a fair opportunity for normal existence, and the matter of sexual health, and the consequent happiness which accompanies it, is then simply a matter of temperance, common decency, and self-control. embryological growth--prenatal culture [sidenote: superstition concerning prenatal culture] upon the growth of the human embryo, or so-called prenatal culture, there exists a great deal of popular superstition, which is utterly groundless from the standpoint of accurate science. the views that have been promulgated regarding prenatal culture are for the main part harmless, and, for that matter, may be productive of good. [sidenote: theory of prenatal culturists] the idea of the prenatal culturist is that the mental as well as the physical growth and development of the unborn child can be controlled by the mother. the only ground for this belief is as follows: the child is nourished from the blood or nutritive fluid of the mother, with the result that the growth and the development of the child may be very readily influenced by the nutrition of the mother. [sidenote: influence of fright, anger, etc.] the mental condition of the mother has an influence on the growth of the child, but it is indirect. all organs and functions of the human body are controlled by the nervous system, and if the nervous impulse be deranged or weakened it may result in a serious impairment of nutrition. for this reason fright, anger, and other strong passions may result in lasting injury to the unborn child, but this injury is at most a matter of stunting or malnutrition, and cannot result in the voluntary mental life of the mother being transmitted to the child. [sidenote: mother's nutrition the only factor in influencing her child] as evidence of these assertions, i would call the reader's attention to the fact that there is no nervous connection whatever between the embryo and the mother, but after the fertilization of the germ-cell, the only way in which the mother can influence the growth of the child is by the nutrition which her blood supplies to the growing tissue of the embryo. [sidenote: birthmarks] as further proof of these statements, i will cite the investigations of darwin in regard to the popular superstition of birthmarks. at the instance of mr. darwin, some seven or eight hundred women of a london hospital were very carefully questioned before the birth of the child, as to any incidents which had happened that, according to popular notions, might result in birthmarks or deformities. in no instance was any incident given which resulted in the expected deformity; but the most interesting feature of the investigation was that several women whose children were born with birthmarks recalled, upon seeing the deformity, some incident which seemed to give a possible explanation, thus showing to the mind of anyone familiar with psychology that the true explanation of all so-called remarkable incidents of birthmarks and of prenatal influence is merely one of superstition or self-deception. heredity how often we hear someone remark upon the wonders of heredity. people are astonished because john should look like john's father. as a matter of fact, the astonishment should come the other way. the child is but a continuation of the life of the parents. the cells from which the child develops have within them the power to grow and to produce individuals like the parents. this is wonderful, but it is only another form of the wonder of a willow twig growing into a willow tree when placed in moist earth. [sidenote: why the child is not identical with parents] to the scientist, then, the wonder comes, not in the fact that the child resembles the parent, but in the fact that the child is not identical with the parent. part of the explanation of this lack of identity, or, as it is known to science, variation, is due to the fact of sexual reproduction; that is, to the fact that the child has two parents instead of one. [sidenote: microscopic study of reproductive cells] the physiological process which takes place in the union of two reproductive cells is truly most wonderful. of late years this has been studied under powerful microscopes and has resulted in some very wonderful revelations of the mysteries of nature. [sidenote: chromosoms in different species] the nucleus (center of growth) of the parent cells contains little thread-like structures known as chromosoms. these chromosoms are considered to be the physical basis of heredity. in each species of animal there is a definite and a different number. [sidenote: action of the chromosom] when the sperm-cell unites with the female or germ-cell, these thread-like chromosoms pair off and unite each chromosom with the corresponding structure from the other cell. the combined structures then divide, and half of each chromosom is cast out of the cell-nucleus, and plays no part in the life of the future being; the other half is retained and divides as each new cell is formed. thus we see that every part of the new individual is the result of the fusion or combination of the two parents. this explains the variation of inheritance, and through this source must be traced all traits of heredity. after the original fusion of these microscopic physical elements of heredity, the future development of the individual is wholly a matter of environment and nutrition. what heredity is [sidenote: general characteristics due to heredity] what heredity is and what it is not will now be considered in a practical way. it is clearly a matter of heredity that a man is born a man and not a monkey. likewise, it is clearly a matter of heredity that distinguishes the various races of men. we could go farther and trace out and describe many of the physical distinctions which mark families, and even individuals, such as general size of frame, form of countenance, color of hair and eyes, etc. [sidenote: characteristics not attributed to heredity] among mental traits we can safely ascribe to heredity only general distinctions. intellectual parents are more likely to give birth to intellectual children than are parents whose natural mental faculties are less developed. there is also no doubt that certain natural characteristics of mind, such as quick temper, musical ability, etc., may be inherited. the belief, however, in the inheritance of many less distinct features, both physical and mental, is not well established by scientific investigation. strength of muscle, control of the nervous system, susceptibility to, or freedom from dis-ease, etc., are more matters of nutrition and environment than of inheritance. the idea that consumption, alcoholism, etc., are inherited, or that the education or training of parents along certain lines will result in children with faculties adapted to similar education, is not in accordance with scientific knowledge. summary of facts regarding sex and heredity the function of sex has been developed in the process of evolution for the purpose of perpetuating life. the sexual functions are very closely related to the life of the individual, and can be normal only when the laws of nutrition and of general hygiene are observed. the idea of prenatal culture as commonly taught is a delusion; the only method that the mother can employ to control the growth of her unborn child is to live a wholesome, normal life, physically and mentally, and thus supply her own body and that of the child with perfect material for the building of living cells. the powers of heredity are often overestimated, and many of the weaknesses and disorders of life supposed to be inherent can be overcome by proper nutrition and environment. all life, whatever be the inherited tendencies, will be developed to the highest possible capacity by obeying the laws of individual growth, for in the individual, as in the race, nature is always striving to bring the products of her work to the highest degrees of perfection. lesson xxi rest and sleep rest [sidenote: opposing forces in nature] throughout all nature we observe the phenomena of universal rhythm, manifested in opposing forces, such as heat and cold, light and darkness, construction and destruction, etc. the human body is as much affected by this rhythm as is any other form of life. [sidenote: opposing forces in human system] there are two forces continually at work within us, one toward destruction and disintegration, and the other toward construction and upbuilding. the common physiological terms for these activities are "waste" and "repair," and we observe them as one of the distinct manifestations of the universal laws of growth, progress, and evolution. history moves in cycles. even the life of nations depends somewhat upon this same principle of the interplay of the positive and negative forces of life. [sidenote: life and death in changes of seasons] we see the same thing in the changes of the seasons upon the face of the earth. throughout autumn and winter there is a process of decay, death, and disintegration; leaves fall; plants and vegetables die; fruits ripen, fall and decay. this process continues until former beautiful and symmetrical bodies of matter are thoroughly disintegrated, and the particles once composing them are separated into their original elements, to be appropriated in new manifestations of life in springtime and summer. [sidenote: human body compared to a machine] we are inclined to think of the human body as a machine--a marvelous, intricate, and complex mechanism which serves our will and our desires; as a tool with which we work out our earthly destiny. but unlike man-made machines, it is self-repairing, self-adjusting, and contains within itself the forces of construction, which are constantly tending toward perfection, while our industrial machines are constantly tending toward their own disintegration and destruction. [sidenote: constant changes in body-tissue] every movement of the body, conscious or unconscious, even thought and emotion, use up some part of the body-tissue which must be replaced by new material. this constant change in the texture and the make-up of the body we call "metabolism," involving the functions of digestion, absorption, assimilation, and elimination. while we may regard the body as a machine, there are many points in which the favorite comparison to a steam-engine is not exact. [sidenote: favorite comparison of the body with the steam-engine] the inert metal composing the steam-engine has no power in itself, nor does power act through the different particles of metal, but it is controlled by the external application of force, which is the result of chemical changes caused by combustion in the fire-box. the metal of the engine has no part in the production of this energy. it does not need to take periods for rest, and if it were possible to supply it continually with water and fuel, it could run steadily from the time it was started until one or more of its essential parts were destroyed through friction. [sidenote: necessity for rest] but the engineer and the fireman who drive the engine find it necessary to rest from their labors at certain intervals, not merely for fuel and water, but to prevent serious destruction of body-tissue. this is true because man is compelled by hitherto unrecognized laws to give his body an opportunity, not only for readjustment in its composition, but also for the actual renewal of that power which animates him and makes him an intelligent, self-adjusting, and self-controlled being. the old physiology [sidenote: the stomach as a fire-box] [sidenote: phenomenon of rest and sleep] according to the teachings of the old physiology, our stomachs were fire-boxes of the human engine; food was fuel, and the stomach was supposed to transform this fuel into work or energy by a process not entirely clear. just as it is impossible for the lifeless iron and steel, within itself to transform coal and water into dynamic power, and to apply that power to its own locomotion, so it is impossible and entirely incompatible with reason for mere muscular tissue of the body to extract enough energy from the food we eat to perform the work necessary for that transformation itself, besides enough more to carry on all the functional activities of the system, and at the same time to do hundreds of foot-tons of physical labor. in this fact lies the key to some understanding of the phenomenon of rest and sleep. the old physiology was really never able to explain how it was possible for the digestive apparatus to extract, from the amount of food consumed, the enormous amount of energy which the average person expends each day. rest and re-creation [sidenote: change of occupation not re-creation] these terms are often confused. when one is engaged in some occupation or activity other than his regular vocation, it is commonly called "re-creation." this is a misconception, because it is merely a change in activity and must also be more or less destructive to other sets of nerves or muscular tissue. it is not in reality re-creation--it simply throws the life-power into a new channel, which is more responsive, and calls for less action from those parts of the mechanism which have been employed in the work from which one is seeking relief. it is for this reason that we find some pleasure in a new and different activity, though it, too, may be destructive to the human cell. [sidenote: specialization in business not conducive to health] one may alternate from one kind of activity to another indefinitely, which would be better than _no_ change, but the human mechanism would finally give way under such violation of fundamental law. the mental worker may change, however, to any manual labor requiring little thought, and the physical worker to some form of mental labor, with far better effect. but, in our present civilization, specialization has become so far advanced that the physical laborer is seldom qualified for mental work, and the mental worker has almost neglected manual training. _true rest and re-creation is found in mental tranquility and sleep._ sleep from observation and study of the state we call sleep, we notice that as night approaches and the activities of the day wear upon us, both the nervous and the muscular organisms relax, so that it becomes more and more difficult to maintain a positive and an active attitude of mind. there is a tendency toward cessation and rest, which gradually brings upon us that passive condition called sleep. [sidenote: evidence of acquired energy during sleep] in spite of the fatigue often experienced before we retire, we awake again on the morrow with renewed strength and power. from these and other reasons we are led to believe that during the hours of activity the body is constantly expending vital energy in both internal and external work, and that during the hours of sleep, through some unknown process, the body is charged with vital energy which is stored up and used gradually for carrying on the various functions and activities of the system. [sidenote: the mystery of energy] just what this energy is, just where it comes from, just how it is stored, just the manner in which it is delegated to the body, we cannot say. we can only observe its workings, or effects, and formulate therefrom a theory. we are led to believe, however, that this energy is stored in the nervous organism, perhaps most largely in the brain, as brain tissue is the last to break down or waste away in sickness, ill health, dis-ease, or starvation, often maintaining its full weight up to the point of death. [sidenote: vital processes expend energy during sleep] even in sleep the expenditure of energy in the vital processes continues vigorously, depending upon conditions immediately preceding sleep, but usually in a much more passive degree than in the waking hours. these activities, however, are no more pronounced in their constructive action or repair, than in ordinary periods of rest during the waking hours. some reasons [sidenote: food furnishes but a fraction of the total body-energy] the processes of nutrition, alone, demand the expenditure of much energy, and the degree of energy available from foods, even by perfect combustion, would yield but a fraction of the energy expended by the body. [sidenote: energy required for work in excess of energy obtained from food] the average laborer in shoveling coal, swinging an axe or a pick, expends energy far in excess of the amount that could possibly be obtained from his food. a day laborer may eat a piece of beefsteak, two or three potatoes, and a few slices of bread, and will shovel twenty tons of earth to a height of five feet; a japanese soldier will carry a heavy load and walk all day, subsisting only on a handful of rice, and besides this, will do some thinking, which consumes energy. [sidenote: evidence gained from "fasts" and "no breakfast" plan] we also have on record fasts, of from thirty to forty days, which, in some cases, show a slight gain in strength. there are also hundreds of students of natural living who adopted the "no breakfast plan" and again many, only one meal a day, limiting their consumption of food to comparatively small quantities of nuts, fruits, and vegetables, who have found thereby a remarkable increase in vitality, strength, and general physical and mental power. [sidenote: relation of sleep to expenditure of energy] since the processes of nutrition, including digestion, circulation, assimilation and excretion consume energy, and notwithstanding this we are able to perform hundreds of foot-tons of labor a day besides; since we have found it possible to continue to live, and in some cases to even increase the amount of strength and work-power on a very limited diet; since it is a mathematical impossibility to produce as much energy from the food consumed as the body expends, we are forced to the conclusion that we do not obtain all our energy from food. therefore, from a careful analysis of the phenomenon of sleep, we conclude that it is very closely connected with this mystery. oxidation and air [sidenote: relative importance of air, food and water] one of the most important of the vital functions is breathing. physiologists, teachers, and lecturers continually remind us of the comparative time we could live without food or water, and the remarkably short time we could live if entirely deprived of air. [sidenote: oxygen not the only required element in breathing] oxygen is vitally necessary for the purpose of purifying the blood and supplying the various tissues and fluids in the body, of which oxygen forms an important constituent. however, oxygen is not the only necessary element which is utilized by the system in the process of breathing, as human beings die immediately upon being placed in a receptacle of undiluted oxygen. just what this other factor is, science has not clearly defined, but that it is concerned with rest and sleep we have at least unconsciously recognized, as shown by our often referring to periods of rest as "breathing spells"; from the fact that we have found it of great importance to keep the air we are breathing moving constantly about us, especially while asleep. from all these facts we are forced to believe that sleep plays an important part in producing and maintaining body-energy, besides constantly recharging the system with oxygen. lesson xxii a lesson for business men that which tends to make a good business man, in the popular mind, is the establishment of great industries and enterprises, coupled with accumulation of money by the individual. a careful review of the history of business men who have made a success along these lines shows that the majority of them sacrificed their health and their lives to their business. in the last and final analysis, therefore, these were not good business men. the best musician is he who can bring more sounds into harmony. the best artist is he who can best harmonize colors and reproduce nature. likewise, the best business man is he who can best harmonize or balance the affairs under his control. health being entirely under and within his control, if he disregards it--gives it no thought--violates the laws that govern it, and finally wrecks it, he is not a good business man, as all business depends upon the power of the individual, and the powers of the individual depend upon his health. [sidenote: examples of poor business men] the man who, from a cheap tin store, founded "the fair" in chicago, and allowed the business to dethrone his reason, and to send him to his death before he was sixty, could hardly be considered a good business man. measured on the same scale, marshall field, the merchant prince, was not a good business man. president roberts, who arose from the ranks of a car-wheel molder, to the presidency of the pennsylvania railroad, and died at the age of fifty, was not a good business man. j. p. morgan, who accumulated many millions of dollars, and who died when he should have been in his prime, was not a good business man. [sidenote: wealth at the expense of health] the accumulation of money and the founding of great industries is only one requisite of the business man, and by no means the most important one. what profiteth a man to make a great fortune; to put in motion a million spindles; to chain continents together with cables; to flash his silent voice over oceans and continents on currents of common air; to make the ocean's billowed bosom a commercial highway; to transform the oxcart into a palace, and set it on wheels and hitch it to the lightning; to build sky-scraping structures of stone and steel; to transfix human figures and faces on sensitized glass; to direct the methods of burrowing in the earth for coal and gold until his name is known around the world, and his fortune is a power in the land?--what boots it, i say, to know all these things and to glide blindly into the shambles of unrest and dis-ease, or to furnish a fashionable funeral at forty? [sidenote: the abnormal, or one-idea man] the religious fanatic who robes himself in sackcloth and eschews the razor; the food crank who cries out "back to nature," and takes to grass; the one-idea social reformer who preaches on the curb, and the business man who allows his business to become his absolute master and governor, are in reality all in the same class. the unfortunate thing is that the business man sits him down and weaves about himself the meshes of a prison. every year puts in a new bar, every month a new bolt, and every day and hour a new stroke that rivets around him what he calls business, until he feels and really thinks he cannot escape. a good business man a good business man is the man who can direct the wheels of industry, who can draw a trial balance between his income and his expenses, and who can measure his own ability on the yardstick of endurance. [sidenote: qualities of a good business man] he is a good business man who gives as much study to the laws of his own physical organization as he does to the organization of his business, and in the final analysis i doubt if he would not consider himself a better business man, "penniless," and in good health at ninety, than sojourning in a sanatorium with a million at his call, but out of the fight at fifty. [sidenote: knowledge of health-laws a public necessity] it is truly unfortunate that the general laws of health and hygiene are not more universally taught and understood. we learn that best with which we are thrown in most frequent contact. the business man would absorb enough information on these subjects to extend his period of longevity and usefulness many years, if they were taught in our public schools, or were matters of general knowledge. the routine life of the average business man [sidenote: bad habits of the business man] he rises between six and seven a. m., takes no exercise or fresh air; eats a breakfast composed largely of acid fruit, cereal starch, meat, and coffee. he then goes at once to his business, sits at a desk until noon, takes luncheon at a neighboring cafe. this repast is composed of meat, cereal, or potato starch, beer, or coffee. he hurries back to his business, sits at his desk five or six hours longer, hurries home, takes a dinner composed of more meat, more starch, more tea or coffee--no exercise, no diversion, no association with the great authors; no music, no poetry, no change. [sidenote: the ancient remedy for nature's warnings] a friend may come in, or he may go out to visit; then comes the soothing and soporiferous cigar which may have been his companion since breakfast. the market, the business, the chances for making or losing dollars are the topics of discussion. he is in the power of his master, "business," and must do him continual obeisance. within the domain of the tyrant he lives, moves, and has his being. if he has a headache, sour stomach, indigestion, a tinge of rheumatism, dizziness, insomnia, nervousness, or any one of the thousand symptoms or warnings that nature gives him for the violation of her laws, instead of thinking a little and trying to ascertain the cause, he sends, with "chesty pride," for his physician, and his physician writes out something in a dead language--the only suitable language. the local druggist sends over the "stuff," and it is swallowed with that childish confidence that fitly becomes the modern business man who knows a great deal about business, but nothing about himself. the days and the months go on, the symptoms or signals become more numerous, more expressive, more impressive, more painful. his physician is called more often; the dead language paper goes to the druggist more frequently, and with faith he still swallows the drugs; they relieve him for a little while, usually by paralyzing the little nerve fibers that are carrying to the brain the messages of warning. [sidenote: the ancient system declared a failure] his physician finally acknowledges a trip, or a sanatorium. it is either this procedure or the fate that befell messrs. roberts, morgan, colonel ingersoll, and the uncounted thousands who had no reputation beyond the domain of their own locality, and of whom we never hear. some suggestions for a good business man [sidenote: twelve health rules for the business man] don't allow your business to become your master. don't discuss business at home, or in social life. immediately on rising, take a cool shower bath, followed by vigorous exercise before an open window. eat a very light breakfast an hour after rising, eliminating tea, coffee, white bread and meat. walk to your business, if possible; breathe deeply. eliminate woolen underwear; dress as lightly as possible. take an hour for luncheon. omit tea, coffee, tobacco, beer, and sweets. keep your office well ventilated. secure competent help and trust them. love some one or some thing--a dog will do. leave your office early enough to walk home, or at least a part of the way. masticate your food infinitely fine, and by all means _do not overeat_. this is the crowning sin of the civilized table. take from ten to fifteen minutes exercise before retiring; sleep in a cold, thoroughly ventilated room. spend as much time as possible in the sunshine and open air. drive an automobile, play golf, join a gymnasium, dance, sing, kick and play with the boys, for it is infinitely better to dig in the ditch for your dinner and be able to digest and enjoy it, than to lie invalid in your self-made prison, and perhaps die. (probably if the truth were written on your tombstone, it would read: there was a fool who made a fortune, but he died; the world called him great, but it lied.) lesson xxiii exercise and re-creation program for daily exercise _every morning, just after arising, take a cup of water, and go through the following deep breathing exercises_: exercise no. [illustration] stand erect, feet about inches apart, extend arms above head, clasping hands and holding elbows rigid, inhale deeply. bend toward the left and try to touch the floor with the clasped hands as far from the foot and to the rear as possible. exhale while returning to position. inhale deeply, reversing motion to the right. this movement should be repeated about times. exercise no. [illustration] rest the body upon tips of toes and the palms of the hands. move the body up and down as far as possible, bending only at the waist line. if this position is too strenuous the tension can be reduced by resting on the elbows, knees, or both, while executing the movement. inhale deeply while taking this exercise, and exhaust the breath suddenly, as if coughing, with the downward motion. this movement should be repeated about times. exercise no. [illustration] rest the hands on the rim of a bathtub or on two chairs placed about feet apart. assume position shown by cut. lower the body until chest touches the knee; rise, bringing the other knee under the chest, repeating the movement. execute this movement rapidly as if running, rising first on one foot and then on the other, from to times. if sufficiently strong, this can be taken without support for the hands. this exercise is especially recommended for those suffering from constipation. _every evening, just before retiring, take a glass of water and go through the following movements and deep breathing exercises_: exercise no. .--same as in the morning. [illustration] exercise no. stand erect, feet about inches apart, inhale deeply and strike a blow toward the left with the right fist, passing the left fist behind the back. alternate this movement, striking toward the right with the left fist, giving the body a swinging and twisting movement. exercise no. [illustration] stand erect, feet about inches apart, hands clasped over head, elbows rigid, inhale deeply. bend toward the left, describe a complete circle with the clasped hands. exhale when erect. reverse, describing a circle in the opposite direction completes the movement. lesson xxiii exercise and re-creation exercise [sidenote: civilization prevents the play instinct] the child from the time it begins to walk until it is ten or twelve years old, or until the pressing hand of necessity forces upon it the power of restraining duty, will in a great measure obey the play instinct or the natural laws of exercise. however, our complex industrial organism forces most of us into its vortex at the very time we are beginning to change the body from the youth to the adult, and the responsibilities with which we are laden, the struggles we carry on, prevent the majority from giving attention to and maintaining a system of development exercises which is so vitally important, and which would provide a great store-house of energy to be drawn upon in after years. inasmuch, therefore, as the conditions under which we exist prevent the free play of our instincts, and the exercise of our natural desire for certain kinds of play or motion, it becomes necessary for us to devise a method of overcoming the repressing influences that crush out the play instinct of civilized man. constructive exercises [sidenote: constructive period of life from ages to ] constructive exercises should be taken and practised regularly between the ages fifteen and twenty-five. it is largely during this period that the physical condition of the body for the balance of life is determined. [sidenote: poisoning and purifying the blood] many a college youth, endowed by nature with a sound physical body and a healthy brain, has irreparably injured both by sitting on the end of his spine with his feet higher than his head, poisoning his blood with tobacco narcotics from a stylish pipe and failing to keep it purified by obeying the laws of motion and of oxidation. constructive exercises should employ every muscle in the body long enough once in every twenty-four hours to generate sufficient heat to cause perspiration, or at least to force twice the normal quantity of blood to the lungs for purification. exercise thus taken up to the point of fatigue, and of sufficient duration to use all the nutrition taken in the form of food, will, under favorable conditions, build the body to its highest degree of physical strength, provided we keep nature supplied with the right kind of material (food) with which to do her work. exercise for repair [sidenote: in mature life exercise only for repair] after the body has reached maturity, or attained its full growth, the only exercise needed is for repair. this it must have or nature will inflict her inexorable sentence in some form of congestion. [sidenote: why the "trunk" requires exercise] in various industrial and professional pursuits the legs, neck, and arms are used enough to keep them in a fair state of repair. that part of the body, therefore, that suffers most for want of motion, or exercise, is the trunk. in this part of the anatomy are located the vital organs controlling not only the circulation and the oxidation of blood, but also those organs upon whose normal action depend solely the questions of digestion, assimilation of food, and elimination of waste. [sidenote: if properly nourished the body will demand a certain amount of exercise] if the food is selected, combined, and proportioned so as to produce chemical harmony in the stomach, and to meet the requirements of age, temperature of environment, and work, the body will be kept sufficiently charged with energy to demand a certain amount of exercise. if the command is obeyed the body can be trained to work automatically, as it were, but where the vocation is sedative, or prevents obedience to these demands, the trunk should be exercised in the open air from thirty to forty minutes daily by flexing, tensing, twisting and bending in every possible way, long enough and rapidly enough to double the normal heart action and inhalations of air. physiology of exercise [sidenote: necessity of motion for body development] by motion (exercise) the muscles are stimulated in growth, becoming larger and more firm, thus giving strength and symmetry to the body. food, without proper motion, will not develop muscular tissue to its highest degree. exercise must be taken to stimulate the growth of the tissues forming the muscle-cells. among the benefits derived from exercise, the following may be noted: [sidenote: growth produced by exercise] first: surplus nitrogen is usually cast from the body as waste matter when it is not deposited as muscle tissue by proper exercise. if the diet is balanced, regular exercise will add this nitrogenous substance to the muscle-cells far beyond normal growth, thus causing an actual increase in the size and the number of fibres. [sidenote: brain and nerve force increased] second: a second benefit derived from muscle activity is the consequent change that occurs in brain and in nerve activity. there are certain cells in the brain and in the nervous system which control the movements of the muscles. when these cells are not used, they degenerate, but their use in exercise is not only beneficial in developing a well-rounded nervous mechanism, but also in strengthening the brain-cells that are used in intellectual work. [sidenote: blood circulation increased] third: a third and perhaps most important of all the benefits to be derived from exercise is the general increase in the circulation of the blood. the muscles form a larger proportion of the body-weight than any other group of organs. when general exercise involving the larger muscles is participated in, the demand for food material in this particular muscular tissue is so great as to cause a notable increase in the strength and in the rapidity of the heart beat, and consequent deep breathing. this acceleration of the circulation continues long after the exercise has ceased, thus replenishing and building up the muscles. as a result of the better circulation of the blood, all organs receive an increased blood-supply, and every part of the body shares in the general improvement. this explains why one can do better brain work, or digest food with greater ease after taking moderate exercise. [sidenote: evil effect of long-continued exercise] exercise is constructive up to the point of fatigue, but beyond that point it is destructive. the waste products of all cell-metabolism are harmful and poisonous. when exercise is long continued, the waste matter accumulating therefrom weakens or poisons the cells that secrete them. [sidenote: different forms of exhaustion] the products of cell-metabolism are of two classes, and each class has different effects. the first is due to oxidation. a runner, who falls exhausted from shortness of breath, has simply been suffocated by the excess of carbon dioxid in his muscles. after the breath is regained, or, in other words, after the body has had time to throw off the carbon dioxid, the runner is in nearly as good condition as before. a more lasting and serious form of exhaustion is due to the accumulation of nitrogenous decomposition products, which, not being in a gaseous form, cannot be thrown off from the lungs, and hence are not as rapidly or as easily removed from the tissues. the presence in the tissue of these waste-products is the cause of extreme weakness and fatigue. [sidenote: the causes of soreness or stiffness of the muscles] the well-trained muscles contain only healthy protoplasm, and give off but a small percentage of nitrogenous decomposition products. let the well-fed person who takes but little exercise, run half a mile, or play a simple game of ball, and the following day the muscles will be stiff and sore; this unusual exertion has caused the breaking down of much loosely organized tissue which could have been made firm and healthy by daily muscular activity. [sidenote: why vegetarians have more endurance than meat eaters] those subsisting upon a low nitrogenous diet, especially vegetarians, are affected much less by fatigue than meat eaters whose muscles contain larger quantities of unnecessary nitrogen and nitrogenous decomposition matter. [sidenote: the diet governs the production and the accumulation of body-waste] the common laws of health demand that sufficient motion be taken every day to prevent the accumulation of carbon dioxid or waste matter throughout the body. both the production and the accumulation of waste matter depend very largely upon the diet. all animal flesh (food) is undergoing gradual decomposition, and adds its waste matter to that of the body, therefore meat eaters require a much greater amount of exercise to maintain a given standard of blood-purity than do vegetarians. systems of physical culture numerous schools of physical culture and artificial methods of exercise have flourished in all civilized countries within the past few years. this fact emphasizes the pressing need for a general change in our methods of living. the various systems of indoor exercise popularly taught are at the best weak substitutes for the more natural and wholesome forms of combined exercise and re-creation found in outdoor life and outdoor sport. some of the methods referred to are as follows: [sidenote: tensing] tensing, which consists of slow movements in which opposite muscles are made to pull against each other. the student can easily grasp the principle involved in this system, and from his own ingenuity extend it as fully as he desires. [sidenote: vibratory exercises] vibratory exercises, which are somewhat similar to the tensing system; however, instead of slow movements, the arms or other portions of the body are moved with a rapidly vibrating motion. the effect produced is essentially the same as in the tensing system. [sidenote: heavy-weight exercises] heavy-weight exercises, consisting in the use of heavy dumb-bells or other apparatus in which the actual physical pull exerted by the body in moving the weights is sufficient to try the muscles to their maximum capacity. this system of exercise should be discouraged; while it may add to the mere lifting strength, it takes from the muscles their flexibility, and from the body its agile and supple activity. [sidenote: indoor exercises] indoor exercise with light apparatus such as wooden dumb-bells, indian clubs, wands, swedish and delsartic movements. these forms of exercise, which compose most physical culture drills, as given in schools and gymnasiums, are to be highly recommended. for adults, however, such exercises require considerable indulgence in order to gain much physical benefit therefrom. [sidenote: exercise for school children] [sidenote: dancing as an exercise] exercises of this nature are especially well adapted to school children. they depend upon the rhythm of the music, the good fellowship of their companions, and the pride of keeping up with the class to make them interesting. for this reason they are not suitable to the individual who must exercise alone in his room. dancing can well be considered in this class, and could be highly recommended as an important exercise and re-creation, were it not so frequently associated with loss of sleep and other forms of intemperance. [sidenote: importance of outdoor exercise] [sidenote: exercise for the city dweller] all of the above systems are not only at the best imperfect, but poor substitutes for natural exercise, and not likely to be kept up by the ordinary sedative worker. every individual should, so far as possible, indulge in some form of outdoor exercise, which gives all the advantages of the indoor systems, together with the added advantages of fresh air, mental pleasure, long range of vision, and the general exhilaration that comes from close contact with nature. however, for the city man outdoor exercises are too difficult to be practised with sufficient regularity to bring the desired results; therefore, it is best to adopt some definite daily program of vigorous muscular exercise which will keep the body in fair physical condition. exercises of this kind should be made a regular daily habit, and though at times a little tiresome, can, by practise, be made to become the expected thing, so that the day will not seem complete until the daily exercises have been taken. [sidenote: exercises giving the best results] from long experience i have found that the following exercises give the greatest benefits with the least expenditure of time and labor. they are all especially designed to promote healthy action of the vital and the abdominal organs which are so much neglected by the average person. program for daily exercise every morning, just after rising, and every night, just before retiring, take a glass or two of pure cool water and execute vigorously the following movements: exercise no. exercise no. --stand erect, feet about thirty inches apart. extend arms above head; clasp the hands; hold elbows rigid, and inhale deeply. bend toward the left and try to touch the floor with the clasped hands, as far from the foot, and as far to the rear as possible. exhale while returning to position. inhale deeply, reversing motion to the right. this movement should be repeated from to times. exercise no. exercise no. --rest upon the tips of the toes and the palms of the hands. move the body up and down as far as possible, bending only at the waist line. if the movement is too difficult in this position, the tension may be reduced by resting on the elbows, or on the knees, or on both. inhale deeply, and exhaust the breath suddenly as if coughing, with the downward motion. this movement should be repeated from to times. exercise no. exercise no. --rest the hands on the rim of a bathtub, or on two chairs placed about two feet apart. assume position shown in cut. lower the body until the chest touches the right knee; rise, and lower the body until the chest touches the left knee. execute this movement rapidly as if running, rising first on one foot and then on the other, swinging the body from side to side with each step or movement. this exercise is especially recommended for those suffering from torpidity of the liver, or from constipation. it should be executed from to times. exercise no. exercise no. --stand erect, feet about thirty inches apart. inhale deeply, and strike a blow toward the left with the right fist, passing the left fist behind the back. alternate this movement, striking toward the right with the left fist, giving the body a swinging and twisting movement. exercise no. exercise no. --stand erect, feet about thirty inches apart, hands clasped overhead, elbows rigid; inhale deeply. bend toward the left, describing a complete circle with the clasped hands. exhale when erect. reverse; describing a circle in the opposite direction completes the movement. this exercise should be executed from to times. re-creation [sidenote: idleness contrary to natural law] [sidenote: exercise necessary for assimilation and elimination] the small boy who described work as "anything you don't want to do," and play as "anything you do want to do," had in his mind the fragment of a great truth. true re-creation should afford diversion, entertainment, and work. the average business man who is threatened with a breakdown, and who goes away for a rest, should in reality go to work, but it should be a different kind of work from his routine duties. no one was ever benefited by idleness; it is contrary to nature--contrary to the universal laws of construction which govern all forms of life. if digestion and assimilation have been impaired, if, from errors in eating, or from sedative habits, congestion has taken place in the alimentary tract, then muscular work becomes absolutely necessary in order to use more nutrition, to eliminate more poison and waste, and to increase and normalize the peristaltic activity of the intestinal tract. [sidenote: hunting and fishing] the business man who likes to hunt and to kill innocent animals; who runs, walks, and thinks, and perspires in the effort, is taking a good kind of re-creation--perhaps the best he knows; but the fat man who sits in a boat all day and catches fish that he cannot use, or slays a cart-load of ducks that he has deceived with a decoy, has received neither benefit nor re-creation; he has only yielded to his primeval instincts to secure his food by slaughter and has been merely entertained--probably debased. [sidenote: true re-creation] [sidenote: worthless objects for which men struggle] true re-creation for the mental worker is manual work--labor in the open air that requires but little thought. every business man who values the sacred heritage of health, should provide himself with a place where he can go one day out of each week and chop wood, prepare soil, plant or harvest something, get close to mother nature, and receive the blessings of her life-giving sun by day, and rest in her open arms at night. men are but big children, and, like the child who cries and reaches for the bubble because it reflects the prismatic colors of the sun, most of the things for which they struggle are equally as worthless and deceptive. [sidenote: the triad of all that is best in life] mental supremacy, which means the keenest sense of love, justice, and mercy, that great triad of all that is best in man, is all that really pays. if, at the close of every life, the question, "what has brought most happiness?" could be answered, it would be, "the gratitude of my fellow men." the average business pursuit is not conducive to this end. it is unfortunate that commercial and financial success are too often secured by methods that produce just the opposite results, therefore the whole life-work of the average man is really reduced to no higher object than that of securing food and shelter, which is the primitive occupation of the lowest forms of life. [sidenote: rest in solitude] one day in the week spent close to the soil with gentle cows and horses, affectionate cats and admiring dogs that have no "axe to grind," and one night every week spent in thought and reflection under the wilderness of worlds that whirl through the abyss of space, will sharpen the senses of love, justice, and mercy, give true diversion, true entertainment, true work, and true rest. index a acetanilid _vol._ _page_ composition of, ii effects of, ii acidity sub, symptoms of, ii ---- remedy for, ii ---- diet in, ii super, chart indicating dis-eases caused by, i acids nitric, i ---- properties of, i hydrochloric, i ---- uses of, i ---- preparation of, i ---- elements of, i ---- purpose of, i ---- formation of, i bases of, i ---- tests for, i ---- neutralization of, i relation of bases to, i organic, i ---- properties of, i acetic, i ---- process of making, i oxalic, i lactic, i malic, i tartaric, i citric, i uric, in rheumatism, v air composition of, i liquefaction of, i and oxidation, v relative importance of food, water and, v albumin sources of, i solubility of, i coagulation of, i alcohol varieties of, i effect of, ii a poison, ii aldehydes and ethers, i alkalis principles of neutralization of, i rules governing neutralization of, i amido compounds, i ammonia composition of, i uses of, i amylopsin properties of, i appendix (veriform) dis-eases of (see appendicitis), ii functions of, ii appendicitis symptoms of, ii treatment of (mild cases), ii a natural remedy for, ii diet in, ii list of foods for, ii chronic cases of, ii ---- treatment for, ii ---- causes of, ii diet a factor in, ii coarse food a factor in, ii old diagnosis of, ii menus for, iv appetite lack of, iv difference between hunger and, iv arterio-sclerosis causes of, i food in, i assimilation definition of, iii asthma described, ii causes of, ii symptoms of, ii remedy for, ii diet in, ii foods to eat in, ii foods to omit in, ii athletes selection, combination and proportioning of food for, v summer diet for, v winter diet for, v suggestions regarding diet in exposure to extreme cold or for exertion, v autointoxication defined, i bacteria in, i meat a factor in, i b bacteria discussed, i origin of, i not all harmful, i species of, i producers of, i fermentation produced by, i growth of, i meat a producer of, i bananas varieties of, iii how to select and ripen, iii how to bake, iii bile defined, i function of, i purposes of, i biliousness cause of, ii symptoms of, ii remedy for, ii what to eat, ii what to omit, ii bran meal, composition of, iii ---- bread made from, iii wheat, composition of, iii ---- medicinal properties of, iii blood, the antipepsin in, i glucose in, i process of oxidation of, ii corpuscles of, ii automatic action of, ii incorrect feeding cause of impurity of, ii defective circulation of, ii exercise a factor in poisoning and purification of, v increase of circulation of, v bright's dis-ease described, ii causes of, ii symptoms of, ii prevention of, ii treatment for, ii general suggestion in feeding in, ii foods to eat in, ii foods to omit in, ii bromin defined, i business man a lesson for, v examples of poor, v wealth at the expense of health for the v the abnormal, v what is a good, v qualities of a, v routine life of the average, v bad habits of the average, v the ancient remedy for the average, v the physician of the average, v twelve rules of health for the, v - butter composition of, i its value as a food, i caloric value of, i cocoa, how made, ii cocoanut, composition of, ii home-made, how to make, iii buttermilk how made, iii butyrin defined, i c calories definition of, i method of determining numbers of, i carbohydrates classification of, i monosaccharids, i disaccharids, i polysaccharids, i purpose of, iii carbon sources of, i forms of, i properties of, i monoxid, properties of, i combining power of, i and hydrogen compounds, i dioxid of, i nature of, i casein sources of, i vegetable, i catarrh described, ii causes of, ii symptoms of, ii remedy for, ii diet for, ii foods to eat in, ii foods to omit in, ii nasal, iv ---- food a factor in, iv ---- water drinking in the treatment of, iv ---- menus for, iv cellulose in nutrition, i value of, i chart showing number of so-called dis-eases caused by superacidity, i cheese processes of making, i ripening of, i digestive value of, i limburger, i manufacture of, i chemistry its relation to food science, i combustion in, i common elements of, i number of elements in, i examples of changes due to, i symbols of, i list of elements in, i organic, i of foods, i of digestion, i of metabolism, i colds described, ii causes of, ii , iv symptoms of, ii overeating a cause of, ii exposure a cause of, ii remedy for, ii foods to use for, ii turkish baths for, ii value of fresh air for, ii foods to eat for, ii foods to omit for, ii cocain habit, ii uses of, ii in medicines, ii coffee composition of, ii effect of drinking, ii cooking chemical changes produced by, iii starch, reasons for, iii of food, an excuse, iii food for animals, government experiments on, iii a habit of civilization, iii object of, iii grains, iii vegetables, iii en casserole, iii rice and macaroni, iii fruits, iii ---- canned, iii chloroform uses of, ii chlorin sources of, i properties of, i uses of, i chocolate see (cocoa), ii coal tar products evil effects of, ii cocoa analyzed, ii compounds chemical, i ---- derivatives, i carbon, i ---- inorganic, i ---- action of, i ---- organic, i ---- and hydrogen, i ---- organic, classification of, i ---- hydro, i alcohols, i glycerin, i aldehydes, i ethers, i organic acid, i ---- nitrogenous, i ---- ---- importance of, i amido, i vegetable, ii confections evil effects of, ii from the standpoint of food value, ii allowable, ii prohibited, ii congestion defined, v constipation milk a relief for, i relation of milk to, i milk diet for, i wheat bran, laxative effects in, ii whole rye a remedy for, ii ---- wheat, a remedy for, ii ---- barley, a remedy for, ii ---- oats, a remedy for, ii causes of, ii remedy for, ii suggestions for relief of, ii menus for, ii exercise in, ii beverages causing, ii what to eat for, ii what to omit for, ii in infants, v a factor in nervousness, v consumption conflicting opinions regarding the cause of, ii conditions and occupations predisposing causes of, ii modern treatment of, ii general diet in, ii spring and summer diet in, ii special suggestions for treatment in mild cases of, ii hygienic rules in, ii breathing in, ii sleep in, ii what to eat in, ii what to omit in, ii nature's remedy for, iv foods in, iv the use of the spirometer in, iv d diabetes described, ii causes of, ii symptoms of, ii remedy for, ii diet for, ii diet in extreme cases of, ii foods to eat in, ii foods to omit in, ii special instructions regarding, ii diagnosis purpose of, ii only correct, ii of "lump" in the stomach, ii diarrhea causes of, ii cathartics in, ii treatment of, ii diet in, ii diet important considerations regarding, i importance of correct standards in, i of primitive man, i flesh, unnecessary, i milk and eggs not a balanced, i wheat, ii for constipation, ii for nervous indigestion, ii in subacidity, ii suggestions in obesity, ii in neurasthenia, ii in catarrh, ii in hay fever, ii in asthma, ii in influenza, ii in insomnia, ii in rheumatism, ii in diabetes, ii in consumption, ii in heart trouble, ii in dis-eases of the skin, ii in appendicitis, ii errors in, ii for cold weather, iv for hot weather, iv three classes of, v the normal, v radical changes in, v make patient agree with, v during embryonic period, v for children (ages to years), v special instructions regarding simplicity in feeding, v - in old age, v ---- importance of, v for normal athlete, v (summer) for athletes, v (winter) for athletes, v in climatic extremes, v - under normal conditions, v digestion chemistry of, i uses of, i malt in, i energy required in, i mental influence upon, i secretion of juices in, i important rules to observe to insure good, i experiments in, i mechanics of, i action of enzyms during, i food prepared for, i during sleep, i how affected, i x-ray experiment in, i comparative, of cooked and uncooked grain, iii true interpretation of the word, iii necessity for thorough mastication an aid to, i "bolting" of food in, i secretion of enzyms in, i digestive experiments to determine the amount of food the body uses, i to determine percentage of waste in food, i to determine amount of time required to pass through the body, i to measure what percentage of food taken is digested, i to determine what foods aid digestion, i to determine what foods hinder digestion, i to determine the laws governing the production of chemical harmony, i to approximately determine the amount of undigested food, i to determine the digestibility of each particular food, i digestive juices gastric juice, i ---- composition of, i ---- formation of, i ---- action of, i pancreatic juice, i ---- composition of, i ---- action of, i amylopsin, properties of, i trypsin, properties of, i steapsin, properties of, i bile, i ---- function of, i pepsin, i ---- action of, i saliva, i ---- secretion of, i the influence of the mind upon the action of the, i digestive organs chemical changes in, i peristaltic action of, i disaccharids cane sugar, i beet sugar, i maltose, i lactose, i digestive tables inaccuracy of, i dis-ease difference between ease and, i indications of, ii true diagnosis of, ii defined, ii classification of, ii nature's warning, ii dis-eases of the skin kinds of, ii causes of, ii eczema, ii ---- treatment of, ii ---- diet for, ii disorders (common) their causes and cure, i drugs analysis of, ii declining use of, ii alkaloids in, ii opium, ii morphin, ii cocain, ii nux vomica, ii strychnin, ii quinin, ii acetanilid, ii laudanum, ii paregoric, ii codein, ii lyoscine, ii atropin, ii hellebore, ii chloroform, ii ether, ii chloral, ii mercury, ii potassium iodid, ii purgatives and cathartics, ii authentic information on, ii supposed magical effect of, ii e eating flesh produces appetite for stimulants, i ---- habit disappearing, i correctly a cure for the drink habit, ii over, ii ---- causes of, ii scientifically, iii eczema described, ii treatment of, ii chronic, diet in, ii menus in, iv eggs food value of, i composition of, i nutritive contents of, i as a diet for convalescents, i tables of digestive harmonies and disharmonies of, iii how to coddle, iii uncooked, iii baked omelet (how made), iii elements chemical, in the body, i chemical, i ---- number of, i mineral sulphur, i hydrogen sulfid, i carbon disulfid, i emaciation (underweight) effects of, ii causes of, ii mental factors in, ii symptoms of, ii remedy for, ii important factors in, ii foods in, ii milk and eggs in, ii constipation a factor in, ii chronic, its cause and remedy, ii extreme, diet in, ii weight, tables in, ii in infancy, v energy food, a producer of, i how measured, i fat chief source of, i grain a source of, ii explained, iii determined, iii the mystery of, v food and, v required for work, v relation of sleep to expenditure of, v enzyms properties of, i fermentation due to, i malt, a digestive, i ether uses of, i evolution of man evolution, what it is, v study of man in the, v significance of the term, v difference between inherited and acquired characteristics in the, v the three great proofs of the, v early forms of animal life in the, v the single cell, nucleus in, v development of the human embryo in the, v animal kinship in, v blood comparisons in man and apes, v difference in the development of man and apes, v power of speech a factor in, v habits and progress in, v factors that determine survival of races during the, v habits and customs detrimental to life in, v changes of organs in, v "natural" diet in, v dietetic development in, v facts regarding the, v exercise a necessity, ii in infancy, v in childhood, v constructive ages - , v for purifying the blood, v properly nourished body demands a certain amount of, v physiology of, v growth produced by, v brain and nerve force produced by, v blood circulation increased by, v evil effects of long continued, v different kinds of exhaustion produced by, v the causes of soreness or stiffness of the muscles due to, v endurance of vegetable composition with meat eaters, v body waste in, v tensing as an, v vibratory, v heavyweight, v indoor, v for school children, v dancing as an, v importance of outdoor, v for the city dweller, v that give best the results, v exercise program for daily exercises exercise no, , v exercise no, , v exercise no, , v exercise no, , v exercise no, , v exhaustion causes of, ii f fasting (and no breakfast plan) data secured from, v fats composition of, i formation of, i mineral, i olein, i butyrin, i butter dairy, i butter artificial, i stearin, i oleomargarin, i rancid, i digestion of, i unwholesome, i metabolism of, i absorption of body, i human, i distinction between tallow, lard, olive oil, i animal, i chemical change in frying, i chemical difference in, i effects of heat on, iii tables of digestive harmonies and disharmonies of, iii purpose of, iii a source of heat, i the chief source of energy, i fermentation causes of, i , ii symptoms of, ii results of, ii remedy for, ii diet for, ii fish nutrients in, i as brain food, i superior to flesh food, i selection of, iii preparation of, iii fluorin a gas, i action of, i food preparation of, i chemistry of, i , i how to select, i how to combine, i how to proportion, i how to determine quantity, i science, i , i importance of, i classes of, i analysis of, i maltose in, i predigested, i manufacture of, i predigested, comparison of, i mastication of, i - digestibility of, comparative, i fermentation of, i decomposition of, i determining quantity of, i values, i breakfast, i tissue builder as, i importance of protein in, i standards of, i endurance tests of, i government standards of, i dietary standards of, i correct dietary standards of, i quantity required, i proportion of fat required in, i fallacy of nitrogenous, i influence of religion on, i a factor in producing physical and mental power, i unscientific to use meat as, i rare meat unfit for, i in contagious dis-eases, i fish as a, i superiority of fish as a, i oysters as a, i clams as a, i shell-fish as a, i poultry as a, i superiority of poultry as a, i comparative analyses of, i feeding of poultry for, i cheese as a, i butter considered as a, i wheat considered as a, ii grain as a remedial, ii white potato as a, ii relative value of salads as, ii relative value of water melon as a, ii relative value of musk melon as a, ii honey compared as a, ii life dependent upon, ii substitution of, ii staples, ii list of constipating, ii list of laxative, ii that reduces fat, ii in obesity, ii in locomotor ataxia, ii to eat in case of colds, ii to eat in catarrh, ii in hay fever, ii combinations, iii quantity an important factor, iii instinct a safe guide in selecting, iii tables, how to interpret, iii tables of digestive harmonies and disharmonies, iii fats, iii eggs, iii milk, iii nuts, iii grains, iii vegetables, iii acid fruits, iii sweet fruits, iii sugars, iii simple classification of, iii based on principal nutritive substances, iii purposes of different classes of, iii difference between digestibility and assimilability of, iii table showing comparative assimilability carbohydrate and water content of various classes of food, iii purpose of the vieno table in, iii vieno system of, iii values, measurement of, iii values, measurement of--(old system), iii amount of nitrogen in, incorrect standards, iii incorrect standards of measurement of, iii what constitutes a true, iii explanation of vieno system of food measurement, iii edible portion of, iii how to reduce foods to vienos, iii nitrogen factor in, iii direct method of calculating available nitrogen in, iii , iii curative value of, iii for children (see menus for children), iii in cirrhosis of the liver, iii in consumption, iv - in pregnancy, iv selection, combination and proportion of, v , v according to age, v according to time of year, v according to work or activity, v and energy, v relative importance of air, water and, v formaldehyde uses of, i an artificial preservative, i a poison to the human system, i fowl selection of, iii preparation of, iii fruits composition of, ii dietetic value of, ii effect of acid, ii classification according to acidity, ii evils of acid, ii value of sub-acid, ii value of non-acid, ii canned, ii evaporated, ii fresh, ii tables of digestive harmonies and disharmonies of acid, iii tables of digestive harmonies and disharmonies of sweet, iii bananas, iii g galactose formation of, i game as a food, i gas dilatation (gastritis) symptoms of, ii - what to eat in, ii what to omit in, ii causes of, ii remedy for, ii food to be used in treatment of, ii gastric juice composition of, i formation of, i its action on fat, i rennet of the, i gastritis (also see gas dilatation), ii causes of, ii symptoms of, ii diagnosis of, ii treatment of, ii diet in, ii food in, ii what to eat in, ii what to omit in, ii globulins sources of, i properties, i types of, i glucose percentage in the blood, i function of, i manufacture of, ii composition of, ii uses of, ii an article of food, ii glycogen sources of, i formation of, i gout causes of, ii symptoms of, ii remedy for, ii diet in, ii what to eat in, ii what to omit in, ii grain cooked, i government experiments with, i uncooked, i nutritive value of, ii wheat, ii rye, ii barley, ii oats, ii corn, ii rice, ii buckwheat, ii uses of, ii as a remedial food, ii tables of digestive harmonies and disharmonies of, iii gums varieties of, i h habits man a creature of, i hay fever described, ii symptoms of, ii remedy for, ii diet for, ii foods to eat in, ii foods to omit in, ii health influence of mind on, ii laws of, ii definition of, ii heart trouble gas, a cause of, ii - early symptoms of, ii medical misconceptions of, ii causes of, ii diet for, ii exercise for, ii heat production of, i body determination of, i a measure of energy, i units, i hemoglobin component parts of, i hemorrhoids (see piles), ii heredity, v so-called wonders of microscopic study of reproductive cells in, v chromosoms in different species, v action of, v what it is, v characteristics not due to, v summary of facts regarding sex and, v hernia causes of, ii honey food value of, ii composition of, ii human ills chiefly due to dis-eases and conditions originating in the stomach, i (see chart showing dis-eases caused by superacidity), i hydrocarbons definition of, i uses of, i where found, i how formed, i hydrochloric acid how formed, i action of, i its importance in digestion, i chemical symbols of, i hydrogen where found, i physical properties, i chemical properties of, i gas, i i indigestion (acute) important suggestions regarding, iii treatment for, iii what to eat in, iii infant feeding great mortality due to wrong, v two points of view on, v mothers' milk in, v general rules to be observed in, v modification of milk in, v preparation of food in, v quantity of food in, v frequency of feeding, v disastrous results of too frequent, v importance of cleanliness in preparation of food, v constipation in, v composition and color of stools in, v temperature of food in, v general instructions in health and hygiene, v influenza described, ii causes of, ii symptoms of, ii remedy, ii diet for, ii food in, iv insomnia causes of, ii remedy for, ii diet for, ii foods to eat in, ii foods to omit in, ii similarity of symptoms in nervousness and, ii intestinal juices definition of, i action of, i inulin value of, i iodin description of, i iron salts of, i in patent medicines, i l lactose where found, i indigestion, i laws natural, i laxatives loss of vitality due to, ii harmful results due to use of, ii legumes defined, ii familiar types of, ii rich in nitrogen, ii require thorough mastication, ii levulose composition of, i defined, i litmus solution tests for, i liver, the, i functions of, i cirrhosis of, ii ---- causes of, ii ---- symptoms of, ii ---- treatment for, ii ---- stimulants in, ii ---- what to eat in, ii ---- atrophic, iii ---- hypertrophic, iii ---- food in treatment for, iii locomotor ataxia causes of, ii drug treatment harmful in, ii symptoms of, ii remedy for, ii diet for, ii exercise in, ii massage in, ii cured, obstinate case of, ii foods to eat, ii foods to omit, ii lungs, the functions of, ii m malnutrition cause of, ii remedy for, ii maltose composition of, i how formed, i meat fallacy of lean, i source of autointoxication, i classified, i composition of lean, i extractives of, i prejudice against pork, i cold storage of, i decomposition of cold storage, i "ripened", i scientific objections to use of, i medicines effects of, ii ancient belief concerning, ii unscientific uses of, ii menus for normal children (_from to years of age_) spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii (_from to years of age_) spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii (_from to years of age_) spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii for normal persons (_from to years of age_) spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii (_from to years of age_) spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii (_from to years of age_) spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii (_from to years of age_) spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii (_from to years of age_) spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii (_from to years of age_) spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii menus, curative introduction, iii for superacidity (abnormal appetite) spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii for sour stomach and irritation of stomach and intestines spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii for sour stomach, intestinal gas and constipation spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii stomach and intestinal catarrh spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii fermentation, intestinal gas, fevered stomach and lips, cankers on tongue spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii constipation (chronic) nervousness spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii constipation, autointoxication, low vitality spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii gastritis spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii nervous indigestion spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii nervousness for business man, thin, nervous, irritable--insomnia--stomach and intestinal trouble spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii for subacidity indigestion (chronic) spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii biliousness headache--sluggish liver spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii headache--torpid liver spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii cirrhosis of the liver general remarks, iii food to be used in, iii menu no, spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii menu no, spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii diarrhea spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii diarrhea--dysentery spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii emaciation--underweight--rather anemic spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii run down condition--flatulency--underweight spring, iii summer, iii fall, iii winter, iii low vitality--underweight--weak digestion spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv obesity--irregular heart action--nervousness spring, iv remarks, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv abnormal appetite--obesity--drowsiness spring, iv summer, iv remarks, iv fall, iv remarks, iv winter, iv decreasing weight--increasing strength spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv neurasthenia spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv malnutrition spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv for a youth anemia--malassimilation--underweight--no appetite spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv locomotor ataxia spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv colds spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv nasal catarrh late spring }, iv early summer} late summer }, iv early fall } late fall }, iv early winter} late winter }, iv early spring} hay fever spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv asthma spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv influenza foods in, iv menus for (see menus for colds, catarrh, hay fever and asthma), ii insomnia--nervousness--low vitality spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv rheumatism--gout--lumbago--sciatica--arthritis spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv anemia--sluggish liver--rheumatic tendency spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv stiffness and pain in joints--stomach trouble--constipation--intestinal gas--irregular heart action spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv bright's dis-ease spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv diabetes spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv weak lungs--consumption general menu, iv tubercular tendency--constipation--nervousness--catarrh spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv tendency toward intestinal congestion spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv dis-eases of the skin--eczema spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv weak digestion--nervousness--slight eczema spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv appendicitis spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv for the pregnant woman food in pregnancy, iv - menus spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv for the nursing mother foods to omit, iv foods to use, iv menus for the nursing mother spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv miscellaneous weak digestion (almost invalid) spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv building up the nervous system--increasing vitality spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv for aged person--building general health spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv (healthy person) strength and endurance spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv malassimilation and autointoxication spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv no appetite distinction between appetite and hunger, iv spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv athletic diet spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv (chiefly uncooked) spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv for invalid child--making muscular tissue--regulating bowels spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv for mental worker--to increase brain efficiency spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv for school teacher--anemia--sluggish liver--underweight--nervousness spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv laboring man underweight--anemic (lunch in shop) spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv diet for cold weather, iv diet for hot weather, iv hot weather menu for the prevention of sunstroke and heat prostration, iv suggestions for the prevention of sunstroke, iv menus for building up sexual vitality spring, iv summer, iv fall, iv winter, iv suggestions for persons undergoing moderate amount of exposure, v menus between temperature and ° f, v between temperature and ° f, v menus for nervousness spring, v summer, v fall, v winter, v - menus curative and remedial, iii , iv for constipation, ii for obesity, ii choice of, iii normal, iii introduction to, iii mercury and its salts, ii metabolism chemistry of, i process of, i described, i liberation of energy through, i carbohydrates in, i of fat, i of proteids, i metals salts of, i uses of, i iron, i milk sour, discussed, i mothers, i food values of, i a perfect food, i cows, i composition of cows, i varieties of cows, i nutritive value of, i coagulation of casein in, i harmonies, i adulteration of, i in sour stomach, i preservatives in, i pasteurization of, i natural souring of, i why constipating, ii tables of digestive harmonies and disharmonies, iii morphin habit, ii uses of, ii mother, the prospective general rules for, v the corset, v exercise, v deep breathing, v mental occupation, v special rules for, v suggestions for the diet for abnormal appetite during pregnancy, v selection of food, v starchy foods during pregnancy, v n narcotics classification of, iii nasal catarrh, iv nervousness true meaning of, v relation of nutrition to, v causes of, v constipation a factor in, v primary causes of, v effect of stimulants in, v overwork not a factor in, v remedy for, v effects of wrong eating and drinking in, v special instructions for persons suffering from, v recreation in, v relation of sexual functions to, v nervous indigestion described, ii causes of, ii symptoms of, ii remedy for, ii diet for, ii remarks on, iii neurasthenia described, ii a final warning, ii causes of, ii - symptoms, ii remedy, ii importance of diet in, ii mental attitude in, ii what to eat in, ii what to omit in, ii nitrogen described, i properties of, i compounds of, i daily amount required, i body requirement of, i grain a source of, ii proportion in lean meat, iii in food, how to compute, iii a factor in food, iii method of calculating available amount in food, iii nutrition science of, i relation of sexual health in, v nuts pine, ii ----, composition of, ii almonds, ii pecans, ii brazil, ii walnut, english, ii hazel, ii butter, ii beech, ii cocoa, ii peanuts, ii as heat producers, ii nitrogen factor in, ii tables of digestive harmonies and disharmonies of, iii o obesity prevention of, i remedies for, i , ii unnatural, ii the law governing, ii weight tables in, ii causes of, ii eating in, ii drinking in, ii exercise in, ii use of fats in, ii chronic, diet suggestions in, ii foods that produce, ii foods that prevent, ii foods in, ii menus for, ii symptoms resulting from change of food in, ii foods to eat in, ii foods to omit in, ii oils formation of, i composition of, i olive, i cotton seed, manufacturing of, i , ii vegetable, i vegetable, value of, ii poisonous, i grades of olive, ii peanut, value of, ii palm, ii linseed, ii old age meat and bread as articles of diet in, v uric acid in rheumatic conditions in, v soluble starches desirable in, v importance of diet in, v diet for the three periods in old age from - years of age, v from - years of age, v from - years of age, v special spring and summer menus for ages - , v fall and winter menus for ages - , v how food should be prepared for people between ages of - , v olein defined, i oleomargarin described, i how made, i opium composition of, ii effect of, ii oxygen a substance, i - manufacture of, i production of, i properties of, i chemical action of, i effect of, i a heat determiner, i not the only required element in breathing, v oxid nitrous, i oxidation of the blood, i of waste matter, i laws governing, i and air, v oysters (and clams) unfit for food, i p pancreas, the functions of, i pain a warning, i patent medicines defined, ii why alcohol is used in, ii per cent of alcohol in, ii pentoses from the standpoint of human food, i pepsin action of, i phosphorus uses of, i physical culture systems of, v tensing in, v vibratory exercise, v heavy weight exercise, v indoor exercises, v physiology the old, v piles causes of, ii symptoms of, ii treatment for, ii diet for, ii poisons body, i generated by fear, i alkaloid, ii narcotic, ii polysaccharids starch, i glycogen, i cellulose, i gums, i inulin, i potassium iodid effect of, ii poultry method of fattening domestic, i marketing undrawn, i "hanging", i practise of dietetics, the introduction, v general treatment in, v scope of scientific feeding in, v the value of letters in, v the art of polemics in, v value of booklet describing your work, v ability to prepare your own copy, v value of experience in, v diagnosis in, v diet in, v educate your patient in, v patient should agree with the diet, v mental factors in, v publicity necessary in, v value of truthful publicity, v some cures too remarkable to advertise, v courtesy an asset in, v prenatal culture embryological growth in, v superstition concerning, v theory on, v influence of fright, anger, etc, in, v mother's nutrition the only factor in, v birthmarks, v proteids defined, i classified, i peptones, i proteoses, i uses of, i replace worn-out cells, i action of, i converted into peptones, i composition of, i form body fat, i excess of, i animal requirements of, i digestibility of grain, ii effect of heat on, iii purpose of, iii ptomains formation of, i purgatives salts as, ii q quinin uses of, ii r recipes for coddled eggs, iii uncooked eggs, iii baked omelet, iii for preparing green peas in the pod, iii pumpkin, iii vegetable juice, iii sassafras tea, iii rest forces at work during, v changes during, v human body at, v change in body tissue during, v comparisons regarding necessity for, v confusion of terms, v rest and re-creation necessity for, ii phenomenon of sleep and, v where found, v idleness in, v exercise necessary for assimilation and elimination, v hunting, v fishing, v true re-creation, v worthless objects for which men struggle fail to give, v the triad of all that is best in man the goal to strive for, v in solitude, v rheumatism described, ii causes of, ii symptoms of, ii remedy for, ii diet in, ii ---- natural versus artificial, ii perspiration in, ii what to eat in, ii what to omit in, ii s saccharin food value of, i saliva secretion of, i mastication and, i salt common, i in the body, i magnesium, i mineral origin of vegetable, i sex relation of sexual functions to the nervous system, v necessity for popular knowledge concerning, v relation of nutrition to sexual health, v summary of facts regarding heredity, and v silicon in the body, i sleep evidence of acquired energy during, v the mysterious production of energy during, v expenditure of energy during, v and its relation to the expenditure of energy, v soap process of making, i solution in nutrition, i in assimilation, i examples of, i starch sources of, i potato, i solubility of, i corn, i changing of, i stomach, the, i functions of, ii disorders originating in, ii "lump" in, ii catarrh of, iii strychnin effect of, ii sugar grape, i ---- sources of, i , ii pentose, i levulose, i galactose, i cane, i maltose, i lactose, i effects of heat on, iii tables of digestive harmonies and disharmonies, iii food value of, ii beet sugar, ii cane, value of, ii process of refining, ii maple, genuine, ii ---- imitation, ii milk, ii sulfur in the human body, i sunstroke prevention of, iv superacidity chart indicating dis-eases caused by, i cause of, i , ii diagnosis of, ii symptoms of, ii remedy for, ii despondency produced by, ii sweets relative order of, ii application of term, ii symptoms comparison of, ii t table of weights and measures, iii tea composition of, ii temperature fat requirements according to, v tissue building food a factor in, i process of, i generation of heat and energy in, i proteids a factor in, i tobacco effect of nicotin in, ii general effect of, ii treatment by disinfection, ii trichinosis described, i trypsin action of, i v vegetables groups of, ii succulent, ii ---- value of, ii juices of, ii white potato, ii sweet potato, ii carrots, ii parsnips, ii turnips, ii beets, ii tomatoes, ii tables of digestive harmonies and disharmonies of, iii vegetarianism from animal standpoint, i from standpoint of scientific living, i w water composition of, i properties of, i rain, i hard, i mineral, i salt, i effervescent, i sulphur, i distilled, i as a solvent, i chemical uses of, i proportion in the body, i uses in the body, i drinking, i necessity for drinking, ii wheat composition of, ii * * * * * +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | transcriber's notes: | | | | added 'd' to index heading of d words. | | 'shall fish' in index need be 'shell-fish', changed. | | added 'g' to index heading of g words. | | added 'h' to index heading of h words, misplaced. | | index human illa 'orginating' need be 'originating' in the stomach. | | taken out hyphen in 're-creation' from index. | | put in hypen in 'diseases' in index as in main text. | | both 're-creation' and 'recreation' present, leaving. | | taken out hyphen in 'stand-point'. | | taken out hyphen in 'tea-pot'. | | p. . removed duplicate chapter heading in html file. | | index, o - old age: from - years of age v ' ' | | need be ' ', changed. | | fixed various punctuation. | | note: underscores to surround _italic text_. | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ none transcriber's note: text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). small capital text has been replaced with all capitals. [illustration: publisher's mark] _home and world series_ how we are fed a geographical reader by james franklin chamberlain, ed.b., s.b. department of geography, state normal school los angeles, california new york the macmillan company london: macmillan & co., ltd. _all rights reserved_ copyright, , by the macmillan company. set up, electrotyped, and published june, . reprinted january, june, august, : july, ; january, ; august, december, ; september, ; august, ; august, ; june, . norwood press j. s. cushing & co.--berwick & smith co. norwood, mass., u. s. a. preface in the ordinary course of events, most individuals take some part in the manifold industries which engage the mind and the hand of man, by which alone our present-day civilization can be maintained. these great world activities touch the daily life of _every_ member of society, whether child or adult, worker or idler. a chain of mutual dependence, too often unrecognized, binds together the members of the human family, whether they belong to the same community or dwell on opposite sides of the earth. the links of this chain are made up of the articles which constitute our daily food, our clothing, homes, fuel, light, our means of communication and transportation, and only by continuous coöperation are they kept together. the highest motive in education is to present the conditions which will lead to the most complete living; to build up the best possible members of society; to develop character. an individual who does not understand the life of which he finds himself a part, cannot be in full sympathy with its conditions and hence cannot be of the most service to himself or to others. only to the extent that education and life follow the same general course, can each be truly successful. far too little is done in our schools to acquaint children with their relations to the great industrial and social organization of which they are members. even grown persons have, as a rule, a very indefinite knowledge of these relations. it is a recognized principle that our knowledge of geography has its foundation in our knowledge of the home. the natural connecting link between the immediate surroundings and the outside world is the _present daily life of the home_. through the industries seen in the community, the commodities in general use, and the history of their creation and supply, the pupil acquires an insight into the life about him as well as into that of other parts of the world. he also realizes the great truth that the world and its people are in intimate touch with _him_. in this way he is led back and forth along the routes which civilization has followed in its progress, which it also follows to-day, as mankind clasp hands across oceans and continents. thus the remote and abstract become immediate and concrete. facts are seen in a setting of reason, and a logical and interesting basis for the study of physical, climatic, and human conditions is furnished. this study begins with the commodities in constant use and finally encompasses the whole world, but always with the home as the base of operations. it will create a knowledge of the interdependence of individuals, communities, and nations, and a genuine respect for the work of the hands and for the worker. the importance of this respect is not likely to be overestimated. without it a true democracy cannot long exist. reading should not only serve for the acquisition and the expression of the thought contained in the printed page; it should, in addition, stimulate to _new_ thought--to independent power in reasoning. on this account questions are inserted which the pupil is left to answer. these are suggestive of a much larger number, which should be worked out by the teacher. too many of the questions found in books do not "stimulate thought" or "independent power in reasoning." they are purely informatory and not at all formative. no attempt has been made to treat every article of food. those in most general use, as well as those which will best serve to develop a knowledge of geographical conditions and of man's relation to man, have been chosen. a given industry is pursued in somewhat different ways in different places. it has not been thought wise to describe each modification in these pages. for example, the method of handling wheat in california is different from that employed in minnesota. the value of the work will be increased if the teacher will bring out these points. _all places mentioned should he definitely located_, both as to position on the map or globe and with reference to the home. when developed from the standpoint of direct, personal interest, a knowledge of the location of places as well as of other facts mentioned is most likely to be retained. the illustrations used have been very carefully selected for their _teaching value_. they give a clearness to mental pictures which can be derived only through observation of that which the illustrations symbolize. much experience in the use of geographical illustrations has shown that pupils need to be directed in their examination of them. to secure the best results they must be made the centers of thought-developing questions. thanks are due the pillsbury-washburn flour mills company of minneapolis, the swift packing company of chicago, the walter baker company of dorchester, the united fruit company of new orleans, and dr. charles u. shepard of pinehurst plantation, for the excellent illustrations furnished by them. james franklin chamberlain. state normal school, los angeles, march, . contents page the past and the present the story of a loaf of bread how our meat is supplied market gardening dairy products butter making cheese the fishing industry oyster farming a rice field how sugar is made beet sugar maple sugar where salt comes from macaroni and vermicelli on a coffee plantation the tea gardens of china a cup of cocoa a cranberry bog the cocoanut islands of the pacific a bunch of bananas how dates grow the orange groves of southern california a visit to a vineyard nutting a walnut vacation chestnuts a bag of peanuts assorted nuts a strange conversation how we are fed the past and the present long, long ago people did not live as we do to-day. their homes were very different from ours, for they were made of the skins of wild animals, of the limbs and bark of trees, or of tall grasses. there were no stoves, chairs, tables, or beds in their houses. instead of lamps, gas, or electricity, a fire on the dirt floor or in front of the house, furnished the light. the clothing of these people was as simple as their homes. it was made of skins and furs in cold countries and in warm countries of braided grasses and the fibers of certain plants. you may be sure that tailors and dressmakers were not consulted as to the latest styles, for the styles did not change and there were neither tailors nor dressmakers to talk to. each family made its own clothing, and there was not a sewing machine to be found. how would you like to use a bone for a needle? sometimes, instead of sharpened bones, long thorns were used. the sinews of the deer, or of some other animal, usually furnished the thread. when the people were in need of food, they went into the forest and gathered roots, nuts, and fruits. wild animals were killed by means of such weapons as bows and arrows and spears, and fish were caught in the lakes and streams. the food was not cooked as ours is; for, as i have told you, there were no stoves. sometimes the meat was broiled over the fire, sometimes baked in a hole filled with ashes and coals, but it was often eaten raw. it was not easy to have a variety of food, and there were times when it was very difficult to obtain anything. when food was abundant, the people feasted, and when it was scarce, they were often hungry. how would you like to wait for your breakfast while your father went to the woods or to the river in search of something to eat? when the meals were prepared, they were not neatly served as yours are, but each person took his portion and sat on the ground while he ate it. [illustration: fig. .--indians at dinner.] all of this seems very strange to you, i know. if you live in the city, you are accustomed to seeing the butcher, the baker, the milkman, and the grocer call every day. there are stores where people can buy whatever they want to eat, drink, or wear. you wonder how any one could live in such a way as i have described, but there _are_ people who live in this fashion to-day, although you have never seen any of them. they are _uncivilized_. where do you think they are to be found? when people live in this way, it takes most of their time to provide themselves with the things that are necessary to life. they have little opportunity to improve their ways of living and of thinking. civilized people divide their work. some provide food, some make clothing, some build houses, and some furnish fuel. each one does his or her part. in this way, you see, they learn to do their work better and better, because each gives much time and thought to one kind of work. this plan gives each one time to study and to learn something about the world and its people. think how much better our homes, our clothing, and our food are, than are those of uncivilized people, and how many other advantages we have. [illustration: fig. .--white people at dinner.] it is only possible to live as we do, when each one works for others as well as for himself. if any one fails to do his part, the rest must suffer until some one is found to take his place. it is to prepare yourself to do _your part_ in some useful work for others, that you are going to school day by day. you do not now know just what that work is to be, but i want you to remember that _all_ honest work is noble. it is not so important _what work_ you do, as it is that you should do your work _well_. no matter what your work may be, you can carry sunshine in your face and helpfulness in your heart. if you do this, you will be known and loved. hard work, coarse clothes, and lack of money can never hide these things, neither will the finest of clothing cover a selfish or untruthful nature. let us look at this dinner table loaded with good things to eat and drink. there are bread, butter, meat, vegetables, milk, tea, fruits, and other things. you see at once that many persons must have worked to provide this food, for only a small part of the work was done in the kitchen. if these things could but speak, they might tell you stories as wonderful as fairy tales. they have been gathered here from the fertile plains of the west, from the sunny south, from brazil, from the islands of the pacific ocean, from far-off china, and even from the waters of the sea. the story of a loaf of bread in the dark granary of a farmer's barn in north dakota once lived a modest family of grains of wheat. the bright, warm days of the summer time, during which they had been placed in this dark room, soon grew shorter and cooler. the swallows, whose mud nests were in the rafters overhead, told the wheat brothers that winter was coming, and then flew away to the balmy southland. soon biting winds and blinding snow came sweeping over the level land. sometimes the farmhouse was almost hidden under the drifts, and the farmer had to shovel out a path to the barn, so that he could feed the horses and cattle. by and by the days grew warmer, the snow disappeared, and the birds returned one by one. the farmer and his men got out their plows and harrows, and prepared the soil for the seeds soon to be planted. the wheat was now shoveled into sacks and taken to the fields. here it was placed in great machines drawn by horses, which scattered it evenly over the land and at the same time covered it with soft soil. the men whistled and sang as they worked, and blackbirds, bluebirds, and larks flew back and forth, singing and searching for bugs and worms, as well as for the shining kernels of wheat. the wheat was not content to remain underground, but kept trying to push itself out into the world. one night there came a warm shower, and the next morning what looked like tiny, green blades of grass appeared all over the field. all through the spring and summer the wheat kept growing, and finally there appeared at the ends of the stalks clusters of kernels, just like those which the farmer had planted. some of these kernels had produced families of twenty or thirty. these clusters are called _heads_. [illustration: fig. .--harvesting wheat in southern california.] as the south wind passed over the field it brought the wheat messages from minnesota, iowa, illinois, indiana, and other states, telling of relatives who were already turning golden in the summer sunshine. one day some of the kernels thought they heard a voice from california. do you think they did? the grain in some of the fields was called _winter wheat_. this was because the grain had been sown the autumn before, and had remained in the ground all winter, covered by a blanket of snow. why was it sown in the fall? the wheat of which i am telling you was called by the farmer _spring wheat_. soon machines, each drawn by several horses, appeared. they cut the waving grain, and bound it up in bundles called _sheaves_. these were set up in double rows to dry, and afterward put into another machine which separated the kernels from the stalks, which were now called _straw_. this work the farmer calls _threshing_. see if you can find out how this used to be done. after threshing, the wheat was put into sacks and taken to the nearest railroad station. freight cars then carried it across the level prairies to the beautiful city of minneapolis, built beside the falls of saint anthony. what river is this city on? of what use are the falls? there are tall buildings called _elevators_ here in which the wheat was stored for a time. before being put into the elevators it was examined and _graded_. as there was wheat from many farms it could not be kept separate, so each farmer was told how much he had, and how it graded. [illustration: fig. .--threshing wheat in southern california.] some time after this the wheat was taken to one of the great mills to be ground into flour. the largest of these mills manufactures about fifteen thousand barrels of flour every day. this is the largest flour mill in the world. when the kernels reached the mill, they were put into machines called _separators_, to be separated from all companions such as grass seed, mustard seed, and wild buckwheat. they were then placed in an iron box in which brushes were revolving rapidly, and were _scoured_ to free them from fuzz and dirt. those that were very dirty were washed. [illustration: fig. .--the flour mills in minneapolis.] [illustration: fig. .--the largest flour mill in the world.] the kernels were _steamed_, in order that the coating, called _bran_, might not break into small pieces. this is called _tempering_. the kernels now thought that their trials were over, but they were mistaken. soon they found themselves being _crushed_ between rollers. after they came out they were _sifted_, and then run between other rollers. this was repeated six times, and each time the flour was a little finer, for the rollers were closer together. the flour was then run through tubes of flannel. these took out whatever dust it contained. it was then ground still finer. the flour was then put into sacks or barrels, which were marked for shipment to other parts of the country. only the wheat intended for the very best grade of flour is treated as carefully as this was. what industry does the use of barrels bring in? [illustration: fig. .--grinding wheat.] from the mills the flour was sent to many parts of the land to supply stores, bakeries, hotels, and homes. some of it found its way to the bakery near your home. the bakers, in their clean suits of white, weighed the flour which they were going to use, and then added a certain amount of water to it. some yeast and salt were added also. this mixture they called _dough_. you have seen your mother mix or _knead_ dough, i am sure. the bakers did not do the kneading with their hands, but by means of machinery made for this purpose. [illustration: fig. .--bolting flour.] when the dough had been thoroughly kneaded it was left to _rise_. it is the yeast that causes the rising. this makes the bread light and spongy. it was then cut into loaves and placed in the oven. the ovens in the bakery are very much larger than those in your kitchen stove, for many loaves are baked at once. when a nice shade of brown appeared on the loaves, the bakers took them out of the oven by means of long shovels. soon the delivery wagons came and were loaded with the fresh bread to be delivered to stores and homes. this loaf was just left at the door and is still warm. so, you see, a loaf of bread has quite a history. i have told you the life story of this one from the time of its grandparents, who were raised on the plains of north dakota. would it not be interesting to see each of the people who have had something to do with its production, and to make the journey which the wheat and the flour made? you can do both in your thoughts. how our meat is supplied ramon lived in a plain, one-story house, built in the shade of some cottonwood trees that fringed each side of a small river in the eastern part of colorado. a wide veranda extended entirely around the house, but there were very few flowers and no lawn. i am afraid you would not think it a very pleasant place for a home. not far from the _ranch house_, as it was called, were the barn and the _corrals_. a corral is a yard with a strong, high fence about it, in which cattle or horses may be placed. on the bottom land beside the stream, there was a corn and an alfalfa patch, besides one containing some potatoes and garden vegetables. during most of the year the stream was quite shallow, and flowed quietly over its bed, but when heavy rains occurred it rose rapidly, spreading over much of the bottom land and carrying so much clay with it that it was almost the color of coffee. except along the river, not a tree was in sight from ramon's home, and it was many miles to the nearest house. for hundreds of miles both north and south, there stretched a vast plain. little was to be seen but sand, grass, and sagebrush. i had almost forgotten the prairie dogs, which scamper across the plain or sit up straight and motionless on a little mound of sand beside their burrows. they watch you closely, not moving unless they regard you as a dangerous creature, when, quick as a flash, they disappear. the rainfall is very slight in this part of the country, being less than twenty inches a year. on this account there is little attention paid to farming, but instead, the settlers own great herds of cattle as well as many horses. ramon's father is one of the _cattlemen_ of colorado. he owns more than ten thousand head of cattle, and some of the cattlemen own twice that number. of course such great herds of cattle must have much land to graze on. some of the land is owned by the government and any one may use it. everywhere fences are far apart. these great pastures are called _ranges_. ramon's life is not much like yours. his home is far from schools, churches, stores, or railroads. he seldom sees strangers, but he enjoys long rides on his own pony, _prince_. sometimes he goes with his father and at other times he takes a gallop with one of the "cowboys" who herd the cattle. the "cowboys" almost live in the saddle. they are out in all kinds of weather and are not boys at all, but strong, hardy men. they wear broad-brimmed hats, and carry long ropes called lassos or _lariats_, with which they catch the cattle. where there are so many herds they sometimes get mixed up. on this account each cattleman marks or _brands_ his animals. these brands may be the initial letter of the owner's name, or they may be in the form of a horseshoe, a cross, a circle, or a crescent. each spring and fall the cowboys gather the cattle together. this is called "rounding up" the cattle. they are then counted and the calves born since the last "round up" are branded. in the fall, in addition to this work, animals are selected for the market. why is the fall a better time for this than the spring? [illustration: fig. .--branding cattle.--point to the lariats.] the cowboys, mounted upon their swift, strong ponies, single out the animals that have never been branded, and swinging their lassos over their heads, they throw them with such skill that the loop settles over the head or about the leg of the one wanted. as soon as the rope tightens, the pony braces its forefeet firmly and the animal is finally thrown to the ground. it is then branded with a hot iron and allowed to go. ramon used to feel very sorry for them until his father explained that it hurt them very little, for only the skin was burned. sometimes the cattle selected to be sold, are not quite fat enough for the market. they are then taken farther east into the _corn belt_ and fed for a time. when they are shipped directly from the range to the market, they are driven to the nearest railroad and put into yards beside the track. they are then made to walk up an incline with high railings ending at the open doors of a cattle car. the animals are arranged so that the first faces one side of the car, the second the other, and so on. this is done so that the cattle cannot hook one another, and also that they may be fed and watered on the way from a long iron trough which is fastened to each side of the car. the great cattle markets of the united states are omaha, kansas city, and chicago. find these cities. one day when ramon was about fourteen years old, his father told him that he was going to take a train load of cattle to chicago and that he might go with him. it was a happy time for ramon, you may be sure, for he was very anxious to see some of the wonderful sights his father had told him about. at last the day when they were to start on their journey arrived. the afternoon before, the cowboys had driven the cattle to the railroad so as to load them early in the morning. soon after breakfast ramon kissed his mother and his little sister good-by, and he and his father rode off across the level plain. finding the cattle already loaded in the cars, ramon and his father were soon seated in the _caboose_, rolling over the miles of railroad which connected them with chicago. whenever the train stopped for a few minutes, they took a long stick and went from car to car making the cattle that had lain down get up, so that they might not be injured by the others. when bedtime came, they made their beds on the benches along each side of the caboose, which are covered with cushions. as they had brought blankets with them, they were fairly comfortable. ramon did not sleep very soundly the first night. the engine shrieked from time to time, and the car rocked and jolted so that he was afraid of falling from his bed. the next day they reached a part of the country where great cornfields waved in the breeze. the leaves had already turned brown, and golden ears of grain peeped out from the ends of the husks. there were stubble fields, too, where wheat and oats had been harvested. [illustration: fig. .--bird's eye view of union stock yards, chicago.] the country became more thickly settled as they went on, and the towns were nearer together. streams were more common, and grass and timber more abundant. the young traveler wondered why this was so. can you tell? early in the morning of the fourth day the train reached chicago. after much switching and backing the cars were run into the union stock yards, and the cattle were unloaded. ramon was thoroughly bewildered by what he saw and heard. men were shouting and cracking whips; others were riding up and down the alleys that separate the yards; dogs were barking and turning the animals this way and that, and gates were swinging back and forth. the cattle were weighed and examined to see if they had any disease, and were then placed in charge of a _commission merchant_ to be sold. buyers come to the yards and bargain with these commission merchants. when an unusually large number of cattle come in, the prices are likely to fall; when few arrive, the prices rise. when the cattle had been yarded, ramon's father said that they would go and have breakfast. in the afternoon they visited the "yards," and the slaughter and packing houses. the "yards" cover about a square mile of territory. they are divided into countless pens or small yards, containing sheds, feeding racks, and watering troughs. ramon asked how many cattle were unloaded in these yards daily. his father handed him a copy of the _chicago live stock world_, and at the top of the first column he read that on the day previous there had been received , cattle, , hogs, and , sheep. he was told that sometimes the receipts are much larger than this and sometimes not so large. [illustration: fig. .--dressing beef.] they followed the bodies of the cattle from the slaughterhouses where they are dressed, into the cooling rooms. these are simply great refrigerators. wagons come to the cooling rooms and haul loads of the meat to butcher shops, hotels, and depots. within a few hours it finds its way to smaller cities and towns in all directions. a great deal of meat is shipped even to europe. why does not europe produce its own meat? [illustration: fig. .--cooling beef.] when the meat has thoroughly hardened in the cooling rooms, it is sent to the curing rooms, where it is cut up and packed. each person here does his particular work from morning until night. ramon learned, to his surprise, that every part of the animal is used. hair, hide, horns, hoofs, teeth, bones, and even blood, are made use of. [illustration: fig. .--splitting backbone of hogs.] most of the hogs which enter the great meat-packing cities are raised in the corn belt. the sheep need much pasturage, and so the largest flocks are found in the western and southwestern states. a single herder may take care of several thousand sheep. his faithful companions and helpers are intelligent shepherd dogs. after a great flock of sheep has fed on an area, hardly a green thing is left. the people in the part of the west where there is little rainfall, object to the pasturing of sheep around the head waters of streams, because when the vegetation is removed the water runs off too quickly. [illustration: fig. .--curing pork in salt.] in the evening our friends watched the men, women, and children march out of the "yards." they were told that not less than thirty-five thousand persons were employed in the various establishments. there is but one city in colorado which contains so many people. [illustration: fig. .--chopping sausage meat.] as they sat at breakfast next morning, ramon wondered how many of the people of chicago were eating steaks from cattle which he had seen on his father's ranch. the thought was a new one to him. his trip had shown him that the cattlemen who lived and worked on those far-away plains were doing their part in supplying people all over our country with meat. their lonely life, with all of its disadvantages, now had a new meaning for him, and he went back to his western home content with it, yet very glad to have had this glimpse of another side of life. [illustration: fig. .--packing poultry.] market gardening think of the immense quantities of fruits and vegetables that are used daily on the tables of a great city such as new york or chicago. as we travel up and down the streets of any great city, we see rows of buildings, sometimes built in solid blocks and sometimes a little distance apart. some have trees and small lawns in front of them; others are without even this touch of nature. nowhere, except in the outskirts, do we find gardens. _these people depend upon others to furnish them with their vegetable food._ now let us make some excursions into the region surrounding one of these cities. for miles and miles we see on every hand _truck farms_ or _market gardens_. the main business of those who live in these districts is to furnish food for the people of the city, so that the latter may devote their time to their various occupations. we see growing potatoes, cabbages, tomatoes, beans, peas, squashes, turnips, onions, sweet corn, celery, melons, and many other things. usually all of these will be found in one garden, but sometimes the farmer raises only a few kinds, or perhaps but one. market gardening is very common in germany, holland, italy, china, and in other densely populated countries. therefore we often find people who have come from these countries to america engaged in this business. chinese gardeners are seldom seen in the east, but on the pacific coast they raise most of the vegetables used in the cities and towns. in the early spring, before the ground is warm enough to make seeds grow, the gardener starts his plants in "hotbeds." these are long wooden boxes, or frames, without bottoms, covered with glass. they are usually placed on the south side of some building or high fence. the glass covers allow the warm sunshine to enter the "beds" freely, but they prevent the rapid escape of the heat. you see now why they are called "hotbeds." they are like small greenhouses. a little later in the spring the fields are thoroughly cultivated and the plants transplanted. of course only the vegetables desired for the early market are started in this way. what advantage is there in having the vegetables ready for the market very early in the season? vegetable farming is not easy work, although it is a pleasure to see things grow day by day as you care for them, and as nature supplies her sunshine and her rain. the fields must be cultivated almost constantly, to keep the soil loose, as well as to remove the weeds. much of the weeding has to be done by hand, which is tedious work. we want our vegetables fresh every morning; and as the truck farms are at some distance from the city, the farmer must load up his wagon the night before. of course much produce is sent to the cities on trains, but where farmers live near enough to deliver it themselves, their crops are more profitable to them. why? [illustration: fig. .--a market scene.] everything is put in readiness before dark; and while others are still in bed, the farmer mounts his wagon to start toward the sleeping city. i have often ridden ten or fifteen miles on such a load before the stars faded away. it is a novel experience. at first the night seems strangely still, but soon you are able to distinguish many voices coming from various places. the frogs croak from the ponds by the roadside; crickets and locusts send their shrill notes from grass and tree; a night owl startles you by his dismal hoot; the lamps of the fireflies gleam, then disappear only to shine out again a little farther on. at last a faint glow appears in the eastern sky, which grows brighter and brighter until the shining face of the sun is pushed above the horizon. do you not think such a ride would be more enjoyable than a street car ride? in the cities there are market places where produce from the country is taken. in chicago there is a very busy street where much of the buying and selling is done. study the picture carefully. here the buyers from hotels, restaurants, and stores, as well as the men who wish to peddle the produce from house to house, go for their daily supplies. there are also commission merchants whose stores are on this street. they sell the produce for those who ship it to the city by train. we go to the stores and get what we want each day, or the peddlers bring it to the door. you see how necessary it is to have special workers to supply us with the different kinds of food. we consider it very important that we should have vegetables and fruits fresh daily. the work of supplying us with this food is very important. remember that those who till the soil are entitled to as great respect as are those who do not work with their hands. contact with nature makes men and women better, and many of the noblest souls that the world has known have lived in the country and plowed, planted, and harvested the products of the soil. [illustration: market scene. chicago.] [illustration: market scene. new york.] dairy products uncle ben lives on a dairy farm in the western part of new york state. it is a beautiful _rolling_ country with cultivated fields, woodland, and pastures, and here and there a sparkling stream winding its way through the lowlands. the farmhouses are large and well built, and are surrounded by grand old maple, beech, and elm trees. most of the barns are painted red with white trimmings. there are many dairy farms in the neighborhood. some of the farmers send their milk to the towns to be used directly, some sell it to creameries, and some to cheese factories. last summer i spent my vacation on uncle ben's farm, and cousin frank and i had happy times, you may be sure. every day, just before sundown, we went to the pasture for the cows. there were about twenty-five of them, and they always seemed perfectly contented after the long day of feasting on rich grass and clover. after we drove them into the barnyard uncle ben helped us fasten them in their _stanchions_ in the barn. then the men brought the bright pails and cans to begin milking. cousin frank and i always helped, although he can milk much faster than i. some of the cows gave but two or three quarts, while others gave as many gallons. we strained the milk into cans holding eight gallons each, and put them into tanks of water to cool. after milking was finished we turned the cattle into the barnyard for the night. in the morning we commenced milking about sunrise. after breakfast the cans were loaded into a spring wagon and uncle ben drove to the depot. here they were put on the "milk train," which took them to the city. many other people sent milk on this same train. it was sent to bakeries, to hotels and restaurants, and to milkmen, who delivered it from house to house. usually the milkmen put the milk into pint or quart bottles for people who like to have it in that form. uncle ben told us that much of the milk that is sent to new york city is bottled before it is sent. the bottling is done by machinery. he also told us that, because of the great importance of having pure milk, there are, in all cities, inspectors who carefully examine the milk and report to the board of health. the cows also are inspected, and if any are sick, they are usually killed. each evening some one drove to the depot again to get empty cans which the milk train had brought home. these were always carefully washed in hot water before being used again. butter making one day, after i had been on the farm about a week, uncle ben took frank and me to the _creamery_. a creamery is a place where the milk and cream are separated and butter is made. we found several wagonloads of milk being unloaded. the milk was weighed as it was received, for it is sold by weight. the milk was then strained into a large galvanized iron tub, from which a pipe carried it into a circular machine called the _separator_. the separator revolves rapidly, throwing the milk, which is heavier than the cream, to the outer edge, where it passes through small holes into a compartment by itself. the cream rises along the center and passes through another set of openings into a special compartment. a pipe carries it to a large vat, while another pipe conveys the milk to large tanks. uncle ben told me that when people make their own butter, they must wait for the cream to _rise_ on the milk. the cream is then skimmed off, and the milk is called _skimmed milk_. although the milk in the creamery is not skimmed, the same name is used for it. i asked if the skimmed milk was used for anything. uncle ben gave me a cupful of it to taste. it was very good. he then told me that the separator takes out only the part needed in making butter, leaving all of the sugar. i did not know before that milk contains sugar. the farmers take home loads of this milk to feed it to their hogs. for each hundred pounds of milk delivered, they get back seventy-five pounds of skimmed milk, besides the pay for their cream. the creamery man told me that he made from four to six pounds of butter from one hundred pounds of milk. the cream remains in the large vat about twenty-four hours before it is churned. the churn, as you see by the picture, is a great barrel made to revolve by machinery. it takes from thirty-five minutes to one hour to churn. the man told me that i might look at the book in which he kept the record of the churning. i saw that he made from two hundred fifty to six hundred pounds of butter at a churning. he said that some churns would produce more than one thousand pounds at a churning. not all of the cream is made into butter. there is left in the bottom of the churn a liquid called _buttermilk_. this is drawn off, and the butter is washed and _worked_ before being taken out of the churn. the working is done by means of paddles in the churn. it continues for six or eight minutes and squeezes the liquid out of the butter. while the butter is being worked, it is salted. some of the butter is unsalted, but most of it is salted. when butter is made in the home, it must be churned by hand. only a few pounds at a time can be made in this way. when the butter was taken out of the churn, the men packed it solidly in wooden boxes about two feet square and four inches deep. the bottom of each box consisted of strips as wide as a _square_ of butter. these were held together by a clamp, and the sides were hooked to the bottom and to one another. when the butter is to be cut into squares, these sides are removed and zinc ones take their places. in these there are slits running from top to bottom. through these slits a wire saw is run, and so the butter is quickly cut into one or two pound squares. the butter is then wrapped in fancy papers upon which the name of the butter or of the creamery is stamped. [illustration: a separator.] [illustration: a churn.] of course some of the butter is packed in wooden tubs and shipped in that form. this butter is a little cheaper than that put up in squares. cheese i was so much pleased with my visit to the creamery, that uncle ben promised to show me how cheese is made. so one morning just after breakfast he, cousin frank, and i started out. after a pleasant ride of about five miles we reached the factory. the first process here was the same as that at the creamery. after the milk was weighed it was run into great zinc-lined vats. there were four of these in the factory, each of which held about five thousand pounds. uncle ben explained that the milk must _curdle_ before cheese can be made. in order to make it curdle quickly, a little less than a pound of a substance called _rennet_ was put into each vat. a man worked at each vat with a long wooden rake, stirring the milk constantly. i saw a glass tube standing in the milk and asked what it was. uncle ben told me to look at it closely. i saw that it was a thermometer, and that it registered eighty degrees. a little while after i looked again, when it showed a temperature of ninety degrees. the milk is kept warm, so as to help it to curdle quickly. in about an hour i could see the curd very plainly, but the men kept on stirring and cutting it. presently one of them carried a piece of the curd to a table. he heated a small iron rod and touched it with the curd. when he pulled the curd away, little threads were drawn out to the length of half an inch or more. this he called the "acid test," which showed that the curd was in the right condition to be made into cheese. of course only a part of the milk had turned into curd; the rest was _whey_, that was drawn off and run into tanks. each man who had delivered one hundred pounds of milk was given a check for seventy-five pounds of the whey. it is fed to hogs. about two hours from the time that the milk was put into the vats, the whey was drawn off. one of the men now took a long knife and cut the curd into oblong cakes. these he frequently lifted and turned over. after continuing this for about twenty minutes, the pieces of curd were put into a small mill, placed on a board over the vat, and the curd was chopped into strips from one to six inches long and from one-half an inch to an inch thick. salt was scattered over the mass by one man, while another pitched it about with a three-pronged wooden fork. the man told me that he used three pounds of salt to each thousand pounds of milk. next, a piece of cloth was placed on a board about sixteen inches square. two circular metal frames or bands, about six inches high, were fitted one within the other and placed on the cloth. the frame was filled with curd, covered by a cloth, and another set placed on top of it until there were five. they were then put on a table directly under a block which was fastened to a screw. by turning the screw the block was pressed against the top board, and so each frame of curd was pressed. i saw the whey running out as the squeezing went on. the superintendent told us that the curd would be left in the press until the next day. we were then taken into the room where the cheese "ripens." here we saw large racks reaching nearly to the ceiling, filled with double rows of cheeses. the smallest ones weighed but three pounds, while the largest weighed fifty pounds. it may take but a few days and it may take many months to "ripen" a cheese. it depends upon the flavor wanted. the man said that in england "strong" cheese is generally liked, while in our country "mild" cheese is preferred. i asked how much cheese five thousand pounds of milk would make, and was told that it would make between four and five hundred pounds. on the way home uncle ben told us that although our country is a great dairy country, we import certain kinds of cheese from europe. he told us how the swiss people pasture their cattle on the steep mountain sides, and that in every little mountain valley cheese is made, some of which finds its way over the mountains and across the sea to the united states. the fishing industry have you ever stood by the side of a stream and watched the fish dart from one shadow of overhanging rock into another, or swim lazily at the bottom of some deep pool? how gracefully they move and turn! how like water jewels they flash as the sunlight falls upon them! most streams and lakes, like the ocean, contain fish. so we have fresh-water and salt-water fish. there are a few bodies of water so full of salt that fish cannot live in them. do you know of any such bodies of water? most of the fish used as food come from the ocean. in this, and in most other countries, there are many men who do nothing but fish, in order that other people may be supplied with this sort of food. they do not depend upon hook and line alone, but use nets also. nets are great sacks made of cord, knotted or woven together in such a way as to leave spaces or _meshes_. these meshes are not big enough to allow large fish to escape. sometimes the fishermen go out in rowboats some distance from shore and then throw the net into the water. corks or floats keep the upper edge of the net near the surface, while weights hold the lower edge on the bottom. ropes are fastened to each end, and so it is drawn toward the shore. how the fishermen wish that they could see to the bottom of the restless water and know what their harvest is to be! when the boats have almost reached the shore, horses are sometimes driven into the water and hitched to the ropes. at last the net is dragged out upon the sands and the uncertainty is past. [illustration: fig. .--drying nets.] look! within the folds of the net is a countless number of fishes, each jumping, squirming, wriggling, trying to get back to its ocean home. they are of many sizes, shapes, and colors. those not good for food, together with the smallest ones, are thrown back into the water. sometimes a net called a "dip-net" is dropped from a fishing schooner and drawn about a "school" of fish. i have seen many barrels of fish brought up at one time in this way. the fishermen keep a close watch for the appearance of these "schools," you may be sure. whales and dolphins pursue them, and gulls and cormorants circle overhead, for they, too, are fishers. their appearance helps the men to tell where the "schools" are. there is a great rush for the fishing grounds when they are sighted. the white-sailed schooners skim over the waters almost like a flock of birds. [illustration: fig. .--a fishing schooner.] large quantities of fish are caught by a method called _trawl fishing_. this may be carried on miles from the shore. how do you suppose it is done? to a very long and strong line, many shorter ones, each with a hook at the end, are attached. these lines, to which large buoys are fastened, are left in the water for several hours, and then fishermen in flat-bottomed boats called _dories_ row out from the schooner and examine them. the lines are then reset and the fish taken to the schooner to be dressed. this is a common method of catching codfish, which is carried on during summer and winter alike. storms and fogs are likely to occur while the men are out in their little boats, making their work full of danger as well as of hardship. [illustration: fig. .--splitting codfish.] many of the fish are packed in ice and sold fresh, while others are cured on the boats or on shore. some of the fishing schooners carry great quantities of salt when they start out on a trip. the fish are dressed and packed in this. sometimes they are packed in brine, and along the shores of some countries they are strung on poles to dry. codfish are dried in great quantities along the new england coast by placing them on frames made of strips of wood and raised a little above the wharf, so that the air can circulate freely. when the skin and bones are removed and the flesh cut into strips, it is called "shredded" codfish. the principal food-fish are the cod, mackerel, herring, halibut, shad, salmon, sardines, and whitefish. whitefish are caught in the great lakes. to this list the lobster may be added, although it is not a fish. a common method of catching lobsters is to sink a box made of lath to the bottom, where they crawl about on the rocks. a fish head is placed in the box for bait. the lobsters crawl in and are likely to remain until the box is examined. [illustration: fig. .--drying codfish.] lobster steamers, fitted up with tanks containing salt water, run from nova scotia and newfoundland to boston and new york. here those not wanted are placed on cars containing similar tanks and sent to interior cities. in this way fresh lobsters are served thousands of miles from where they were caught. a lobster that would cost us from twenty-five to seventy-five cents brings the fisherman not more than ten cents. along our new england coast there are many towns engaged extensively in fishing. portland, gloucester, boston, and provincetown are among the number. gloucester is the most important fishing town in the united states. from it fishing schooners go as far as newfoundland, greenland, iceland, and even to the coast of ireland. there are also important fisheries on the pacific coast, from san francisco to alaska. here the salmon are taken in great numbers. they weigh from twenty to one hundred pounds. the fish are canned and shipped to all parts of the country. besides being caught in nets and traps and on lines many are caught in "fish wheels." these are fastened to the stern of a boat and revolve in the water. the fish are caught in pockets and dropped in the boat as the wheel brings them up over it. there are very extensive fisheries along the shores of the british isles and on the western coast of europe. fishing is the chief industry in the towns along the coast of norway. the air is full of the odor of fish, while drying fish, nets, and boats are everywhere in sight. although the supply of fish in the ocean is very great, it is diminishing, especially near the shore. most countries now pay considerable attention to the raising of both fresh and salt water fishes, and they have passed laws regulating fishing. eggs are hatched in great _hatcheries_, from which the young fish are taken where they are most needed. the great ocean is free to all to sail over or fish in at will. there is a narrow strip along the shore three miles wide, which belongs to the country which it borders. the men of other countries are not allowed to fish there. the fisherman is a brave and sturdy man. his life is full of danger. he battles constantly with the winds and the waves. fogs may hide the sharp rocks which seem to wait for a chance to destroy his little vessel. sometimes icebergs or great ocean steamers sink his boat and he is never seen again. when storms are raging and night has settled over sea and land, and angry waves are dashing themselves into foam against the shore, the mothers, wives, and children look anxiously from their cottage windows toward the sea, and pray that their loved ones may return to them in safety. oyster farming it sounds strange to speak of farming in the ocean, but there are many and large oyster farms all along our coast. some of these farms are covered by water all of the time and some are uncovered when the tide is low. oyster farms are far more profitable than are those upon which corn and wheat are raised. this is a new industry in our country because civilized people have not lived here very long, but it is a very old one in some parts of the world. as long ago as the seventh century a roman knight raised oysters for the market, and it is said that the business made him very wealthy. you will understand better about the cultivation of oysters, if i tell you first how they live and grow in their natural homes. except during the first few days of their lives, oysters are prisoners. they cannot move about freely from place to place as fishes and most animals can, but they are attached to rocks, to the shells of their dead relatives, and to other objects. how, then, do you suppose they get their food? they grow in immense numbers, and they crowd one another more than people do in the tenement houses in our great cities. in fact most of them are soon crowded out, and they die, leaving room for the rest to grow upon their empty homes. in this way the oyster beds spread out. these oyster beds are not found in very deep water, but rather along the shore, generally near the mouth of some river. as i have told you, they often live where they are uncovered when the tide goes out. you can see from this that it is not very difficult to gather oysters, so that, partly on this account, man has used them for food for ages. when the pilgrim fathers landed on the shores of new england, they found that the indians used oysters very commonly. all along the coast were great heaps of the shells. at the very first thanksgiving dinner given in america, oysters were served. oysters used to be so plentiful on these natural beds that they were very cheap. in some places where the winter weather was cold enough to freeze the water along the shore, people cut holes in the ice and gathered them by means of long-handled rakes. in a single year an oyster will produce more than a million young ones. just think of it! if all of this family grew up, they would fill a room fourteen feet in each dimension. these young oysters are _very_ small. they are called "spat." most of them are drifted away by waves and currents, or devoured by larger sea animals. the few that escape soon attach themselves to some object, so getting a chance to begin the battle of life. if oysters are caught at all times of the year it does not give them a chance to produce their young, and this, as well as catching the young ones themselves, has destroyed many of the natural beds. in order to keep up the supply of this food men commenced oyster farming. you see how our daily needs and desires lead to the establishment of great industries. the oyster farmer prepares his farm in various ways. he places clean oyster shells, stones, trays, bundles of sticks, and other things on the bottom, so that the oysters may find something to which to attach themselves. then he places the young oysters or "spat" on these objects. when trays are used, several are placed one upon another and bound together by means of a chain. these trays are taken up from time to time in order to gather the oysters that are ready for market. stones are sometimes piled on the bottom and the "spat" are placed in the crevices between them. often stakes are planted in a somewhat circular form. cords are attached to the stakes, to which bundles of sticks are fastened in such a way as to keep them a little above the bottom. young oysters attach themselves to these sticks, which may be drawn up when the proper time comes. shells are used more commonly than other things. they are taken from the restaurants and hotels to the farms in boat loads, to be scattered over the bottom. the young oysters grow at very different rates. in two years they may grow to be six inches in length, or it may take several years to reach that size. they grow more rapidly on the artificial beds, and are better in quality also. the starfish is one of the greatest enemies of the oyster, large numbers of which it destroys every year. during the fishing season the oyster men go to the beds in their boats and scoop the oysters up from the bottom. this is called dredging. the scoops with their loads of oysters are drawn to the deck of the boat by machinery. sometimes the oysters are gathered by means of long tongs. as the oysters are usually in clusters, these have to be broken up. for this purpose a sort of a hammer known as a _culling iron_ is used. the oysters are broken apart and sorted. sometimes the oyster man makes three grades and sometimes four. oysters are not the only things drawn up in the dredge. starfish, lobsters, and various kinds of fishes are gathered in. the starfish are killed and the rest thrown back. the oysters are heaped up in great piles on the deck of the boat. sacks and barrels are filled with them, and many car loads are shipped daily from the cities near the fishing grounds. chesapeake bay is the center of the oyster industry in our country. find it. there are oyster beds, however, all along both the atlantic and the pacific coasts. great quantities of oysters are canned near where they are caught. getting them out of their shells is not an easy matter. for this purpose a knife is used. this work is called in the south "shucking oysters." canning oysters is an important industry in the city of baltimore. have you ever seen cans of oysters that came from there? a rice field when you do not feel quite satisfied with your breakfast, dinner, or supper, and think that there should be a greater variety of food on the table, just come with me and we will visit some of the boys and girls of far-away china. what do you suppose _their_ chief article of food is? rice. rice in the morning, rice at noon, and rice at night. rice from the beginning to the end of the year. in the poorer families a bit of dried fish and some vegetables are usually eaten with it. those who can afford such things have bits of preserved ginger, mushrooms, and barley cakes with the rice. of course the rich people have other things to eat, but most of the people of china are poor. in the fertile portions of china the people live very close together. gardens take the place of farms. workmen often receive no more than ten cents a day. on this account they cannot afford the variety of food that we have, but must be content with whatever is cheap and nourishing for their labor. if the rice crop were to fail, the chinese would suffer. you will see how important this food is to them, when i tell you that they are forbidden by law to sell rice to other countries. perhaps you are wondering where the rice that we use in this country comes from. rice is grown in great quantities in japan, corea, indo-china, ceylon, india, the philippines, the hawaiian islands, and in our gulf states. rice is the chief food of one half the people of the world. although we raise large quantities, we produce only about one half of what we use. it is a kind of grain which will not thrive on the fertile western prairies where corn, oats, and wheat grow. it needs a warm climate and a great deal of water. for this reason the rice fields are found on the marshy lands near the coast, and by the banks of rivers, where they can be easily flooded. some rice is raised on the uplands, but not so successfully as on the lowlands. canals are dug from the streams through the farms, and from these smaller ditches branch off so as to reach all parts. they are so arranged that the farmer can turn the water on or off whenever he wishes. on some of the farms, wells furnish the water to the canals. [illustration: fig. .--a rice field.--observe the canal.] in the gulf states the fields are plowed in the winter, and the rice is sown between the first of april and the middle of may. sometimes the seed is sown broadcast, as wheat is, and sometimes it is planted in regular drills or trenches about twelve inches apart. the japanese sow the seed in gardens, and when the plants are eight or ten inches high, they are pulled up and transplanted to the fields. the men work right in the water, for the fields are flooded at the time. in our country the farmer floods the field as soon as the seeds are planted, allowing the water to remain five or six days. when the young blade of rice is a few inches high, the field is again flooded. after the second leaf appears on the stalk, the water is turned on and left for twenty or thirty days. after the land dries the crop is hoed. the fields are irrigated from time to time, until about eight days before the harvest, which generally occurs in august. when full grown, the stalks are from one to six feet in height, with long, slender leaves. the kernels grow much as those of wheat and oats do. on account of the fields being so wet, rice, in most countries, is cut by hand. in china and japan small curved sickles are used, and the grain is bound up in very small bundles. in louisiana and some other parts of the south, regular harvesters are used. they have very broad wheels. why? after the grain has been bound into bundles, these are set up in double rows to dry. this is called _shocking_ the rice. the grain is then put through a thrashing machine, to separate it from the straw. [illustration: fig. .--harvesting rice.] rice kernels are covered by a husk. before the husk is removed the grain is often called _paddy rice_. removing the hulls or husks is called _hulling_. the hulling machine is a long tube into one end of which the rice is poured. within the tube are ribs which revolve rapidly. as the kernels pass between these the hulls are taken off. if you were passing through a chinese village, you might hear sounds like those produced when a man pounds with a mallet on a great piece of timber. on searching for the sounds, you would find that they came from the rice mill. the mill consists of a portion of a log hollowed out and placed upright. in the hollow a quantity of rice is held. a piece of timber, fastened to a pivot, extends in a horizontal position with one end over the mill. to this end another timber is fastened in an upright position. a chinaman gets on to the end of the long timber which is farthest from the mill. this raises the end with the upright. he then jumps off and the upright falls, striking upon the rice. in this way the hulls are worn off. after hulling, the grain is carefully screened, in order to remove the hulls, the broken and very small kernels, and the _rice flour_. this latter makes good cattle food. perhaps you have noticed that rice kernels have a bluish appearance. this is not natural, but is the result of polishing. the polishing removes much of the best part of the grain, but the rice sells for a higher price simply on account of its appearance. the polishing machine is cylindrical or drum-like in shape. moosehide or sheepskin is tacked to the cylinder. it is made to revolve rapidly, so that the kernels are polished as they pass over the skin. after being polished the kernels are run through screens and sorted. the rice is then put up in barrels or sacks and shipped. how sugar is made [illustration: fig. .--sowing sugar seed.] this picture represents one of the beginnings of the great industry of sugar making. the small objects which you see in the trenches are pieces of sugar cane. these "cuttings," as they are called, are covered with soil. they soon sprout, and from them grow the tall, waving fields of cane, which resemble cornfields. the canes are taller than cornstalks, however. how high do you think those shown in the picture are? in about ten months after planting the cane is ready to cut. in the southern states this work usually begins about the middle of october. [illustration: fig. .--cutting sugar cane.] the canes are jointed, as cornstalks are, and the spongy substance between the joints is filled with a sweet juice. it is from this juice or sap that cane sugar is made. i have seen children chew pieces of the cane, and enjoy it as you do candy; for this use it is sometimes sold in stores in the south. [illustration: fig. .--loading cars with sugar cane.] after the canes are cut they are hauled to the mill or sugarhouse on wagons. on the large plantations _tram cars_ sometimes run right into the fields. at the mill the canes are run between heavy rollers, which squeeze out the sap. sometimes as many as seventy-five pounds of sap are obtained from one hundred pounds of cane. the crushed stalks are used in the mill for fuel, and the ashes are returned to the land to fertilize it. when the juice is first pressed out, it is not at all clear in color. it is then placed in great vats or kettles and heated. this heating causes the water which is in the sap to evaporate, and it also brings some of the impurities to the top, where they are skimmed off. when the evaporating has been finished, there are two products, molasses and brown sugar. the sugar must next be refined. for this purpose it is usually sent to cities outside of the sugar belt. there are great refineries in new orleans, san francisco, st. louis, chicago, and other cities. when the _raw sugar_, as it is called, reaches the refinery, which is generally a tall building, it is taken to the top story and dissolved in hot water. it then passes through bags which act as _filters_, and through a great cylinder which contains burned bones, known as _bone-black_. you remember that i told you that the bones of the cattle were saved. this is one of the uses to which they are put. when the liquid comes out of this bone filter it is a perfectly clear sirup, which is then crystallized. [illustration: fig. .--a sugar mill.] you know that we buy refined sugar in three forms: granulated sugar, loaf sugar, and pulverized sugar. when granulated sugar is wanted, the crystals are placed in a great drum, which revolves until they are thoroughly dried in the right form. to make loaf sugar, the crystals are pressed into molds, then dried, and cut into the size desired. in powdered sugar they are simply ground to a powdered condition. think how much labor is required to produce sugar, and yet you can buy it for five cents a pound. there are great fields of sugar cane in the gulf states, in cuba, in the hawaiian islands, in the east indies, in india, and in other warm, moist parts of the world. we buy a great deal of sugar from cuba, and from the hawaiian islands. to what city do you think the sugar from the hawaiian islands is sent? beet sugar although the cane fields of the moist, hot countries yield great quantities of sugar, there are other sources from which this useful product comes. in the year a german scientist discovered that sugar can be made from beets, and now about two thirds of our supply come from these plants. the sugar beet is not just like the plant of the same name which we raise for table use. it is white, and sometimes weighs as much as ten or fifteen pounds. beets do not need so much water nor so much heat as sugar cane, so they can be raised in germany, france, austria, russia, and other countries, as well as in california, utah, and nebraska, in our own land. in some parts of california there are fields of beets stretching for miles. the seeds are planted in rows, which, after the plants have come up, are thinned. in four or five months from the time the seeds are planted, the beets are ready to harvest. on most of the large _ranches_ the beets are dug by machinery. men then move back and forth in the fields, cutting off the leaves and a little of the upper part of the beet, for this contains too much mineral matter to be of value in making sugar. the workmen use large knives, and they walk on their knees. the beets are now taken to the factory in wagons, or, if it is far away, they are sent on trains. when the loads of beets reach the factory, they are weighed. the teamsters then drive up an inclined plane to a plank roadway. there are generally several of these. on each side of the road or platform are deep v-shaped trenches with wooden sides, in which streams of water run. when the wagon has reached the right spot, the platform upon which it rests is raised in a slanting position, and the beets fall into the trench. a basket full of beets is taken from each load and tested, to see how much sugar they contain, for this determines the price to be paid. the stream of water in the trench carries the beets along, just as they would be carried in a brook. this, you see, is a quick and easy way of washing them. the streams of water carry the beets into the factory, where they are cut up into strips by machinery. the juice is then washed out in vats containing warm water, and is boiled down in great tanks. the raw sugar is refined much as the cane sugar is. after the sugar has been dried, it is run through spouts into sacks held open to catch it as it comes out. one hundred pounds are put into each sack. one workman sews the sacks up and another wheels them to the wareroom. train loads are carried away to be distributed in the parts of our country that do not produce sugar. maple sugar you would enjoy helping to make some maple sugar, i am sure, so let us make a trip to the woods of vermont or new york, where maple sugar is made from the sap of the sugar-maple tree. you will need your cap and mittens, as the sugar season is the early spring, when there is yet snow on the ground. besides, some of the work is done at night, and you will not wish to miss that. the owner of the "sugar bush" bores holes into the trees a short distance from the ground, into which he slips small spouts, called "spiles." [illustration: fig. .--tapping a tree.] this is called _tapping_ the trees. underneath the spout a pail is placed. during the day the sap trickles out and runs into the pail. during the colder hours of the night the sap flows slowly, if at all. sometimes it is so cold that little sap runs for two or three days at a time. [illustration: fig. .--oxen hauling sap.] the sap is collected in barrels and drawn on sleds to the camp or place where it is to be boiled down. this is done in great pans called _evaporators_, which may be five or six feet wide, and fifteen feet long. they are divided into sections, and these are connected by means of little openings. the sap flows into one end of the evaporator and follows a zigzag path through the different sections. by flowing slowly over so large a surface, evaporation goes on rapidly and the sap is changed to sirup by the time it has finished its journey. the sirup is put up in cans, or boiled down into sugar, which is molded into small cakes, and brings a high price. [illustration: fig. .--sap-yoke and pails for gathering sap.] "sugaring off," as the boiling down of the sap is called, is quite an event. often a number of people will be invited to go to the sugarhouse and take part in the operation. before the modern evaporator came into use "sugaring off" always occurred at night. this was necessary, because during the day the sap buckets had to be attended to. the young people would sing songs, tell stories, and eat sugar. some of the "sugar bushes" contain but a few trees and some contain one or two thousand or even more. a tree will yield from one to six pounds of sugar during a season. our country produces great quantities of sugar every year, but we use so much that we have to buy much more than we manufacture at home. it was not always in such common use, however, because people in olden times did not understand how to make it cheaply. long, long ago sugar was used only as a medicine. don't you wish that all medicine to-day was as good as sugar? about seven hundred years ago an italian nobleman died and left to his relatives, among other things, _six pounds of sugar_. his will caused considerable comment among the people, who said that no one family should be allowed to have so much sugar in its possession. where salt comes from the arab, journeying over the yellow sands, riding upon the back of his faithful "ship of the desert," often looks longingly for some sign of water to cool his parched lips. the sailor may ride upon the beautiful blue waters of the ocean in his white-winged ship; but although there is nothing but water to greet his eyes, he cannot drink it, for it is bitter to the taste. if you were to place a quantity of ocean water over a fire and evaporate it, there would remain a white substance. this is common salt. you see that it is as necessary to provide fresh water when one wishes to cross the ocean, as it is if one is going to cross the desert. most streams and lakes contain _fresh_ water, so you will wonder why the waters of the ocean are briny. the rocks and soil of the earth contain salt, and the streams wash it from the land. each one carries so little that we do not notice it, but they have worked so steadily and so long, that they have carried a great amount to the sea. none of it can escape, so the ocean gets more and more briny. no healthy person would ever think of eating salt alone as a food, and yet our food would taste very unsatisfactory without it. farmers supply their cattle and horses with salt, and wild animals search for it in the forests, and lick it from the soil with their tongues. salt is so important to us that i want to tell you about some of the ways in which men obtain it. sometimes sea water is placed in great vats and evaporated. this leaves the salt, which is then refined. you know that the sun's heat causes the waters of a shallow pond to evaporate during warm weather. shallow basins are often scooped out along the coast, and the waters which fill them are then shut off from the larger body. in time the water evaporates, and the salt, which has formed in thin layers, is collected. i said that most lakes are fresh-water bodies. there are some, however, that are _very_ salty. great salt lake is one of these. streams flow into it, but none flows out. if you were to bathe in the waters of this lake, you would find that your body would not sink. i have seen great piles of glistening salt along the shore of great salt lake which had been obtained by evaporation. a railroad runs beside the lake, and the salt is loaded upon the cars to be hauled away. when the people first settled in utah, they used to drive to the lake in wagons to get a supply of salt. although the ocean and a few lakes contain immense quantities of this useful article, we get most of our supply from other sources. in the western part of new york state, at some distance below the surface of the earth, there is a thick layer of salt. wells are drilled down to this; water is pumped into them, and then pumped out again as brine. this brine is evaporated in large pans made of iron, two quarts of brine yielding about a pound of salt. in china salt has been obtained in this way for hundreds and even thousands of years. though they had little machinery to work with in those days, yet by patient, steady effort, they drilled wells two thousand and even three thousand feet in depth. from twenty-five to forty years were required to drill some of these wells. those who commenced them knew that they were not likely to enjoy the fruits of their labor and that others must get the benefit of what they did. what does this show about these people? what benefits are you receiving from what others have done? salt is also mined as coal and iron are. this is called _rock salt_. it is obtained in germany, poland, austria, india, the united states, and in many other countries. one of the most interesting salt fields of the world is in the southeastern part of california. it is on the colorado desert, near the colorado river. this was once a part of the ocean floor and the rocks contain much salt. water seeping through the earth dissolves the salt and brings it to the surface at this place. what happens to the water? [illustration: fig. .--harvesting salt, salton, california. is there any water in this field?] [illustration: fig. .--loading cars with salt. salton, california.] this salt field covers an area of about one thousand acres, to a depth of from one to eight inches. you can see by the picture that it looks more like a field of snow and ice than one of salt. the bright sunlight is reflected from its surface with such power that it hurts one's eyes. a great plow drawn by a steam engine moves over this dazzling field, and throws the salt up in furrows. it is then piled up, loaded on to cars, and taken to sheds, where it is purified. indians and japanese do most of the work. in order to purify the brines they are boiled in iron pans and treated in various ways to make them fit for table use. when evaporation is rapid, the salt crystals are quite small, but slower evaporation produces larger ones. rock salt is dissolved in water and then evaporated. to get the finest of salt, the crystals must be ground. when salt is to be used for other purposes than to season food, not so much pains are taken. name other uses of salt. in olden times, when salt was not so easily obtained as it is to-day, it was regarded in some countries as a luxury. this seems strange, does it not? at one time the chinese made it into little cakes, stamped the image of the emperor upon it, and used it as money. in arabia those who together ate food which had been salted, believed that this established a special bond of friendship between them. this led to the old saying, "there is salt between us." macaroni and vermicelli have you ever wondered as you have looked at the hollow sticks of macaroni in the stores or as you have eaten them at the table, how they were made in that way, and what they were made of? in italy macaroni is a very important article of food, and its use is rapidly increasing in our own country. for a long time it was not made outside of italy, where the city of genoa was the center of the industry. locate this city. do you know what great man was born there? now macaroni and vermicelli are made in other countries. there are a few factories in the united states, but most of what we use still comes from italy. in making these foods only the best hard wheat is used. after grinding the wheat, the bran is taken out and the flour is placed in a large wooden tub. water is added, and the two are mixed by hand for a few minutes. in this tub a marble wheel about five feet in diameter and eighteen inches in thickness is fastened in an upright position. this wheel weighs about a ton. after the flour and water have been mixed, the wheel is set in motion by machinery, and it slowly circles around in the tub, pressing the dough under it. a man keeps walking in front of the wheel, moving the dough from the edges of the tub and placing it directly in the path of it. this work of pressing the flour into a paste continues for a little more than half an hour. the wheel is then stopped and the paste, which is quite stiff, is cut into cakes about a foot square and from one to three inches in thickness. these are put into an iron cylinder heated by steam. in the bottom of the cylinder is a copper plate filled with holes having the centers filled. a cover fitted to a great screw which turns by machinery is placed on top. this slowly, but steadily, presses the paste downward. it is thus forced through these openings, and of course comes out in the form of round, hollow pipes. [illustration: fig. .--drying macaroni in italy.] as these pipes issue from the cylinder, they are straightened out on a wooden tray or platform, and with a large, sharp knife cut into lengths of about three feet. they are then taken to a drying room and spread on wire frames covered with oiled paper. here they are left for about five days, after which they are placed in boxes and are ready to ship. the only difference between macaroni and vermicelli is that the pipes of vermicelli are very small and are not hollow. when vermicelli is wanted, two plates are placed on the bottom of the press. the under one is of iron and contains holes about one inch in diameter. the upper one is of copper and contains _groups_ of very small openings. there are sometimes eighty of these openings in a group. when the plates are screwed together, the groups of small holes are directly above the larger openings. as the paste is pressed, it passes through the little holes and then issues from the larger ones; this keeps each little group of pipes somewhat apart from the others. saffron is added to the paste to color it, and the great golden mass is quite a pretty sight as it steadily lengthens. the workman cuts off six or seven feet of it at a time; and holding it above his head with one hand, he shakes it out with the other, as one might shake the folds of a piece of silk. the pipes tangle up very little. they are cut into lengths of about eighteen inches. it is then taken to the drying room and spread out on the trays just as the macaroni is. a handful of the vermicelli is taken at a time, and by a peculiar twist of the arm it is placed on the paper in a form something like that of the letter _n_. after drying for five days it is packed and shipped. on a coffee plantation juan and lupe live in a beautiful valley where palm and banana trees wave their broad leaves in the breeze. it is never cold there, so that many kinds of plants and flowers grow out of doors which we do not see in our country except in greenhouses. on clear days they can see lofty mountains far to the westward, which sometimes wear caps of white. juan is fourteen years old and lupe is twelve. their skin is much darker than yours, and they have bright black eyes and black hair. their father owns a great coffee plantation in brazil, not far from the city of rio janeiro. there are many men, women, and children employed on the plantation, and juan and lupe enjoy roaming about from place to place and watching them at their work. in the nursery they see men planting the coffee seeds in the rich soil. there are some plants that have just come up, and some that are ready to transplant. they are set out in rows, six or eight feet apart each way, and sometimes more. [illustration: fig. .--a coffee nursery.] the trees would grow much taller than those you see in the picture, if they were not kept pruned. do you know why they are prevented from growing tall? whenever you look at a coffee plantation, you see the dark green foliage of the tree, which is an evergreen. lupe is very fond of the blossoms. they are clear white and very fragrant. a tree will yield a small amount the second year after planting, but it will not produce a full crop for five or more years. two pounds is a good average crop for a tree. [illustration: fig. .--picking coffee.] the children like to watch the pickers as they go from tree to tree. many of them are about their own age. some carry a sack slung over the shoulders, and others carry baskets or pails. the _berries_ must be picked by hand, for they do not all ripen at once. they are dark scarlet in color and look a little like cranberries. a good picker gathers about three bushels in a day. the pickers are given a check every time they fill a basket. sometimes juan tends to this work, and he enjoys it very much. at the end of each week the pickers are paid according to the number of checks they have. [illustration: fig. .--coffee berries.] within the berry are two kernels or seeds, with their flat sides together. these are called "coffee beans." it is these beans from which the drink is made. the picking is but a small part of the work of preparing coffee for the market. the first operation is removing the pulp. this used to be done by tramping on the berries, but now it is done in a better way. the berries are thrown into a large tank filled with water, which carries them through a pipe to the pulping machine. this machine removes the pulp and separates the beans. next the beans are carried to a second tank, where they remain for about twenty-four hours, to wash off a sticky substance which covers the shell of the bean. if you have ever put beans or peas into a basin of water, you have noticed that nearly all of them sink, while a few float. these latter are the poor ones. this is the way in which the good and bad coffee beans are separated. a pipe carries off the seeds that float on the surface of the water. the beans are dried on cement floors upon which they are spread. this drying takes a long time. before sunset each day the coffee must be carried under shelter, for the dew injures it. while they are drying, the workmen stir them. sometimes artificial heat is used, but this is expensive. juan's father has a watchman whose duty it is to guard the coffee at night, for it is very valuable. each bean is covered by a strong shell, or hull, which has to be removed. the soaking has loosened this, and so it comes off easier than it otherwise would. juan and lupe often watch the wheels of the huller as they turn, moved by patient oxen. there are two wheels set upright over a circular box, into which the coffee is put. as it passes between the wheels and the bottom of the box, the hulls are removed. underneath the hull is a thin skin, which is also taken off. in some countries people want the coffee dyed or colored. a bluish color is given to it by coating the wheels of the hulling machine with lead. the hulls are separated from the beans in a winnowing machine, and the coffee is then sorted. often this is done by hand. the beans are spread out on a table, and girls and boys, and sometimes grown persons, sort it into several grades. [illustration: fig. .--sorting and sacking coffee.] juan's father has this work done by machinery. the coffee is put into a cylinder, in the bottom of which there are holes of different sizes by which it is graded. the last process is to sack the coffee and send it by railroad to rio janeiro. of course it is neither roasted nor ground until it reaches its destination. we do not produce coffee in our country, but we are the greatest coffee drinkers in the world. a large part of our supply comes from brazil. trace the course of the ship from rio janeiro to new york. juan has often done this, and his father has promised to take him with him sometime, when he goes with a cargo of coffee. you naturally think that coffee of different names must come from different countries, or at least from different trees. this is not always the case. several brands may come from the same tree. the name depends partly upon the size and the general appearance of the beans. coffee is a native of the far east, but it has gradually been transplanted to other countries, until it is now very extensively used. brazil, central america, mexico, the west indies, the hawaiian islands, java, ceylon, and arabia are coffee-raising countries. in coffee found its way to the city of constantinople; in it had reached london; and in it was planted in the west indies. you see it worked its way westward rather slowly. several hundred years ago, coffee was very expensive, so that only the rich could afford to use it. instead of drinking it at home, people went to "coffeehouses," where it was served. to these "coffeehouses" men brought whatever news they had heard and told it to one another. in this way these places served about the same purpose that newspapers do now. the tea gardens of china at the bottom of the teapot you will find some leaves. spread one of them out carefully. you can see that it was once long and slender, a little like willow leaves. it may have grown in some garden in far-away china, for we get a great deal of tea from that country. i have told you how close together the people live on the fertile plains of eastern china. there is so little room that many live on boats on the rivers and in the harbors. on this account their farms are not so large as ours. the tea trees in the gardens are about five or six feet high. if they were allowed to, they would reach a height of twenty-five feet; but they are kept trimmed for the same reasons that the coffee trees are pruned. the trees are raised from seeds, and are generally planted on land which slopes toward the south. what advantage is this? in about three years after planting, the first crop of leaves can be gathered. in china they are usually gathered four times each year, and the trees continue to yield for twenty-five or thirty years. when the leaves are picked, they are full of sap or juice, and so have to be dried. the drying is usually done on trays made of bamboo. while they are drying, they are rubbed and rolled between the palms of the hands, so that they may dry more quickly and evenly. next the leaves are placed, a few at a time, in iron pans over a charcoal fire. they are left in these but a short time, for they are hot. this process is called "firing." sometimes the leaves are "fired" but once, and sometimes twice. the tea is then spread out, and broken bits of stems are removed. some of the tea growers place the tea in baskets which are suspended over slow fires, for drying. if you were to look into some of the _tea-hongs_ or houses where tea is cured and packed, you would find the tea dried in a very curious fashion. [illustration: fig. .--picking tea. "pinehurst," south carolina.] in one of the rooms you would see several chinamen rolling and tossing balls about with their bare feet. the balls are about the size of footballs and are partly filled with tea. although it looks like play, it is hard work. as the balls are tossed about, the tea leaves are given their rounded or twisted appearance. from time to time the workers stop and tie the bags up more closely at the neck. this method is used in making _gunpowder tea_. black and green teas are not different varieties, but are produced by different methods of handling. in the great tea-hongs there are professional _tasters_,--that is, men who do nothing but sip tea from small cups, so as to grade it and fix its value. this is considered a very particular line of work and requires an educated taste. the ocean atmosphere has a bad effect on tea, so that the very finest grades are seldom sent across the sea. when tea is to be shipped by water, it is placed in boxes lined with a sort of sheet lead. this protects the tea greatly. most of the tea sent to the united states lands at san francisco. why? how does it get to other parts of our country? great quantities of tea are pressed into the form of bricks and sent over mountains and across deserts into russia. this is called "brick tea." the russians are great tea drinkers, and whenever any one calls in russia, tea is served. they call their teapot a _samovar_. better tea is obtained from ceylon and india than from china. in these countries europeans have charge of most of the tea farms, and they have carefully studied the cultivation and handling of tea. there is a little tea raised in our own country in the state of south carolina. it is very fine in quality and people are willing to pay a high price for it. some of it has been sold for five dollars a pound. when tea was first brought into europe, it was regarded as a great luxury, just as coffee was. people paid as much as fifty dollars a pound for it. it is said that some of the tea raised to-day for the royal family of china, is worth a hundred dollars a pound. many people in this country do not enjoy a cup of tea unless they have milk and sugar in it. the chinese do not use either in their tea. in russia it is quite common to draw the tea through a lump of sugar held between the teeth. you know that tea parties are very common. the most celebrated tea party ever held was called the "boston tea party." see what you can find out about it. a cup of cocoa on the eighteenth day of june, in the year , this notice appeared in the _essex gazette_ of massachusetts:-- "amos trask, at his house a little below the bell-tavern in danvers, makes and sells chocolate, which he will warrant to be good, and takes cocoa to grind. those who may please to favor him with their custom may depend upon being well served, and at a very cheap rate." this seems to have been the first notice of the manufacture and sale of cocoa and chocolate in our country. what is peculiar about the notice? in those days the raw product was brought to massachusetts by the gloucester fishermen. they obtained it in the west indies in exchange for fish and other things which they took there. when the spanish soldier, cortez, conquered mexico in , he found that the people of that country were very fond of a drink which they called "chocolatl." it was served to their ruler, montezuma, in a cup of gold. when the spaniards went home, they of course introduced the drink into their own country. for a long time it was very expensive and was not commonly used outside of spain, for the spaniards kept the secret of its preparation. cocoa and chocolate are products of the seeds of a tree called the cacao tree. it is a tropical tree and grows in both the old and the new world. although the cacao tree grows wild, it is also cultivated in orchards much like fruit orchards which you have seen. the trees are seldom more than twenty feet high, but they are rather inclined to spread out. they require some shade, and so other trees are often planted between the rows to shade them. the trees begin to bear when five or six years old, and continue to yield for forty years. there are generally two chief harvests each year, but the fruit is ripening all of the time. the blossoms, which grow in clusters, are small and pink or yellow in color. they grow directly from the branches or the trunk of the tree. [illustration: fig. .--cocoa pods and leaves. (permission of walter baker & co., ltd.)] in about four months after the tree has blossomed, you will find dark yellow or brown pods hanging from it. these look a little like ripe cucumbers, but they are more pointed at one end and are grooved or fluted. these pods are from six inches to a foot or more in length, with a rather thick, tough rind. [illustration: fig. .--native cocoa pickers. ceylon. (permission of walter baker & co., ltd.)] how do you think the pods are gathered? they are cut off by men carrying long poles, sometimes of bamboo, to the ends of which knives are fastened. only the ripe pods are cut off and collected in a heap under the tree. they are left in these heaps for about twenty-four hours, when they are cut open and the seeds are gathered in baskets. the seeds are called "beans." there are five rows of them, about the size of almonds, within the pink pulp of the fruit. when fresh they are white, but when dried they are brown. if you taste one, you will find it bitter. you have often seen on packages of chocolate, as well as on the cans of breakfast cocoa, the picture of a young woman carrying some chocolate upon a tray. it is the picture of a beautiful girl who once served chocolate in the old city of vienna. her name was anette baldauff, and she married a rich count and "lived happily ever after." it is said that a painting of her hangs upon the walls of the great art gallery in dresden. point out the cities i have mentioned. the seeds are carried from the orchard to the sheds, where they are prepared for market. here they go through a process of fermentation or "sweating." for this purpose they are placed in a covered box, or they may even be covered with earth. this is called "claying." now the seeds must be dried. they are spread out on platforms, raised a little above the ground, so that the air can circulate underneath. you notice that the roofs do not cover them just now, for their only purpose is to keep off the dew and the rain. they are fastened to frames which have wheels under them. during the day they are not used, but at night they are rolled over the cocoa. [illustration: fig. .--drying cocoa seed. ceylon. (permission of walter baker & co., ltd.)] the cocoa is stirred by workmen using long shovels or rakes, so that it may dry quickly and evenly. once a day the beans are shoveled into heaps and the workmen tread upon them with their bare feet, as you see. this is called "dancing the cocoa." after the seeds have dried for about two weeks they are nearly the color of red bricks. they are put up for shipment in canvas sacks holding one hundred and fifty pounds each. the name of the plantation is usually stamped upon the outside. guayaquil exports more cocoa than any other city. find it. a great deal comes from the island of trinidad, and from the northern part of south america. when the "beans" have reached their destination, they must be cleaned, to rid them of dust and dirt collected on the way. they are then placed in a great revolving cylinder and roasted. you remember that when coffee is roasted it brings out a pleasant odor called its _aroma_. the same is true of cocoa. the roasting also helps to loosen a shell which surrounds the seed. the shell is next removed and the "beans" are then crushed. the mexicans used to crush the seeds on a large stone, hollowed out on top. this they called a "matate." [illustration: fig. .--grinding cocoa. (permission of walter baker & co., ltd.)] the crushing is now done by machinery. the broken bits of the cocoa are called "cocoa nibs." when the cocoa is ground to a powder, it is put into strong bags and pressed. this pressure removes a part of an oily substance known as "cocoa butter." remember, then, that cocoa is the meal or flour made from the crushed seeds from which some of the oil has been removed. chocolate differs from cocoa in that none of this oil is removed in making it. [illustration: fig. .--moulding cocoa. (permission of walter baker & co., ltd.)] you have often seen the words "sweet chocolate" on the labels. this is made by adding a quantity of pulverized sugar to the "plain" or "bitter" chocolate. sometimes vanilla beans are added. [illustration: fig. .--cooling cocoa. (permission of walter baker & co., ltd.)] the pasty mass known as chocolate must be molded. when the proper amount has been placed in each of several metal molds which rest on a table, they are made to rock or shake, and this causes the chocolate to assume the right shape. the molds are then taken to the cooling room, where they are placed on frames, one above another, in long rows. girls and women wrap the cakes of chocolate in the wrappers specially prepared for them, after which they are packed in boxes ready for shipment. at dorchester, massachusetts, on the neponset river, is situated the largest establishment for the manufacture of cocoa and chocolate in america. it is interesting to know that on the very spot where these great mills now stand, was built, in , the first one of the kind in this country. a cranberry bog wareham, massachusetts, dec. , . dear frank: how surprised you will be to learn that i am now a country boy. we left boston early last spring, and came out here to go into the business of cranberry raising. it seemed very strange at first to travel along country roads, or through woods and fields, instead of upon the cement walks of our city streets, but we all think the country delightful. a cranberry farm is a marsh or a bog, so you will see that the vines need a great deal of water. there are both wild and cultivated bogs. those that are cultivated are provided with a system of ditches, so that they can be flooded from time to time. it is a good deal like irrigation in southern california, i suppose. we flood the bogs to prevent the berries from freezing, as well as to furnish the vines with water. i will tell you more about that by and by. father wanted a larger bog than the one he first bought, so, soon after we came, he got another small piece of marsh land which joins it on the west, and started vines on it. you know that willows, rosebushes, grapevines, and many other plants will grow from _cuttings_. it is the same with cranberry vines. the lower end of each cutting is pressed into the soil, and it soon begins to grow. they are set in rows about fourteen inches apart. one of our neighbors, who was starting a bog at the same time, cut the vines into pieces an inch or two long, and scattered them over the ground. he then harrowed them in. the vines multiply just as strawberry plants do, by putting out _runners_. they tell us that our new bog will produce a crop in three years. do you have to wait that long for a crop of oranges? by the middle of june our bog was in full blossom. the flowers are quite small and their color is a little like that of the flesh. i read an interesting thing about them the other day. it seems that the berries used to be called "craneberries," because people thought that the blossoms, just before they opened fully, "resembled the neck, head, and bill of a crane." by dropping the _e_, we got the present name. [illustration: fig. .--a cranberry bog. showing the young vines.] during our harvest time, which lasted from the middle of september to the last of october, we were very busy. we did not commence to go to school until the berries were picked. you see, frost may occur and spoil the crop, so that everybody works as fast as possible until the harvest is over. father had about twenty pickers some of the time, besides our own family. [illustration: fig. .--cranberry pickers at work. notice how the bog is divided into rows by means of cords.] when we were ready to begin picking, father took some twine and stretched it back and forth across the bog, fastening it to small stakes. this divided the field into rows. each picker was given a row, and he was not allowed to change until it was finished. at first it seemed great fun to get down on the ground and strip off the bright berries, but when one does this day after day it gets pretty tiresome. it must be easy to pick oranges, because you can stand up while you work. father paid the pickers twelve cents a pail. it takes about three pailfuls to make a bushel. i averaged about one dollar and a half each day. i bought a suit of clothes and all of my books for the year, and have considerable money left. some of the pickers who were quite small did not earn very much. do you recognize jennie? she worked a part of every day. twice during the picking season there was a sharp frost, but we saved the crop. the government sends out a weather map every day. our teacher gets one, and there is one tacked up in the post office every morning. these maps tell what kind of weather to expect, and father watches them closely. when he saw that frost was likely to occur, he and the men opened the gates which hold back the water, in order to flood the part of the bog where we had not picked. the vines were buried nearly two feet beneath the surface of the water. father says the water cools so slowly that its temperature is much above that of the surface of the ground or the air near it, so the berries do not get frost-bitten. soon after sunrise the water was drawn off, and the next day the bog was dry enough for the pickers to work. [illustration: fig. .--a young worker. notice how the berries are picked.] i wonder if the weather bureau is of any use to farmers in california. i know that the sailors watch for the flags which tell when storms are coming, that they may not go to sea if a violent storm is expected. father says very many lives and much property are saved every year in this way. [illustration: fig. .--winnowing and barreling cranberries.] i have not told you what we do with the cranberries after they are picked. of course we cannot help gathering some leaves and twigs with the berries, and these must be taken out. for this purpose the berries are put into a winnowing machine. i will send you a picture of one. as the man turns the crank, wooden fans within turn rapidly, blowing out the leaves, twigs, and dirt. the berries drop through a screen and run out of a spout into a barrel, as you see. we then put them into crates or barrels for sale. father tells me that cranberries are shipped from our country to europe, because those raised here are much better than the european berries. there are great quantities of cranberries raised in this part of massachusetts. i have been reading lately that they are produced in new jersey, on long island, in michigan, wisconsin, minnesota, canada, and some other sections. from what i have read, i guess they are not raised in southern california. wouldn't it seem strange if you were to eat berries raised on our bog, three thousand miles away? now i want you to tell me about the orange groves of southern california, for none of us have ever seen an orange growing. i wish you all a very "merry christmas" and a "happy new year." your loving friend, will. the cocoanut islands of the pacific imagine yourself on a great ocean steamship, gliding over the blue water of the pacific ocean toward the samoan islands. among the first things that you will see as you near the shores of these islands will be tall, slender, graceful trees, rising without a branch to a height of thirty to eighty feet. at the top is a sort of crown, composed of long, drooping leaves. these beautiful trees lean out over the water and toss their leaves in the strong and steady breeze from the ocean. they seem to nod a friendly greeting to you as you approach, and to wave a loving farewell to you as you sail away. these trees are the cocoanut palms. they grow on all of the tropical islands of the pacific ocean, in the west indies, and along the shores of most warm countries, but never far from the sea. when the cocoanut falls into the water, it is rocked and tossed by the waves and drifted about by the currents, but it is safe within its shell, for the salt water cannot penetrate this. when it finally comes to rest upon some strange shore, it is ready to give to the world another cocoanut palm, if the climate is like that from which it sailed. in this way nature has helped the trees to become widely distributed. there are cocoanut plantations as well as wild groves of the trees. when a plantation is to be established, the planter selects the ripest nuts and dries them for several weeks. they are then planted, and by and by a little palm springs from the small end of the nut and the roots from the large end. when the young trees are from six months to two years old, they are transplanted in rows thirty or forty feet apart. they begin to bear nuts in about five years, but they do not yield a full crop for fifteen or twenty years. do you think that a poor man could afford to go into the business of cocoanut raising? [illustration: fig. .--a cocoanut grove.] as you see in the picture, cocoanuts grow in clusters. you notice also that they grow close to the stem instead of at the ends of the branches. they do not all ripen at once, but nuts may be picked at almost any time. a tree will produce from fifty to one hundred nuts each year. if you were to go into an apple, a peach, or a cherry orchard, you could easily pick the ripe fruit. gathering cocoanuts is quite a different matter, however. let us observe this shiny-skinned samoan boy and see how he picks them. he fastens a short piece of rope in the form of a loop to each foot. letting one of the loops catch on a rough place on the bark of the tree he places the hollow of his foot against it, clasps the trunk with his hands, and raises himself a little. then the other loop is fastened a little higher up, and he raises himself again. in this way he finally reaches the nuts. with a knife he cuts off the ripe ones, which fall to the ground and are then piled up. they are then placed in baskets which are hung from a pole and carried on the shoulders of two men or are loaded on to donkeys and taken to the shed. the ripe cocoanut is a valuable article of food just as it is picked from the tree. it contains also a milk which is a nourishing drink. most of the cocoanut sent to other countries, however, is in a form known as _copra_. at the shed the hard shell, which covers the meat, is split open by means of an ax. the meat is removed with a knife and is then spread out on mats to dry. this dried cocoanut is copra. the inhabitants of these cocoanut islands live in a much more simple style than we do, and the cocoanut tree supplies many of the things that they use daily. let us examine the home of a native samoan. the frame and posts of the house are made of the slender trunks of the cocoanut palm, while the roof is covered with its leaves instead of with shingles. the cups, bowls, dippers, and many other household utensils are made of the shells. if a whole shell is wanted, the "eyes" are pushed in, the milk is used, and ants are allowed to eat the meat. these make excellent water bottles. baskets, curtains, and twine, are made from the fiber of the leaves, and the bark is used for fuel. from the copra an oil is pressed which is used in the manufacture of soap. it makes a perfectly white soap that will float on the water. it is also used to furnish light, and the people rub it on their bodies to prevent sunburn. the sap of the tree is made into sugar, vinegar, and a liquor. while in our country the cocoanut is important chiefly to bakers and confectioners, in these far-away islands it is the most useful of plants, and one of the chief articles of food. would you not like to visit the cocoanut islands and learn more of their interesting people? a bunch of bananas every day, as you walk along the streets you see great bunches of bananas hanging in front of fruit and grocery stores. you find them at the corner fruit stand, and peddlers carry them from house to house. although bananas are so common now and so cheap that all can afford to eat them, this was not so when your grandparents were children. in those days the fruit was regarded as quite a luxury, for there were few people engaged in carrying it from its tropical home to the cities of our country. now many small but swift ships, called "fruiters," carry on this business. they get their cargoes of fruit in the west indies or central america, and within a week after sailing they are unloading at new orleans, baltimore, new york, or boston. if the number of bananas which reach our country each year were equally distributed, each person would receive twenty-five. [illustration: fig. .--a banana tree.] let us get aboard that wonderful train upon which all may travel free of cost, which runs equally well upon land and water. we step off right in the center of a banana plantation on the island of jamaica. yes, these are banana trees all about you. see how long and broad the leaves are and how gracefully they droop! some of them are ten or fifteen feet long; almost as long as the trees are tall. the trees, you see, are simply stalks from which the leaves unroll. here you can see some just starting out. they are rolls of bright green, pointing upward, each starting from the center of the stalk. no, the leaves were not torn in that way by the pickers. the wind sometimes whips them into ribbons, for they are very tender. these stalks growing from the base of the main stem are called "suckers" here; in costa rica they are called "bits." you remember that there are no seeds in bananas. it is these "suckers" that are planted when a farmer wants to start a plantation. they are set out when two or three feet high and within a year they bear fruit. what did i tell you about the length of time required for the cocoanut to bear? it is but four years since the trees in this plantation were single "suckers," standing about fifteen feet apart. now there are several stalks grouped about each parent plant, and the beautiful leaves, touching overhead, form shaded aisles of green. [illustration: fig. .--a banana plantation.] of course a great number of "suckers" are not allowed to grow together. keeping these cut down is called "cleaning the plantation." now let us examine the fruit on this tree beside us. you see that the great cluster or bunch is made up of smaller bunches. these are called "hands," and each banana is spoken of as a "finger." let us count the "hands" in this bunch. this is an unusually large one, for it contains thirteen. nine "hands" make a _full bunch_. as you see, there are from ten to twenty "fingers" in a "hand." buyers will seldom take bunches of less than six "hands." here come the fruit cutters to help get a cargo for the "fruiter" we saw at anchor. yes, the bananas are green, i know, and they are always green when gathered. they will ripen in the storehouses when they reach the united states. no, it is not a waste to cut down the stalks, for they die after bearing their fruit, and the smaller stalks about them will soon yield. some of these stalks, you see, have but one bunch and some have two or three. how odd the bunches look with the "fingers" all pointing upward! the banana leaves which the men are wrapping about the bunches are to protect the fruit. it bruises very easily and great quantities are lost on this account. they are not always wrapped, however. when the fruit reaches the vessel, it is carefully inspected; and if not in just the right condition, it is refused. the bunches which are accepted, are taken into the hold of the ship and packed closely together. the planter receives for these from ten to thirty-five cents a bunch. just think of buying eight or nine dozen of bananas for ten cents! [illustration: fig. .--loading a small boat with bananas to be taken to the "fruiter" in the harbor.] the men will not stop work until the ship is loaded. it may take twenty-four hours, and it may take twice that long, for a "fruiter" will carry from fifteen to twenty thousand bunches of fruit. in some parts of central america, where there are no harbors, the planters float the fruit down the streams in canoes. the vessels anchor at some distance from the shore, and the bananas are taken out in boats called _dories_. they are hoisted up to the deck of the ship by means of pulleys, and then packed in the hold. the thousands of bunches which are bruised in handling are thrown into the sea. while the northern ports get most of their supply of bananas from the west indies, the pacific coast states are supplied from central america. the "fruiters" unload at new orleans into trains, which carry the fruit to los angeles, san francisco, and other places. banana trains also run from new orleans to st. louis, chicago, and other parts of the country. the fruit ships have great pipes or ventilators, which carry the cool, fresh air from the sea down into the hold. sometimes when they reach port it is so cold that the bananas cannot be taken out for a few days. wagons are loaded with the fruit at the wharves, and it is taken to warehouses where it gradually turns yellow. i am sure you have seen loads of the green fruit on the streets. [illustration: fig. .--a "fruiter" taking a cargo of bananas.] when the wholesale merchant sells the fruit, he often incloses each bunch in the rough material of which gunny sacks are made, and then puts a light, circular frame, made of strips of wood, over it. this, you see, protects the bananas. the grocer or fruit man takes hold of the frame without danger of mashing the fruit, lifts the bunch, and hangs it upon a hook. the frame and sacking are then removed. bananas grow in the tropical parts of asia and africa and on many of the islands of the pacific ocean. they are also raised in florida, and they ripen in sheltered places in southern california. you have seen both yellow and red bananas. the red ones usually bring the higher price, but they do not keep well and are not so extensively raised as the yellow ones. the banana is an important article of food. it is much more nourishing than potatoes or even good, white bread. a flour or meal can be made from the fruit by drying it and then grinding. how dates grow three thousand years before the shepherds followed the star to the manger at bethlehem, the beautiful date palm was cultivated beside the banks of the euphrates and the nile rivers. the date was the bread of the people who lived in these fertile valleys, and it is an important article of food in northern africa, arabia, and persia to-day. look at a map of northern africa, and you will see that the great sahara covers a large part of it. here and there across the drifting sands wind caravan routes, traveled by camels ridden by strangely dressed men. these routes lead to beautiful garden spots called _oases_. here are wells and springs, with little streams flowing in the shade of fig, date palm, and other trees. the people who dwell within these groves beside the cooling waters look out upon the desert as the inhabitants of an island might look upon the boundless sea. find some of these oases and learn why they are fertile. the people who live in these oases depend upon dates for their living. the dreary journey from the coast to the interior is made to procure quantities of this fruit, which are wanted by the outside world. if you were to make a journey in a desert country, you would find that you could not carry such articles of food as you would have if you remained at home. the sunshine beats down fiercely, the springs and wells are far apart, and the patient animals must not be overloaded. the chief article of food carried is the date. a mass is packed together until it is so hard that pieces are chopped off with a hatchet when they are wanted. like the cocoanut palm, the date palm rises to a great height, sometimes fifty or sixty feet, without branches. it ends in a crown of beautiful feathery leaves which droop downward. these leaves may be ten or fifteen feet long. many of them stand edgewise. unlike most trees, the trunk does not steadily increase in size, and you can tell nothing as to the age of the tree by its diameter. [illustration: fig. .--date palms loaded with ripe fruit, biskra, algeria. (year book u. s. department of agriculture, .)] in its wild state many shoots spring from the base of the tree. these may grow as high as the parent stalk, so that in time a jungle or thicket is formed. the flowers, which are clear white, grow in clusters. there are from six to twenty of these clusters on a tree, each of which produces a bunch of dates. the female tree bears the fruit. the blossoms are pollinated both by the wind and by man. there are from ten to fifteen pounds of dates in a bunch. a tree will average from one hundred to two hundred pounds each year, although trees have been known to yield six hundred pounds. the trees yield when from four to eight years old, and continue to bear for a century. the dates, green at first, later in the year a yellowish brown, are, when ripe, amber or black in color. the trees require a very dry, hot climate, but moist soil. long, long ago, this saying was common among the arabs, "the date palm, the queen of trees, must have her feet in running water and her head in the burning sky." although there are lovely date palm trees on the grounds of many california homes, few of them bear fruit. the temperature must average from eighty to ninety degrees for a considerable time in the summer, in order to mature it. what is the average summer temperature in your locality? if an ordinary tree is frost-bitten, it recovers and soon puts out a new growth; but if the crown of the date palm be frozen, the tree dies. when the moors went to spain, in the eleventh century, they introduced this valuable tree which the mission fathers several hundred years later brought to mexico and to southern california. how would you like to try to climb a date palm tree? although they look so smooth and are without branches, the natives of the desert climb them without any help whatever. the trunk is always somewhat rough, and this makes it possible to ascend them. [illustration: fig. .--date palm trees.] not all of the dates in a bunch ripen at once, so they are usually picked by hand and only the ripe ones selected. sometimes, however, the bunches are cut off. some dates contain so much sap that the bunches must be hung up to allow it to drain off before they can be shipped. this sap is called _date honey_, and is saved. they are sent to the coast towns in bags or boxes called _frails_. where dates are to be sold in small quantities, they are repacked in the small boxes such as you have seen. you know that dates are very sweet, and it is no wonder that they are, for they contain from fifty-five to sixty per cent of sugar. the trees are often tapped, and the sap which flows out is made into sugar. vinegar and a liquor called _arrack_ are also made from it. the leaves of the tree are made into bags and mats; from the stones a drink is made which takes the place of coffee. from the leafstalks baskets are made, while the trunk furnishes material for houses and for fences. if the dates could speak, they could tell us many wonderful stories of the far east, of the river boats on the nile, of the drifting sands which come so close to the river's banks, of the caravans creeping over the desert toward the green oases and then fading out of sight, bearing loads of this food to the countries where it is not produced. the orange groves of southern california pasadena, california, jan. , . dear friend will: i was very glad to receive your letter, and much surprised to know that you are living on a farm. i am glad that you described the raising of cranberries, for i did not know much about it before. when i told my teacher about getting the letter, she asked me to read it in the geography class and to show the pictures. i asked our grocery-man where he gets his cranberries, and found that some of them came from wareham. you are having cold weather now, i know. is the skating good? i have not seen ice as thick as window glass since we came to california, except that delivered by the iceman. just now there is a beautiful covering of snow on the mountains a few miles north and east of town. just think of picking roses and callas with snow in plain sight! the snow never remains more than a day or two on these mountains. soon after we came to pasadena, father bought an orange grove of twenty-five acres. we are picking the fruit now. people began to pick oranges several weeks ago, and the work will continue all winter. orange trees are planted about twenty feet apart, but the groves do not look as apple orchards do in the east, for no grass is allowed to grow in them. the best orange section is east of here, near redlands and riverside, but some good fruit is raised near pasadena also. father keeps our trees pruned down rather low, so that it is easier to pick the oranges than it would be if they were allowed to grow very tall. orange raising is like cranberry growing in one way--the land must be irrigated in each case. here the water is piped from the mountain streams and from tunnels. we form basins about ten feet square around each tree and fill them with water. most of our irrigating is done during the summer, as the winter is our rainy season. _you_ would not call it a very rainy time. our average is about twenty inches for the whole year. the trees in our grove have been set out about six years, and they are bearing nicely now. orange trees begin to bear when they are four years old; so, you see, we have to wait a little longer for a crop than you do for a crop of cranberries. it costs a good deal to start an orange grove. trees cost from one dollar to one and one-half dollars each at the nurseries. a few years ago they sold for twenty cents each. i wish that you could see the trees when they are in full blossom, and also when they are loaded with the golden fruit. i am going to put some orange blossoms into the envelope, but i am afraid they will not reach you in very good condition. they are very fragrant, and you can smell their perfume some distance from a tree in blossom. to-day we picked about two hundred and fifty boxes of oranges. we always speak of _picking_ them, although they are not picked, but cut. you see, if they were picked off, the part where the stem pulled off would soon begin to decay. we take a wagon load of fruit boxes, and, while father drives slowly between the rows of trees, i throw them off. [illustration: fig. .--picking oranges in california.] each picker carries a sack slung over one shoulder, and as fast as he cuts off an orange, he drops it into the sack. the sacks are emptied into the boxes, and these are loaded on to the wagon. father pays five cents a box for picking, and a good picker will gather about forty boxes in a day. we sell most of our oranges to fruit companies. these companies pack and ship the fruit. at the packing houses the oranges are placed in tubs of water and scrubbed with small brushes. many women, girls, and boys work at this. the washing is to take off dirt, and also _scale_. [illustration: fig. .--grading and packing oranges.] after the oranges are washed, they are placed in a sort of trough which is highest at the end near the tub. they roll down this trough to the _grader_. this is a machine so arranged that the oranges pass through different openings according to their size, and come out sorted. in the warehouse close by they are wrapped and packed. chinamen often do this work. each orange is wrapped in a separate piece of paper, which has the brand of the company stamped upon it. it is then packed firmly in a box. a certain number of oranges of each grade fill a box, ninety-six of the largest grade, and about two hundred of the smallest. those which are too small, as well as the imperfect oranges, are rejected. these are called _culls_. sometimes these are sold for a low price, and sometimes they are thrown away by wagon loads. after the boxes are filled, they are placed in special fruit cars and hurried to st. louis, chicago, new york, boston, and other cities. yes, the weather bureau is of great help to fruit growers. of course we have very little winter here, but oranges will not endure much cold. the mercury falls below the freezing point but a few times each season. on new year's day the temperature here was fifty-eight degrees. i looked up the boston temperature for the same day and found that it was only four degrees above zero. when the bureau predicts a sharp freeze, the farmers build small fires in their orchards, or turn on a good deal of water. the fires are built in small wire baskets. they make a smudge instead of a flame. the people in the raisin districts watch the weather reports pretty closely, for rain injures the drying grapes. growers have to _spray_ or _fumigate_ the trees to destroy the scale that i spoke of which is a great enemy of the orange, to kill the insects, and to wash off dirt. this is sometimes done by putting a great piece of canvas over the tree, forming a sort of tent which prevents the fumes from escaping. it was found that the ladybugs would eat the scale and so they were brought into california from the east. they do a great deal of good, but still we have to spray the trees. orange trees are raised from the seed, and the trees produced in this way are called _seedlings_. by _budding_, a fruit much better than the oranges grown on the seedling tree has been produced. there were five acres of seedlings in our grove, and father budded the trees. he cut off the limbs rather close to the trunk of the tree. then he slipped buds from _navel_ trees into cuts made through the bark in the end of each limb left on the tree. he then wound cord tightly about the limb and put on some wax. after a time a new growth started out where these buds were placed. these new branches will bear much improved fruit. we have a very fine variety of oranges called washington navels. trees of this variety were obtained by our government from brazil. two of these were brought to riverside, a town about seventy-five miles east of pasadena, and planted on a ranch belonging to a mr. tibbits. they did well, and all of the trees of this variety in southern california were obtained from these two through budding. these trees are still living. california and florida are the two important orange-growing states of our country. father says the industry is much older in florida than in our state. florida growers can ship their fruit to market much cheaper than we can. it costs us ninety cents for each box. mexico, the west indies, italy, southern france, and spain are also orange producers. these countries have the advantage of cheap labor, father says. i wish that you could visit us. we would have fine times, i am sure. the next time i write i will tell you about some of the other fruits raised in california. your sincere friend, frank. a visit to a vineyard pasadena, california, oct. , . dear friend will: last week father went to fresno, which is about three hundred miles northwest of here, in the san joaquin valley. he took me with him, and we visited some of the great vineyards and raisin-packing establishments near and in that city. raisins are simply dried grapes. although there are many countries where grapes grow, there are few where raisins are made. dew, fog, and rain injure the fruit, so that the san joaquin valley, with its dry, hot atmosphere, is well adapted to this industry. there are a great many different kinds of grapes but only the green variety is used in making raisins. the raisin grapes are called _muscats_. if the grapes are left on the vines long enough, they become raisins. i have picked some pretty good raisins from the vines. of course by being spread out, they dry quicker and more evenly. the sugar that you find on and in the raisins is not put there by the people who dry the grapes. it comes from the juice of the grape. grapevines grow from both roots and cuttings. of course cuttings are the cheaper. often they may be had for the asking. many think that it is better to set out rooted vines than cuttings. they are planted in rows from six feet apart to twelve or fifteen feet. during the first year the young vines will grow several feet. in the fall, when the flow of the sap has been checked by frost, the vines are pruned. a vineyard in california looks quite different from one in the east. during the winter it is simply so many rows of stumps several inches in thickness and one or two feet high. during the summer the branches grow from these stumps and produce their beautiful clusters of grapes, only to be cut off in the fall or winter. the trimmings are generally burned in the vineyard at the same time that they are cut off. a sort of furnace made of sheet iron is fastened between two wheels and drawn by horses up and down between the rows. a man pitches the cuttings into it, and they burn as it moves along. in the early summer men go through the vineyards sprinkling a coating of sulphur on the vines. this is to prevent mildew, which damages the fruit very much. during the last half of august and september the grapes are picked. sometimes the harvest continues into october. most of the grapes had been gathered when we visited the vineyards. when the juice of the grapes is one fourth sugar, they are ready to pick. the grower generally tells the condition by the taste and color of the fruit, although there are instruments for determining the amount of sugar. like oranges, grapes are cut from the vines and not picked. we saw great companies of chinamen going through the vineyards cutting off the beautiful clusters. these they placed on shallow, wooden trays to dry. in a week or two, when the upper side of the clusters is pretty well dried, the grapes are turned. we saw the workmen place an empty tray, upside down, over the filled one. then, holding the two together, they turned them over, and the grapes dropped into the tray that had been placed on top. [illustration: fig. .--picking grapes.--notice the mountains in the background.] [illustration: fig. .--drying raisin grapes.] during this drying time the people watch the reports of the weather bureau. in some places flags are displayed when rain is expected. as a rule the grape season is over before the rains begin. when the grapes are taken from the trays, they are placed in boxes holding about one hundred pounds each. these are called _sweat boxes_. here the driest grapes absorb some of the moisture from the others, and the mass becomes more uniform. [illustration: fig. .--a vineyard after being pruned.] after the drying process has been finished, the stems are rather brittle. to make them softer and easier to handle, the grapes are next placed in a cool room and left there for a time. after visiting some of the vineyards, we drove to one of the great packing establishments in fresno. these packing houses are nearly always in the cities and towns, because there help can be easily obtained. the packing house that we visited employs four hundred people, mostly girls and women. the raisins are first placed on wooden or metal frames the size of a raisin box. these are called _forms_, and the packers are paid according to the number of forms filled. when these are filled, the raisins are carefully transferred to the boxes. a box of raisins weighs twenty pounds, but there are half boxes and quarter boxes put up also. a paper is placed on the bottom of each box, and over the raisins another is placed. on top of this there is a fancy paper on which the name of the packer is stamped. in most establishments there are three grades of raisins, imperial clusters, london layers, and the loose and imperfect stems. sometimes a second crop of grapes is gathered a little later in the fall. of course these do not dry so well because the days are shorter, it is cooler, and rains sometimes occur. on this account they are dipped in lye and then rinsed in water. the lye cracks the skin, and so the juice evaporates more quickly. these are called valencia raisins. there is not a very good market for these, so that people do not dip them so commonly now as they used to. we saw the machine where the raisins are _stemmed_. they pass from a hopper into a space between two woven-wire cylinders. the inner one revolves within the other. in this way the raisins are broken from the stems. they are then run through a fanning mill which cleans them, and they are finally graded by passing through screens having openings of different sizes. most of the seedless raisins are made from seedless grapes, but there are machines for removing the seeds from the grapes which contain them. the superintendent of the packing house said that nearly all of the raisins that we import come from spain, and that they are exported chiefly from the city of malaga. the purple and other _wine grapes_ are taken to the wineries and sold by the ton, to be made into wine. there are many other things that i should like to write about, but my letter is a pretty long one now, so i will close. your loving friend, frank. nutting have you ever gone into the woods on a beautiful autumn day? the bright, warm sunshine floods the earth where the trees are far apart and sifts down through the branches. all nature seems to invite you to lie down under a tree and dream. it was on such a day that rip van winkle fell into his long sleep. how pretty the trees look in their fall suits of yellow, crimson, red, and brown! what a rustling is made as your feet tread the carpet of leaves! the breezes pass among the branches and whisper a message to the bright-colored leaves. they understand and obey. singly, in groups, and in showers, they silently float downward. by night and by day they fall, but soon this carpet will be changed for one of white. listen! the leaves are not the only things that are falling. you can hear the _thump_, _thump_ of nuts as they drop from their lofty perches in the walnut and hickory-nut trees. sit down quietly on that log and you will soon see the busy nut gatherers. with their tails curled over their backs, they race up and down the trees, or spring from branch to branch, carrying their precious burdens to their homes in the hollows of trunk or limb. now one sits up straight, holding a nut between his paws, and turning it slowly as he cracks and eats it. if he sees you, he whisks out of sight, or scolds you from a safe place far above the ground. when the winter winds are whistling through the leafless trees, and snows are drifting over the ground, these little nut gatherers feast to their hearts' content. the squirrels do not gather all of the nuts. children and grown people enjoy nutting. when there are not enough nuts on the ground, the men and boys climb the trees to shake them off. then everybody hunts among the leaves for the treasures. some of the most important nuts are walnuts, hickory nuts, hazelnuts, almonds, chestnuts, brazil nuts, pecans, and peanuts. many of the hickory nuts fall out of their coverings bright and clean. walnuts generally have to be _shucked_, and the juice stains the hands almost black. as hazelnuts grow on bushes, they can be easily picked. they usually drop out of their burs after there have been a few frosts. many nuts are gathered in the woods, but in some places the trees are cultivated just as fruit trees are. we usually eat nuts between meals, or as a dessert. they are not simply dainties, but are very valuable articles of food. in some countries the poor people depend upon them for food. in almost any city of our country are to be found the nuts that i have mentioned, with perhaps several other kinds. these have come from different states, some from canada, some from brazil, and some from spain. i am sure you will enjoy gathering nuts of different kinds, so let us set out on a nutting expedition. a walnut vacation how would you like to have your school close for two weeks, so that you could gather walnuts? every year many of the boys and girls of southern california are given a vacation just for this purpose. it is called the "walnut vacation," and occurs in the month of october. these children do not take their baskets and go off to the woods where they can romp and play, watch the squirrels, and gather beautiful autumn leaves. they gather nuts from the trees which their parents own, for in southern california there are many walnut ranches or groves. you see the vacation means a vacation for work instead of for play. walnut trees are set out in rows just as apple trees are, but their roots and branches extend to such a distance from the trunks that they need to be about twice as far apart. the walnut harvest, which begins about the first of october, is a busy time. men, women, boys, and girls may be seen in the groves, shaking the nuts from the trees, picking them up, and putting them into sacks. [illustration: fig. .--a walnut grove.] the men shake the trees, and there is a shower of nuts to the earth. do not go under the branches now unless you want to be pelted. a single tree has been known to yield three hundred pounds of nuts in a season. when the trees have been given a good shaking, there are still some nuts clinging to the branches. these are obtained by shaking the limbs separately, by means of long poles, to the ends of which wire hooks are fastened. as all of the nuts do not ripen at the same time, the trees are sometimes gone over two or three times. now the boys, girls, and women go to work filling pails and baskets and emptying them into sacks, for they can do this work as well as men. usually the nuts drop out of their covering or _shuck_ when they strike the ground; but if they do not, the _shuck_ must be removed. sometimes the covering is cut off. if you handle the nuts with your bare hands, they will be stained almost black, and you will have to let the color wear off. the days are bright and warm, and this sort of nutting becomes rather tiresome before sundown. the work must be done and the vacation is not a very long one, so each does his part cheerfully. when the nuts have been gathered, they are taken to the shed or place where they are to be washed. here they are poured into a large wire cylinder which revolves in a tank filled with water. the machine is turned by a horse walking round and round, and it both washes and grades the nuts. the smaller ones pass through the meshes in the wire and are called _second grade_. the larger ones are known as _first grade_. [illustration: fig. .--washing, drying, and sacking walnuts.] when the walnuts come out of the washer, they are spread out on shallow, wooden trays to dry. sometimes several thousand trays may be seen on one ranch. they are loaded on to a small car and pushed to the part of the field where they are wanted. if there is no foggy or cloudy weather, they will dry in about five days, but if there is, it may take ten. after the nuts are thoroughly dried, the trays are placed on the car and pushed to the _bleacher_. this is a large box made of tarred paper. it is placed over the trays, and a quantity of sulphur is burned in it. this is simply to whiten the shells, for they sell for a higher price when they are bleached. sometimes the nuts are whitened by dipping them into a liquid preparation. the nuts are now sacked and marked, ready to ship. soon after the boys and girls have finished their "walnut vacation," the nuts are on their way to the eastern part of the united states. most of the walnuts raised in california have soft shells. some have such thin shells that they are called "paper shells." the walnuts that grow in the woods of indiana, illinois, and other states have hard shells. they are dark in color and are called _black walnuts_. the trees are quite valuable, as the wood is used in making furniture. chestnuts let us go on a chestnutting expedition to the southern part of france. we can gather the nuts in many of the states of our own country, but the trip to a strange land will be enjoyed by all. the chestnut trees, many of which are very old, spread their branches to great distances. the nuts, as you see, are inclosed in a _bur_ or coat which covers the shell. there are generally two nuts in each bur. when _you_ eat chestnuts, you eat them as a sort of dainty, not as a regular article of food. this is not the case in the home of jean, the boy who is helping his father fill those sacks. in his home, as in many homes in southern europe, the nuts form one of the chief articles of daily food. in the winter jean sells the freshly roasted nuts on a street corner in the city of lyons. he gets a good many pennies each noon from workmen and poor people generally, who use them for their midday meal. he sells ten nuts for a penny. this is not the only way in which they are eaten. jean's mother boils them with celery and mashes them as we do potatoes. the nuts are also ground into a flour from which bread is made. they are often used in the dressing for fowls. confectioners use great quantities of chestnuts. in lyons there are establishments where as many as two hundred persons are employed in preparing them. the nuts are first peeled, and then boiled in clear water, which removes the thin coating next the kernel. they are then placed in a sirup flavored with mexican vanilla, in which they remain for about three days. after draining, they are coated with vanilla or chocolate and packed in attractive boxes. in this form they are worth forty-five or fifty cents a pound. a bag of peanuts last summer harry's parents took him with them on a visit to virginia. harry has always lived in new york city, and the country life of the south was very interesting to him. they visited friends who live on a beautiful _plantation_, as the farms in the south are called. a driveway lined with grand old trees leads through the flower-studded lawn up to the retired manor house, whose wide verandas completely circle it round. beyond the house are the stables where work horses, driving horses, and saddle horses are kept; and beyond these is the pretty little boathouse, standing on the bank of a small river that winds its way through the plantation. the morning after harry arrived, his friend bert asked him if he would like to go across the river to see the men harvest peanuts. now whenever harry had wanted peanuts, he had always gone to a stand and bought a sack. he had never thought about where they came from. he had heard of shaking nuts from trees, so he supposed that they were going to the woods. he was therefore much surprised when bert took him to a field across the river where men were plowing vines from the ground. "do peanuts grow in the ground?" he asked. "why, of course they do," answered bert. "i thought that nuts grew on trees," said harry. "father says that the peanut is not a _real_ nut," replied his friend. "he says they should be called _ground nuts_ or _ground peas_." he pulled up one of the vines, and the boys threw themselves down under a tree to examine it. when the small clods of soil clinging to the roots of the plant had been removed, harry saw a number of pods which he recognized as peanuts. opening one of the pods, bert took out the kernels. "these," said he, "are the _seeds_, and they are planted much as other seeds are. "before they are planted the shell must be removed, but we have to be careful not to break the thin skin that covers the kernel. if that be broken, the seed will not grow. "the kernels are planted about one foot apart, in rows that are, as you see, about three feet apart. sometimes they are planted by hand and sometimes by machinery." "i wonder if peanuts are raised in the country around new york," said harry. "no, i think not," replied bert, "for they are very easily killed by frost. great quantities are raised in north carolina and in tennessee. father says that the negroes of western africa raised them long, long before they were known in the united states. he says that they are a very important article of food there, and that whole villages take part in the planting and harvesting. "after the vines blossom," continued bert, "a very strange thing happens." "what is it?" asked harry. "the flower stalks bend downward and push themselves right into the soil, and on these the pods develop. if the stalks do not enter the earth within a few hours after the flowers fall, they die." harry now watched the plowing. the plows were drawn up and down the rows and ran directly under the vines, lifting them out of the soil. after they had been plowed out about two hours, men took them upon pitchforks and piled them up. harry noticed that some of the piles were covered with corn fodder, and asked why this was. bert told him that it was to keep out the rain. "what happens to the nuts after the vines have been piled up?" said harry. "they remain in the piles fifteen or twenty days, and are then spread out on the ground or hauled to the barn, where the nuts are picked off," answered bert. "sometimes they are picked by hand and sometimes by machinery. let us go to the lower field; we have an earlier variety there, and the nuts are being picked now." they found men, women, and children picking the pods one by one and dropping them into baskets. these were emptied into sacks. harry tried to lift one of these, and was surprised to find it so heavy. bert told him that it weighed about one hundred pounds. "do you burn the vines after the nuts are picked?" asked harry. "no," said bert, "they are fed to the cattle. we call the vines _peanut hay_." bert explained that his father sold the sacks of nuts to the factory, where they were cleaned and sorted. the next day the boys went to town and visited the peanut factory. the nuts were first put through a machine which removed the dirt. they were then polished and sorted into four grades. the poorest grade is used in making peanut candy. the nuts were then sacked, and were ready to be shipped to the north. harry learned that an oil is made from the nuts which is used as olive oil is used, and also that peanut butter is produced from them. he found that many men were employed on plantations all through virginia and other states of the south, in raising the peanuts that are sold on the streets of every city and town in our country. assorted nuts after the thanksgiving dinner had been eaten, the nuts were passed, and the children asked uncle john to tell them something about a few of them. "all right," said he. "you pick out the ones that you want to know about." frank handed him an almond. "this nut," said uncle john, "came from sunny spain. it grew not far from the blue mediterranean. almonds are raised in most parts of southern europe and in the northern part of africa. ages ago they grew in the holy land, and are mentioned in the bible." "do almonds grow in any part of our country?" asked helen. "i think they grow in california," said frank. "you are right," said uncle john. "there are many almond orchards in the southern part of the state. "an almond tree in full bloom is a beautiful sight. the blossoms are white, tinted with pink, and as they appear before the leaves do, there is nothing to hide them." [illustration: fig. .--almond trees in full bloom.] "does the nut have a covering?" inquired mary. "yes," replied uncle john. "when the nut is ripe, the shuck opens gradually, and sometimes the nuts fall out. "when people have large orchards, they spread pieces of canvas under the trees and then shake them or beat them by means of long poles. "the nuts that do not fall out of the shucks are obtained by opening the shuck with a knife. the nuts are then dried, and are ready for market." as soon as uncle john had finished, mary handed him a hazelnut. "please tell about this one," said she. "i have often gone hazel nutting when i was a boy," said her uncle. "hazelnuts grow on bushes in thickets. they are six or eight feet high and very slender. baskets are sometimes made of them, and i have often used them for arrows. "sometimes the nuts grow singly, and sometimes in groups of two or three. a bur covers the nut, which sticks very closely until it is ripe. then the nuts often fall out. "after i had gathered the hazelnuts, i used to spread them out on the roof of the wood house to dry." "nuts that look just like these are called filberts," said helen. "filberts are cultivated hazelnuts," replied uncle john; "they are larger than the wild ones." "i would like to know how this nut grows," said helen, handing her uncle a black nut shaped like a triangular prism. "this," said uncle john, "came from brazil, and is called a brazil nut. do you know where brazil is?" "it is in the northeastern part of south america," replied helen. "the great amazon river is in brazil, and it flows through tropical forests," said mary. "much of our coffee comes from brazil," said frank. uncle john then told the children that brazil nuts come from the northern part of brazil and from the orinoco valley. helen asked if they grow as walnuts and hickory nuts do. "no," answered her uncle, "they grow inside of a great case or shell. there are from eighteen to twenty-five in one shell, which is nearly as large as a man's head." "how are the nuts got out of the shells?" asked mary. "when they fall, men break them open and take out the nuts," replied uncle john. "most of them are sent down the amazon to the city of para and from there shipped to the united states and other countries." none of the children knew where para is situated, so they all went to the library to look at the atlas. after they had located it, uncle john told them of his visit to the city and of the wonderful things which he saw on a steamboat trip up the amazon river. a strange conversation one evening after i had been reading for some time, i went to the kitchen to get a drink of water. that part of the house was dark and quiet, and as i stepped through the doorway, i heard low, musical voices, apparently in the pantry. i was very much surprised, you may be sure, and i kept perfectly still, and listened. "yes," said a voice, which i could barely hear, "i am a long way from home indeed, and sometimes it makes me quite lonely when i think of it." "tell us about your home, and how you lived," said another low voice. "well," began the first speaker, "my name is _pepper_. with twenty-five or thirty brothers and sisters i grew in a cluster on a vine. we were but a small part of the family, for there were similar clusters all over our vine. we were about as large as peas, and grew somewhat after the fashion of currants. "all about were other vines to which friends and relatives were attached. pepper vines are always anxious to get to the top, and so some of these vines climbed trees and some twined themselves about poles, which men had set in the ground for this purpose. our vine was three or four years old when we appeared on it." "how long did you live on the vine?" asked a voice that i had not heard before. "only a few months," replied pepper. "you see, we had to make room for another set of berries. two sets appear each year for twenty years or more. "under the influence of the tropical sunshine and the warm rains we grew day by day, and we were as happy as the butterflies and birds about us. by and by we began to turn red. all of this time a _hull_ or coat was forming on the outside of our bodies. "before we became entirely red, workmen came to the field, and, by rubbing us between their hands, separated us from the stems to which we lovingly clung. "after having been picked, i was, with many others, placed upon a mat to dry. these mats were all about us, each covered with berries. after being thoroughly dried we were put into a mill and ground, and i became what i am now, _black pepper_." "are there other kinds of pepper?" asked some one. "oh, yes," said pepper, "there is _white pepper_, and _red_, or _cayenne pepper_. some of my friends were made into white pepper. they were soaked in limewater for about two weeks, and this, of course, softened and wrinkled their hulls which had always fitted so nicely. this was bad enough, but it was not the worst." "what happened next?" said several voices. "they were then," continued pepper, "trodden under the bare feet of dark-skinned men, and this rubbed off their hulls completely. after this they were ground as we had been. "cayenne pepper is not a member of our family at all, although it has the same name. i have looked up its genealogy, and i find that it received its name from the city of cayenne, in french guiana, near which it grows. it is in the form of bell-shaped pods, and grows on low, bushy plants instead of vines. "the pods are green at first, but red when ripe. no doubt you have seen strings of them hanging in the grocery store when you were on the shelves. people sometimes use the pods as they are, but usually they are dried, ground, mixed with yeast, and baked into flat cakes like crackers. when these cakes are ground, red, or cayenne pepper, is produced. it is put up in little boxes just as we are. "pepper used to be regarded as a great luxury," the speaker went on. "until the eighteenth century the portuguese handled almost all of it. it was not uncommon for rents to be paid with pepper. if any of you have read ancient history, you know that when alaric took rome he demanded, among other things, one thousand pounds of pepper as a ransom. "my home was in the east indies," said pepper, "but there are members of our family living in the philippines, india, mexico, the west indies, and other tropical countries." "your story is a very interesting one," said a voice, "and now, if you care to hear it, i will tell something of my life." "yes, do tell us," said several at once. "very well, i will follow the example of our friend pepper and introduce myself at once. i am known as ginger. i have relatives living in china, in india, and in the western part of africa, but i came from the west indies. the ginger family is not like that of pepper; it has no lofty notions." pepper seemed a little inclined to get angry, so ginger hastened to say: "i mean that our vines do not climb trees or poles, but run along the ground. i was a _root_ and not a _fruit_." "when i was about a year old i, with countless friends, was dug from the ground. we were cut from the vines and put into vats of scalding water." "that was _dreadful_," said pepper. "we were treated in that way to prevent us from _sprouting_," continued ginger. "after being taken out of the water, we were thoroughly dried and then ground. we were then put up in cans and boxes and sold as _black ginger_. others were scraped before being ground, and they were then called _white ginger_. "we were placed on board a great ship and finally landed at new york. after remaining in a large store there for some time, i was brought to the corner grocery, and so i found my way to this shelf. "i am gradually wasting away, and i shall not last a great while longer. in my tropical home i seemed to be of no use to anybody, while now i am called for frequently by the cook, and my services seem to be appreciated, so i am happy." "to be of some real use in this world is the greatest joy of life," remarked a strange voice. there was silence for a moment, and then ginger said "may we not hear from you, friend?" "your stories almost make me believe that i am still in the land of my birth," was the reply. there was a peculiar little rattle about the voice, which i recognized at once as belonging to cinnamon. "for several years i was rocked to and fro by gentle tropic breezes or lashed about by storms. from my perch i could see beautiful flowers, bright insects, and even serpents in the thicket at my feet. birds of brilliant plumage often perched upon me. my home was on the island of ceylon. "it is often said that where there is much bark there is no bite. in my own case that is not so." "i do not understand," said ginger. "why," said cinnamon, laughing, "i am _all_ bark, and i have considerable bite, as those who have tasted me know. "i was taken from one of the smaller limbs of a cinnamon tree. i was slipped within a larger piece of bark, for we each rolled up when stripped from the limbs. a still larger piece was slipped over us and so on until quite a bundle had been formed. some were quite short, and some were three feet in length." stories of california by ella m. sexton _with many illustrations_ cloth mo $ . net "as a concise and interesting history of california, it deserves a place in our schools and libraries, so that every child may read it."--_pacific churchman._ "this volume comprises some excellent contributions to history, as it certainly comprises some notable contributions to romance. the little book is one which will appeal, therefore, to readers old and young. several of the stories explain in some degree the remarkable physical characteristics of california, but the writer's chief aim has been to unfold to children and their parents the life of bygone days."--_the outlook._ the macmillan company - fifth avenue, new york boston chicago san francisco atlanta tarr and mcmurry's geographies a new series of geographies in two, three, or five volumes by ralph s. tarr, b.s., f.g.s.a. cornell university and frank m. mcmurry, ph.d. teachers college, columbia university two book series introductory geography cents complete geography $ . the three book series first book ( th and th years) home geography and the earth as a whole cents second book ( th year) north america cents third book ( th year) europe and other continents cents the five book series first part ( th year) home geography cents second part ( th year) the earth as a whole cents third part ( th year) north america cents fourth part ( th year) europe, south america, etc. cents fifth part ( th year) asia and africa, with review of north america (with state supplement) cents without supplement cents home geography, greater new york edition cents net teachers' manual of method in geography. by charles a. mcmurry cents net to meet the requirements of some courses of study, the section from the third book, treating of south america, is bound up with the second book, thus bringing north america and south america together in one volume. the following supplementary volumes have also been prepared, and may be had separately or bound together with the third book of the three book series, or the fifth part of the five book series: supplementary volumes new york state cents kansas cents the new england states cents virginia cents utah cents pennsylvania cents california cents tennessee cents ohio cents louisiana cents illinois cents texas cents new jersey cents when ordering, be careful to specify the book or part and the series desired, and whether with or without the state supplement. the macmillan company - fifth avenue, new york boston chicago atlanta san francisco tarr and mcmurry's geographies comments =north plainfield, n.j.=--"i think it the best geography that i have seen."--h. j. wightman, _superintendent_. =boston, mass.=--"i have been teaching the subject in the boston normal school for over twenty years, and book i is the book i have been looking for for the last ten years. it comes nearer to what i have been working for than anything in the geography line that i have yet seen. i congratulate you on the good work."--miss l. t. moses, _normal school_. =detroit, mich.=--"i am much pleased with it and have had enthusiastic praise for it from all the teachers to whom i have shown it. it seems to me to be scientific, artistic, and convenient to a marked degree. the maps are a perfect joy to any teacher who has been using the complicated affairs given in most books of the kind."--agnes mcrae. =de kalb, ill.=--"i have just finished examining the first book of tarr and mcmurry's geographies. i have read the book with care from cover to cover. to say that i am pleased with it is expressing it mildly. it seems to me just what a geography should be. it is correctly conceived and admirably executed. the subject is approached from the right direction and is developed in the right proportions. and those maps--how could they be any better? surely authors and publishers have achieved a triumph in textbook making. i shall watch with interest for the appearance of the other two volumes."--professor edward c. page, _northern illinois state normal school_. =asbury park, n.j.=--"i do not hesitate at all to say that i think the tarr and mcmurry's geography the best in the market."--f. s. shepard, _superintendent of schools_. =ithaca, n.y.=--"i am immensely pleased with tarr and mcmurry's geography."--charles de garmo, _professor of pedagogy, cornell university_. the macmillan company - fifth avenue, new york boston chicago atlanta san francisco the food question [illustration: _letter from dr. ray lyman wilbur, president of stanford university, and first assistant to herbert hoover, in food administration, to the chairman of the pacific press publishing committee, after reading the proofs of this book._] _the_ food question health and economy by eight specialists [illustration] "eat ye that which is good." "that thou mayest prosper and be in health." "eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness." "gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." copyright by pacific press publishing association mountain view, california kansas city, missouri portland, oregon brookfield, illinois calgary, alberta, canada cristobal, canal zone contents frontispiece _letter from dr. ray lyman wilbur_ publishers' foreword hoover and what he and wilson say food economy - _by e. a. sutherland, m. d._ loaf of war bread on field of gettysburg food elements and simplicity of diet - _by e. h. risley, m. d._ food tables--cereals, legumes, fruits, nuts, vegetables, miscellaneous - necessary knowledge to careful planning _ladies' home journal_ vitamines and calories - _by d. d. comstock, m. d._ a word of advice to women _by lord northcliffe_ fruits and their dietetic value - _by george a. thomason, m. d., l. r. c. s., l. r. c. p._ ten reasons for a fleshless diet - _by a. w. truman, m. d._ physical benefits of joy _by george a. thomason, m. d._ stimulants and condiments - _by arthur n. donaldson, m. d._ simple menus and recipes - _by h. s. anderson, food expert_ the use of left-overs - _by lavina baxter-herzer, m. d._ the call to you _by dr. anna howard shaw_ publishers' foreword this book was planned before food conservation was by the mass considered seriously. the writers of the various articles are thoroughly qualified to speak where they have spoken. they are practical, conscientious, christian, and have at heart the best in the needs of humanity. every one strikes a major chord in the song of healthful, economical living. the recipes are from the author of "food and cookery," who has had a score of years' experience in every station and phase of the preparation of food, under french, english, german, and spanish chefs. he has been second cook in the calumet club of chicago, the california club, los angeles, and in many leading hotels in various cities. for ten years, he has given his best thought and study to the preparation of the best in food, scientific, palatable, wholesome, and economic, most of this time in the sanitarium and college of medical missionaries, loma linda, california. special attention is called to the valuable tables of food elements, and to the newly demonstrated values of vitamines and the substances which destroy them. we are grateful for the kind word spoken by dr. ray lyman wilbur, president of stanford university, and first assistant to mr. hoover in the federal food administration department; also for the help and suggestions of dr. newton evans, president of the college of medical evangelists, of loma linda, california. the little book will, we believe, not only meet present needs, but be a safe counselor in the years to come. _hoover says_-- "let the american woman stop, before anything is thrown away; and let her ask herself, 'can it be used in my home, in some other home, or in the production of further food supply by feeding it to animals used also for food?' "let her order her meals so that there will be plenty--for there is plenty--but not too much. [illustration: © _international film_] "the intelligent woman of america must make a proper study of food ratios, so that the most nutritious foods will appear in their proper proportions on the home table. "the man who complains at the result of his wife's efforts to conserve food is doing her an inexcusable injury. he should never hesitate to coöperate in her wise conservation plans." _wilson says_-- "in no direction can they [the women of america] so greatly assist as by enlisting in the service of the food administration and cheerfully accepting its direction and advice. by so doing, they will increase the surplus of food available for our own army and for exports to the allies. to provide adequate supplies for the coming year is of absolutely vital importance to the conduct of the war; and without a very conscientious elimination of waste and very strict economy in our food consumption, we cannot hope to fulfill this primary duty." [illustration] food economy _by e. a. sutherland, a. b., m. d._ of the state bureau of food conservation of tennessee from the days of ancient egypt, when joseph, who stood at the head of the great food conservation movement of the time, called the attention of the world to the need of food economy, down through history to the present time, the human race has passed through numerous crises when the questions of food production and food economy have been vital. that hebrew, promoted to the first place in the egyptian empire because of his wonderful grasp of a world problem and his executive ability, enabled that kingdom to feed the world. america to-day, as egypt of old, is an international granary, and is asked to feed the nations; and her population--every man, woman, and child--must coöperate with america's joseph to-day in meeting the situation by proper production, proper conservation, and strict economy. "this war is a food war even more than it is a gun war." let us fight to save lives. that is the battle to be won through food economy. it was when the roman world was running riot that, on the shores of the sea of galilee, christ gave his wonderful lesson on the subject of food conservation. we call it a miracle when with five thousand men, besides the women and the children, seated about him, he fed the multitudes. that same power is to-day, and always has been, feeding the men of earth. from a basket of seed, each recurring harvest puts thousands of loaves of bread into the hands of the world's hungry; the two small fishes continue to multiply; rich and poor alike are fed by the great provider. and now as then, after human wants are met, the mandate goes forth, "gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." economy is again being preached as it was once taught on the shores of galilee. there has been started a great educational movement for increased food production. but that is only a part of the message. "gather up the fragments," prevent waste, utilize the scraps, the gospel of a clean plate,--these are all familiar phrases in the great conservation movement of to-day. by many, food conservation and food economy are deemed not only national problems, but a part of the divine message taught by christ and his disciples. the great world war which began in has compelled every nation to halt and consider its national habits. undoubtedly the united states is the most prodigal of nations. approximately sixty per cent of its population is now urban. simple rural life is practically gone; and those artificial and extravagant standards of the city which destroy body, mind, and soul have taken its place. "fullness of bread and abundance of idleness," two of the reasons assigned by the scriptures for the downfall of sodom, are conditions which to-day are ruining american civilization. no other nation has ever indulged such extravagance and prodigality as has the united states. we search the world over for table delicacies. american inventive genius has made it possible to have foods from all parts of the world, both in season and out of season. the arts of canning and preserving and the making of factory foods have loaded our cupboard shelves with eatables of which our fathers never dreamed. while this interchange has its advantages, and we should appreciate the privilege of eating the wholesome products of other countries, yet when easy methods of transportation lead people to limit their productions to money crops, forsaking the raising of their own food, a wrong principle has been introduced. the benefit to be derived from this variety of imported food is neutralized by the extravagant habits and tastes thus cultivated. _economy of food elements_ man is made from the dust of the earth; and by divine law, his body continues to build and rebuild from chemically organized soil. to be intelligent, food economists require a knowledge of the four food elements,--proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and minerals,--and the relation each sustains to the human body. later chapters contain valuable instruction in these respects. it is poor economy to allow valuable mineral salts to be removed from flour by milling, from rice by polishing, and from vegetables by wrong methods of cooking. these minerals are necessary for the development of the child, for the preservation of teeth and bones, for high efficiency in the nervous system, and for a proper functioning of the various organs in the body. there is no economy in buying denatured grain, even though it is put up in cartons, at ten times the price of the natural grain. "put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite." stop the immense waste of strength, energy, money, and time due to mere gratification of appetite. stop preparing food that is intended simply to coax the appetite to the point where eating becomes gluttony. in the words of an eminent authority, "most men would attain better health and greater efficiency if they would reduce their rations by twenty-five per cent or more." the celebrated dr. osler tells us that "we eat too much after forty years of age," and he advises every wise man to restrict his eating as he grows older, "and at last descend out of life as he ascended into it, even into a child's diet." _overeating_ food economy is not a call to a starvation diet, but to a balanced ration of wholesome, well prepared food. overeating of even the best food produces poisons that injure the tissues, overwork the organs of digestion, and in time may bring the body to actual starvation conditions. a man's appetite is not always a safe guide. artificial surroundings in childhood make the normal appetite the exception rather than the rule. few children are taught, by parents, teachers, or preachers, the importance of restricting the appetite. the seeds of intemperance sown by those who prepare food for the family table bring a larger harvest than does the work of all the devil's agencies in saloons and tobacco shops combined. millions of dollars are worse than wasted by the conversion of food materials into strong drinks to satisfy appetites perverted by wrong habits of eating. why are our schools and churches more interested in the maintenance of a worn-out, traditional educational system, and an abstract, impractical religion, than in some of these vital teachings? we look to legislation to cure degenerate appetites for which we are largely responsible through false education in home and school and church. starving ones of earth are deprived of food when we convert it into strong drink; the process requires the time and strength of a great army of workers; and transportation facilities now used for carrying whisky, tobacco, and other body- and mind-destroying substances, might be used in transporting the foods we waste. it is estimated that we waste enough in our kitchens to feed ten million people. "blessed art thou, o land, when ... thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!" _some economies_ dr. osler has said that "pie north of the mason and dixon line, and hot bread south of it, have done more harm than alcohol." the best breads contain the whole grain; they are well baked, require considerable chewing, resist the pressure of the teeth, and save dental bills. thorough mastication neutralizes an abnormal appetite. rich pastries, harmful condiments, tea and coffee,--narcotics recognized as extravagant, harmful, and useless beverages,--are being discarded for the sake of both health and economy. remove the cream and the sugar from tea and coffee, and they have no food value. use the coffee mill to grind wheat, rye, and corn, that you may enjoy the vitamines, the mineral salts, and other elements often removed by the manufacturer. many people prominent in social circles are eliminating all lunches served between regular meals and eaten for merely social purposes. such lunches impose a burden on the body and the purse. wealthy and influential women are setting a good example by going to market in person, in order to make intelligent and economical purchases for their tables, and by carrying their supplies home, in order to save the added cost of the delivery system. people are beginning to realize that by such economical methods, they can serve their country, the world, and themselves. some have thought it necessary to eat from three to five meals a day. the war is helping them to appreciate a physiological truth taught for years by a few reformers,--that two meals a day are better even than three. many countries, for economy's sake, now prohibit the use, for food, of young and undeveloped animals. they discourage the extensive use of immature plant foods. the world war is terrible, yet there is some compensation in the fact that present conditions are making minds more susceptible to the principles of right living. for years, some earnest men and women have been teaching that god intended that man should live on a meatless diet. to-day, not only are nations asking that men eat less meat, but they are having their meatless days. because of the impossibility of securing flesh foods in some countries, millions of earth's inhabitants have learned that the body can be kept in splendid condition without the use of animal proteins and fats. no strong arguments are necessary to convince people that flesh foods are expensive when it is known that ten pounds of grain suitable for human food are required to produce in the animal one pound of flesh food. _meat substitutes_ the high cost of flesh foods is turning attention to meat substitutes. proteins and fats of the vegetable world are not only cheaper, but they are more wholesome than flesh. for example: the soy bean, recently introduced to the american table, contains, pound for pound, and at one fifth the cost, almost twice as much available protein and fat as the best beefsteak. besides that, it offers the eater a good supply of starch. "we have got to learn to buy wisely, cook wisely, eat wisely, and waste nothing." the great countries of europe are utilizing the best talent of their statesmen and scientists in teaching the people these ideas. this should be a most impressive lesson to home, to church, and to school, since these agencies have so far forgotten their mission that it is necessary for this great war to arouse us. let religious and educational leaders redeem the time. let them coöperate with national economists who now are urging the people-- to use more home-ground flour and meal. to use the natural rice with its vitamines instead of the polished product. to substitute vegetable oils for dairy butter in cooking. to have a simpler variety of food at each meal. to serve a dessert, when one is deemed necessary, for its food value and as a part of a balanced ration. to bake or boil potatoes in the skins, in order to preserve the mineral salts. to utilize for soups and gravies the water in which vegetables, macaroni, and rice are boiled. to serve only one food of high protein value at a meal. to feed to animals nothing that can be utilized by the human body. to allow vegetables, grains, and legumes to ripen, that their full food value may be obtained, and that the expense of canning may be avoided. to can or dry all fruits and vegetables that cannot be preserved in any other way. to substitute other cereals for wheat, which can be shipped abroad. a wheatless meal every day will drive many to appreciate the value of other grains, whose use heretofore has been largely perverted. corn, rye, barley, and oats are not appreciated as they should be. they have been used largely in the manufacture of intoxicating drinks and for feeding animals to procure meat. it has been said that the revolutionary war was won by men fed on hasty pudding--in other words, corn meal mush. learn to eat bread made from corn, rye, or oats, or a mixture of these grains. form the habit of eating these more economical breads; then continue the practice. such breads are far superior to the ordinary denatured white bread. if a dog is fed only white bread, death will result sooner than if it is fed nothing. _the call of the country_ land in europe that for centuries was used to gratify the abnormal tastes of plutocrats and the aristocracy, is now being made to produce wholesome food to meet the world's needs. in america, people are still deprived of their divine right to a simple home, because millions of acres of land are held in a similar manner. schools and churches should encourage the cultivation of vacant city lots. city people may thus learn the secret of intensive farming. it may give some courage to make a home on a few acres of land and to raise the food for their own tables. every turn in a congested center calls for an outlay of means. modern methods of living are unnatural and extravagant. in the city, every article of food costs in proportion to its distance from the base of supplies. transportation must be added to the original cost of production; the jobber, the wholesaler, the commission merchant, the retailer, the delivery man, and the baker must all have their profits. get out of the cities; get onto the land! why not preach this part of the gospel? help people to understand that the unnatural appetites and the desires for artificial food are penalties paid very largely by those who seek to maintain themselves by their wits. one mighty step has been taken toward the prevention of waste and in economy's favor when men learn to earn their bread in the sweat of their face while tilling the soil. late hours, business worry, nerve-wrecking noises, the hurry, the wear and tear of living in a crowd, the dust and filth of the city air, the struggle of competition,--these would be replaced by purer, saner surroundings if parents settled in some country place where children are born with a heritage of fresh air, grassy playgrounds, wholesome daily tasks in the house and out of doors, and are fed in a simple manner befitting their surroundings. but do not transfer the evils of the city to some country site. not much need to urge "the gospel of the clean plate" to the healthy country child! a good appetite is the best seasoning for plain food. _permanent reforms_ the world has been roughly awakened, and forcibly compelled to study food economy. this upheaval should result in permanent good to every individual. we have not fully appreciated the fact that our sinful indulgence and our careless waste of time, money, and food is a violation of the great commandment, "thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." by our extravagant ways, multitudes have been robbed of the necessities of life. but our horizon is broadening. we begin to understand why we should eat and drink to the glory of god. provision is now being made for the bread we save to reach the hungry in distant parts of the earth. we can now prove that he who gives even a cup of cold water shall in no wise lose his reward. to-day, as truly as on the shores of galilee, the great master is saying, "gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." and if we enter whole-heartedly into this food conservation movement, we may expect the blessing of the lord to rest so greatly upon the fragments saved that the wide world will be fed. [illustration: © _underwood, n. y._ _a ten-pound loaf of war bread baked on the old gettysburg battle field. this bread keeps in good condition three weeks._] [illustration] food elements _and_ simplicity of diet _by e. h. risley, m.d._ chair of chemistry, college of medical evangelists, loma linda, california "food is any substance that, being taken into the body of animal or plant, serves, through organic action, to build up normal structure or supply waste of tissue." food principles or elements are commonly grouped into the following classes: . proteins . fats . carbohydrates . inorganic salts . vitamines . water a brief discussion of these food elements will help our readers to select their food supply more intelligently. _proteins_ the first class of food substances mentioned above are of very great importance to the body. the term "protein" really means, "of first importance." these compounds are represented by such foods as the white of egg, lean meat, gluten of wheat, and casein of milk. chemically, proteins are very complex, more so than any other class of food materials. they have in their structure the chemical elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, often sulphur and phosphorus, and, less commonly, iron. the nitrogenous element seems to be the most important, since the others mentioned can be obtained from other classes of food; but as these classes of food cannot take the place of protein, it seems clear that the nitrogen is the important constituent. most proteins coagulate on heating. an illustration of this property is the coagulation of the white of an egg when the egg is cooked. the proteins all undergo decomposition quite easily. this is evidenced by the ease with which eggs and meat spoil. protein molecules are made up of smaller molecules called amino acids. these are the "building stones" from which the working tissues of the body are formed. there are on the average about fifteen different kinds of these amino acids in the proteins, which are especially valuable in supplying building material for the tissues of the human body. these amino acids are united in long chains to form the protein molecule, and in this respect can be compared to cars in a train. by the work of digestion, the proteins are broken down into these comparatively simple building stones, which, when absorbed into the circulation, are used by the body in building working tissues as they are needed. there are a number of classes of proteins; but since the classification is rather complicated, it will not be given here. to group the various foods as to their relative amounts of protein is often of interest. for example, foods very rich in protein, such as the gluten preparations, lean beef, and white of egg, may be regarded as the first class; a second class might be formed of those which are moderately high in protein, such as peas, beans, lentils, and walnuts; a third class having a moderate amount of protein, represented by the cereals and breads; and still a fourth class very low in protein, such as vegetables and fruits. protein is the tissue builder of the body; but the actual amount of tissue built new each day is very small, therefore the need for a large supply of protein for this purpose is not apparent. protein not only supplies tissue-building material, but it can also supply heat and energy in a manner similar to the other classes of food elements, carbohydrate and fat, one ounce of the protein yielding one hundred sixteen calories of energy. the excess taken in may be used in this way, as there is no storage of this material in the body. however, to use this kind of fuel takes more work on the part of the body as a whole, as the nitrogenous wastes must be eliminated by the kidneys. one can see, then, that a certain amount of protein is needed to keep the tissues in good repair, but that it is better to get most of the heat and energy from the food elements specially designed for that purpose; that is, carbohydrate and fat. the chittenden standard of diet gives ten per cent of the total fuel value in the form of protein. on the basis of two thousand five hundred total calories a day, two hundred fifty calories of protein would be required. this is equal to two and one seventh ounces actual dry protein. this amount is thought by some to be low, but experimental evidence seems clearly to prove its adequacy in keeping up nutrition. _fats_ the second group of food elements in our classification are substances having a greasy feeling and taste. they are lighter than water, leave a grease spot upon paper, are insoluble in water, and soluble in such chemicals as gasoline and ether. fats have in their molecules the chemical elements carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. these elements are put together into two groups, or compounds, glycerin and fatty acids, which, when chemically united, form a fat. when fats are exposed to the open air, and thus contaminated with bacteria, they are likely to become rancid; that is, some of the glycerin and fatty acids are set free from each other. if butter is the fat so decomposed, it becomes very disagreeable, on account of the volatile butyric acid that is set free. fatty bodies are usually grouped under a general heading called lipins, but the consideration of the other classes is not essential in this study. the vegetable kingdom offers a large list of products containing fats, many of which are suitable for food. following are a few examples, with the percentage of fat in each case: coconuts, sixty-eight per cent; olives, fifty-six per cent; peanuts, forty-one per cent; cotton seed, twenty per cent; oatmeal, six per cent; corn, four per cent. the animal kingdom is also rich in fat products, illustrated by the following substances used as foods: butter, eighty-five per cent; bacon, sixty-five per cent; cheese, thirty per cent; eggs, eleven per cent; cow's milk, four per cent. the function of fat in the body is to yield heat and energy primarily. each ounce of fat yields two hundred sixty-four calories of heat, making the group two and one fourth times as active as either protein or carbohydrate in this respect. fats ordinarily supply from twenty-five to thirty per cent of the total calories of a well balanced dietary. on the basis of two thousand five hundred total calories a day, about seven hundred fifty should be fat. at two hundred sixty-four calories to an ounce, we have about three ounces as our daily need of this food element. fats are also stored in the body as a reserve of energy. every one has more or less of this sort of reserve, unless he has been starving for some time, or is suffering from a wasting disease. this reserve of fat also acts as a protection, and gives shape and symmetry to the body. recently methods have been devised for changing the unstable vegetable oils into stable, lardlike, solid fats. this process is called hydrogenation, so named because the process is really one of adding hydrogen until the fat becomes saturated and less likely to undergo decomposition into fatty acid and glycerin. the fats thus formed seem to be equal to the animal fats so far as digestion and utilization are concerned, and hence are of considerable economic value at the present time. certain fats, including those of butter and milk, are rich in the so-called vitamines, and have been shown, by recent experiments upon animals, to be efficient growth stimulants. _carbohydrates_ the carbohydrates are made up of the chemical elements carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. by noticing the name, one readily sees that the first part stands for the carbon. the latter half, "hydrate," indicates that water might be present; and in fact, nearly all of these bodies have hydrogen and oxygen present in the proportion to form water, that is, two parts hydrogen to one of oxygen. carbohydrates ordinarily make up about sixty to sixty-five per cent of the total number of calories of our diet. most carbohydrates, when pure, are either white powders or white crystalline solids. many of them are sweet to the taste. the starches and the celluloses are not soluble in cold water, but the sugars are readily soluble. the classification of the carbohydrates is comparatively simple; and part of it is given here, as it will help in our discussion of the properties of the group: / . cellulose / . starch group | . starch | \ . dextrin | / . cane sugar carbohydrates | . cane sugar group | . malt sugar | \ . milk sugar | / . glucose \ . glucose group | . levulose \ . invert sugar _cellulose_ is the coarse woody fiber found in the stems of all plants and in the outer coating of the various grains. unless cellulose is very young and tender, it is not digested by the human digestive system. however, some forms of it are of value, as they give bulk to the food residue in the digestive tract, and thus stimulate the activity of the intestinal muscle. in this way, cellulose acts as a natural laxative, and in some cases is a very desirable substance to have in the food eaten. the bran of wheat and other cereals is an especially valuable form to use. _starch_ is found in all cereals, in many vegetables, in some fruits, and in nuts. it occurs in these different foods in the form of a white, granular substance. the granules have characteristic forms for the different grains, fruits, etc., which can be recognized by the aid of the microscope. raw starch is insoluble in cold water; hence to be most readily digested, it should be cooked. the cooking process ruptures the granules, and makes the starch itself partially soluble; and in this form, it is more easily attacked by the digestive juices. _dextrin_ is formed by heating starch to about ° f., as in an oven. this degree of heat changes the starch chemically to dextrin. in this dextrin form, it is soluble, and is in reality one step along in the process of digestion. table a--cereals and legumes a. per cent water b. per cent protein c. per cent fat d. per cent carbohydrate e. per cent ash f. calories per oz. protein g. calories per oz. fat h. calories per oz. carbohydrate i. calories per oz. total ----------------------------------------------------------------------- food a b c d e f g h i ----------------------------------------------------------------------- beans, baked . . . . . . . . . bread, white . . . . . . . . . bread, whole wheat . . . . . . . . . corn bread . . . . . . . . . corn flakes . . . . . . . . . hominy, cooked . . . . . . . . . macaroni, cooked . . . . . . . . . oatmeal, boiled . . . . . . . . . peas, green, cooked . . . . . . . . . rice, boiled . . . . . . . . . ----------------------------------------------------------------------- table b--fruits a. per cent water b. per cent protein c. per cent fat d. per cent carbohydrate e. per cent ash f. calories per oz. protein g. calories per oz. fat h. calories per oz. carbohydrate i. calories per oz. total ----------------------------------------------------------------------- food a b c d e f g h i ----------------------------------------------------------------------- apples . . . . . . . . . bananas . . . . . . . . . blackberries . . . . . . . . . dates . . . . . . . . . figs . . . . . . . . . grapes . . . . . . . . . oranges . . . . . . . . . peaches . . . . . . . . . raisins . . . . . . . . . strawberries . . . . . . . . . ----------------------------------------------------------------------- table c--nuts a. per cent water b. per cent protein c. per cent fat d. per cent carbohydrate e. per cent ash f. calories per oz. protein g. calories per oz. fat h. calories per oz. carbohydrate i. calories per oz. total ----------------------------------------------------------------------- food a b c d e f g h i ----------------------------------------------------------------------- almonds . . . . . . . . . brazil nuts . . . . . . . . . chestnuts . . . . . . . . . coconuts . . . . . . . . . hickory nuts . . . . . . . . . peanuts . . . . . . . . . pecans . . . . . . . . . pine nuts . . . . . . . . . walnuts, black . . . . . . . . . walnuts, english . . . . . . . . . ----------------------------------------------------------------------- table d--vegetables a. per cent water b. per cent protein c. per cent fat d. per cent carbohydrate e. per cent ash f. calories per oz. protein g. calories per oz. fat h. calories per oz. carbohydrate i. calories per oz. total ----------------------------------------------------------------------- food a b c d e f g h i ----------------------------------------------------------------------- asparagus, cooked . . . . . . . . . beets, cooked . . . . . . . . . cabbage . . . . . . . . . carrots . . . . . . . . . lettuce . . . . . . . . . onions . . . . . . . . . potatoes, boiled . . . . . . . . . spinach, cooked . . . . . . . . . tomatoes . . . . . . . . . turnips . . . . . . . . . ----------------------------------------------------------------------- table e--miscellaneous foods a. per cent water b. per cent protein c. per cent fat d. per cent carbohydrate e. per cent ash f. calories per oz. protein g. calories per oz. fat h. calories per oz. carbohydrate i. calories per oz. total ----------------------------------------------------------------------- food a b c d e f g h i ----------------------------------------------------------------------- butter . . . . . . . cane sugar . . . cream . . . . . . . . . cottage cheese . . . . . . . . . eggs . . . . . . . honey . . . . . . . milk . . . . . . . . . milk, condensed . . . . . . . . . milk, skimmed . . . . . . . . . olives, ripe . . . . . . . . . ----------------------------------------------------------------------- thoroughly toasted bread is quite well dextrinized. it is more easily digested, has a sweeter taste than ordinary bread, and in some cases, is more desirable. _sugar group_ _cane sugar_ is probably the most important member of the sugar groups. it is obtained from the sugar cane and the sugar beet, the two forms being identical chemically. it can be obtained in a high state of purity, often up to ninety-nine and eight tenths per cent. the english-speaking races use the largest amount of this sugar, in some countries averaging as high as eighty-five pounds per capita a year. cane sugar is white, crystalline, soluble in water, and has a very sweet taste. _malt sugar_ is obtained from grains, such as barley or wheat, by allowing them to sprout. during the sprouting process, there is developed in the grain a ferment that is capable of changing starch to malt sugar. after the malt diastase, as the ferment is called, has had a chance to convert the starch to malt sugar, the sugar is extracted with water, and the resulting solution evaporated to a sirup. this sirup can be evaporated further and the malt sugar or maltose taken out as a solid; but it is usually used in the form of a sirup. this maltose is a natural product to the body, as it is formed by the saliva and the pancreatic juice when they act upon starch. _milk sugar_ is found to the extent of about five per cent in cow's milk. it is obtained as a by-product in the manufacture of cheese. the whey, or watery fluid left after the removal of the curd, is evaporated and purified until a fine, white, rather gritty powder, or in some cases a crystalline solid, is obtained. this milk sugar, or lactose, is soluble in water, and has a fairly sweet taste. lactose is one of the essential food elements for the normal growth of a child or a young animal. hence one can see why children cannot be reared easily without milk. _glucose_ is the most important sugar in the third group of carbohydrates as given above. it is found naturally in many fruits, and is here called grape sugar. it is the normal sugar of human blood, and in this connection, is usually called dextrose. glucose is made commercially by boiling starch, most frequently cornstarch, in water, to which sulphuric acid has been added up to one to one and one half per cent. after sufficient boiling, the acid is neutralized with lime, and the sugar separated by chemical methods. if the process is carried out carefully, and reasonably pure reagents are used in the process, the result will be a sirup of fair purity and one of value as a food. impure and poorly made samples of glucose have given this otherwise wholesome sugar a bad name. glucose can also be obtained in solid form by continuing the process of purification a few steps beyond the sirup stage. but let it not be forgotten that any of the sugars, taken in large amounts, may overload the digestive system and the liver, and hence they should be used in reasonable amounts. _levulose_, called also fruit sugar, is found in some of the sweet fruits and in bees' honey. the chief sugar of honey is called invert sugar, and is really made up of equal parts of dextrose and levulose. it is present up to seventy-five per cent in good samples of honey. these sugars, properly used, are excellent foods. _importance of carbohydrates_ the carbohydrates are our chief source of heat and energy, and as previously stated, furnish sixty to sixty-five per cent of the total fuel value of our food. each ounce of pure carbohydrate yields one hundred sixteen calories of heat when burned. in caloric yield, they are equal to the proteins gram for gram, but yield less than one half that of the fats. if two thousand five hundred calories are again taken as our standard, then sixty per cent would make one thousand five hundred calories to be furnished by the carbohydrates. at one hundred sixteen calories an ounce, we find that it would require thirteen ounces of pure carbohydrate a day to balance this part of our diet. _other essential elements_ the inorganic salts or ash of food are just as essential to the body as the other groups of food elements. these essential salts consist of the most common chemical elements, such as soda, potash, lime, magnesia, iron, phosphorus, sulphur, etc. one might expect to find some rare elements in a piece of mechanism as complicated as the human body, but such is not the case. the body salts are of the most common kinds. these salts are found in proper amounts in foods as produced by nature. we cannot take these salts as they are found in the chemical laboratory and use them to good advantage, but we should make sure that we are taking foods that will supply them in the proper amounts. our best sources of supply are the grains, the fruits, and the vegetables. it is interesting to note that these mineral elements are generally found most abundantly, in the grains at least, in or near the outer coating, and that our high-grade flours are partially robbed of them when the bran and the middlings are removed. the same seems to be true of potatoes. in peeling, a large part of these salts is removed, and thus the real value of this splendid food product is lessened. this is one of the strong arguments for the use of whole wheat flours and other whole grain products. these inorganic salts are needed in the body to keep the various tissues up to their normal in composition. for example, the blood constantly needs some iron to build the red cells. though the actual amount needed is very small, yet that small amount is exceedingly important to have at hand. as some of these salts are constantly being eliminated from the body, there must be a constant supply to keep the tissues in equilibrium. _vitamines_ vitamines are elsewhere considered in this booklet, hence only a very brief summary here. the chemistry of these products is very little understood at present. they were so named by funk because of their nitrogen content and similarity to ammonia, the name really meaning _vital ammonias_. the term "vital" carries with it the idea of their importance to life. some persons have questioned this name; but up to the present, it seems to be the best suggested. the importance of the vitamines in nutrition has been very clearly demonstrated in experiments upon animals, and these experiments have been repeated a sufficient number of times to be conclusive. animals have been fed upon pure protein, fat, carbohydrate, and salts, but with vitamine removed or destroyed; and although receiving calories enough, they fail to keep up their nutrition. with a simple change of dietary to include a small amount of food containing the vitamine, without any change in the total calories eaten, their nutrition improves quickly, and they come back to a normal state. foods rich in vitamine are represented by milk, fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, and whole grain products. foods poor in these substances are represented by sterilized and preserved milks, dried fruits, dried vegetables, white flour, and polished rice. vitamines are reduced or lost by the following processes in the preparation of foods: taking off the coating of grain, overheating, washing out in cooking, and drying. _importance of water_ water, although not a food in the sense of yielding fuel value to the body, is a most important agent in all the various chemical processes taking place in the tissues. water is the universal solvent; and because of this property, it carries both food and waste to and from the tissues. the average person needs from three to five quarts a day, a part of which is taken as a portion of the food eaten. this leaves from three to five pints to be taken as a drink. good drinking water should be colorless, odorless, and of an agreeable taste; should be free from organic matter, poisonous metals, and the bacteria of disease; and should be low in nonpoisonous mineral salts--that is, should be reasonably soft. there are three common classes of water that are used for drinking purposes; namely, rain water, surface water, and ground water. rain water is the purest if properly collected. surface water--water from lakes, streams, etc.--is most likely to be contaminated with organic matter and bacteria. ground water--that is, water from springs and wells--is likely to be the hardest, but is usually free from bacteria of disease unless there is some contamination from the surface. to take a fairly good quantity of water between meals is better than to drink too freely at the meal hour. great care should be taken in selecting the supply of drinking water, as when contaminated, it is a very fruitful means for the transmission of diseases, particularly such diseases as typhoid fever. if not certain of the purity of a water supply, one can be sure to destroy all the disease-producing bacteria by boiling the water for a few minutes, then cooling, and drinking as usual. _simple dietetic principles_ . food should be pleasant to the sight and the taste. . eat slowly. masticate thoroughly. . do not wash down your food with water or any kind of beverage. . cheerfulness is an important aid to digestion. the mind should be free from care, and the surroundings pleasant. . avoid overeating. . there should be between five and six hours' interval between meals, and no food should be taken during this interval. . make your list of foods balance up with about ten per cent protein, twenty-five to thirty per cent fat, and sixty to sixty-five per cent carbohydrate. . eat few kinds of food at a meal, but vary the menu from day to day. . food should be properly cooked to get the best results. . do not eat late at night. the evening meal should be the lightest. . eat green vegetables frequently in season. . fresh fruits are very helpful in the diet. . combine fruits, grains, and nuts. . fruits and coarse vegetables are not a good combination. . it is better not to take large quantities of cane sugar and milk together. . do not eat rich and complicated mixtures of food. . flesh meats are expensive, they make the protein high, and are second-hand foods. their place may easily be supplied by other foods. . avoid excessive amounts of salt. . do not use pepper or other irritating condiments and spices in seasoning your food. . tea and coffee are not foods, and should be entirely dispensed with. . alcohol is a poison, and should be entirely eliminated from the menu. [illustration] necessary knowledge to careful planning to thousands of home-keepers the requirements are new: a correct knowledge of proteids, of carbohydrates, of calories is unfamiliar to them. they cannot grasp what is asked of them, in a day or a week or a month. suddenly has housekeeping been transformed from a daily round to a science and a business.... it all calls for intelligent study and the most careful planning. it is not a small "bit," it is a full-sized job: never has the american woman faced a bigger job. as she does it or fails of doing it, will this great country win or lose the war.--_ladies' home journal._ [illustration] vitamines _and_ calories _by_ _d. d. comstock, m.d._ for years medical superintendent of glendale sanitarium, glendale, california the body is a machine, intricate, complicated, "fearfully and wonderfully" constructed. in one way, it is simple in its operations; but in another, so ultrascientific in the detail of its automatic control, and so deep in the mysteries of its chemical processes, that the investigation of ages has not been able to fathom its greater scientific depths, and bring to the surface a knowledge of its ultimate structure and its wonderful workings. the master designer of the living machine so adjusted its mechanism that in its original environment and relationship, its care would be easy, and the laws of its preservation few and exceedingly simple. like most machines, the human machine requires the impartation of energy. similarly, also, this is supplied by the combustion of certain carbonaceous substances. it needs constant repair. these and its other needs are all furnished in the daily food supply. the life of this machine can be greatly lengthened by intelligent care, or shortened by neglect and abuse. its efficiency may be similarly affected. while one cannot hear the pounding of the engine or the rattling of the machinery, yet the machine is damaged if run under too high a pressure and at too great speed. there are seven classes of the essential elemental food substances,--proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamines, salts, cellulose, and water. the ideal diet is one in which these seven elements are regularly supplied to the body in the amounts required to meet its daily needs. a person living close to nature, receiving his food first-handed, direct from nature's health food factory, and eating it with only the cooking and seasoning necessary, and with a reasonable variety, would probably find his diet sufficient, and the elements in about the proper proportions; and with an honest appetite, steadied by a little temperate-in-all-things ballast, he probably would not go far astray as to the proper amounts. but unfortunately, the average individual is not living close to nature. much that is artificial has come in. our appetites are capricious, deceitful, and unreasonable. our foods come to us processed, cartonned, and tinned, often embalmed, devitalized, or adulterated. they are often served to us so disguised that we cannot tell whether their nutritive substance has been concentrated or diluted, or indeed whether or not the body will recognize it as having any nutritive value at all, despite its pleasing flavor. therefore, in order that the ideal may be approximated to a reasonable and practical degree, we must have some knowledge not only of the needs of the body, but also of these food elements, and how their values may be estimated in the various food substances. the foods that enter into the make-up of the body and supply its heat and energy are three,--protein, fat, and carbohydrate. while the salts to a certain extent enter into the body structure, they have but little to do with heat and energy production. the remaining food classes are adjuncts, their use being simply to make possible the utilization, by the body, of the tissue and fuel foods. the cellulose assists mechanically in digestion; the water furnishes the necessary fluid; and the vitamines provide the battery, as it were, which sets the whole apparatus in motion. _the heat unit_ of the many persons who, for economical or hygienic reasons, have tried to adjust their diet better, some have undertaken the task without a fundamental knowledge of the physiological and caloric value of foods, their composition, or the nutritional needs of the body, and have done themselves more harm than good. it is possible for us to measure the value of our foods, and to express it in terms of heat units; and with a knowledge of the bodily needs, we may supply ourselves with foods in approximately the amounts needed, and in the best combinations. food oxidized in the body produces the same amount of heat as that burned outside the body, and the instrument by which the heat value of any substance is determined is called a calorimeter. the unit of measure of heat is called the calorie or heat unit. the calorimeter consists of a double chamber, the outer one containing a given quantity of water. the inner chamber is thus surrounded by a water jacket. in it is placed a definite amount of pure, water-free food to be tested; for example, an ounce of sugar. by means of an electric connection, the sugar is ignited and burned, and the heat produced thereby is imparted to the water in the outer chamber. when the process is complete, the difference in the temperature of the water is noted, and the amount of heat generated is computed. the calorie is the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature of one pound of water four degrees f., or one kilogram one degree c. in this way, the heat values of pure protein, fat, starch, and sugar have been determined. in the laboratories of the united states government, the composition and caloric value of practically every food substance known has been worked out. any person can have access to these tables of food values by applying to the government, or by purchasing from almost any bookstore any one of the several books on food values, that are on the market. (see pages - of this book.) the heat value of a gram of pure, water-free protein--for example, the casein of milk, egg albumen, or fiber of meat--is a trifle more than four calories. that of pure starch or sugar is also four calories. fat is more than double this value, one gram yielding nine and three tenths calories. since an ounce equals about thirty grams, the number of calories to an ounce is determined by multiplying the above figures by thirty. different kinds of food vary greatly in the proportion of the food elements and also of the water and cellulose they contain. (cellulose has no fuel value in the human body.) we therefore find a great variation as to their caloric values also. for example, one heaping tablespoonful of home-baked beans will weigh about fifty grams, thirty of which is water and cellulose. its total caloric value is one hundred, divided among protein fifteen, fat forty (the fat has largely been added), and carbohydrate forty-five. contrast with this the same quantity of mashed turnips. one heaping tablespoonful will weigh about seventy grams, of which sixty-five is water and cellulose. its total fuel value is three calories. by a little study, one may very readily become familiar with the approximate values of the more common foods, and be able to arrive at some conclusion in regard to the correctness of one's daily food ration as to amount and proportions. many would be surprised to see how far short their diet comes of the ideal. it is easy to remember that an ordinary slice of bread--about three and one half inches square--contains approximately one hundred calories; an average egg, sixty-five; a glass of milk, one hundred fifty; an average potato, one hundred twenty-five; a tablespoonful of gravity cream, fifty; the usual serving of cooked cereal, seventy-five to one hundred; vegetables, except potatoes, an ordinary serving, twenty-five to fifty, depending on the amount of fat or milk added as seasoning; legumes, average serving, one hundred to one hundred fifty. desserts are usually high in value, ranging from one hundred twenty-five calories in the usual serving of simple custard or junket to three hundred fifty or more in the usual one sixth of some pies, or the ordinary piece of cake. housewives who wish to go into the question of foods thoroughly, and combine the science with the art of cookery, may arrange a table of the staples and raw food that ordinarily enter into their various recipes, somewhat after the following, the items of which have been taken at random from such a list or table already prepared and in use: a. _food_ b. _measure_ c. _weight_ d. _protein_ e. _fat_ f. _carbohydrate_ g. _total_ a b c d e f g flour cup oz. eggs, average each ½ oz. milk, whole cup oz. sugar, granulated cup ½ oz. butter cup oz. , , butter tablespoon ½ oz. if the housewife desires to know the food value of a cake, for instance, that she is about to bake, whose recipe calls for two cups flour, one and one half cups sugar, one half cup butter, four eggs, she can very easily find out by consulting her table; as: a. _protein_ b. _fat_ c. _carbohydrate_ d. _total_ a b c d cups flour = , ½ cups sugar = , , ½ cup butter = eggs = ------------------------------ totals , , , if the cake is cut into twelve servings, the value of each may be determined by dividing each of these sums by twelve. thus each piece will represent in value, protein, twenty-one calories; fat, ninety calories; carbohydrate, one hundred seventy-five calories; total, two hundred eighty-six calories. the number of calories needed by the individual varies with height, age, sex, climate, and state of muscular activity; but for the average person, two thousand calories daily may be taken as a working basis. if one is engaged in active muscular labor, the requirement may be three thousand or more. many persons of sedentary habits do better on less than two thousand. other things being equal, men need about ten per cent more than women. children need about ten per cent more than adults. an obese individual, or one suffering from the results of imperfect oxidation, as manifested in rheumatism, neuralgia, and myalgia, may do well for a time on as low an allowance as one thousand one hundred to one thousand two hundred food units daily, experiencing marked relief from symptoms, and if obese, a reduction in weight of from one to four pounds a week. it should be kept in mind that the amount of protein needed is quite constant, and does not vary with one's state of activity, as does the demand for the fats and the carbohydrates. from two hundred to two hundred fifty calories of this element are needed daily, even though the total ration be low. if one does well on the low ration suggested above, the protein should not be lowered proportionately, as would be the tendency. this is the repair substance, which the body, not being able to store up, must have supplied to it in regular daily amounts. excess in eating is often due to the use of certain concentrated foods. a teaspoonful of olive oil contains forty calories; the ordinary pat of butter (one fourth ounce), fifty calories; a heaping teaspoonful of sugar, forty calories; one english walnut, thirty-three calories; a fair sized olive, twenty calories. while these are good foods, they should be eaten with due regard for their high energy value, that the proper food balance be not disturbed. after eating a good square meal, the average individual calls for the dessert, which, with its accompaniments, actually constitutes a second meal; as, for example, a serving of pie, three hundred fifty calories; its cheese accompaniment, another one hundred calories; a few stuffed dates, another one hundred calories; a few nuts and raisins and a cup of chocolate bringing the total value of this second meal forced upon the body up to seven hundred or eight hundred calories. vegetables of themselves are low in caloric value, their importance being due to the cellulose, salts, and vitamines they contain. but they are usually prepared with so much butter or cream that as served they have a high caloric value in fat. lean meat is practically pure protein, and the tendency of the meat eater is to get an excess of this element. the vegetarian often goes to the other extreme, his diet showing a deficiency in protein, with an excess of fats and carbohydrates. that the protein balance be kept normal is an important matter, for a person may at one and the same time be suffering from the results of a deficient diet and also from the effects of overeating. the protein needed daily is from ten to thirteen per cent of the total ration. if the total daily ration is but one thousand five hundred calories, the protein should still be two hundred calories, and therefore thirteen per cent of the total. thus if a person is living on foods containing less than ten per cent, there is danger of not getting enough of this important element. much of the food eaten is less than ten per cent protein, because of the addition to it of fat and sugar in large amounts. so-called meat substitutes should be high in the percentage of protein, in order to make up for the butter, sugar, oils, olives, desserts, fruits, and other very low protein foods that enter so largely into one's dietary. the question has been asked, why object to the addition of fat to a meat substance, since it does not actually reduce the quantity of protein, though it does relatively? in reply, it may be said that the relative reduction makes necessary an excess of the nonnitrogenous foods, to get enough protein; and even though one's capacity should receive it comfortably, still the objection to the excess aliment remains. a study of food composition and values will enable the housewife so to plan her meals that the various elements may be served to her family in the proper proportions. a knowledge of calories, and an intelligent application of the principles involved in these questions of nutrition, will enable any housewife to reduce the cost of feeding her family from twenty-five to fifty per cent, which would be worth while from an economical standpoint, not to mention the advantage to be realized healthwise. _vitamines_ says lusk, "it has thus far been shown that nutrition means fuel for the machinery, new parts with which to repair the machine, and minute quantities of vitamines, which produce a harmonious interaction between the materials in the food and their host." in the words of another investigator, "the study of dietetics from the standpoint of the vitamines has only just begun." sufficient has been learned and demonstrated about them, however, to show that they play a most important part in nutrition and in vital tissue processes. since they are so little understood, a complete definition is not yet possible. the pure vitamine, it seems, cannot be isolated, so their exact chemical nature is not known. the chemical process necessary to free it is no sooner begun than the vitamine is apparently decomposed, and all trace of it is lost. one is reminded of the efforts of some early investigators to submit living protoplasm to a chemical analysis, they hoping thereby to reveal the mysteries of physical life itself; but at the first intrusion, this subtle something flees, taking its secrets with it, and leaving us only the empty shell of dead protein matter. while the activities and manifestations of life are seen on every hand in animal and plant, we are but little the wiser as to what life really is. vitamines seem to stand closely related to the living process in the tissue cells. some investigators have thought them to be the mother substances of the various bodily ferments and internal secretions, any disturbance of which produces serious constitutional troubles. therefore the continuous use of a diet lacking in any of these mother substances would of necessity lead to a deficiency of these absolutely essential vital secretions and ferments. _vitamines and disease_ years were spent in investigation before it was found out that beriberi, a disease of the orient, could be cured and prevented by the addition, to the diet, of certain nutritive elements in the covering of the rice, that are ordinarily removed in the polishing process, and thrown away. just what these nutritive elements were, was not understood; but the fact remained that a diet of polished rice resulted in symptoms of beriberi, while a diet of the unpolished grain was sufficient to prevent any manifestations of the disease. in java, where the people lived largely on whole rice, beriberi was unknown. for years, the fact had been recognized, that sailors living on canned and preserved foods sooner or later developed scurvy, which could be quickly cured by an addition of fresh vegetables or the juice of fruits, especially lemons and oranges, to the diet. in , when all but three of cartier's one hundred ten sailors had scurvy, he cured them all by giving them a decoction of fresh pine needles. babies fed on pasteurized milk often develop infantile scurvy. _convincing experiments_ vitamines are made only in nature's laboratory. the body cannot make them, therefore mother's milk is deficient in vitamine if her diet is. this is demonstrated in a decided way in the philippine islands, where the diet is deficient in the vitamine preventing beriberi. among the filipinos, one half the deaths take place before the end of the first year of age; and in these infants, one half the deaths are due to beriberi. pellagra, a disease of obscure ætiology, or cause, manifests itself principally among a class of people who live on a monotonous diet of corn bread, bacon, soda biscuit, and sirup. some authorities are quite convinced that it is a "deficiency" disease. also rickets, eczema, pyorrhea, and a number of other diseases of obscure cause are beginning to be regarded as being, in part at least, deficiency diseases. a predisposition to tuberculosis and other infections may be of similar cause. there are probably a number, possibly many, of these vitamine substances. at least two have been quite fully demonstrated,--the one preventing scurvy, and the one preventing beriberi. the experiments of cosimir funk, a russian, are convincing. he was able to produce experimental beriberi in pigeons by feeding them for three weeks on polished rice, then readily to cure them of the disease by feeding the polishings from the same rice, showing that in the rice polishings are certain elements absolutely essential to life. he finally isolated what appeared to be this substance, one pound of the polishings yielding about three grains of the material. injecting under the skin of pigeons dying of beriberi one third of a grain of this crystalline substance, he was able not only to make them perfectly well in a few hours, but to keep them in health for three weeks with but the one dose, even though they were continued on a diet of polished rice. funk named this wonderful life-giving substance vitamine, because its effects were life-giving, and chemically it seemed to belong to the amines. _where found_ vitamines are found in plants, and especially in their seeds. fresh meat and raw milk contain them, although animals seem incapable of making them. in summer, milk is richer in them than in winter, because of the difference in feed for the cattle. they are contained also in yolks of eggs, whole grains, potatoes, carrots, beans, peas, lentils--in fact, practically all green garden vegetables, and fruit. in the grains, they are found in the dark layer near the outer surface or branny layer, and in the germ. in potatoes and other vegetables, they lie immediately under the skin. yeast bread contains more than baking powder breads. vitamines are lost by the processing of grains; that is, by the removal of the outer layers, which contain most of these substances. hence the whole grain should be included in the flour. they are also destroyed by the subjection of foods to too high a temperature. it is therefore best to cook cereals at a low temperature, as in a fireless cooker. the vitamines are sacrificed in the drying of foods, and in the paring of vegetables. if potatoes are boiled, there is great advantage in boiling them in their "jackets," in which case the vitamines and the salts are not lost. if they are pared before they are boiled, the potato water should not be thrown away, as it is rich in vitamines, salts, and protein. parboiling of other vegetables is objectionable for the same reason. soda and baking powder and similar chemicals seem to destroy the vitamines. this is one reason why yeast breads are better than baking powder breads. furthermore, in yeast fermentation, the vitamine preventing beriberi is actually formed, but not the vitamine preventing scurvy. the natural foods that require cooking to make them edible and wholesome contain vitamines which are not destroyed thereby if the cooking is done in the most wholesome and hygienic way. a word of advice to women stay at home and work. do not rush into some romantic and picturesque bit of action to the detriment of your home duties. work in your homes, and do whatever you can outside; the humbler and more inconspicuous your accomplishment is, the more it may be needed. there are enough women who will snatch at what is accompanied by the limelight. make your contribution of personal service without thought of self, and keep on to the end.--_lord northcliffe._ [illustration] [illustration] fruits and their dietetic value _by george a. thomason, m.d., l.r.c.s., l.r.c.p._ no other class of foods more delightfully or deliciously contribute to the needs of the body than fruit. fresh from the lap of nature, lavishly supplied, and delightful to the eye, fruit makes most satisfying appeal to the appetite of every one, from the quite indifferent to the most discriminating epicure. most easy of digestion, in fact, practically predigested, fruit is most appropriate for all people both in sickness and in health, and at all periods of life, from babyhood to extreme age. fruit is made up of water, sugar, acids, some proteid, and organic salts. water is by far the largest constituent of fruit, being seventy-five to eighty-five per cent. the water of fruit is of the greatest possible purity, being doubly distilled, first as rain, then as sap, drawn and filtered through the tree. the sugar of fruit is one of the most easily digested forms, that of levulose. the starch of the unripe fruit is converted into sugar in the ripening process, or in the cooking of partially ripened fruit. sugar is present in varying amounts in fruits, averaging from five to ten per cent. a well ripened banana contains twenty-one per cent of sugar, dates about fifty per cent, while grapes contain from fourteen to twenty per cent. the outward appearance of the fruit is often a fairly reliable indication of the amount of sugar. trielle has observed that fruits with yellow skins contain much sugar, and have a very penetrating odor. fruits with red skins contain a medium amount of sugar, and have a pleasant, delicate perfume. fruits with a reddish brown skin usually contain much sugar, and have very little perfume. as showing its perfectly digested state, demonstrations have proved that fruit sugar may be injected directly into the blood, from which it will be utilized in nourishing the body. this is in marked contrast with ordinary cane sugar, which, if injected directly into the blood, is expelled through the kidneys, the body being unable to appropriate it as such from the blood. fruit sugar may be eaten in practically unlimited quantities. it supplies the body with heat and energy in the most available form. for this reason, fruit when eaten will quickly relieve the sense of exhaustion. _fruit acids_ the acids of fruits give to them their delightful and appetizing flavors. fruits in the unripe state contain tannic acid, a marked astringent. the gastric and peristaltic woes of the small boy the night following the green apple episode are due to the tannic acid the unripe fruit contains. the three chief acids of fruit are citric acid, found in oranges, lemons, and grapefruit; malic acid, as found in apples, pears, peaches, and similar fruits; and tartaric acid, as found in grapes. these are organic acids, recognized and readily digested by the body. the acids of fruits are remarkable peptogens; that is, they stimulate the appetite and promote the flow of the digestive juices. fruit acids are most efficient disinfectants. some years ago, an eminent medical authority of this country, in a representative medical gathering, said, "we are as yet without a satisfactory medicinal intestinal disinfectant." in fruit acids, we possess such an agent in a most desirable form. no germ, disease-producing or otherwise, can live in the presence of fruit acid. fruit acids can be taken practically _ad libitum_. fruit acids taken freely by mouth or diluted and injected into the bowel, most efficiently asepticize the intestinal canal. three or four pints of water to which the juice of one lemon has been added, injected into the bowel following a cleansing enema, will thoroughly destroy disease-producing bacteria in the colon. flushing the bowel frequently with such a solution is one of the most efficient known means of successfully combating the fetid summer diarrheas of children. the proteid or nitrogenous element of fruits, as well as their fatty element, may be passed over with little consideration. fruit contains little proteid; and aside from the olive, there is almost no fat in fruit. the fat of the ripe olive, however, is one of the most delicious and digestible forms of fat. ripe olives contain about fifty per cent fat. olive oil can be mixed with water; therefore it readily mixes with the intestinal juices, and is most easily digested. _fruit salts_ the salts of fruit are most desirable, being so essential in tissue building. some of the most important of these salts are potash, lime, phosphoric acid, and iron. deficiency of the lime salts in the bones of children produces conditions of bone softening, or rickets. this can be largely prevented by adding fruit to the diet of these afflicted children, using especially grapes, oranges, lemons, and grapefruit, which contain high percentages of lime salts. the condition of anæmia is a lack of iron in the blood. this cannot be replaced by medicinal or metallic iron, as the body is unable to appropriate these inorganic substances; but the iron in fruit is perfectly adapted to the body needs. plums, cherries, and especially strawberries and currants contain considerable iron, and are most helpful in the treatment of anæmic conditions. it is perfectly apparent that fruits possess qualities and constituents that make them of the greatest value as an essential part of the daily ration to nourish and energize the body, and to promote vital activities in the maintenance of strength and healthful vigor. fruit is also an exceedingly important and efficient factor in restoring to normal function tissues and organs that have become vitiated and are functionating abnormally. in spite of the widespread opinion to the contrary, it can be positively asserted that fruit is of great service in the prevention as well as in the treatment of rheumatism and gout. the prejudice against the use of fruit in rheumatism originated with the idea that the acids of fruit tend to acidify the body. quite the reverse is true. the acids of fruit, when taken into the body, are promptly converted into the alkali carbonates, thus increasing the alkalinity of the blood, tending greatly to benefit and cure the rheumatic condition, as well as to lessen the general tendency to the formation of various calculi, or stones, in the kidneys, the urinary bladder, and the gall bladder. _fruit and obesity_ a fruit diet is of great value in obesity. an exclusive fruit diet may be taken to the greatest possible advantage by the too corpulent who wish to reduce in weight. for this purpose, fruit has the advantage of satisfying the appetite while at the same time contributing very little nutrition to the body. the free use of fruit is the method par excellence for overcoming constipation. the eating of a half dozen raw prunes before breakfast, or the taking of the juice of one or two oranges, will in the majority of cases be all that is necessary to maintain regular bowel activity. for an overworked liver, the so-called "bilious" state, fruit is the best of all means of relief. auto-intoxication due to an excess of poisons circulating in the blood, is treated most naturally and efficiently by a fruit diet. the natural diuretic properties of fruit are very well known. nearly all fruits stimulate the kidneys to greater activity, but watermelon is of particular service in this respect. fruit and fruit juices greatly aid in successfully combating alcoholism. the acid of the fruit juices help materially in quenching the abnormal thirst. there are but few individuals who would not be benefited by an occasional exclusive fruit meal; and in many cases, this can be maintained with greatest benefit for even several days. this is a very popular method of treatment in europe, particularly in switzerland, where the "grape cure" is utilized. patients are placed upon a diet of grapes alone for several weeks, consuming from seven to ten pounds of grapes a day. wonderful results are recorded at these resorts in the treatment of rheumatism, gout, obesity, constipation, intestinal catarrh, liver and kidney disorders, high blood pressure, arterial sclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, and many more physical disabilities. certain fruits, especially tart apples, are of great value in the treatment of diabetes, lessening the toxæmia of this condition, as well as mitigating the abnormal thirst that is so frequent and often distressing an accompaniment of this condition. in the eating of fruit, some care must be exercised not to swallow large seeds or fruit pits. while the danger of appendicitis from fruit seeds' becoming lodged in the appendix has been greatly exaggerated, yet fruit seeds have occasionally been found in the appendix, and proved the exciting cause of the inflammation which followed. cases are on record of children who have swallowed considerable quantities of grape seeds, suffering for months of colic, and being only relieved by discharging quantities of these seeds during energetic purgation. it has been said that fruit is "gold in the morning, silver at noon, and lead at night." but fruit is golden all the time. this wonderful gift, one of the greatest and best physical gifts of an all-wise providence, cannot be prized to highly; for it is considered sufficiently valuable to endure for both time and eternity. of the first man and woman, it was said that they might eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; and it is said of the inhabitants of the renewed earth, during eternity, that "they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them." too much good food makes one auto-toxic. too muck fun makes one asinine. but keep sunny. a cheerful disposition, a happy temperament, is the master key that unlocks more secrets, more riches, more success, than anything else. a sunny temper is an "aroma whose fragrance fills the air with an odor of paradise." bury everything that makes you unhappy and discordant, everything that cramps your freedom and worries you. bury it before it buries you. adopt the sundial's motto, "i record none but hours of sunshine."--_thomason._ [illustration] ten reasons for a fleshless diet _by a. w. truman, a.b., m.d._ superintendent of loma linda sanitarium, loma linda, california; professor of neurology, loma linda college _ . the strength delusion_ every movement we make, every thought we think, and every heart throb, involves waste and the expenditure of energy. there is a constant breaking down of our tissues; and the food ingested is the source of the material for repair. by its oxidation, digestion, and assimilation, energy is liberated for life's varied activities. the primary object of taking food is, in the words of the wise man, "for strength, and not for drunkenness." any one who makes the pleasure of eating the chief requisite will some day find, by a disordered stomach and a clogged liver, that eating has ceased to be a pleasure. the idea has long been current that superior qualities of body and mind come from eating flesh food; but the verdict of science, after long observation and careful investigation and various experiments, is rapidly reversing this opinion. the experiments of prof. russell h. chittenden, president of the american physiological society, and director of the sheffield scientific school at yale, are convincing. his elaborate investigations, extending over long periods of time, prove that persons of widely varying habits of life, temperament, occupation, and constitution, can maintain and even heighten their mental and physical vigor while subsisting upon a diet containing but one half the usual amount of protein, and in which the flesh is reduced to a minimum or is entirely absent. the subjects of the first experiment were three physicians, three professors, and a clerk,--men of sedentary and chiefly of mental occupation. for a period of six months, they were required to reduce the amount of meat and other protein food about one half. "their weight remained stationary; but they improved in general health, and experienced a quite remarkable increase of mental clearness and energy." _chittenden's researches_ for his next experiment, professor chittenden used a detachment of twenty soldiers from the hospital corps of the united states army, "representing a great variety of types of different ages, nationality, temperament, and degrees of intelligence." for a period of six months, these men lived upon a ration in which the proteid was reduced to one third the usual amount, and the flesh to five sixths of an ounce daily. there was a slight gain in weight, "the general health was well maintained, and with suggestions of improvement that are frequently so marked as to challenge attention." "most conspicuous, however," remarks professor chittenden, "was the effect observed on the muscular strength of the various subjects.... without exception, we note a phenomenal gain in strength which demands explanation." there was an average gain in strength for each subject of about fifty per cent. for the third experiment, professor chittenden secured as subjects a group of eight leading athletes of yale, all in training trim. for five months, they subsisted upon a diet comprising from one half to one third the quantity of protein food they had been in the habit of eating. "gymnasium tests showed in every man a truly remarkable gain in strength and endurance." _fisher's experiments_ dr. irving fisher, professor of political economy of yale university, concluded a series of experiments testing the endurance of forty-nine persons, about thirty of the number being flesh abstainers. the first endurance test was that of "holding the arms horizontally." the flesh eaters averaged ten minutes. the flesh abstainers averaged forty-nine minutes. the longest time for a flesh eater was twenty-two minutes. the maximum time for a flesh abstainer was two hundred minutes. the second endurance test was that of "deep knee bending." the flesh eaters averaged three hundred eighty-three times, the flesh abstainers eight hundred thirty-three times. professor fisher explains the results on the basis that "flesh foods contain in themselves fatigue poisons of various kinds, which naturally aggravate the action of the fatigue poisons produced in the body." dr. j. ioteyko, head of the laboratory at the university of brussels, compared the endurance of seventeen vegetarians with that of twenty-five carnivores, students of the university of brussels. "comparing the two sets of subjects on the basis of mechanical work, it is found that the vegetarians surpassed the carnivores on the average by fifty-three per cent." professor fisher remarks, "these investigations, with those of combe of lausanne, metchnikoff, and tisier of paris, as well as herter and others in the united states, seem gradually to be demonstrating that the fancied strength from meat is like the fancied strength from alcohol, an illusion." _tests in germany_ professor rubner, of berlin, "one of the world's foremost students of hygiene," read a paper before the recent international congress of hygiene and demography on the "nutrition of the people," in which he said: "it is a fact that the diet of the well-to-do is not in itself physiologically justified; it is not even healthful; for on account of the false notions of the strengthening effect of meat, too much meat is used by young and old, and this is harmful." in the long distance races in germany, the flesh abstainers have invariably been easy victors. upon this point, professor von norden, in his monumental work on "metabolism and practical medicine," says: "in germany at least, in these competitive races, the vegetarian is ahead of the meat eater. the non-vegetarian cannot compete with the vegetarian in the matter of endurance in these long distance walks. the vegetarian is ahead in the matter of rapid pedestrian feats." a few years ago, a well-known athlete, dr. deighton, walked from the southernmost point of england to the northernmost point of scotland, a distance of almost a thousand miles, in twenty-four days and four hours. his chief subsistence en route was a much advertised meat juice. mr. george allen, who for a number of years had subsisted upon a strict non-flesh diet, undertook the same task, which he accomplished in a little less than seventeen days, that is, in seven days less time. as in the heat engine, energy for light, heat, or power does not come from burning copper, lead, or iron filings, but from carbonaceous materials, as coal, coke, fuel oils, etc., so in the human body, energy for warmth and muscular effort comes not from oxidizing the metal repair foods, the proteins, but from those foods which are rich in carbon, the starches and the sugars, called the carbohydrates. _ . flesh food a stimulant_ whence then come these "illusions," these "false notions of the strengthening effect of meat"? they come from the fact that foods of this class are stimulating. a stimulant is a counterfeit for strength. it is a physical deceiver. it makes a person believe he is strong because he "feels" strong, when it is not true at all. that which is interpreted as strength is only nervous excitement. a stimulant never builds up; it only stirs up. while pretending to contribute energy, it actually robs the body of strength. the resort to stimulants to whip up the flagging energies of the body is an effort to trick nature in playing the game of life. it is like borrowing money. some day the principal must be returned with interest to a relentless creditor. beef tea contains less than one per cent nourishment, but one can get the same kind of exhilaration from a cup of beef tea as from a cup of brandy. this is due to the drug effect of the beef tea, which is a solution of the waste products, the poisonous extractives, of the meat. every animal organism is constantly throwing off these extractives, such as urea, uric acid, creatinine, etc. the kidneys have no other function than the removal of poisons. if an animal is deprived of the use of its kidneys, it will die of self-poisoning in a few days. when an animal is slaughtered and the blood ceases to circulate, this stream of urinary products on its way to the kidneys for excretion stops in the tissues, and is devoured by the consumer with the flesh. friedenwald and ruhrah, in their book "diet in health and disease," say: "the extractives are probably of no value either as a source of energy or in the formation of tissues. they act as stimulants and appetizers, and it has been stated that the craving some individuals have for meat is in reality a desire for the extractives." armand gautier, the eminent french dietitian, says on this point, "like the opium smoker, the individual who accustoms himself to meat, feels that he misses it when he does not take the usual excess." if the poisonous waste products be removed from meat, it is insipid, and is no more stimulating than the same amount of bread. _ . ptomaine poisoning_ the seeds of death and decay are in every animal organism; and just as soon as the heart ceases to throb, and the arteries cease to pulsate, and the spark of life leaves the animal, decomposition begins. these putrefactive changes often result in the formation of violent poisons, called ptomaines. the word "ptomaine" comes from a greek word meaning _carcass_, or _cadaver_; and the poisons are variously called putrefactive alkaloid, animal alkaloid, etc. the presence of fatal amounts of these poisons in flesh may not be betrayed by any change in appearance, odor, or taste. the common practice of keeping meat until it becomes tender, or "ripens," is simply waiting for decomposition to advance until the meat fiber is softened by the process of decay. canned meats are especially liable to contain the poisonous ptomaine. _ . unbalances the diet_ it is of primary importance that one should guard against consuming excessive quantities of any kind of food material, but there is a difference. should we take an excess of starches or sugars, provision has been made for storing a certain amount in the form of fat, or as glycogen in the liver and the muscles; but no provision is found for storing an excess of protein. an excess of this food element is of particular injury to the body. the extensive experiments of professors chittenden, fisher, and other scientific workers, have shown that for efficient nutrition, we require that only one tenth of the daily intake of food should be of the structure-building, tissue-repairing protein. in the laboratory of nature, the food elements have been so combined by the plants, that the protein element is very low; and thus a diet selected from the natural products of the earth is not only free from uric acid and other waste products, but is already balanced. the addition of flesh food--which does not contain any starch--to the menu, at once raises the protein constituent too high. _ . bright's disease and high blood pressure_ the waste products in the blood arising from excess of protein are a leading cause of bright's disease, auto-intoxication, arteriosclerosis, and high blood pressure. these maladies are often associated in the same individual, and frequently have a common origin. sir william osler, in his "principle and practice of medicine," writes: "i am more and more impressed with the part played by overeating in inducing arteriosclerosis." "there are many cases in which there is no other factor." dr. alexander haig, of london, states that uric acid makes the blood "collaemic" or viscous, and then the heart has difficulty to pump it through the capillaries. hence the blood pressure increases. isaac ott, in his textbook on physiology, says on this point, "burton-opitz has shown that hunger reduces viscosity, and meat diet raises it to a great height, whilst carbohydrates and fat diet give average values to it." in the colon, flesh foods rapidly undergo decomposition, giving rise to numerous poisons, which are absorbed into the blood, and are toxic to the nervous system, and cast an additional burden upon the liver and the kidneys. these are a sort of dietetic clinkers, which throw nature's delicate machinery out of adjustment, and produce various symptoms of auto-intoxication. bouchard found that the fecal and urinary excrement of carnivorous animals is twice as poisonous when injected into rabbits as that from a herbivorous animal. the former also emits a strong odor, and the fecal discharges are offensively repulsive. dr. haig, before quoted, also asserts that "bright's disease is the result of our meat-eating and tea-drinking habits; and as these habits are common, so also is the disease." _ . tuberculosis, ulcer, cancer, and appendicitis_ while it is true that tuberculosis is more frequently contracted through the use of tuberculous milk than from tuberculous meat, the latter source of infection cannot be ignored. numerous cases of tuberculosis have been reported where the infection could be directly traced to the flesh of tuberculous animals. dr. e. c. shroeder, of the bureau of animal industry of the united states department of agriculture, says: "that ten per cent of the dairy cattle in the united states are affected with tuberculosis impresses me as a very conservative estimate. in new york state, about thirty-three per cent of all cattle tested were found to be tuberculous." dr. julius rosenberg, of new york city, writes: "cattle tuberculosis is rapidly increasing. there is scarcely a dairy herd without a number of infected animals. it is an ever growing menace. the health department of boston estimates the percentage of tuberculous animals producing the city's milk supply to be from twenty to twenty-five per cent. conservative estimate places the number of cows dying yearly from tuberculosis at one million, were they permitted to die a natural death; but they are killed before drawing the last gasp, and served as prime beef." in one year in the united states, the entire carcasses of thirty-five thousand one hundred three cattle were condemned because of generalized tuberculosis. in the same year, a portion of the carcass of ninety-nine thousand seven hundred thirty-nine more were rejected because of local tuberculosis. professor ravenal, of the university of wisconsin, says that of the thirty-five million hogs killed for food annually in the united states, seven million are found to be infected with tuberculosis. some one has said that meat would sell for a dollar a pound if all the diseased meat were eliminated. ulcer of the stomach is one of our most common diseases. leading surgeons have shown that it is ten times as frequent as was formerly supposed. it is clearly of dietetic origin, and is usually associated with too high consumption of protein, and especially of meat. starches, sugars, and fats are not digested in the stomach, and require no acid. proteins, on the other hand, are digested within the stomach, and require for their digestion a high percentage of hydrochloric acid. the excessive production of acid within the stomach, stimulated by too much protein, is probably the chief cause of the formation of ulcers. in , dr. fenton b. turck, of chicago, said before the american medical association: "ulcer of the stomach is not found in those countries where the inhabitants eat rice. it is evidently a meat eater's disease. the zone of ulcer is in the meat eater's zone." cancer is a disease of modern civilization. it is the one major unsolved problem in the field of medical science to-day. from the _journal of the american medical association_ of june , , we quote: "that cancer has increased in recent years is perhaps a commonplace, but the extent of the increase is not generally realized. under existing conditions, one in seven women and one in eleven men die of cancer." in the _medical record_, issue of may , , dr. w. g. mayo is quoted as saying: "cancer of the stomach forms nearly one third of all cancers of the human body.... is it not possible that there is something in the habits of civilized man, in the cooking or other preparation of his food, which acts to produce the precancerous condition?... within the last one hundred years, four times as much meat is taken as before that time. if flesh foods are not fully broken up, decomposition results, and active poisons are thrown into an organ not intended for their reception, and which has not had time to adapt itself to the new function." dr. l. duncan bulkley, senior physician to the new york skin and cancer hospital, says on this point, "analyzing the various data obtained, we find that cancer has increased in proportion to the consumption of four articles, meat, coffee, tea, and alcohol." one is hardly up to date who does not present an abdominal scar caused by an offending appendix. at the fifteenth international congress of hygiene and demography held in washington, d. c., dr. henning contributed a paper dealing with "statistics upon the increase of appendicitis and its causes." he said: "a meat diet is of great influence in the development of appendicitis. this diet leads to constipation. in most instances, too long retention of intestinal contents in the cæcum causes slight inflammation in that region, the results of which are to weaken the appendix, and to render it nonresistant against later infection." when dr. lorenz, the celebrated vienna surgeon, was in the united states, he called attention to the relatively greater prevalence of appendicitis in this country as compared with europe, and attributed it to the greater consumption of cold storage meats here, which he said rendered americans unduly septic, and especially prone to infection of the appendix. nicholas senn was told by the hospital surgeons in africa that they had never seen a case of appendicitis in a vegetable-eating african. _ . trichinæ and tapeworms_ "a story is told of two of the most noted of germans,--bismarck, the statesman, and virchow, the scientist. the latter had severely criticized the former in his capacity as chancellor, and was challenged to fight a duel. the man of science was found by bismarck's seconds in his laboratory, hard at work at experiments which had for their object the discovery of a means of destroying trichinæ, then making ravages among animals in germany. 'ah,' said the doctor, 'a challenge from prince bismarck, eh? well, well, as i am the challenged party, i suppose i have the choice of weapons. here they are.' he held up two large sausages, which appeared to be exactly alike. 'one of these sausages,' he said, 'is filled with trichinæ. it is deadly. the other is perfectly wholesome. externally, they can't be told apart. let his excellency do me the honor to choose whichever of these he wishes and eat it, and i will eat the other.' no duel was fought, and no one accused virchow of cowardice." the trichina is a small, wormlike parasite found in the flesh of "measly pork," which, when eaten, burrows in the muscles of the human, producing an extremely painful and often fatal affection. about two per cent of hogs, it is estimated, harbor this parasite. practically speaking, the human being becomes the host of a tapeworm only by eating underdone flesh containing the larvæ of the parasite. (thoroughly boiled or fried tapeworm is a harmless diet.) the ox, the hog, and the fish frequently harbor the larvæ of tapeworms. _ . poor economy_ in these days of increased destruction and decreased production of human foods, it is of great importance to know how to secure a maximum amount of nutrition from a minimum expenditure of money. the world is facing a food shortage that in some places has assumed the proportion of the gaunt specter of famine. in view of this fact, it is well to remember that flesh is the most costly source of food. sixty-two per cent of the best beefsteak is water. flesh foods contain but twenty-five per cent nourishment, and seventy-five per cent waste matter. the grains contain seventy-five per cent nourishment, and but twenty-five per cent waste. now it does not require a knowledge of higher mathematics to determine that since ten pounds of grain, when fed to an animal, make but one pound of flesh, the latter becomes a very costly source of our food supply. _ . the testimony of anatomy and physiology_ even a kindergarten study of the structure of the human body reveals the fact that man was not intended to be a carnivorous, a herbivorous, or an omnivorous animal, but rather a frugivorous creature. he does not possess the rough, raspy tongue of the cat family, the long, pointed canine teeth of the lion, the sharp claws of the tiger, or the talons and hooked beak of the eagle. in the carnivora, the alimentary canal is very short, being only three times the length of the body. in herbivora, as the sheep, it is thirty times the length of the body. in frugivora, such as apes, monkeys, and man, it is twelve times the body length. baron cuvier, a famous anatomist, writes, "the natural food of man, judging from his structure, appears to consist principally of the fruits, roots, and other succulent parts of vegetables." _ . flesh and morals_ the menu provided for man in the beginning did not include animal food. not until one thousand six hundred fifty-six years of human history had passed was man permitted to eat flesh, and then only after every green thing had been destroyed by the deluge. what we eat exercises a profound influence upon what we are, how we think, and how we feel. let us divide the animal kingdom on the basis of diet and disposition. on the one hand, we have the lion, the tiger, the wolf, the bear, the leopard, the panther, etc.; all these are vicious, snarly, crabbed, ferocious beasts. what comprises their diet? we call them "beasts of prey." they feast upon the bloody, quivering flesh of their victims. on the other hand, we might mention the horse, the ox, the deer, the sheep, the elephant. think of their dispositions, calm, quiet, pacific, easily domesticated. may it not be that their diet of cereals and herbs contributes to their peaceful temperament? dr. curtis, the eminent physician to mr. garfield, said, "what parent is there who has not viewed with alarm how old adam enters into the baby along with the first spoonful of chopped beef!" gautier said, on this point: "the vegetarian régime, modified by the addition of milk, of fat of butter, of eggs, has great advantage. it adds to the alkalinity of the blood, accelerates oxidation, diminishes organic wastes and toxins. it exposes one much less likely than the ordinary régime to skin maladies, to arthritis, to congestions of internal organs. this régime tends to make us pacific beings, and not aggressive and violent." to these we may add the testimony of holy writ, "be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh." physical benefits of joy the emotion of joy finds physiologic manifestations exactly opposite to those of sorrow and grief. there is increase of function in the muscles, and expansion of the blood vessels. as a result of increased muscular activity, the joyful person feels light and springy. children, when joyful, dance and skip and clap their hands. the expansion of the blood vessels brings the "flush of joy." this increase in the circulation causes increased secretion of the digestive juices, with increased appetite, and increased power of digestion and absorption. this means increased nourishment. "laugh and grow fat" has a physiologic basis. fat people are not good-natured because they are fat, but they are fat because they are good-natured. laughter has a wonderfully beneficial influence on bodily functions--a fact recognized centuries ago when the wise man said, "a merry heart doeth good like a medicine." laughter is a potent stimulant to all the helpful bodily functions. it hastens digestion, stimulates circulatory reaction, promotes tissue changes, enhances glandular activity, facilitates elimination, and altogether radiates a most beneficent influence throughout the body. laugh, and the whole body laughs, and counts its work a pleasure.--_dr. george a. thomason._ [illustration] [illustration] stimulants _and_ condiments _by arthur n. donaldson, a.b., m.d._ of the faculty of the college of medical evangelists, loma linda, california the creator intended that the process of eating should be enjoyed. he has gathered the tasteless, insipid food elements together, and mixing in mineral and organic accessories, has produced for the tickling of our palates all the numberless flavors that the combined action of those highly specialized organs of taste and smell have enabled us to enjoy. the tasteless starch is bound up in the palatable potato; the insipid protein, in the pea, the lentil, and the bean; the rather nauseating fat, in the plump, appetizing olive. to the child not yet educated to the perverted demands of his father's palate, the thought, taste, and smell of these aromatic and savory substances produces a desire to eat. by the time he is twenty, he will not be satisfied with the natural flavor of his food. the cook must pepper or ginger it up, and he must further mustard or worcestershire it to get it down. his soups are hot, and his salads are hotter. the palatable pleasure in a meal of his childhood is a lost asset. what has brought about this change in the appetite of man? we all know, from experience, that we handle our food better if we relish it. this is due largely to the fact that the taste organs telegraph ahead to the stomach to prepare for work. the stomach responds by pouring out some digestive juices, and is consequently all ready to begin business the instant the tourist arrives. but when the food is bolted, there is a failure on the part of the taste nerves to telegraph ahead, unless they are stimulated more intensely by the addition of some readily diffusible sapid substance. are we thus fooling nature?--we are not. primarily, this unnatural stimulation leads to the most prevalent american dietetic sin; namely, overeating. we do not know when we have had enough. dr. wiggers, of cornell university, has shown that overeating results in the surcharging of the blood stream with elements of digestion; and this, through the operation of physical laws, ultimately leads to arteriosclerosis and its chain of disasters. secondly, with this unnatural stimulation of the taste nerves, the telegraphic messages to the stomach and the intestine are unreliable. normally the tract is informed as to the nature of the food about to come, and is thus enabled to pour out a specific juice for a specific kind of food. obviously this specificity which characterizes all normal processes is broken down, and the digestive function is placed under a handicap, when we cover up the natural taste with condiments. the idea that condiments and stimulants act favorably in directly stimulating the production of gastric juice and in increasing gastric motor activity, and thus facilitating the digestive process, is a delusion. professor carlson, of chicago university, has shown that these so-called stomachics and appetizers will have done their bit ere they enter the misunderstood stomach. and, our savory sauces and peppers being irritants in the mouth, they are no less irritants to the lining membrane of the stomach. they are always taboo in mild dyspeptic disorders, yet we think them just the appetizers for the run down nervous individual who never enjoys the pangs of hunger. rather, he should be advised to oxygenate his impoverished blood by a brisk walk, to stir up his eliminative organs by vigorous exercise and the ingestion of water; for these bring no gastric catarrh, no sluggish liver. it is recognized by every writer on dietetics, that condiments are irritating to the organs of elimination. the kidneys suffer, the ureters suffer, the bladder suffers, and the urethra suffers. we are very quick to stop the use of these substances when the kidneys give evidence of disease, and we will with alacrity drop the hot stuff from our dietary when the bladder and the urethra are inflamed. we do not like the smarting, burning pain produced by their presence. if they are detrimental during disease processes, they are just as detrimental in health. the long continued use of minute quantities of an irritant will incontrovertibly give ultimate evidence of its harmful nature, and we may expect such pathology as congestion of the liver, catarrh of the alimentary tract, hemorrhoids, nephritis, and general nutritive disturbances to be the possible heritage of our stimulating diet. it is an interesting scientific fact that the highly soluble substances which are used as foods or food accessories are always irritating to the living membranes, particularly to the mucous membranes of the digestive organs with which they come in contact in the process of digestion, whether these membranes are healthy or diseased. among such substances, we may mention sugar and salt. sugar and salt are excellent examples of the sapid, readily diffusible condiment so essential to our table, yet so invariably used to excess. we need about two teaspoonfuls of common salt a day--especially those who enjoy the vegetarian diet. most vegetables are rich in potassium. this inorganic substance combines with sodium chloride, and is eliminated from the body. consequently, the greater the amount of potassium in our food, the greater will be the loss of sodium chloride from the blood and the tissues, where it is an essential element, with the resultant need of an increased supply in our diet. where there is an insufficient use of salt, there is a manifest disinclination to partake of the large variety of earth's products rich in potassium. but we are accustomed to the use of far more salt with our food than is necessary; and in excess, it is positively harmful, and the results of its use are serious. sugar is a pure carbohydrate; yet, by reason of its nature and use, it must be classed as a condiment. it, too, when used freely, brings on gastrointestinal catarrh through its direct irritant action, and affords unexcelled media for the growth of intestinal flora. _stimulants_ there are practically four strong stimulants to which civilized people are addicted; namely, alcohol, tobacco, tea, and coffee. of the action of all, it may be said that the fatigue of nerve and brain is soothed by a spur. that is the work of a stimulant,--to goad the worn system to added effort, to produce an abnormal, false energy. thus the individual is led on to a state of actual exhaustion without a warning note from his fatigued system. his energy is actually dissipated rather than increased. the results are shown in his heart, his nervous system, and his eliminative organs. admiral peary, speaking of the use of coffee in the rations of polar explorers, states that with the added effect of intense cold, it so stimulates the nerves as to cause the men to exhaust themselves, and soon wear out, by doing more than they can endure. the actual extent of injury from the moderate use of tea and coffee has not been scientifically determined. the difficulty is, as irving fisher states it, "sensitive people do not keep moderate." a little unnatural stimulation calls for a little more, and the tendency is to create a demand for something stronger. fisher has truthfully declared that to abstain is much easier than to be moderate. the claim that alcoholic beverages give added strength is a fallacy. the narcotic action of alcohol benumbs the sense of fatigue. from reliable clinical and laboratory findings, we are warranted in asserting with authority that alcohol lowers the power of all mental processes. the muscular efficiency is reduced. the ability of the body to protect itself against disease is undermined. the policemen of the body--the white corpuscles--are rendered more or less inactive--paralyzed; and the formation of other resistive elements of the blood is restricted. in other words, vital resistance is below par. alcohol is furthermore a heart and circulatory depressant, and is no longer used by competent physicians as a circulatory stimulant. in short, it lowers mental and physical efficiency, and of course will naturally give its stamp to the unfortunate offspring. tobacco, too, blunts the edge of fatigue and worry. but its effect is transient, and the stimulation is followed by depression, which of course calls for more of the stimulant. statistics tell us that where the weed is prohibited, efficiency is increased, and morale is improved. among the serious consequences of smoking, we find cancer of lip, tongue, and mouth, and serious cardiovascular changes. in a series of one hundred cases of cancer of the tongue and mouth, dr. abbe, of new york, found that ninety were inveterate users of tobacco; and he gives the stimulant the credit of being the ætiological factor in a high percentage of all malignant growths in this region. tobacco not only directly affects the heart muscle, but its nicotine, through stimulation of the suprarenal gland, causes the production and throwing into the blood of an excessive amount of adrenalin, which brings about a tremendous rise in blood pressure, and of course an increase in the burden that the heart must carry. the ultimate result is arteriosclerosis, tobacco heart, nephritis, and very possibly a closing of the scene with a paralytic stroke. professor fisher very aptly appeals against the introduction of more poisons into a system already burdened with poisons of its own elaboration. we are not at liberty to ignore nature and her laws. our bodies are not our own. when the creator has opened to us of heaven's abundance for the sustenance of life, and has given us a dietary that answers every need of palate and body, we are palpably in error before our maker when we question his wisdom, and take into our systems those substances which we know to be destructive to mind, soul, and body. our country, however, is blessed with an abundance of foodstuffs; and if our people will economize in their use of food, providently confining themselves to the quantities required for the maintenance of health and strength, if they will eliminate waste, and if they will make use of those commodities of which we have a surplus, and thus free for export a larger proportion of those required by the world now dependent on us, we shall not only be able to accomplish our obligations to them, but we shall obtain and establish reasonable prices at home.--_woodrow wilson._ [illustration] simple menus _and_ recipes _by mr. h. s. anderson_ food specialist, college of medical evangelists and loma linda sanitarium the art of planning and combining the food for a meal is of no small importance to the housewife or the cook. the very best foods may be served in such combinations as to bring distress to the digestive organs, and produce weakness instead of strength. because human beings differ so much, and their needs are so varied, it is impossible to lay down any set of rules on diet alike for all. there are general principles, however, by which all may be guided, and which, if heeded, can accomplish more for the individual or the family, in maintaining health, than all doctors' prescriptions. this is made plain by the fact that it is better to know how to keep well than how to cure disease. it is therefore of great importance for those who have the responsibility of planning for the table, to have a working knowledge of the principles which guide in making out a balanced menu. in the planning of a meal, careful study should be given to the combination of foods. on the one hand, only such foods as digest well together should be used at one meal. on the other hand, foods should be chosen that will supply all the needed elements in about the right proportion. because of the woody substances found in vegetables, especially the coarse or fibrous vegetables, such as carrots, beets, turnips, cabbage, potatoes, and others, they digest slowly, and consequently remain a long time in the stomach before they are broken sufficiently for intestinal digestion. fruits remain in the stomach a short time, and, owing to the large amount of saccharine matter they contain, are apt to ferment if retained too long. fruit and vegetables therefore should not be eaten at the same meal. this has special reference to the coarse and underground vegetables; while the finer or fruity vegetables, such as green peas, corn, squash, tomatoes, etc., and some others which also ripen in the sun, may be used with almost any food. a safe rule in planning a meal, is to be sure that the _soup_, the _relishes_ (greens, salads, etc.), and the _dessert_, if used, combine well together, as these are so generally used by nearly all classes of people when placed on the menu. then if fruit is used, in salad, or as dessert, there should be on the menu at least one of the finer vegetables, such as tomatoes, corn, or the like, which can be eaten with the fruit; and if the meal is planned without fruit, any of the coarser vegetables may be used as desired. a large variety should not be planned for any one meal. it is a great additional expense; and besides, when several articles are taken at one meal, fermentation is likely to occur and the system will not be so well nourished. recent research work has shown that the digestive juices vary both in kind and in quantity with different kinds of food eaten. this may explain why many persons cannot digest complex mixtures and extensive variety, and is a mighty argument for simplicity at meal-time. a select variety, of only a few kinds of food, at any one meal, with diversity in the meals from day to day, will prove advantageous to the individual and the family, both from the standpoint of economy, and from the health point of view. an excess of milk and sugar taken together clogs the system, and should be avoided. fats are more digestible cold than hot, because hot fat tends to coat and intimately penetrate the food with which it is cooked. this is especially true of fried foods, part of the food being surrounded with a layer of fat, keeping the digestive juices from acting on the other food elements. when subjected to a high temperature, fats decompose, and the resulting acids are very irritating to the mucous membranes of the stomach and the intestines. the following combinations of food digest well together: grains, fruits, and nuts grains with milk grains with eggs grains, vegetables, and nuts foods that do not digest well together are: milk and sugar taken together, in large quantities fruit and vegetables foods cooked in fats a balanced dietary is one that supplies in about the right proportion all the kinds of food required to nourish the body. from the earliest impressions of childhood, many persons have received the idea that the most important article of diet is animal flesh. in most cases, this idea has been accepted without question or thought, and probably has never been challenged. a careful study of the subject, however, will show that with the use of meat, there is great danger of an excess of protein above the minimum requirements, there being thus placed upon the liver and the kidneys an amount of work which should not be imposed on these vitally important organs. to combine foods in such a way as to supply all the needed elements, we should choose something from each of the different classes of food elements. there should also be among these such as supply sufficient cellulose and mineral. to illustrate this point, a few menus will be given that are extremely unbalanced, or one-sided, that we may understand more forcibly, by contrast, what a good meal is: . soy bean soup \ lentil patties | / too much building food cottage cheese | | too concentrated custard pie | \ too little bulk milk / . white rice \ mashed potato | spaghetti | / too much fuel food white crackers | | too little bulk and mineral butter | \ lacks building food (protein) cake / . vegetable soup \ wax beans | / too little building food lettuce | | too little fuel food stewed beets | | too bulky bran biscuit | | lacking in nourishment strawberries / \ bad combination in order to make a balanced meal out of the above foods, it would be necessary to choose something from each of these unbalanced meals, and it would not be necessary to choose a large variety in order to supply the needs of the body. upon examination, we find that bread (entire wheat) possesses properties which so nearly represent the constituent parts of the body as to make such bread ideal for the building up and keeping in repair of the human body. in the matter of building food (protein), bread contains about ten per cent, or about the recognized dietary requirement. bread is an exceedingly digestible food; and experiments taken as a whole show nearly ninety-eight per cent of the starch, or carbohydrate nutrients, and about eighty-eight per cent of the gluten, or protein constituents, assimilated by the body. see snyder's "human foods," page ; also table, page . many other grains, such as corn, oats, rye, barley, and rice, all contain heat- and energy-producing substances and tissue-forming elements in about the right proportion to meet the needs of the body. exception is made of rice, which is slightly deficient in protein. bread of some kind, therefore, is the "backbone" of the meal. around it are grouped the various fruits and vegetables for change and variety, alternating with one of the more solid foods, rich in protein, such as cottage cheese, eggs, nuts, or any of the various legumes, as peas, beans, lentils, etc. of all the legumes, the soy bean takes the lead for building food, containing nearly twice the per cent of protein found in round steak. these more hearty foods should be used with discretion, especially during the summer months, when well baked breads, fruits, and green garden products constitute the ideal diet. potatoes, which are mostly starch, and eggs, which are largely albumen and fat, may be combined in such a way as to furnish all the needed elements in the right proportion. as rice is nearly all starch, and beans are rich in protein, these make an excellent combination. nuts, rich in proteins and fats, and fruits, containing sugars and acids, also make an ideal combination. to a meal composed largely of rice and potatoes, which are deficient in fats, there may be added a little cream, a few ripe olives, a few nuts, or an egg, to give a well balanced ration. the custom of eating a light lunch at noon, and reserving the heaviest meal for the close of the day, while actuated to a great extent by seeming necessities, or convenience, is not, as a rule, found a benefit to health. as a result of a hearty meal at night, the digestive process is continued through the sleeping hours; and though the stomach works constantly, its work is not properly accomplished. the sleep is often disturbed by unpleasant dreams; and in the morning, the person awakes unrefreshed, and with little relish for breakfast. the practice of eating but two meals a day is generally found a benefit to health; yet under some circumstances, persons may require a third meal. this should, however, if taken at all, be very light, and of foods very easily digested, so that when we lie down to rest, the stomach may have its work all done, and it, as well as the other organs of the body, may enjoy rest. in the following menus, some allowance is made for variety. some persons will not require everything named on the menu; and each person will choose such things, and in such amounts, as experience and sound judgment prove to be best suited to his own necessities. _menus for one week_ sunday _breakfast_ steamed natural rice cream peas on toast strawberries corn bread milk vegetable butter _dinner_ entire wheat bread beans with noodles lettuce corn on cob cluster raisins butter _luncheon_ creamed rice corn meal crisps zwieback peach sauce cereal coffee _steamed rice._--wash one cup of natural brown rice, and put to cook in three cups of boiling water. let boil gently until the water is absorbed and the rice looks dry; then set on the edge of the stove, well covered, to steam for fifteen minutes. _cream peas on toast._--one cup drained green peas, one third cup water, three tablespoonfuls rich cream, salt. bring the water and the peas to a boil, mash through a colander to remove the hulls, and season with cream and salt. dip a slice of zwieback into hot milk to soften, lay on a platter, cover with a spoonful of the cream of peas, and serve. _corn bread._--one and one third cups corn meal, two tablespoonfuls whole wheat flour, two and one half tablespoonfuls vegetable butter, two tablespoonfuls brown sugar, one and one fourth teaspoonfuls salt, one and one third cups boiling water, two eggs. mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. add the butter, and pour on the boiling water in a _slow_ stream, stirring while it is being poured in. add two or three tablespoonfuls of cold water if needed to make a medium batter. separate the eggs, and beat the whites stiff. beat the yolks, and fold them into the whites. add the corn mixture, and mix, using the folding motion. pour into an oiled shallow baking pan, and bake in a quick oven. _butter substitutes_ owing to the great increase in disease among animals, and along with this, the advance in prices of nearly all foodstuffs, a desire has been created for some substitute for dairy butter, which would prove both wholesome and appetizing. the following butter substitutes are now used to some extent both for cooking and for table use, and are easily prepared: _emulsified vegetable oil._--secure a high grade cottonseed, corn, or peanut oil. beat one egg slightly, then add the oil in a very slow stream at first, beating continuously, and increase as the egg takes up the oil. add two teaspoonfuls lemon juice, then more oil, until three cupfuls have been used, and the mixture is smooth and thick. salt to taste, put into a well covered jar, and use the same as butter. _vegetable butter._--take three cupfuls of any good coconut product on the market, such as kokofat or kaola, or a good brand of hydrogenated vegetable fat, as crisco.[a] add the juice of half a lemon, salt to taste, and a few drops of vegetable butter color. mix with a spoon until the color of dairy butter. the juice from carrots, grated and pressed, may be used instead of the lemon juice and the butter color if desired. [footnote a: note.--the presence of a proprietary substance in a recipe must not be understood as guarantee by the authors. we know very little regarding the manufacture of the above named products; but we have reason to believe they are wholesome, and contain no animal products.] in harmony with the recent food pledge, saying, "use no butter in cooking," all the recipes in these menus are prepared without the use of dairy butter. however, the same recipes may be prepared with dairy butter instead of the vegetable fats if so desired. _beans with noodles._--wash one cup navy or lima beans, add three cups water and a little salt, and let boil gently until tender. beat one egg slightly, with two teaspoonfuls of water or milk and a pinch of salt. add one cup of pastry flour, or enough to make a stiff dough. knead well, and divide into two pieces. roll out into thin sheets about the thickness of paper, having the dough well floured. let dry a few minutes, then cut into strips about two inches wide. lay in tiers, and shred very fine with a sharp knife. drain the liquid from the beans, add to it enough water to make three cups of liquid, and add salt to taste. add two teaspoonfuls of vegetable butter, and bring to a boil. sprinkle the noodles into the boiling broth, and let cook gently for fifteen minutes. add the cooked beans, and shake together, reheat, and serve. new peas may be substituted for beans when in season. _corn on cob._--husk full ears of corn, and brush off the silks with a stiff brush. wash, and drop into boiling water to which has been added a little milk or lemon juice. bring to a good boil; then draw the saucepan to one side of the stove, and let simmer for twenty minutes. _entire wheat bread._--three cups warm water, one half cake compressed yeast, three tablespoonfuls brown sugar, two tablespoonfuls vegetable fat, one tablespoonful salt, seven cups entire wheat flour. dissolve the yeast in two teaspoonfuls of water, add the liquid, and mix all the ingredients to a medium _soft_ dough. turn out on a slightly floured board, and knead until elastic to the touch; then return to an oiled bowl, cover, and let stand in a warm room to rise until, when tapped sharply, it _begins_ to sink (about two hours). work down well, turn over in the bowl, and let rest until it begins to rise again (about fifteen minutes); then mold into loaves, and put into pans for baking. brush over the top of each loaf with an oiled brush, and let rise until half again its original bulk; then bake in a good oven. these coarse breads must be watched closer during the rising than those made from white flour, as they get light in much less time. _creamed rice._--heat some milk in a double boiler, and when it is hot, add enough cooked rice to have it creamy, but not too soft. add a pinch of salt, and a little rich cream, if you have it at hand, and serve. _corn meal crisps._--one cup white corn meal, one cup pastry flour, one half teaspoonful salt, one tablespoonful brown sugar, two tablespoonfuls vegetable fat, scant one half cup water. mix all the dry ingredients, add the oil, and rub between the hands to distribute the fat through the grain. add the water, and mix to a dough. roll out to a thickness of one fourth of an inch, cut with a biscuit cutter, prick with a fork, and bake in a hot oven, to a light brown. _zwieback._--cut stale bread into slices about one half inch thick. lay these in a baking pan, and put them into the warming oven until the moisture is evaporated; then put them into a hot oven until they are a light brown all the way through. monday _breakfast_ cream scrambled egg with new tomato butter wheat puffs steamed pearl barley stewed prunes _dinner_ sliced tomato farmer's favorite soup spinach roasted potato with dressing egg gravy butter rye bread _luncheon_ baked banana tomato sandwiches blackberries rye biscuit milk crackers _steamed pearl barley._--wash one cup pearl barley, and put to cook in four cups boiling water. add one fourth teaspoonful salt, and let boil gently until the water is absorbed and the grain looks dry; then cover, and set on the edge of the stove to steam for forty minutes. this grain is preferably cooked on a hot stone in the fireless. _scrambled egg with new tomato._--rub a large ripe tomato with the back of a knife; then remove the skin, and cut the tomato into pieces. put it into a small pan, with one teaspoonful vegetable butter and a pinch of salt, and bring to a boil. break two eggs slightly with a fork, put them into a hot oiled frying pan, and stir until they are soft scrambled. have the tomato drained, add the pulp to the scrambled eggs, and mix, being careful not to cook the egg too much. serve on toast. _wheat puffs._--one and one fourth cups sifted pastry flour, one fourth cup whole wheat flour, two teaspoonfuls melted vegetable butter, one fourth teaspoon salt, one cup milk, one egg. make a batter of the flour, the salt, the milk, the egg yolk, and the butter, and stir smooth. beat the white stiff, and pour the batter into the beaten white, mixing as it is being poured in, and using the folding motion, so as not to break down the lightness of the egg. pour into hot oiled iron gem pans, and bake in a quick oven. _stewed prunes._--wash dried prunes thoroughly, and let them soak overnight. then bring them to a boil, and let simmer for two hours or more, and they will need no sweetening. _farmer's favorite soup._--one half cup rich sour cream, one third cup macaroni, one small onion, one stalk celery, one small carrot, one medium sized potato, chopped parsley, salt. drop the macaroni into three cupfuls boiling salted water, and cook until thoroughly done. have the vegetables cut into small dice. put the cream into a small pan, and stir over the fire until the oil separates, and the albumen turns a light brown color. the degree of browning determines the flavor of the soup. add the diced onion, carrot, and celery, and stir for a few moments. add three cupfuls water, the diced potato, and a little salt, and cook until the vegetables are thoroughly done. add the macaroni water to the vegetable soup; then lay the macaroni on a board, cut into small rings, and drop into the soup. boil up well, add chopped parsley, and serve. _roasted potato._--peel eight medium sized potatoes, and boil until they are about half done; then drain them, and save the water. lay the potatoes in an oiled baking pan, brush with oil, sprinkle with salt and flour, and put into a hot oven to brown. _baked dressing._--two cups soaked stale bread, one half cup milk, three tablespoonfuls chopped onion, one and one half tablespoonfuls vegetable butter, three tablespoonfuls browned flour, a pinch of sage and marjoram, and salt to taste. soak the bread in cold water until it is soft all the way through, then press it out. put the butter, the onion, and the savory into a small pan, and let them simmer for a few moments, to soften the onion, but do not brown. add the brown flour, then the milk, and stir smooth. add the bread, salt to taste, and mix. bake in an oiled brick tin, or spread among the roasted potatoes when they are partly browned, and finish baking them together. _egg gravy._--two tablespoonfuls vegetable fat, one teaspoonful chopped onion, three tablespoonfuls flour, one egg, one and one half cups potato water or almost any vegetable broth. put the oil into a frying pan, and when it is quite hot, add the whole egg. break the yolk with a fork, turn it over, and stir until brown over the entire surface. remove the brown egg from the oil, and chop with a knife. add the flour to the oil, and stir until a light brown. add the onion, and stir; then the chopped egg and one third of the water, and stir smooth. add the balance of the water, and boil up. let simmer for ten minutes, and serve. the egg may be omitted, if desired; but without it, the gravy will have less flavor. _spinach._--wash the greens in several waters. if the spinach is young and tender, it can be cooked with no additional water beyond that remaining on the leaves after washing. as the spinach ages, it absorbs bitter flavor, and should then be cooked in boiling water, with the _cover off_. when done, drain, cut with a knife, season with salt and a little vegetable butter, reheat, and serve. _rye bread._--two cups warm water, one half cake compressed yeast, one and one half tablespoonfuls vegetable fat, two tablespoonfuls brown sugar, two teaspoonfuls salt, four cups white bread flour, three cups rye flour. dissolve the yeast in two teaspoonfuls water, add the liquid, and beat in three cups best bread flour to a smooth batter. cover, and let stand in a warm room to rise for one and one half hours. add the salt, the sugar, and the oil, and beat into the sponge. mix in the rye flour and the remaining cup of white flour, to a medium dough. knead on a board until elastic to the touch, then return to an oiled bowl, cover, and let rise the same as for entire wheat bread, in sunday's lesson. when ready to mold into loaves, roll out six buns, and lay on an oiled pie tin, and let rise for _rye biscuit_. divide the remaining dough into two parts, and roll out into the shape of ordinary rye bread loaves. lay in an oiled baking pan, leaving space between. brush with an oiled brush, and cut three gashes across each loaf with a sharp knife, and let rise until light, then bake in a quick oven. _baked banana._--select firm, rather ripe bananas, put them into the oven without removing the skins, and bake until the skins burst. then remove from the oven, and serve in a folded napkin. _tomato sandwiches._--peel ripe tomatoes without scalding, by first scraping them with the back of a knife; then cut into thin slices. cut bread into very thin slices, and spread one slice with butter, and the opposite slice with mayonnaise or boiled dressing. lay tomatoes between the slices, cut in triangles, and serve. tuesday _breakfast_ cantaloupe savory hash jellied egg milk corn dodgers honey _dinner_ sliced tomato new england dinner english walnuts entire wheat bread butter cream rice pudding _luncheon_ milk toast raisin sandwich peach sauce unleavened rye wafers watermelon _savory hash._--two cups cold boiled potatoes cut in dice, three fourths cup of the baked dressing as given in monday's lesson, cold, and cut into small dice, one and one half tablespoonfuls diced onion, one and one half tablespoonfuls vegetable butter, one tablespoonful brown flour, a pinch of sage or marjoram, one half cup milk, and salt to taste. put the butter, the onion, and the savory into a small pan, and simmer for a few moments; then add the brown flour and a little of the milk, and stir smooth. add the balance of the milk, and boil up. salt to taste, and add the diced food. sprinkle the diced potato with a little salt, add the gravy mixture, and mix with a fork. put into an oiled baking pan, brush over the top with a little cream, and bake in a hot oven to a nice brown. _jellied egg._--put one pint of water into a small, narrow saucepan, and bring to a boil. drop in one egg with a spoon, and set the saucepan immediately on the table for from seven to eight minutes; then serve. if more eggs are added, the amount of water must be increased proportionately. _corn dodgers._--one cup corn meal (preferably toasted lightly in the oven), one and one half tablespoonfuls vegetable fat, one half teaspoonful salt, one tablespoonful brown sugar, one and one half cups boiling water. mix all the dry ingredients, add the fat and pour on the boiling water and stir smooth. a few more tablespoonfuls water may be added if needed to make a batter of such a consistency as to drop from a spoon, but not run. drop from the side of a spoon, onto an oiled baking pan, and bake in a quick oven. _corn cake._--use the above recipe, and spread in an oiled baking pan one fourth inch deep, and bake in a hot oven. _new england dinner._--six medium small potatoes, four small carrots, four small turnips, six small onions, one half small cabbage, one and one half tablespoonfuls vegetable butter, and salt to taste. quarter the peeled turnips and carrots. add the onions whole, and put into a saucepan with water enough to cover the vegetables, and salt, and bring to a boil. separate the cabbage leaves, and drop them into another vessel of boiling water, to blanch them for five minutes; then drain, and add to the boiling vegetables. add the potatoes, and let boil gently until nearly done; then add the vegetable butter, and let simmer until thoroughly done. _cream rice pudding._--one half cup uncooked white rice, five cupfuls milk, scant one third cup sugar, vanilla flavor. wash the rice thoroughly, add the milk, and cook in a double boiler for three fourths of an hour. add the sugar and the vanilla flavor, and pour into an oiled baking pan and bake in a moderate oven. as soon as the first crust forms, stir it down, at the same time stirring the rice. then allow the last crust to form and brown, and remove from the oven. _milk toast._--put a piece of zwieback into a bowl, pour scalding hot milk over it, and serve. _raisin sandwich._--chop one half cup seeded raisins fine, and add one fourth cup ground walnuts. add one and one half tablespoonfuls mayonnaise dressing and one teaspoonful lemon juice, and mix well. spread between slices of thinly buttered bread, cut in triangles, and serve. _rye wafers._--one cup rye flour, one cup pastry flour, two and one half tablespoonfuls vegetable fat, two tablespoonfuls brown sugar, one half teaspoonful salt, one half cup water, or barely enough to mix to a stiff dough. mix all the dry ingredients, add the oil, and rub the flour between the hands to distribute the oil evenly. add the water very slowly, stirring meantime to avoid getting any part of the flour wet and sticky. work on the board until mixed, then roll out to one fourth inch thickness, cut with a biscuit cutter, prick with a fork, and bake in a hot oven to a light brown. _rye sticks._--take the above dough, roll out one half inch thick, cut into long strips about one third inch wide, then crosswise into three-inch lengths. lay in a baking pan, leaving a little space between, and bake to a light brown color. wednesday _breakfast_ stewed cherries steamed wheat plain omelet cream corn meal puffs butter _dinner_ vegetable julienne soup string beans macaroni family style butter raised corn bread watermelon _luncheon_ wheat gruel stewed prunes rye sticks zwieback grapes milk _steamed wheat._--pick over one cup of wheat, and wash in several waters. let soak overnight; then drain, add four cups boiling water, and let boil slowly until the water is evaporated and the wheat looks dry. cover, and let stand on the edge of the stove to steam for forty minutes. this grain is best cooked on a hot stone in fireless overnight. _plain omelet._--one egg, one tablespoonful milk, a pinch of salt. beat the yolk until thick, add the milk, and mix well. add a pinch of salt to the white, and beat stiff. fold the yolk into the white, and pour the mixture into a hot oiled fry pan, and set into the oven until just barely _set_. while still in the pan, turn one half of the omelet over the other half, by slipping a knife under one side and turning it over on the other section. invert on a hot platter, and serve. _corn meal puffs._--one cup pastry flour, one third cup corn meal, one half teaspoonful salt, two teaspoonfuls vegetable butter, one scant cup milk, one egg separated. make a batter of the milk, the flour, the corn meal, the salt, the melted fat, and the egg yolk, and stir smooth. beat the white stiff, and fold the batter into it. pour into hot oiled iron gem pans, and bake in a quick oven. _vegetable julienne soup._--one medium small potato, one small carrot, one small turnip, one stalk celery, one half cup cauliflowerlets or string beans, peas, or any fresh green vegetable, one small tomato, one teaspoonful vegetable butter, two cups cold water, two cups vegetable broth, salt to taste. cut all the coarse vegetables into very thin shreds, and put into a small pan with the vegetable butter and one fourth cup water, and let simmer until the moisture is absorbed; then add the rest of the water, and boil up. add the cut potato and tomato and the vegetable broth. salt to taste, and let cook until the vegetables are thoroughly done. add a sprinkle of chopped parsley, and serve. _macaroni family style._--one cup macaroni raw, one cup tomato pulp, one tablespoonful vegetable butter, one tablespoonful chopped onion, a sprinkle of sage or thyme, one egg, and salt to taste. break the macaroni into inch lengths, drop into salted boiling water, and let cook until thoroughly done; then drain in a colander. put the butter, the onion, and the savory into a small pan, and simmer for a few moments, but do not brown. add the tomato, bring to a boil, and salt to taste. pour the hot sauce into the egg, stirring as it is being poured in. add the cooked macaroni, pour all into an oiled baking pan, and bake to a light brown. _string beans._--select young and tender beans, string them, and break them into short lengths. wash, and lift them out of the water; put into a saucepan with enough boiling water to cover the beans. add salt, and let cook gently, having the cover drawn to one side of the saucepan. when done, add a little vegetable butter and serve. when the beans are aged, they should be lifted out of the water and put into a covered vessel containing a little hot vegetable oil, and stirred over the fire for ten minutes before the water is added to them; and when cooked, they will be very tender. _raised corn bread._--in order to incorporate in corn bread enough moisture so that it will not dry out after baking, a certain proportion of the liquid used may be poured over the meal boiling hot; thus the needed moisture is absorbed before making into bread, as follows: three cups water, one half cake compressed yeast, four cups best bread flour, two cups corn meal, one tablespoon salt, three tablespoons sugar, two tablespoons vegetable fat. sift the flour into a large bowl, and leave space at one side of the flour for the sponge. dissolve the yeast in two teaspoons water, add one cup warm water, and pour on one side of the flour. stir enough flour into this liquid to make a thin, smooth batter. cover, and set in a warm room until light (about one and one half hours). put the corn meal into a small bowl, and pour on gradually, in a slow stream, two cups boiling water, stirring as it is poured in, and let stand one half hour. when the sponge is sufficiently light, add the salt, the sugar, and the vegetable fat, and mix well. add the scalded and warm corn meal, and mix all into a soft dough. turn out on a floured board, and knead until elastic to the touch. then return to an oiled bowl, cover, let rise, and finish the same as for entire wheat bread. _wheat gruel._--take the steamed wheat left over from breakfast, add water to cover, and let cook gently until well done. mash through a strainer, season with salt and a little cream or canned milk, and serve. _rye sticks._--the recipe for rye sticks is given following the recipe for rye wafers in tuesday's lesson. thursday _breakfast_ butter baked garbanzos with apple sauce cream grano cereal with dates entire wheat bread _dinner_ sliced tomato navy bean soup army style stewed carrots noodles au gratin rye bread butter steamed raisins _luncheon_ nut and jelly sandwiches banana rice buckwheat sticks rhubarb sauce _grano cereal._--two cups pastry flour, one third cup rolled oats, one fourth cup corn meal, one fourth teaspoonful salt, large one half cup water. mix all the dry ingredients, and add the water slowly, stirring constantly to a very stiff dough. knead a few moments, then roll out one fourth inch thick. cut into strips about three inches wide, prick with a fork, lay in a baking pan, and bake in a medium oven until a very light brown and fairly crisp. when cool, grind through a food chopper, using a coarse knife. serve with milk or cream. _grano with dates._--two cups water, one cup grano cereal, one half cup washed and pitted dates, a pinch of salt. bring the water to a boil, and sprinkle in the grano. stir until thick, then add the dates, and serve with cream. _baked garbanzos (chick peas)._--wash one cup garbanzos, and soak overnight. drain, add two cups boiling water, and let boil gently until thoroughly done, or cook in fireless overnight. return to the fire, add salt to taste, and let cook gently until the liquid is reduced; then put into the oven in a covered dish, and bake until they begin to brown slightly on the bottom. _navy bean soup army style._--one cup navy beans, seven cups water, two thirds cup diced carrot, one third cup diced onion, one tablespoonful vegetable butter, salt to taste. wash the beans, and cook very slowly until tender, adding the salt when they are about half done. put the butter, the diced carrot, and the onion into a small pan with three tablespoonfuls water, and stir over the fire until the water is absorbed; then add to the bean soup, and let boil gently for thirty minutes or more. add a sprinkle of chopped parsley, and serve. _stewed carrots._--two cups sliced young carrots, one and one half cups hot water, two teaspoonfuls vegetable butter, one teaspoon flour, salt. wash and scrape young carrots, and slice quite thin. add the hot water, and salt to taste, and let cook gently until the liquid is reduced to one half cup. rub the flour and the butter smooth in a small pan. add one third of the liquid, and stir smooth. add the balance of the liquid, and boil up. add the carrots, reheat, and serve. a little rich cream or canned milk may be added if desired. _noodles au gratin._--roll out and cut noodles the same as given in recipe for sunday dinner. sprinkle into boiling salted water, and cook the same as macaroni, or about fifteen minutes. drain well, saving the liquid for gravies or sauces. make a cream sauce by rubbing together in a saucepan two tablespoonfuls vegetable butter and two tablespoonfuls flour; then add one third cup hot milk, and stir smooth. add two thirds cup more milk, boil up, and salt to taste. add enough of the cream sauce to the noodles to flavor them and not have them too soft. pour into an oiled baking pan, and grate fresh bread crumbs over the top, pressing them down with a spoon to moisten them. sprinkle with cream or bits of butter, and bake to a nice brown. _steamed raisins._--dip cluster raisins into water, drain, and lay between two pie tins; put into the oven until hot through; then serve. _banana rice._--take the recipe for creamed rice as given in the lesson for sunday evening luncheon. slice one large banana, sprinkle with a little sugar, mix lightly into the hot creamed rice, and serve. _nut and jelly sandwiches._--add finely chopped or ground walnuts to jelly in the proportion to spread nicely on bread. cut bread into very thin slices. spread one slice with butter, and the opposite slice with the nut mixture. fold together, cut in triangles, and serve. _buckwheat sticks._--one cup pastry flour, one cup buckwheat flour, one half teaspoonful salt, two and one half tablespoonfuls vegetable fat, two tablespoonfuls brown sugar, scant one half cup water, or barely enough to mix the flour to a stiff dough. mix all the dry ingredients, add the fat, and rub between hands to distribute the oil evenly. add the water very slowly, stirring meantime; and as soon as the flour can be worked together by sufficient moisture, lay on the board, and work for a few moments; then roll out to one third inch thickness. cut into strips one third inch in width, then crosswise into sticks three inches long. lay in a baking pan, leaving a little space between, and bake to a very light brown. _buckwheat wafers._--take the above dough, roll out one fourth inch thick, cut with a biscuit cutter, prick with a fork, and bake the same as sticks. friday _breakfast_ poached egg corn meal with raisins cantaloupe cream baked potato rye bread butter _dinner_ cucumbers cream of tomato soup stewed corn vegetable loaf country gravy butter entire wheat bread _luncheon_ fruit soup corn flakes cream buckwheat wafers watermelon apples zwieback _corn meal with raisins._--wash one half cup raisins, and put them between two pie tins in the oven until hot through. put one cup corn meal into a baking pan, and toast lightly in the oven; then sprinkle it gradually into three and one half cupfuls of boiling water, with one fourth teaspoonful salt, and let cook gently for ten minutes. add the raisins, let cook for twenty minutes more, and serve. _poached egg._--bring water to a boil in a saucepan, break the egg into a separate dish, and drop carefully into the boiling water. set immediately to one side of the stove until the egg is firm enough to remove, and the white will be tender and jellylike. _cream of tomato soup._--two cupfuls strained tomato, one cupful water, two teaspoonfuls vegetable butter, one tablespoonful light brown flour, one cupful canned milk or rich cream, salt to taste. bring the water, the tomato, and the butter to a boil. thicken with the flour made smooth with a little cold water. salt to taste, add canned milk (unheated), strain, and serve. if cream is used, omit the butter. _vegetable loaf._--one and one half cups soaked stale bread, three fourths cup cooked and left-over food (brown beans preferred), one and one half tablespoonfuls vegetable butter, two teaspoonfuls chopped onion, a sprinkle of sage and marjoram, one tablespoonful brown flour, one third cup milk, one egg, and salt to taste. soak the bread in cold water until soft all the way through; then press out lightly. put the butter, the onion, and the savory into a small pan, and simmer for a few moments. add the brown flour, then the milk, and stir until smooth. mash the beans with a spoon, beat the egg slightly, and mix all the ingredients. bake in an oiled baking pan until set, and brown on the top. loosen with a knife along the edge, turn out on a platter, and serve. _country gravy._--cook down a little sour cream in a pan until the oil separates and the albumen turns a very light brown color; then add enough flour (previously browned in the oven) to take up the fat from the cream. add a little hot milk, and stir smooth. add more milk, and bring to a boil and the thickness of medium thin gravy. _stewed corn._--take cooked corn cut off the cob, add a little hot water, and bring to a boil. season with a little cream or vegetable butter, reheat, and serve. _fruit soup._--two cups blackberry or strawberry juice, four tablespoonfuls sago, two teaspoonfuls lemon juice, two cups water, sugar to taste. wash the sago, drain, add to two cups boiling water, and let cook until clear. add the fruit juices, and sweeten to taste. preferably served cold. _buckwheat wafers._--this recipe follows the recipe given for buckwheat sticks in thursday's lesson. saturday _breakfast_ cream hominy grapefruit stewed prunes soy toast butter rye bread _dinner_ lettuce whole rice with new peas cottage cheese summer squash raisin pie entire wheat bread _luncheon_ figs milk toast pear sauce cream rolls cereal coffee _cream hominy._--heat a little cream, or a little milk and a small seasoning of vegetable butter. add enough lye hominy to make the food creamy and not too milky. add a pinch of salt, and serve. _soy toast._--duplicate the recipe for cream peas on toast, as given in sunday's breakfast lesson, substituting thoroughly cooked and mashed soy beans for the peas, and serve. _whole rice with peas._--one half cup uncooked natural brown rice, one and one half cups boiling water, one and one half cups cooked new peas, one tablespoonful vegetable butter, two teaspoonfuls flour, salt. wash the rice thoroughly, put to cook in one and one half cups boiling water, and let boil steadily until the water is evaporated and the rice looks dry; then cover, and let stand on the edge of the stove to steam for fifteen minutes. add enough hot water to the peas to cover them, salt to season, and let cook gently until the liquid is reduced to one half cupful, and the peas are tender. rub the flour and the butter together in a saucepan. add a little of the liquid from the peas, and stir smooth. add the balance of the liquid, and boil up. add the peas to the rice, pour on the thin sauce, and mix with a fork. put into a covered dish, and set into the oven until hot through. _summer squash._--wash the squash, peel very thinly, remove the seeds if they are large, and steam the squash until tender. mash, season with a little cream or vegetable butter, and serve. _raisin pie._--one and one half cupfuls seedless sultana raisins, two cupfuls water, one tablespoonful lemon juice, one scant tablespoonful cornstarch, one third cup sugar, one teaspoonful vegetable butter. wash the raisins thoroughly, and soak overnight. bring to a boil with the two cupfuls water; then add the sugar mixed with the starch, a pinch of salt, and let boil for about ten minutes, or until the liquid is reduced suitably for one pie. let cool. _pie crust._--one and one fourth cups pastry flour, four tablespoonfuls solid vegetable fat, one eighth teaspoonful salt, about three tablespoonfuls water. add the salt and the shortening to the flour, and mix with the finger tips. add the water very slowly, mixing with a fork, as it runs in, to a soft, light dough. line the bottom of a pie tin with crust, being careful to press the crust well down into the tin; then pour on the stewed raisins. add the lemon juice and the vegetable butter; then cover with a perforated top crust, having the edges wet, so as to stick the crusts together. brush over the top with milk, and bake in a quick oven. _cream rolls._--one and one third cups pastry flour, two thirds cup whole wheat flour, one half teaspoonful salt, one teaspoonful sugar, one third cup double cream, one fourth cup cold water. mix the water and the cream thoroughly. put all the dry ingredients into a bowl, and pour on the wetting in a very slow stream, stirring constantly, so as to get the moisture evenly blended through the flour. work into a dough, roll out to about one half inch thickness, and cut into long strips about one third inch in width. roll each piece on the board, and cut into three-inch lengths. lay in a baking pan, leaving a little space between, and bake in a medium oven, to a light brown. [illustration] _the_ use _of_ left-overs _by dr. lavina baxter-herzer_ department of pathology and bacteriology, college of medical evangelists, loma linda, california at the present time, when the conservation of food is such a vital question, the use of left-overs becomes a very important matter for consideration. the following are a few simple suggestions that may prove helpful. first of all, we should plan, as far as possible, to avoid having much food left. one of the simplest means of accomplishing this is to serve fewer foods at a meal. variety may be had at different meals. by planning beforehand, we can serve such foods at one meal as will combine nicely when warmed the next day or the next meal. for example: in all large hotels, when navy bean soup is served army style, carrots are always served in some way. in order to make the broth sufficiently rich, more beans are cooked than are served as soup. the next day, these, with the carrots, are put through a soup strainer, properly seasoned, and served as puree a la crecy. again, when planning tomato rice soup, cook a little extra rice in the tomato broth. when serving the soup, use only what rice is necessary. the thick remainder is very good baked in some acceptable preparation the next day. a little grated onion or a chopped bell pepper may be used for seasoning, if desired. _a housewife's test_ after meals, the first thing that should claim the housewife's attention is the food that remains uneaten. just here is one of the tests of her ability to do her part in conserving her family food supply. it is quicker, perhaps, to scrape everything into the garbage pail; and it is said that at least twenty per cent of all foods brought into american kitchens is lost in this way. this loss either decreases the amount of food the family should have, or raises the cost of living that much. if food is to be kept over, it should be put into dishes of proper size, and put in a cool place, away from the flies and the dust. the sooner these left-overs are used, the better, as they naturally deteriorate by standing. in case of fresh fruit, it may be heated, if there is any doubt as to its keeping. apple peelings and cores make excellent jelly, as most of the pectin is found near the skin and the seeds. care should be taken to wash the apples well before paring, and remove any wormy parts. all butter scraps should be saved, and may be used for cooking. if the family is properly taught, however, there will be very little left on the plates. left-over bread may be used for toast, bread pudding, or pressed fruit pudding, if unbroken. the broken pieces and the crumbs may be dried and used for dressing, or broken or rolled and served with milk instead of fresh bread. buns, muffins, and gems may be moistened and reheated. a loaf of very stale bread may be freshened in the same way. left-over vegetables may be reheated, and used for salad, or for flavoring soups, if put through a soup strainer. salads do not keep well; and for that reason, care should be taken not to prepare more than is likely to be eaten. if a little is left, it may be used for a pick-up lunch, perhaps. small portions of dessert may be used in the same way. milk or cream that is left may be sterilized and put in a cool place. left-over grains may be used for making gruels, which are very good for lunch; or if only a small amount remains, it may be used for thickening soup. if there is a sufficient amount, steamed raisins or dates may be added, and then it may be put into molds to cool. this may be served with cream or some pudding sauce, making a simple dessert for either dinner or lunch. cream of wheat, rolled wheat, farina, and graham are especially nice served in this way. many housewives cook an extra amount of corn meal in order to have some left, as it is better warmed up than at the first. it is good mixed with croutons, rolled in corn flakes, browned, and served with jelly or maple sirup. to mix with rice or any nut food, season, form into patties, and serve with tomato sauce, is another method. when warming potatoes, if the supply is scant, many persons add a slice of stale bread broken up. the vegetable loaf given in mr. anderson's recipes may be varied, and any kind of beans or peas used to make it. served with a good gravy, it makes a substantial dish for dinner. by using a choux paste, left-over rice, macaroni, spaghetti, any kind of beans, peas, or lentils may be made into patties or croquettes. they may be served with gravy or jelly, and their original form scarcely be recognized when they appear on the table next time. to make the choux paste, take one and one half tablespoons of butter, dairy or vegetable, one tablespoon of chopped onion, and a pinch of sage. put in a small saucepan, and stir over the fire a few minutes, but do not brown. add three tablespoons of flour, and stir until it is thoroughly scalded. then add one third cup of milk, and stir until smooth. drop into this mixture the yolk of one egg, and stir until it is well cooked. it should be a thick, smooth paste when done. part of this may be used one day, and the rest saved for another time. as the housewife seeks to make use of all remnants of food, new possibilities will gradually open before her, and her efforts will become a real pleasure rather than a task. the call is, therefore, to you to do your part; and in the doing, you will bind yourself to the whole army of women who are serving their country. --_dr. anna howard shaw._ * * * * * transcriber's notes: obvious punctuation and spelling errors repaired. foods and culinary utensils of the ancients compiled from standard historical works by charles martyn. published by the caterer publishing co., new york contents. page. "in the beginning"--the coming of the nations assyria and the other kingdoms of the "tawny men" egypt and the egyptians the "vegetable kingdom" of ancient egypt greece before the age of luxury rome in the days of her greatest prosperity the ancient jews the chinese in the beginning. the influence exerted by different foods over the physical and mental faculties of mankind is so marked as to verify the famous pun of the philosophic feuerbach, "der mensch ist was er isst" (man is what he eats). the advance of civilization has always been accompanied by an increased knowledge of culinary matters, until cooking has become a science and its various forms great in number. so in tracing back the history of foods, culinary utensils and their uses, we of necessity trace back the history of the world. it is of course impossible at this late date to determine what was the first food of primeval man; ignorant as we are of even the approximate date of his first appearance and of the manner and means of that appearance. but it is worthy of note that if he had not been endowed with an intelligence superior to that of the other inhabitants of the globe, his existence here would have been very brief. nature provided him with a body which, in those days, was well nigh useless. his prehensile organs, his teeth, jaws, feet and nails, did not fit him for overcoming any of the difficulties entailed by the adoption of most foods prepared by nature. he could not tear his prey conveniently nor crack many nuts, nor grub roots, nor graze. his digestive viscera were in the middle age too bulky and heavy for the rapid movements of the carnivora; they were not long enough to extract nourishment from raw vegetables. the only foods, therefore, primarily obtainable by him which he could use to advantage were fruits and soft-shelled nuts. as man, however, advanced in knowledge, his skill in the art of cooking rendered any or all objects used for nourishment by other mammalia fit subjects of diet for himself. this may appear a sweeping assertion, but the statements of reliable travelers prove its truth. the fact should be carefully considered by those who advocate a diet exclusively of vegetables, and by those few enthusiasts who preach that man was not "intended" to be a cooking animal. whatever else may be clouded with doubt, it is certain that man was so fashioned as to be compelled to eat in order to sustain life! in the beginning, instinct must have taught him that the consumption of food was the _sine qua non_ of his existence. when was the beginning? the biblical chronology of events prior to the deluge is not accepted by scientists. the students of to-day believe, and seek to prove, that the earth has existed for several million years, and has passed through many different stages; that animal life was first evolved from the "inanimate" state of matter; that man is the most highly finished creature that has as yet been attained in the ascending scale of evolution, and that he will, in the natural course of events, make place for a still more nearly perfect being. the exact date of the first appearance of man cannot now be ascertained. geological research has led to the assertion that he probably existed thousands of years before the time usually assigned. but if we commence our history from the last great glacial visitation we find that the conceded date of its occurrence, about , years before the birth of christ, coincides rather closely with the date of the creation as given in the book of genesis. assuming then that the neolithic, or stone age followed not only the ice visitation, but the creation (to use a familiar phrase), the theory of many scientists and the story of the bible agree on the one, to us, essential point--the birth of the first people. horace, in his third satire (first book), gives his views of the first food of the human race. (at that time, six hundred years before the christian era, it was held that man was not created in a perfectly developed form, but was engendered from beings of a different kind.) he says: "when first these creatures crawled out of the ground, dumb and foul brutes, they fought for nuts, first with nails and fists, then with sticks, and later with weapons made of metal." this coincides with the deduction made in the third paragraph, that nuts have a just claim to the title of one of the "first foods." these savages must have suffered from exposure to the occasional inclemency of the weather. to protect themselves, they, being endowed with an ever-increasing power of reason, resorted to the skins of wild animals for covering. failing to obtain a sufficient number from the carcasses of those which had died a natural death, they conceived the idea of destroying life in order to obtain the coveted article. they may not at first have availed themselves of anything but the outer covering, leaving the flesh to be eaten by other animals or birds, but the flesh adhering to the hide would soon become offensive from decomposition, and what is more probable than that their common sense soon directed them to remove it directly after being stripped from the slaughtered animal? the teeth of the primitive man were constantly in use for many purposes; so, in tearing off the pieces of flesh with them, may the first appetite for meat as food have been acquired. it is difficult to determine when food was first subjected to the influence of heat; it is still more useless to attempt to explain how the properties of fire were first discovered. it is presumed that the first fire witnessed by man, was caused by the fall of a meteorite, a volcanic eruption or a lightning flash. the observation of its peculiar effects excited the still dormant inventive spirit of the neolithic, and he essayed the production of it himself. evidence proves that he first attained his end by striking pieces of flint against iron pyrites and letting the sparks fall upon some combustible material, placed accidentally or intentionally beneath. it is easy to imagine that it was soon learned that fire would destroy human life and that the pleasing odor of the burning flesh led to the use of cooked meat as food. the cradle of the fathers of the human race was undoubtedly the southern portion of asia. they were nomadic in their habits and satisfied their acquired cravings by hunting and fishing. the stone floors of the caves in which they made their temporary abodes were admirably suited to the building of their rude fires. ultimately these neolithics became owners of flocks and herds, usually of sheep and goats, and moved about from place to place in search of fresh pastures. members of these flocks were slain from time to time as convenience dictated. when for any reason food was scarce, their other domestic animals, even their dogs, fell a prey to the insatiable appetite for blood. the forests abounded with living things, now generally classified under the title of "game," and these also contributed materially to the food supply. no fancy methods of preparing meats or game were then practiced. everything was either roasted or cooked by means of hot stones. the roasting was in all probability accomplished by suspending the whole carcass of the animal, denuded of the skin, over burning embers, composed of the limbs of trees broken up into suitable lengths--as indeed do the gypsies of europe to the present day. the roasted meat was at first separated from the body by the hand, later by sharpened sticks or flint flakes, subsequently by flint knives. there is no evidence of any metal being used for that purpose before the deluge. though these first people are known to have partaken freely of the flesh of animals and of the fruits of trees, both of the nut and pulp varieties, there is nothing that leads one to believe that fish was used as an article of food until after the deluge. turning again to the scriptures, many interesting things may be noted. the first mention made of a flesh offering and of the ownership of domestic animals is in genesis, when abel "gave of the firstlings of his flocks and of the fat thereof," while cain brought "of the fruits of the ground." the earliest mention of cooked animal flesh is found in genesis : , when noah offered up "burnt offerings of every clean beast and every clean fowl" after the deluge. in the story of the creation, man is enjoined to sustain life by vegetable food: "every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed" were given to him "for meat." nothing was said about the flesh of animals. but, after the flood, "god blessed noah and his sons and said unto them: * * * every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, even as the green herbs have i given you all things." so in many ways scientists and the bible agree on the habits of the neolithics. both state that the primitive food of man consisted of nuts and fruits; both mention the subsequent possession of flocks and herds, and both refer to the knowledge obtained later of the effects of fire on meat--with the one difference that the evolutionists seek to prove that the meat so roasted was eaten, while the biblical man prior to the deluge offered it untouched to his maker. although it is now generally acknowledged that the deluge was not universal, it is undeniable that it marked an all-important epoch, for from it may be said to date the recorded history of the present race of men. from the posterity of noah sprang up the principal nations which have made the world what it is to-day. the coming of the nations. if we accept the biblical chronology of the events which immediately followed the deluge, we find that noah and his three sons, shem, ham and japheth, landed on mt. ararat and fixed their habitations in the plains directly below. a formal division of the earth into three portions was made by noah about a hundred years later, when he was still in the prime of life and when men were beginning to multiply sufficiently to form colonies and settlements. one portion was assigned to each of his sons with his posterity. the three territories may be roughly classed as the northern, or the region of the "ruddy men;" the central, the region of the "tawny men," and the southern, the region of the "blacks." to the offspring of japheth was allotted garbia (the north)--spain, france, the countries of the greeks, sclavonians, bulgarians and armenians. the offspring of shem were given the central region--palestine, syria, assyria, samaria, babel or babylonia, and hedjaz (arabia). the sons of ham received the southern division--teman (or idumea), africa, nigritia, egypt, nubia, ethiopia, scindia and india. various causes scattered the posterities of the three brothers, and nations were founded in many parts of the world. ultimately six great monarchies were established, chaldea, assyria, babylonia, egypt, media and persia. assyria and other kingdoms of the tawny men. the territories ruled by chaldea, assyria and babylonia were located almost entirely on the vast plains of mesopotamia. although (or rather because) these nations were continually at war with one another they may be considered, for present purposes, as one country. babylonia was the first to be settled, with nimrod, the mighty hunter, as its monarch, about b. c. although assyria advanced rather more in civilization than the other two, the constant warfare waged and the varying degrees of supremacy and subjection held by the three kingdoms necessarily resulted in much intermingling of their inhabitants and a consequent similarity of domestic manners and customs as they emerged from barbarism. agriculture soon became the most general industry. wheat, barley, millet and sesame were largely raised. other varieties of pulse and grains were plentiful also, as well as many excellent fruits, which have since been transported to our own countries with remarkable success. the different grains were ground to varying degrees of fineness between two stones. the flour or meal was then moistened with water, kneaded in a dish or bowl, and either rolled into thin cakes or pressed by the hand into small balls or loaves. the wheaten bread was generally preferred, but the poorer classes were perforce content with the cakes of coarse millet or durrha flour, eaten with milk, butter, oil or the fat of animals. dates formed an important article of diet amongst the people of chaldea and babylonia, although they do not appear to have been very favorably regarded by the assyrians. date groves flourished in many parts of the land, and the fruit was dried and pressed into cakes. these with goats' milk and such vegetables as gourds, melons and cucumbers helped nourish the great mass of the population. other fruits, some of them found in great numbers, were pomegranates, grapes, citrons, pineapples, oranges, pears, apples and many small berries. bread, wine and a kind of honey were made from the fruit of the palm tree. king sennacherib called assyria "a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil, olives and honey." nature seems indeed, to have blessed her first children with an abundance of the good things of life! it does not appear that the flesh of domestic animals was eaten to any great extent, and the inference is that it was beyond the means of most persons, for when warriors, upon an expedition, were able to obtain it at the expense of others, they freely indulged their appetites. after their victories they killed and cut up sheep and oxen, and roasted the joints over the embers of a wood fire. sometimes they boiled the joints or the whole body in a huge pot or caldron, over a dead wood fire--on which, also, pieces of the flesh were fried. amongst the upper classes mutton appears to have been the favorite meat. chickens were also considered a great delicacy. as the races of those days, with the exception probably of a few people closely confined in the cities, were great hunters, a plentiful supply of game was usually obtainable--venison, antelopes' flesh, hares, partridges, etc. the flesh of the wild boar was also eaten, but there is no evidence to prove that the animal was domesticated with the intention of using it for food. according to herodotus, some of the babylonian tribes ate nothing but fish, dried in the sun, pounded in a mortar until the fibres would pass through a fine cloth, and then kneaded into a sort of bread and baked. at first a prejudice against this species of food seems to have existed, but later it was held in much esteem. the supply of both fresh and salt water fish was practically unlimited. locusts were also eaten with great gusto. the culinary arrangements and operations are not yet very clearly defined by the chroniclers. the fireplace, built presumably of well-burned bricks, was open at the top, about two feet in height, and occasionally covering an area of many square feet. whether it was of square or cylindrical shape does not appear. over the top was set or suspended a large bronze caldron. these caldrons were sometimes of great value. they were usually circular in shape, flat or nearly flat at the bottom, without feet, and furnished at the rim with ears or rings to receive an arched handle or a hooked chain. many belonging to the wealthier classes were embossed with flowers and otherwise richly ornamented. they were commonly known as "seething pots." they varied from eighteen inches to five feet in height, and from two and a half to six feet in diameter. roasting was perhaps the most common mode of preparing meat, but it was also broiled, slices being cut from the divided joints and transfixed with wooden spits. for delicate operations, a fire of coal was later on made in a portable brazier. the oven then used was cylindrical in form, much deeper than wide, and made of fire-burnt bricks or indurated clay. in the houses of the wealthy, and the palaces of the monarchs, the cooks, though usually slaves, were treated with much respect. they were distinguished by the wearing of a cap (not unlike the tiara of the reigning sovereign, except that it was devoid of jewels and unsurmounted by an apex or peak), and they had numerous assistants to relieve them from all the menial labor. the cook's knife, closely resembling the modern two-bladed dagger, was usually made of bronze, often thickly gilded, with a much ornamented hilt carved from the hard black wood of the syrian terebinth. some, however, were fashioned from bone, partly covered with metal and adorned with pins and studs of gold. others had handles of ivory carved to represent the foreparts of bulls and other animals, and many were embellished with precious stones. quite a number were of copper, with hollow handles. among the kitchen utensils was a jug with a long neck, an angular handle, and a pointed bottom. it was usually suspended from a nail or hook. there was also a plentiful and varied supply of vases, large and small, pitchers for holding water and other liquids, bowls, cups, pans, small bottles, ladles, jars and funnels--some of pottery and others of bronze, some of simple form and others elaborately patterned. the funnels were generally shaped like the wine strainers of to-day. skins were often used for holding both wine and water. the dining tables were supported by props with one or several feet, in the houses of the rich made often of ivory and carved in the form of a lion or a hero such as atlas, and among the poor of stone. the plates and dishes were of stone, alabaster or bronze. the dishes were generally made with handles, either fixed or movable, by which they could be carried or hung on pegs when not in use, and the red unglazed basins bore inscriptions, in cursive character, running round the interior in many lines to the bottom. the cups, especially those used for wine, were very beautiful. the lower part was often modeled in the form of a lion's head from which the cup itself rose in a graceful outward curve. many of them were of gold and silver. to assyria is due the birth of the "culinary art" and its gradual growth to a state closely bordering on perfection. it will be noted that it was marked also by the manufacture of utensils and vessels far more costly and elaborate than any in use at the present time. egypt and the egyptians. the recorded history of ancient egypt which was, according to herodotus, known as thebes, commences with the reign of menes, or menas, who is supposed to have been its first king. he ascended the throne about b. c. the growth of civilization among the early egyptians was much more rapid than among the people of any contemporary nation. even in the days of abraham and joseph they had attained to as high a degree of social culture as during the most glorious periods of their career. in art and science their advancement was especially marked. in her infancy, egypt contented herself with the pursuits of agriculture, the chase, and, as the habits of the people became more settled, the rearing of cattle. the domestic oxen were usually of the hump-backed variety. but not only were the ordinary domestic animals tamed and reared, but also animals such as gazelles and oryxes. sheep, though, do not appear to have been generally eaten; in some parts it was, indeed, unlawful to devour them. goats were kept, presumably for their milk, and kids were occasionally allowed to browse on the vines in order to impart to their flesh a more delicate flavor. pigs were generally looked upon as unclean, and therefore unfit for food. the chroniclers show them as used for food at only one festival. those represented on the monuments were ugly in the extreme, with long legs and necks, rough hair, and a crest of bristles running down the back. beef and goose were more generally eaten than any other kind of animal food. the flesh of the cow was, though, never consumed on account of its supposedly sacred character. the animals chiefly hunted were the gazelle, wild goat, auk, wild ox, stag, wild sheep, hare, porcupine and even the hyena. the wild boar is not represented on the monuments, but it probably thrived in ancient egypt, for the country was admirably suited to its habits, as is proved by its tenancy there at the present date. in lower egypt, people were in the habit of drying and salting birds of various kinds, such as geese, teal, quail, duck, and some of smaller size. pigeons were also very plentiful and were much liked, and many of the wading tribe, as for instance the ardea, were so highly esteemed as to have been considered choice offerings for the gods. the greatest favorite, however, was the vulpanser, known to us as the "egyptian goose," which, with some others of the same genus, was caught alive and tamed. they were also taken in a wild state to the poulterers' shops to be displayed for immediate sale, and when not so disposed of were then often salted and potted in earthenware jars. according to diodorus, the eggs of domestic birds were hatched by the use of artificial heat furnished by manure. of the wild birds, the "sic sac," a small plover, was often mentioned. the river of egypt was noted for the excellent quality of its fish (eaten both fresh and salted or dried), many varieties of which seem to have been peculiar to it. "the israelites remembered with regret the fish which they did eat in egypt freely." the kinds most highly regarded were the oxyrhynchus, lepidotus and lotus. the oxyrhynchus is now believed to have been the _mormyrus_ or the "mizdeh" of the arabs. it has a smooth skin and a long nose, pointed downwards. in some districts it was held sacred to athor. the lepidotus may have been the _salmo dentex_ or the binny (_cyprinis lepidotus_). as its name implies, its body was covered with long scales. its flesh was excellent. the lotus, sacred in the region of latopolis, is supposed by de pauw to be the _perca nilotica_. other varieties much liked were: the oulti, to modern palates the best of all; the nefareh or nile salmon, which occasionally attained the weight of one hundred pounds; the sagbosa, a kind of herring; a species of mullet, the shall, shilbeh byad, kilbel bahr, (the nile dogfish) a species of carp, eels, and turtles of the soft-shelled variety. [illustration: roasting a goose over a fire of peculiar construction. (from a tomb at thebes.)] eels were, though, considered unwholesome in summer (ibid.). crocodiles were considered sacred in the neighborhood of lake moeris and of thebes, but were eaten by the natives of the southern frontier. the many restrictions imposed by religion and custom on the diet of the early egyptians subjected them to much ridicule from the inhabitants of contemporary nations, especially from the greeks. anaxandrides taunted them in his verses. the priests lived solely on oxen, geese, wine, bread and a few vegetables. mutton, pork and fish were expressly forbidden them. they were also warned to abstain from beans, peas, lentils, onions, garlic and leeks. on fast days they ate only bread and drank only water. the people of the higher classes probably ate only two meals a day, as was the custom with the early greeks and romans. the breakfast was usually served at or a. m., and the dinner or supper in the evening. in the early ages, before men had acquired the art of smelting ore, many of the culinary utensils of the egyptians were either of stone or earthenware. knives were made of flint or stone, and were of two kinds, one broad and flat, the other narrow and pointed. the skins of the goat and gazelle were fashioned into vessels for the carrying of water, and pans, dishes and vases for kitchen purposes were made of a red ware--sometimes of a light or yellow tint, sometimes of a brilliant and polished appearance. the egyptians were acquainted with the use of glass at least as early as the reign of sesortasen ii. (more than years ago), and made for it bottles and other utensils. some of the former were made from two thicknesses of glass, enclosing between them bands of gold, alternating with a set of blue, green or other color. as the egyptians advanced in social culture, the wealthier classes gave more and more attention to the pleasures of the table. banquets became more general and increasingly more elaborate. the sums of money spent on some of these entertainments were fabulous; they have never since been equalled in their costly, wasteful magnificence. the preparation of a big dinner was in those days a weighty undertaking, for there were no big hotels to take the burden off the host's shoulders. game had to be procured, professionals engaged, extra attendants hired, etc. as all the meat used was freshly slaughtered, the kitchen and the butcher's department presented an active appearance for many hours previous to the feast. in slaughtering, it was customary to take the ox or other animal into a courtyard near the house, tie its legs together and throw it to the ground, to be held in that position by one or more persons while the butcher prepared to cut its throat, as nearly as possible from one ear to the other, sometimes continuing the opening downwards along the neck, the blood being received in a vase or basin to be utilized later in cooking. the head was then taken off and the animal skinned, the operators beginning with the leg and neck. the first joint removed was the right foreleg or shoulder, the other parts following in succession according to convenience. one of their most remarkable joints, still seen in egypt (although nowhere else) was cut from the leg and consisted of the flesh covering the tibia, whose two extremities projected slightly beyond it, as seen in the illustration. [illustration: the tibia, a peculiar egyptian joint.] servants carried the joints to the kitchen on wooden trays. there they were washed and prepared for the different processes of cooking. then the various cooks were kept busy scouring the utensils, attending to the boiling, roasting, etc., pounding spice, making macaroni and performing all the other details of kitchen work. the head of the animal was usually given away in return for extra services, such as the holding of the guests' sticks, but it was occasionally eaten by the people of the higher classes, the assertion of herodotus to the contrary notwithstanding. geese and other tame and wild fowl were served up entire, and fish also came to table deprived of only the tails and fins. vegetables were cooked in enormous quantities. bronze caldrons of various sizes were used for boiling. they were placed over the fire on metal stands or tripods or supported on stones. some of the smaller vessels, used for stewing meats, were heated over pans of charcoal. they resembled almost exactly the _magoor_ of modern egypt. the mortars used for the pounding of spices were made of hard stone and the pestles of metal. most of the bowls, ewers, jugs, buckets, basins, vases and ladles used in the kitchen were made of bronze alloyed with tin and iron. the usual proportion of tin was per cent. and iron per cent., although occasionally the amount of tin was as high as (ibid.) and as low as per cent. [illustration: slaves boiling meat and stirring fire.] simpula, or ladles, were commonly made of bronze (often gilded), with the curved summit of the handle, which served to suspend the ladle at the side of the tureen or other vessel, terminating in the likeness of a goose's head (a favorite egyptian ornament). small strainers or collanders of bronze were also used, though for kitchen purposes they were made of strong papyrus stalks or rushes. the spoons were of various forms and made from ivory, wood and divers metals. in some the handle ended in a hook, by which when required they were suspended on nails. the handles of others were made to represent men, women or animals. many were ornamented with lotus flowers. skins were also used for holding wine and water. the roasting was performed over fire burning in shallow pans. these were regulated by slaves, who raised them with pokers and blew them with bellows worked by the feet. though the egyptians, except when impelled by the desire for extravagant display, partook sparingly of all but one or two meats, they were fond of a great variety of cakes and dainty confections. the more elaborate forms of pastry were mixed with fruits and spirits, and shaped to represent animals, birds and human beings. the plainer rolls were generally mixed and shaped by hand and sprinkled with seeds before baking. at other times, though, they were prepared from a thinner mixture, first well kneaded in a large wooden bowl (the feet often being used for this purpose), and then carried in vases to the chief pastry cook, who formed it into a sort of macaroni upon a metal pan over the fire, stirring the mixture with a wooden spatula, whilst an assistant stood ready with two pointed sticks to remove it when sufficiently cooked. wine and water were placed in porous jars and fanned until cool. the water was purified by the use of paste of almonds (as it is, indeed, at the present day). in the meantime, the reception room had been arranged for the guests. chairs or stools were placed in rows or groups, extra carpets and mats strewn about, flowers put in and around vases and the house decorated in every other conceivable manner. when guests began to arrive, they were first received in the vestibule by the attendants, who presented them with bouquets, placed garlands of lotus upon their heads and sometimes collars of lotus around their necks. to those who had come from a distance, they offered water and rinsed their feet. they then anointed their heads with sweet-smelling unguents and offered them wine and other beverages. during these proceedings the visitors were generally seated on the mats. [illustration: a black and white slave waiting upon a lady.] after having received these attentions, the ladies and gentlemen intermingled and passed on to the main apartment, where the host and hostess received them and begged them to take their seats on the chairs and fauteuils which had been arranged for them. here more refreshments were handed around and more flowers offered, while the guests, generally in couples, but sometimes in groups, conversed with one another. music was next commonly introduced, sometimes accompanied by dancing. the performers in both acts were professionals and the dancing girls nearly if not quite naked. sometimes at the same party there would be two bands, which we may suppose played alternately. pet animals, such as dogs, gazelles and monkeys, were also often present (ibid.). on some occasions the music, dancing and light refreshments constituted the whole of the entertainment, but more generally the proceedings described formed only the prelude to the more important part to follow. the stone pictures show us round tables loaded with a great variety of delicacies, such as joints of meat, geese, duck and waterfowl of different kinds, cakes, pastry, fruits, etc., interspersed amongst the guests. these tables could be more accurately described as low stools supporting round trays. the stool or pillar was often in the shape of a man, usually a captive, who bore the slab on his head. the whole was made of stone or some hard wood. it was not often covered with linen, but was from time to time cleansed with a moist rag or cloth (homer). the dishes were probably handed round by the attendants and the guests helped themselves with their hands, as knives and forks were then unknown and the spoons that were manufactured do not seem to have been used for eating. the guests took as much as they could hold in their hands and, after eating, dipped them in water or wiped them in napkins which, it will be observed, the waiters carried. beer and wine were supplied to quench the thirst. as individual cups were not usually seen, the women were presented with the desired beverage in silver vases, and the men with it in hand goblets, which after being drained were returned to the attendant. women and men both imbibed freely and drunkenness was a universal and fashionable habit of both sexes. when the country was in the zenith of her power and magnificence, the drinking goblets were of gold, silver, glass, porcelain, alabaster and bronze. they varied also in form, some plain in appearance, others beautifully engraved and studded with precious stones. heads of animals often adorned the handles, the eyes frequently composed of various gems. many were without handles, while others were so shaped as to more properly come under the name of beakers and saucers. the beakers were frequently made of alabaster with a round base, which prevented their maintaining an upright position without additional support; and when empty they were turned downwards upon their rims. the saucers, which were of glazed pottery, were ornamented with lotus and fish carved or molded on their concave surface. many of the vases have never yet been surpassed in daintiness of ornamentation. the most remarkable were those fashioned from porcelain which was made of a fine sand or grit, loosely fused and covered with a thick silicious glaze of a blue, green, white, purple or yellow color. the blue tints obtained have never been equalled in modern times. herodotus tells us that, after the heavier part of a banquet, it was the custom to have a man carry round a coffin containing a wooden image in exact imitation of a corpse. showing this to each of the revelers, the bearer would say: "look upon this and then drink and enjoy yourself, for when dead you will be like unto this." a rather weird observance, which might be traced back to the death of osiris. if the phrases are correctly reported, we must suppose the figure, brought in after the eating was ended and when the drinking began, was for the purpose of stimulating the guests to still greater conviviality. but if that were the case when herodotus visited egypt it must have been originated with a very different intention. the egyptians were too much inclined to excesses in eating and drinking, both men and women (herodotus and plutarch), and the priests probably endeavored to thus check their too riotous mirth without personally interfering. plutarch said concerning it: "the skeleton which the egyptians appropriately introduce at their banquets, exhorting the guests to remember that they shall soon be like him, though he comes as an unwelcome and unseasonable boon companion, is nevertheless in a certain degree seasonable, if he exhorts them not to drink too deeply or indulge only in pleasures, but to cultivate mutual friendship and affection and not to render life, which is short in duration, long by evil deeds." [illustration: egyptian party. (from a tomb at thebes.) host and hostess receiving presents. dancing girls. slaves waiting on guests. placing collars of lotus around their necks. slaves preparing bouquets. scribe. butchers cutting up ox. carrying trays of meat. man clapping hands and singing. guitar player. harpist. slave carrying head and haunch. stick custodian rewarded.] after the skeleton, there was sung a doleful song in honor of maneros, whose identity is clouded by traditional disputes. next, music and songs of more mirthful character were resumed. sometimes jugglers, male and female, were hired for the occasion. they amused their audience with ball tossing, turning somersaults, leaping and wrestling. occasionally, games, resembling our draughts or checkers, served to amuse those present (ibid.), but as a rule the fumes of wine prevented any such quiet occupation, and the festival in many cases ended with a most riotous carousal. the foregoing is probably a true picture of a banquet in ancient egypt--except that, according to some writers, the diners were seated on the floor and ate from very low stools or tables. yet, in spite of all, the moral code of the early egyptians was purer than that of contemporary nations. and commerce and war carried abroad the advanced thoughts, great learning and luxurious tastes of these ancient people, to be the foundations in after years of divers civilizations, amongst them our own. the "vegetable kingdom" of ancient egypt. the vegetable kingdom of ancient egypt may be roughly divided into four great classes--trees and shrubs, esculent plants, grains and artificial grasses. of the first named, the most important food providing trees were the doom and date palms, the sycamore, tamarisk and mokhayp or _myxa_. the doom palm (_cucifera thebaica_) grows abundantly throughout all upper egypt. it is a very picturesque tree which, unlike its date-bearing sister, spreads out into numerous limbs or branches, reaching an elevation of about thirty feet. its wood is more solid than that of the date tree, and was found to be very serviceable for the building of boats, etc. the blossoms are of two kinds, male and female. the fruit, which is developed from the female blossom, grows in large clusters, each fruit attaining the size of a goose's egg, although the nut within the fibrous external envelope is not much bigger than a large almond. the flavor of the nut is peculiarly sweet, resembling our ginger bread. it was eaten both in a ripe and unripe condition--in the latter it has about the texture of cartilage; in the former it is harder, and has been compared to the edible portion of the cocoanut. the date palm is too well known to need any general description. two kinds, however, flourished--the wild and the cultivated. the wild variety grew from seeds, and often bore an enormous quantity of fruit. sir g. wilkinson is authority for the statement that a single bunch has been known to contain between , and , dates, and as it is a common thing for a tree to bear from five to twenty-two bunches, the average total is often from , to , dates per tree. the fruit is, though, small and of poor quality, and consequently it is not often gathered. the cultivated variety was grown from off-shoots selected with care, planted out at regular intervals and abundantly irrigated (ibid.). it began to bear in five or six years and continued productive for sixty or seventy. besides the amount of nourishing food furnished and the value of the wood of the date palm, an exhilarating drink was made from its sap and brandy or _lowbgeh_, date wine and vinegar from the fruit without much difficulty. the fruit of the sycamore (_ficus sycamorus_) ripens in june. although it was much esteemed by the ancients, it has been denounced by moderns as insipid. the mokhayt (_cardia myxa_) grows to the height of about thirty feet, commencing to branch out at a distance of twelve feet from the ground, with a diameter at the base of about three feet. its fruit is of a pale yellow color, inclosed in two skins. its texture is viscous and its taste not very agreeable. it was used extensively as a medicine, and was also, according to pliny, made into a fermented liquor ("ex myxis in aegypto et vina fiunt"). among other fruit trees and shrubs may be mentioned the fig, pomegranate, vine, olive, peach, pear, plum, apple, carob or locust (_ceratonia siliqua_), persea, palma, christi or castor oil plant, nebk (_rhamnus nabeca_), and the prickly pear or _shok_. the persea (_balanite aegyptiaca_) is a bushy tree or shrub which under favorable circumstances reaches an altitude of eighteen or twenty feet. its bark is of whitish color, its branches gracefully curved, its foliage of an ashy gray hue. its lower branches are supplied with long thorns; on its upper branches grows the fruit, which resembles a small date in general character. its exterior consists of a pulpy substance of subacid flavor; its stone is large for the size of the fruit, and incloses a kernel of yellowish-white color and an oily, rather bitter flavor. both the exterior and the kernel were eaten. the nebk or _sidr_ is another fruit of the date variety. it was eaten raw, or the flesh, detached from the stone, was dried in the sun. it enjoyed the reputation of being a sustaining as well as agreeable article. the most common fig was that known to the romans as "cottana," and by the modern arabs as "qottaya." the olives grown were large and fleshy, but contained little oil. vines were undoubtedly much cultivated, in spite of the assertion of herodotus to the contrary. the bunches of grapes, when intended for immediate consumption, were, after being gathered, placed in flat open baskets. when intended for the wine press they were closely packed in deep baskets or hampers, which were carried to the shed or storehouse on men's heads or by means of shoulder yokes. the juice was extracted by treading or squeezing in a bag. the juice of the grape was sometimes drunk in its fresh condition (genesis), but fermentation was usually awaited, and the wine was then stored away in vases or amphorae of elegant shape, closed with stoppers and hermetically sealed with moist clay, pitch, gypsum or other similar substances. the best brands came from anthylla (athenaeus), marestis (pliny and strabo), and the tract about lake marea. sebennytic, thebaid and coptos also produced light, wholesome wines. the esculent plants consisted of both wild and cultivated varieties. those most in demand were the byblus or papyrus, the nymphaea lotus, lotus coerulea and the nymphaea nelumbo (called by pliny "colocasia" and also "cyamon"). the papyrus grew luxuriantly in ancient egypt, especially in the marshy districts of the delta, although it is no longer found in the country. the pith of the upper and middle portions of the tall, smooth, triangular-shaped reed was used for paper, but that of the lower portion and the root were regarded as an edible delicacy. according to herodotus, it was prepared for the table by being baked in a closed vessel. the nymphaea lotus, which resembles our white water lily, was also a product of the lowlands. the seed vessels were collected and dried, to be afterward crushed and made into cakes. the rest of the plant was also eaten cooked or raw, and was said to be of a "pleasant sweet taste," but nineteenth century palates declare it to be no better than a bad truffle. the lotus coerulea was merely another variety of the same plant. the nymphaea nelumbo, which is, by the way, no longer found in africa, was called by the greeks and romans the "egyptian bean," and was regarded by those races as emblematic of egypt. it did not differ from the ordinary lotus except in the large dimensions of the leaves and the size and loveliness of its blossoms. the leaf of the flower varied from one to one and a half feet in diameter. it had two rows of petals six inches in length, of a crimson or rose-colored purple, and inside of these was a dense fringe of stamens surrounding and protecting the ovary. the fruit developed into a sweet, wholesome nut or almond, divided into two lobes by a bitter green leaf or corculum (removed before eating), with a shell shaped like the rose of a watering pot and studded with seeds (about the size of small acorns and to the number of twenty or thirty), which projected from the upper surface in a circle about three inches in diameter. both the nuts and roots were eaten by the poorer classes. wheat and barley were grown in all the provinces in the valley of the nile, as were also, though to a lesser extent, rice, millet, pulse, peas, beans, lentils, hommos (_cicer arietinum_), gilban (_lathyrus sativus_), carthamus, lupins, bamia, jigl (_raphanus sativus_--linn., herodot., pliny), simsin, indigo, cassia, senna, colocynth, cummin (the seeds of which were used for bread), durrha, coriander, cucurbitae, onions, cucumbers, leeks, etc. the onions were mild and of an excellent flavor. nicerates quotes homer as authority for the statement that they were much relished when eaten with wine. according to diodorus, children and even some grown persons lived at that time solely on roots and esculent herbs, eating them both raw and cooked. the bread or cake used in the homes of the wealthy was made from wheaten flour; those one degree lower in the social scale made use of barley meal, and the poorer classes ate bread of the durrha (holcus sorghum) flour. greece before the age of luxury. it is impossible within these pages to tabulate with absolute correctness any hard and fast menu as the diet of the ancient greeks, as it varied greatly according to the products of the several parts of the diversified country over which they ruled, but one can by the process of elimination arrive at fairly satisfactory generalities. the principal food of the poorer classes was bread. it was not a very appetizing kind, however, as it usually consisted of a simple dough of barley meal moistened with water, or, occasionally, poor wine. it was eaten without cooking or any further preparation. this was the universal food of the spartans. the middle and wealthy classes partook, though, of baked wheaten bread, which was called by homer "the strength of life." all other kinds of food, with the exception of sweet cakes, cheese and a few vegetables and fruits, were at first considered (save by the inhabitants of the cities) as luxuries--somewhat as even now amongst old-fashioned people in scotland, the term "kitchen" is applied to all edible articles other than dry bread. of sweet cakes there were many kinds. they were flavored with various seeds and sweetened with honey. sugar, though, if known at all, was used only for its medicinal properties. cheese was eaten mixed with wine or honey and salt. dried figs and grapes were much liked, especially by the athenians, and olives were even then pickled for a relish. the vegetables that were formerly cultivated are not easily distinguished by the names applied to them by different writers, but it is certain that lettuce, cabbage, peas, beans, vetches, leeks, onions, parsley and thyme were grown, as well as truffles and mushrooms. vegetables were eaten in the form of soup, served on hot dishes with sauce or dressed as salad. in the numerous towns large quantities of fish were sold. the salt water were more generally preferred than the fresh water varieties, although especial favor was bestowed on the eels that were obtained from lake copais in boeotia. there grew up early in history a heavy trade in fish from the black sea and even from the coasts of spain. although frequent mention is made of fish, cheese and vegetable markets, a meat market seems to have been almost unknown. from this and also from the fact that the word which designated butchers' meat also signified "victim," it may be concluded that oxen were primarily slaughtered only at sacrificial feasts. the flesh of the hare was more highly esteemed than that of any other kind of four-footed game. of wild birds the thrush was most relished. pheasants and woodcock were plentiful, and quails were made to act as combatants for the edification of the grecian youth. domestic fowls and eggs were common. butter was seldom made, as it was considered unwholesome, olive oil (as at the present time) being used in its place. although the greeks were fond of water as a beverage, the difficulty of obtaining it of good quality, combined with the tremendous production of wine, made the latter the national drink. it was, however, seldom drank in an undiluted condition, and the northerners, who were in the habit of drinking it neat, were denounced as unappreciative barbarians. but this is not very strange, as the large amount of fir resin which is still added to most greek wines, makes them too strong and bitter for the civilized palate to drink unless tempered by water. the first juice extracted from the press before treading was set apart as choice wine, the pressed grapes being then used for the making of the commoner variety or vinegar. the wine was often boiled and mixed with salt for exportation, and aromatic herbs and berries were added to impart different flavors. it was then placed in earthenware jars sealed with pitch. the various kinds may be roughly classed by colors. the black was the strongest and sweetest; the white was the weakest, and that of golden color was dry and very fine in flavor. the wines grown in the districts of lesbos, chios, sikyon, and phlios were the most esteemed. age was considered when estimating the value of wine, but the preference for any special year of vintage seems to have been unknown. even in those early days epicures whenever possible cooled their jars with snow before pouring out the wine. cow's milk was not liked, but the first milk of goats and sheep was often drank, although more generally used for the manufacture of cheese. the morning meal seldom consisted of more than bread dipped in wine and water, resembling closely the morning coffee of the continent. the principal meal of the very early grecians, as in the case of nearly all young nations, was served about noon, but as civilization advanced, the hour grew later, until o'clock became most popular, a light luncheon then being served in the middle of the day. although homer represents his chiefs as being always ready to sit down and gorge themselves with meat, the grecian gentleman was not a disciple of "high living" or indolence. he desired and appreciated the charm of sober conversation and intellectual stimulus. homer recognized this when he said, "nor did the mind of any stand in want of an equal feast." the social instincts and the warmth of feeling amongst the hellenic race made dinners and festival events of every day occurrence, and caused them to fill a prominent part in the lives of all, but the diet of the homeric age was wonderfully simple (in those early days the most elaborate dinners consisted of only two courses--the first of meat, usually roasted sheep, oxen or pigs, and vegetables; the second of cakes, sweetened with the honey of hymettus, and dried and fresh fruits), for appetites were held subordinate to the love of music and the dance. "* * * nor can i deem aught more delightful than the general joy of a whole people, when the assembled guests, seated in order in the royal hall, are listening to the minstrel, while the board is spread with bread and meats, and from the jars the cup-bearer draws wine and fills the cups. to me there is no more delightful sight." (plato.) invitations were generally given a few days in advance by the host in person in the market or any other place of common sojourn. unlike the egyptians, the grecians made their toilets and anointed themselves before arriving at their host's house. but before eating, "* * * in a bowl of silver, from a shapely ewer of gold, a maid poured water o'er the hands and set a polished table near them." then, if any had traveled from a distance, their feet were bathed in perfumed water and wine. meanwhile the male attendants were not idle-- "* * * some in the bowls tempered the wine with water, some cleansed the table with light sponges and set the banquet forth and carved the meats for all." a separate table was in those days usually provided for each guest, though the rule was not strictly observed. in some cases, diners-out were accompanied and attended by their own servants. in a few districts in modern greece this is still habitual. chairs and stools were generally used as seats, the custom of reclining on couches not being introduced until a later date. as napkins were then unknown, the guests wiped their fingers on towels and in pieces of specially prepared dough, which were thrown under the table after being used. there were spoons (of metal, often of gold--athenaeus), but hollow pieces of bread were generally used in their stead. the carver presided at a table and cut the meats into small pieces, as individual forks and knives were then unknown. the portions were usually of uniform size, although any very honored person was presented with larger or choicer morsels. the diluted wine was then transferred by ladles to the drinking cups or beakers, to be distributed by boy servants. the first cup was handed from one to another of the guests untouched as a sort of salutation. it was not customary to drink before the meal had been served. bread was handed round in little baskets woven from slips of ivory. moderation was universally observed. it was deemed gluttonous to linger long over a repast, and contemptible to imbibe too freely of wine. "* * * when the calls of thirst and hunger were appeased, the diners thought of other things that well become a feast. song and the dance." but here again all ribaldry was debarred. tender hymns and rhapsodies were sung to the accompaniment of the harp by trained singers, who were seated at special tables on silver-mounted thrones. games of various kinds usually followed, and with conversation filled out the time until the gathering dispersed. house picnics were much in vogue: "* * * * meantime came those who prepared the banquets to the halls of the great monarch. bringing sheep and strengthening wine they came. their wives, who on their brows wore snowy fillets, brought the bread, and thus within the halls of menelaus all was bustle setting forth the evening meal." among the dining room utensils should be mentioned the various baskets of copper, silver, gold and ivory wire; vessels for mixing wine, usually of silver, but sometimes of the more precious metal, and cups of elaborate design and costly workmanship. [illustration: drinking vessels: bowls, beakers and rhyta.] the cups were of various shapes and sizes. the "depas" had two handles and was made of wood, thickly covered with gold studs. another, the "kypellon," was broad and shallow, made of various metals, usually gold. the "phiate" was very similar in appearance to the kypellon. the "kotyle" was so small as to merely hold "a scanty draught, which only wet the lips, but not the palate." the "sykphos" and "kissybion" were simple wooden cups in use amongst the peasantry. they were usually made of the wood of the cypress. skilled cooks were seldom regularly employed on the domestic staff. they usually congregated in the market places and when any particular occasion necessitated their services they were hired by the day. as also nowadays they generally represented several nations, and they gained in social importance as the love of luxury gradually overcame the custom of simple fare. the regular staff of household servants, slaves in fact, were under the management of a general steward, himself a slave, who attended personally to the buying and superintended the details of all the other departments. [illustration: wine jugs or oinochoai.] but besides these private dinners, occasion often brought about banquets on a much larger scale, sometimes in honor of religion or of death. "* * * there upon the ocean's side they found the people offering coal black steers to dark haired neptune. on nine seats they sat, five hundred on each seat; nine steers were slain for each five hundred there." there was also a great difference between the foods of the ordinary people and that of the heroes described in the classics. according to homer, who was probably guilty of exaggeration, the athletes consumed enormous quantities of various meats (roasted or broiled, by the way--never boiled), which comprised their entire diet with the exception of wine and bread. beef, mutton, venison, and especially pork, were mentioned. "he spake and girt his tunic round his loins and hastened to the sties in which the herds of swine were lying. thence he took out two and slaughtered them and scraped them, sliced the flesh and fried it upon spits and when the whole was roasted, brought and placed it reeking hot, still in the spits and sprinkled with white meal." fish and cheese were only considered worthy of the athletic when animal flesh was scarce. nor were these giants possessed of very fastidious palates. "* * * * at the fire already lie the paunches of two goats preparing for our evening meal, and both are filled with fat and blood." "* * * * as one turns and turns the stomach of a bullock filled with fat and blood before a fiercely blazing fire and wishes it were done * * * *." the hospitality of the early grecians was unbounded. the high moral and social standard of the masses of the people rendered it possible to extend greater courtesy towards strangers than would have been deemed prudent in later days. every stranger or traveller who knocked at the door of a residence was sure of a welcome. no questions were asked him until he had been generously entertained in every feasible manner, for he stood under the protection of zeus xenios, guardian of the guest. this lavish friendliness was probably caused by, or was perhaps itself the cause of, the scarcity of hostelries of reputable character. a spirit of compassion also existed, as it was then considered an ill fortune that made one journey far from home. as the centuries of increasing wealth and power relaxed the rigidity of the morals of these ancient inhabitants of greece, the love of luxury gradually supplanted the absorbing desire for intellectual enjoyment which had at first raised them so far above the people of the neighboring territories. gluttonous devotion to the table, in conjunction with numerous vices, undermined the physical as well as the moral constitution, and the country which had astounded the ages with the valor of its sons, which had proved invulnerable to numerous martial forces, succumbed to the influence of sensual tastes and passions, suggested by the idleness of worldly success. and as their worship of their palates grew, the trained cook obtained an even greater influence until his position became one of extreme importance, and was so recorded by the poets and dramatists of the time. little difference, in fact, was there between the habits of the latter day greeks and the romans in the days of their great wealth, for grecian luxuries and grecian habits were the models that rome took as its models, so we will pass on to the next chapter, inferentially describing the former while depicting the latter. rome in the days of her greatest prosperity. the food of the early romans resembled to a great extent that of the greek heroes (their national dish was pulmentarium, a porridge made of pulse), but to avoid repetitions we will pass over the first centuries of roman history, choosing as our subject rome in the days of prosperity. it should, however, be mentioned that greece never attained such enormous wealth as rome, and that even in her greatest recklessness she was more refined. goethe said that in the days of their highest civilization the romans remained parvenus; that they did not know how to live, that they wasted their riches in tasteless extravagance and vulgar ostentation--but it must be remembered that, whereas the civilization of the nineteenth century is industrial, that of rome was militant, and to that should be attributed the fact that some of the simplest means of comfort were then unknown. many moderns are inclined to doubt the assertions made concerning the countless riches and marvellous expenditures of those days. they read with skepticism the writings of juvenal, seneca and the elder pliny. but, though in some cases exaggeration was doubtless resorted to, sufficient proof remains to convince the observing mind that the wealth of the roman far surpassed the wildest dreams of the richest man of the present day. the ruins of the colosseum and of the baths of caracalla, two structures raised solely for pleasure, impress us with their stupendous magnificence, and even the twentieth century has failed to equal the palaces of the nobles. moreover, it must be remembered that the wealthy roman owned many mansions. each of the larger ones was a miniature city, sheltering a small army of slaves. the buildings were surrounded by parks, vineyards, woods and artificial lakes. the atria and peristyles were embellished with valuable paintings and statues. the walls and ceilings of the chambers were decorated with gold and precious stones. nowhere else, recorded in the history of the world, with the possible exception of the palaces of the incas, has gold ever been so lavishly used. on the furniture and ornaments alone, millions were expended. a single cup of murra brought , , sesterces ($ , ). a small citrus wood table cost a similar sum--yet seneca owned of them, an outlay on that class of furniture alone of $ , , . all italy was covered with the country residences of the patricians. they were found in numbers on the coast of campania, the sabine hills and the lakes of the north. the most esteemed members of the household staff were the coqui (cooks) and the pistores (fancy bakers). they often amassed large fortunes from their salaries and the many presents they received. all the other servants (who were usually slaves) were under the jurisdiction of a headman, an _atriensis_. the first meal (_ientaculum_) was light, consisting ordinarily of bread and wine with honey, dates, olives or cheese. at the prandium (their _déjeuner à la fourchette_, which took the place of their noon dinner of former days), meats, vegetables, fruits, bread and wine were provided. after the second meal, the meridiato (or in modern language, the siesta) was enjoyed, as it is in the italy of this century--although, unlike the sleepy town we know, business rome then never slept. after the short midday rest came games and exercises. the youth betook themselves to campus martius. the older members of the family made use of the sphaeristerium, a private gymnasium and ball room, which was found in every house. with it were connected the private baths. the cena, the principal meal, commenced at , or o'clock in the afternoon. seldom less than four hours were spent at table. pliny, the elder, who was considered a very abstemious man, sat down to his meal at o'clock, and remained there "until it began to grow dark in summer and soon after night in winter," at least three hours. the amount of food consumed would be incredible were it not for the explanation recorded by seneca, "edunt ut vomant; vomant ut edunt." the dinner menu given below was of a very ordinary affair: _gustus._ sorrel lettuce pickled cabbage and gherkins radishes, mushrooms, etc. oysters sardines eggs _first course._ conger eels oysters two kinds of mussels thrushes on asparagus fat fowls ragout of oysters and other shellfish with black and white maroons. _second course._ shellfish and other marine products beccaficos haunches of venison wild boar pastry of beccaficos and other birds. _third course._ sow's udder boar's head fricassee of fish fricassee of sow's udders various kinds of ducks roast fowl hares sausages roast pig peacocks _fourth course._ pastry in wonderfully elaborate forms and colors pirentine bread _fifth course._ fruits and wines. the "gustus," or appetizer, was also variously known as the "gustatio." a favorite drink served with it was a mulsum of hymetian honey and falernian wine. toothpicks made from the leaves of the mastich pistachio were in common use. all the dishes were carved at the sideboards by expert carvers who were trained in schools by practice on jointed wooden models. salt was much used in the flavoring of dishes and also to mingle with sacrifices. [illustration: a roman bakery.] fowls were fattened in the dark. ducks and geese were fed on figs and dates. pigs were cooked in fifty different ways. boars were cooked whole; peacocks with their tails. sausages were imported from gaul. vitellius and apicius feasted on the tongues of flamingoes, and elagabalus on their brains. the greater the waste at a dinner, the more absurd the extravagance, the more successful it was deemed. this idea was carried out in every department. a mullet of ordinary size was cheap--one that was rather heavy easily brought , sesterces ($ . ). [illustration: frame work of a roman dining couch.] in order to lengthen the time, jugglers, rope-dancers, buffoons and actors were introduced between courses. beautiful andalusian girls charmed the dinners with their voluptuous dances. even gladiators were engaged. games of chance concluded the entertainment when the condition of the revellers permitted. at any large affair, an archon, or toastmaster, was selected by ballot or acclamation. his duty it was to regulate the proportions of water and wine and the size of the cups in which it was served. it was usual to commence with the smallest and end with the largest. at the table, the somber togas were exchanged for gay-colored garments (_syntheses_), and the shoes for sandals. some of the more ostentatious changed their costumes several times during the progress of a meal. the head and breast were sometimes wreathed with flowers and ornaments. the tables first used were of quadrangular shape--three sides being decorated for the guests and the fourth left vacant to facilitate the movements of the attendants. they, however, were soon supplanted by small tables of marble, bronze or citrus. these and a large sideboard supported an amount of heavy gold and silver utensils. the diners reclined on costly sofas, inlaid with tortoise shells and jewels, and the lower parts decked with embroidered gold. the pillows were stuffed with wool and covered with gorgeous purple. the cushions which supported the elbows were covered with silk stuffs, often marked to designate the places of the various guests. three people occupied each sofa. the lowest place on the middle sofa was the seat of honor. the room or hall was illuminated by lamps and candles, set on individual and very expensive stands or massed in candelabras of great magnificence. the oils and fats used for illumination were diluted with substances which under the influence of heat gave forth odors of great fragrance. each guest brought his own napkin. ivory-handled knives were manufactured, but seldom used, as the reclining position rendered the spoons (_ligulae_) more convenient. the dessert was arranged on the sideboards under the supervision of the pistor and structor before the meal commenced. a nomenclator was the regular employe of every patrician. his sole office was to prompt his master on the names of his guests and clients, or hangers-on. much care was devoted by the wealthy to their private stores of wines. they were sealed in jars or bottles of baked clay, with labels attached bearing the year of the consulship during which they were made. some old wines were very expensive. that of campania was considered the best. the caecuban falernian was very good. he was pitied who was forced to drink the vatican! [illustration: a banquet in the days of ancient rome (original taken from a stone carving excavated from the site of pompeii).] greek wines were popular and were found in many roman cellars. in winter, wine was heated with water, honey and spices in a caldarium, a vessel fitted with a small charcoal furnace, closely resembling the russian samovar. being unable to sensibly decrease their riches by ordinary methods, many novel ideas were put in use, often at great expense. nero constructed in his golden house a vaulted ceiling which turned continuously on its axis. at a banquet given by otho, tubes of gold and silver suddenly protruded from various parts of the hall and sprinkled perfumes on the assembly. petronius describes a rather fanciful affair given by trimalchio. after the company had taken their places and young egyptian slave girls had bathed their hands and feet in scented snow water, there was placed on the table a gold salver, inlaid with tortoise shell, in the middle of which stood an ass of bronze bearing silver panniers, one filled with white and the other with black olives. on his back sat a silenus pouring from a wineskin the favorite sauce the _garum_; at one side were sausages on a silver gridiron, under which were plums and red pomegranate kernels to represent glowing coals, and placed around were trays bearing vegetables, snails, oysters and other appetizers. when that course had been removed, another dish was brought in, of which the central feature was a hen of carved citrus wood with expanded wings, brooding over a nest of peafowls' eggs. these eggs were handed around on silver egg-spoons weighing each more than half a pound. when the shells were broken, some of the guests were horrified to find within them half-hatched chicks; but on closer inspection these proved to be beccaficos cooked in egg sauce. as the plates were being removed, a chorus of oriental beauties chanted their strange songs. a slave by accident let fall a silver dish; he stooped to pick it up--the atriensis boxed his ears and bade him sweep it out with the other fragments. wine of rare virtue and great age was then brought in and distributed with almost obtrusive extravagance. the first heavy course again surprised many of those who were present. it consisted apparently of the most ordinary dishes and joints. but these proved to be merely cleverly designed covers, which on being lifted, disclosed roasted pigs, field fares, capons, noble bartels and turbots. in the centre was a plump hare which, by the addition of a pair of wings, had been made to resemble a pegasus. the carving was done in the presence of the diners and to the strains of slow music. next came a huge boar roasted whole, with two palm twig baskets filled with dates, hanging from his tusks. by his side were eight small pigs, cleverly molded in paste, which were presented to guests as remembrances of the occasion. following the boar was a large swine, also cooked whole. after much acclamation, the carver was about to do his work, when with a look of disgust he announced that it had not been disemboweled. the cook was called and severely chided. he feigned regret and made many excuses; then seizing a heavy knife, ripped the animal open, letting fall into the dish a mass of sausages and rich puddings. after the pig had been carried away and while the dessert was being placed on the table, the ceiling opened and a silver hoop descended bearing gold, silver and alabaster phials of essences, silver and jewel coronets and many other things of similar character. the pastry had been made to resemble shellfish, field fares, etc. quinces were stuck full of almonds to imitate sea urchins. surrounded by flowers was a figure of vertumnus, with its bosom piled with fruits. the guests were invited to help themselves, and the pressure of their hands on the fruit caused a shower of the daintiest perfume. when all had partaken to repletion of the goods served, the spirit of bacchus was given full sway, half nude dancers and singers threw off all restraint, and there were enacted scenes of riotous carousing for which rome in its decadence became notorious. a weird dinner was once given by the emperor domitian. he invited a number of senators and knights to dine with him at a late hour. when they arrived they found that the banquet room had been draped in somber black. at each seat had been placed a tombstone bearing the inscription of a diner and naked black slaves danced weird dances and served up funeral viands on black dishes. when the company had been dismissed, its members found that all their slaves had disappeared and unknown bearers carried them to their homes. each found on his return a message and a souvenir awaiting him--a silver tombstone bearing his name. the ancient jews. readers will find recorded in this chapter many things which are matters of general knowledge, but this, they will readily understand, is unavoidable when treating on the customs of so well known a people as the jews and drawing on the bible for much of the information given. as the facts drawn from the scriptures have though been supplemented by the results of the researches of many eminent travelers and writers, it is hoped that the combination will be found worthy of the time expended on its perusal. the mosaic dietary laws which for more than three thousand years formed the text of important social and religious observances among the inhabitants of the chosen kingdom were the outcome of a comparison of the regulations and practices of contemporary nations. whether the system was compiled in the interest of humanity or health, it remains true that it has proved itself to be one of the best economic regimes ever made public. if for no other reason, the life of the ancient jew is especially interesting to those who study the foods of men, past and present--although it must be admitted that the precepts they compiled were more conducive to sound digestion than some of the practices they followed! the diet of the ancient jews consisted at first, as did that of all the pioneers of the human race, of but a few articles of food. but, though meat was not consumed in large quantities, writers err when they describe the food of orientals as being light and simple. orientals did, and do, make use of an inordinate amount of grease in cooking. eggs and rice were, whenever circumstances permitted, saturated with fat or oil and meats and vegetables were frequently simmered in fat before being stewed. it was not unusual for a family of six or seven persons to consume an average of two hundred pounds a year, and some of their compounds would have ill suited delicate stomachs. bread, as in all ancient countries, constituted the greater part of the food of the middle and lower classes. in leviticus, psalms and ezekiel, reference is made to the "staff of bread." it was most generally eaten after being dipped into cheap wine or weak gravy. the fresh green ears of wheat were often eaten without cooking, the husks being rubbed off by hand. the grain was, though, more usually roasted in a pan after being carefully sorted over, and it was sometimes bruised and dried in the sun, to be afterwards served with oil. "kibbe" was a mixture composed of cracked wheat, boiled and dried, beaten up with meat, onions, spices and the nut of a species of pine. wheat was also ground by women in hand mills formed of two stones, the under one fixed and the upper movable. the middle classes ate meat, vegetables, fruit or fish also, but always as supplementary dishes to the staple article, bread. although in the earliest days the mistress and daughters of the house did the baking, female servants were later employed by the wealthier families. in jerusalem indeed professional bakers, men, became so numerous that a section of the town bore the title of "bakers' street." the flour used in the manufacture of the common bread was mixed with water or milk and kneaded with the hands in a small wooden bowl or trough. except in cases of great haste, leavening was then added. the dough was allowed to stand for several hours, sometimes for the whole night, in moderate heat. it was next rolled out and cut into circular pieces about eight inches in diameter and three-quarters of an inch in thickness. these were occasionally punctured and soaked with oil. [illustration: a portable oven of the jews and egyptians. (from an old egyptian drawing.)] a more delicate kind of bread was twice kneaded before baking, and stimulating seeds were added to it. various varieties of thin cakes were also baked every day and biscuits of substantial character were furnished for travelers. the professional bakers did their work in fixed, specially constructed ovens, but portable ovens were usually found in private houses. they were in the shape of stone or metal jars about three feet in height, and were heated from the interior with wood, dried grass or flower stalks, the cakes being placed on the ashes or the exterior sides of the oven after the fire had burned down. in other cases, a hole dug in the ground formed the oven, the sides being covered with clay and the bottom with pebbles. again, sometimes the cakes were cooked on heated stones or by the more primitive method of laying them directly on burning logs, or between two layers of dried dung (then lighted and burned). some also baked the cakes in pans with oil and ate them whilst hot with honey, or cooked them in such thin layers that they crumbled in the fingers. figs were eaten fresh and dried. pomegranates, mulberries, sycamore figs, citrons and apples were widely cultivated. grapes were eaten raw or made into fruit cake (which possessed distinctly stimulating qualities). similar cakes were also made of raisins, dates and figs--which were compressed into bricks, and when hardened could be cut up only by the use of an axe! the bunches of grapes often attained a weight of twelve pounds. walnuts were plentiful. oranges were introduced at a later date. among the vegetables grown were lentils (which were boiled and eaten with butter oil or fat and pepper), leeks, onions, beans, barley, lettuce, endive, purslane and other herbs. vegetables were usually boiled as potage. the spices most in favor were cummin, dill, coriander, mint, mustard and salt. cummin was threshed with a rod and with salt served as a sauce. pistachio nuts and almonds were popular as whets. salads were extensively known. honey was used in some cakes as a substitute for sugar. it was also eaten raw or with other articles of food, even fish. various artificial productions made from fruits and the exudations of trees and shrubs bore the title of honey, the best known of which was the boiled down juice of the grape, then called "d'bash," known to modern arabs as "dibs." "butter and honey" and "milk and honey" are in biblical language synonyms of the diet of prosperity. the butter then used differed from our own product inasmuch as the hot sun to which the cream was exposed when being churned rendered the completed article more liquid. even to-day in some parts of the orient the butter served to visiting europeans has to be manufactured especially for them from cold cream. cheese consisted of coagulated buttermilk, dried until hard and then ground. oil was made from various vegetables, but that of the olive was most esteemed. wine and water were carried in vessels made of the skins of goats, kids or other clean animals. after the animal had been killed, the head, feet and tail were cut off and the body was drawn out of the skin, which was then tanned (acacia bark being sometimes called into service). the hairy part of the skin formed the exterior of the vessel, the legs and the end of the tail being sewn up. when filled, the neck was tied up. an ox skin was used to make a "gerba" which formed a storage chamber for large quantities of liquor. one of average size contained sixty gallons. the milk of cows, sheep, camels and goats was drank. when fresh it was known as "khalab," when sour as "khema." the latter was used in the composition of salads and for cooking meats, etc. a strengthening beverage was made by heating milk over a slow fire and then adding a small piece of old khema or other acid to make it coagulate. much of this was bottled and kept for future use. it was the universal refreshment offered strangers and the ancient jew, like the modern arab, refused to accept payment for it. the other drinks of the people were barley water; sherbet (made by partially dissolving fig cake in water); pomegranate wine; beer made from barley with herbs such as the lupin and skirret; honey, date, fig, millet and grape wines and a drink made by placing raisins in jars of water and burying them until fermentation had taken place. water was imbibed in large quantities after meals. vinegar was made by mixing barley with wine, or soured wine was used. the prohibition expressed in the ninth chapter of genesis against animal blood as an article of diet was repeated with detailed instructions in leviticus. instead of devoting a large amount of space to recounting the regulations there expressed, it will perhaps be better to make only a general classification of them. there were interdicted: _sheretz haaretz_, creeping things; _sheretz haof_, winged insects, with the exception of the fully developed locust; of _sheretz hamayim_, creatures dwelling in water, those which were not provided with fins and scales; of the feathered species those which were not furnished by nature with the implements with which to clean themselves; of the quadrupeds and animals of the chase those that did not chew the cud or were not provided with split hoofs. the fat parts of animals were also reserved for the altar and temple offerings. special interdictions were announced against dead or injured animals; though these did not extend to strangers. in the new testament, these laws are also mentioned as applying to healthy animals that had been strangled or killed in any manner other than that prescribed. in a word, the mosaic laws prohibited the use of any flesh that was diseased, bruised or rendered unwholesome by the presence of too much blood and also of the flesh of animals that were not cleanly in habits, diet or body. oxen were not eaten when older than three years. it is not necessary to give here the oft-repeated methods of jewish butchery, as they have been of late so frequently described--and highly endorsed--by medical and scientific men. fresh fish (eaten generally broiled) appears to have been the principal article of diet in the environs of the sea of galilee. the jews, however, were not well versed in the character of the different species. they roughly classed them as big, small, clean and unclean. salt fish also was imported into jerusalem. locusts were considered to be but meagre fare, but they were eaten salted, dried and roasted with butter in a pan. an ordinary kitchen was equipped with a range, a heavy caldron, a large fork or flesh hook, a wide, open metal vessel for heating water, etc., two or more earthenware pots and numerous dishes. the kid, lamb or calf, killed on the advent of a holiday or in honor of a guest, would sometimes be roasted or baked whole, but it was usually cut up and boiled in a caldron filled with water or milk and set over a wood fire, the scum being taken off from time to time and salt and spices added. the meat and broth were served up separately or together as desire might dictate. the principal meal was held in the early evening, although occasionally noon was chosen for a big banquet. the early hebrews seated themselves on the ground when partaking of a meal; but their descendants soon succumbed to the example of the egyptians and adopted the reclining couch, which was universally used in the time of christ. the first reference we have to the change in custom is found in the book of amos, where the prophet rebukes those who "lie upon beds of ivory." ezekiel also inveighs against one who "sat on a stately bed with a table prepared before it." each couch seated from three to five persons, and the women usually dined with the men. the meat and vegetables were sometimes served in one large dish, into which each in turn dipped his bread, but on other occasions portions were placed on individual plates. many events were made excuses for festivals. the "mishteh" was a drinking party, which in the apostolic age was called a "komos" and was often the occasion of gross licentiousness. the cups used were modelled after those made by the egyptians. the "cup bearer" or butler held a very important position in a rich man's household. during times of fasting or sorrow, all meats, wines, etc., were eschewed. they were called the "bread of desires." prison fare consisted of bread or pulse and water. the vine or apples of sodom, the "dead sea fruits that tempt the eye, but turn to ashes on the lips" of which josephus wrote and moore and byron sang, are worthy of more than passing notice. they have caused a great deal of discussion among scientists and travelers who have differed in their opinions as to the identity of the fruit or plant mentioned. [illustration: the colocynth--"the dead sea fruits."] as the _ecbalium elaterium_, with variations in name, it has been described by dioscorides, theophrastus, pliny, celeius, rosenmuller, winner and gesenius; as the _cucumbis prophetarium_, and _solanium sodomaeum_ by others; as the _asclepias procera_ by burckhardt, irby, mangles and dr. robinson. among still other disputing writers may be mentioned pococke, hasselquist, seetzen, elliot and chateaubriand. michaelis, oedman, dr. j. d. hooker and the rev. w. houghton agree that josephus referred to the fruit of the colocynth (_citrullus colocynthis_) which resembles an orange in appearance, and when dry will burst on pressure with a crashing noise. [illustration: tamarix gallica--the manna plant of the scriptural desert.] the varying opinions may be ascribed to the fact that in the south of palestine are found several members of the gourd tribe, as well as the fruits of several shrubs and trees, which under certain conditions answer very closely to the descriptions afforded us of the "dead sea fruits," although the colocynth is the only one that answers them in every way. the palm tree, once so plentiful in judaea, is now rare and in the vicinity of jericho is extinct, the last one having died a few years ago. all readers of the scriptures remember the important part which manna played in the history of the jews. the manna which is at the present day known in the arabian desert through which the israelites passed is collected in june from the tarfa or tamarisk shrub (_tamarix gallica_). according to burkhardt, it drops from the thorns on to the sticks and leaves which cover the ground and must be gathered early in the day or it will be melted by the heat of the sun. its fall is said to be caused by the punctures made by insects. the arabs cleanse, boil and strain it and put it up in leather bottles, and thus prepared it will retain its virtues for several years. it is used in the place of honey or butter--it is never eaten alone. it is abundant only in wet seasons, and in a very dry year it is not found at all. it is not exactly peculiar in character, as there are several shrubs in india and syria. [illustration: salvadora--the arboreous mustard plant of palestine.] niebuhr discovered at mardin, in mesopotamia, on the leaves of a tree, a species of _capparis_, a kind of manna which appears during the months of july and august, being most plentiful in wet seasons. if shaken off before sunrise, it is pure white in color. if let remain, it collects until very thick, and the leaves are then gathered and steeped in boiling water until the manna floats to the top like oil. this is called by the natives _manna essemma_, heavenly manna. burkhardt found in the valley of jordan a similar gum on the leaves and branches of the tree gharrob (a species of oak), which fell to the ground in drops of brown-gray dew. its taste at first was sweet, but after a day's exposure to the elements became acrid. the manna of european commerce is exported from calabria and sicily. it drops from punctures made in a species of ash by an insect resembling the locust. it is fluid at night, but begins to harden in the morning. the manna of scripture, which was the sole support of the israelites for forty years, must be regarded as miraculous, as ( ) manna is under ordinary circumstances stimulating rather than sustaining, ( ) the season in which it is found does not extend over a term of more than three or four months, ( ) it is found only in small quantities compared to the enormous amount-- , , pounds a week--which would have been necessary to provide each member of the israelite camp with the rations mentioned, ( ) a double quantity certainly does not fall on the day preceding the sabbath and ( ) no natural product ceases at once and forever. the mustard plant mentioned in the gospels may have been either the common mustard plant which grows to a large size in the orient, or it may have been the _salvadora persica_, an arboreous plant of abundant foliage, the seeds and leaves of which have a distinct flavor of mustard. the chinese. it would be foolish to publish any strict dietary code as descriptive of the food of the people of the vast region generally known as the chinese empire, for apart from the difference in the products of the various sections of that diversified country, it must be remembered that the numerous tribes, which when amalgamated centuries ago formed the empire, have retained most of their original customs, owing partly to the paucity of transportation facilities and the consequent impediments to an interchange of ideas, partly to the conservative nature of the people and partly to the influence of climate and surroundings. furthermore, as, excepting a few fruits which are of comparatively recent introduction, such as the pineapple, the foods of chinamen to-day closely resemble the foods of chinamen four thousand years ago, it will not be necessary in this volume to keep very strictly apart the past and the present. until quite recently it was customary to regard the chinese as uncivilized and degraded heathens who voraciously devoured all kinds of vermin and other miscellaneous tit-bits which to most people of the western hemisphere are repulsive even in suggestion, hence it may be well to repeat here that, although it remains true that cats, dogs and rats occasionally serve as articles of food, this happens only when provisions are scarce or among the very poor, who (as in all civilized countries), linger always on the threshold of starvation. the chinese, in spite of the doleful tales of some writers, are on the whole a well fed race. beef and mutton are not plentiful except in the north, but hogs, poultry and fish, with vegetables, fruits and rice are within the reach of a majority of the population. wrote a chinese sage: "the scholar forsakes not his books nor the poor man his pig." furthermore, in the preparation of their national dishes the chinese cooks (especially those in the cities and in the households of the rich) display a high degree of skill. wheat, several varieties of rice and sweet potatoes are grown in all parts of the empire, and barley, sorghum, cabbages, beans and other vegetables and sugar cane are also raised in large quantities. rice is seldom ground except when made into cakes. the sorghum, or hauliang (extensively cultivated in the north), is not used as in america for the manufacture of sugar, but the seeds are ground and made into a coarse bread or used for the preparation of some brands of whiskey. sweet potatoes are sliced into coarse strips and dried in the sun. it is, though, considered a sign of extreme poverty to be seen eating them at any meal other than a lunch or hurried repast. of the vegetables, the petsae or white cabbage is the most widely cultivated. beans grow luxuriantly. fully one-half of the crop is crushed for the sake of the oil, the residue being pressed into bricks and used as a fertilizer. "bean curds" is a very popular dish, especially for breakfast. the beans are ground to a flour, which is passed through three strainers of coarse, medium fine and very fine linen. this is boiled for an hour over a slow fire until the proper consistency is obtained. salted beans form quite an important article of commerce. four catties of beans are put in a jar with one catty of salt, half a catty of ginger and a few taels of almonds and spices. the jars are then sealed and left untouched for about a month. a more novel way is to put the beans in earthenware jars filled with very clear spring water, changing the water every four hours. in seven days tender shoots have appeared and the beans are then sold as a delicacy. peanuts are grown for the sake of their oil. hsiang-yu is a fragrant oil made from peanuts and beans, which is used for the toilet and by the poor for cooking. castor oil answers the same purposes. the juice of the sugar cane is extracted by crushing the stalks in two perpendicular cylinders, kept in motion by a yoke of buffalos, the juice being received in a tub placed beneath. lime is added to the juice and it is then immediately boiled. [illustration: a chinese poulterer's shop.] within the limits of chinese territory are found almost all known varieties of fruits, some of which are indigenous to it. the whampee is a yellow skinned fruit about the size of a grape which hangs in clusters from the glossy-leaved trees which produce it. the flavor is tart and its three or four stones are of a greenish color. the li-chi has a rough red exterior. inside is a white film which incloses a watery translucent pulp of a sweetish taste and a brownish black ovoid stone. the lo-quat is a species of medlar. oranges, ginger, etc., are preserved in sugar. ducks are raised in almost incredible numbers. their eggs and those of fowls are frequently hatched by artificial heat. eggs that have been preserved in lime for several, sometimes a great many, years are much esteemed. after a quarter of a century, the yellow assumes a dark brown color and the whites have the appearance of meat jelly--strange though it may seem, they are really excellent in that condition. all foods served at a genuine chinese dinner are previously cut into minute particles. the large roast pieces which adorn the tables at dinners given in seaport towns to foreigners of note are placed there merely in deference to the customs of the guests. [illustration: a chinese dinner party.] rice and soup are brought on to the table in large vessels from which individual saucers are filled. other dishes are partaken of by all present directly from the common bowl. it is considered a token of hospitality on the part of the host or friendliness on the part of an acquaintance to take an especially choice piece of meat or vegetable from the bowl and to place it on the plate or in the mouth of a fellow diner. the two chopsticks are both held in the right instead of separately in each hand as ordinarily believed. they are maintained by the thumb and ring finger and manipulated by the index and middle fingers. one stick remains motionless, the other is so manoeuvred as to entrap with ease a morsel of meat or even the smallest grain of rice. the sticks (square at the top and round for the rest of their length) are made of bamboo or more precious woods, ivory or silver. on the upper portions, poems and pictures are often engraved. spoons are used for liquids. [illustration: chopsticks and bowl.] an ordinary meal among the middle classes consists of eight dishes--two vegetables, eggs, fish, shell fish, bird and two meats (pork and goat; or, in some parts of the north, mutton and beef). with this will be served a large tureen of soup with rice, the latter taking the place of bread. when eating rice, the bowl is raised by the left hand to a close proximity to the mouth and the rice is rather scooped than picked up. the importance which is attached to rice as a life-sustaining article may be judged from the exclamation of a chinese sailor when he was informed that it was held in but secondary repute in america. throwing up both hands with an expression in which were combined horror and pity, he cried: "oh, the sterile region of barbarians which produces not the necessaries of life; strange that the inhabitants have not long ago died of hunger!" two good meals a day, the customary number, and a light luncheon, will in the average native home represent the expenditure of about ten cents in american money. wine is served only on special occasions. the hotels in the large cities are distinguished by titles as in this country, though the chinese proprietor gives freer rein to his imagination, choosing such titles as "cum lee" (golden profits), "cut shing" (rank conferring hotel), the "cut sing" (fortunate star), etc. they are often comparatively tall structures and are usually clustered together in one quarter of the town. [illustration: a chinese distillery.] the ground floor of the ordinary hotel is reserved for the proprietor's apartments and the kitchen. the first floor contains one public and several private dining-rooms; and the second and upper floors are divided into sleeping apartments--the partitions of which are so thin that even a whispered conversation is intelligible to a party in the adjoining room. there is not much comfort to be obtained in the villages, and the accommodations are worse in the south and central districts than in the north and mongolia. the country caravansary is built in the form of a quadrangle with the walls, in the north, of mud or clay. in the one public room, the traveler perforce mingles with cattle drovers and muleteers, but the private apartments are fairly comfortable. the stables are usually attached to the building, with large compounds for sheep or cattle. some of the larger establishments boast separate quadrangle stables, while some of the smaller have none at all, the animals being hitched to troughs or racks in the centre of the quadrangle. [illustration: a chinese restaurant.] the beds (_cangues_) are shaped like furnaces. the occupant, protected by a thick coverlet, reclines on the top of a stratum of chunam or asphalt, with an opening similar to the door of a furnace, in one of the perpendicular sides, by means of which a small fire is in cold weather built directly beneath the bed. the poorer travelers sleep in the public hall. in some cities are khans which act as depots for the goods of traveling merchants, who are boarded and lodged without charge until they have disposed of their stock, the landlord then receiving a small percentage of the sales. the proprietor of a public inn is compelled to furnish the authorities each month with a list of the persons whom he has lodged or fed, and women are not received at all in the public hotels in the south. the restaurants in the cities are often quite large, running to two and three stories in height. on the ground floor is the kitchen. on the first floor at the head of the first staircase is the public dining room where a good cheap meal can be obtained, and on the second and third floors are the private and more select chambers. in each room is a bill of fare. an ordinary first class restaurant dinner comprises from ten to thirty dishes, and for any special occasion a hundred or more are often served. below is the menu of a dinner which, if served to eight or ten persons at a good public city restaurant, would cost about seventy-five cents per head. fried ham gizzards grated meat grilled dried shrimps preserved eggs four kinds of dried fruits four kinds of fresh fruits fat duck shark's fins swallowsnest soup meats salted chicken shellfish meats oysters mushroom morels (called "ears of the forest"). rice of immortals (a species of mushrooms). tender sprouts of bamboo fish meats the diners are usually seated at square tables in groups of eight. chinese whiskey or wine is served in small double-handled cups, which are constantly replenished by the attendants from vessels resembling silver coffee pots. pipes of tobacco are also passed around at intervals. before eating, the host or most prominent guest pours out a libation. his table companions follow his example and all bow politely to each other. [illustration: chinaman spearing fresh water turtles.] pastry is brought on between courses. if salt, a cup of chicken broth; if sweet, almond milk is furnished with it. no napkins are provided, pieces of coarse brown paper being used in their stead. the last is a sort of "trial of appetite" course. it consists of large dishes--sometimes eight or ten arranged in pyramid form--and the ever forthcoming refusal to partake of it announces the termination of the meal. the attendants then bring in towels and bowls of hot water. they immerse the towels in the water, and after wringing them out present them to the guests in the order of their importance. on special occasions the water is scented with otto of roses. one habit of the attendants which is especially surprising to the novice is that as their labors during the meal increase the temperature of their bodies, the waiters divest themselves of the greater part of their clothing! one restaurant in canton which caters for the cheaper class of trade, feeds on an average five thousand persons daily. each patron is served with portions of regular size, and allowance is made for any pieces which he may not eat. the tea saloons are divided into two large rooms furnished with stools and tables. cakes, preserved fruits and tea are served. the cups are usually covered so as to prevent the aroma of the tea from evaporating. "dog and cat" restaurants consist of one large public apartment, with the entrance to the dining room through the kitchen. soup stalls are found on the street corners of the cities. they sell luncheons of fish, pork, soups, vegetables, fried locusts, etc., from one to two cents. the oven, or, to speak more accurately, the baking apparatus, of the average establishment is somewhat singular. it consists of a furnace resembling a copper in shape, built in the center of an outhouse. the hollow part (which is shallow) is filled with charcoal. a lid, which fits the aperture, is so suspended by chains from the beams above as to be capable of elevation or depression. upon this lid, pastry and cakes are placed and kept directly above or at any distance from the fire, according to the heat desired. the bakers often manufacture their bread without the use of shortening of any description. a very popular cake consists partially of mincemeat. the baker before commencing to make it, places a pile of dough on one side and opposite it a heap of mincemeat--a mixture of pork, sugar, spices, etc. he then pulls off a piece of dough, rolls it into a ball, flattens it, covers it with the meat, rolls it into a ball again, shapes it into a ring and flattens it by a stroke of the hand into a cake of definite size and thickness. among other dainty dishes of chinaland are the "t'ien ya tzu," a species of delicately flavored fat duck; "feng chi," salted chicken; a dish of amber gelatine; a salad of bamboo shoots; "huo t'ui," a dainty ham of the appearance of veal; "yü ch'ih," shark's fins, and "hai li tzu," devilled oysters with mushrooms. other items are salted earthworms, pigeon's eggs, pounded shrimps; bird's nest soup, a gelatinous article; beches de mer (sea slugs), water beetles and silkworms, the last named fried in oil after they have made their cocoons. a much admired soup, prepared for an imperial feast, was of blood and mare's milk. oysters are very cheap in winter, selling at from five to six cents per pound. the following receipts may be of interest as literal translations from a genuine chinese cook book: _steamed shark's fins._ take the sun-dried shark's fins, place in a cooking pan, add wood ashes and boil in several waters. then take out and scrape the roughness from the fins. if not clean, boil again and scrape again until clean. then change the water and boil again. take out and remove the flesh, keeping only the fins themselves. boil again and put in spring water. the frequent changing of the water is necessary to take out the lime taste. put the fins into the soup and stew until quite tender. dish in a bowl, placing crab meat below and a little ham on top. _chicken with the liquor of fermented rice._ bone a chicken and steam until just right; take out and let cool, then cut into thin slices. next, take gelatinous rice which has been fermented with yeast and water; cook this for two hours, add a little of the juice expressed from fresh ginger, soy, sesamum and oil. mix together with peanut oil. dish and add fragrant herbs. _genii ducks._ take a fat duck; open and clean. take two mace of salt, rub it both outside and inside and put into an earthen dish. take one cup of fan spirits and put (the cup with the spirits) inside the duck--only the vapor of the spirits is wanted. steam over water until quite tender, then lift out the wine cup and put the bird into a bowl. the most common native liquor are "suee chow," a rice brandy; "shas chin," an impure alcohol made from kauliang or sorghum; "huary chin," a yellow wine made from millet, and various spirits extracted from plums, apples, pears, etc. all liquors are drunk hot, and some of them are steeped with spices or the leaves of flowers. although spirits are plentiful and cheap, drunkenness is rare. tea, of course, is consumed by all classes. a curious custom annually observed is the propitiatory offering to the god of the kitchen, who is worshipped in all parts of china, and who is supposed to report his observations to the pearly emperor supreme ruler. [illustration: family offering to the kitchen god.] he is represented in each kitchen by a slip of white or red paper (changed each year as a rule) bearing his name and title and sometimes his portrait, pasted on the wall in some convenient part of the room. among the better classes the kitchen god is also known as the superintendent or inspector of good and evil. on the evening of the twenty-third day of the twelfth month a special sacrifice is made in his honor by about sixty per cent. of the population. meats, cakes, fruits and wines are offered with candles, incense, mock money, etc., and all members of the family then kneel reverently before his representation and bow their heads in homage. on the evening of the twenty-fourth those who have not participated in the ceremonies of the previous day, make a vegetable offering in a similar manner. [illustration: a chinese kitchen boat.] many of the wealthier classes make both offerings on the twenty-third. the poorest use only incense and candles. the numerous sailing vessels on the rivers and lakes are as well fitted to supply the wants of the traveler as the hotels on shore. the houseboats and some of the passenger boats rely for their meals on the kitchen boats, which are really admirably managed. the fishing boats make use of a very primitive heating apparatus--a large boiler in an earthenware furnace set in a part of the deck, serving as the general cook book. a great many pages might be covered by treating on the curious festivities which celebrate so many occasions, but they have been so often described in other works that a description of them here would perhaps savor too much of needless repetition. _other works from the book department of the caterer_ martyn's menu dictionary price $ (_ pages, two columns to a page, cloth bound._) the most complete dictionary of menu, culinary and food terms ever published. more than _five thousand items_. in two sections: french-english and english-french. the first section includes also about wine names with brief descriptive notes and both parts list a number of german words with english and french translations. how to make money in a country hotel price $ (_ pages, printed on the finest paper and handsomely bound)._ _third edition._ the reason for the great success of this work is probably to be found in the fact that the author does not content himself with merely advising "greater economy," or "better business methods"--instead he gets right down to a practical hold of the subject and shows _how_ to economize and how to increase one's trade. the financial side of hotel keeping price $ (_ pages, handsomely printed and bound._) _second edition._ this book is entirely different from any other work on the hotel business. the main "story" takes up the matter of location, investment, equipment, etc., the "financing" of the business after starting, and many points touching on policy, organization, etc., and the management of the back part of the house. following this is a series of papers on the restaurant business. the wine steward's manual price $ (_ pages, illustrated, cloth bound._) a handy volume on the care and service of wines, with contributions from the highest authorities. foods and culinary utensils of the ancients price cents compiled from standard historical works. seventy-two pages, well illustrated. dainty dishes price (cloth bound) $ by adolphe meyer, author of "the post-graduate cookery book," "eggs and how to use them," etc. a book of specially "dainty dishes" which offers many opportunities to vary the daily bill of fare or the banquet or ball supper menu--usually without adding anything to the cost and sometimes at smaller expense. the post-graduate cookery book price (cloth bound) $ by adolphe meyer, for years chef of the exclusive union club, new york. (_nearly pages. about , receipts._) "the post-graduate cookery book" is a work containing matter supplementary to, or in advance of, the regular standard works on cookery and kindred matters. it has a special intrinsic value to the purchaser, for it contains a large number of receipts for special dishes which have never appeared in print elsewhere. some of these receipts are new, others are for special dishes which have helped to enhance the reputations of famous establishments both in europe and this country. eggs and how to use them price $ by adolphe meyer, author of "the post-graduate cookery book," etc. (_third edition._) (_ pages, cloth bound._) about receipts, classified as "poached, shirred, molded, omelettes, etc., etc.," and with titles in both french and english. fables of the hotel profession and poems of good cheer price cts. _a dainty little volume of pages, bound in gilt lettered cloth._ the "fables" (by charles martyn) are little stories of the hotel business, which "hit off," in semi-humorous manner, many typical characters and conditions. "poems of good cheer" (by frank w. doolittle) is a title made generously broad to cover a number of verses on the hotel business, those engaged in it and the good things dispensed. the caterer publishing co., established . new york. publishers of the caterer, the "monthly text book" of the hotel, club and high-class restaurant business. subscription price, $ a year; $ . for six months. the caterer keeps its readers informed on everything that is new in the hotel, club and high-class restaurant business--new ideas in service, reports of special occasions (such as banquets, etc.), new items of equipment, new points in system, etc. every issue also contains a variety of other matter of general interest, "what's happening among our subscribers," etc.--all written in entertaining style. available by internet archive (https://archive.org) note: project gutenberg also has an html version of this file which includes the original illustrations. see -h.htm or -h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/ / -h/ -h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/ / -h.zip) images of the original pages are available through internet archive. see https://archive.org/details/feedingofschoolc bulkuoft transcriber's note: text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_). the feeding of school children the ratan tata foundation (university of london) the feeding of school children by mildred emily bulkley with an introductory note by r. h. tawney director of the ratan tata foundation london g. bell and sons, ltd. the ratan tata foundation _honorary director_: professor l. t. hobhouse, m.a., d.lit. _honorary secretary_: professor e. j. urwick, m.a. _director_: mr. r. h. tawney, b.a. _secretary_: miss m. e. bulkley, b.sc. the ratan tata foundation has been instituted in order to promote the study and further the knowledge of methods of preventing and relieving poverty and destitution. for the furtherance of this purpose the foundation conducts inquiries into wages and the cost of living, methods of preventing and diminishing unemployment, measures affecting the health and well-being of workers, public and private agencies for the relief of destitution, and kindred matters. the results of its principal researches will be published in pamphlet or book form; it will also issue occasional notes on questions of the day under the heading of "memoranda on problems of poverty." in addition to these methods of publishing information, the officers of the foundation will, as far as is in their power, send replies to individual inquiries relating to questions of poverty and destitution, their causes, prevention and relief, whether at home or abroad. such inquiries should be addressed to the secretary of the ratan tata foundation, school of economics, clare market, kingsway, w.c. the officers are also prepared to supervise the work of students wishing to engage in research in connection with problems of poverty. courses of lectures will also be given from time to time, which will be open to the public. already published. "_some notes on the incidence of taxation on the working-class family._" by f. w. kolthammer, m.a. d. "_the health and physique of school children._" by arthur greenwood, b.sc. s. "_poverty as an industrial problem_": _an inaugural lecture_. by r. h. tawney, b.a. d. "_studies in the minimum wage._" no. . the establishment of minimum rates in the chain-making industry under the trade boards act of . by r. h. tawney, b.a. s. d. net. "_the feeding of school children._" by miss m. e. bulkley, b.a., b.sc. s. d. net. to appear shortly "_studies in the minimum wage._" no. . the establishment of minimum rates in the tailoring trade. by r. h. tawney, b.a. preface in the collection of the material on which the following pages are based i have received assistance from so many persons that it is impossible to thank them all individually. i gratefully acknowledge the unfailing courtesy of officials of local education authorities, school medical officers, secretaries of care committees and many others, who have always been most ready to supply me with information as to the working of the provision of meals act, and to show me the feeding centres. my thanks are due especially to the students of the social science department of the school of economics, who have assisted in collecting and arranging the material, especially to miss ruth giles, miss a. l. hargrove, and miss p. m. bisgood, the first chapter being very largely the work of miss giles; mrs. leslie mackenzie, mr. i. h. cunningham, miss cecil young and mrs. f. h. spencer have also kindly collected local information. i am greatly indebted to mr. r. h. tawney for much valuable advice and co-operation, and to mr. and mrs. sidney webb and dr. kerr for reading through the proofs. i should add that the enquiry was made during the course of the year and the account of the provision made refers to that date. m. e. bulkley. contents preface vii introduction by r. h. tawney xi chapter i. the history of the movement for the provision of school meals provision by voluntary agencies--the organisation of the voluntary agencies--the demand for state provision--provision by the guardians--the education (provision of meals) act. chapter ii. the administration of the education (provision of meals) act the adoption of the act--canteen committees, their constitution and functions--the selection of the children--the preparation and service of the meals--the provision of meals during the holidays--the provision for paying children and recovery of the cost--overlapping between the poor law and the education authorities--the provision of meals at day industrial schools and at special schools--the underfed child in rural schools--conclusions. chapter iii. the provision of meals in london the organisation of voluntary agencies--the assumption of responsibility by the county council--the extent of the provision--the care committee--the provision for paying children--the service of the meals--overlapping with the poor law authority--appendix (examples of feeding centres). chapter iv. the extent and causes of malnutrition chapter v. the effect of school meals on the children chapter vi. the effect on the parents chapter vii. conclusions appendix i.--examples of menus appendix ii.--the provision of meals in scotland appendix iii.--the provision of meals abroad introduction the provision of meals for school children, which is the subject of the following pages, is still undergoing that process of tentative transformation from a private charity to a public service by which we are accustomed to disguise the assumption of new responsibilities by the state. begun in the 'sixties of the nineteenth century as a form of philanthropic effort, and denounced from time to time as socialistic and subversive of family life, it first attracted serious public attention when the south african war made the physical defects caused by starvation, which had been regarded with tolerance in citizens, appear intolerable in soldiers, and was canvassed at some length in the well-known reports of the royal commission on physical training in scotland and of the inter-departmental committee on physical deterioration. the first disposition of the authorities was, as usual, to recur to that maid-of-all-work, the poor law, and in april, , the relief (school children) order empowered the guardians to grant relief to the child of an able-bodied man without requiring him to enter the workhouse or to perform the outdoor labour test, provided that they took steps to recover the cost. the guardians, however, perhaps happily, had little sympathy for this deviation from the principle of deterrence, with the result that the new order was in most places either not applied or applied with insignificant results. the consequence was that the attempt to make the provision of meals for school children part of the poor law was abandoned. in the education (provision of meals) act was passed empowering local education authorities to provide food, either in co-operation with voluntary agencies or out of public funds, up to the limit of a half-penny rate. in the year - , out of authorities, were returned as making some provision for the feeding of school children. the object of miss bulkley's monograph is to describe what that provision is, how adequate or inadequate, how systematic or haphazard, and to examine its effect on the welfare both of the children concerned, and of the general community. the present work is, therefore, complementary to mr. greenwood's _health and physique of school children_, which was recently published by the ratan tata foundation, and which gave an exhaustive description of the conditions of school children in respect of health as revealed by the reports of school medical officers. that the subject with which miss bulkley deals is one of the first importance, few, whatever views may be held as to the act of , will be found to deny. almost all the medical authorities who have made a study of the health and physique of school children are unanimous that a capital cause of ill-health among them is lack of the right kind of food. "defective nutrition," states sir george newman, "stands in the forefront as the most important of all physical defects from which school children suffer.... from a purely scientific point of view, if there was one thing he was allowed to do for the six million children if he wanted to rear an imperial race, it would be to feed them.... the great, urgent, pressing need was nutrition. with that they could get better brains and a better race." "apart from infectious diseases," said dr. collie before the inter-departmental committee on physical deterioration, "malnutrition is accountable for nine-tenths of child sickness." "food," dr. eichholz told the same body, "is at the base of all the evils of child degeneracy." "the sufficient feeding of children," declared dr. niven, the medical officer of health for manchester, "is by far the most important thing to attend to." "to educate underfed children," said dr. leslie mackenzie, "is to promote deterioration of physique by exhausting the nervous system. education of the underfed is a positive evil." what doctors understand by malnutrition is what the plain man calls starvation; and while it is, of course, due to other causes besides actual inability to procure sufficient food, the experience of those authorities which have undertaken the provision of meals in a thorough and systematic manner suggests that these statements as to the prevalence of malnutrition or starvation are by no means exaggerations. to say, as has recently been said by a writer of repute in the _economic journal_, "already , children are fed weekly at the schools without appreciably improving the situation," is a ridiculous misstatement of the facts. on the contrary, there is every reason to believe that in those areas where suitable and sufficient meals have been provided, there has been a marked improvement in the health of the children receiving them. the tentative conclusions on this point given for a single city by mr. greenwood (_health and physique of school children_, pp. - ), are substantiated by the fuller evidence which miss bulkley sets out in chapter v. of the present work. "as far as the children are concerned, indeed, whether we consider the improvement in physique, mental capacity or manners, there is no doubt that the provision of school meals has proved of the greatest benefit." but while there is little doubt that the authorities which have made determined attempts to use to the full their powers under the act of have been rewarded by an improvement in the health of the children attending school, miss bulkley's enquiries show that the act itself is open to criticism, that many local authorities who ought to have welcomed the new powers conferred by the act have been deterred by a mean and short-sighted parsimony from adopting it, and that in many areas where it has been adopted its administration leaves much to be desired. the limitation to a halfpenny rate of the amount which a local authority may spend, has resulted in more than one authority stopping meals in spite of the existence of urgent need for them. by deciding--contrary, it would appear, to the intention of parliament--that local authorities cannot legally spend money on providing meals except when the children are actually in school, the local government board has made impossible, except at the risk of a surcharge or at the cost of private charity, the provision of meals during holidays. to those who regard the whole policy of the act of as a mistake, these limitations upon it will appear, of course, to be an advantage. but the assumption on which the act is based is that it is in the public interest that provision should be made for children who would otherwise be underfed, and, granted this premise, the wisdom of intervening to protect ratepayers against their own too logical deductions from it would appear to be as questionable as it is unnecessary. the bad precedent of authorities such as leicester, which has refused to adopt the act, and which leaves the feeding of school children to be carried out by a voluntary organisation under whose management the application for meals is in effect discouraged, does not, unfortunately, stand alone. of more than authorities who have made no use of their statutory powers, how many are justified in their inaction by the absence of distress among the school children in their area? how many have even taken steps to ascertain whether such distress exists or not? if it is the case, as is stated by high medical authorities, that "the education of the underfed is a positive evil," would not the natural corollary appear to be that, now that the experimental stage has been passed, the act should be made obligatory and the provision of meals should become a normal part of the school curriculum? apart from these larger questions of policy, it will be agreed that, if local authorities are to feed children at all, it is desirable that they should do so in the way calculated to produce the beneficial results upon the health of school children which it is the object of the act to secure. that certain authorities have been strikingly successful in providing good food under humanising conditions appears from the account of the effects of school meals given by miss bulkley. but the methods pursued in the selection of the children and in the arrangements made for feeding them vary infinitely from place to place, and the standards of efficiency with which many authorities are content appear to be lamentably low. it is evident that in many places a large number of children who need food are overlooked, either because the conditions are such as to deter parents from applying for meals, or because no attempt is made to use the medical service to discover the needs of children whose parents have not applied, or for both reasons (pp. - ). it is evident also that many authorities do not give sufficient attention to the character of the meals provided (pp. - ), or to the conditions under which they are served (pp. - ), with the result that "most diets ... are probably wanting in value for the children," and that little attempt is made to secure the "directly educational effect ... in respect of manners and conduct," which was emphasised as a _desideratum_ by the board of education. london, in particular, where the necessity for the provision of meals is conspicuous, has won a bad pre-eminence by sinning against light. reluctant, in the first place, to use its powers at all--"the whole question," said the chairman of the sub-committee on underfed children in , "of deciding which children are underfed, and of making special provision for such children, should really be one for the poor law authority"--the education committee of the london county council has taken little pains to ensure that the food provided should always be suitable, or that the meals should be served under civilising conditions. that these defects can be removed by care and forethought is shown by the example set by such towns as bradford, and now that eight years have elapsed since the education (provision of meals) act was passed, they should cease to receive the toleration which may reasonably be extended to new experiments. miss bulkley's monograph will have served its purpose if it makes it somewhat easier for the administrator, whether on education authorities or care committees, in public offices or in parliament itself, to apply the varied experience of the last eight years to a problem whose solution is an indispensable condition of the progress of elementary education. r. h. tawney. heights and weights of children from secondary schools and , from elementary schools in liverpool. boys age secondary council a council b council c schools ft. in. ft. in. ft. in. ft. in. · · · - / · · · · · · - / · · · · · · · - / · · · · · · · - / · · · · · · · · - / · · · · · · · - / · · · · · · · · - / · · · · · · · · girls age council a council b council c ft. in. ft. in. ft. in. · · · - / · · · · · · - / · · · · · · - / · · · · · - / · · · · · - / · · · · · · - / · · · · · - / · · · · · boys age secondary council a council b council c schools st. lb. st. lb. st. lb. st. lb. · · - / · · · · · · · - / · · · · · · · - / · · · · · · -- - / · · · · · · · · - / · · · · · · · · - / · · · · · · - / · · · · · · · · girls age council a council b council c st. lb. st. lb. st. lb. · - / · · · · - / · · · · - / · · · · · · - / · · · · · · - / · · · · · · - / · · · · · · - / · · · · a is a school where the parents were comparatively well-to-do and the children mostly had comfortable homes. b is a school where the parents were mostly small shopkeepers or labourers in constant employment. c is a school where the parents were mostly unemployed or casually employed. chapter i the history of the movement for the provision of school meals the latter half of the nineteenth century was remarkable for the birth of a new social conscience manifesting itself in every kind of social movement. some were mere outbursts of sentimentality, pauperising and patronising, others indicated real care and sympathy for the weaker members of society, others again a love of scientific method and order. thus in the early 'sixties there was an enormous growth in the amount spent in charity, leading to hopeless confusion. an attempt to introduce some order into this chaos and to stem the tide of indiscriminate almsgiving was made in by the formation of the "society for the prevention of pauperism and crime," which split the following year into the industrial employment association and the better known charity organisation society. in the 'eighties "slumming" became a fashionable occupation, while saw the beginning of the settlement movement in the foundation of toynbee hall. meanwhile the working classes were becoming articulate, learning more self-reliance and mutual dependence. the growth of trade unions, of co-operative and friendly societies, showed how the working people were beginning to work out their own salvation. towards the close of the century methods of improvement were nearly all on collectivist lines--in sanitary reform, in free education, in the agitation for a legal limitation of labour to eight hours a day, for a minimum wage and for old age pensions. amongst the most characteristic of these activities was the movement for the feeding of poor school children. in the early years of the movement the motives were chiefly philanthropic. the establishment of the ragged and other schools had brought under the notice of teachers and others large numbers of children, underfed and ill-clothed. still more was this the case when education was made compulsory under the education act of . it was impossible for humanitarians to attempt to educate these children without at the same time trying to alleviate their distress. education, in fact, proved useless if the child was starving; more, it might be positively detrimental, since the effort to learn placed on the child's brain a task greater than it could bear. all these early endeavours to provide meals were undertaken by voluntary agencies. their operations were spasmodic and proved totally inadequate to cope with the evil. towards the end of the century we find a growing insistence on the doctrine that it was the duty of the state to ensure that the children for whom it provided education should not be incapable, through lack of food, of profiting by that education. on the one hand some socialists demanded that the state ought itself to provide food for all its elementary school children. another school of reformers urged that voluntary agencies might in many areas deal with the question, but that where their resources proved inadequate the state must step in and supplement them. others again objected to any public provision of meals on the ground that it would undermine parental responsibility. the demand that the state must take some action was strengthened by the alarm excited during the south african war by the difficulty experienced in securing recruits of the requisite physique. the importance of the physical condition of the masses of the population was thus forced upon public attention. it was urged that the child was the material for the future generation, and that a healthy race could not be reared if the children were chronically underfed. in the result parliament yielded to the popular demand, and by the education (provision of meals) act of gave power to the local education authorities to assist voluntary agencies in the work of providing meals, and if necessary themselves to provide food out of the rates. (a)--provision by voluntary agencies. the first experiments in the provision of free or cheap dinners for school children appear to date from the early 'sixties.[ ] one of the earliest and most important of the london societies was the destitute children's dinner society, founded in february, , in connection with a ragged school in westminster.[ ] this society quickly grew and, between october and april , fifty-eight dining rooms were opened for longer or shorter periods.[ ] the motive, though largely sentimental, was from the first supported by educational considerations. "their almost constant destitution of food," write the committee in their appeal for funds, "is not only laying the foundation of permanent disease in their debilitated constitutions, but reduces them to so low a state that they have not vigour of body or energy of mind sufficient to derive any profit from the exertions of their teachers."[ ] the influence of the newly-formed charity organisation society is seen in the nervous anxiety of the promoters to avoid the charge of pauperising. "our object is not the indiscriminate relief of the multitude of poor children to be found in the lowest parts of the metropolis. our efforts are limited to those in attendance at ragged or other schools so as to encourage and assist the moral and religious training thus afforded."[ ] the dinners were not self-supporting,[ ] but a great point was made of the fact that a penny was charged towards paying the cost. nevertheless the promoters admitted that "it has been found impossible in some localities to obtain any payment from the children."[ ] footnote : "many of our own [roman catholic] schools ... fed the children even in the 'sixties." (report of select committee on education (provision of meals) bills (england and scotland), , evidence of monsignor brown, q. .) footnote : it is interesting to note that the impulse for the formation of this society came indirectly from france. in a commission of medical and scientific men had been appointed by the french government to enquire into the causes of diseases, such as scrofula, rickets, and impoverishment of blood, to which children of the poor were exposed, and which produced so much mortality. the committee reported that in their opinion the diseases were caused by children not having animal food, and might be checked by their having a meal of fresh meat once a month. owing to political events no action was taken on this report, but it made a great impression on victor hugo, and some fourteen years later (in ) he started the experiment of giving dinners of fresh meat and a small glass of wine, once a fortnight, to forty of the most necessitous young children of guernsey. this experiment was declared to be very successful. many children suffering from the above diseases had been cured, "and the physical constitution of nearly the whole of them sensibly improved" (_punch_, january , ). this description concluded with a suggestion that a similar scheme might be initiated in london. the destitute children's dinner society was the result. (_charity organisation review_, january, , p. .) footnote : report on metropolitan soup kitchens and dinner tables, by the society for organising charitable relief, , p. . footnote : _the times_, december , . footnote : _ibid._, november , . the following year the charity organisation society reports approvingly that the destitute children's dinner society "cordially accepts and endeavours to act up to the principle that 'to relieve destitution belongs to the poor law, while to prevent destitution is the peculiar function of charity.'" (report on metropolitan soup kitchens and dinner tables, , p. .) footnote : the cost of a meal was generally d., d. or d. footnote : _the times_, april , . the methods adopted by other societies were very similar. a common feature of all was the infrequency of the meal. as a rule a child would receive a dinner once a week, at the most twice a week.[ ] it is true that the dinners, unlike those supplied at the end of the century, when the predominant feature was soup, seem always to have been substantial and to have consisted of hot meat.[ ] but making all allowance for the nutritive value of the meal, its infrequency prevents us from placing much confidence in the enthusiastic reports of the various societies as to the beneficial result upon the children. "experience has proved," writes the destitute children's dinner society in , "that one substantial meat dinner per week has a marked effect on the health and powers of the children."[ ] "not only is there a marked improvement in their physical condition," reports the same society two years later, "but their teachers affirm that they are now enabled to exert their mental powers in a degree which was formerly impossible."[ ] the ragged school union in reports to the same effect. "the physical benefit of these dinners to the children is great; but it is not the body only that is benefited; the teachers agree in their opinion that those who are thus fed become more docile and teachable."[ ] footnote : we have only found one case where the dinner was given as often as three times a week. (see letter from john palmer, hon. sec. of the clare market ragged schools, _ibid._, october , .) footnote : thus a dinner given by the refuge for homeless and destitute children to pupils of st. giles and st. george, bloomsbury, consisted of boiled and roast beef, plenty of potatoes, and a thick slice of bread, the portion given to each child being abundant. (_ibid._, november , .) footnote : _ibid._, december , . footnote : _ibid._, march , . footnote : report of ragged school union for , quoted in report on metropolitan soup kitchens and dinner tables, , p. . meals were given only during the winter, though one society at any rate, the destitute children's dinner society, realised the importance of continuing the work throughout the year--an importance even now not universally appreciated--their object being "not to relieve temporary distress only, but by an additional weekly meal of good quality and quantity, to improve the general health and moral condition of the half starved and neglected children who swarm throughout the poor districts of london."[ ] funds apparently did not permit of their achieving this object.[ ] footnote : letter from the treasurer of the destitute children's dinner society, _the times_, april , . footnote : in that year ( ) dinners were given during nine months, being discontinued only from july to september, but in subsequent years they appear to have been provided during the winter months only. after the passing of the education act of , educational considerations became the dominant motive for feeding. teachers and school managers as well as philanthropists found themselves increasingly compelled to deal with the problem. it was not only that compulsory education brought into notice hundreds of needy children who had before been hidden away in courts and back alleys,[ ] but the effect of education on a starving child proved useless. footnote : "at the present season, when the energy of the school board visitors is filling the schools with all the poorest of the poor street arabs, the need of such a society as this is more than ever felt." (letter from the committee of the destitute children's dinner society, _the times_, december , .) the _referee_ fund, started in , was the result of mrs. burgwin's experience when head teacher of orange street school, southwark. she found the children in a deplorable condition and on appealing to a medical man for advice was told that they were simply starving. with the help of her assistant teachers she provided tea, coffee or warm milk for the most needy. soon a small local organisation was started, and a year or two after mr. g. r. sims drew public attention to the question by his articles on "how the poor live," and appealed for funds through the _referee_.[ ] the operations of the fund thus established were at first confined to west southwark--"in that area," mrs. burgwin triumphantly declared, "there was not a hungry school child"[ ]--but were gradually extended to other districts. as a result of the meals thus provided it was said that the children looked healthier and attended school better in the winter when they were being fed than they did in the summer.[ ] footnote : london school board, report of special committee on underfed children, , appendix , p. . footnote : report of inter-departmental committee on medical inspection and feeding, , vol. ii., q. . footnote : london school board, report of special committee on underfed children, , appendix , p. . the standard example, however, constantly quoted as evidence of the value of school meals, was the experiment started by sir henry peek at rousdon in . the children in that district had to walk long distances to school, "bringing with them wretched morsels of food for dinner," with, naturally, most unsatisfactory results. sir henry peek provided one good meal a day for five days, charging one penny a day. the system was practically self-supporting. the experiment was declared by the inspector to have "turned out a very great success. what strikes one at once on coming into the school is the healthy vigorous look of the children, and that their vigour is not merely bodily, but comes out in the course of examination. there is a marked contrast between their appearance and their work on the day of inspection, and those of the children in many of the neighbouring schools. the midday meal is good and without stint. it acts as an attraction, and induces regularity of attendance.... before the school was started the education of the children of the neighbourhood was as low as in any part of the district."[ ] footnote : mr. mundella in the house of commons, _hansard_, july , , rd series, vol. , pp. - . "the effect on the health of the children," writes the rector of rousdon in january, , "may be well exemplified by the most recent illustration--viz., that in the third week of december, though whooping-cough had been, and still was, prevalent among them, and the weather was damp and raw, the entry on the master's weekly report was, absentees, --that is, _every_ child on the register had appeared on the monday morning and paid for its week's dinners. probably such a circumstance in a rural school district (with radius of a mile and a half at least) in the height of winter is unprecedented." (_sanitary record_, january , .) about another motive for school meals emerges. public opinion began to be aroused on the subject of over-pressure. it was said that far too many subjects were taught and that the system of "payment by results" forced the teachers to overwork the children for the sake of the grant. it was pointed out that not only was it useless to try to educate a starving child, but the results might be positively harmful. numerous letters from school managers, doctors and others appeared in _the times_. "in dispensary practice," writes dr. sophia jex-blake, "i have lately seen several cases of habitual headache and other cerebral affections among children of all ages attending our board schools, and have traced their origin to overstrain caused by the ordinary school work, which the ill-nourished physical frames are often quite unfit to bear. i have spoken repeatedly on the subject to members of the school boards, and also to teachers in the schools, and have again and again been assured by them that they were quite alive to the danger, and heartily wished that it was in their power to avert it, but that the constantly advancing requirements of the education code left them no option in the matter."[ ] footnote : _the times_, april , . speaking of the children at london hospitals, dr. robert farquharson writes: "ill-fed and badly housed and clothed, exposed to depressing sanitary and domestic conditions, these poor creatures are frequently expected to do an amount of school work of which their badly-nourished brains are utterly incapable. i have long been familiar with the pale, dejected look, the chronic headache, the sleeplessness, the loss of appetite, the general want of tone, caused undoubtedly by the undue exercise of nervous tissues unprovided with their proper allowance of healthy food." such children "are by no means inclined to shirk their lessons; they are frequently much interested in them; but, feeling the responsibility of class and examinations keenly ... they become sleepless and restless, and rapidly lose flesh and strength." (_ibid._, april , .) _the lancet_ spoke strongly on the subject[ ] and in it was hotly discussed in parliament. mr. mundella spoke in warm praise of sir henry peek's experiment, while mr. s. smith, the member for liverpool, went so far as to say that "if parliament compelled persons by force of law to send their children to school, and the little ones were to be forced to undergo such a grinding system, they ought not to injure them in so doing, but should provide them, in cases of proved necessity, with sufficient nourishment to enable them to stand the pressure."[ ] such a proposition sounds "advanced" for the year , but he added the still more modern suggestion--"that not only should we have a medical inspection of schools, but that the grants should be partly dependent upon the physical health of the children.... we were applying sanitary science to our great towns, and we should apply the same science also to the educational system of the country."[ ] at last mr. mundella instigated dr. crichton browne to undertake a private enquiry into the subject. the report was somewhat vague and rhetorical, and dr. browne's judgments were said to be based on insufficient data, so that little fresh light was thrown on the question. it is, however, noteworthy that he too recommended medical inspection and also that a record of the height, weight and chest girth of the children should be kept.[ ] footnote : "that good feeding is necessary for brain nutrition does not need to be demonstrated or even argued at length ... it must be evident that the position in which education places the brains of underfed children is that of a highly-exercised organ urgently requiring food, and finding none or very little. these children are _growing_, and all or nearly all the food they can get is appropriated by the grosser and bulkier parts of the body to the starvation of the brain.... it is cruel to educate a growing child unless you are also prepared to feed him." (leading article, _the lancet_, august , , vol. ii., pp. - .) footnote : _hansard_, july , , rd series, vol. , p. . footnote : _ibid._, p. . footnote : _the times_, september , . in spite of conflicting opinions, one point became increasingly clear. whether the amount of mental strain necessitated by the educational code was exaggerated or not, there was no doubt that good educational results were dependent upon health and could not be attained where the children were seriously underfed. the situation was summed up by mr. sydney buxton during a conference of managers and teachers of london board schools in . the school boards, he said, had by their compulsory powers been "year by year tapping a lower stratum of society, bringing to light the distress, destitution and underfeeding which formerly had escaped their notice. the cry of over-pressure had drawn public attention to the children attending elementary schools, and he thought it was now becoming more and more recognised that 'over-pressure' in a very large number of cases was only another word for 'underfeeding.'"[ ] footnote : _school board chronicle_, december , , pp. - . the principle that compulsory education involved some provision of food being thus generally admitted,[ ] the question remained how was this to be done? should the meals be provided free or should they be self-supporting? a keen controversy ensued as to the merits of penny dinners. _the times_ quoted with apparent astonishment and alarm the view of the minister of education that it would not be enough to provide meals for those who could pay for them, and that whatever might be the vices of the parents the children ought not to suffer.[ ] the charity organisation society held more than one conference on the subject and emphatically contended that the only means of avoiding "pauperisation" was to insist on payment for the meals. indeed some members felt so strongly that penny dinners were bound to be converted into halfpenny or free dinners, that they were reluctant to give the movement any support at all.[ ] the attitude of the society was, as _the times_ said, "one of watchful criticism."[ ] yet there were some, at any rate, who recognised that the obligation on the part of the parent to send his children to school involved a very real pecuniary sacrifice which might often more than counterbalance any advantage to be obtained from free meals. "we must not teach poor children or poor parents to lean upon charity," says the school board chronicle in . "but, on the other hand, it ought never to be forgotten that this new law of compulsory attendance at school, in the making whereof the poorest classes of the people had no hand whatever, exacts greater sacrifices from that class than from any other. we hear a good deal sometimes ... of the grumbling of the ratepayers ... as to the burden of the school rate.... but do these grumblers ever reflect that the very poor of whom we are speaking never asked to have education provided for their children, never wanted it, have practically nothing to gain by it and much to lose, and that this law of compulsory education is forced on them, not for their good or for their pleasure, but for the safety and progress of society and for the sake of economy in the administration of the laws in the matter of poor relief and crime."[ ] amidst all the discussion on the needs and morals of the poor from the standpoint of the superior person, it is refreshing to find so honest and sympathetic a criticism. footnote : "it is now admitted that children cannot be expected to learn their lessons unless they are properly fed." (_the times_, leading article, december , .) footnote : _ibid._ footnote : _charity organisation review_, january, , p. . as we shall see (post, p. ), their fears in this respect were realised. footnote : _the times_, leading article, january , . footnote : _the school board chronicle_, december , , p. . the outcome of this lengthy public discussion was a great increase in voluntary feeding agencies all over the country about the year .[ ] at the conference of board school managers and teachers in that year, mr. mundella stated that, since he referred in the house of commons to the rousdon experiment, provision for school meals was being made in rural districts to an extent which he could hardly believe.[ ] in london the council for promoting self-supporting penny dinners was established and the movement spread rapidly. in august, , there were only two centres where penny dinners on a self-supporting basis were provided. by december such dinners had been started in thirteen other districts.[ ] footnote : such voluntary agencies were established, for instance, at hastings (about ), at birmingham and gateshead (in ), at carlisle (in ). footnote : _school board chronicle_, december , , pp. - . footnote : _ibid._, p. . meanwhile the promoters of free meals continued their work unabashed. the board school children's free dinner fund declared in , "our work does not cross the lines of the penny dinner movement. it was started before that movement and has been in some cases carried on side by side with it, its object being to feed those children whose parents have neither pennies nor half-pennies to pay for their dinners. free dinners are restricted to the children of widows, and to those whose parents are ill or out of work."[ ] the _referee_ fund now supplied schools over a large part of south london and had always given free meals. in most provincial towns, whether the dinners were nominally self-supporting or not, necessitous children were seldom refused food on account of inability to pay. private philanthropists saw the suffering and tried to alleviate it, not enquiring too closely into the consequences. footnote : _the times_, december , . it was generally taken for granted that the meals, whether free or self-supporting, should be provided by voluntary agencies. the local education authorities sometimes granted the use of rooms and plant,[ ] but seldom took any further action. it is remarkable that the guardians, whose duty it was to relieve the destitution existing, seem to have paid but the scantiest attention to it. even where they attempted to deal with it by granting relief to the family, this relief was generally inadequate and the children were consequently underfed, with the result that they were given meals by the voluntary feeding agencies.[ ] there seems indeed to have been no co-operation whatever between the various voluntary agencies established all over the country and the boards of guardians.[ ] by an act of parliament passed in it was enacted that where any parent wilfully neglected to provide adequate food for his child the board of guardians should institute proceedings.[ ] this act seems to have remained almost a dead letter. in giving evidence before the house of lords select committee on poor law relief in , mr. benjamin waugh, director of the national society for the prevention of cruelty to children, in speaking of the act, stated, "first, that the guardians do not act upon it to any very great extent; secondly, that the police know that it is not their business, and they do not act upon it; and, thirdly, the public have an impression that they are excluded from taking cognisance of starvation cases because the term used is 'the guardians shall' do it." "there are cases in which they are habitually doing it, chiefly where ladies are upon the board, but in a very small number of cases indeed throughout the country."[ ] the part taken by the state in the matter of relieving the wants of underfed children was thus as yet a small one.[ ] footnote : thus at liverpool, about , the council of education resolved to offer grants to school managers for the supply of needful appliances for penny dinners, provided that "the payment of a penny should absolutely cover the cost of each dinner, so as not only to avoid pauperising the recipient, but also to render the scheme entirely self-supporting." (report of special sub-committee on meals for school children, in minutes of london school board, july , , p. .) at birmingham the school board allowed a voluntary committee to erect kitchens on the school premises. (london school board, report of general purposes committee on underfed children attending school, , p. .) at gateshead, in , the school board arranged for a supply of dinners in the schools in the poorest parts of the town. (report of select committee on the education (provision of meals) bills (england and scotland), , q. .) in london, the school board in resolved "that the board grant facilities to local managers and to other responsible persons for the provision on the school premises of penny dinners on self-supporting principles for elementary school children, where it can be done without interference with school work or injury to the school buildings." (report of special committee on meals for school children, in minutes of london school board, july , , p. .) at manchester, as early as , the school board initiated a scheme for providing meals. the chairman, mr. herbert birley, had been in the habit of supplying breakfasts to poor children in some of the schools, and on these schools being transferred to the school board, he induced it to continue the work. (report of inter-departmental committee on medical inspection and feeding, , vol. ii., qs. a, , evidence of mr. c. h. wyatt.) footnote : in manchester there had been a serious attempt to meet the difficulty. there the board of guardians maintained a "day feeding school" and gave three meals a day to its out-door relief children for some years between and . (report of royal commission on the poor laws, , vo edition, vol. iii., p. n.) footnote : see for instance the evidence given before the london school board in . (see post, p. .) footnote : and vict. c. , sec. . footnote : house of lords select committee on poor law relief, , qs. , . footnote : by an act of , the local education authority might establish day industrial schools at which one or more meals were provided, towards the cost of which the parents should contribute. ( and vict., c. , sec. .) very few such schools were established. (see post, p. .) (b)--the organisation of the voluntary agencies. the history of the movement for the next ten years or so is mainly concerned with organisation. in london, with the number of feeding centres growing so rapidly, with many different agencies whose principles and methods conflicted, some plan of organisation and co-operation was the crying need. in may, , at the instigation of sir henry peek, a committee, composed of representatives of the various voluntary societies,[ ] was formed to consider in what ways co-operation was feasible. this committee recommended that (i) self-supporting dinner centres should be opened in as many districts as possible in london, and the various societies for providing dinners for children should be invited to make use of them; (ii) free dinners to children attending public elementary schools should only be given on the recommendation of the head teacher; (iii) when free dinners were given a register should be kept of the circumstances of the family.[ ] footnote : the committee represented the self-supporting penny dinner council, the board school children's free dinner fund, the south london schools dinner fund, free breakfasts and dinners for the poor board school and other children of southwark (the _referee_ fund) and the poor children's aid association. footnote : _the times_, november , . this attempt cannot have been very effective, for when, at last, the london school board took the matter in hand, feeding arrangements were as chaotic as ever. in a special committee was appointed to enquire into the whole question and report to the board. the report shows that the supply of food was extraordinarily badly distributed. "in some districts there is an excess of charitable effort leading to a wasteful and demoralising distribution of dinners to children who are not in want, while in other places children are starving."[ ] in most cases the provision was insufficient to feed all the indigent children every day, many getting a meal only once or twice a week.[ ] only a rough estimate of the number of necessitous children could be obtained, but it was calculated that , or · per cent. of the children attending schools of the board were habitually in want of food, and of these less than half were provided for.[ ] the committee recommended that a central organisation should be formed "to work with the existing associations with a view to a more economical and efficient system for the provision of cheap or free meals."[ ] as a result the london schools dinner association was founded. most of the large societies were merged into this body, one or two retaining their separate organisation, but agreeing to work in harmony with it.[ ] footnote : report of special sub-committee on meals for school children, in minutes of london school board, july , , p. . footnote : _ibid._ footnote : _ibid._, p. . footnote : _ibid._, p. . footnote : seven members of the school board were placed on the executive committee as a kind of informal representation, but in this number had dwindled to three. (london school board, report of general purposes committee on underfed children, , pp. v.-vi.) there was "no direct touch" between the two bodies, "except the accidental circumstance that members of the board might be on the committee" of the association. (_ibid._, p. , evidence of mr. t. a. spalding.) another committee appointed by the school board in december, , was just as emphatic as to the general inefficiency and want of uniformity. the work of giving charitable meals, they found, was still in the experimental stage, as was shown by the "extremely divergent views ... both as to the nature and extent of the distress ... and as to the efficiency of the methods employed in meeting it."[ ] they were struck by "the apparent want of co-ordination between the various agencies which were dealing with distress in london" (_i.e._, the poor law, the labour bureaux established by the london vestries, etc.). "the local committees in connection with the schools seem to have had no knowledge whatsoever of what was being done by these other bodies, except in the few cases where more or less permanent out-door relief was being given, and where the children presented attendance cards to be filled up by their teachers."[ ] "our work," remarked one witness, "is carried on without paying heed to what may be done under the poor law authorities."[ ] relief was "often given without any connection with the managers or teachers of public elementary schools." in one instance tickets for meals "were distributed without enquiry at the door of a music hall ... the proprietor of which had been one of the chief subscribers to the fund."[ ] in another case "tickets issued by an evening paper fund were sold over and over again by the people to whom they were given; sold in the streets and in the public-houses."[ ] even when the arrangements were nominally controlled by the education authorities the methods of selection were haphazard and the provision often totally inadequate. a number of witnesses gave evidence of this. "it was found that one child of a family was given fourteen tickets during the season, whilst another child of the same family had only one or two."[ ] "it might have been well to have taken one or two children in hand for the purpose of observations," remarked the head-master of a stepney school, "but i remember one of my instructions was that the same child was not to be given a meal too often."[ ] in one school the number of children needing a dinner on any day was ascertained by a show of hands. each child was then called out before the teacher and asked about its parents' circumstances.[ ] in another case the teachers merely asked the children in the morning which of them would not get any dinner at home that day.[ ] of course there were seldom enough tickets to go round. for the parents this haphazard method was most bewildering. "no arrangement is made with the parents as to whether or not a child will have a meal on any day .... in many cases the parents hardly know whether the children are having a meal at school or not, as they constantly come home for something more."[ ] footnote : london school board, report of special committee on underfed children, , p. vii. footnote : _ibid._ footnote : _ibid._, p. , evidence of mr. w. h. libby. "i am of opinion," said this witness, "that the children of parents who are in receipt of out-door relief are more in need of our help than others." (_ibid._) "in my experience," said mrs. burgwin, "the greatest distress was amongst the children of parents who were in receipt of out-door relief, and free meals should certainly be given to them, for the amount allowed as out-door relief is so small that a family is left practically on the verge of starvation." (_ibid._, p. .) footnote : _ibid._, p. ii. footnote : _ibid._, p. . footnote : _ibid._, p. (evidence of mrs. marion leon, manager of vere street school, clare market). footnote : _ibid._, pp. - (evidence of mr. j. morgan). footnote : _ibid._, p. (evidence of mr. c. h. heller, headmaster of sayer street school, walworth). footnote : _ibid._, p. (evidence of mrs. marion leon). footnote : _ibid._, p. (evidence of miss l. p. fowler). in the self-supporting meal was still regarded as the normal type although the number of free meals was on the increase. in the committee recognised that self-supporting penny dinners were a failure. only per cent. of the meals were paid for by the children.[ ] this had one rather curious effect. the meals were much more uniform in type than in , and this uniformity was distasteful if not harmful to the children. the chief reason was perhaps that the need to attract the children was not so great as when it was hoped to establish the meals on a self-supporting basis. another reason was that the national food supply association, which did most of the catering, desired to encourage the use of vegetable soup as well as to relieve distress.[ ] footnote : _ibid._, p. iii. even when the dinners were paid for, the payment rarely covered the cost. the same want of success was reported in the provinces. at birmingham the experiment of giving penny dinners failed completely, and the meals had to be given free. (report of inter-departmental committee on physical deterioration, , qs. , , evidence of dr. airy.) "the experience of all workers in this movement testifies," says canon moore ede, "that the poorest of all--those who are least well nourished--are scarcely touched by the penny dinners." ("cheap meals for poor school children," by rev. w. moore ede, in _report of conference on education under healthy conditions at manchester_, , p. .) footnote : london school board, report of special committee on underfed children, , pp. iv., v. "under the penny dinner system, we had to provide something to attract the children, as they would not come to the same meal every day and pay a penny for it; puddings and meat pies were provided and varied from day to day. now they get soup." (_ibid._, appendix i., p. , evidence of rev. r. leach.) "the soup ... supplied by the national food association varies so very little from day to day that it is natural for the children to grow tired of it," (_ibid._, p. , evidence of mr. c. h. heller.) apart from the question of more efficient organisation, the recommendations of this committee were somewhat indefinite. they urged that, as a guide for future action, continuous records should be kept of all children fed.[ ] on the adequacy of the existing voluntary organisations to cope with the distress the majority declined to commit themselves. the minority asserted emphatically that these charitable funds were amply sufficient. the committee questioned how far the supply of food was the right way of dealing with distress. "actual starvation," they said, "was undoubtedly at one time the chief evil to be feared by the poor. but now that rent in london is so high and food so cheap conditions have changed."[ ] other forms of help, they felt, were possibly more needed, _e.g._, medical advice and clothing. indeed, during the last sixty years there had been such an improvement in the economic conditions of the working classes as had not been known at any other period of history. comparisons between conditions obtaining at the beginning and at the end of the nineteenth century are to some extent vitiated by the fact that the former was a period of extraordinary social misery. nevertheless, the improvement is striking. sir robert giffen, speaking on "the progress of the working classes in the last half century," in november, , showed that, while the wages of working men "have advanced, most articles he consumes have rather diminished in price, the change in wheat being especially remarkable, and significant of a complete revolution in the conditions of the masses. the increased price in the case of one or two articles--particularly meat and house rent--is insufficient to neutralise the general advantages which the workman has gained."[ ] by further statistics he showed "a decline in the rate of mortality, an increase of the consumption of articles in general use, an improvement in general education, a diminution of crime and pauperism, a vast increase in the number of depositors in savings banks, and other evidences of general well-being."[ ] up to the cost of living steadily declined, and in that year real wages were higher than they had ever been before. this did not mean, as some urged, that society might slacken any of its efforts to improve the condition of the poorer classes. even from the most optimistic standpoint the improvement was far too small, and there was still a residuum whose deplorable condition demanded "something like a revolution for the better."[ ] but now that the more prosperous working men were consciously striving to improve their own position, the community, or the philanthropists among it, were more able to assist the submerged remainder. the history of school feeding illustrates how "one of the least noticed but most certain facts of social life is the fact that society very seldom awakes to the existence of an evil while that evil is at its worst, but some time afterwards, when the evil is already in process of healing itself.... society can seldom be induced to bother itself about any suffering, the removal of which requires really revolutionary treatment. it only becomes sensitive, sympathetic and eager for reform when reform is possible without too great an upheaval of its settled way of life."[ ] a higher standard of living was now required and the real question was whether feeding the school child was the right way to attain to it, or only a following of the line of least resistance. if it was a healthy movement, then clearly it was time to set about feeding in a more thorough fashion. footnote : _ibid._, pp. v., viii. footnote : _ibid._, p. vi. footnote : _economic enquiries and studies_, by sir robert giffen, , vol. i., pp. - . footnote : _ibid._, p. . footnote : _ibid._, p. . footnote : _a philosophy of social progress_, by e. j. urwick, , pp. , . in a third attempt was made by the london school board to deal with the question. it was referred to the general purposes committee to enquire into the number of underfed children and to consider "how far the present voluntary provision for school meals is, or is not, effectual."[ ] the evidence given before the committee shows the prevalence of a state of affairs very similar to that of the earlier years. there is the same complaint about "the want of any general plan, the utter lack of uniformity ... the absence (except in a few places) of any means of enquiring into doubtful cases, and above all the non-existence of any sort of machinery for securing that where want exists it shall be dealt with."[ ] but the report and recommendations of the majority of the special committee show an astonishing advance on the views of the two former committees. the necessity for feeding was not now denied, they thought, "even by those ... who are keenly anxious to prevent the undermining of prudence or self-help by ill-advised or unregulated generosity."[ ] they were most emphatic as to the good effects on the children when the meals were nicely served in the schools under proper supervision, and they considered "that food provision and training at meals should in particular form part of the work of all centres for physically and mentally defective children, and that the government grant should be calculated accordingly."[ ] one or two of the members of the committee and some of the witnesses urged that meals should be continued in the summer.[ ] as to the effect on the parents, "it appears to the sub-committee ... that its concern is with the well-being of the children, and even if it were the case that it was, in some way, better for the moral character of the parents to let the children starve, the sub-committee would not be prepared to advise that line of policy. the first duty of the community to the child ... is to see that it has a proper chance as regards its equipment for life."[ ] "if they come to school underfed ... it would seem to be the duty of those who have a care of the children to deal with it, and to see that the underfeeding ceases. it is, of course, obvious, in any case, that this, like all other social evils, may be gradually eliminated by the general improvement, moral and material, of the community. but apart from the fact that that is a slow process and that many generations of actual school children will come and go in the meantime, it is obvious that the prevention of underfeeding in school children (with its results of under-education and increasing malnutrition) is itself one of the potent means of forwarding the general improvement."[ ] at the same time the idea that school dinners pauperise the parents or destroy the sense of parental responsibility "appears to the sub-committee to be a mere theoretic fancy entirely unsupported by practical experience."[ ] parents who could feed their children and would not should "simply be summoned for 'cruelty.'"[ ] footnote : london school board, report of general purposes committee on underfed children, , p. ii., par. . footnote : _ibid._, p. vi., par. . footnote : _ibid._, p. iii., pars. , . footnote : _ibid._, p. v., par. . "school dinners well managed may be made to have an admirable educative effect.... this makes me think that a proper part of the business of the school should be a common mid-day meal." (evidence of mrs. despard, _ibid._, p. .) mrs. burgwin was of the same opinion. (_ibid._, p. .) footnote : see, for instance, the suggestions made by mr. whiteley (_ibid._, p. ix.), and the evidence of mrs. burgwin and mr. j. morant (_ibid._, pp. , ). footnote : _ibid._, p. iv., par. . footnote : _ibid._, p. iv., par. . footnote : _ibid._, p. iv., par. . footnote : _ibid._, p. v., par. . the majority of the committee declared themselves convinced "by the consideration of the subject, and by the special information now obtained from paris and from other foreign countries,[ ] that the whole question of the feeding and health of children compulsorily attending school requires to be dealt with as a matter of public concern."[ ] they therefore recommended that a central committee should be formed, which should be authorised to call for reports and general assistance from the board's staff, facilities being granted for the use of rooms at the schools for meals, and they made the following important statement of principle:--"it should be deemed to be part of the duty of any authority by law responsible for the compulsory attendance of children at school to ascertain what children, if any, come to school in a state unfit to get normal profit by the school work--whether by reason of underfeeding, physical disability or otherwise--and there should be the necessary inspection for that purpose; that where it is ascertained that children are sent to school 'underfed' ... it should be part of the duty of the authority to see that they are provided, under proper conditions, with the necessary food;" that "the authority should co-operate in any existing or future voluntary efforts to that end," and that, "in so far as such voluntary efforts fail to cover the ground, the authority should have the power and the duty to supplement them." where dinners were provided, it was desirable that they should be open to all children, and that the parents should pay for them, unless they were unable by misfortune to find the money, and that no distinction should be made between the paying and the non-paying children. if the underfed condition of the child was due to the culpable neglect of the parent, the board should prosecute the parent, and, if the offence was persisted in, should have power to deal with the child under the industrial schools acts.[ ] footnote : for some account of the "cantines scolaires" of paris, and the provision of meals in other foreign towns, see appendix iii. footnote : london school board, report of general purposes committee on underfed children, , p. vii., par. . footnote : _ibid._, p. i. the board rejected these proposals and acted on the more cautious recommendations of the minority, who were convinced that there was no necessity for any public authority to undertake the work, the voluntary associations being entirely capable of dealing effectively with the need, if they were properly organised. they considered, therefore, that the duties of the school board should be confined to co-operation in the organisation of these associations.[ ] this decision was hailed with relief by _the times_, which rejoiced that "the attempt of the 'fabian' school of socialists, assisted by some philanthropic dupes, to capture the london school board has been decisively repelled."[ ] footnote : _ibid._, p. xii. minutes of the london school board, november , , vol. , pp. - . the majority report was rejected by votes to . footnote : _the times_, december , . as a matter of fact the fabian society seems as yet to have paid little attention to the question, and, in so far as these proposals had been due to socialist influence, the agitation had come from the social democratic federation. this body had, since the early 'eighties, made the provision of a free meal for all children attending elementary schools one of the fundamental planks of its platform.[ ] several memorials were sent to the school board,[ ] urging that all children whose parents were unemployed should be fed and clothed out of the rates, but this proposal was too sweeping to meet with a favourable reception. footnote : _justice_, march , september and , december , . footnote : see, for instance, the memorials presented in , , and . (minutes of the london school board, november , ; february , ; december , .) the recommendations, which were finally adopted in march, , provided for the establishment of a permanent committee, to be known as the "joint committee on underfed children." this was composed partly of members of the school board, partly of representatives of various other bodies. sub-committees, consisting of managers, teachers, school board visitors and one or more co-opted outsiders, were to be appointed in each board school, or group of schools, where the necessity for providing meals for underfed children was felt, and these sub-committees were to make all necessary arrangements for the provision of meals.[ ] the functions of the joint committee were limited. it was to receive reports from the sub-committees, to draw their attention to any defect which might appear in the selection of the children or the arrangements made for providing relief, to give them assistance by placing them in communication with a source of supply so as to enable them to obtain the necessary funds, to communicate with the chief collecting agencies when there was reason to fear that the funds might not be sufficient, and "generally to keep the public informed of what is being done to provide relief for underfed children, and to stimulate public interest in the work."[ ] how far this effort to meet the need was successful we shall relate in a subsequent chapter.[ ] footnote : similar committees had been in existence in several schools for some years. footnote : minutes of the london school board, march , , vol. , pp. - , . footnote : see chapter iii. (c)--the demand for state provision. soon after the beginning of the new century the agitation for some form of state feeding grew urgent and widespread. there was no attempt to deal with the matter in the education act of , but from about this date onwards the question constantly recurred in parliamentary debates, a sure indication that the question was interesting others besides the expert and the philanthropist. and to the old motives of sentiment and educational need was added a new motive, a motive specially characteristic of the present century and one which in some other directions threatens to become almost an obsession. this was the desire for "race regeneration," the conviction of the supreme importance of securing a physically efficient people. formerly the tendency had been to sacrifice the needs of the child to the supposed moral welfare of the family, now the child was regarded primarily as the raw material for a nation of healthy citizens. the south african war had been partly instrumental in producing this extreme anxiety about physical unfitness, and two public enquiries--the royal commission on physical training in scotland, and the inter-departmental committee on physical deterioration--furnished abundant proof of the harm which was being done in this direction by the mal-nutrition of school children. the report of the royal commission on physical training showed indisputably the necessity for better feeding. on this point a large number of important witnesses were unanimous.[ ] the commissioners were, however, cautious in their recommendations. though fully convinced of the necessity for feeding, they were doubtful as to how far the responsibility for dealing with the need should be placed upon the education authorities. "it is matter for grave consideration," they declared, "whether the valuable asset to the nation in the improved moral and physical state of a large number of future citizens counterbalances the evils of impaired parental responsibility, or whether voluntary agencies may be trusted to do this work with more discrimination and consequently less danger than a statutory system."[ ] on the other hand, they urged, "it must be remembered that, with every desire to act up to their parental responsibility, and while quite ready to contribute in proportion to their power, there are often impediments in the way of the home provision of suitable food by the parents."[ ] they considered, therefore, that "accommodation and means for enabling children to be properly fed should ... be provided either in each school or in a centre; but, except a limited sum to provide the necessary equipment, no part of the cost should be allowed to fall on the rates."[ ] the meal should be educational in character. "an obligation for the proper supervision of the feeding of those who come for instruction should be regarded as one of the duties of school authorities."[ ] footnote : report of royal commission on physical training (scotland), . vol. i., p. , par. . "if we are going to develop the physical training of children we must be on our guard against overworking them," said one witness, "and, of course, underfed children would be positively injured by even light exercises." (_ibid._, vol. ii., q. , evidence of mr. j. e. legge, inspector of reformatory and industrial schools.) "children can exist, when doing no mental or physical work, on a bare subsistence diet," said dr. clement dukes, "but ... a bare subsistence diet becomes a starvation diet when mental or bodily work is added." (_ibid._, q. .) footnote : _ibid._, vol. i., p. , par. . footnote : _ibid._, p. , par. . footnote : _ibid._, p. , par. . footnote : _ibid._, p. , par. . the findings of the inter-departmental committee on physical deterioration were more definite and striking. to take first the evidence as to the extent of underfeeding, dr. eichholz, after careful investigation, estimated that the rough total of underfed children in london was , or per cent. of the elementary school population. these figures were based on the assumption that all the children being fed at schools and centres would otherwise have gone unfed; but, considering the loose method of enquiry prevalent, this was questionable. the london school board put the number at , , but this seems to have been grossly understating the case.[ ] in manchester, according to the estimate of the education committee and the medical officer of health, not less than per cent. were underfed.[ ] the evidence given was, however, conflicting, and indeed little reliance can be placed on these statistics. footnote : report of inter-departmental committee on physical deterioration, , p. , pars. - ; evidence of dr. eichholz, qs. - . footnote : _ibid._, p. , par. ; evidence of dr. eichholz, q. . with regard to the effect of underfeeding on the physique of the children, the doctors gave striking testimony. dr. robert hutchison was of opinion that, if a child had not sufficient food during the period of growth, that is during the school years, it would be permanently stunted.[ ] "apart from infectious diseases," said dr. collie of the london school board, "malnutrition is accountable for nine-tenths of child sickness."[ ] dr. eichholz pointed out that at leeds dr. hall had found that fifty per cent. of the children in a poor school suffered from rickets, the true cause of which was poor and unsuitable food, whilst in a well-to-do school the proportion was only eight per cent.[ ] in the opinion of this witness, an opinion "shared by medical men, members of education committees, managers, teachers and others conversant with the condition of school children ... food is at the base of all the evils of child degeneracy."[ ] "the sufficient feeding of children," declared dr. niven, medical officer of health for manchester, "is by far the most important thing to attend to and ... specially important in connection with the army.... when trade is good," he argued, "you will have to rely for the army upon this very poor class, and in order to get good soldiers you must rear good children, you must see that children are adequately fed."[ ] footnote : _ibid._, q. . "the critical age," he considered, was "from to ." looking at the enormous improvement in children in the navy and in industrial schools, where they were properly fed, he did not "share the pessimistic view that the mischief is hopelessly done by the time a child reaches school age." he felt certain that "the provision of meals would do a great deal to improve the health and growth and development of the children of the poorer classes." (_ibid._, qs. , - , , .) footnote : _ibid._, q. . footnote : _ibid._, q. . footnote : _ibid._, q. . footnote : _ibid._, q. . see also evidence of general sir t. maurice, q. . such were the arguments on the negative side--on the positive side there was ample proof of the good effects of a regular nutritious diet. dr. eichholz referred to dr. hall's experiment in feeding poor children at leeds. "taking sixty poor seven-year-old children, at the beginning of the period they totalled lbs., below normal weight.... they gained in three months forty lbs. in addition to the normal increase in weight" for that time, "and they looked less anæmic and more cheerful."[ ] too much importance must not be attached to these figures since the data on which they are based are not sufficiently known to gauge their value, but that the improvement was very considerable cannot be doubted. moreover, in the special schools for mentally defective children where meals were regularly provided, the results were astonishing. dr. collie told how, "in a large number of instances after the careful individual attention and midday dinner of the special schools," the children "returned after from six to eighteen months to the elementary schools with a new lease of mental vigour. these children are functionally mentally defective.... their brains are starved, and naturally fail to react to the ordinary methods of elementary teaching."[ ] "bad nutrition and normal brain development," he added, "are incompatible."[ ] footnote : _ibid._, evidence of dr. eichholz, q. . footnote : _ibid._, evidence of dr. collie, q. . footnote : _ibid._, q. . there was indeed, as the committee pointed out, "a general consensus of opinion that the time had come when the state should realise the necessity of ensuring adequate nourishment to children in attendance at school ... it was, further, the subject of general agreement that, as a rule, no purely voluntary association could successfully cope with the full extent of the evil."[ ] in a large number of cases such voluntary organisations would be sufficient for the purpose, "with the support and oversight of the local authority," and, as long as this was so, the committee would "strongly deprecate recourse being had to direct municipal assistance."[ ] but in cases where "the extent or the concentration of poverty might be too great for the resources of local charity ... it might be expedient to permit the application of municipal aid on a larger scale."[ ] as a corollary to the exercise of such powers on the part of the local authority, the law would have to be altered to make it more possible to prosecute neglectful parents.[ ] the committee were also in favour of establishing special schools of the day industrial school type in which feeding would form an essential feature. to these definitely "retarded" children might be sent.[ ] they recommended that the funds for these experiments should be found through the machinery of the poor law,[ ] for they were anxious to guard the community from the consequences of "the somewhat dangerous doctrine that free meals are the necessary concomitant of free education."[ ] footnote : _ibid._, p. , par. . footnote : _ibid._, p. , par. . footnote : _ibid._, par. . footnote : _ibid._ footnote : _ibid._, par. . footnote : _ibid._, par. . footnote : _ibid._, par. . following on these reports came a strenuous agitation in parliament and in the country. the national labour conference on the state maintenance of children, held at the guildhall in january, , declared unanimously in favour of state maintenance "as a necessary corollary of universal compulsory education, and as a means of partially arresting that physical deterioration of the industrial population of this country, which is now generally recognised as a grave national danger. as a step towards such state maintenance," the conference called upon the government to introduce without further delay legislation enabling local authorities to provide meals for school children, the cost to be borne by the national exchequer.[ ] the national union of teachers, at a largely attended conference at llandudno in the same year, were agreed as to the urgent need for legislation.[ ] footnote : report of the national labour conference on the state maintenance of children, at the guildhall, january , , p. . footnote : report of select committee on education (provision of meals) bills (england and scotland), , qs. , , . by a considerable majority the conference defeated an amendment that the board of guardians should be substituted for the local education authority as the authority for making the provision, but owing to a technical difficulty the main resolution was not put. see also the resolution passed at a conference of the school attendance officers' association, quoted by mr. slack in the house of commons (_hansard_, april , , th series, vol. , p. ). in parliament the agitation was led by mr. claude hay, sir john gorst and dr. macnamara. it was urged that a large part of the money spent on education was wasted. to teach children who were physically quite unfit to receive instruction, was, as sir john gorst pointed out, "the height of absurdity."[ ] thirty years' compulsory education had, mr. claude hay declared, resulted in disappointment. "the gain in intelligence was, to say the least of it, equivocal, while the physical deterioration of the people was obvious. the reason was largely that we had taken education as an isolated factor, whereas it was part of an absolutely indivisible unit.... we had assumed that ... the intellect could act independently of all other parts of the total human being. we had ignored the body, the soul and the will, and the result had been a fiasco."[ ] compulsory education involved free meals, but only for the "necessitous child."[ ] it was declared that many parents would gladly pay if they were thereby assured that their children were adequately and properly fed.[ ] footnote : _hansard_, july , , vol. , p. . see also _ibid._, february , , vol. , p. . footnote : _ibid._, april , , vol. , pp. - . footnote : _ibid._, p. . footnote : _ibid._, p. ; sir john gorst, _ibid._, july , , vol. , p. . for some time the government remained obdurate, and declined to take any action. at last, however, it became clear that something must be done. the findings of the royal commission on physical training and the inter-departmental committee on physical deterioration had created too profound an impression to be ignored. yet even now the government were not prepared for legislation. they were of opinion that there still existed a wide divergence of views as to the extent of underfeeding and the remedies to be applied. accordingly, in march, , another departmental committee was appointed to collect further information.[ ] footnote : _hansard_, march , , vol. , p. . the reference of this committee made it clear that the government had no intention of allowing the rates to be utilised for the supply of food. in the matter of feeding, the committee were merely to enquire into the relief given by the various voluntary agencies, and report "whether relief of this character could be better organised, without any charge upon public funds."[ ] the report was, therefore, mainly concerned with questions of administration. a careful and elaborate account was given of the existing agencies all over england, the methods employed, the sums expended, and the kind of relief given. evidence was received from representatives of all the more important societies in london and the provinces. it was found that outside london feeding agencies existed in out of the county boroughs, in out of the boroughs and in out of the large urban districts.[ ] in addition to these there were numerous efforts of a spasmodic character, school meals being often started hastily during some special emergency. the committee estimated that the total amount spent on the provision of meals in england and wales was approximately £ , , of which £ , was spent in london.[ ] but these figures were "very far from representing the full amount of money spent out of charitable sources."[ ] no account was taken of the innumerable philanthropic agencies existing all over the country, such as soup kitchens, district visiting societies and the like, who were incidentally spending large sums on the provision of food for school children. moreover, the impracticability of obtaining returns from all the feeding agencies and the varying methods in which their accounts were made up, made any exact computation impossible. footnote : report of the inter-departmental committee on medical inspection and feeding, , vol. i., p. vii. footnote : _ibid._, pp. , , pars. , , . the total number of these agencies was . of these were permanent (_i.e._, had been in existence over a year), were new, and were intermittent in their operations. footnote : _ibid._, pp. - , pars. - . footnote : _ibid._, p. , par. . in the evidence given before the committee, we note the same evils prevailing as had been discovered in former years. there is the same diversity in the method of selection and the same inadequate provision. we find still the practice of giving a child a meal two or three days a week only.[ ] in the great majority of cases the feeding was confined to the winter months, though many witnesses were of opinion that meals should be obtainable in the summer also.[ ] footnote : "at present," declared one witness, "the funds are wasted through their being distributed over too large a number of children.... at one school ... the headmaster asked the boys whether they would like to have their ticket this week or next week." (_ibid._, vol. ii., q. , evidence of mr. t. e. harvey.) at norwich, a child received a meal only once a week. "there was no system of feeding the children regularly. they had to take it in turns." (_ibid._, q. , evidence of mrs. pillow.) at hull it was "a rough rule given to the teacher" that a child should be fed every other day. (_ibid._, qs. , , evidence of mr. g. f. grant.) see also evidence given by mrs. adler (qs. - ), mrs. burgwin (q. ), and the rev. j. c. mantle (q. ). it was even urged by mr. hookham, of birmingham, that the insufficiency of the provision was a positive advantage. the fact "that there are more children wanting meals than can get them ... is the main safeguard against imposition." without this safeguard, he declares, "you will lose the evidence which the children give against one another when imposition takes place, which i think is the most valuable of all evidence" (_ibid._, q. .) footnote : _ibid._, vol. i., pp. - , pars. - . the meals given at bradford were continued all through the year, and so were the breakfasts given by mr. hookham at birmingham (_ibid._). the committee were convinced that, in all county boroughs and large towns, no voluntary agency which extended beyond the limits of one or two schools could be worked properly, except in intimate connection with, if not directly organised by, the local education authority. to avoid overlapping and abuse it was essential that managers and school teachers should be required to supply full information, and only the local authority had power to insist on this being done.[ ] the committee deprecated "the proneness for starting school meals hastily upon some special emergency."[ ] it was essential that any organisation for feeding school children should be of a permanent character and provision should be made for enabling meals to be given where necessary throughout the year.[ ] it was desirable that meals should be obtainable on every school day, and it should be the object of the feeding agency to feed the most destitute children regularly rather than a larger number irregularly.[ ] the committee recognised the valuable help which had been given by the teachers. many of the systems for feeding the children had in fact originated entirely with them, whilst in many more the whole brunt of the work had fallen upon them. but this work involved too great a strain upon the teachers and they should not be required to supervise the meals unless their attendance was indispensable.[ ] nor in the matter of the selection of the children should the teachers be asked to do more than draw up the preliminary list. they had no time for visiting the homes nor were they always the most competent persons for making enquiries. the final selection of the children should be in the hands of a relief committee, which should be formed for each school or group of schools.[ ] the increasing attention paid to the medical side of the question is shown by the recommendation that, wherever possible, the advice and guidance of the school doctor should be obtained.[ ] the committee refer with approval to the proposal that a system of school restaurants should be established, at which meals could be supplied at cost price. "not much attempt," they say, "has yet been made through the medium of school meals towards raising the standard of physical development among the children and promoting a taste for wholesome and nourishing food."[ ] in view of the very divergent opinions expressed by witnesses, the committee were unable to come to a clear conclusion whether or not such restaurants would succeed, but they would "welcome experiments made in this direction."[ ] the restaurants, they thought, would probably have to be kept separate from any system of free dinners, for attempts to combine free and cheap meals had always ended in failure. in country districts, where the children often lived at a great distance from the school, the need for school restaurants was distinctly felt. the lunches brought by the children were generally of a most unsatisfactory nature. the committee were of opinion that the managers should arrange for the provision of a hot dinner, or at any rate soup or cocoa, for those children who were unable to go home at midday. a charge should be made which should at least cover the cost of the food.[ ] footnote : _ibid._, p. , par. . footnote : _ibid._, p. , par. . footnote : _ibid._, pp. , , par. , secs. , . footnote : _ibid._, p. , pars. , . footnote : _ibid._, pp. , , pars. , . footnote : _ibid._, pp. , , pars. , (secs. , ). footnote : _ibid._, p. , par. . so far as the committee could discover, "the question of malnutrition and underfeeding has attracted very little attention in connection with medical inspection. there appears to be no area where the medical officer works in close touch with the organisations for the feeding of children." (_ibid._, p. , par. .) footnote : _ibid._, p. , par. . footnote : _ibid._, p. , par. . footnote : _ibid._, p. , par. . this was already being done in some rural schools. at siddington, for instance, a hot dinner had been supplied for the last two years, the parents' payments more than covering the cost of the food. (_ibid._, par. .) we have already alluded to the experiment at rousdon, where dinners were provided throughout the year in a specially provided dining-room, as a part of the school organisation. here the cost of the food was not quite covered by the parents' payments. (_ibid._, par. .) the report of the committee was published late in . meanwhile the parliamentary agitation had continued. two bills were introduced in march by mr. claude hay and mr. arthur henderson.[ ] these were withdrawn to make way for a resolution moved by mr. (afterwards sir bamford) slack--"that in the opinion of this house, the local education authorities should be empowered (as unanimously recommended by the inter-departmental committee on physical deterioration, ) to make provision, under such regulations and conditions as they may decide, for ensuring that all the children at any public elementary school in their area shall receive proper nourishment before being subjected to mental or physical instruction, and for recovering the cost, where expedient, from the parents or guardians."[ ] this resolution marks an important stage in the movement, for it received support from all sides of the house, and was passed by a considerable majority.[ ] one feature of the debate was new. it was no longer said that the matter should be left solely to private charity. the main point at issue now was whether the money required should come from the education rate or the poor rate.[ ] footnote : _hansard_, march and , , vol. , pp. - , . footnote : _ibid._, april , , vol. , p. . footnote : _ibid._, march , , vol. , p. . footnote : _ibid._, april , , vol. , p. . the balance of opinion was at this date in favour of the latter. sir john gorst thought that where the parents could not pay for the meals "reference should be made to the poor law authority, and the natural consequences of the receipt of public relief would follow." (_ibid._, july , , vol. , p. .) in the bill introduced by mr. claude hay in march, , provision was made for payment of the cost of meals by the guardians, but any parent receiving such relief from the guardians might apply to a court of summary jurisdiction and the court, "if satisfied that the parent's ... inability to pay is temporary and arises from no fault of his own," might make an order that he should not be disfranchised. (elementary education (feeding of children) bill, , clause .) (d)--provision by the guardians. following on this resolution came an attempt to deal with the question through the machinery of the poor law. by the relief (school children) order,[ ] issued in april, , the guardians were empowered to grant relief to the child of an able-bodied man without requiring him to enter the workhouse or perform the outdoor labour test.[ ] any relief so given was to be on loan if the case was one of habitual neglect, and might be so given in any case at the discretion of the guardians.[ ] except with the special sanction of the local government board proceedings were always to be taken to recover the cost.[ ] the children of widows and of wives not living with their husbands were expressly excluded from the scope of the order.[ ] the reason for this omission was that these children could already be dealt with by the guardians and that, therefore, no further sanction was needed, but this was not clearly explained by the local government board, and was indeed not generally understood.[ ] it was recommended that, where charitable organisations existed, the guardians should make arrangements with them for the supply of food; in other cases an arrangement might be made with a local shopkeeper.[ ] a circular issued by the board of education to the local education authorities, explaining how these authorities could co-operate with the guardians in carrying out the order, classified underfed children under three heads:--( ) those whose parents were permanently impoverished; ( ) those whose parents through illness, loss of employment, or other unavoidable causes were temporarily unable to provide for them; ( ) those whose parents, though capable of making provision, had neglected to do so. it was suggested that the second of these groups of cases should be left to the voluntary agencies, the first and third being dealt with by the guardians.[ ] footnote : for a description of the working of this order see the report of the royal commission on the poor laws, , vo. edition, vol. iii., pp. - . footnote : relief (school children) order, , article v. (in th report of local government board, - , p. ). footnote : _ibid._, article ii., sec. . footnote : _ibid._, article vi. whether the amount was recovered or not the parent became a pauper, and was disfranchised. footnote : _ibid._, article vii. footnote : "the whole order," declared mr. wyatt, the director of elementary education at manchester, "was a most perplexing thing. very early in the year there came down to manchester a poor law inspector who said that the construction of the order was that the children of widows or deserted women should not come under the order. that swept away a great many of those we had been feeding." (report of select committee on education (provision of meals) bills (england and scotland), , q. .) miss margaret frere was of opinion that the order would be a dead letter in that it ruled out the two most difficult classes, one being widows and deserted wives. (report of inter-departmental committee on medical inspection and feeding, , vol. ii., q. .) footnote : circular of local government board accompanying relief (school children) order, in th report of local government board, - , p. . footnote : circular issued by the board of education to the local education authorities re relief (school children) order, april , . in a large number of unions this order was entirely disregarded.[ ] in london the county council, though ready to assist in carrying it out where local authorities desired it, declined to initiate proceedings, for they did not look upon the order as "materially helping the solution of the problem."[ ] where the local education authority and the guardians agreed on a scheme, there was constant friction. this was only to be expected. the opposing views of the two bodies--the one actuated by a desire to ensure that children should not be prevented by lack of food from taking advantage of the education provided for them, the other imbued with the spirit of deterrence--militated against any successful co-operation. when the local education authority sent in lists of underfed children, the guardians cut them down ruthlessly.[ ] there was no serious contention that these children did not need food, but merely that their parents' circumstances were such that they could afford to provide it. undoubtedly under the voluntary feeding system there had been much abuse, many parents obtaining the meals when they were in receipt of good incomes.[ ] but in these cases, with very few exceptions,[ ] no pressure was brought to bear by the guardians on the parents to force them to provide adequate food for their children, and the children consequently remained unfed. in many cases the fathers of the children indignantly refused to allow them to receive the meals when they discovered that disfranchisement was entailed. footnote : the order "has been so far practically a dead letter in this district" [the counties of bedford, hertford, huntingdon, etc.]. ( th report of local government board, - , p. .) such seems to have been the case also in yorkshire and the northern counties, in wales, in essex and in surrey, for we find no mention of the order in the reports of the inspectors for these districts. footnote : minutes of the london county council, july , , p. . the council objected to the introduction of a dual authority in every district, which would cause delay and possibly friction; the absence of any provision for uniformity of rules in the different districts; and the radical error of allowing the cost to fall on the local authorities instead of on government funds, or at least on the rates of london as a whole. the risk of fathers being disfranchised as a result of meals being supplied by the guardians to their children without their knowledge, would militate against the usefulness of the scheme (_ibid._). as a matter of fact very few cases were relieved in london under the order. (_hansard_, july , , vol. , p. .) in two unions, fulham and wandsworth, where the guardians offered to assist, the council allowed lists to be sent from the schools, but the great majority of these children were reported by the relieving officers not to be underfed. (report of joint committee on underfed children for - , p. .) footnote : at bristol out of applications from the local education authority, the guardians felt justified in giving relief in cases only. ( th report of local government board, - , p. .) at chorlton, relief was given in cases out of , applications; at salford in out of , . (_ibid._, p. .) at stoke-on-trent, out of cases reported were relieved, and at ecclesall bierlow cases were reduced after careful investigation to one. (_ibid._, pp. , .) at kettering, on the other hand, practically all the cases referred to the guardians were relieved. (report of royal commission on the poor laws, , appendix, vol. i., q. .) this, however, was exceptional. footnote : at birmingham it was found that many parents "were earning over s. a week, and in one case the parent was in constant employment with an average rate of £ s. d. a week." ( th report of local government board, - , p. .) at bolton, some of the parents were receiving from £ to £ a week. (_ibid._, p. .) footnote : in the bolton union, in cases where the father's income was considered sufficient to provide meals without assistance, "the children were specially watched and reported upon by the cross visitor each fortnight, until the guardians were satisfied that the parents were carrying out their responsibility in this respect.... the relieving officer visits the home at meal time, or in the evening, to see what provision is made for feeding the children." ( th report of local government board, - , p. .) at birmingham the head teachers were of opinion that the children were being better looked after by their parents than formerly owing to the way in which the order was being carried out. (_ibid._, p. .) at bradford, where the most systematic attempt was made to carry out the order, the disputes and difficulties proved endless. "the principles upon which the guardians ... proceeded in selecting the children to be fed were," declared mr. f. w. jowett, "such as made not for the feeding of the children so much as for the saving of expense."[ ] the quality of the food and the conditions under which the meals were served[ ] were hotly criticised. the attempt on the part of the guardians to recover the cost from the parents raised a storm of protest.[ ] finally, in may, , the guardians announced their intention of discontinuing the provision of meals and the local education authority took over the work.[ ] in no other town was the action of the guardians prolonged to so late a date. by the end of , indeed, the order had become a dead letter. meanwhile, the public having assumed that everything necessary would be undertaken by the poor law authorities, voluntary contributions had declined.[ ] footnote : bradford city council proceedings, september , . footnote : at the centres provided by the guardians "the children were kept outside the doors until all was ready, and when they were allowed to enter they came in without any semblance of order, to tables without cloths, without seats." (_bradford and its children: how they are fed_, by councillor j. h. palin, , pp. - .) later the guardians distributed the children among various little eating-houses in the town, where the food was better, though the conditions of serving were not much improved. (_ibid._) footnote : _hansard_, february , , vol. , p. ; bradford city council proceedings, september , ; see also the local newspapers about this time. the prosecutions were apparently confined to those cases where the underfeeding of the children was due to neglect on the part of the parents. the charge fixed by the guardians was, however, very high, d. per meal. up to march , , action had been taken in the county court against men and orders for payment obtained in each case. (a short account of the working of the relief (school children) order, issued by the bradford poor law union, ; report of select committee on education (provision of meals) bills (england and scotland), , qs. - .) in other unions there seems to have been little or no attempt to recover the cost. at birmingham, for instance, it was reported, "the process of recovery laid down by the local government board was farcical in character and was dropped." (report of royal commission on the poor laws, , appendix, vol. iv., q. , par. .) footnote : extracts from the annual reports of the bradford education committee for the four years ended march , , , and in respect to the working of the education (provision of meals) act, p. . footnote : at birmingham the free dinner society, after an existence of thirty years, ceased its operations when the order came into force. (report of the royal commission on the poor laws, , appendix, vol. i., q. .) "there was at first," declared mr. jenner fust, a local government board inspector, "much misapprehension among the public as to the scope of the order, the prevalent idea being that all school children requiring it would now be supplied with free meals at the public expense, and that there was no further occasion for voluntary efforts." ( th report of the local government board, - , p. .) (e)--the education (provision of meals) act. the relief (school children) order having proved a "relative failure," to use mr. john burns' moderate expression,[ ] and the evidence given before the committee on medical inspection and feeding of school children having demonstrated once more the inadequacy of existing agencies to cope with the evil, it became imperative for parliament to take action. early in the education (provision of meals) bill was introduced.[ ] the opposition to this bill, both inside[ ] and outside[ ] the house, rested mainly on the familiar arguments respecting parental responsibility and the advisability of leaving all questions connected with relief to the poor law authorities. we hear also the objection that free meals must lead to a reduction in wages.[ ] the strongest argument, to which, however, little attention was paid, was that urged by the edinburgh school board before the select committee of the house of commons to which the bill was referred. "the bill touches the fringe of very serious and comprehensive social problems with which the imperial parliament should deal, and it [the school board] objects to so much power being placed upon a local authority before parliament has dealt with serious principles underlying the questions involved."[ ] "the causes of low physique and vitality, and inability to profit by instruction" are "insanitation, overcrowding, keeping the children out at night very late or all night, bad footwear, and homes where they have no ventilation at night," irregular meals, "uncleanliness and bad clothing and out-of-school employment."[ ] this was very true, but it did not convince the public that nothing should be done. in the experience of miss horn, the secretary of the westminster health society, where continuous feeding was combined with regular visits to the parents, there was a distinct improvement in the standard of the homes.[ ] footnote : _hansard_, december , , vol. , p. . footnote : the bill was introduced by a private member, mr. w. t. wilson. the government decided to make the matter an open question with their followers. (_ibid._, february and march , , vol. , pp. , .) footnote : for the debates on the bill see _hansard_, march , december , , , , and , (vol. , pp. - ; vol. , pp. - , - ; vol. , pp. - , - , - , - ). footnote : see, for instance, the discussions at a conference of representatives of charity organisation societies held in . (_charity organisation review_, july, , pp. _et seq._) footnote : mr. harold cox, _hansard_, march , , vol. , pp. , . footnote : report of the select committee on the education (provision of meals) bills (england and scotland), , evidence of mr. mill, chairman of edinburgh school board, q. . footnote : _ibid._, evidence of mr. scott, head teacher of wood close school, bethnal green, q. . _cf._ evidence of dr. kerr (q. ), miss horn (qs. - ), and mr. ferguson (q. ). footnote : _ibid._, qs. - . during the parliamentary debates, for the first time, much emphasis was laid on the educational value of the meals if served under proper conditions. mr. birrell "could conceive no greater service to posterity than to raise the standard of living in the children of the present day."[ ] "it was desired that this work should be not a work of relief, but a work of education," declared mr. lough, the parliamentary secretary to the board of education. "they wanted wholesome food given to the children and they wanted the children taught how to eat it, which was a most useful lesson."[ ] "this was not merely a question of providing the meals," said mr. john burns, "it was also one of teaching better habits and manners."[ ] for this work the local education authorities were better fitted than the guardians, for they "would attract, in a way which boards of guardians would not, the services of voluntary agencies, of leisured people ... and of managers and teachers, whose assistance was absolutely essential."[ ] for these reasons it was essential that the local education authorities should have power to provide meals, not only for necessitous children but also, on receipt of payment, for the children of all parents who desired it.[ ] footnote : _hansard_, march , , vol. , p. . footnote : _ibid._, december , , vol. , p. . footnote : _ibid._, p. . footnote : _ibid._ see also the speeches of mr. jowett (_ibid._, march , , vol. , p. ), mr. claude hay (_ibid._, december , , vol. , p. ) and the earl of crewe (_ibid._, december , , vol. , p. ). an amendment to substitute the poor law guardians for the local education authority as the authority for the administration of the act was defeated by an overwhelming majority, the voting being to . (_ibid._, december , , vol. , pp. - .) the local government board did not, in fact, desire to have the duty imposed on them. (mr. john burns, _ibid._, p. .) footnote : an amendment to limit the provision of meals to underfed children only was defeated by votes to . mr. lough declared the amendment would strike at the root of one of the objects of the bill. (_ibid._, december , , vol. , pp. - , .) the new attitude of society towards the child and the family was brought out by lord grimthorpe during the debates in the house of lords. "the children are the paramount consideration.... in a great many cases the parents are already demoralised owing to having themselves been insufficiently nourished in their youth. because they suffer from those conditions there is no reason why we should inflict similar conditions on the children.... experience in this matter shows us that the sense of parental responsibility will be increased rather than decreased. when the parent sees that his child is regarded by the nation as a valuable national asset he himself will think more of his child."[ ] footnote : _ibid._, december , , vol. , p. . the bill received the royal assent on december , .[ ] it provided that the local education authority might associate with themselves any committee (called a school canteen committee) on which the authority was represented, who would undertake to provide food, and might aid that committee by furnishing buildings and apparatus and the officers and servants necessary for the organisation, preparation and service of the meals.[ ] the parents were to be charged such an amount as might be determined by the local education authority, and, in the event of non-payment, the local authority, unless satisfied that the parent was unable to pay, should recover the amount summarily as a civil debt.[ ] failure on the part of the parent to pay was not, however, to involve disfranchisement.[ ] where the education authority resolved "that any of the children attending an elementary school within their area are unable by reason of lack of food to take full advantage of the education provided for them, and have ascertained that funds other than public funds are not available or are insufficient in amount to defray the cost of food," they might, with the sanction of the board of education, provide for food out of the rates, the amount thus spent being, however, limited to what would be produced by a halfpenny rate.[ ] the teachers might, if they desired, assist in the provision of meals but they were not to be required as part of their duties to do so.[ ] footnote : edward vii., c. . footnote : _ibid._, clause . footnote : _ibid._, clause . the select committee to which the bill had been referred, while of opinion "that the local education authority ought to undertake the administration rather than the boards of guardians," nevertheless recommended that it should be the duty of the guardians to recover the cost from neglectful parents. (report of select committee on the education (provision of meals) bills (england and scotland), , pp. viii., x.) they accordingly inserted a provision to this effect (_see_ the education (provision of meals) bill as amended by the select committee, no. of , clause ). this was amended in the committee stage in the house of commons. (_hansard_, december , , vol. , pp. - . footnote : edward vii., c. , clause . footnote : _ibid._, clause . footnote : _ibid._, clause . the bill, when it left the commons, applied to scotland as well as england and wales. the lords, however, struck out the clause extending its application to scotland.[ ] the commons, in view of the fact that the session was so far advanced, agreed to this amendment, but under protest.[ ] it was not till two years later that the scottish school boards, by the education (scotland) act of ,[ ] received power to spend the rates on the provision of food. footnote : _hansard_, december , , vol. , pp. - . footnote : _ibid._, december , , pp. - . footnote : edward vii., c. (december , ). a bill was introduced by the government in , but was withdrawn. (_hansard_, march , , vol. , pp. - .) for an account of the provision made in scotland see appendix ii. the provision of meals act marks an important point in the history of school feeding. the experiments of forty years had amply demonstrated the impossibility of dealing with the evils of underfeeding through voluntary agencies alone. parliament was indeed still convinced that voluntary organisations were the best bodies to supply the necessary food. the proposal that the duty of providing meals should be cast entirely upon local education authorities, relying only on public funds, had indeed, as the select committee of the house of commons declared, not been "seriously suggested." such a course would obviously result in the extinction of all voluntary societies, a result "from every point of view ... much to be deplored."[ ] only where voluntary subscriptions failed might the local authority provide the necessary funds. even in this case there was no compulsion on the authority to take any action whatsoever. still, with all these limitations, the act involved the assumption, however partial and incomplete, by the state of the function of securing to its children, by one means or another, the necessary minimum, not only of education, but also of food. footnote : report of select committee on the education (provision of meals) bills (england and scotland), , p. vi. chapter ii the administration of the education (provision of meals) act we propose in this chapter to describe the manner in which the local education authorities are administering the act of . we shall see that the adoption of the act has been by no means universal and that in many towns provision is still made by voluntary agencies. where the act has been put in force we shall find the greatest diversity of practice in such matters as the selection of the children, the dietary provided and the manner in which the meals are served. one local authority will construe its duties under the act in the narrowest sense, cutting down the number of children to be fed to the minimum, and serving the meals with the least possible expense. another authority will look on the school meal as a valuable means for improving the physique of its scholars; it will endeavour to secure that all children who are underfed shall be given school meals; the dietary will be carefully planned, while, in the matter of the service of the meals, the aim will be to make these in every way educational. we shall see that meals are as a rule given only during term-time, holiday feeding out of rates being held to be illegal, while many authorities limit their operations to the winter months. most authorities have confined their provision almost entirely to necessitous children, the plan of providing meals as a matter of convenience for children of parents who are at work all day or are otherwise prevented from preparing a midday meal, and who would be able and willing to pay for school dinners, finding but little favour. we shall describe the arrangements made in the special schools for defective children, where a dinner is provided either for all children attending the school or for all those who care to stay, and in the day industrial schools, where the provision of three meals a day for all is the rule. we shall discuss the extent to which the provision of meals by the local education authority overlaps the relief given by the poor law guardians. finally we shall touch upon the question of underfeeding in the rural districts, where the problem is little less urgent than in the towns. (a)--the adoption of the act. the provision of meals act came into force on december , . as we have seen, it was merely permissive and its adoption was, therefore, only gradual.[ ] many local education authorities contented themselves with making arrangements with voluntary agencies, the education committee continuing the already common practice of providing accommodation and apparatus, and the voluntary society providing as hitherto funds for the food. thus, at hull, the education authority co-operated with the hull school children's help society, which had been founded in for the provision of free meals. this arrangement was continued till , when the society's funds were exhausted and recourse was had to the rates.[ ] at scarborough, the amicable society, which had been founded in "for clothing and educating the children of the poor of scarborough," arranged with the education authority that the provision of meals should be organised through a joint committee of the two bodies.[ ] at liverpool, where the provision of meals had been undertaken since the early part of , before the act was passed, by a voluntary committee consisting of members of the education committee, the central relief society, the guardians and others, this system was continued for some years. in spite of strenuous opposition in from the labour party and the local fabian society, who complained that the numbers fed were far below the number in need of food, and that no proper attempt was made to ascertain the extent of the need, a special committee appointed by the education committee to investigate the whole question reported that the existing voluntary system was adequate. it was not till november, , that the education committee resolved that, "after full consideration of the circumstances and after having regard to the fact that it has been necessary to call upon the general public on two occasions during each year for subscriptions to the funds, the committee cannot but conclude that the time has now come when the provisions of the education (provision of meals) act, , should be put into force, and, therefore, _though with great reluctance_," they recommended that application be made to the board of education for power to levy a rate.[ ] footnote : aston manor was the first town to apply for authority to levy a rate. bradford, manchester, and other towns soon followed. during the year ended march , , authorities were authorised to levy a rate. during the two following years the number was increased to and respectively. (report on the working of the education (provision of meals) act up to march , , p. ; report of the board of education for - , p. ; ditto for - , p. .) footnote : appendix to minutes of the hull education committee, october , . footnote : report of the scarborough amicable society for , pp. , . footnote : "feeding the children," by h. beswick, in the _clarion_, october , . leicester, perhaps, furnishes the most notable example of the survival of the voluntary principle. in , when the provision of meals bill was before parliament, the town council appears to have been in favour of it. after the act was passed, however, the leicester branch of the charity organisation society opposed its adoption. at a conference between representatives of the charity organisation society and the national society for the prevention of cruelty to children, a scheme was formulated for administering the act from voluntary funds. the scheme was accepted by the town council, and the formation of the children's aid association was the result.[ ] this body consists chiefly of members of the charity organisation society and of the national society for the prevention of cruelty to children, with a small minority representing the education committee. in spite of considerable opposition from the labour party, who demand that the act shall be put into force, meals are still provided by this association out of voluntary funds.[ ] footnote : first annual report of the leicester children's aid association, - , p. . footnote : for a description of the methods adopted, see post, pp. - . a somewhat similar system is in force at chesterfield, where the arrangements for feeding are made by the civic guild, the expense being borne out of their funds. the education committee is represented on the general council and executive committee of the guild in a general sense, not in connection with feeding alone. cases of children requiring food are reported by the attendance officers, and are fed at once by the guild, investigation being made afterwards. if help is found necessary the whole family is adequately relieved. arrangements are usually made for the children to be fed at eating-houses. the number of children so dealt with is very small. this delay on the part of the local authorities in towns where, it was asserted, it was notorious that children suffered from want of food,[ ] led to an attempt to make the school medical officer responsible for determining whether or not it was necessary to put the act in force. in december, , a bill was introduced by the labour party with the object of providing that, when requested by the education committee, by a majority of the managers, or by the head teachers, the local authority should provide for the medical inspection of the children for the purpose of determining whether they were suffering from insufficient or improper food; if the medical inspector reported that the children were so suffering, the local authority should be obliged to provide food. the bill was not proceeded with, and the same fate befell four similar bills introduced within the next five years.[ ] footnote : _hansard_, april , , th series, vol. , p. . footnote : education (administrative provisions) bill, december , ; february , ; april , ; february , ; april , . in - , out of local education authorities in england and wales, were returned as making some provision for the feeding of school children (_i.e._ counties, including london, county boroughs, boroughs and urban districts).[ ] of these were spending rates on the provision of food; were spending rates on administrative charges only (accommodation, apparatus, etc.), the cost of food being borne by voluntary funds; whilst in the remaining areas[ ] the cost of both food and administration was met by voluntary contributions. footnote : report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , pp. - , . footnote : the most important of these are leicester, sunderland, and barnsley. the steady decrease in the amount derived from voluntary contributions, and the increase in rates are shown by the following table :--[ ] rates £ voluntary miscellaneous sources total. contribution £ (contributions from parents, poor law guardians, etc.) £ for the year , , , - for the year , , , - for the year , , , , - for the year , , , , - footnote : see report on the working of the education (provision of meals) act up to march , , p. , and (for london) p. ; ditto for the year ended march , , p. ; report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , p. ; ditto for , p. . the voluntary contributions are understated in the figures for - , and possibly throughout. the returns for - , for instance, do not include liverpool, where the whole cost was defrayed by voluntary contributions, and no financial details were supplied to the board. the discrepancy in the total for - is due to the fact that the figures in the several columns are not given exactly, but to the nearest £. the total number of children fed is given in the returns for as , .[ ] this, however, does not include a few counties and towns which did not return the number fed during the year. in most of these areas the number fed is very small, but at barnsley the number attending daily was about , , and in london the highest number fed in any one week during the year was , . if we take these figures as representing roughly between two-fifths and one half of the total number of children who were fed at some time or other during the year, we get a total of about , ,[ ] out of a total school population of , , .[ ] footnote : report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , pp. - , . footnote : this does not include children fed at day industrial schools, open air schools or, with one or two exceptions, special schools for mentally or physically defective children. footnote : this number represents the average attendance at the ordinary elementary schools, not the total number on the rolls. (statistics of public education in england and wales, - , part i., pp. , .) in most towns where the act has been adopted the amount spent on food is well within the limit of the halfpenny rate. in - , only bradford and stoke-on-trent exceeded the limit, the latter (by an inconsiderable sum) owing to the coal strike. at bradford the rate has almost from the first been annually exceeded by a considerable amount.[ ] this excess is due partly to the numbers fed (a large proportion of the children receiving breakfasts as well as dinners), partly to the fact that the meals are continued throughout the holidays. the local government board auditor has regularly surcharged the excess expenditure, but the finance committee defrays it out of the corporation trading profits, which are not subject to the local government board audit. footnote : in - , by £ , ; in - , by £ , ; in - , by £ , , and in - , by £ . (report on the working of the education (provision of meals) act up to march , , p. ; report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , p. ; ditto for , p. .) the limitation of the rate has in some towns undoubtedly restricted operations. in , for instance, the workington education committee were reluctantly obliged, owing to the exhaustion of the funds raised by the halfpenny rate, to stop the meals at a time of great distress.[ ] at east ham, the product of a halfpenny rate not being sufficient for a whole year, meals can only be given during the winter months.[ ] footnote : _hansard_, april , , th series, vol. , pp. - . a similar complaint was received from hartlepool. (_ibid._) footnote : see minutes of kingston-on-hull provision of meals sub-committee, march , , appendix, p. . the abortive bills introduced in and the following years by labour members contained a clause that the limitation of the rate should be abolished. we may note that the power of the local education authorities to provide food for necessitous children is not limited to their powers under the provision of meals act. by the education act of grants may be given for the maintenance of children at secondary schools. at bradford, at any rate, in quite a number of cases this grant is earmarked for providing school meals.[ ] more important is the power to provide three meals daily for all children attending day industrial schools. these children are drawn very largely from the class to whom free meals would have to be given if they were attending the ordinary elementary schools.[ ] again, necessitous children who are physically or mentally defective can receive meals at the special schools, and the cost of the food (and other expenses) can be charged to the special schools account. thus, at liverpool, dinner is provided for all defective children, this provision having been undertaken deliberately as part of the school curriculum long before the provision of meals act was passed. the class of physically defective children for whom special schools can be provided include not only cripples, but all children who are certified by a doctor to be "by reason of ... physical defect ... incapable of receiving proper benefit from the instruction in the ordinary public elementary schools."[ ] this wide definition enables the school medical officer to send to the open air schools, which several local authorities have established, and at which one or more meals a day are provided, not only children suffering from definite diseases, but also those who are underfed, anæmic and generally debilitated, to whom the fresh air, healthy life and regular, wholesome meals prove an inestimable boon. footnote : "school feeding," by wm. leach, in the _crusade_, november, (vol. , p. ). footnote : for a fuller account of the arrangements made for providing food at the day industrial schools and the special schools see post, pp. - . footnote : elementary education (defective and epileptic children) act, ( and vict., c. , sec. ( )). (b)--canteen committees, their constitution and functions. the arrangements for carrying out the provision of meals act are usually in the hands of a committee called variously the school canteen committee, the children's care committee, the underfed children's meals committee, or, as at leicester, the children's aid association. the constitution of this committee varies in different towns. sometimes it is composed entirely of members of the education committee.[ ] sometimes outside bodies, such as boards of guardians and voluntary agencies, are represented upon it. thus at crewe the children's care committee consists of representatives of the local education authority, teachers, guardians and various voluntary societies.[ ] at leicester the members of the education committee are in the minority, the children's aid association being composed chiefly of members of the charity organisation society and the national society for the prevention of cruelty to children. elsewhere the committee may be composed entirely, or almost entirely, of voluntary workers. thus at leeds, where all the members are women, all, except the chairman and vice-chairman, who are members of the education committee, are voluntary workers; two inspectors attend the meetings and carry recommendations to the education committee, but they do not vote. at bury st. edmunds, where the committee is also composed of women members, the only representative of the education committee is the official who holds the post of borough treasurer and secretary to the education committee. at bournemouth the schools are grouped under four district care committees, composed of voluntary workers nominated by the school managers, and of representatives of the head teachers, the school attendance officers being _ex officio_ members. these district care committees are controlled by a central care committee, composed partly of members of the education committee, and partly of co-opted members. the school medical officer here, as in some other towns, is an _ex officio_ member.[ ] footnote : as at birkenhead, bradford, liverpool, manchester, nottingham, stoke, west ham. footnote : report of school medical officer for crewe, , p. . footnote : report of the school medical officer for bournemouth for , pp. - . the functions of the canteen committee also vary in different towns. sometimes, as at bradford, all the arrangements for the management of the centres and the decision as to which children shall be fed are in the hands of the committee. at leeds the committee has no executive power, its functions being limited to making recommendations to the education committee as to the management of the dining centres. at bury st. edmunds each member of the committee is responsible for one school, making arrangements with caterers for the feeding of the children and visiting the homes. this visiting of the homes is rarely, if ever, undertaken by members of the canteen committee, unless it is composed of voluntary workers. (c)--the selection of the children. in the selection of the children who are to receive school meals two methods may be adopted. the selection may be based either on the physical condition of the child or on the economic circumstances of the family. the majority of the children selected will, of course, be the same whichever method is adopted, since the child will generally be found to be under-nourished if the family income is inadequate, and vice versa; but there are some children who, although the family income is comparatively good, are yet, for some cause or other, underfed, and these will be excluded if the "poverty test" is the only criterion used. from the first the board of education has urged that the "physical test" should be used as well as the "poverty test." the administration of the provision of meals act should be carried on in the closest co-operation with the school medical service.[ ] the school medical officer should approve the dietary, he should supervise the quality, quantity, cooking and service of the food and should inspect the feeding centres.[ ] in the selection of the children he should take an important part. not only should he recommend for school meals all cases of bad or insufficient nutrition observed in the course of medical inspection. "the end to be aimed at," writes sir george newman, "is that all children admitted to the meals should be medically examined by the school medical officer either before, or as soon as possible after, admission."[ ] that is to say, the provision of meals act should not be considered primarily as a measure for the relief of distress; "the physical and mental well-being of [the] children ... should be regarded as the principal object to be kept in view."[ ] footnote : "when a system of medical inspection of school children such as already exists under several local education authorities has been established, the school canteen committee, so far as its operations are concerned with underfed, ill-nourished or destitute children, should work in intimate connection with the school medical officer." (circular issued by the board of education, january , , in report on the working of the education (provision of meals) act up to march , , p. .) "it is obviously desirable that any arrangements made by a local education authority under the education (provision of meals) act, ... should be co-ordinated, as far as possible, with the arrangements for medical inspection under the act of ." (board of education, code of regulations for public elementary schools in england, , p. ii.) the general supervision of the administration of the act was placed in the hands of the board's medical department. footnote : report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , p. . footnote : _ibid._ for , p. . this course is strongly urged by the school medical officer for portsmouth. "_all_ children, however selected, either by the physical or poverty test, _should be examined by the school medical officer_. this in many areas would involve a good deal of extra work on many medical men who find their time already fully occupied. yet if any work is worth doing it is worth doing well, and here it is that the value of the school medical officer comes in, by culling and recording facts relating to the personal condition of the child, as well as the home conditions and surroundings of his or her life." ("the importance of a well-advised and comprehensive scheme in the selection of children ... under the education (provision of meals) act," by victor j. blake, in _rearing an imperial race_, edited by c. e. hecht, , pp. - .) footnote : report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , p. . very few authorities have made any attempt to select the children primarily or even to any great extent on the "physical test." in brighton the plan has perhaps been tried with more thoroughness than in any other town. when, in , the education committee undertook the provision of meals in association with the voluntary canteen committee, it was resolved that "the term 'underfed' ... should be held to apply distinctively to those scholars who, by reason of more or less continuous antecedent underfeeding, are physically below a certain specified standard of size and weight. these cases, which must of course be the first consideration of any feeding scheme, can only be scientifically detected by a detailed system of medical weighing and examination, and when so detected should be dealt with in accordance with medical advice."[ ] accordingly all the children for whom an application for free meals is made are weighed and measured, and the canteen committee, when deciding whether any particular child shall be fed or not, has before it this report as to the child's physical condition. whether the meals are supplied free depends on the economic circumstances of the family. if the child needs meals on medical grounds but the income is adequate, a circular is sent to the parent warning him of the child's condition. sometimes the parent will be willing for meals to be supplied on payment of the cost. if the parent refuses to pay, meals are not granted, but the name of the child is placed on a special list for observation.[ ] roughly about fifty per cent. of the children are fed solely on economic grounds and fifty per cent. on medical grounds.[ ] footnote : brighton education committee, report of canteen joint branch sub-committee, july , . there were, of course, also the cases of "necessitous" children who did not appear on medical grounds to be suffering from malnutrition, but who, from the economic circumstances of the parents, were unable to obtain sufficient food. children to whom the provision of a mid-day meal would be a convenience, and whose parents were able and willing to pay the cost, should also be provided for. (_ibid._) footnote : we have not been able to ascertain exactly what happens to these children on the "watching" list. in the school medical officer reports that they "are examined at intervals by the school doctor, and their progress is noted, the [canteen] committee taking such action as is recommended. enquiries are also carried out by the school nurse, under the supervision of the school doctor, as to the nature of the meals given at home in these cases." (report on the medical inspection of school children in brighton for , p. .) these home visits by the school nurse are no longer paid. footnote : in , out of , children who received free meals, were not examined, were recommended by the school doctor on medical grounds, were fed solely on economic grounds. (_ibid._ for , p. .) in , out of , children fed, were not examined, were recommended on medical and on economic grounds. (_ibid._ for , p. .) at heston and isleworth, the canteen sub-committee decided in to obtain from the school medical officer a report on the state of each child before determining whether it required school meals.[ ] at lancaster also all children who are recommended for free meals are seen by the school medical officer.[ ] footnote : report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , p. . footnote : report of school medical officer for lancaster for , p. . but these cases are exceptional. in "the number of local education authorities who left the final selection in the hands of the school medical officer, or acted exclusively upon his recommendation or required every application to be endorsed by him," was, so far as the information of the board of education extended, less than a dozen.[ ] in sir george newman writes, "it is true that in the majority of cases the school medical officer takes some part ... in the work connected with the provision of meals, but the number of cases in which he exercises all the functions ... appropriately devolving upon him are very few indeed."[ ] in the great majority of towns, though the school medical officer may recommend for school meals children whom he finds suffering from malnutrition in the course of medical inspection, the greater number of children are selected on the "poverty test." footnote : report on the working of the education (provision of meals) act, up to march , , pp. - . footnote : report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , p. . as a rule the primary selection is made by the teachers, either on their own initiative or on receiving requests from the parents. the school nurse, the attendance officer or perhaps a member of the local guild of help may also recommend cases. sometimes a personal application by the parent at the education offices or before the canteen committee is insisted on. thus at manchester the parents have to make application either at the education offices or at any of the district centres, of which there are twenty-four, situated in different parts of the town, and open at convenient hours. the teachers can advise children, whom they consider to be in need of food, to tell their parents to apply, but they take no further part in the selection of the children. at west ham also the parents have to apply at the public hall or education office. the section of the act dealing with repayment is read to the applicant, who then decides whether or not he wishes his children to be fed.[ ] on the parent's signing a form (by which he agrees to repay the cost of meals when he gets into work[ ]), tickets are issued for a week, pending enquiry. the parent is expected to send a note to the head teacher each day to say that he or she still wishes the child to be fed.[ ] this personal application has to be renewed every month. the teachers are allowed to give urgency tickets for three meals, but if the parents fail to apply the meals have to be discontinued. at erith "no breakfasts are supplied till the parents have registered at the distress committee (if eligible), or have made personal application there, or at the education office."[ ] at leicester, again, the parent has to make personal application at the office of the canteen committee, and this application has to be renewed every month. at birmingham, except in special cases, the parent has to attend the meeting of the committee; if he fails to appear, after being given a second chance, the child, who has meanwhile been temporarily receiving the meals, is removed from the feeding list.[ ] footnote : report of west ham education committee for the year ending march , , p. . this is the procedure now in force. footnote : see post, p. . footnote : we were informed by the head teacher of an infants' department that she did not insist on a note being sent more than two or three times a week. footnote : report of erith education committee for the three years ending march , . footnote : _the public feeding of elementary school children_, by phyllis d. winder, , p. . the primary selection of the children having been made, by whatever method, enquiry is then made into the home circumstances of the family. the object of this enquiry is or should be twofold: to ascertain the resources of the family, so as to determine whether the parents are able to provide adequate food for the child or not, and to find out whether help is needed in any other direction, and by friendly advice to improve the conditions of the home. we shall discuss later the great advantages to be obtained from the employment of voluntary workers for the purpose of these friendly home visits, as distinct from the duty of making enquiries.[ ] here it is sufficient to note that very few education authorities have made use of their services at all.[ ] the most notable example is, of course, furnished by the london care committees. a somewhat similar system has been adopted at bournemouth. here, as we have seen, the schools have been divided into four groups, and a care committee appointed for each. the members investigate the circumstances of children who are alleged to be in want of food and report to their committee, which thereupon decides whether or not the children shall receive free meals. at liverpool a tentative effort has been made in the same direction. care committees, managed by the different settlements, have for some years been attached to some half-dozen schools, but their position is rather indefinite. the enquiries are made by the school attendance officers, but the education committee asks the care committee for reports on special cases. at one school the care committee appears to visit all the cases. a wider scheme for the establishment of a system of care committees is at the present time ( ) under consideration. at brighton also, where care committees have been appointed, mainly for the purpose of finding employment and generally supervising the children when they leave school, a care visitor is sometimes asked to supplement the enquiries of the school attendance officers in doubtful cases where further investigation is needed. at leicester the enquiries are made by a paid investigator appointed by the children's aid association, subsequent friendly visits being paid by voluntary workers.[ ] in most towns, however, the work of enquiry is undertaken solely by the school attendance officers.[ ] footnote : see post, pp. _et seq._ footnote : report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , pp. - ; ditto for , pp. - . in several of the few towns where care committees have been appointed, they take no part in the work of feeding the children, their functions being confined to the "following up" of medical cases and perhaps the finding of employment for the children when they leave school. footnote : at southend-on-sea enquiry is made by the civic guild into many of the cases. (report of the school medical officer for southend-on-sea for , p. .) at bradford the canteen committee communicates to the guild of help the names of all the new cases which are put on the feeding list. the members of the guild thereupon visit any cases in which other help besides the meals is needed. footnote : as at birkenhead, birmingham, leeds, manchester, salford, sheffield, stoke, etc. at birkenhead an attendance officer has been specially appointed for this purpose. at bradford a special constable has been told off to make enquiries in difficult cases. the thoroughness of the investigation varies considerably in different towns. the parent's statements as to the amount of wages earned are in some cases checked by enquiries from the employers. at birmingham the wages are always thus verified where the worker is employed by one firm regularly. at bradford the wages are verified except when the applicants are working on their own account, for instance hawking, when it is clearly impossible. generally enquiry is made from the employer as to the wages of the head of the house only, but at leeds and at leicester the wages of all earning members of the family are verified. at leicester in doubtful cases enquiries may be made from the employer as often as once a week. in other towns, as at stoke and york, where the current rates of wages are well known, wages are only verified when there is any doubt as to the parent's statement. at bootle little attempt is made to verify the information given by the parents. here the enquiries are made--so far as they can be said to be made at all--by the teachers. the help of the attendance officer can be asked in difficult cases, but this appears to be seldom done. the teachers naturally have no time to visit the homes, and the enquiry generally resolves itself into a form being given to the child for its parent to fill up. the parents are asked to state the rent, the number in the family and the total weekly income, taking the average for four weeks. when one considers the difficulty normally experienced in filling up forms correctly, one can readily imagine that the information thus obtained is practically valueless. where the answers are unintelligible--an occurrence by no means rare to judge from the few specimens of case papers which we have seen--the information may be supplemented by questioning the children. often urgency tickets can be issued by the teachers, pending enquiries, as at bradford, birmingham, bootle and liverpool. at birkenhead the teacher can only report the need for meals, but the enquiries only take two or three days. at leeds we were told that a week or ten days generally elapses between the time of application and the child's being placed on the list, with the result that in some cases the most urgent need is passed. it is true that the head teachers can secure a child's being placed immediately on the list by writing specially to the education office, but to do this every time would involve a considerable expenditure on postage, which is not refunded. when investigation has been made into the home circumstances, the decision as to whether or no the child shall be fed is made generally by the canteen committee or by a small sub-committee of this committee, or perhaps by the chairman.[ ] sometimes the responsibility rests with the secretary of the education committee or some other official, as at acton and leeds. at bournemouth the cases are decided by the district care committees, which are composed of voluntary workers and teachers. at bootle the decision appears to rest entirely in the teachers' hands. footnote : thus, at birkenhead, where the canteen committee meets very seldom, the cases are decided by the chairman. the decision is based on a consideration of the family income. many authorities have adopted a scale. at birmingham meals are granted if the income per head, after rent is deducted, does not exceed s. d. in winter or s. d. in summer.[ ] in bootle the income limit, in summer and winter alike, is s. d. for an adult and s. d. for each child under .[ ] when we consider, however, the slipshod method of enquiry pursued at bootle, we cannot attach much importance to the existence on paper of this scale. at bradford dinners are given if the income does not exceed s. per head; if the income is less than s., breakfasts also are given. this scale is taken only as a rough criterion of the needs of the family. special circumstances are taken into account, such as the size of the family, sickness, old debts, etc. and where the circumstances of the family are slightly above the point at which free meals may be given, the parents are often allowed to receive them on paying / d. or d. towards the cost. at leeds, on the other hand, the scale, which is a low one ( s. in winter and s. d. in summer) is, we are informed, rigidly observed. no regard is paid to the circumstances of the family. as a rule, directly the family income rises above the limit, the child's dinners are stopped, no matter how much debt has to be paid off. a delicate child who needed feeding or an underfed neglected child would not be fed if the income was above the limit. at liverpool the scale is s. per head; at stoke it is s. d.; at brighton it is s. per adult, two children being reckoned as one adult. in all these towns the limit is not a hard and fast one, regard being paid to any special circumstances. at manchester a sliding scale has been adopted. if there are five or more in the family the limit is s. d. per head, if there are only three or four s. d. is allowed, while if there are only one or two s. is allowed.[ ] at salford the limit is s. per week for two persons, and s. extra for each additional member of the family, rent not being deducted. in other towns, as at birkenhead, bournemouth, leicester and west ham, there is no fixed scale, each case being decided on its merits. footnote : _the public feeding of elementary school children_, by phyllis d. winder, , p. . footnote : report of bootle school canteen committee, - , p. . footnote : report of the manchester education committee, - , p. . as a rule the cases are revised about once a month. sometimes chronic cases will be continued for two or three months at a time, as at liverpool. at york the cases are revised only twice a year. at the beginning of the winter the head teachers send in lists of children whom they consider to be necessitous. these children (if the cases selection sub-committee decide to feed them) remain on the feeding list till the following april, when the head teachers are asked to send in a list of children who they consider need not receive meals during the summer. the attendance officers visit again and the cases are revised by the committee. this method is said to be satisfactory as, though officially the cases are revised so seldom, practically the circumstances are known, since the attendance officers regularly visit the homes in the course of their ordinary work and the chairman of the canteen committee knows many of the children intimately. at bootle, where, as we have seen, the decision as to which children shall be fed is practically in the hands of the teachers, there seems to be no system of revising the cases, and the tendency is for a child who is once put on the feeding list to remain on it till the meals are discontinued in the summer, unless the parents voluntarily withdraw the child on an improvement in the home circumstances. without discussing here the question whether it is possible to devise any system of selection which can be satisfactory, we may note some of the disadvantages of the methods at present in use. in the first place, since the selection is made in the main through the teachers, it necessarily follows that the numbers fed in any particular school depend very largely on the attitude taken by the head teachers. as a general rule the teachers are keenly interested in the physical welfare of their children, and anxious to do everything in their power which may promote it; but some teachers are opposed to the provision of meals, feeling that too much is done for the children; others, again, consider their schools "superior," and do not like their children to go to free meals. constantly one finds an astonishing disproportion between the numbers fed at two adjacent schools, drawing their children from the same locality. it is true that the character of two schools, within a stone's throw of each other, may vary in a curious way, one attracting a more prosperous class of children--perhaps because of the personality of the teacher, better buildings, or some other cause--but this would not account for all the difference. at bootle, for instance, it was reported, "there is apparently an absence of uniformity in assessing the needs of the children; for in the six schools of the poorest neighbourhoods it is found that of the number on the rolls the percentage of scheduled children varies from per cent. to per cent., and that in two schools of almost identical character, in one case per cent. of the children are returned as needing daily breakfasts, and in the other per cent."[ ] where the teachers are anxious to place all apparently underfed children on the feeding list, pressure is not infrequently exercised by the education authority to induce them to keep down the numbers. footnote : report of the bootle school canteen committee for - , p. . at birkenhead, and probably in other towns, the percentage of children fed in the church of england schools is very much higher than in the council schools, whilst the roman catholic schools feed a larger number still than the church schools. this is doubtless due partly to the character of the buildings, the non-provided schools being generally very much inferior, and the better-off children being consequently attracted to the council schools; partly, of course, also to the fact that the roman catholic population is chiefly irish and very poor. when an application by the parent is obligatory, there is cause for very grave doubt whether the provision of meals reaches all for whom it is intended. miss winder has shown that, at birmingham, out of , children for whom applications were received during the three years - , , were not fed because the parent failed to appear before the committee. she investigated the circumstances of twenty-eight of these families and came to the conclusion that, "although the small number of families investigated cannot justify an absolutely positive assertion, i think it may fairly be concluded that, on the whole, they are representative of most of the families whose applications are not granted, and that the home circumstances of these families are much the same as those of the families whose applications have been granted."[ ] this is the impression gained from enquiries at other towns. at west ham it is clear that there are children who need the meals, but do not get them because their parents will not apply. the number of "missed" cases does not appear to be large, for the act is administered in a sympathetic spirit, the superintendent of visitors impressing on the attendance officers that they should bring to his notice any case where the children appear to be suffering from lack of food. but there are cases where the parents, though they will take the urgency tickets for three meals which the teachers can give them, will take no further action. at one school the headmaster pointed out two boys who looked obviously in need of food and attention generally, but whose father, though out of work, would not apply. in another case he had used his discretion and kept two boys on the list for a month in spite of their parents' failure to renew their application, but he felt obliged at last to take them off though he considered that they still needed the meals. in such cases the attendance officers are supposed to visit the homes to find out the cause of the children's underfed condition, and to urge the parents, if necessary, to make application for school meals, but this course does not seem to be by any means always pursued. footnote : _the public feeding of elementary school children_, by phyllis d. winder, , pp. , , , . at leicester again, nothing appears to be done in those cases where the child needs food but the parent refuses to apply. and such cases appear to be frequent. we were told by the vicar of a very poor parish that numbers of the parents would not make the necessary application. this evidence seems to be borne out by a comparison of the numbers of cases helped by the distress committee and the canteen committee. in , for instance, it was found that on september , married men and widowers, having , children wholly, and partly, dependent upon them, were registered at the labour bureau as unemployed.[ ] these numbers were, of course, not a complete index of the unemployment in the town. but, turning to the report of the canteen committee, we find that on the same date only children were being helped.[ ] the great discrepancy between these figures seems to point to the fact that the canteen committee had not discovered all the cases of children who were suffering from want of food. footnote : _leicester pioneer_, october , . footnote : quarterly report of the leicester children's aid association, july to september , . the failure of the parents to apply may in some cases be due to laziness and disregard for their children's welfare. or it may be that they are too sensitive to ask for help. or again it may be difficult or impossible for them to attend at the time named. the hour is usually fixed so as to be that most convenient for the parents, but it is impossible, of course, to fix a time which will suit all. at birmingham cases have even occurred "where the father has been obliged to pay tram fares in order to arrive in time to prove his inability to feed his children"![ ] footnote : _the public feeding of elementary school children_, by phyllis d. winder, , p. . but even if the parent is not obliged to appear in person, but may send an application by note or verbal message to the teacher, there are still "missed" cases. it is notorious that many parents are too proud to let their need be known; in such cases, as teachers have frequently told us, it may be a considerable time before it is discovered that the child is suffering from want of food; and when the discovery is made there is frequently difficulty in inducing the parents to send the child, or in inducing the child itself to go, to the school meals. there still seems to exist, in certain districts at any rate, an idea that the provision of meals is poor law relief, and parents consequently shrink from applying. moreover, it is not generally recognised that the provision of school meals is by no means universally known to the parents. the school medical officer for leicester reports that "in certain cases it was a matter for regret that the families had not received help earlier by personally applying for assistance. ignorance of the existence of the canteen committee was given as the reason for non-application."[ ] and we have ourselves been told in other towns of cases where the children were suffering from want of food, but were not receiving school meals because the parents were unaware that they could be obtained. footnote : report of the school medical officer for leicester for , p. . the enquiries into the home circumstances undoubtedly exercise a deterrent influence--to what extent depends on the manner of the particular individual who makes the enquiries--both with the more independent parent who resents the investigator's visit, and with the criminal and semi-criminal parent whose record does not bear close investigation. thus the headmaster of a school in one of the worst districts of liverpool told us that numbers of the boys were in need of food but the parents would not submit to the necessary enquiries and consequently meals were not granted. at leicester, the searching enquiries made by the canteen committee, which, it must be remembered, is practically a department of the charity organisation society, coupled with the insistence on an application by the parent in person, result, as we have seen, in numbers of underfed children remaining underfed. where the education authority has adopted a scale of income on which to base the decision as to which children shall be fed, this scale is frequently below, and in some cases very considerably below, the minimum amount which has been shown to be necessary for expenditure on food.[ ] where the scale is rigidly adhered to, two classes of children are excluded altogether, those who are underfed through the neglect of their parents to provide for them though able to do so, and those cases where the family income may be sufficient to meet normal calls but where, owing to illness or the delicacy of the children or other special circumstances, extra nourishment is required. footnote : see note on page , _infra_. to sum up, we find as between town and town, and even as between school and school in the same town, a great want of uniformity in selecting the children to be fed. where the education authority has determined that all its underfed children shall be provided for, the child's need being the paramount consideration, undiscovered cases of underfeeding are reduced to a minimum. where, on the contrary, enquiries are carried out in a deterrent manner, or the parent is made to apply in person for the meals, or the selection is based on a rigid application of a scale, there is reason to fear that considerable numbers of children are, and remain, "unable by reason of lack of food to take full advantage of the education provided for them." (d)--the preparation and service of the meals. (i) the time of the meal. there are considerable differences of opinion as to what kind of meal should be given. many local authorities prefer breakfast. it is argued that when no breakfast is forthcoming at home the interval between the meal the previous evening and the midday dinner is too long, and that it is cruel to expect the child to attend morning school, when the heaviest work of the day is done, without a meal, especially in the cold winter months. by midday the parents, especially in districts where there is much casual labour, may have earned enough to provide some sort of a meal. but the arguments in favour of breakfast--as the sole meal provided--are largely based not so much on the child's physical needs as on the moral effect produced both on the child and the parent. the provision of breakfast furnishes a test of need. the meal is not so popular as dinner, and will only attract those who are really hungry.[ ] co-operation on the part of the mother is demanded, since she must get up early to see the children are dressed in time. moreover, the provision of breakfast does not act as an inducement to the mother to go out to work, as it is feared the provision of dinner may. footnote : thus it was found at a school in bethnal green that, "in spite of the supervision of a most efficient care committee," the change from a porridge breakfast to a meat pie dinner doubled the number of children attending. ("the feeding of necessitous children. a symposium. i., experience in s. w. bethnal green," by a. w. chute, in _oxford house magazine_, january, , p. .) the arguments seem to us overwhelmingly in favour of dinner. the provision of a midday meal may possibly encourage mothers to go out to work, though it is exceedingly difficult to trace such a result to any great extent. but on the other hand there are numbers of cases already where the mothers are forced, by stress of circumstances, to be the breadwinners and are obliged to leave home all day, or, if they come home for the dinner hour, have no time to prepare a proper meal. the children will either get a piece of bread, or will be given coppers to buy their own dinner; in either case the meal will be equally unsatisfactory. possibly the children will go dinnerless altogether, and the afternoon's lessons will then be a serious tax on their brains. the attendance at breakfasts is always less than at dinner.[ ] the breakfast acts, that is to say, as a successful "test." but this means that many children, either because their mothers are too lazy to get them dressed early, or because they are too lazy themselves, miss the meals, _though they are admittedly in need of them_. footnote : at west ham, for instance, where all the children on the feeding list receive both breakfast and dinner, the number of breakfasts given during the year - was , , and the number of dinners , ; the attendance at breakfast was thus only ninety per cent. of the attendance at dinner. (report of the west ham education committee for the year ended march , , pp. - .) we do not wish to under-estimate the importance of the moral aspect of the question. it is essential that co-operation on the part of the mother should be demanded. but the child's need must be the first consideration. the laziness of the children, be it noted, is frequently not entirely their own fault; the drowsiness in the morning may be due to the fact that they have slept all night in a crowded room and stuffy atmosphere. till the deep-rooted objection to open windows at night can be overcome, this will continue to be the case. for this reason too, the children will often have little appetite for breakfast. physiologically, again, dinner appears to be the better meal since it contains a greater quantity of the elements which are lacking in the ordinary home dietary of the child. thus in the feeding experiment at bradford in ,[ ] the porridge breakfast, the most satisfactory kind of breakfast that can be supplied from the food value point of view, contained a proteid value of grammes, and a fat value of grammes. the dinners contained, on an average, grammes of proteid and grammes of fat. thus the combined proteid and fat value of the breakfasts and dinners was respectively and grammes.[ ] moreover, the gain in point of cheapness to be derived from provision on a large scale is much greater relatively in the case of dinners than in the case of breakfasts. footnote : see post, pp. - . footnote : bradford education committee, report on a course of meals given to necessitous children from april to july, , p. . about per cent. of the local authorities give breakfasts only, and about per cent. dinners only, the remainder giving both meals.[ ] in the last-named case, dinners may be given in some schools and breakfasts in others, as at southampton and york. at bradford dinner is given to all the children on the feeding list, the most necessitous receiving breakfast as well.[ ] at west ham all the children receive both meals. at bootle, where till a few years ago only breakfasts were given, it was found that this provision was inadequate to meet the needs of many necessitous children.[ ] the expense and the practical difficulties in the way of providing a proper dinner led the education committee to adopt a simpler method, namely, that of increasing the quantity of food supplied for breakfasts, any overplus being given at midday at the discretion of the teachers as an extra meal to children who would otherwise go dinnerless.[ ] footnote : report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , pp. - . footnote : roughly about half the children fed receive both meals (bradford education committee, return as to the working of the education (provision of meals) act, for the year ended march , .) footnote : enquiries made by the head teachers showed that in the aggregate children received no mid-day meal or an insufficient meal. since, presumably, these enquiries were made by the method of questioning the children, no particular value can be attached to the actual figures; the school attendance officers enquired into fifty-four of the cases taken at random and found that all but two showed undoubted poverty in the home. (report of bootle school canteen committee, - , pp. - .) footnote : _ibid._, p. . this is the plan still pursued (see post, pp. - ). (ii) the dietary. taking into consideration the fact that with a large number of elementary school children bread and tea form the chief elements in the home diet, it is of the greatest importance that the school meal should be planned so as to contain a good proportion of the ingredients which are lacking at home. whatever views may be held as to the amount of proteid food that is necessary for adults, it is not disputed that in the case of children the more expensive forms are necessary because the growth of the body depends entirely upon the proteids. "it is impossible," declares the school medical officer of the london county council, "to cut down proteids to the same extent in children as in adults without serious results.... to set out, therefore, to relieve underfeeding by a single meal a day, it is necessary to concentrate attention upon proteids and fats ... and, therefore, a dinner for necessitous children must be necessarily more costly than for those properly fed in institutions or in their own homes. the want of clothing, which often accompanies underfeeding, also necessitates more expensive feeding in relief, the loss of bodily heat to be made up being greater than in the case of the child in an industrial school or workhouse, who is warmly clad, and who, moreover, spends much time in a properly heated playroom or dormitory."[ ] footnote : london county council, report of the medical officer (education) to sub-committee on underfed children, . see also "school feeding," by dr. john lambert, in _medical examination of schools and scholars_, edited by t. n. kelynack, m.d., , pp. - . few local authorities have so planned their dietary as to contain this excess of proteid and fat over starchy food. "judged by this standard," declared dr. kerr in , and the same statement holds good to-day, "most diets supplied by public funds are probably wanting in value for the children, however useful they might be as a single meal for a normal individual."[ ] footnote : report of the education committee of the london county council, submitting report of the medical officer (education) for the twenty-one months ending december , , p. . it would naturally be expected that the school medical officer would be consulted about the dietary as a matter of course,[ ] but this is by no means invariably the case. at birkenhead, for instance, the school medical officer has no voice in the planning of the menu. at stoke-on-trent the school medical officer reports in that, "with the exception of the fenton district, the medical staff does not appear to have even been consulted on the matter of dietary."[ ] footnote : "the determination of the dietary of the children generally, and of individual children whose health or age renders it desirable that special arrangements should be made in their case" is, as the chief medical officer of the board of education points out, a matter "on which the school medical officer is particularly competent to form an opinion, and on which, therefore, his opinion should be sought by the authority." (report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , p. .) footnote : annual report of the school medical officer for stoke-on-trent for , p. . where the meals are given at restaurants, the dietary is almost invariably unsatisfactory, adequate inspection being impossible.[ ] footnote : see the descriptions of stoke and liverpool, post, pp. , - . the most elaborate dietary is probably that adopted by the bradford education committee. in , after the education committee had adopted the provision of meals act, but before arrangements had been made to feed the children out of the rates, an experiment was made in feeding forty children for fourteen weeks. the dietary was carefully planned so that, while containing the requisite amount of proteid and fat, it should not be beyond the purse of the ordinary parent in normal times.[ ] this dietary is still in force, a few alterations having been made which experience showed to be advisable. the menu is varied, according to the season, winter, summer, and spring or autumn. the same meal is not repeated for four weeks.[ ] at portsmouth again, where the dietary is drawn up by the medical officer of health and the school medical officer, a different meal is given every day for three weeks.[ ] in most towns, however, the same menu is continued week after week, with some slight variation in the summer. the same meal is given on the same day in the week so that the children learn to know what meal to expect, and in consequence the attendance is often considerably smaller on days when the dish is unpopular. sometimes the food will vary very little even from day to day. though served under various names, soup, stew or hash, it is really almost precisely the same. some authorities supply only one course, others two. in some towns a child is allowed to have as much as it wants, in reason; in other towns only one helping is allowed as a rule, though, if there happens to be any food over, this may be distributed among the children.[ ] footnote : see bradford education committee, report on a course of meals given to necessitous children from april to july, , p. . footnote : for bradford and some other typical menus see appendix i.] footnote : "the importance of a well-advised and comprehensive scheme in the selection of children ... under the education (provision of meals) act," by victor j. blake, in _rearing an imperial race_, edited by c. e. hecht, , p. . footnote : at one centre that we visited, the second helping consisted only of what was left by some of the children on their plates! those who wanted more were asked to hold up their hands, and the food was then handed to them, the recipients being apparently selected at random, since there was not enough for all. occasionally special provision is made for the infants. thus, at york, milk and bread is given in the middle of the morning to infants who are on the feeding list, it having been found that they could not digest the ordinary dinners. but as a rule, though in well managed centres the infants are placed together at special tables, so that they can be better supervised and taught how to eat, there is no separate dietary for them. where only breakfasts are provided there is, of course, less room for variation. generally cocoa or coffee is given, with bread and butter, margarine, dripping, jam or syrup. at bootle pea soup is given one day a week. in several towns porridge is provided, either alternately with the cocoa or coffee breakfast, or every day. at sheffield, where a cocoa breakfast used to be given, porridge was substituted at one school as an experiment; it was found that the boys who were fed on porridge increased in weight at double the rate of the boys who received only the cocoa breakfast; as a result porridge breakfasts were substituted in all the schools.[ ] footnote : report of chief school medical officer for sheffield, for the year , pp. , . see post, p. . (iii) preparation and distribution of the meals. in a few cases the local education authority has equipped a kitchen for the preparation of the food, and makes arrangements for distributing it to the various centres. at bradford all the meals, with the exception of those for schools in outlying districts where arrangements are made with local caterers, are cooked at a central kitchen and distributed in special heat-retaining boxes to the different dining centres by motor vans. manchester, birkenhead and other towns also have their own central kitchen. sometimes, as at west ham, a kitchen is attached to each of the centres; or occasionally a cookery centre is utilised for the preparation of the meals. sometimes, as at leeds and portsmouth,[ ] the local education authority provides the kitchen and a caterer prepares the food. frequently, however, all the arrangements for the preparation and the distribution of the meals are in the hands of caterers. footnote : "the importance of a well-advised and comprehensive scheme in the selection of children ... under the education (provision of meals) act," by victor j. blake, in _rearing an imperial race_, edited by c. e. hecht, , p. . (iv) the service of the meals. from the first great stress was laid by the board of education upon the educational aspect of the meals. "the methods employed in the provision of meals should be not merely such as will secure an improvement in the physical condition of the children, but such as will have a directly educational effect upon them in respect of manners and conduct."[ ] "the school dinner may ... be made to serve as a valuable object-lesson and used to reinforce the practical instruction in hygiene, cookery and domestic economy."[ ] footnote : board of education, code of regulations for public elementary schools in england, , p. ii. footnote : report on the working of the education (provision of meals) act up to march , , prefatory note by l. a. selby-bigge, p. . in many cases this advice was totally disregarded. the second report on the working of the act contains many examples of the utter lack of discipline prevailing in some centres. in one case "no attempt to teach orderly eating was made; there was a certain amount of actual disorderly conduct, throwing bits of food at each other and so forth." in another case where the meals were served in a small outhouse in the playground, the "table was a low locker.... on this a newspaper was spread, and there was hardly room for more than six children to sit round it. other children sat on low benches where they could, holding their bowls on their knees ... about fifty partake of the dinner, but there is not room for more than twelve at a time, and then it is a scramble.... the food (irish stew and bread) was good but everything else was as bad as could be." at another centre, we read, "the dinner is eaten in a perfect pandemonium of noise. nine charwomen of a rather low type attend to about children."[ ] footnote : report on the working of the education (provision of meals) act for the year ended march , , pp. , . it is encouraging to note that there has since been, generally speaking, an improvement in the service of the meals. but "there are still areas in which the educational possibilities of the meals have not been realised, or, if realised, have not received the attention which they deserve"[ ]--a statement which we can amply corroborate. footnote : report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , pp. , . the different methods in vogue may be classified roughly under four heads, according to the place in which the meal is served, _i.e._ (_a_) in the school, (_b_) in eating-houses, (_c_) in "centres," or (_d_) in the home. (_a_) the ideal place for the meal is the school when a room is specially set apart as a dining-room. the meal should be attended only by the children from that particular school and should be served under proper supervision. the tables should be nicely laid, regard being paid to the æsthetic side of the meal, and table manners should be taught. the children should themselves lay the tables and wait on one another. we have found these ideal arrangements in some of the special schools for defective children and in open air schools,[ ] but it is very rare to find such provision made for the "necessitous" children in the ordinary elementary schools. many authorities, indeed, adopt the plan of serving the meals in the schools, but too frequently class-rooms are utilised. the objections to this course are obvious. adequate ventilation after a meal is often impossible, and the smell of food pervades the atmosphere. it is frequently necessary to hurry over the meal so that the room may be prepared in time for school. the food is often served on the desks, an uncomfortable arrangement and one which renders it very difficult to teach the children to eat nicely. footnote : we describe two or three of these schools later. (see post, pp. - .) the worst example of this utilisation of the school premises that we have seen is that of bootle. here the arrangements made for supplying the meals show a deplorable lack of appreciation, on the part of the education authority, of the benefits which may be derived from the provision of meals act. the breakfasts are served sometimes in class-rooms, sometimes in the cloak-rooms or the cellars! when we visited bootle (in april, ) the breakfasts had been stopped for the summer, but we were shown one or two of these cellars. we were told that they are made as inviting as possible--the walls are whitewashed, sawdust is sprinkled on the floors, a table is placed for the children to sit down to--but when all is done that can be done they remain entirely unsuitable places for the purpose. the only point that is urged in their favour is that the children enjoy the warmth from the heating apparatus. in the cloak-rooms there is not always room for a table, and the children sometimes have to sit along the walls, holding their mugs of cocoa or their basins of soup on their knees. when the class-rooms are utilised the food has to be placed on the desks; nothing in the nature of table-cloths is provided, and the state of the desks after the children, the infants especially, have eaten soup or bread and syrup, can be well imagined. often the breakfasts arrive late, and the children have consequently to be hurried over the meal so that the class-rooms may be got ready for school.[ ] it must not be assumed that nothing in the way of table manners is attempted; clean hands, for instance, can be insisted on (though even this is difficult in some schools where there is an insufficient supply of water), and at one school we were told that the infants had learnt to eat without spilling their food; but it is obvious that very little can be done. the method of serving the midday meal is even less "educational." we have seen that the education committee refused to make arrangements for the provision of a suitable dinner, and decided instead that the teachers should distribute at midday to the most necessitous children any surplus left over from breakfast. the dinner thus consists usually of merely a piece of bread, with perhaps some cocoa, if any remains from the morning meal. the bread is given to the children to take away, and they eat it on their way home. what renders the failure of the education authority to pay any regard to the educational aspect of the meal more disastrous is that it is the teachers who supervise the meals. many of them bitterly resent the way in which the meals are served; as one pointed out to us, the girls are taught in the school how to set a table, but the practical example which the teachers are forced to show will have much more weight than any theoretical teaching. a year ago the head teachers presented a memorial to the education committee, urging that the schools should no longer be used. as "a temporary expedient," runs the communication, they "have loyally endeavoured to work this imperfect system, but they now feel that the time has arrived for the adoption of a scheme on a more satisfactory and permanent basis.... the serving of meals in cloak-rooms, cellars or basements, and other unsuitable places, calls for immediate remedy. in some cases the children receive their meals whilst sitting upon the floor; in all, the bread is of necessity placed upon the dirty desks. in others, there is no adequate supply of hot water and towels for use in cleansing the utensils. under such conditions there can be no training in habits of decency or cleanliness.... when the meals are served in class-rooms, the desks and floors are rendered unfit for immediate school use, and a smell of food permeates the atmosphere. to combat this state of affairs as far as possible, the teachers have, in many cases, to wash the desks and brush the floors. in other cases, the children are hurried over their meals in order that the necessary preparations for lessons may be made."[ ] to this the education committee replied that, while they agreed "that an ideal system of feeding the children would be by properly equipped centres quite apart from the school premises, the cost of such would be prohibitory, and that quite possibly the pressing of such a change would jeopardise the continuance of the exercise of the powers given by the provision of meals act, now so beneficially and economically administered." the committee hoped "that the teachers will recognise the authority's financial difficulties in the way of the introduction of a more desirable system, and, pending the arrival of the long-expected parliamentary aid for this and other ameliorative work devolving upon local education authorities, will continue their valuable co-operation in meeting the needs of their hungry scholars by the existing practical if not perfect system."[ ] the teachers had apparently been considering the advisability of withdrawing their services altogether, but this threat of a possible cessation of the meals induced them to continue their assistance. footnote : at birmingham we note the same defect. "the children are quiet and well-behaved; but all the time is taken in serving the food, and there is no opportunity to teach individual children to eat slowly. the tendency, especially with the cocoa breakfast, is to gulp down the drink, eat part of the bread and jam, and carry the rest away." (_the public feeding of elementary school children_, by phyllis d. winder, , p. .) footnote : report of bootle school canteen committee, - , p. . footnote : _ibid._, p. . (_b_) a second method is the service of the meals at local restaurants. this plan is strongly discouraged by the chief medical officer of the board of education, since it is impossible to secure adequate supervision of the meals or proper control of the dietary; "the meals are consequently of little, if any, value from an educational or even nutritional point of view."[ ] any authority adopting this system is, in fact, animated solely by the desire to get the children fed with the least possible trouble. footnote : report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , p. . unfortunately the plan is still in favour with a considerable number of local authorities,[ ] even in some of the large towns. footnote : in many towns where meals are usually served at centres, local restaurants are utilised in outlying districts where the number of children is too small to allow of a centre being established. thus at stoke-on-trent the children for whom free meals are granted are sent to eating-houses.[ ] these houses are often, if not always, small bakers' shops, not general restaurants. they are usually situated at an easy distance from the school. the numbers attending each are small, amounting to not more than twenty or so. at the one we visited[ ] the conditions seemed to be as good as could be expected under the circumstances; the caterer was a motherly old woman who took an evident interest in the children, and the food was hot and palatable. the disadvantages inherent in the system, the impossibility of supervision and the lack of control over the dietary, are, however, observable here as elsewhere. probably in few cases would the children get an insufficiency of food. the difficulty lies rather in securing good quality and the proper kind of meal. thus it was found that one caterer had substituted, for the regulation fish pie, bread and jam, because the children preferred it. "i have inspected several of these [eating-houses]," reports the school medical officer, "and although i found one instance in which the children were treated on exactly the same lines as the contractor's own children, in fact sat at the same table, and were regarded quite as members of the family; in most instances the surroundings, the manner of serving and the dietary left much to be desired.... i would strongly urge the advisability of getting the catering in all instances into our own hands. i do not think that the full benefit of the act can be secured in any other way; it is doubtful, as things are, whether the intention of the act, as a remedy for malnutrition, can be carried out at all."[ ] footnote : at one school, the children have the meal in the school, the food being sent in by a caterer, the head-mistress preferring that arrangement. footnote : in april, . footnote : annual report of the school medical officer for stoke-on-trent, , p. . at acton the meals are given at a dingy eating-house which is intended primarily to serve the needs of the women working at the laundries in the district.[ ] there is only one room, so that the children have to have their meals with the other customers, and the hour at which the children come in, between twelve and one, is, of course, the busy hour for the restaurant. at one time a rota of ladies attended voluntarily to supervise the meals, but this plan has been given up; the school attendance officers now take it in turn to be present. the children come and go as they please and there is no attempt to teach table manners. footnote : this eating-house is situated in the poorest part of acton, where the great majority of the children who are on the dinner-list live. in a few cases, where the children live in other districts, arrangements are made for them to obtain food at the cookery centres; this food they take home with them. this plan, we were told, is only adopted in cases where the mother can be trusted to see that the dinners are really eaten by the children for whom they are intended. at liverpool, till quite recently, the same system was in force. the children received coupons at the school, which they presented at various cocoa rooms in the city.[ ] the objections to this system were many. the number of cocoa rooms, at which coupons were accepted, was limited, and in some cases the nearest cocoa room was situated too far from the school for the children to be sent there.[ ] though some managers refused to supply unsuitable food, others gave whatever the children asked for--frequently buns, jam puffs, or iced cakes.[ ] often the children would take the food home to be shared among the other members of the family.[ ] at some cocoa rooms the children were served in the general room, and were brought into contact with adult customers "of a class not choice in language or manners." there was little or no supervision--only occasional visits by the teachers--and consequently no attempt "to influence the children in the direction of cleanliness and orderliness at meals."[ ] in spite of these revelations the system was continued for several years, being only finally given up in august, . the meals are now served in centres. the food is at present supplied by caterers, but the education committee are considering the advisability of providing their own kitchen. footnote : some were sent to the depôts of the food and betterment association. footnote : interim report of the special committee appointed to investigate the insufficient or improper feeding of school children, liverpool city council proceedings, - , vol. ii., pp. , . footnote : _ibid._, pp. , , . footnote : _ibid._, pp. , , , . in one case where five coupons were given daily to five members of a family, it was found that the children took the coupons home every day, and at the end of the week these coupons were presented and value obtained. (_ibid._, p. .) footnote : ms. memorandum on the feeding of school children, by the liverpool fabian society, . (_c_) the plan most usually adopted, and the one recommended by the board of education, is the system of serving the meals at centres attended by children from three or four neighbouring schools. for this purpose some room belonging to the corporation may be utilised, perhaps a room attached to the police station, as often at manchester, or a room in some disused school; frequently the hall of a club or mission is hired. the arrangements are often of a makeshift character, the room being ill-adapted for the purpose and the surroundings dark and dreary. moreover, the assembling of large numbers of children from different schools renders the work of supervision more difficult and detracts considerably from the educational value of the meal. the actual conditions vary widely from town to town, and even from centre to centre in the same town. the best results are perhaps to be seen at bradford,[ ] the town in which most attention has been paid to the subject. here the teachers supervise the meal, two or three being present generally, one to apportion the food and the others to supervise the table manners of the children. they are assisted by boy and girl monitors. these are selected generally from the elder children on the dinner list.[ ] on arrival, about ten minutes before the meal, each monitor puts on one of the blue overalls provided for them, sets the table for which he or she is responsible and hands round the food. the position of monitor is a much coveted one. the system provides a valuable training for the children in doing things for themselves, and in looking after one another. the results are most marked. in every centre we visited the children were quiet and orderly, and in some cases the behaviour was excellent. at one centre we were particularly struck by the table manners of the boys, their consideration for one another, and the quick and quiet way in which they collected all the plates and spoons and packed them in the boxes for return to the cooking depot of their own accord, without any instructions from the teacher in charge. the results vary, of course, in different centres. for instance, with regard to clean hands and faces, some teachers are very strict, each child having to hold up his hands for inspection as he enters the dining-room. in others only periodical inspection is made, and we noticed several dirty hands, notably in the case of some of the boys who were assisting to hand round the food. infants are placed at separate tables so that they can receive special attention. each child is expected to eat the first course, or at any rate to try to eat it, before being given the second. when the child does not like the food, it is given a small helping at first and coaxed to eat it. over and over again we were told that at first the children would hardly touch the food, being accustomed to the home dietary of bread and tea and pickles; but by the patient endeavours of the teachers this difficulty was overcome and the children have learnt to appreciate nourishing food. the importance of the æsthetic side of the meal is fully appreciated. table cloths are provided and often flowers. the meal, indeed, "from start to finish is educational."[ ] footnote : the centres at bradford, leeds, west ham and birkenhead were all visited in the spring of and the descriptions refer to that date. footnote : in the secondary schools, the poorer children are allowed to act as monitors, being given in return a d. dinner free. footnote : report of school medical officer for bradford, , pp. - . at nottingham the conditions are very similar to those at bradford, the education committee having, in fact, modelled their policy on that of bradford. at leeds it struck us that the chief aim was merely to feed the children, the educational side receiving only secondary consideration. as most of the centres are not large enough to accommodate all the children at once (at any rate in winter time), two "sittings-down" are necessary, and the meal is hurried through so as to allow the second relay to come in as soon as possible. the children begin their meal as soon as they enter, without waiting till the others have come in so that all may begin together in an orderly manner. grace is said halfway through the meal. as soon as a child has finished the first course (of which it is allowed to have a second helping, if desired), it is given a piece of cake or bun which it eats outside in the street. the supervision is undertaken by the teachers, but only for a day or two at a time. this constant change of supervisors makes the teaching of table manners more difficult. one of the regulations runs that "the supervisor should see that no child is admitted who has not clean hands and face,"[ ] but to judge from the very dirty state of some of the hands and faces we saw, this rule seems to be ignored, at any rate at some of the centres. no special provision is made for the infants; they have the same food and are placed at the same tables with the bigger children; in some cases the tables are so high that they have to kneel on the forms in order to reach their food, and the spoons provided are so large that it is difficult for them to eat without spilling it.[ ] the condition of the rooms after the children have finished their dinner is anything but desirable, soup being spilled on the table and pieces dropped on the floor. especially was this noticeable at one centre where the meal was served on desks. these desks were covered with dirty and ragged linoleum, and the whole surroundings were inexpressibly dreary, the litter of food on the floor at the end of the meal adding to the general squalor. footnote : leeds education committee, rules for the management of dining centres. footnote : complaints on both these points had, we were told, been made to the education committee, but, on the score of expense, nothing had been done. at west ham some attempt is made to render the meal educational.[ ] monitors and monitresses are appointed from among the elder children to assist in waiting on the others. table cloths are provided, and in some cases flowers are placed on the tables. but here again the meal is spoilt by the sense of rush. since at each centre there may be twice or even perhaps three times as many children as can be accommodated at once, each child is given its dinner as soon as it comes in, and is dispatched as soon as it has finished. "table manners, personal appearance, good behaviour, and punctuality," are indeed, as the superintendent of the centres remarks, "not overlooked; but in these respects, the results are not as satisfactory as one could desire. the unusually large numbers of children attending the centres, and the limited time in which to serve the meals to enable the children to return in time for school, make it a difficult task to give the necessary individual attention."[ ] at one time school managers and members of the children's care committee took it in turn to attend the different centres and supervise the children, but this plan has been given up, and the supervision is now done solely by the women who prepare the meals. footnote : the meals are served at the schools in some room which is no longer needed for teaching purposes; in some cases, we believe, in a room which was specially built as a dining-room. we have included this example in the third class rather than in the first, since in each case the school serves as a centre for children from neighbouring schools. footnote : report of the west ham education committee for the year ended march , , p. . birkenhead affords a striking example of the varying conditions prevailing in different centres in the same town. in one case a dining-room has been specially built at the school, this dining-room serving as a centre for several other schools. no table cloths are used, but the tables are of white wood, well scrubbed; plants are sometimes provided, and the whole surroundings are bright and cheerful. the children were unfortunately allowed to come in as they liked, but in other respects the discipline seemed good. table manners were inculcated and clean hands insisted on. food had to be finished at table and might not be taken away. at another centre the conditions were entirely different. the meals were served in a corridor at the public baths. two long narrow tables were placed against each wall, with forms on one side; on the other side, owing to the narrowness of the corridor, there was no room for seats, so that some of the children had to stand. the children entered and left as they liked, and were allowed to take away food with them. little effort was made to teach table manners, indeed it would have been impossible to do much in this respect owing to the unsuitable character of the premises. it would perhaps be unfair to dwell too much on the conditions prevailing in this centre, since the use of these premises was admittedly a temporary expedient (though we understood they had been used for some time), but the conditions at a third centre were not very much better. the hall was large, it is true, and there was plenty of room for the children, but the surroundings were very dreary. the tables, which were not covered with tablecloths, were dark and dingy. here again the children were allowed to straggle in as they pleased, some as much as half an hour or forty minutes late. they left as soon as they had finished, frequently carrying away food with them unchecked. little attention was paid to table manners and much of the food was wasted. (_d_) the three methods which we have described all present one feature in common. the children, whether fed at the schools, at eating-houses or at centres, all share with their schoolfellows in a common meal. there remains one other method, the supply of food to the family for consumption at home. this is the method adopted at leicester and, so far as we know, in this town only. as we have already pointed out, no rate is levied at leicester, voluntary funds being declared to be sufficient. these funds are administered by the children's aid association, a body composed largely of members of the charity organisation society and imbued with its spirit. the association proceeds on the theory that the provision of meals is simply a form of relief; this being so, the relief should be adequate, and the family as a whole should be dealt with. the food is accordingly distributed in the homes,[ ] sufficient being supplied for all the family, not only for those attending school, and it is given every day, including sundays, throughout the year. milk being the chief article absent from the dietary of the poor, the food chosen is bread and milk. this is delivered by the ordinary baker and milkman so that the neighbours should not know that the family is receiving relief (though as a matter of fact the "bread and milk" families appear to be well known). footnote : where the home conditions are extremely bad, provision is made for children to be fed at eating-houses, but such cases are very rare. at the time of our visit, in july, , there was not one such case. certain advantages have undoubtedly accrued from this system. the parents have learnt the value of milk, and the children have been taught to take it. at first there was often much difficulty in this latter respect, but by constant visitation the children's prejudice has been broken down, and they now relish the food.[ ] on the other hand, under this method of distributing the food in the homes the advantages to be derived from a common meal are totally ignored. no provision is made to meet the case where the mother goes out to work all day, and where the provision of a midday meal at school would be of great value. moreover, though frequent visits are paid to the homes at breakfast-time to see that the children are actually getting the food intended for them, it is impossible to ensure this in all cases. footnote : second quarterly report of the children's aid association, november, , to february, , p. . we have classified the different methods under the above four headings according to the place where the meal is served, but, as will have been seen by the examples given, the educational value of the meal is determined even more by the character of the supervision than by the nature of the surroundings. the supervision is frequently undertaken by the teachers. in , the board of education reports that the "assistance of teachers has been the rule rather than the exception."[ ] this service is always rendered voluntarily, though occasionally, as at bradford, the teachers receive some small remuneration.[ ] the amount of service given varies widely in different towns. at bradford the same teacher will attend the centre daily for months. in other towns his or her turn may come quite infrequently, and may only amount to two or three days' service at a time.[ ] sometimes school managers, members of the canteen committee or voluntary workers take it in turn to assist in the supervision, but their attendance is generally spasmodic. at portsmouth the centres are entirely in charge of ladies who give their services voluntarily.[ ] as a rule, however, paid superintendents are appointed, too often women of the caretaker type. in some towns the school attendance officer attends to collect the tickets and helps to maintain order. footnote : report on the working of the education (provision of meals) act up to march , , p. . footnote : the head teachers receive s. a week for supervising dinners, and s. d. for breakfasts; the assistant teachers s. and s. respectively. at derby also the teachers are paid. (report of the school medical officer for derby, , p. .) this payment is very exceptional. footnote : at leeds, for instance, the teacher will perhaps be called on for a day or two every two months. at liverpool a teacher is supposed to attend once a fortnight, but often no teacher at all is present. at bootle the turn may be one day a week or a fortnight, or perhaps a week at a time; here the teachers, we were informed, voluntarily give their services "under protest," a fact which, when one considers the conditions under which they are asked to serve the meals, is not surprising. footnote : "the importance of a well-advised and comprehensive scheme in the selection of children ... under the education (provision of meals) act," by victor j. blake, in _rearing an imperial race_, edited by c. e. hecht, , p. . the question how far the teachers should be asked to give their services is a vexed one. on the one hand, where the teacher attends regularly--and regular attendance is essential if the full benefit from the meals is to be derived--this extra work involves a great strain. especially when the midday interval is only from to . , as in many provincial towns, the time for rest is seriously curtailed. at leeds "a reasonable time is allowed the teachers in charge for their own midday meal," and they are allowed to arrive late at afternoon school in consequence of this,[ ] but we were told that this permission is not in practice taken advantage of, as their late arrival would dislocate the work. moreover, although the service is supposed to be always entirely voluntary on the part of the teachers, there is always the danger that they may feel under a moral obligation to offer their services. in some cases, the burden seems to fall unduly on a few, only a small minority offering to assist in the supervision, the others taking no share. footnote : leeds education committee, rules for the management of dinner centres. at bradford it is noticeable that it is as a general rule the men teachers who supervise the meals; women teachers assist, but the responsibility for the management of the whole centre seems to involve too great a strain upon them. on the other hand, "it is unquestionable that where the teachers are willing to undertake the work, they are, generally speaking, the most competent supervisors. the reason for this is not far to seek. the children, being accustomed to obey the commands of their teachers, are more ready to behave in an orderly and disciplined manner when under their supervision than when a stranger is in charge. moreover, the teachers' acquaintance with the idiosyncrasies of individual children enables them to keep an eye on those children who are specially in need of food or who need persuasion to make them eat the wholesome food provided."[ ] again, the fact that the teachers are present connects the meal in the child's mind with the school, and so tends to make it more a part of the school curriculum, a lesson in table manners. without the teacher, miss mcmillan points out, "the whole venture will fail miserably on the educational side." but it is a mistake to ask the teachers to serve the food and wait on the children. their function should be "to preside and to be the head, and as far as possible the soul, of the daily gathering,"[ ] just as at dinner in a secondary school. footnote : report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , p. . footnote : _london's children: how to feed them and how not to feed them_, by margaret mcmillan and a. cobden-sanderson, , p. . we have met with this ideal arrangement only at one school--a small "special" school for feeble-minded children at bradford (see post, pp. - .). to sum up now the main characteristics of the present methods of serving the meals, it will be seen that, generally speaking, the conditions are very far from satisfactory. even where the local education authority draws up elaborate regulations for the management of the dining-centres, these regulations are frequently disregarded in practice by the supervisors. too often the object is to get the meal over as quickly as possible, and inadequate attention is paid to the inculcation of table manners and the little amenities of a civilised meal. to expedite the service the food is frequently placed on the table before the children come in, and it is nearly cold before they eat it. sometimes the second course is served and placed in front of the child before it has finished the first course. the food is almost invariably such as can be eaten with a spoon and fork, and the children are thus not taught the use of a knife.[ ] sometimes only a spoon is provided and the help of fingers is almost unavoidable. we have as a rule found the supply of utensils fairly adequate, though where water is given it is not always the case for each child to have a separate mug.[ ] it is rare to find any attempt at table decoration, and table-cloths are by no means universal. it may be objected that table cloths are expensive and, if the tables are kept thoroughly clean, unnecessary, but to keep the tables well scrubbed costs as much as to provide table cloths and the necessity of keeping the cloth clean is a useful lesson to the child. sometimes the food, if of the bread and jam nature, is placed on the table without plates. in very few cases has the system of utilising the services of the elder children been adopted with any thoroughness, and the valuable opportunity of training thus offered is lost. footnote : knives were used at bradford for a time, but were given up, as it was found that the children hurt themselves. their use demands, of course, much supervision, but they might be given to the elder children at any rate. footnote : at birmingham "in one school the same mugs [for cocoa] were used twice over for different children without being washed. the supply of utensils at several of the schools was too small for the numbers fed." (_the public feeding of elementary school children_, by phyllis d. winder, , p. .) (e)--the provision of meals during the holidays. at the time the act of was passed, it appears to have been generally taken for granted that it empowered local education authorities to provide meals during holidays as well as during school time.[ ] the circular issued by the board of education, asking the local authorities for information as to the way in which the act had been administered, contained a question as to the number of children who were fed during the school holidays, thus assuming that the meals would be continued; nowhere was it pointed out that the cost of the meals so provided could not be borne by the rates.[ ] moreover, during the next two or three years, the accounts of several local authorities, who continued the meals during the holidays, were certified by the local government board auditors.[ ] about , however, the question was raised whether local authorities could legally spend the rates on providing meals when the children were not actually in school. the local government board, on being appealed to by the newcastle-on-tyne education authority, replied that they could not concur in any interpretation of the act which would empower the authority to incur expenditure when the closing of the schools precluded the children's attendance.[ ] in august, , the cost of feeding children during the previous christmas holidays was disallowed by the auditor in the accounts of the west ham authority. the local government board, on appeal, confirmed the disallowance, though they remitted the surcharge.[ ] footnote : see preamble to the education (provision of meals) act amendment bill, july , . "this bill introduces no new principle, but simply extends the act to render permissible the continued operation of the act during the holidays, a point which, when the original act was passing through parliament, it was generally thought was covered." footnote : report on the working of the education (provision of meals) act, up to march , , p. . footnote : _hansard_, july , , th series, vol. , pp. - . in , out of the twenty-five or so local authorities who continued the meals during the holidays, about one-fifth paid for them out of the rates. (report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , p. .) footnote : _ibid._, p. . footnote : _ibid._, pp. - ; report of west ham education committee for the year ended march , , pp. - . since this date, in the great majority of towns where meals are continued during the holidays,[ ] the cost is met by voluntary funds. sometimes the local education authority will issue a special appeal for funds. or the arrangements may be undertaken by some voluntary society or by philanthropic individuals. where no provision is made officially, the teachers sometimes make arrangements privately for the most necessitous children to be fed at shops. at leeds it has become the custom for the lord mayor to provide out of his own purse meals during the christmas holidays (the meals being discontinued during the other holidays); the cost of this provision may amount to as much as £ . footnote : the first report which was issued on the working of the provision of meals act gave the number of authorities who continued the meals during the school holidays--at that date out of the counties, and out of the county boroughs, boroughs and urban districts, who were making some provision under the act (report on the working of the education (provision of meals) act, , up to march , , pp. - ). no figures are now available. in one or two towns the charge has been met year after year out of public funds. at bradford, for example, the meals have from the first been continued during school holidays.[ ] the expenditure has been surcharged regularly by the local government board auditor, but, as we have said, it has been met out of a grant voted by the finance committee from the trading profits of the corporation. the labour councillors maintain that when the act was passed holiday feeding was considered legal and the ratepayers generally seem to uphold them in this claim, in spite of occasional protests.[ ] at nottingham the same plan is pursued.[ ] at portsmouth a grant is made to the mayor on the tacit understanding that he will use it for the provision of meals during the holidays. at west ham, after the local government board auditor had, in , disallowed the charge for holiday feeding, the cost was for a year or two borne by voluntary funds.[ ] it became, however, increasingly difficult to raise the necessary subscriptions, and during £ was charged to the rates, the voluntary subscriptions only amounting to £ .[ ] during the following year recourse was again had to the rates. the local government board auditor surcharged the expenditure, but the board, on appeal, remitted the surcharge, though confirming the auditor's decision.[ ] at acton meals have been supplied regularly on saturdays[ ] and during the school holidays for the past few years without any question having been raised. footnote : report of bradford education committee for the year ended march , . footnote : see letter from bradford ratepayers association, in bradford city council proceedings, august , . footnote : in london, during the christmas holidays, - , meals were provided out of a sum placed at the disposal of the chairman of the council by the general purposes committee, from the balance of the account in connection with the erection and management of the coronation procession stands. (minutes of the london county council, february , , p. .) footnote : report of the west ham education committee for the year ended march , , p. ; _ibid._ for the year ended march , , p. . footnote : _ibid._ for the year ended march , , pp. - . footnote : the _east ham echo_, august , . footnote : at brighton meals were provided on saturdays by the local education authority out of the rates till january, , when it was declared to be _ultra vires_. (report on the medical inspection of school children in brighton for , p. .) the question of the legality of the provision of meals during the holidays out of the rates is, indeed, an open one. the london county council took counsel's opinion on the point in and again in , each time receiving the reply that holiday feeding was illegal,[ ] but the question has never been settled by a case in the courts. on special occasions the local government board have relaxed their prohibition. thus, in , mr. john burns stated in parliament that though the board would not sanction in advance any expenditure incurred in providing meals during the week the schools were closed on account of the coronation festivities, they would be prepared to consider each case on its merits, and decide whether any surcharge that might be made should be remitted or upheld.[ ] and in the spring of , during the widespread distress caused by the coal strike, the board sanctioned the provision of meals during the easter holidays. footnote : minutes of the london county council, february , , p. ; minutes of the education committee, november , , p. . footnote : _hansard_, march , , th series, vol. , pp. - . on several occasions bills have been brought in by the labour party to legalise the provision of meals during the holidays, the latest being in april, .[ ] so far these efforts have met with no success, though the prime minister declared in that the government was favourable to the principle,[ ] but it has now been promised that the forthcoming education bill shall contain a clause enabling local authorities to provide meals on sundays and during holidays.[ ] footnote : see education (administrative provisions) bills, april , (no. ), february , (no. ), april , (no. ), which all contained a clause for provision of school meals during the holidays; education (provision of meals) act amendment bills, july , (no. ); april , (no. ); march , (no. ); april , (no. ). footnote : _hansard_, march , , th series, vol. , p. . footnote : _hansard_, july , , vol. , pp. - . there seems indeed to be a general consensus of opinion in favour of holiday feeding. the experiments made by dr. crowley at bradford in , and by the medical officer of health at northampton in , which we shall describe later,[ ] not to mention the testimony offered by numbers of teachers as to the deterioration of the children physically during the holidays, prove conclusively the need for the continuation of the meals, if the children are not to lose much of the benefit which they have derived during term time. footnote : see post, pp. - . in passing we may note that not only do many local authorities--how many we are unable to ascertain, but the number must be considerable--discontinue the meals during the holidays, but they stop them entirely during the summer months.[ ] in some towns, where employment is good during the summer, there may be little need for school meals, but in large towns, such as bootle and salford, which contain a large population who rely on casual labour, it is obvious that the cessation of the meals during the summer must cause considerable hardship. footnote : this may be through lack of funds, as at east ham (see ante, p. ), but is not always due to this cause. (f)--the provision for paying children and recovery of the cost. when the provision of meals act was passed it was assumed that a considerable proportion of the cost of the meals would be borne by the parents. it was confidently expected that large numbers of parents would be willing to avail themselves of the provision of a midday meal at school for their children and would gladly pay for it.[ ] the circular issued by the board of education to the local authorities pointed out that the act aimed at securing that suitable meals should be available "just as much for those whose parents are in a position to pay as for those to whom food must be given free of cost."[ ] "there will generally be no difficulty in providing, where it is so desired, a school dinner at a fixed price in the middle of the day, attended by children for whom, by reason of distance from the school or because the mother's absence makes a home meal difficult, the parent prefers to take advantage of an arrangement similar to that now in operation in most secondary day schools."[ ] moreover, little difficulty was anticipated in extracting payment from those parents who could afford to pay but neglected to do so. these expectations have not been fulfilled. in the year - the sums received from the parents, either contributed voluntarily by them or recovered after prosecution or threat of prosecution, amounted to only £ , or . per cent. of the total receipts.[ ] in - the amount so received had increased but was still only per cent.[ ] footnote : see, for instance, _hansard_, december , , th series, vol. , p. ; december , , pp. , . see also _ibid._, july , , vol. , p. , and april , , vol. , p. . footnote : report on working of the education (provision of meals) act up to march , , p. . footnote : _ibid._, p. . footnote : _ibid._, p. . footnote : the amount was £ , out of a total of £ , . (report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , p. .) the smallness of the sums voluntarily contributed by the parents is largely due to the action of the local authorities. in the great majority of towns in england[ ] no serious attempt has been made to establish "school restaurants"; the local education authority, owing perhaps to lack of accommodation, perhaps to the difficulty of providing for a fluctuating number of children (a difficulty felt especially where the meals are supplied through a caterer), perhaps to the feeling that the provision of school meals as a matter of convenience would encourage the mothers to go out to work, has limited the provision to necessitous children. in - , out of towns (apart from london) in which provision was made for underfed children, in only twenty-two were any of the meals paid for wholly by the parents. the number of children so paid for was in most cases negligible, the total amounting to only a few hundreds. and these figures include meals paid for under compulsion (though without prosecution) as well as meals voluntarily paid for as a matter of convenience.[ ] footnote : for provision made for paying children in scottish towns, see appendix ii., pp. , , . footnote : report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , pp. - , . in eleven other towns the parents in some cases paid part of the cost. but even where the system of voluntary payment has been tried, it has been a failure. at bradford, where a large proportion of married women work in the mills, it was felt that many parents would take advantage of a system by which they could obtain a midday meal for their children at cost price.[ ] the education committee accordingly sent round a circular to the head teachers asking them to announce to their scholars that a good dinner could be obtained for d.[ ] the response was disappointing. comparatively few of the mothers took advantage of the offer, and the result, though the number of paying children[ ] seems to be larger than in any other provincial town,[ ] can only be described as a failure. this may be partly attributed to the cost. where there are several children a payment of d. per head may be more than the parent can afford. but the main cause of failure is undoubtedly the dislike of the independent type of parent who can afford to pay to sending his children to meals the majority of which are being given free. in fact any system which seeks to combine free and paying meals, the free meals being the chief element, is fore-doomed to failure.[ ] footnote : "the needs would be met of a host of children who never got a decent meal." (councillor north, bradford city council proceedings, february , , p. .) footnote : extracts from the annual reports of the bradford education committee for the four years ended march , , , and , pp. , . the charge is now - / d. footnote : the numbers given in the report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for (p. ) are , but some of these were paid for by the guardians. no record, we were told, is kept of the individual children who pay, but the amount received in - from parents who voluntarily paid the whole cost was £ s. d. thus only some , meals were wholly paid for, out of a total of , . (bradford education committee, return as to the working of the provision of meals act for the year ending march , .) footnote : at finchley as many as two-thirds of the meals are paid for, but the charge is very low, only / d. per meal. we were informed that the price would not cover the cost of food if it were not for the fact that the meat used in connection with the dinners was provided as a voluntary gift. footnote : this was the opinion of the inter-departmental committee on medical inspection and feeding in . (see ante, p. .) "if no distinction is made between the paying children and the non-paying children," declared one witness, "i feel sure that the birmingham artisan would not send his children. he would not let them go to receive a meal in regard to which it was not known whether it was given free or not." (report of the inter-departmental committee on medical inspection and feeding, , vol. ii., q. , evidence of mr. george hookham.) see also the evidence given by mr. f. wilkinson, the director of education for bolton. (_ibid._, qs. - .) in the special schools for mentally or physically defective children, where the dinner is provided more as a part of the school curriculum than as a "charity" meal, there is not, as we shall see, much difficulty in inducing the parents to pay for the meals.[ ] in rural districts also, where the children are in many cases unable to go home at midday, the system of paying dinners has more chance of success.[ ] footnote : see post, p. . footnote : see post, pp. - . turning now to the question of the recovery of the cost from unwilling parents, the provision of meals act, it will be remembered, laid down that the local authorities should require payment unless satisfied that the parents could not pay, and the cost might be recovered summarily as a civil debt. in practice this has been found very difficult to accomplish. it is impossible to tell from the returns how much of the £ , received from parents in - was contributed voluntarily, and how much recovered after compulsion, but the amount recovered must necessarily be very small.[ ] footnote : the amount recovered _after prosecution_ in - was £ s. d. for the whole of england and wales, london accounting for more than half this sum. (report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , pp. - .) to this we must add the amount recovered with more or less difficulty, but without prosecution. where the local education authority confines the provision of meals strictly to the cases where the family income is below a certain amount per head, as at leeds, there is of course little to be recovered, attempts at recovery being limited to cases where the parents have made an incorrect statement as to their income, and have therefore been obtaining the meals under false pretences. at west ham, indeed, the education committee has interpreted the provision of meals act to mean that recovery must be attempted in every case where meals are supplied. when a parent applies for meals for his children on the score of being unable to provide for them himself--for only necessitous children are fed, no provision being made for voluntary payment--he has to sign a form by which he agrees to repay the cost of all meals which have been supplied when he gets back into work and can afford to do so. moreover, he has to send a note every day saying that he still wishes his children to be fed,[ ] this being insisted on as a proof that meals have been supplied in the event of an attempt at recovery. in any case the full cost is rarely charged, the wage and the number of children being taken into consideration, and a rebate of sometimes as much as per cent. being granted. but as a matter of fact very few accounts are sent to the borough treasurer for collection, as the wages of nearly all the parents of the children who are fed, even when they are in good work, are too small to allow of their paying for meals supplied in the past.[ ] footnote : see ante, p. . footnote : report of the west ham education committee for the year ending march , , p. . when the local education authority is determined to provide food for all children who need it, for those who are underfed through the neglect of their parents to provide for them as well as for those whose parents are too poor to do so, a considerable amount ought to be recovered. the difficulty lies in the impossibility in many cases of securing sufficient evidence of the parent's ability to pay. magistrates are notoriously loth to convict. at bradford we were told that in numbers of cases magistrates' orders for payment had been served on the parents, but these orders were frequently disregarded by parents who knew the practical difficulties in the way of enforcing them.[ ] footnote : in proceedings were taken against parents in only eight towns, including london. the number of cases was , of which were in london. (report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , pp. - .) whether the amount due for meals which have been already supplied is paid by the parent or not, the commonest result of sending a notice that the local authority intends to recover the cost is that the parents refuse to allow their children any longer to receive the meals. "in practice it is found," says the bootle school canteen committee, "that when action is taken to enforce payment the children are withdrawn by their parents from further participation in the meals, with the result that the children revert to their former ill-fed condition."[ ] at york, too, we were told that when a child who is found to be underfed through neglect is put on the feeding-list and a letter written to the father that he will be charged the cost of the meals, he invariably writes back demanding that his child shall be taken off the list. nothing more is done and the child remains underfed. the local education authorities are, indeed, "on the horns of a dilemma in dealing with such cases, as the act obliges them to make this attempt to recover the cost, and they know that the only result of their doing so will be that the children are withdrawn from the meals."[ ] so much has the bradford education authority felt this difficulty that they have more than once sought power, by inserting a clause in the local bills promoted by the corporation, to compel the attendance of children at meals in all cases in which the school medical officer certifies that the children are underfed, and to recover the cost. these efforts have so far proved useless, it being held that such a clause involves a new principle and cannot therefore be included in a local act.[ ] footnote : report on the work of the bootle school canteen committee, - , p. . since this date the committee have accordingly made no attempt to prosecute parents for repayment of the cost. footnote : extracts from annual reports of bradford education committee for the four years ended march , , , and , p. . footnote : at bradford a child who is underfed through neglect is put on the feeding-list for a month before the bill is sent to its parents, so that it may receive the benefit of the meals for this period at any rate. the question of dealing with neglectful parents is indeed beset with difficulties. under the children act, , a parent or guardian can be prosecuted for neglecting a child "in a manner likely to cause such child unnecessary suffering or injury to its health." this neglect is defined to mean those cases where the parent or guardian "fails to provide adequate food, clothing, medical aid or lodging," or, if unable to provide the same himself, fails to apply to the guardians for relief.[ ] it is rare for the local education authorities themselves to institute proceedings under this act. usually they prefer to refer cases to the society for the prevention of cruelty to children. often an improvement in the condition of the child is effected as a result of the visits of this society's inspectors to the home. but when these warnings prove useless, frequently nothing more is done; the society are loth to prosecute, except in extreme cases when they can be practically certain of securing a conviction. footnote : edward vii., c. , sec. . (g)--overlapping between the poor law and the education authorities. we have already alluded to the neglect of the guardians to deal with more than an insignificant fraction of the children who are underfed. the attempt made in to force them to fulfil their responsibility in this respect was, as we have seen, a complete failure, and the duty was therefore cast upon the local education authorities. but even in the few cases where the guardians have assumed the responsibility by granting out-relief to the family, the amount of this relief is, in the vast majority of cases, totally inadequate. this was abundantly proved by the report of the poor law commission in . "the children," they reported, "are undernourished, many of them poorly dressed and many bare-footed ... the decent mother's one desire is to keep herself and her children out of the work-house. she will, if allowed, try to do this on an impossibly inadequate sum, until both she and her children become mentally and physically deteriorated."[ ] when the mother was careless or neglectful no supervision was exercised by the guardians to see that even this inadequate amount was really spent on the children. this indictment still holds good to-day. the inadequacy of the relief granted by the guardians, in all but a few exceptional unions, has, in fact, become a byword. footnote : report of the royal commission on the poor laws and relief of distress, , vo edition, vol. iii. (minority report), p. . in the great majority of towns, the local education authority is consequently driven to feed children whose parents are in receipt of poor relief. thus two authorities deal with the same case, without, in many instances, either of them knowing what the other is doing.[ ] only in a few cases has any attempt been made to prevent this overlapping. for example, at leicester (one of the few towns, we may note, where liberal out-relief is granted by the guardians) there has from the first been co-operation between the guardians and the canteen committee.[ ] the relieving officer refers to the canteen committee many applications that are made to him where temporary help only is needed, and the committee has frequently tided families over a bad time and saved them from recourse to the poor law. on the other hand, when a family is receiving out-relief the canteen committee refuses to grant food for the children. at acton a similar policy has been adopted. if parents who are in receipt of out-relief apply for school meals for their children, the secretary of the education committee recommends them to apply to the guardians for more relief, at the same time himself writing to the relieving officer. as a rule the relief is increased in consequence. meanwhile the teachers are told to watch the children to see that they do not suffer from want of food. at dewsbury, also, temporary cases are dealt with by the canteen committee, but all chronic cases by the guardians.[ ] footnote : occasionally, as we have seen, the guardians are represented on the canteen committee, as at crewe. footnote : first annual report of the leicester children's aid association, - , p. . footnote : report of the school medical officer for dewsbury for , p. . elsewhere an attempt has been made to prevent overlapping by other means. while the education authority undertakes to provide for all the underfed children, an arrangement is made with the guardians whereby they repay the cost of the meals supplied for all children whose parents are in receipt of relief. the relief is thus given partly in the form of school meals, a plan strongly to be commended, since it ensures that the relief given on account of the children is in fact obtained by them. this plan has been for some years pursued at bradford. at first there appear to have been complaints that the guardians were reducing the relief granted, on account of the dinners supplied at school,[ ] but the dinners are now given in addition to the ordinary relief.[ ] in - , the guardians paid £ to the education authority on this account.[ ] even so, there is some slight overlapping, since the guardians only pay for dinners and in some cases the canteen committee are of opinion that a second meal is needed, and consequently breakfasts are granted and paid for by the education authority. a similar plan has been adopted at blackburn,[ ] huddersfield,[ ] brighton,[ ] york and liverpool. in the last named town the arrangement has only recently been made, and is in force in only two of the three unions into which the town is divided, west derby and liverpool. the guardians have agreed to issue coupons for school meals to children whose parents are in receipt of out-relief, and will pay to the education authority d. per meal. we were informed that, in the case of the west derby guardians at any rate, these coupons would only be given to children whose mothers were out all day. the relief would be reduced in consequence, though not to the extent of the full value of the meal. the guardians of the toxteth union declined to make a similar arrangement, but suggested that the local education authority should inform them when they found children underfed whose parents were in receipt of relief, and they proposed in these cases to increase the relief.[ ] footnote : bradford city council proceedings, june , , p. ; april , , p. . footnote : thus the minimum relief for a widow is s., with s. each for the first two children, and s. each for other children. in addition five dinners a week, amounting in value to s. - / d., are given to all children attending school. (bradford poor law union, outdoor relief arrangements.) footnote : bradford education committee, return as to the working of the provision of meals act for the year ending march , . footnote : report of the school medical officer for blackburn, , p. . out of , meals given during the year, the guardians paid for , , or nearly one-third. footnote : report of the huddersfield education committee, , p. . footnote : report of brighton education committee for the year ending march , , p. . footnote : for the arrangements made between the liverpool education committee and the guardians with regard to payment for children admitted as voluntary cases to the day industrial schools, see post, p. n. other local education authorities have tried this plan of communicating with the guardians, in the hope that they would grant adequate relief for the needs of the children, but, finding no such result ensue, have discontinued the practice. at bury st. edmunds, for instance, it was found in the winter of - that "a large percentage of the families whose children were fed at school were in receipt of outdoor relief of an amount which the education authority thought inadequate. the attention of the board of guardians was called to the fact, but no steps were taken by them."[ ] the education committee accordingly continued to feed the children, and we gather that now no communication is made by them to the guardians. similarly at west ham we were informed that the education committee used to report cases to the guardians, but the practice proved useless and it has been given up, except for special cases, where the guardians will sometimes increase the relief given. footnote : report of the royal commission on the poor laws and relief of distress, , vo edition, vol. iii. (minority report), p. n. in a few unions, as at leeds, the only result of the guardians learning that the children are receiving school meals--the need for which points to the conclusion that the out-relief granted is inadequate--is that they promptly reduce the relief, though not contributing to the local education authority anything towards the cost of the meals. they appear to regard the provision of school meals merely as a means of reducing the poor-rates, and casting the burden on other shoulders. naturally in such circumstances the local education authority does not report cases to the guardians. any systematic arrangement between the two authorities appears indeed to be exceptional. as a rule there is practically no co-operation, beyond, perhaps, the notification of cases by both authorities to some mutual registration society,[ ] or the informal meetings of the relieving officers and the school attendance officers.[ ] footnote : thus at manchester, the education committee and the guardians send lists of their cases to the district provident society, and the secretary lets each authority know what the other is doing. footnote : it is impossible to give any figures as to the overlapping that exists, since the practice varies so much in different towns, and in many cases no records are kept. (h)--the provision of meals at day industrial schools and special schools. we have already alluded to the power of the local education authorities to provide meals for the children attending the day industrial schools and the special schools for the mentally or physically defective. the day industrial schools are intended primarily for children who have played truant from the ordinary schools and who are committed by a magistrate's order. but in the case of widows or deserted wives who have to work all day, or when the father is incapacitated from work by illness or infirmity, or if the father is a widower, the children may be admitted to a day industrial school, without an order, as "voluntary cases."[ ] when children are committed by a magistrate's order, the parents are ordered to make a weekly payment towards the cost of industrial training and meals.[ ] in the case of children admitted voluntarily such payment is also theoretically demanded,[ ] but in practice it is, as a rule, impossible to exact it. thus at liverpool, though small payments are received from widowers, the condition as to payment has to be waived in the case of widows and deserted wives, or when the father is unable to work through illness.[ ] at bootle we were informed that no payment is received from any of the voluntary cases. the schools are open from or in the morning to . or at night and three meals are provided. the dietary is as a rule monotonous, being continued week after week with practically no variation. in point of order, as might be expected, the service of the meals compares favourably with those given to necessitous children, erring rather on the side of over-much discipline. it is, unfortunately, by no means uncommon to find absolute silence insisted on, a regulation which has a most depressing effect. in these day industrial schools the local education authorities have a valuable instrument for providing for the numerous cases where mothers are at work all day and so cannot provide proper meals for their children, or where the children are neglected. this was urged by many witnesses before the royal commission on the poor laws,[ ] and again recently by the departmental committee on reformatory and industrial schools.[ ] very few authorities, however, have taken advantage of this power. in there were only twelve day industrial schools in england, provided by eight authorities, and eight in scotland, of which seven were in glasgow.[ ] the total attendance numbered a little over , , the voluntary cases amounting to only .[ ] these numbers showed a decrease compared with previous years,[ ] and this decline has since continued, partly owing to the fact that truancy is far less common now than formerly, partly owing to the provision of meals for children attending elementary schools, which renders the day industrial schools less necessary.[ ] footnote : elementary education act, ( and vic., c. ), sec. ( ); children act, ( edward vii., c. ), sec. ; "day industrial schools," by j. c. legge, in _proceedings of national conference on the prevention of destitution_, , p. . footnote : children act, , sec. ( ). footnote : _ibid._, sec. . footnote : "day industrial schools," by j. c. legge, in _proceedings of national conference on the prevention of destitution_, , p. . for many years an arrangement has been in force by which the liverpool select vestry pay the local education authority d. a week in respect of each child in their area admitted as a voluntary scholar. (_ibid._) a few years ago the guardians of the toxteth union agreed, in such cases, where the parent was in receipt of outdoor relief, to increase the relief by d. on condition that this was paid to the education authority. (_ibid._, p. .) the west derby guardians pay a lump sum of £ a year. footnote : report of the royal commission on the poor laws, . vo edition, vol. iii., p. . footnote : report of the departmental committee on reformatory and industrial schools, , p. . footnote : fifty-fifth report on reformatory and industrial schools, , part i., pp. - ; part ii., p. . two of the schools in england have since been closed, and the school at leeds is shortly to be given up. footnote : _ibid._, part i., pp. - ; part ii., p. . footnote : _ibid._, part ii., p. . footnote : report of the departmental committee on reformatory and industrial schools, , p. . the arrangements made for providing for the mentally and physically defective children vary in different towns. sometimes no special provision is made. at leicester, for instance, the mentally defective children who come from a distance bring their food with them and the caretaker warms it. frequently, however, a regular dinner is supplied. thus at eastbourne dinners are provided at the special school for dull and backward children at a very small charge.[ ] at bradford some of the children pay - / d. a meal, others receive it free. at liverpool a payment of s., d. or d. a week is demanded, according to the circumstances, the meals being given free in special cases.[ ] in birkenhead, too, the charge varies, some paying s. a week, some d. or d. per meal, at the discretion of the teacher; no meals are given free, children who cannot pay being sent to the centre to have their dinner with the necessitous children from the ordinary elementary schools. there appears to be usually little difficulty in collecting payment. at birkenhead we were told that some difficulty was experienced at first, but the children appreciate the dinners so much now that they beg their parents to give them the necessary pence. footnote : report of school medical officer for eastbourne for , p. . footnote : the majority pay about d. a week. in the case of physically defective children the parent's payment is intended to meet the expenses of dinner, any medicines or dressings that may be necessary, and the cost of conveyance. it does not, of course, nearly cover these charges. at the open air schools[ ] the common meal always forms part of the regular school routine. as a rule three meals a day are provided,[ ] and sometimes milk is given in addition in the middle of the morning. usually some charge is made towards the cost of the meals, varying from d. to s. per week, according to the parents' circumstances, but in necessitous cases the charge is remitted.[ ] footnote : in there were only nine open air schools, maintained by eight authorities. (report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , p. .) footnote : at darlington only a mid-day meal is provided. footnote : at norwich the charge varies from d. to s. d.; at sheffield, from d. to s. d.; at halifax it may amount to s. at barnsley all the parents are charged s. d. per week, no children being admitted without payment. at bradford the meals are given free to all. the service of the meals at these special schools presents in general a marked contrast to the methods prevailing at the centres for necessitous children. for example, at birkenhead, where the management of the feeding centres leaves much to be desired,[ ] the dinner provided at the mentally defective school, for all children who care to stay, is served in an attractive and educational manner. one or more teachers are always present to supervise it. the children enter all together and sit down at small tables. the boys and girls take it in turns to lay the tables and clear away afterwards, and help to serve the food. table-cloths are provided and these are kept remarkably clean. somewhat similar conditions prevail at liverpool in the special schools for physically and mentally defective children.[ ] but it is at a school for feeble-minded children at bradford that we found the most perfect arrangements. the smallness of the numbers--only some or children being present--allowed attention to be paid to each individual child. the dinner was served in a bright cheerful hall, and the tables were nicely laid by the children, with table-cloths, plants and flowers; these latter the children often bring themselves. two teachers are always present and preside at the two tables, having their dinner with the children. the children's manners were excellent and spoke volumes for the patience and care exercised by the teachers. footnote : see ante, pp. - . footnote : at one of these schools, the mentally defective children were having their dinner in one room, the physically defective in an adjoining room. all the children stay for the meal. the headmistress supervised, assisted by a teacher for the mentally defective, and the school nurse for the physically defective children. tablecloths were provided for the latter, but not for the former. the dinner was cooked by the children who had been attending the cookery class in the morning; the children laid the tables, and monitors helped to serve the food. the example afforded by the service of the meals at these special schools might well be imitated by the education authorities in providing meals at the ordinary elementary schools. (i)--the underfed child in rural schools. we have confined our investigations almost entirely to the urban districts. we must, however, briefly touch upon the question of underfeeding in the country. here the conditions are different. the problem is not only how to provide for the children who do not get sufficient to eat; there are also to be considered the large numbers who are unable to return home at midday and have to bring their dinner to school with them. many of these children have to walk long distances, perhaps two miles, three miles, or even more. the long walk necessitates an early start from home; this makes the interval between breakfast and dinner long and the exercise sharpens the appetite. hence it is of the greatest importance that the midday meal should be adequate. in most cases, however, as the reports of school medical officers abundantly testify, the dinner which these children bring with them consists of bread and jam, cake or pastry, with perhaps a bottle of cold tea.[ ] in a few schools the teachers have organised cocoa clubs, the children paying d. or - / d. per week, which is as a rule just sufficient to cover expenses.[ ] incidentally, it is noticed, the weekly payment for cocoa has a good effect on the attendance. "a child having once paid his or her cocoa fee at the beginning of the week seldom stays away from school during the remainder of the week if it can possibly be avoided."[ ] footnote : in east sussex, for instance, where particulars were supplied by the teachers as to the meals brought by eleven of the children, it was found that the food was totally inadequate, in most cases consisting of bread and butter, or cake, with perhaps a small piece of cheese or an apple. two children of five years old, who had to walk two miles to school, brought, one of them bread and butter only, the other cake. three children, who had to walk three and a half miles, brought either cake or only bread. ("the diet of elementary school children in country districts," by dr. george finch, in _rearing an imperial race_, edited by c. e. hecht, , p. .) in a bedfordshire school out of children who brought their dinner to school with them, one had an apple tart, three had bread and cheese, while had "bread with a thin layer of butter or lard on it, or else bread and jam, or bread and syrup. this meal was washed down with water, as nothing hot was obtainable." ("how the family of the agricultural labourer lives," by ronald t. herdman, reprinted in _rearing an imperial race_, p. .) footnote : thus at brynconin, where children are supplied daily with cocoa for a weekly charge of d., the week's expenditure on cocoa, sugar and milk amounts to s. d., and the children's payments to s. d. (report of the school medical officer for pembrokeshire for , p. .) see also reports of the school medical officer for hampshire ( ), p. ; for the isle of ely ( ), p. ; for gloucestershire ( ), p. ; for east suffolk ( ), p. ; for west sussex ( ), p. . sometimes the cocoa is provided free through the generosity of the teachers. (see report of monmouthshire education committee on the medical inspection department for , p. .) footnote : report of the school medical officer for hampshire for , p. . sometimes the teacher encourages the children to bring bottles of milk, cocoa or coffee and sees that they are warmed over the fire before being partaken of. occasionally a regular dinner is provided. we have already mentioned the experiment made at rousdon by sir henry peek in . this has been continued to the present day. a hot dinner is provided daily, consisting of one course, soup with bread and vegetables two days a week, and some form of suet pudding the other three days. about half the children stay for the dinner and pay one penny each, these payments just about covering the cost of the food. the meal is served in a dining-room in the school and the ex-headmaster and the present headmaster voluntarily undertake the supervision. a somewhat similar plan has been tried at grassington, in yorkshire. when, eighteen years ago, the teaching of cookery was introduced, it was resolved to combine with that instruction the provision of a hot midday meal. the children not only cook the dinner themselves, but they take it in turns to order and pay for the materials, thus acquiring the valuable knowledge how to buy. they are taught the value of the different foodstuffs and learn how to make a good substantial dinner at a little cost. a two-course dinner, ample and varied, is provided daily at the school.[ ] each child is allowed to eat as much as it wants, but no waste is allowed. marvellous as it appears, the payment of a d. per meal covers the cost of the food.[ ] the dinner appears to have been intended chiefly for the children who came from a distance, but the parents of the children who live in the village have been glad to avail themselves of the provision, since the school dinner is better than they can supply at home.[ ] nearly half the children stay. all the arrangements are, and have from the first been, made by the headmaster's wife, who takes the cookery lesson and serves the meal herself, and the success of the experiment must be very largely attributed to her voluntary labours. footnote : for sample menus, see appendix i., p. . footnote : for instance, the cost of the food for the dinners for twelve weeks amounted to £ s. d., and the children's payments to £ s. d. on cold snowy mornings hot cocoa is provided before morning school for all the children. the cost of this is, we gather, borne entirely by the headmaster and his wife. footnote : _yorkshire post_, july , . in two schools in cheshire also, siddington and nether alderley, hot dinners are provided at a charge of - / d., in the former during the winter months, in the latter all the year round. in both cases the children's payments cover, or slightly more than cover, the cost of the food, the other expenses being borne by voluntary funds. such provision is, however, quite exceptional. as a rule no provision whatever is made. "i have only once seen any supervision of the meal on the part of the teachers," writes a late assistant school medical officer for east sussex; "in fine weather the children generally eat [their dinner] out of doors; in bad weather it is taken in the school or cloak-room in what are often very unhygienic surroundings."[ ] "there is no doubt," writes another school medical officer, "that at some of the schools the conditions in which the children get their midday meal are deplorable."[ ] "it is only too common a sight," reports the school medical officer for derbyshire, "to see little children sitting in a corner of the class-room, cloak-room or even the playground, munching at thick slices of bread and butter. under these circumstances," he continues, "it cannot be wondered at that children below the normal development are to be found in our schools."[ ] in anglesey the school medical officer finds more children badly nourished in the rural areas than in the urban areas; this he attributes mainly to the long walk to school every day, the inadequacy of the midday meal and the hurried manner in which it is eaten.[ ] footnote : "the diet of elementary school children in country districts," by dr. george finch, in _rearing an imperial race_, edited by c. e. hecht, , p. . footnote : report of the school medical officer for hampshire, , p. . footnote : report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , p. . footnote : _ibid._, pp. - . it is indeed essential that in all country schools to which children come from a distance, provision should be made for the serving of a midday meal under proper supervision.[ ] as dr. george finch points out, "the authority which requires the child to spend its day away from home might not unreasonably be expected by the parents to make some provision that its midday meal might be taken under not unfavourable conditions. the parent, however conscientious, cannot adequately deal with the problem, and the provision of suitable cold food is not an easy matter, even in the more well-to-do family."[ ] the meals should be served as part of the school curriculum and might well be combined with the teaching of cookery as is done at grassington. footnote : as we have seen, the inter-departmental committee on medical inspection and feeding in recommended that managers of country schools should arrange, during the winter at any rate, to provide either a hot dinner or soup or cocoa for children who lived too far away to go home at mid-day. (see ante, p. .) footnote : "the diet of elementary school children in country districts," by dr. george finch, in _rearing an imperial race_, edited by c. e. hecht, , p. . conclusions. it may be useful now to sum up the main points which emerge from the foregoing description. the proposal, which we shall discuss in the final chapter, to make the midday meal a part of the school curriculum, to be attended by all children who wish to avail themselves of the provision, would obviate many of the difficulties that arise under the present system. meanwhile we may point out some ways in which improvements can be effected, apart from this more drastic proposal. . since the provision of meals act is only permissive, local education authorities are allowed to remain inactive in spite of the fact that children in their schools are underfed, and that no adequate provision is made by voluntary agencies. it should be made obligatory on the local authority to take action in such a case. . the limitation of the amount which may be spent on food by the local education authority to the sum yielded by a halfpenny rate restricts operations in some towns, and prevents provision being made for all the necessitous children. this limitation should be removed. an alteration of the law in these two directions would merely assimilate the powers and duties of the english education authorities to those already conferred on the scottish school boards by the education (scotland) act of .[ ] footnote : see post, pp. - . . the selection of the children who are to receive school meals is based, often solely and always primarily, on the poverty test. little attempt is made to link up the provision of meals with the school medical service. the meals, that is to say, are regarded primarily as a means of relieving distress rather than as a remedy for malnutrition. the numbers selected vary according to the policy of the local education authority and the views taken by the individual head teachers. nowhere can the selection of the children be said to be satisfactory. in towns such as bradford, where the local authority is determined to search out all cases of children who are suffering from lack of food, the great majority of underfed children are doubtless discovered, but in other towns numbers of such children are overlooked and left unprovided for, while everywhere little or no provision is made for the countless children who are improperly fed at home. we shall discuss in the final chapter the best method to be pursued in this matter of selecting the children. . there is great diversity of practice in different towns with regard to the time at which the meal is given, the manner in which it is prepared and served, and the kind of food supplied. where only one meal is provided, it would appear that dinner is for many reasons preferable to breakfast. the dietary should be varied and should be drawn up in consultation with the school medical officer; it should be so planned as to contain a due proportion of the elements which are lacking in the child's home diet, and special provision should be made for the infants. the preparation of the meals should not be left to caterers but should be undertaken by the local authority, so that adherence to the approved dietary and a high standard of quality can be assured. the meal should be regarded as part of the school curriculum. it should be served as far as possible on the school premises, and should be attended only by children from that particular school. the children should be taught to set the tables and wait on one another, the tables being nicely laid, with table-cloths and, if possible, flowers or plants. clean hands and faces and orderly behaviour should be insisted on. some of the teachers should supervise the meal and should receive some extra remuneration for this service. . the discontinuance of the school meals during the holidays has been shown to undo much of the benefit derived during term-time, and it entails unnecessary suffering on the children. the expenditure of the rates on holiday feeding must be legalised. the limitation of the provision to the winter months, as is the practice in some towns, is even more absurd. local authorities should be required to continue the school meals throughout the year, if need exists. . the sums contributed by the parents towards the cost of their children's meals amount to only a trifling fraction of the total expenditure. the power of providing meals as a matter of convenience for children whose parents are able and willing to pay has been very sparingly used by the local education authorities, as far as the ordinary elementary schools are concerned. in the special schools for defective children, on the other hand, where not infrequently a midday meal is provided for all the children, a considerable proportion of the parents contribute towards the cost. it is difficult to say whether the establishment of school restaurants in the ordinary schools would be successful. one point, however, seems clear; if the plan is to succeed, the meals must be intended primarily for paying children; if they are provided mainly for necessitous children, parents who can afford to pay will not send their children to any great extent. in the case of the parents who can afford to feed their children but neglect to do so, the attempt to recover the cost of the meals supplied to the children results as a rule in almost total failure, owing to the extreme difficulty of obtaining conclusive evidence of the parents' ability to pay. an attempt to recover may be worse than useless, for it frequently leads the parent to withdraw his children promptly from the school meals, though their need of the meals continues as great as before. . owing to the inadequate relief usually given by the boards of guardians, the local education authorities are in many cases forced to feed children whose parents are receiving poor relief. in only a few towns is any systematic attempt made to prevent this overlapping between the two authorities. so long as the guardians retain their present functions, the plan adopted at bradford and a few other towns, by which the out-relief granted by the guardians is given partly in the form of school meals, the guardians paying the education authority for these meals, might well be extended to other towns. by this plan overlapping of relief is avoided, while it ensures that the relief given to the mother on account of her children is in effect obtained by them. . in the rural districts the conditions under which the children eat their midday meal are frequently deplorable. the long walk to school renders it even more important than it is in the towns that the meal should be a substantial one, but the food which the children bring with them is as a rule entirely inadequate. in the few schools where a hot dinner has been provided, the plan has met with marked success, and such provision should be made in all schools. it might advantageously be combined with the teaching of cookery, a plan which is more practicable in the country than in the towns, since the numbers to be provided for are comparatively small. chapter iii the provision of meals in london we have reserved the treatment of london for a separate chapter since, owing to its size and the diverse conditions prevailing in the different districts, it presents problems of special difficulty. we shall describe in this chapter the provision made in the early years of this century by voluntary agencies, and the final assumption by the london county council of the whole responsibility of dealing with its underfed children; we shall trace the gradual building up of a vast and complex organisation to deal not only with the question of school meals, but also with other matters affecting the general welfare of the children; and we shall discuss the actual methods of working at the present day. (a)--the organisation of the voluntary agencies. we have already sketched the early history of the movement in london, and described the attempts made by the london school board to organise the host of voluntary agencies.[ ] the proposal put forward by a committee of the school board in to make that body responsible for providing food for all its underfed children was, as we have shown, defeated by a large majority, and a renewed attempt was made by the establishment of a central organisation, the joint committee on underfed children, to organise the voluntary agencies. footnote : see ante, pp. - . this attempt met with but little more success than the earlier endeavours. the functions of the joint committee were limited to receiving reports from the relief committees, pointing out defects in their methods of working, and acting generally as a medium of communication between these committees and the collecting agencies. if the relief committees failed to send reports, the joint committee had no power to compel them to do so, nor could the committee insist on the remedying of the defects which they pointed out. by the committee were able to report that only one school had been discovered in which meals were provided but no report received. "we may hope, therefore," they continue, "that ... the instructions of the council ... have at last reached all head teachers and are being obeyed. but in default of any executive and inspecting machinery, it has taken the persistent efforts of the joint committee, during six years, to effect this result, if indeed it has really been effected."[ ] the greatest difficulty was experienced in getting relief committees established in every school or group of schools in which underfed children were provided with meals.[ ] even when these committees were appointed, the meetings of many of them were held infrequently and for formal business only, the selection of the children and the enquiry into the parents' circumstances being left entirely to the teachers.[ ] consequently the methods of selection differed widely, even in the same school, the different departments paying no attention to what the others were doing.[ ] the enquiry was generally totally inadequate, and in some cases was not even attempted.[ ] the joint committee urged that, when meals were given at all, they should be given regularly at least four if not five days a week, and should be continued throughout the year if necessary.[ ] but in we find that "there are still a good many schools where meals are only provided on one or two days, and more where they are only given on three days, the average number throughout the schools being - / meals per child per week."[ ] in only sixteen schools were the meals continued for more than twenty weeks during the year.[ ] footnote : report of the joint committee on underfed children, for - , p. . footnote : fourth annual report of the joint committee on underfed children, , pp. - ; report of inter-departmental committee on medical inspection and feeding, , qs. , (evidence of mr. t. e. harvey). even in there were schools at which feeding took place which had not a properly constituted committee. (london county council, report by executive officer (education), appendix a to agenda of sub-committee on underfed children, july , .) footnote : "there is supposed to be a committee in every school," said one headmaster, "but the committees never meet in the vast majority of cases, and if they do, they never undertake personal investigation." (report of the select committee on the education (provision of meals) bills (england and scotland), , q. , evidence of mr. marshall jackman.) "there is [a relief committee] in accordance with the rules," declared another headmaster, but "the committee acts really through the head teachers.... the committee say that the teachers have their confidence, and they could not do any good by attempting themselves to help as a committee, and therefore they do not help." (report of the inter-departmental committee on medical inspection and feeding, , q. (evidence of mr. t. p. shovelier.) see also _ibid._, qs. a, - , , . footnote : see, for instance, report of inter-departmental committee on medical inspection and feeding, , qs. , . footnote : "the duty of making enquiries by the managers, or by outsiders working for them, into the home conditions of the children is, with some remarkable exceptions, seldom well done, and often not done at all. they are authorised to invite assistance from attendance officers, ... from charity organisation society visitors, district visitors, country holiday fund visitors, and similar persons, but we have very seldom found that this class of person has been consulted." (report of the joint committee on underfed children for - , p. .) footnote : _ibid._ for - , p. . footnote : _ibid._ for - , appendix g., p. . footnote : _ibid._, p. . the joint committee strenuously opposed the theory, which was now steadily gaining ground, that the rates should be utilised for the supply of food. in they report that, in their opinion, "all real distress on any considerable scale has been effectually met.... they have never been restricted in their efforts for want of funds, and there is no reason to think that any organisations dealing with public money would be more efficient than these bodies dealing with charitable money. on the other hand, there is reason to believe that, even as things are now, relief is often given to children who are not really in want, and there is no doubt that if the public purse were being drawn upon, relief would be distributed more lavishly."[ ] the county council could hardly, however, remain unmoved by the disquieting report of the committee on physical deterioration published in the same year. dr. eichholz, in his evidence before the committee, had indeed described the existing method of feeding in london as "entirely in the nature of a temporary stop-gap. there is," he declared, "but little concentrated effort at building up enfeebled constitutions, school feeding doing little beyond arresting further degeneracy."[ ] in april, , the council accordingly resolved "that, with a view to checking the physical deterioration among the london population and securing the best result from the expenditure on education, it be referred to the education committee to consider and report as to the necessary parliamentary power being obtained for the provision of food where necessary for the children attending rate-supported schools in london."[ ] the education committee, however, while admitting that there were numbers of underfed and ill-fed children attending the schools and that in the case of these children it was impossible to secure the best results from an educational standpoint, were nevertheless of opinion that, "while the necessity for feeding children as the last resort out of public funds is a proposition endorsed by the whole spirit of the poor law," there were strong arguments against seeking power to utilise the rates at present. the provision of school meals out of public funds must tend to lessen parental responsibility, and the expense entailed would be very serious, since the numbers, though small at first, would inevitably tend to increase.[ ] the committee recommended, therefore, that the experiment should be tried of utilising the food prepared at the cookery centres. the advantages of this course would be twofold. the experiment would prove whether there was a demand on the part of the better-off parents for the provision of cheap dinners at school, while the training at the cookery centres would be improved by receiving a more practical trend.[ ] footnote : fourth annual report of the joint committee on underfed children, , p. . evidence was given before the inter-departmental committee on medical inspection and feeding in , which showed that difficulty was experienced in collecting sufficient funds. the london schools dinner association found that people would contribute at christmas time, but in the early spring, when the work was heaviest, the subscriptions ceased. (report of the inter-departmental committee on medical inspection and feeding, , qs. , - .) see also evidence of mr. marshall jackman before the select committee on the education (provision of meals) bills (england and scotland), , qs. , - . footnote : report of inter-departmental committee on physical deterioration, , q. . footnote : minutes of the london county council, april , , p. . footnote : _ibid._, july , , p. . footnote : _ibid._, p. . the experiment was accordingly tried at five[ ] selected schools. in three of these schools, which were situated in poor districts, dinners were supplied at - / d each. in the other two schools, situated in better-class neighbourhoods, the cost was d. and d., the parents preferring the more expensive dinner.[ ] the council having no power to spend the rates on the provision of food, the meals had to be paid for by the parents or by charitable agencies. the teachers were instructed not to choose only necessitous children, but to distribute the tickets fairly between the children in the schools, the object being to try the experiment of a common dinner.[ ] from an educational point of view the dinners were very successful. the children were taught to eat properly,[ ] and the girls attending the cookery class benefited by the practical training. it appeared, too, that there was a demand, in certain districts at any rate, for the provision of cheap dinners at school.[ ] but the experiment was on too small a scale to have much practical bearing on the question of feeding necessitous children. for large numbers the cookery centres were quite inadequate and any attempt to use them primarily for the object of providing children's meals would interfere with the instruction given. footnote : the experiment was later extended to fifteen schools. footnote : report of the select committee on the education (provision of meals) bills, , qs. , , evidence of mr. a. j. shepheard. footnote : _ibid._, q. . footnote : the tables were "nicely laid and with tablecloths, with all the ordinary appliances and requirements of a table put there, such as salt cellars, knives and forks, and everything of that kind. the tables were laid out with flowers ... i think i may quite certainly say that some of these children had never sat down to a meal of that description in their lives." (_ibid._, q. .) footnote : minutes of the london county council, december , , p. . about eighty per cent. of the meals were paid for by the parents, the remaining twenty per cent. being paid for by friends or voluntary agencies. (report of the select committee on the education (provision of meals) bills, , q. .) (b)--the assumption of responsibility by the county council. no further serious attempt was made for some years to place the provision of food upon the rates. on the passing of the provision of meals act the county council took over the whole responsibility for the provision, the joint committee on underfed children, which had been composed partly of representatives of voluntary organisations,[ ] giving place to a sub-committee of the education committee[ ]; but voluntary funds were still relied on. in , however, the supply began to fail. in july of that year a conference of the mayors of the london boroughs had declared that there was no reason to fear that voluntary contributions would be insufficient to defray the cost of food.[ ] the appeal subsequently issued met, however, with a very meagre response, only some £ , being subscribed.[ ] by the end of the year it became clear that recourse must be had to the rates, and application was accordingly made to the board of education. the new system was put in force early in .[ ] footnote : when, in , the london school board was superseded by the london county council, the joint committee on underfed children had been continued by the latter body, its constitution remaining practically unaltered. (london county council, report of education committee, - , part ii., p. .) footnote : this sub-committee was known at first as the sub-committee on underfed children. in december, , the name was altered to the children's care (central) sub-committee. (_ibid._, p. .) footnote : see minutes of the london county council, november , , p. . footnote : "state feeding of school children in london," by sir charles elliott, in _nineteenth century_, may, , p. . footnote : london county council, report of the education committee for - , part ii., p. . meanwhile the constant complaints of the varying methods pursued by the different care committees[ ] in the selection of the children, and the rapid increase in the number of children fed,[ ] led the sub-committee on underfed children to call for a report on the circumstances of these children, so that the cause of the distress might be ascertained and some light thrown on the question how far the provision of free meals was really an effective remedy for the evils which existed.[ ] an investigation was accordingly conducted by the two officials who had been appointed by the council to organise the work of the local care committees. twelve schools were selected in different districts, and a careful enquiry made into the circumstances of all the children at these schools who were receiving free meals. in all , families were dealt with, containing , children. footnote : the local relief committees had been re-organised under the name of children's care committees in july, . (_ibid._) footnote : the numbers greatly increased during the winter of - , and reached a maximum of , in march, . (london county council, report on the home circumstances of necessitous children in twelve selected schools, , p. .) footnote : _ibid._ in a small number of the cases, · per cent., the distress was found to be due to illness or some other temporary misfortune; unemployment of the wage-earner accounted for · per cent., and under-employment for per cent., of the cases; in · per cent. the cause of the distress was attributed to the intemperance or wastefulness of the parents.[ ] the necessity of providing school meals, at any rate as a temporary expedient, was clearly proved. it was found that, though · per cent. of the children were not necessitous, the remaining · per cent. were necessitous "in the sense of lacking sufficient food," and that they would require school meals "until effective care committees are able to check the diseases attendant on partial employment, bad housing and other evils."[ ] so far little attempt had been made to improve the conditions of the homes by systematic visiting. with the majority of the care committees, declared the organisers, "their only active members are the head teachers and their only visitors are the attendance officers."[ ] the complaints as to want of uniformity in the selection of the children were corroborated. in many schools "each department has its own system of enquiry, its own method of selection, its own standard of necessity, and the result is that it is seldom that all the school children of one family are on the necessitous list."[ ] the extent of overlapping between the education authority and the boards of guardians was shown by the fact that out of the , families were in receipt of out-relief while no fewer than had been in receipt of relief recently.[ ] footnote : _ibid._, pp. - , . footnote : _ibid._, p. . footnote : _ibid._, p. . footnote : _ibid._, p. . see also the description of the methods employed at typical schools. (_ibid._, pp. , .) footnote : _ibid._, p. . to put an end to all this want of uniformity it was recommended that a responsible secretary visitor should be appointed for each school or group of schools, who would organise bands of voluntary workers, and co-operate with all existing local agencies for social improvement. it was urged that the duties of the care committees should not be confined to the provision of meals, but should include everything pertaining to the health and general well-being of the child.[ ] this latter recommendation was carried out. the care committees were re-organised and given additional duties, the supervision of medical treatment and the work of after-care,[ ] and it was resolved that a committee should be appointed for every elementary school, not only for those which contained "necessitous" children.[ ] the suggestion that a paid secretary should be appointed for every school or group of schools was not adopted. the council decided merely to appoint twelve paid lady workers for the whole of london, whose duties would be to strengthen the care committees. at the same time, as a further step towards uniformity, local associations of care committees were formed. several such associations had already come into existence voluntarily, but they were now made uniform and permanent. the functions of these associations, which numbered , were to make all the arrangements in connection with the feeding centres, and to collect voluntary contributions. they were also to act as advisory bodies. at their meetings would be discussed such questions as the selection of children to be fed, after-care, medical treatment, and any other duties falling to the care committees to be performed. they would thus, it was hoped, initiate a common policy and serve as a means of co-ordinating the work of the various care committees. two-thirds of their members were to be representatives of care committees, one-sixth were to be nominated by the teachers' local consultative committees, and one-sixth appointed by the children's care (central) sub-committee.[ ] footnote : _ibid._, p. . footnote : a few care committees were already carrying out these functions. see, for instance, the description of the methods adopted at one school (_ibid._, p. , no. c.) footnote : minutes of the london county council, april , , pp. - . footnote : minutes of the london county council, april , , pp. , ; handbook containing general information with reference to children's care, , pp. - , . there are thus to-day three distinct, though interdependent, organisations--the children's care (central) sub-committee, the local associations of care committees and the local care committees appointed for each school. in considering the development in london of the movement for the provision of meals, one is struck by the haphazard way in which the vast organisation has been built up. the county council has from the first been reluctant to undertake the responsibility for its underfed children. "the whole question of deciding which children are underfed, and of making special provision for such children," declared the chairman of the sub-committee on underfed children in , "should really be one for the poor law authority to decide, and not the education authority."[ ] the attempt to make the guardians carry out their duty having signally failed, the london county council was forced to undertake the task, but it has done so in a half-hearted fashion. the results of this failure to grasp the problem in a statesmanlike manner are conspicuously evident in the conditions prevailing to-day. footnote : report on the home circumstances of necessitous children in twelve selected schools, , p. . (c)--the extent of the provision. the total expenditure on the provision of meals in london amounted, for the year - , to £ , . of this by far the greater part, £ , , was derived from the rates, voluntary contributions amounting to only £ . apart from these voluntary contributions collected by the local associations, however, a few schools "contract out" and supply the meals from their own private sources.[ ] moreover, large sums were collected by voluntary organisations for the provision of meals during the holidays, especially during the summer holiday of , owing to the distress caused by the dock strike. and besides this holiday feeding, which, since it cannot be met out of the rates, must be paid for out of voluntary funds, there are still a certain number of voluntary agencies which are providing meals quite independently of the county council. footnote : thus at st. giles'-in-the-fields the expenditure on the provision of food is still met from voluntary funds. at hampstead, in all the schools except one or two, the provision of food for necessitous children is paid for by the hampstead council of social welfare. the care committee refers to the council of social welfare cases which are suitable for home relief, _i.e._, cases where the mother can be trusted to look after the children at home; in these cases adequate relief for the whole family is given by the council. if the mother cannot be trusted or if she goes out to work all day, the children receive meals at the feeding centre, the council paying for these meals. amongst the most important of these is the london vegetarian association. one of the chief objects of this association, which has been in existence many years, is the popularisation in the homes of the poor of a vegetable diet which is at once both cheap and wholesome. dinners are provided consisting of a bowl of vegetable soup, a slice of wholemeal bread and a slab of pudding. as a rule the meals are given during the winter only, being continued during the christmas holidays and, if necessary, during the easter holidays, and on saturdays also. the number of centres opened varies according to the state of the association's finances and the need that exists. during the present winter some half-dozen have been established, besides the central depôt in whitechapel, about children on an average being fed daily. since the passing of the provision of meals act the activities of the association, as far as the children are concerned, have been confined theoretically to the supply of dinners to children under school age or to children who wish to pay for the meals. but school children who prefer to be fed by the association rather than by the school are also given meals, as in addition are those who are not considered necessitous by the school care committee. any child can have a dinner on producing a halfpenny. free dinners are only given to children for whom application is made by some charitable agency, district visitors, little sisters of the poor or other persons interested, no enquiry being made by the association itself in these cases. it is clear that there is much danger of overlapping--in fact it has been found that, in some cases, children have obtained a dinner at school first and have then gone on to the depôt. in other cases it seems that the association feeds some children of a family, the care committee others. the total number of individual children fed during the year - was , ,[ ] the average weekly number being , . the numbers fed during the last thirteen years are seen in the following table:--[ ] season. average weekly number of children fed. - (august to july inclusive) , - " " , - " " , - " " , - " " , - " " , - " " , - " " , - " " , - (august to march ) , - (april to march ) , - , - , footnote : these are necessitous children only. this number includes the necessitous children in the defective schools, except the cripple schools, where the meals are provided by the cripple children's dinners committee. (see post, pp. - .) footnote : annual report of london county council for , vol. iv., p. . the figures for the earlier years are not reliable owing to the multiplicity of agencies providing food. (d)--the care committee. in the selection of the children the county council has throughout pursued the policy of keeping the numbers fed as low as possible. the school doctor may recommend for meals, or more frequently for milk or codliver oil, under-nourished children whom he discovers in the course of medical inspection,[ ] but the number of such cases is comparatively small. as a rule the children are selected by the teachers (either on their own initiative or, more frequently, on the application of the parents) on the ground of poverty. footnote : the teachers are asked to point out to the school doctor any children about to be inspected whose names are on the necessitous register. (london county council, handbook containing general information with reference to children's care, , p. .) the enquiry into the home circumstances of these children and the final decision as to which of them shall be fed, devolve upon the care committees. these care committees form the most striking feature of the administration of the provision of meals act in london. in no other town have the services of the volunteer worker been utilised to such an extent.[ ] as we have seen, the county council decided in that a children's care committee should be formed for every elementary school, and there is now practically no school for which a committee has not been appointed.[ ] the committees consist of two or three of the school managers, together with not less than four voluntary workers appointed by the children's care (central) sub-committee.[ ] the head teachers, though not members,[ ] usually attend the meetings, and in some cases undertake a considerable amount of clerical work. the members of these committees number some , ,[ ] but of these many take little or no part in the work, and the effective membership amounts perhaps to not more than two-thirds of this total. footnote : for examples of care committees in provincial towns, see ante, pp. - . in one or two scottish towns also care committees have been formed (see post, pp. , , - .) footnote : in addition to the ordinary elementary schools, care committees have been formed also for the special schools for defective children, with the exception of the physically defective. footnote : in a few cases the committees are composed entirely, or almost entirely, of working men. footnote : in the care committees were very largely composed of teachers. out of the total membership of , , , , or about three-sevenths, were teachers, , were school managers, and only were voluntary workers. (london county council, agenda for sub-committee on underfed children, appendix a, july , .) footnote : london county council, list of members of children's care (school) committees, . the functions of the care committees are numerous and important. they do not merely decide which children shall receive school meals. they have also to "follow up" cases of children who are found by the school medical officer to need medical treatment, and, by visiting the homes, induce the parents to obtain this treatment; often they arrange for the supply of spectacles at reduced rates and collect payment from the parents by instalments. further, they have to advise parents in connection with the employment of their children, referring suitable cases to the local juvenile advisory committee, apprenticeship committee or other agency, and generally befriending the children leaving school. some committees undertake the work in connection with the children's country holidays fund. frequently the care committee makes arrangements for the supply of boots,[ ] and sometimes also clothing, gratuitously or at reduced rates. footnote : at the end of , organisations for the supply of boots were in existence in , schools. these organisations were controlled by the care committees, managers, or head teachers. (report of the london county council for , vol. iv., p. .) the advantages of such a system of voluntary workers, acting in connection with, and under the guidance of, the local authority are many. the volunteer worker, as has often been pointed out, can bring to bear on individual cases a patience and an enthusiasm which the official has no time to bestow. by getting into friendly relations with the mother, the volunteer visitor will often be able to help the family in numberless ways. the care committee system represents, indeed, one of the most hopeful movements of the time, denoting, as it does, an awakening of the social conscience and a revolt against the old system of district visiting, which meant too frequently merely the giving of a dole, a system which encouraged a patronising attitude on the one hand, and a cadging habit on the other. from the care committee visitor little in the way of material gifts is to be expected. instead, some effort is demanded from the parent. he, or more usually she, is asked to co-operate with the care committee in doing what is necessary for the child's welfare. moreover, the care committee is invaluable as a means of educating public opinion. many will be found who, though perhaps strongly opposed in theory to the whole system of the provision of free meals, are yet willing to work for the children, and by contact with the children and their homes will learn something of the life and struggles of the poor, and a better mutual understanding will be brought about. as the warden of a settlement in liverpool has pointed out, "it is a constant lament of administrators of education that the public care more for saving the rates than making citizens. the complaint is justified. we only care about what we understand; the public understands the money it has to pay, but it does not understand what happens to it. as a matter of fact ninety per cent. of the ratepaying public have never been at a feeding centre or seen a medical inspection; and their own education was of such a scanty nature that one cannot expect their general imagination to supply the deficiency. hence they grumble at paying for a service of which they are ignorant. the remedy lies in making them understand. from the young men and women of these families we can recruit care committee workers. they will visit the homes of the people, the feeding centres and the school; their imagination will be stirred and their intellects quickened; finally, the time will come when an enlightened public opinion will be the critic of the education policy of our city."[ ] splendid work is now being done in many parts of london by the care committees and it is greatly to be regretted that the system has not been more widely adopted in the provinces. footnote : "care committee work in liverpool," by f. j. marquis, in the _school child_, september, , p. . on the other hand, the disadvantages of relying only on voluntary help must not be overlooked. in the first place there is the difficulty of securing enough workers. remarkable as has been the response to the appeal of the county council for helpers, yet many more are needed. in the residential parts of london this difficulty is not so much felt, but in the poorer districts, where the need is greatest, it is impossible to find enough people with leisure to devote to the work. from every care committee that we have visited comes the cry for more helpers. if the friendly relations with the parents are to be established, which are essential if the maximum amount of good is to be derived from the various activities which are undertaken by the school authorities, it is of the greatest importance that the homes should be visited; but it is rare to find a sufficient supply of workers forthcoming for this visiting to be undertaken regularly. it is true that some committees visit the homes once a month or sometimes even, in doubtful cases, once a fortnight, but more frequently visits are paid at long intervals, and in some districts many of the homes are never visited at all. at a school in east london, for instance (and this is typical of many others), we were told that it is found in practice quite impossible for every case to be visited, since there are only two members of the care committee to undertake this work. a committee in another district reports, "visits in doubtful cases are made twice a year, supplemented by quarterly visits," while another committee in the same district reports that, "owing to the lack of sufficient help, it is often necessary to receive parents instead of visiting homes." still more difficult is it to obtain honorary secretaries. the functions of a care committee are, as we have seen, many and varied, and involve an enormous amount of work, if they are to be performed efficiently, especially in districts where few volunteers can be obtained and where, in consequence, a disproportionate amount of visiting falls to the lot of the secretary. the secretary of a care committee in stepney found that it was necessary to give three quarters of her time to the work, and "even so, outside help had to be called in to keep the clerical work even approximately up to date."[ ] the secretary of another school in east london informed us that he had to give four full days a week, besides some hours devoted to clerical work in the evening; while another secretary, in central london, gives about four hours' work on an average five days a week. obviously it is impossible to secure enough volunteers. many who undertake the work of secretary find after a few months that they are obliged to give it up. the history of too many care committees is a record of ever-changing secretaries, interspersed with more or less prolonged interregna. in one district--and this appears to be typical of london as a whole--we were told that, out of schools, some or were at the time without secretaries, and the duties had to be undertaken by the assistant organisers. these officials are already overburdened, and the result is that all but the most urgent work is left undone. nothing is more disheartening for an energetic secretary who has laboured hard to effect some improvement in the condition of the children than to find, when forced by stress of circumstances to give up the work, that no one can be found to undertake the secretaryship and that, consequently, much of the devoted labour of months, perhaps of years, is undone. footnote : "care committees," by a. s., in the _school child_, march , pp. - . the need for the appointment of paid secretaries for each school or group of schools was, as we have seen, pointed out as long ago as .[ ] since that date the activities of the care committees have been enormously extended, and, in certain districts at any rate, if the work is to be done with any degree of efficiency, the necessity for such paid secretaries is becoming absolutely imperative. footnote : see ante, pp. - . but apart from the difficulty of securing enough voluntary workers, there are inherent disadvantages in the present system. the enquiry into the circumstances of the parents is not a duty for which the ordinary volunteer worker is fitted. and the necessity of making these enquiries may endanger those friendly relations which it is of such importance to establish between the visitor and the parent. the enquiry is generally totally inadequate. in the majority of cases the visitor is not trained for the purpose, and frequently finds this work distasteful. each visitor has a different standard. no enquiry is made from the employer[ ]; indeed, in the large number of cases where the father is casually employed such enquiry would be impracticable. in many cases there is little or no knowledge of what other help is being given to the family. many committees insist on the parents appearing before them to answer enquiries as to their circumstances. this is sometimes, as we have seen, rendered necessary by the lack of workers and the consequent impossibility of visiting the homes. but even if the homes are visited some committees consider that the obligation on the part of the parents to apply in person furnishes a test of the genuineness of their need. the attendance of the father, where it can be secured, is useful as it proves a means of bringing home to him his responsibility. it is not infrequently found that the mother has applied for meals without the husband's knowledge. on the other hand, as we have already shown, the insistence on the parents' attendance may result in considerable hardship to them, entailing perhaps the loss of half a day's work. they are often kept waiting for a considerable time. moreover, the assembling of numbers together, all for the purpose of making application for meals, tends to diminish the sense of self-respect. for this reason many committees consider it undesirable to summon the parents, or they only summon them in special cases. when the parent is summoned and does not attend, the council lays down that, if no immediate home visit is possible, a notice shall be sent to the parent that if he or she fails to attend before the committee or to show some good reason for not attending, the committee will be obliged to charge for the meals supplied to the children.[ ] as far as we can discover, this is very rarely done. the far more usual course is for the committee to send a notice to the effect that the meals will be discontinued unless the parent appeals. footnote : enquiries from the employers may not be made by the care committee without the consent of the parent or guardian. where the committee is doubtful of the accuracy of the parents' statements, the case can be referred to the divisional superintendent, who may make such enquiries. footnote : london county council, handbook containing general information with reference to children's care, , pp. - . another disadvantage arising from the utilisation of the service of voluntary workers alone, is that no sufficient control can be exercised by the central authority to enforce a common policy. a certain amount of latitude is desirable so as to allow scope for individual initiative and experiment. but in the matter of selection of the children to be fed want of uniformity is wholly to be condemned. the diversity in methods that prevails is in effect amazing. in two schools situated almost side by side, and drawing their children from the same streets, the percentage fed may be, in the one case, two, in the other ten, fifteen or even more.[ ] we have found this lack of uniformity in other towns, since the numbers fed depend very largely on the views taken by individual teachers, but in london there is superadded the diversity produced by the divergence of views of the different care committees. in one care committee the socialist element will be predominant. in another the work may be done on strictly "c.o.s." lines; the meals are regarded simply as a form of relief, and the feeding-list is cut down to the lowest limit.[ ] footnote : thus in three schools in south london, attended by children whose home circumstances were very similar, the majority of the parents being casual labourers, the percentages of children who were receiving free meals in march, , were . , . and . . in another neighbouring school, where the children were very little poorer, nineteen per cent. were being fed. footnote : the most extreme example of the "strict" type is the committee which deals with a group of schools in st. george's-in-the-east. it is held that, the provision of meals being merely a form of relief, the work should be as far as possible dissociated from the school; the parents do not make application to the teachers but to a central office. the county council has not found it possible to lay down any uniform rule for the guidance of the committees.[ ] though, in a small number of cases, the committee professes to have a scale, usually that laid down by rowntree,[ ] in practice this is a very rough criterion, frequently departed from, and the cases are all virtually decided on their merits. moreover, the policy of the same care committee even will not always be a consistent one. the decision as to any particular case will vary with the presence or absence of particular members of the committee. footnote : "having regard to the varying circumstances and conditions of families, it is considered undesirable to fix a minimum wage which would justify children being provided with school meals, and each case should therefore be considered upon its own merits." (london county council, handbook containing general information with reference to children's care, , p. .) footnote : that is, s. for an adult and s. d. for a child. (_poverty_, by b. seebohm rowntree, , p. .) where children from the same family attend different schools--a frequent occurrence in london--meals may be granted at one school and refused at another. the county council have issued elaborate regulations for ensuring that in such cases each care committee concerned shall know what the others are doing.[ ] but though many care committees do communicate with one another, or notify cases to a mutual registration committee, the county council's instructions are frequently disregarded. the secretary of one committee informed us that during the whole time of her secretaryship--a period of over a year--she never once received any notification from another committee. even where the cases are notified, it by no means follows that the several committees concerned adopt the same plan of action; often we have found that the one committee did not know in any particular case what the result of their notification had been. one secretary even told us that though all the committees in her district mutually notified cases to each other, this was solely for information; they pursued their own policy, merely noting that some of the children of the family were receiving meals at another school.[ ] footnote : handbook containing general information with reference to children's care, , p. . footnote : the county council, a few months ago, drew attention to the lack of uniformity prevailing. "in a number of cases it has been found that the form has not been issued, with the result that care committees dealing with part of a family are unacquainted with the relief afforded by another care committee." (_london county council gazette_, march , , p. .) to the parents this diversity of treatment of similar cases can only appear as capricious. successive visits by the care committee visitors from different schools, all making the same enquiries, are a needless source of irritation to the parent, while being at the same time unnecessary expenditure of time and energy for the visitors. attempts have been made in some districts to put an end to this waste of energy and overlapping. in camberwell, two or three years ago, it was decided that the care committee visiting should be organised by streets instead of by schools. the care committees of the different schools all sent on their cases to the secretary of the organisation, who referred them to the visitor for the particular street.[ ] this scheme worked very well for about eighteen months, but was then given up chiefly because the secretary could not continue the work. now three care committees in this district have been amalgamated, so as to secure some measure of uniformity.[ ] in a few other districts also, the care committees for groups of schools, though nominally separately appointed for each school, are in effect composed of the same people. quite recently an attempt to prevent overlapping has been made by the county council on a larger scale. in whitechapel the council have provided a central office where case papers will be kept, and paid assistants have been appointed who will notify to each care committee any assistance which is being given to the brothers and sisters of the children with whom they are dealing. footnote : "school care committees," by maude f. davies, in _progress_, july, , p. . footnote : at st. george's-in-the-east five committees have been amalgamated and then re-divided into two, one dealing with all the jewish, one with all the christian, children of the group. overlapping is thus almost completely avoided. (e)--the provision for paying children. the county council from the first has not looked with approval on the proposal that meals should be provided as a matter of convenience to parents who are willing to pay for them. "only cases of exceptional hardship," declared the education committee, "_e.g._, children of widowers or of widows who are compelled, owing to their work, to be away from home all day--should be so dealt with."[ ] in such cases payment must be made in advance and a week's notice be given, the full cost of the meals being charged.[ ] consequently, in most schools we find that no parents or only an insignificant number are voluntarily paying for the meals.[ ] but that there is a certain demand for such provision is shown by the number of applications received where the care committee encourages such a plan. in one school, for instance, we were informed that a number of parents paid; sometimes when the children had been receiving free meals the parents wished the children to continue having them when the home circumstances improved, and were quite willing to pay the cost. in such cases they preferred the children to go to the cookery centre, this being looked on as superior to the feeding-centre. in another district we were told that, though there was a demand on the part of the parents, this was not encouraged, partly because the staff of supervisors was inadequate to cope with larger numbers. there is frequently an unfortunate difference in the treatment of the paying and the non-paying children. at one centre, for instance, the "necessitous" children are placed at one table, and are supplied with food provided by the alexandra trust; the paying children are placed at another and are given food cooked at the cookery centre. at another school we were told that the paying children were fed at one end of the room, the necessitous children at the other; incidentally the paying children had to stand, since there were no chairs available, while the necessitous children sat on forms. in several schools the parents pay for milk or codliver oil when this is recommended by the doctor. in at least one school, however, we were told that though some of the parents would be willing to pay for this milk, it was too much trouble to collect the money, so no payment was asked. in one or two schools milk is provided for any child who likes to pay a halfpenny, and this provision is very largely taken advantage of. footnote : london county council minutes, november , , p. . footnote : the charge includes the cost of preparation and service of the meals, and is calculated to the nearest farthing. (london county council, handbook containing general information with reference to children's care, , pp. - .) footnote : in - the number of individual children who paid the full cost of the meals was , , that is, only one-fortieth of the number of "necessitous" children who were fed. the amount so received was £ . in the special schools for mentally defective children, where the provision of meals is carried on on the same lines as in the ordinary elementary schools, the proportion of children who pay for the meals is greater, since, owing to the distance from school of many of the children's homes, provision has to be made for non-necessitous as well as necessitous. in the cripple schools special provision has for many years been made by the cripple children's dinners committee. this body provides the food, the county council supplying the apparatus and attendance. dinners are supplied for all the children at a charge of d. each. the parents appear thoroughly to appreciate the provision made, and the great majority of them pay the full cost, only a few of the children receiving the dinner free or at a reduced price.[ ] footnote : in - the expenditure on food materials amounted to £ , s. d., and the payments for dinners to £ , s. d. out of a total of , dinners supplied, only , , or · per cent., were given free. the average cost of the dinner, for food materials only, was · d. (report of cripple children's dinners committee for - , pp. , .) (f)--the service of the meals. the results of the half-hearted fashion in which london undertook the responsibility for its underfed children are seen nowhere more clearly than in the arrangements made for serving the meals. the county council seems to have been actuated throughout rather by the desire to keep the expense down to the minimum than to supply the children with the most suitable food and to see that the meals were served under civilising conditions. in the early years after the council took over the provision, the local committees were left to make the best arrangements that they could. little encouragement was given them in any endeavour to provide wholesome and varied meals under conditions likely to exercise an educational influence over the children. still less was any attempt made to enforce such a policy. the reports are almost silent on this aspect of the question, though the scanty references which are to be found show a far from satisfactory state of affairs. in , for instance, it was reported that at thirty schools, where , children were fed, plates and mugs were not provided. "this has meant generally," reports the executive officer, "that the children brought their own mugs and ate the food out of their hands." in twenty other schools insufficient provision was made for washing up the utensils used and, "as food was served to the children in successive relays, two or more children used each drinking vessel or plate before it had been washed." "the usual meal has been a dinner of soup (sometimes containing meat), with, in certain cases, a form of pudding as an alternative. in the great majority of cases this was the daily meal for months without variety."[ ] the care committee organisers, in their report on the home circumstances of necessitous children in the same year, remark that, considering "the poor accommodation and the inferior quality of the meals often provided for the children," together with the fact that the highest average number of meals per child was · per week, it could not be expected that there would be much noticeable improvement in the physical condition of the children."[ ] footnote : london county council, agenda for sub-committee on underfed children, appendix a., july , . footnote : london county council, report on the home circumstances of necessitous children in twelve selected schools, , p. . since the formation of the local associations of care committees in conditions have improved, but they are still far from satisfactory. as we have already mentioned, these associations were formed in order to introduce some measure of uniformity into the work of feeding the necessitous children of the metropolis. they were from henceforth to be responsible for the arrangements made for the actual serving of the meals. the selection of a suitable centre rests with them, and it is their duty to arrange for the requisite supply of food and for the proper service of the meals and supervision of the children during the meal time. the food may be supplied by the alexandra trust, a local caterer, a cookery centre or a kitchen managed by the local association. the quality of the food varies according to the arrangements made by each local association. the food specially prepared for the jewish children appears to be generally good. at the cookery centres again, though complaints are occasionally heard that the dinners are badly cooked, they are as a rule appetising, and the menu is varied. the great majority of the meals are, however, supplied by the alexandra trust. ten different dinner menus have been drawn up by this trust, with a slight variation for summer,[ ] but in practice there is very little variety, practically the same dietary being repeated week after week; usually there is a deficiency of proteids and fats. the quantity supplied for each child varies considerably in different centres. in one that we visited, for instance, each child was given a large helping of suet pudding with minced meat, followed by a large plateful of rice, and second helpings were given if required; at another, where the dinner consisted of only one course, with a piece of bread, the portions were very small; the cook admitted that some of the children could eat more, but if any were allowed a second helping all would ask for it, whether they wanted it or not, and the food would then be left uneaten. footnote : for menus, see appendix i. how far the infants' needs are specially catered for depends on each local association. sometimes they are fed by themselves at the cookery centre, where it is easier to provide suitable food and to pay individual attention to their wants. more often they go with the elder children to the feeding-centres. the alexandra trust has drawn up a special menu for infants, and in centres where the food is supplied otherwise than by the trust the council have instructed the local association to make special provision.[ ] but it is rare to find any such provision made. as a rule the infants have the same food as the elder children, though in centres where there is careful supervision, and where the infants are placed at a separate table,[ ] the size of the helping is suited to their appetites. in many centres the number of infants is so few as to make the preparation of a separate diet hardly worth while, and the provision of special food has been known to give rise to jealousy on the part of the elder children. footnote : minutes of london county council, december , , p. . footnote : frequently the infants are placed with the older children at the ordinary tables, which are too high for them to reach up to with any comfort; it is sometimes impossible for them to eat without spilling their food. (see the description of a feeding centre, post, p. .) ordinarily one meal a day is provided, this meal being almost invariably dinner, but in cases of special necessity or delicacy an additional meal may be given. this meal may be either breakfast, milk or codliver oil. the practice varies in each school. in some schools breakfast is never given, or given only in very rare cases. in others breakfasts as well as dinners are given to the most necessitous children. at st. george's-in-the-east formerly only breakfasts were given, but now dinners are given in addition to all the children on the feeding-list; the breakfast is used as a test, the theory being that if the child does not come for breakfast it shall not receive dinner, but in practice this plan is not strictly carried out. milk and codliver oil are given in most schools, when recommended by the school doctor; in some schools milk is also given on economic grounds, as an additional meal to specially necessitous children, instead of breakfast. in a few schools a quantity of milk is supplied in the middle of the morning, and any child who pays a halfpenny can have it, the children, especially the infants, being encouraged to spend their halfpence on milk instead of on sweets. where no other suitable accommodation is available, the meals may be served in the school hall, but this method is not encouraged by the council, and is frequently objected to by the teachers, and it is only occasionally utilised. often, as we have already mentioned, the meals are served in the cookery centres, but the number of children that can be thus accommodated is necessarily limited, and the centre may be closed during the summer. till recently some local associations arranged for their children to be sent to small eating-houses. we have already pointed out the disadvantages--the impossibility of making the meal in any sense educational, and the lack of control over the dietary--inherent, even under the most favourable conditions, in this system. but in london, in many of these cookshops, the conditions were the reverse of favourable; they could, indeed, only be described as deplorable. for instance, at one eating-house, where the children were sent for their dinners up to the spring of , the room used was hardly larger than a cupboard, and only six or eight children could be fed at a time; the children had to go in relays and, when the numbers were very large, had to sit on the stairs eating their food. in others the conditions were equally bad. the plan of utilising restaurants is, we are glad to say, falling into disfavour, but it is not yet entirely abandoned. the most usual method is for the children to be sent to centres. these centres are frequently basement rooms, dark and cheerless. occasionally plants or flowers are provided, but it is very rare to find any attempt at table decoration. since the average cost of serving the meals is much less proportionately if the number of children is large, the county council has, for the sake of economy, decided that, where possible, schools shall be grouped, and the children from them fed at one centre.[ ] as we have already pointed out, the herding together of large numbers of children from different schools deprives the meal of much of its educational value. the children from the different schools will come in at different times. often the centre is not large enough for them all to be accommodated at once, and they have to be served in relays, with the consequence that the meal must be hurried through. they are usually seated at long tables, and are often crowded together, so that adequate supervision is rendered very difficult. footnote : london county council, handbook containing general information with reference to children's care, , p. . the supervision is occasionally undertaken voluntarily by teachers, and in many centres by other voluntary workers. where their regular attendance can be secured the good results are soon apparent. but the visits of voluntary supervisors are too often irregular, and it may happen that no one is present to supervise the meal, except the women who serve the food. in many districts it is impossible to obtain the services of volunteers at all, and paid supervisors are appointed.[ ] these may be assistant teachers, retired teachers or other suitable persons. one supervisor may be appointed for every hundred children, but frequently the number to be looked after by one supervisor far exceeds a hundred. thus, in three centres we visited, there were to children present, whilst in two others the numbers were well over two hundred; in all these there was only one supervisor. footnote : the payment is s. d. a week. (_ibid._, p. .) the county council has drawn up regulations for the management of the centres,[ ] but these regulations are largely disregarded. the council, for instance, has laid it down that boys and girls are to be appointed to act as monitors, to assist in laying the tables and serving the meals. in many centres this is not even attempted, and occasionally where their services are utilised, owing to the large number of children present, the supervisor is unable to devote much attention to the training of the monitors, and their presence rather adds to the prevailing confusion than conduces to the orderly and quiet service of the meal. another of the council's regulations directs that a separate mug shall be provided for each child.[ ] but it appears to be the exception rather than the rule for this instruction to be observed. though a sufficient supply of mugs is, or can on application be, supplied for every centre, the women who serve the meals, being only employed and paid for a fixed time, object to the extra labour involved in washing up. frequently no mugs are placed on the table at all, though we were told that the children could have water if they asked for it; when mugs are provided there is often only one to every two or three children, perhaps to every five or six! at one centre that we visited, though the girls were allowed mugs, the boys were not trusted, and mugs of water were placed on a side table for their indiscriminate use after the meal. footnote : _ibid._, pp. - . footnote : _ibid._, pp. - . the actual management of each centre varies, of course, very largely according to the personality of the supervisor. we have visited some two or three centres where all the arrangements were admirable; the children were quiet and well-behaved, there was little or no waste of food, and attention was paid to individual wants. but these cases are unfortunately exceptional. out of twenty centres in different parts of london that we have seen,[ ] in at least half the educational advantages to be derived from the common meal are imperfectly realised.[ ] in a few cases the supervisors appear to consider this aspect as but of secondary importance. so long as the children are fed and some sort of rough order preserved, they are satisfied. the meal may be eaten in a babel of noise. food which the children do not fancy they will throw on the floor, little attempt being made to prevent waste. but in any case, in many centres, owing to the large number of children to be attended to, the task of inculcating table manners is an almost impossible one. though the supervisors do their utmost, for instance, to teach the children to use spoons and forks, it is not uncommon to observe children eating with their fingers--even occasionally licking their plates! it is impossible for the supervisor to give that individual attention which is absolutely essential if the meal is to be in any sense educational. footnote : these centres were all visited in the spring, summer or autumn of . we describe some typical examples in the appendix to this chapter. footnote : in , as the result of an inspection of all the feeding centres by the school doctors, it was reported that "in one-fifth ... the conditions required material improvement, to make the giving of these meals an educational function, and to impress the hygiene of proper eating and cleanliness on the children." (annual report of the london county council for , vol. iii., p. .) (g)--overlapping with the poor law authority. we have already described the extent to which, in the provinces, the provision of meals by the local education authority overlaps the granting of relief by the poor law authorities. london is no exception to the general rule. in it was found that out of , families investigated, · per cent. were at the time in receipt of out-relief, while · per cent. had recently been receiving such relief.[ ] in february, , it was reported that, of the children who were being fed all over london, · per cent. were from families to whom poor law relief was being granted.[ ] the confusion was the greater since the practice of the guardians varied in each union. "there is no uniformity of policy or action amongst the boards," reports the education committee of the county council in . "for example, there could hardly be a wider divergence of principle and practice between public bodies than that which exists between such boards as paddington, fulham, and st. george's-in-the-east on the one hand, and islington and poplar on the other. in the case of fulham, the guardians, when assessing the relief to be granted, take into account the extent to which school meals are already being supplied to children of the family ... but in the case of poplar, the guardians have informed the various school care committees that 'the fact that a family is in receipt of poor law relief should not be considered as a reason for the children not being supplied with meals.'"[ ] to put an end to all this overlapping and diversity of practice, the council proposed that the guardians should purchase school meals for the children of families who were in receipt of relief. the local government board, however, declined to agree to this course. in practice, they thought, it was hardly possible to avoid all difficulty of overlapping, "though it should be feasible, with careful administration, to restrict it within reasonable limits"; the only suggestion they offered towards the solution of the difficulty was that, if it appeared to the education authority that a child whose parents were receiving out-relief required supervision by the guardians, the education authority should communicate with the guardians with a view to an investigation of the circumstances.[ ] this suggestion was acted upon, and the care committees were instructed in future to notify to the guardians all cases in which, to their knowledge, necessitous children belonged to families in receipt of poor law relief.[ ] but such notification had little practical result. the guardians continued to grant inadequate relief, and the council felt compelled to continue to provide these children with food. how necessary school meals were was, indeed, clearly shown by a resolution of the hammersmith guardians, who themselves actually declared that, "when school children's parents are in receipt of outdoor relief, that fact should in general be taken as an indication that such children would be benefited by school meals, and not as an indication that they are adequately fed, since, as a matter of fact, outdoor relief is seldom or never adequate"![ ] footnote : london county council, report on the home circumstances of necessitous children in twelve selected schools, , p. . footnote : annual report of london county council for , chapter xli., p. . footnote : minutes of the london county council, february , , p. . footnote : _ibid._, july - , , p. . footnote : _london county council gazette_, may , , p. . footnote : _school child_, february, , p. . though the council's proposal that the boards of guardians should repay the cost of the meals was rejected by the local government board, as far as london generally was concerned, individual boards have agreed to the plan. in lambeth and chelsea the guardians have consented to pay the cost of meals supplied to the children of parents who are receiving out-relief, if they consider that school meals are necessary.[ ] at hampstead, where the funds for the provision of school meals are supplied by the council of social welfare,[ ] an informal arrangement has been made with the guardians. where the mother can stay at home and can be trusted to expend the relief given in food for the children, the guardians have agreed to give ample relief. where the mother goes out to work or cannot be trusted to feed the children properly, or where it is undesirable for the children to go home, the council of social welfare pays for school dinners. footnote : minutes of london county council, november , , p. ; _london county council gazette_, january , , p. . footnote : see ante, p. n. but as a rule no definite arrangement is made. a few care committees refuse to feed children whose parents are receiving relief, but in the great majority of schools cases are to be found where children are being fed by the care committee, while their parents are being relieved by the guardians.[ ] frequently no official communication passes between the two authorities concerned. the guardians may learn indirectly through the relieving officer, or perhaps through some member of their board who happens also to be a member of the care committee, that the latter are feeding the children. where a system of mutual registration has been established, each authority will, theoretically, be informed of what the other is doing. how far all cases are actually notified will depend on the secretary of each individual care committee. and this system of mutual registration does not prevent overlapping in many cases where the children are on the feeding-list for a short time only, since cases are often notified only once a month, by which time the necessity for feeding may have ceased. occasionally the guardians ask the care committee to inform them if they discover any cases where the relief appears inadequate, so that they may increase it, if necessary. in other unions the guardians deliberately count on the provision of school meals to supplement the relief given; they tell the parents to apply for dinners and grant less relief in consequence, thereafter priding themselves on keeping down the rates. footnote : most of the cases of overlapping are, of course, cases in which the guardians are granting out-relief. there are also the cases where the guardians are relieving a widow by maintaining some of her children in poor law schools, but the mother has not sufficient income adequately to maintain the remaining child or children. appendix examples of feeding centres in london (a)--school, visited october, . here the dinner is served in the infants' school in a room at the top of the building. some sixty infants, all attending the school, were being fed. they entered the room two by two and sat down together at low tables on specially small chairs. two teachers were present throughout the meal; they served the food, and four of the children handed it round. perfect order was kept, and at the end of the meal all the children rose together, and, after saying grace, marched out quietly. the food is cooked on the premises, the menu being drawn up by one of the teachers and varied every day. the whole meal was served in as attractive a manner as possible, and testified eloquently to the care and thought which must have been spent on its organisation. (b)--school, visited june, . here the meal is served in the school hall. the headmistress much objects to this plan, since it leaves the atmosphere close and stuffy all the afternoon. moreover, the bringing in of the tables and forms, an operation which has to be begun twenty minutes before the end of morning school, causes a considerable commotion. on the day of our visit children, boys, girls and infants, were receiving dinner. for this number there were only one supervisor and two servers, assisted by five or six monitresses chosen from among the elder children. as a result of this inadequate supervision the meal was served in a perfect babel of noise; the children shouted and screamed and banged their spoons on the table. a bell was rung at intervals throughout the meal to obtain silence, but no attention was paid to it. the fact that there was a deficiency of seating accommodation heightened the confusion. at the end of each table a child had to stand, and those sitting down were crowded much too closely together. separate tables were reserved for the infants, of whom there were a large number, some of them tiny mites of three years old. the tables, however, were not specially adapted for them, being of the ordinary height. in consequence many of the little ones had considerable difficulty in feeding themselves, their heads only just appearing above the table, and, of course, nobody had time to attend to their wants. it is only fair to add that we saw the centre at a particularly unfortunate time, since the supervisor had only taken over the work a few days prior to our visit, and therefore had not yet obtained a firm hold over the children. the noise, we were told, was usually not so great. (c)--centre, visited may, . this centre, attended by children from two neighbouring schools, is a striking illustration of what can be effected by patient and careful supervision. at the time of our visit this work was being performed by an assistant teacher, but before her appointment the secretary or some other member of the care committee daily supervised the meal for two years. the meal was served in a large, cheerful room. no tablecloths were supplied; at one time flowers were provided, much to the joy of the children, but it was found impossible to continue this practice. the children were seated at small tables, some eight or ten at each, an arrangement which renders the work of supervision very much easier. there were no infants present, as these are sent to the cookery centre. a boy or girl was responsible for each table; they handed round the food, paying attention to the individual appetites of the children. no waste of food was permitted, the children being kept till they had finished. the whole scene, the quiet and orderly behaviour of the children and their consideration for one another's wants, left a most pleasing impression upon the mind. at the date of our visit the numbers were small, only some children being present, but we were told that their behaviour was quite as orderly even in winter, when the numbers were much larger. (d)--centre, visited march, . this centre is a large basement room in a mission hall, dark and unattractive, accommodating between and children. it serves several neighbouring schools, and the numbers on the day of our visit were too large to admit of all the children sitting down together. as each child came in and gave up its ticket, it seized a spoon and fork from a pile on a table near the door, and rushed to its place. when about half the children were seated, grace was sung or rather shouted, and then the food was brought in and literally flung on to the table by the server and one or two of the elder boys. though the numbers were so large there was only one supervisor, though we were told that occasionally one of the sisters from the neighbouring settlement came to help. with such inadequate supervision it was, of course, impossible to teach table manners. the children, the boys especially, gobbled down their dinner, amid a hubbub of noise, and hurried out as soon as they had finished, other boys rushing in to take their places. no special provision was made for the infants; they were placed with the other children and were given the same food. no attention was paid to individual appetites and much of the food, we were told, was wasted. (e)--centre, visited june, . this is a centre for jewish children, serving three or four neighbouring schools. the room not being large enough to accommodate all the children at once, two relays are necessary, even in summer. over children were present, but there was only one supervisor, assisted by four or five women. the children entered in an orderly fashion and seated themselves at the table, none being allowed to begin the meal till all were seated. the infants were placed at a separate table; they are given special food when the dietary provided for the other children is not suitable for them. some of the elder girls acted as monitresses and helped to serve the food and clear up afterwards. unfortunately, owing to the fact that other children were waiting to come in, the meal was necessarily hurried, the second course being placed on the table while the children were still eating the first course. though the order maintained was wonderful, considering the large numbers present, it was impossible to attend adequately to the children's manners; many of them were using their fingers, and there appeared to be considerable waste of food. (f)--centre, visited october, . this is another centre for jewish children. the dinner was served in a large, dreary parish hall, to some or children. there was one supervisor and four servers, while tickets were taken by the caretaker. order was well preserved, but only by means of the frequent ringing of a bell, and by the enforcement of absolute silence. the supervisor said that if the children were allowed to talk the noise would be unbearable. before being given their food, the children were told to hold up their hands if they were "big eaters," the margin of waste being minimised in this way. although the manners and behaviour of the children could not be said to be bad, the whole effect was singularly unattractive--the bare room, the large numbers, and the frequent shouted commands and rebukes of the supervisor leaving no scope for humanising and educational influences. chapter iv the extent and causes of malnutrition "defective nutrition," sir george newman points out, "stands in the forefront as the most important of all physical defects from which school children suffer."[ ] malnutrition, 'debility' and other physical defects in childhood "are the ancestry of tuberculosis in the adult. they predispose to disease, and are, in a sense, both its seed and its soil."[ ] footnote : report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , p. . footnote : _ibid._, p. . it is impossible to give any figures as to the extent of this defect, since nutrition is not a condition which can be measured by any definite standards. the weight of the child is, of course, a most important matter to be noted, but there are other points--"the ratio of stature to weight; the general appearance, carriage and 'substance' of the child; the firmness of the tissues; the presence of subcutaneous fat; the development of the muscular system; the condition of the skin and redness of the mucous membranes; the expression of listlessness or alertness, apathy or keenness; the condition of the various systems of the body; and, speaking generally, the relative balance and co-ordination of the functions and powers of digestion, absorption and assimilation of food."[ ] each observer adopts a different standard of what constitutes good nutrition, and hence the statistics given in the reports of the school medical officers cannot be used for comparative purposes. according to the latest figures, as quoted by the president of the board of education, per cent. of the elementary school children of england and wales suffer from defective nutrition.[ ] many of the school medical officers, however, have obviously adopted a low standard and mr. arthur greenwood, who has made a careful enquiry into this subject, is of opinion that, "taking the country as a whole, not merely per cent., but probably a number approaching per cent., show perceptible signs of malnutrition."[ ] footnote : _ibid._, p. . footnote : _hansard_, april , , vol. , p. ; _the health and physique of school children_, by arthur greenwood, , p. . footnote : _ibid._, p. . unfortunately, there is reason to believe that the degeneration is progressive. in an enquiry conducted by dr. arkle at liverpool, , children from three elementary schools were compared, as to height and weight, with children from secondary schools. the results (see accompanying table) showed that at practically every age the heights and weights of the children varied directly with the class from which they were drawn, and the deficit increased out of proportion to the rate of growth. "these figures," he points out, "are rendered all the more striking when one considers that one is talking of children and not of full-grown men. a difference of a stone in the weight of two men may not be a very great matter, but when the investigation shows such a discrepancy between two groups of boys of eleven, it means that one of the groups is deficient to the extent of one-fifth of the whole body weight, and the decadence is so progressive that the deficiency has by fourteen years of age almost reached a quarter of the whole body weight."[ ] footnote : "the medical examination of school children," by dr. a. s. arkle, a paper read at the north of england education conference, january, (reprinted in _school government chronicle_, supplement, january , , pp. , ). as we have already said, the nutrition cannot be determined solely by weight. "in fact," as a school medical officer points out, "an ill-nourished child may be above the average weight, or, on the other hand, a healthy child may be much under the average and yet not be ill-nourished." (report of the school medical officer for leeds for , p. .) but when dealing with large numbers of children, the average weight furnishes a reliable index of nutrition. this malnutrition is to be attributed to many causes besides actual lack of food. improper food and hurried methods of eating account for much malnutrition. so much has been written on the subject of the wrong feeding of children that it seems unnecessary to labour this point. one can, indeed, hardly open a report of a school medical officer without finding this evil deplored. in the poorest homes there are frequently no fixed meal times; the children are given "a piece" when they are hungry, and this is often eaten in the street or on the doorstep. bread and tea figure largely in the dietary. supper is frequently the principal meal of the day, with resulting indigestion for the children. employment out of school hours and want of sleep are again important factors. indeed, in the eyes of some school medical officers, malnutrition is due more to want of sleep than to lack of food. the children are almost invariably kept up till late at night, it being a rare exception to find a child being sent to bed at anything approaching a reasonable hour. a still more potent cause, perhaps, is to be found in bad housing conditions. striking testimony as to the relation between the physique of school children and housing was adduced by dr. leslie mackenzie and captain foster, as a result of an enquiry into the condition of , school children in glasgow. "if we take all the children of ages from to ," they report, "we find that the average weight of the one-roomed boy is · lbs.; of the two-roomed, · lbs.; of the three-roomed, · lbs.; of the four-roomed and over, · lbs. the respective heights are · inches; · inches; · inches and · inches. for girls the corresponding figures are:--weights, · lbs.; · lbs.; · lbs.; · lbs. the heights are · inches; · inches; · inches; · inches."[ ] footnote : report by dr. leslie mackenzie and captain a. foster, on the physical condition of children attending the public schools of the school board of glasgow, , p. v. at east ham also the nutrition of the children was found to vary in accordance with the number of rooms:--[ ] number of rooms. number of percentage with children nutritional examined. defects. children from and -roomed · houses -roomed houses · -roomed houses · -roomed houses , · number of persons per room. less than one · one · between one and two , · two and more · footnote : report of the school medical officer for east ham for , p. . the interpretation of these tables, as the school medical officer points out, must be guarded. but, he continues, "i think it is safe to assume that nutrition ... suffered the more confined the individual."[ ] footnote : _ibid._, p. . actual physical defects, such as decayed teeth,[ ] adenoids or enlarged tonsils, or definite diseases, such as phthisis, may account for malnutrition in many cases. want of cleanliness again may be a cause.[ ] footnote : the school medical officer for cumberland found that whilst, at the age of to , · per cent. of the boys and · per cent. of the girls were classified as good, "the percentages diminish gradually till at the age of to they are only · and · , but from · and · at the age of to they gradually rise to · and · at the age of to . probably in most cases the condition of the teeth is responsible for this falling off in condition. in the early years of life, before the teeth begin to go bad, the nutrition is good, but gradually gets worse as time goes on and more teeth decay, but nutrition again improves after the eruption of the permanent teeth, which, of course, are in the majority of cases sound for some little time." (report of the school medical officer for cumberland for , p. .) footnote : "the cleanliness of the houses and especially of the bedrooms ... has an important bearing on nutrition." (report of the school medical officer for congleton for , p. .) a school medical officer in london told us that if a child improved in the point of cleanliness there was a marked improvement also in nutrition. the precise effect to be attributed to each cause is difficult to estimate. often, of course, two or more factors will be present, concurrently and interdependently. in an enquiry made in by dr. chate, into the condition of children ( boys and girls) in a rural or semi-rural district of middlesex who were suffering from malnutrition, it was found that poverty was the principal cause in · per cent. of the cases among the boys, and · per cent. among the girls. adenoids, worms, rickets, carious teeth and oral sepsis accounted for · per cent. among the boys, and · per cent. among the girls. improper diet was the main cause in · per cent. of the cases. in cases malnutrition was due to some disease such as tuberculosis, chronic bronchitis, etc., while in cases it was attributed to overcrowding, and in cases to overwork with insufficient sleep.[ ] in the following year a similar enquiry was made by dr. tate in a suburban residential area of the same county. out of cases, defective nutrition was found to be due to poverty and neglect in · per cent.; to rickets, adenoids, worms or digestive disorder in · per cent.; to lung affection in · per cent.; in · per cent. malnutrition "appeared to be associated with some previous or present condition of ill-health, to account for which no organic mischief could be found at the time of inspection"; while in instances no obvious cause could be assigned.[ ] footnote : report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , pp. - . footnote : _ibid._, for , p. . at bootle the school medical officer reports that out of cases of sub-normal nutrition, the cause is to be sought in per cent. in some definite disease or physical defect (including disturbances of digestion due to improper feeding); in per cent. there are no definite signs of organic disease; while in per cent. malnutrition is due to neglect.[ ] footnote : report of the school medical officer for bootle for , p. . at wolverhampton dr. badger reports that, out of cases, malnutrition is due to the influence or reaction of disease, convalescence from recent disease, or defective heredity in ; to pampering in ; to excessive growth in ; to overwork and insufficient sleep in ; to ignorance and poverty in ; while in cases there was strong evidence of neglect, dirt or drink.[ ] in his opinion, an opinion based upon a comparison of the clothing and footgear of the malnourished and normal children, "the malnutrition of the scholars examined was not primarily due to poverty."[ ] this, as sir george newman points out, "may well have been the case, but the fact that the examinations were 'routine' in character, when the children are apt to be specially dressed and boots even borrowed for the occasion, makes this particular item, unless subjected to further analysis, of little or no value as a criterion in forming a judgment as to the relation of poverty to the malnutrition."[ ] footnote : report of the school medical officer for wolverhampton for , p. . footnote : _ibid._, p. . footnote : report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , p. . other school medical officers are of the same opinion as dr. badger. at congleton the school medical officer visited the homes of a considerable number of children whose nutrition was defective, with a view to ascertaining the cause of their condition. he found that "actual poverty of the parents and inability to provide food was comparatively rare, that neglect was common, and unsuitable food probably the most frequent cause."[ ] at hornsey in the majority of cases "some definite ailment was apparent to explain, at least partially, the condition. there were very few instances in which it could be certainly stated that insufficiency of food was the sole cause."[ ] at manchester "the vast majority" of children whose nutrition was medium "and many of those who were poorly nourished were not in this condition through want of food.... each year's work adds to the evidence that poverty is not responsible for more than about per cent. of the cases."[ ] on the other hand, the school medical officer for kidderminster reports, "i find that the better condition of trade and employment in the town was reflected in the improved nutrition of the children.... this also tends to show that the majority of cases of defective nutrition arise, not from carelessness and inattention on the part of the parents, but from inability on their part to provide the children with sufficient nourishment owing to want of means."[ ] footnote : report of the school medical officer for congleton for , p. . footnote : report of the school medical officer for hornsey for , p. . footnote : report of the school medical officer for , in report of the manchester education committee, - , p. . footnote : report of the school medical officer for kidderminster for , p. . it is indeed impossible to say how much malnutrition is due to poverty. though the immediate cause may be disease, overwork, or overcrowding, these evils are themselves largely the result of insufficient means. the relation between the malnutrition of the children and the amount of the family income is strikingly illustrated by the results of an enquiry recently made into the diet of the labouring classes in glasgow. a careful study was made of the family diet of certain selected families during a week, or in some cases a fortnight, and the energy value of each diet expressed in terms of the requirements of a man per day, a woman or a boy of to being reckoned as equivalent to · of a man, a girl of to as · , and children of to , to , to , and under respectively as · , · , · , · . "if a family diet expressed in this way gives a yield of energy of less than , calories per man per day, it is insufficient for active work, and if less than , calories, it is quite inadequate for the proper maintenance of growth and of normal activity."[ ] footnote : report upon a study of the diet of the labouring classes in the city of glasgow carried out during - , by dorothy e. lindsay, b.sc., , pp. - . "taking the average intake of energy and of protein in the various groups [comprising families], the results are as follows:-- energy. protein. group a. [income regular, average s.] , · (excluding lix. abnormal) group b. [income regular, lodgers kept, , · average s.] group c. [income regular, between s. & , s.] group d. [ " " " s. & , · s.] group e. [ " " under s.] , · group f. [income irregular, over s.] , (excluding xliv. abnormal) , · group g. [income irregular, under s.] , · group h. [ " " father , · drinks] or, excluding xxvii. abnormal , · "these figures show conclusively that, while the labouring classes with a regular income of over s. a week generally manage to secure a diet approaching the proper standard for active life, _those with a smaller income and those with an irregular income entirely fail to get a supply of food sufficient for the proper development and growth of the body or for the maintenance of a capacity for active work_."[ ] "an interesting point in connection with these studies is the influence of the diet on the physical condition of the children." the weights of a number of children which were obtained "show very markedly the relationship between the physique and the food. _when the weight is much below the average for that age, almost without exception the diet is inadequate._"[ ] footnote : _ibid._, p. . the numbers in each group are so small that the average does not furnish a reliable index, but that the conclusion drawn from the figures is warranted is shown by the fact that of the families in the first four groups (excluding one case where the circumstances are abnormal), have a dietary yielding over , calories of energy and only fall below the minimum of , , while of the families in the remaining groups (excluding two abnormal cases), only one has a dietary yielding over , calories, while no less than fall below the minimum. (_ibid._, pp. - .) here, of course, again we have the question of wrong feeding. in many cases the income could have been laid out to better advantage. "where one family gets nearly their minimum adequate diet on an expenditure of · pence per man per diem ... others on an expenditure of nearly d. fail to secure it." (_ibid._, p. .) footnote : _ibid._, p. . dr. larkins, late assistant school medical officer for surrey, also came to the conclusion "that a steady wage of s. a week is required to produce and properly maintain average strong well-nourished children; that below this figure, the danger zone is reached." this conclusion was based on an enquiry he made into the wages of the parents of all children aged that he examined during a considerable period.[ ] the results are seen in the following table:-- footnote : the actual number of children examined is not stated. average average weight general condition of average number of weekly in lbs. of the children children in family. wages. children aged (percent very good / (total, under , between and average / poor) over ) . over s. · / / · · · s. to · / / · · · s. s. to · / / · · · s. s. to · / · / · · · · s. s. to · / / · · · s. s. to · / / · · · s. the wages are the total weekly income out of which everything has to be paid, including rent, which varies from s. to s. d. ("the influence of wages on the child's nutrition," by f. e. larkins, m.d. edin., d.p.h., late assistant school medical officer for surrey, in _the medical officer_, december , , p. .) the effect of education is, as was recognised thirty years ago, to intensify the evil of malnutrition. "to educate underfed children," says dr. leslie mackenzie, "is to promote deterioration of physique by exhausting the nervous system. education of the underfed is a positive evil."[ ] "defective nutrition," says the school medical officer for blackburn, "to a far greater extent than any other single cause, and probably more than all other causes combined, renders children incapable of education. in a growing child the demands of muscle and bone must be satisfied before those of nervous tissue, and consequently when there is deficiency, or what comes to the same thing, unsuitability of food or inability to assimilate it, the nervous system is the first to suffer, the brain is starved and anæmic, and the extra strain involved in school work can have only a harmful, and in some cases a disastrous result."[ ] "there is probably no disease of children," says another school medical officer, "which needs combating more than bad nutrition.... it is quite impossible for any child thus affected to compete mentally with normal children of similar age; in fact, mental defect is frequently found in association with malnutrition."[ ] footnote : _the medical inspection of school children_, by dr. w. leslie mackenzie, assisted by dr. e. matthew, , p. . footnote : report of the school medical officer for blackburn for , p. . footnote : report of the school medical officer for leeds for , p. . this relation of mental capacity to nutrition was exemplified in the figures quoted by dr. ralph crowley at the education conference in . he examined , children in elementary schools at bradford, and classified them according to their nutrition and intelligence. of the children of exceptional intelligence, · per cent. were of good nutrition, · per cent. were below normal, and · per cent. were of poor or very poor nutrition. of the children who were exceptionally dull, only · per cent. were of good nutrition, · were below normal, and no less than · poor or very poor.[ ] footnote : "the physical conditions of school children," by dr. ralph h. crowley, north of england education conference, january, (reprinted in the _school government chronicle_, supplement, january , , pp. - ). in an enquiry made at manchester by the school medical officer a few years ago, it was found on examining poorly nourished and markedly badly nourished children, that · per cent. of the former were below par in mental capacity, and · per cent. were classed as bad; of the latter · per cent. were below normal, and · per cent. bad. but the most remarkable results are recorded by dr. arkle, of liverpool, in the enquiry to which we have already referred. he asked the teachers to give evidence as to the intelligence of the , elementary school children whom he examined. "the teachers in 'a' and 'b' both return about per cent. of the children as normal in intelligence, but whereas the former returns per cent. as above and per cent. below normal, the latter only returns per cent. above and per cent. as below the normal. but it is in the return from the poorest school that we get the most curious result. in 'c' the master only feels justified in calling per cent. of the boys normal, while he puts per cent. above and per cent. below normal." these figures, "it seems to me," writes dr. arkle, "can only be explained on one hypothesis. i believe, and my personal notes tend to confirm this view, that almost all the abnormal intelligences in the poorest school are due to the one factor--starvation.... over and over again i noted such cases of children without an ounce of superfluous flesh upon them, with skins harsh and rough, a rapid pulse and nerves ever on the strain, and yet with the expression of the most lively intelligence. but it is the eager intelligence of the hunting animal.... i fear it is from this class that the ranks of pilferers and sneak thieves come, and their cleverness is not of any real intellectual value. on the other hand, with children of a more lymphatic temperament, starvation seems to produce creatures more like automata.... if i told one of these children to open its mouth, it would take no notice till the request became a command, which had to be accompanied by a slight shake to draw the child's attention. then the mouth would be slowly opened widely, but no effort would be made to close it again until the child was told to do so.... i believe both these types of children are suffering from what i would call starvation of the nervous system, in one case causing irritation and in the other torpor. and, further, these cases are always associated with the clearest signs of bodily starvation, stunted growth, emaciation, rough and cold skin and the mouth full of viscid saliva due to hunger."[ ] footnote : "the medical examination of school children," by dr. a. s. arkle, in _school government chronicle_, supplement, january , , p. . somewhat similar results were observed by dr. badger, the school medical officer for wolverhampton. in comparing , normal children of thirteen years of age with mal-nourished children, he found that, while of the normal scholars · per cent. were of good intelligence, per cent. of average intelligence and · per cent. dull, among the mal-nourished children the percentages were respectively , and .[ ] this "record in respect of intelligence," points out sir george newman, "shows, what has been noted by other observers, that though the proportion of children considered as 'dull' by the teachers is considerably larger among mal-nourished children than among children generally, nevertheless there are children who suffer serious defects in nutrition whose mental powers are well above the average. it is naturally quick and keen children such as these who require care in order that their physical health may not be further injured by excessive mental application."[ ] footnote : report of the school medical officer for wolverhampton for , p. . (quoted in report of chief medical officer of the board of education for , p. .) footnote : report of chief medical officer of the board of education for , p. . chapter v the effect of school meals on the children since the causes of malnutrition are so many and diverse it is obvious that this defect cannot be remedied or prevented solely by the provision of school meals. but that the provision of wholesome food at regular hours has a marked effect in the improvement of the physique of the children, there is abundant evidence. unfortunately, though the periodic weighing of children who are receiving school meals, in order to ascertain the effect produced, has been strongly advocated by the chief medical officer of the board of education,[ ] this advice has rarely been acted upon. it is true that a few--a very few--education authorities profess to have a system of weighing children who are receiving meals, before they are put on, and after they are taken off, the feeding-list, but for the most part this weighing is only done spasmodically, and the records are not accessible. footnote : report of the chief medical officer of the board of education for , p. . several such enquiries have, however, been made in the past, the best known being that made by dr. ralph crowley at bradford in .[ ] the results of this experiment have been often quoted, but they are so important that they will bear repetition. forty children were selected from two of the poorest schools in the city, the children being mainly those who appeared to be most in need of food, though a few were included primarily on the ground of their particularly poor home circumstances.[ ] to these children from april to july two meals a day were given--breakfast, consisting of oatmeal porridge with milk and treacle followed by bread and margarine or dripping, with hot or cold milk to drink; and a dinner comprising in rotation one of seventeen different menus specially drawn up so as to contain the amounts of fat and proteid necessary for a child's nourishment.[ ] every effort was made to render the meals of as much educational value as possible, and special attention was given to such matters as the provision of table-cloths and flowers and the inculcation of good manners. footnote : bradford education committee, report on a course of meals given to necessitous children from april to july, . footnote : _ibid._, p. . footnote : _ibid._, pp. , . the children experimented on were weighed three times during the five weeks preceding the starting of the meals, and every week while they were receiving them. for the purpose of making comparative observations children were selected who were being fed at home, and who in other respects were as comparable as possible with those who were receiving the breakfasts and dinners. these "control children" were also weighed weekly. during the four weeks, march to april , before the feeding began, the forty children gained on an average · kilos, and during the week previous to feeding · kilos. at the end of the first week of feeding the average increase was found to be · kilos ( lb. oz.).[ ] during the next week, there was a slight loss of · kilos, followed by a gain during the next two weeks of · and · kilos respectively. during the ensuing eleven days, the whitsuntide holiday, no meals were given. at the end of this period it was found that the "control children" who, during the three weeks preceding the holiday, had lost · kilos on the average, had during these eleven days gained an average of · kilos; in the case, however, of the children fed at school, not only had the lack of food neutralised the benefits of fresh air and exercise, but they had actually lost an average of · kilos, a loss which it took them nearly a fortnight to make up, after the meals had been started again. during the eleven days after the holiday the "control children" only gained · kilos. a group of "control children" from another school similarly gained · kilos during the holiday, and only · kilos during the subsequent fortnight. the same result was observed during the five weeks' summer holiday; the "control children" gained on an average · kilos (_i.e._, at the rate of · kilos per week), while the children fed at school lost · kilos.[ ] the accompanying chart illustrates the rate of increase of the two groups of children. apart from the increase in weight, the improvement in the general appearance and carriage of the children who received the meals "was more or less apparent in all, and very obvious in some of the children, who visibly filled out and brightened up."[ ] the reverse process was equally apparent after the summer holidays. footnote : "the average gain per year of children of this class and size," dr. crowley points out, "is not more than two kilos ( lbs. oz.) for the whole year." (_ibid._, p. .) footnote : _ibid._, pp. - . as dr. crowley points out, several points have to be considered in interpreting the effect on weight. "the increase in the weight of children normally varies greatly at different seasons of the year," and "at any given season fluctuates much, sometimes, comparatively, even from week to week. the proportional increase in weight varies with the age of the child, or rather with the weight to which the child has already attained." (_ibid._, p. .) footnote : _ibid._, p. . [illustration: chart illustrating the average gain or loss in weight--during the intervals shown--of the children who were fed at bradford. the broken line shows the average increase in weight--during the same time--of the "control children."] at northampton, in , a similar experiment was conducted under the supervision of the medical officer of health. forty-four children were given breakfast and dinner for fourteen weeks, and weighed weekly, together with forty children of the same social class who were not receiving meals. at the beginning of the experiment the average weight of the fed children was · kilos less than that of the "controls"; in the second week their average gain was much greater, and by the end of the fourteenth week the difference in weight was reduced to · kilos. during the easter holidays of ten days in which no meals were given, the children who had previously been fed lost in weight while the "controls" gained.[ ] footnote : report on the working of the education (provision of meals) act up to march , , pp. - . another interesting experiment was conducted by dr. haden guest in a poor school in lambeth in the early part of .[ ] a large number of children were selected-- --but the attendance of many of these was irregular and continuous records were obtained in the case of only children. from january to april a midday meal was given six days a week. the meal consisted of two courses, a normal portion of which was calculated to be sufficient to supply the amounts of proteids, carbohydrates, fats and salts, physiologically necessary for children. the same meal was never given twice in succession, a variation of six menus being repeated over twelve consecutive days. the room in which the meals were served was bright and airy, the surroundings having, in dr. guest's estimation, an important physiological bearing on good digestion. all the children in the school were weighed before and after the experiment and again in the first week of july, the children who were receiving dinners being also weighed regularly during the experiment. taking first the case of the elder children, we read that the results "showed a very decided and positive improvement both from the general standpoint and from that of increase in weight, the fed children increasing at a more rapid rate than the other children in the school with whom they were compared."[ ] "starting a good deal below the normal of their own school mates, they tended, under the influence of one good meal a day, rapidly to approach that normal." and again, "the increase in the healthy appearance of the children and in their general alertness was marked. children with sores, small abscesses, colds and blepharitis recovered from these ailments.... the amount of absence from school due to illness was considerably less during the course of the experiment." this testimony was fully borne out by the headmaster. "the effect of the feeding of the children," he declared, "is a marked improvement judging from the general appearance of the boys, who are almost all brighter. the improvement is particularly noticeable in their play. they are more vigorous and enter more heartily into the rougher games of boys and bear the knocks without coming to the teacher to complain. they certainly enjoy their play more and show less fatigue. there are few lads shivering against the walls with hands in pockets, sloping shoulders and pale faces. in school, the effect during the first few weeks was drowsiness. this was succeeded by improved tone and greater independence of character, and generally a greater individuality. the difference in mental condition is not so marked, and is certainly more difficult to measure. there is less fatigue in lessons, and the lads are capable of more continuous exertion." the teachers' reports on the girls were of the same character, though not so decided in tone, except on one point--that those who were fed were "more troublesome," that is to say, more full of spirits, a factor which appeared also in their play. turning to the effect of the meals on the infants a most disquieting state of affairs was disclosed. it was found that, while the weight of the infants who were fed was less than that of the other infants of their own school, "the difference was much less than in the case of the bigger children, the increase in weight in each case correspondingly slow, and the amount by which both groups fell below the normal greater." during the first week there was a remarkable fall in weight among the infants who received meals, ascribable partly to the fact that they did not receive the necessary attention which was afterwards given them, partly to the fact that they were unfamiliar with good nourishing food (a factor operating in the case of the elder children also, though to a far less degree[ ]); largely, however, it was due to their being "actually unable to digest and assimilate this food." this slow progress on the part of the infants dr. guest attributed to improper feeding at home. in most lambeth homes the younger children received the same diet (the staple articles being tea and bread and butter) as the older ones, but whereas the latter could manage on this diet, and, with a good midday meal in addition, even flourish, the former could not thrive. dr. guest therefore advocated that necessitous infants should be fed at least twice a day, on a diet different from that given to the elder children, and that more individual care should be devoted to each child, since in most cases they required coaxing before they would eat the wholesome food provided. footnote : ms. report on lambeth school children feeding experiment, by dr. l. haden guest, . footnote : we have, unfortunately, not been able to obtain a copy of the figures on which dr. haden guest's report is based. footnote : in the case of the boys, their weights, during this week, only increased a little; those of the girls remained stationary. on the cessation of the meals we find the same result ensuing as we have already noticed at bradford and northampton. for when, in july, , three months after the meals had been discontinued, all the children were again weighed and measured, it was found that there was a general decline in weight; the decline was so general that it was obviously due partly to a diminution in clothing, but "the necessitous children, who after the conclusion of the experiment were only fed spasmodically, show a greater decrease than the other children, pointing to either a stationary weight during the twelve weeks from april to july or a loss of weight." interesting figures as to the effects of different dietaries were obtained at sheffield in . before this date the meals provided for necessitous children had taken the form of cocoa breakfasts. as an experiment at one school some of the boys were given porridge for several weeks. their weights were compared with those of a group of other boys who were receiving cocoa breakfasts at school, and also with a group of boys who were being fed at home. the two groups of boys who were fed at school were drawn from equally poor districts, those who were fed at home being somewhat better off. it was found that the boys who were receiving cocoa breakfasts only gained on an average · kilos or · oz. per week; the boys who were being fed at home gained · kilos ( · oz.); while the boys who were receiving porridge breakfasts gained as much as · kilos ( · oz.). as a result of this proof of the superiority of porridge diet, porridge breakfasts were substituted for cocoa breakfasts in all the schools.[ ] footnote : report of chief school medical officer for sheffield for , pp. - . we may quote here striking results observed in the improved physique of the children at a special school for cripple children in london consequent on an improved dietary. a two-course dinner of meat, potatoes and pudding had been previously given, but in the summer of it was decided to provide a more liberal and varied dietary, _e.g._, more hot meat, eggs, milk, cream, vegetables and fruit. the results were soon apparent. "partially paralysed children," writes mrs. humphry ward a few months after the change, "have been recovering strength in hands and limbs with greater rapidity than before. a child who, last year, often could not walk at all from rickets and extreme delicacy and seemed to be fading away, and who in may was still languid and feeble, is now racing about in the garden on his crutches; a boy who last year could only crawl on his hands and feet is now rapidly and steadily learning to walk, and so on.... hardly any child now wants to lie down during school time, whereas applications to lie down used to be common, and the children both learn and remember better." (letter from mrs. humphry ward, _the times_, september , .) at brighton it has for the last few years been the practice to weigh before and after the course of meals the children who have been recommended for feeding on medical grounds. at the end of the last session, - , children who had received meals for nine weeks or more were thus re-examined. it was found that of these, or per cent., no longer needed meals on medical grounds, that is, they had been brought over the average weight for a given height.[ ] footnote : brighton education committee, report on the re-examination of children receiving free meals during the winter session, - . where only milk or codliver oil is given a remarkable improvement is often effected. indeed, several teachers told us that in their opinion the provision of milk was more beneficial than either breakfasts or dinners. at a bethnal green school, during the winter of - , it was found that out of boys and girls examined at the medical inspection, of the boys and of the girls were underfed. these children were given a tea-spoonful of codliver oil in a cupful of warm milk every day during the morning interval. at the end of the year the nutrition was re-assessed, with the following results:--[ ] footnote : annual report of london county council for , vol. iii., p. . good. average. bad. boys before after girls before after the results of these experiments are sufficient in themselves to establish conclusively the benefit to be derived from regular feeding even when no other factor in the child's environment is changed. "no doubt," says dr. haden guest, "irregular and late hours, disturbed sleep, overcrowding, improper clothing and employment of children after and before school hours, do each and all exercise a very detrimental effect on the children of poor parents. but that the greatest influence for evil is exerted by improper and insufficient food is a matter over which it appears impossible to have great controversy."[ ] footnote : ms. report by dr. l. haden guest on lambeth school children feeding experiment, . and these results are corroborated by abundant testimony from school medical officers, teachers, care committee workers and others, of the benefit derived by the children where the provision of meals act has been put in force. "the children derived an enormous amount of benefit" from the meals.[ ] "the physical appearance of the children speaks in pronounced terms" of the value of feeding.[ ] "those who have any practical experience ... are all agreed that such meals [free breakfasts] are of the greatest value, not only from a humanitarian point of view but also as a necessary adjunct for successful education."[ ] "there is continuous evidence of the immense benefit conferred upon the children by the administration of this act--both from the inspection of the scholars at the dining-centres and from the reports of the teachers."[ ] these are a few typical opinions culled from reports of school medical officers. at manchester "the operation of the provision of free meals acts very largely ... not so much in the way of improving the physical condition of children already emaciated and debilitated, but of preventing their ever reaching that condition by stepping in when the home income fails. it is certain that since the organisation of the supply of free meals at centres covering practically all parts of the city where they are required, _the number of underfed children_--_i.e._, the number showing signs of underfeeding--_has decreased markedly_. it is also certain that the type of child at the feeding centres is gradually improving--_i.e._, there are fewer children found in the centres with signs of the result of bad nourishment, and there are fewer such children in the schools."[ ] at bradford, where the local education authority has systematically endeavoured to effect an improvement in the condition of the children both by the school medical service and the provision of meals, there has been in the last few years a very marked improvement in nutrition and "a fairly regular increase in weight amongst bradford children as a whole. they are approaching nearer each year to the national average."[ ] footnote : report of school medical officer for macclesfield for , p. . footnote : _ibid._ for workington for , p. viii. footnote : _ibid._ for hastings for , p. . footnote : report of school medical officer for newcastle-on-tyne for , p. . footnote : report of school medical officer for manchester for , pp. - . in the following year he reports that out of over four hundred children attending eight feeding centres, only ten cases of markedly bad nourishment were recorded. (_ibid._ for , p. .) footnote : _the health and physique of school children_, by arthur greenwood, , pp. , . "it may perhaps be urged," he continues, "that this progress is purely accidental; but a close examination of a large number of school medical officers' reports does not show any general increase during the few years for which records are available. there are variations from year to year, of course, but no apparent regular improvement, except in isolated instances, of which bradford is one." (_ibid._, p. .) the witness of the teachers is no less favourable. in london, for instance, the education committee in made enquiries among the head teachers of some of the schools where a considerable number of meals were provided; the majority of the teachers were enthusiastic as to the benefit derived. "physical progress is most marked," said one headmistress. "the disappearance of chronic headaches, sores on faces, gatherings on fingers, pains in chest ... point to a more 'fit' condition, which the children can only express for me by saying that they 'feel better now,' for they 'are not hungry all the afternoons now.'"[ ] and a headmaster writes, "the change in the children after a month's provision of suitable and nourishing diet for breakfast and dinner has been distinctly beneficial. they have been more inclined to take part in the school sports, into which they have entered with considerable zest. their appearance, too, has greatly improved. their eyes have become brighter, their cheeks rounded. if, for any reason, such as temporary absence, they have lost the advantage of regular feeding, they have almost immediately shown signs of deterioration. when the period [of feeding] has been prolonged to three or six months, their health has permanently improved, and their capacity for work and play has still further developed."[ ] "the children on the necessitous register," says another headmaster, "now fully participate in these activities [games and sports] and supply rather above their proportionate number of prominent performers; this is equally true of swimming. it is indisputable that in the past lack of nourishment, where it did not entirely exclude, greatly limited the part taken by many children in this the most attractive side of school life."[ ] footnote : annual report of the london county council for , chapter xli., p. . footnote : _ibid._, pp. , . footnote : _ibid._, p. . we have ourselves questioned numbers of teachers, both in london and the provinces, on this point. here and there are found, it is true, teachers who declare that no improvement is to be observed, perhaps because, being with the children day by day they do not notice any change. but the verdict as to the beneficial results of school meals is almost unanimous. at bradford we were told that it used to be not uncommon for a child to faint in school from want of food; such an occurrence is now unknown. often children who are dull and listless are found, after a course of regular meals, to become full of life and spirits. it is indeed frequently remarked that the children become "naughtier" after the meals, a sign, of course, of increased vitality. we find that, as a result of the regular feeding, the resisting power of the children is increased and they are less susceptible to the contraction of infectious and other diseases.[ ] the attendance at school is thus improved. at a school in the potteries, the headmaster informed us that during the coal strike in , when three meals a day were given in the schools, there was far less non-attendance than usual through biliousness, headaches or other minor ailments.[ ] at liverpool we were told that there has been a considerable improvement in the regularity of the children's attendance, as a result of the dinners.[ ] non-attendance may be due, of course, not only to illness, but also to lack of food. when the parents have nothing to give the children for breakfast they will encourage them to sleep through the morning. the headmaster of a very poor school in liverpool told us that some years ago, before the education committee had undertaken the provision of meals, the attendance was very bad. he raised a voluntary fund and provided breakfasts himself. as a result the attendance improved to such an extent that the increased grant amounted to £ , which more than covered the cost of the food (£ ). footnote : report of school medical officer for bootle for , p. ; _ibid._ for worcester for , p. . footnote : as we have seen, this result was noticed during the feeding experiment at lambeth (see ante, p. .) footnote : at bootle, on the other hand, where "it was anticipated that the movement would have a beneficial effect upon the regularity of the attendance ... there is no evidence to show that such has been the case, and it is very doubtful whether the attendance has been appreciably affected." (report of the bootle school canteen committee for - , p. .) it would be interesting to compare the nutrition of the children in the day industrial schools, where three meals a day are given. since the children in these schools, who, it must be remembered, are drawn very largely from the poorest and most neglected class, return home in the evening, the only condition altered is the supply of food. we have, unfortunately, not been able to obtain any statistics as to the weights of these children, but we have received ample evidence from teachers and others as to the very marked physical improvement which is to be observed after they have been in the schools but a very short time. at liverpool some time ago it was found that the children attending the day industrial schools suffered much from sores and gatherings. on the diet being altered very considerably, these ailments entirely disappeared, and the children, we were told, are now in perfect health. at leeds the school medical officer found that, while of , children from the ordinary elementary schools, · per cent. were of sub-normal nutrition, the percentage in the same condition among the day industrial school children (of whom were examined) was only · .[ ] footnote : report of school medical officer for leeds for , p. . the chairman of the leeds education committee, in giving evidence before the royal commission on the poor laws, stated, "the supply of three good meals a day has been of great benefit to the children in attendance, who compare favourably with the children attending the ordinary public elementary schools.... they take a good position in school competitions for swimming, etc., and are particularly smart in school drills and exercises." (report of the royal commission on the poor laws, , vol. iv. of evidence, appendix lxxxii. ( ).) let us turn now to the effect of the meals on the mental capabilities of the children. this effect is, from the nature of the case, less easy to assess, and the evidence is not so unanimous as on the question of the physical effect. a minority of teachers assert that no improvement is to be observed. at hull, for instance, out of head-teachers who were asked for their opinions on this point, declared that there had been a considerable or distinct improvement, that there had been a slight improvement, and that there was no visible difference.[ ] at bradford, teachers were of opinion that there had been a considerable or distinct improvement, that the improvement had been slight, that no visible difference was to be noticed.[ ] "i cannot say," said the headmaster of a london school, "that the improvement in mentality has been in any way commensurate with the physical improvement."[ ] on the other hand, a headmistress declared, "there is undoubted improvement physically and educationally in the necessitous children supplied with meals at this school. but i confess the fact only came home to me vividly at our last terminal examination, when i found three of them headed the class in standard iii. (including all subjects)."[ ] another wrote, "the girls receiving regular meals have become more alert, less apathetic, and consequently far more ready to respond to the teachers' efforts to gain their undivided attention. the interest thus aroused has led the girls to look upon all branches of their work with more favour than heretofore. the taste for knowledge once established, homework has followed with the inevitable results produced by voluntary effort rather than compulsory work."[ ] in north kensington the "children who are supplied with milk at school or who are given breakfast and dinner respond at once to the better feeding, and show distinct improvement in their class work."[ ] at darlington it was reported that, "generally speaking, the replies [from the teachers] were very definite to the effect that the provision of dinners had assisted the educational progress of the children."[ ] and a striking illustration of the benefit derived from a regular course of feeding is given us by a medical member of an education committee who writes, "i find the condition of the children much improved by feeding. some children who, eighteen months ago, were considered half-witted are now monitors and monitresses, taking an intelligent interest in their work." footnote : hull education committee, appendix to minutes of the provision of meals sub-committee, october , . footnote : report of bradford education committee for the months ended july , , p. . footnote : annual report of the london county council for , chapter xli., p. . footnote : _ibid._ footnote : _ibid._ footnote : annual report of the london county council for , vol. iii., p. . footnote : report of darlington education committee, - , p. xii. we have already noticed the improvement in attendance consequent on the provision of meals. this, of course, assists in the educational progress, not only of those children who before attended irregularly, but of the whole class, since the others are no longer kept back by the irregular attenders. too much importance cannot be attached to the training of the children in habits of self-control and thoughtfulness for one another. for this training the common meal furnishes an excellent opportunity. as we have seen, far too little attention is paid to this aspect of the question. it is true that, even where the meal is served in a somewhat rough-and-ready fashion, leaving, in the eyes of the educationalist, much to be desired, we have generally been informed that there has been an improvement in manners. at first the children, many of whom, probably, had rarely sat down to a meal before, would throw the food at each other or on the floor, and the scene was often a pandemonium. some sort of order has been evolved out of this chaos. but how far this falls short of what might be effected is seen when one compares the great majority of feeding-centres all over england, not necessarily the worst, with a small minority, such as some of the bradford centres, or one or two london centres, where the meal is truly educational. it is interesting to hear that, when recently a party of children were sent to the cinderella holiday home from one of the bradford schools and the supervisor was particularly requested to notice those who had been receiving meals, it was found that they alone knew how to behave at table, and that the others learnt from them. in another direction the school meal may have an educational result of the highest importance. children in all ranks of life are notoriously conservative in the matter of food and shy of venturing on unknown dishes, but with the poorest class of children it is not only "faddiness" which has to be contended with; the unaccustomed food, however wholesome for the normal child, actually does not agree with these chronically underfed children. as was pointed out at the time of the passing of the provision of meals act, "one great merit of this act ... will be the teaching and training of a child in the matter of taste. at present it is a well known physiological fact that the slum stomach cannot accommodate itself in a moment to good, wholesome food. the child has been accustomed to tea and jam and pickles, and to food that is often more tasty than nourishing. it will now eat under public and _medical superintendence_ and gradually a pure and simple taste will be cultivated."[ ] that this prophecy is in process of being fulfilled may, we think, with justice be claimed. there still exists a certain amount of difficulty in inducing the children to take food to which they are unaccustomed, but that this difficulty can be surmounted by the exercise of tact and attention to individual needs has been practically demonstrated again and again. over and over again we have been told the same tale, "at first the children would not eat this or that dish, but now they have learned to like it." especially is this the case with porridge. at first, wherever this was given, it was found that many refused to eat it, but this antipathy was gradually overcome, and the children finally ate it with relish.[ ] it is amusing to find that at st. george's-in-the-east, where a porridge breakfast was devised as a test of need, it being thought that no child would come who was not really hungry, the children now like the porridge so much that this diet no longer furnishes a test. where the children do not learn to eat what is provided, it always turns out, on further enquiry, that the supervisors have failed, either because of the large numbers whom they have to look after or, perhaps, through lack of enthusiasm, to devote that careful and detailed attention to the children without which it is quite impossible to bring about any change. footnote : _child life and labour_, by margaret alden, m.d., , p. . footnote : thus, to quote one of many instances, at bradford, when porridge breakfasts were given in the experiment of , it was found that the first morning thirteen refused to eat it; the next morning only two refused, and after that all ate and enjoyed it. (bradford education committee, report on a course of meals given to necessitous children from april to july, , p. .) moreover, it is encouraging to notice that this education of the children in the matter of taste is not without its effect on the home diet. this was observed as long ago as . in giving evidence before the committee of the london school board, mrs. burgwin declared that, as a result of the porridge breakfasts given to the school children, there was "an increasing demand upon the local shop-keepers by the poor families themselves."[ ] "at first," said miss honnor morten, "the children did not care for porridge, but the result of the breakfasts has been that many now persuade their parents to make it for them."[ ] "the children," says lady meyer, who has started penny dinners in connection with the health centre at newport, "act as missionaries to their mothers, comparing the meals at the health centre with those at their homes, much to the disparagement of the latter, which quickly brought the more intelligent mothers to the centre to 'see how it was done.'"[ ] footnote : report of the special committee of the london school board on underfed children, , appendix i., p. . footnote : report of the general purposes committee of the london school board on underfed children, , appendix i., p. . footnote : _a health centre and dental clinic in a rural district, newport, essex_, , p. . as far as the children are concerned, indeed, whether we consider the improvement in physique, mental capacity or manners, there is no doubt that the provision of school meals has proved of the greatest benefit. chapter vi the effect on the parents the evidence which has been presented in the preceding chapter as to the benefits resulting from the feeding of school children would have evoked, fifty, or even twenty years ago, a simple and decisive retort. granted, it would have been argued, that the health and educational capacity of the children is deteriorated by lack of nourishment, that irreparable and preventible damage is inflicted, and that the provision of meals by a public authority averts this evil for many and mitigates it for all; yet no plea of immediate expediency can stand against the ultimate loss involved in any public assumption of the cost of providing maintenance for children. if a local authority supplies part, even a small part, of their food, parental responsibility is, _pro tanto_, diminished, with results disastrous not only to the character of the parents but to the prospects of the children themselves. for if parents receive assistance in one direction from a public authority, they will soon clamour to receive assistance in other directions as well. in order to qualify for it, they will neglect their children, who will thus benefit in one way only to be victimized in others. the children themselves, having been fed from public funds, will be trained in habits of dependence, and, when they grow up, will insist on still further provision being made for their children in their turn. thus one tiny breach in the walls of the family will insensibly be widened till it admits a flood in which domestic affections and the integrity of the home, "relations dear, and all the charities of father, son, and brother" are submerged. if such anticipations seem exaggerated, they have nevertheless played an important part in determining the policy pursued in england towards more than one question, and lie behind many of the criticisms which are passed on certain recent forms of social intervention. the idea that relief given to the child must be regarded as relief given to the parent, and that, if given at all, it must be accompanied by severe restrictions, was enunciated emphatically in the poor law report of --indeed that famous document scarcely mentions children except in so far as the treatment of adults is influenced by these appendages--and has since become a settled part of poor law policy. the fear that parental responsibility might be weakened was a criticism brought against the education act of , against the abolition of school fees in , and against the provision of medical treatment for school children under the education (administrative provisions) act of . naturally, therefore, the public provision of meals for school children has not escaped the criticism that it would weaken the bond between parent and child and ultimately result in "the breaking up of the home." "to remove the spur to exertion and self-restraint," reported a special committee of the charity organisation society in , "which the spectacle of his children's hunger must be to any man in whom the feelings of natural kindness are not altogether dead, is to assume a very grave responsibility, and perhaps to take away the last chance of re-establishing the character and fortunes of the breadwinner, and, with him, the fortunes of the whole household. it is true, no doubt, that there are parents who are past redemption by influences of this kind, but the majority of the committee are of opinion that it is better in the interests of the community to allow, in such cases, the sins of the parents to be visited on the children than to impair the principle of the solidarity of the family and run the risk of permanently demoralising large numbers of the population by the offer of free meals to their children."[ ] footnote : "charity and food," report of a special committee of the charity organisation society, , p. . for later expressions of the same line of criticism, see, for instance, "the relief of school children," by m. clutton and e. neville (c.o.s. occasional paper), march, , pp. , ; "underfed school children," by arthur clay (c.o.s. occasional paper), may, , p. ; "the feeding of school children," by miss mcknight, in _charity organisation review_, july, , p. ; "a new poor law for children," by rev. h. iselin, in _charity organisation review_, march, , p. . now it is obvious that an economic policy which was determined primarily by a consideration for the "solidarity of the family" would lead to far-reaching measures of industrial reorganisation. if the ideal is a society in which "the bread-winner" is by his "exertion and self-restraint" to guarantee "the fortunes of his whole household," the immediate object of attack must be those industrial evils which effectually prevent him from doing so at present, and of which the principal are low wages, casual labour, recurrent periods of unemployment and bad housing. that a crusade conducted in the interests of the family against these regular features of modern industry is entirely desirable need not be questioned. but in its absence it is obvious that, so far from allowing "the sins of the parents to be visited on the children," what we are really doing is to allow the sins of the employer to be visited on the employed or the sins of the community to be visited upon future generations of unborn children, and it seems almost frivolous to ascribe the results of this constant and vicarious sacrifice to the measures which, like the provision of school meals, are directed merely to the partial mitigation of some of its worst effects. the truth is, to put the matter bluntly, that what breaks up the family is not the presence of food but its absence, and that, if the public conscience is unperturbed by the spectacle of numerous homes in which economic circumstances have deprived the parents of the means of providing meals for their children themselves, its sudden sensitiveness at the thought of meals being provided by some external authority would be ludicrous if it did not lead to such tragic consequences. the reader who reflects on the thousands of dock-labourers in london, liverpool and glasgow who, through no fault of their own, can obtain only three days' work a week, or on the to per cent. of the working-class population of reading who have been shown by professor bowley to be receiving a total family income below the low standard fixed by mr. rowntree,[ ] and to be receiving it, in per cent. of the cases, because they are "in regular work but at low wages,"[ ] will scarcely argue that the mere provision of meals, however injudicious he may regard it, is likely to contribute seriously to the weakening of family relationships which have been already strained or broken by industrial anarchy or industrial tyranny. _sublata causa tollitur effectus._ but does any one seriously believe that a cessation of school meals would restore the desired "solidarity of the family" to the casual or sweated labourer? footnote : "working-class households in reading," by professor a. l. bowley, in _the journal of the royal statistical society_, june, , p. . the minimum standard for food was computed by mr. rowntree, in , as s. for an adult, and s. d. for a child. this standard has been raised by professor bowley to s. d. and s. d. respectively, since prices in reading in were about sixteen per cent. higher than at york in . the diet on which mr. rowntree based his computations was mainly vegetarian, and his minimum standard assumed a knowledge of food values and perfectly scientific expenditure. (_ibid._, p. .) taking a slightly different standard, professor bowley computes that "_more than half the working-class children of reading, during some part of their first fourteen years, live in households where the standard of life in question is not attained_." (_ibid._, p. .) footnote : _ibid._, p. . if the suggestion that the provision of meals is a _principal_ cause undermining parental responsibility is fantastic, is the suggestion that it must necessarily exercise _some_ influence in that direction better founded? we shall deal later with such facts as can be used to throw light on this question. but we may point out here that the idea underlying it usually derives part of its cogency in the minds of many of its supporters less from any concrete evidence than from an implicit assumption that there is a "natural" division of duties between public authorities and the individual citizen, and that any redistribution of them between these two parties, which removes one function from the latter to the former, must necessarily result in the undermining of character, the weakening of the incentive to self-maintenance, the decay of parental responsibility, in short, in all the phenomena of the process known as "pauperisation." now we need scarcely point out that, stated in this crude form, the theory that every assumption of fresh responsibilities by public authorities results in the undermining of character has no foundation in the experience of mankind. it is, of course, quite true that any sudden removal from an individual of duties which he has hitherto been accustomed to discharge may result in weakening the springs of effort. it is also quite true that any sudden addition to his responsibilities may result in crushing them, and that, as far as the more poorly paid ranks of labour are concerned, energies are far more often worn out in a hopeless struggle than sapped by an insidious ease. but by themselves these facts prove nothing as to the _manner_ in which burdens, duties, responsibilities, should be distributed between the community and its individual members. what experience shows is that there is no "natural" allocation of functions, but that there has been throughout history at once a constant addition to, and a constant re-arrangement of them, and that the former process is quite compatible with the latter. nor is there any ground for the idea that the extension of the activities of public bodies must necessarily result in accelerating the approach of the state of economic and moral inertia described by those who anticipate it as "pauperism." if that were the case, all civilised communities would, indeed, have been hastening to destruction from a time "whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary." for our fathers had no elementary education, our grandfathers no municipal water, and few lamp-posts; while our great-grandfathers enjoyed the independence derived from the possession of relatively few roads, and those of a character sufficiently bad to offer the most powerful incentives to the energy and self-reliance of the pedestrian. on this theory the citizen of manchester would be more pauperised than the citizen of london; both would be seriously pauperised compared with the peasant of connemara; while the wretched inhabitants of german municipalities would be wallowing in a perfect quagmire of perpetual pauperism. why indeed should one stop here? there have been periods in history in which not only these functions, but the organisation of justice and the equipment of military forces have been left to the bracing activities of private individuals; and an enquiry into the decline and fall of individual independence would, if logically pursued, lead us into dim regions of history far anterior to the norman conquest. the origins of modern pauperism, like the origins of modern liberty, are to be sought among "the primeval forests of germany!" while, however, there is no foundation for the doctrine that every extension of public provision results in a slackening of energy on the part of the individual, it is, none the less, possible that this may be the result of the particular kind of provision which consists in the supplying of meals to school children. in the event of that being proved to be the case, it is by no means easy to say what policy should be pursued. public authorities, it may be argued, should cease to provide school meals. to this answer, which is at first sight plausible, there are two objections which are together almost insuperable. the first is that education authorities are under a legal obligation to provide education for the children in their charge and to carry out medical inspection with a view to discovering their ailments; while they may, if they think fit, provide medical treatment for them. they owe it to their constituents to spend their money in the most effective and economical manner. education given to children who are suffering from want of nourishment not only is ineffective, but may be positively deleterious. when the extent of malnutrition is known, is it reasonable to expect the authorities deliberately to shut their eyes to the fact that so far from benefiting the children who suffer from it they may be positively aggravating their misfortunes? if it be replied, _ruat coelum fiat justitia_, let the children suffer in order to improve the moral character of their parents, an education committee may not unfairly retort that it is elected primarily to attend to the welfare of the children, and that the wisdom of elevating parents, who _ex hypothesi_ are demoralised, at the cost of the rising generation is, at any rate, too problematical to justify it in neglecting its own special duties. moreover, even assuming that public bodies were willing to apply to the education of children the principles recommended in for the treatment of "improvidence and vice," there is no reason to suppose that they would succeed in averting the "pauperisation" which is dreaded. no fact is more clearly established by the history of all kinds of relief administration since than that the effect of refusing to make public provision for persons in distress is merely to lead to the provision of assistance in a rather more haphazard, uncoordinated and indiscriminate manner by private agencies. a purely negative policy is systematically "blacklegged" by private philanthropists. rightly or wrongly the plain man finds his stomach turned by the full gospel of deterrence; with the result that, while the english poor law is nominally deterrent, enormous sums are spent every year in private charity in london alone; that in the local government board recommended local authorities to provide relief for certain classes of workers apart from the poor law, on the ground that the poor law, for whose administration the local government board is responsible, is necessarily degrading; and that, finally, a special act had to be passed in creating authorities to administer assistance for unemployed workmen whom public opinion would no longer allow to be left to the tender mercies of a deterrent policy of poor relief. that the same result would follow with even greater certainty were public bodies to decline to provide for necessitous school children is obvious, inasmuch as to the foolish sentimentality of the ordinary person the sufferings of childhood make a special appeal. indeed it has followed already. in the days when education authorities had no power to spend public money on the provision of meals for school children, what happened was that the provision of meals was begun by private persons, and in the towns which have not put the act of into force such private provision obtains at the present day. such extra-legal intervention has all the disadvantages ascribed to the public provision of meals, for one can scarcely accept the extravagant contention that while soup supplied by an education authority pauperises, soup tickets supplied by a philanthropic society do not. and it has few of its advantages. for private philanthropy tends to be more irregular and arbitrary in its administration than most public authorities. since it cannot cover the whole area of distress, its selection of children to be fed is more capricious; since its funds are raised by appeals _ad misericordiam_ they often fail when they are needed most; and when, as often happens, more than one agency enters the field, the result is overlapping and duplication. nor will it seem a minor evil to those who care for the civic spirit that even the best-intentioned charity can never escape from the taint of patronage, can never be anything but a sop with which the rich relieve their consciences by ministering to the poor. the statement that the feeding of school children weakens parental responsibility presumably means that the provision of meals at school induces parents to neglect to provide meals themselves. when one turns from these general considerations to examine how far this result has actually occurred, one is faced with the task of sifting a few grains of fact from a multitude of impressions. the first and most essential preliminary to the formation of any reasonable judgment is to determine the circumstances of those families one or more of whose members are receiving meals at school; and in order to throw some light on this point we give, in the following table, such particulars from six areas as are available:--[ ] footnote : the figures for birmingham are taken from _the public feeding of elementary school children_, by phyllis d. winder, , pp. - ; those for st. george's-in-the-east, from "the story of a children's care committee," by rev. h. iselin, in _economic review_, january, , p. ; those for stoke, bradford, st. pancras and bermondsey from case papers that we have analysed. these figures must not be taken as more than a somewhat rough indication of the state of affairs, for it is not always easy to determine precisely into which category a particular case should be put. probably the proportion of casually employed is somewhat understated; of the twenty-six, for instance, who are classed as unemployed at birmingham, roughly one-third belonged to the class of permanent casuals, but were totally unemployed at the date of the enquiry. (_the public feeding of elementary school children_, p. .) causes of stoke. bradford. birmingham. school school in distress in st. bermondsey pancras. unemployment casual employment short time -- -- regular work -- but low wages illness or disablement of father widows desertion or absence of father it will be seen that the four largest classes of families consist of those in which the father is casually employed, is disabled by illness or accident, is dead or is unemployed. if one adds to these families the in which the father is paid low wages or is working short time, there is a total of out of families in which distress is due either to industrial causes or to a misfortune. since men do not usually contract illness or die in order that their children may be fed at school, there is no question of the responsibility of the father being weakened in the cases in which death or ill-health was the cause which led to the provision of school meals. it is often argued, however, that the public provision of assistance is itself one cause of the distress which it is designed to relieve, because it must necessarily exercise a deteriorating influence over industrial conditions. the knowledge that his children will be fed is likely, it is said, to lead a man to relax the demands which he makes on his employer. the knowledge that he need not offer a subsistence wage for a family leads the employer to offer worse terms to his employees, more irregular employment or lower rates of wages, with the result that the ratepayer relieves the employer of part of his wage bill. cut off all public assistance, and "economic conditions will adjust themselves to the change." now it is perfectly true that the need which prompts the provision of school meals does normally arise from bad industrial conditions, and that to allow those conditions to continue while merely mitigating their effects is an offence against morality and an outrage on commonsense. whether school meals are desirable or not for their own sake, it is the right of the worker that industry should be organised in such a way that he should be able to provide for his children in the manner which he thinks best, and that he should not be compelled (as he often is at present) to choose between seeing them fed at school and seeing them half-starved at home. but the theory which we have stated goes much further than this. it holds that public provision is a _cause_ of bad industrial conditions, and that the mere abolition of public provision would _in itself_ result in those conditions being improved. it is obvious that, as far as certain economic evils are concerned, this doctrine does not hold good. many children are underfed because their parents are suffering from sickness or accident incurred in the course of their employment. clearly an employer will not be induced to render his processes safe merely by the fact that his employees' children will suffer if they are unsafe. many children are underfed because their parents are casually employed or altogether unemployed. equally clearly there is no reason whatever to suppose that casual labour would cease because of their starvation; for if that were the case it would have ceased long ago. nor again does the more specious doctrine that the wages of men are lowered by the provision of food for their children rest upon a securer foundation. in the nature of things it can neither be verified nor disproved by an appeal to facts; for the controversy is not concerning facts but concerning their interpretation. if we point out that in bradford, when the education (provision of meals) act was first adopted in , the majority of children fed were children of woolcombers, dyers' labourers, carters and builders' labourers, and that since the first three classes of workers have all received advances of wages, it may, of course, be answered that the advance would have been still greater if the children had not been fed.[ ] in reality, however, the more this theory that the feeding of school children acts as a subsidy to wages is examined, the weaker does it appear. historically it is traceable to the popular rendering of ricardo introduced by senior into the poor law report of , and it still contains marks of its origin. it assumes, in the first place, that wages are never above "subsistence level." for, clearly, if they are above it, there is no reason why they should be lowered if the cost of keeping a family is somewhat reduced. it assumes, in the second place, that they are never below the subsistence level of a family; for clearly, if they are, that in itself proves that the absence of public provision has not been able to maintain them. it assumes, in the third place, that the ability of workers to resist a reduction or to insist on an advance depends not upon the profitableness of the industry, nor upon the strength of their organisation, but solely upon their necessities. of these assumptions the first two are untrue, and the last is not only untrue, but the exact opposite of the truth. in reality, as every trade unionist knows, the necessities of the non-wage earning members of a family do not keep wages up; they keep them down. a man who knows that a stoppage of work will plunge his family in starvation has little resisting power, and acquiesces in oppression to which he would otherwise refuse to submit. it is the strikers' wives and children who really break many strikes, and if the pressure of immediate necessity is removed the worker is not less likely, he is more likely, to hold out for better terms. footnote : we may note that there are very few cases where the fathers of the children who are receiving school meals are, at the time, in regular work. (see table on page .) many authorities refuse to consider such cases, while, where they are not necessarily barred, they amount as a rule, so far as we have found, except at bradford, to a very small proportion of the total number of cases dealt with. in london a few committees have several such cases on their feeding-lists--a member of one committee, indeed, informed us that the fact that a man had a large family and low wages was, till recently, taken as a reason for granting meals to his children--but the great majority of committees either refuse to feed such children at all, or only do so in infrequent and exceptional circumstances. one or two instances were quoted to us where, as it was alleged, the provision of meals for the children had induced the father to acquiesce in the acceptance of a low wage without demanding an increase or seeking more remunerative employment. thus we were told of a man who was formerly in charge of two furnaces at a wage of s. a week; one furnace was shut down, and he was offered the charge of the remaining one at s. this he accepted and the care committee had been feeding his children for a whole year. in another case, a man who was out of work, and was having all his children fed at school, took a job at s. a week, a wage which, it was asserted, he would not otherwise have agreed to. but in such instances, infrequent and isolated as they are in any case, it is often found on analysis that the father, through some physical or mental infirmity, is incapable of performing a man's work, and unable, therefore, to earn more wages. nor is there much more substance in the theory that the provision of meals by a public authority weakens family life by "undermining parental responsibility." we are not, of course, concerned to deny that in the working classes as well as in the propertied classes there are a certain number of persons who are anxious "to get something for nothing." cases, no doubt, do arise in which a parent who knows that the needs of his children will partially be met by the food supplied by an education authority may for that reason contemplate their fate when abandoned by him with less apprehension. at most, however, such cases constitute only per cent. of those on the table, and the wisdom of withholding assistance from the remaining per cent. merely in order to bring pressure upon this small fraction of all the families concerned is, to put the matter at the lowest, highly questionable. moreover, even assuming that children who are neglected by their parents should be made to suffer in order to teach the latter a moral lesson, what probability is there that the lesson will be appreciated? in those families where a father is contemplating the desertion of his home, family relationships must obviously be weak and unstable. is it seriously suggested that the mere fact that a public body is known to provide meals for children in attendance at school is sufficient to tilt the scale; that a man who is willing, _ex hypothesi_, to contemplate relinquishing his wife and younger children to the poor law will be deterred from leaving them merely by anxiety as to how the children of school age will obtain their midday meal; and that, when his apprehensions upon this point are removed, he will hasten to avail himself of his freedom in order to abandon them to much more serious evils than the loss of one meal per day? such a suggestion carries its refutation on its face. when family life has been so disintegrated that a man is contemplating the desertion of his wife and children, he is not likely either to be encouraged to do so by the mere fact that meals for school children are provided by a public body, or deterred from doing so by the fact that they are not. and a similar answer may be made to those who argue that "the result of feeding children at school is merely to encourage their parents to spend more upon drink." no one, of course, would deny that, if a man has already formed the habit of indulging his tastes without regard to the consequences, an increase in his means will enable him to spend more upon such indulgence. but that is a very different thing from accepting the implication that every accession in the income of a class merely leads it to fresh extravagance. the evidence, indeed, points in the opposite direction. during the last forty years there has been a great extension of public provision and a rise in money wages. yet it is a matter of common knowledge that the consumption of alcoholic liquor per head of population has diminished and is still diminishing. in reality, however, the idea that any large number of parents misuse the public provision of meals appears to be quite without any solid foundation, and to be a hasty generalisation from exceptional cases, which, because they are exceptional, are recorded by charitable persons with pious horror, and are given an undeserved and misleading notoriety. almost all the actual evidence available points in the opposite direction. again and again has it been stated to us that parents withdraw their children from the school meals as soon as an improvement in their circumstances enables them to provide food at home.[ ] indeed, it is often said that they withdraw them before they can properly afford to do so, and before the canteen committee thinks it wise for the school meals to be stopped, while many refrain from applying for meals until they are driven to do so by actual necessity. the truth is that behind the talk on parental responsibility which finds favour in certain sections of society--especially those where it is customary for parents to pay for their children to be fed at school during to weeks of the year--there is a considerable amount not only of ignorance but of hypocrisy. these critics are apt entirely to overlook the fact that during the last hundred years parental responsibilities, so far from being diminished, have been multiplied by the state. middle-class parliaments have insisted that working-class parents should send their children to school, should dispense with the help of their earnings, should provide them with food, clothing and medical aid. more important, they forget that to insist on "responsibility" is meaningless unless the means of discharging it are available; for one cannot blame a man for failing to do what he wishes to do, but which he is prevented from doing by _force majeure_. now this is precisely the position of the majority of such parents as are aided by school meals. _they_ did not fix the wages of adult men at s. a week; _they_ did not ordain that employment at the ports of london and liverpool and glasgow, and in a score of other trades, should be a gamble. _they_ did not decree that those who direct industry should at intervals of five to seven years find it convenient to curtail production and turn their employees on to the streets. they are born into a world where this is the established social order, an order which, as individuals, they are impotent to alter. if some of them occasionally give up a struggle which must often seem hopeless, at whose door does the blood of these men and their children lie? if it is desired that every man should regularly provide the whole maintenance of his family, then industry must be organised in such a way as to make it possible. till that is done, to blame working people for acquiescing in circumstances which they did not create and which they detest is not only cruel but absurd. when every competent worker is secured regular employment and a living wage, it may be desirable that forms of public provision which exist at present should cease--though, even so, it is possible that the educational value of school meals will lead to their being continued. till that happy condition is brought about they must be not only continued, but extended and improved. footnote : at bradford a few years ago an enquiry was made with the object of discovering how far parents were obtaining the meals under false pretences. two criteria were taken, firstly, whether the parents' statements as to the income earned were corroborated by their employers; secondly, how far the parents voluntarily withdrew their children from the school meals when their circumstances improved. as a result of this enquiry it appeared that not more than - / per cent. were unduly taking advantage of the meals. in many cases, where the parents' statements as to income did not tally with the employers' statements, it was found that the parents, in giving their average earnings, had overstated instead of understating them. chapter vii conclusions the provision of meals for school children is, as we have pointed out, merely an attempt to mitigate some of the evil effects of industrial disorganisation. the principal end at which society should aim is the removal of the causes, low wages, casual employment, recurrent periods of unemployment, and bad housing, which make them necessary. but meanwhile, as long as economic conditions remain as they are, some provision must be made for the present generation of school children. and the provision of school meals is not merely a question of relief, it is also a preventive measure. "every step ... in the direction of making and keeping the children healthy is a step towards diminishing the prevalence and lightening the burden of disease for the adult, and a relatively small rise in the standard of child health may represent a proportionately large gain in the physical health, capacity, and energy of the people as a whole."[ ] footnote : report of chief medical officer of the board of education for , p. . granted, therefore, that the school meal is, for the present at any rate, a necessity, the question remains, for what children shall this meal be provided. we have described the methods of selection at present in force. we have seen that, though a few children are given school meals because they are found by the school doctor to be ill-nourished, the great majority are selected by the teachers on the ground of poverty, a method which involves an enquiry into the parents' circumstances. we have shown some of the disadvantages inherent in this method of selection. the enquiries deter parents from applying. it is impossible for the teachers to discover all cases of underfed children. if the child is told by its parents to say that it has plenty to eat at home, how is the teacher to know that it is underfed? it is difficult, and in many cases quite impossible, to ascertain the amount of income coming in. even if this could always be accurately ascertained, it would be difficult to discriminate with justice since other circumstances vary so widely. the enquiry is demoralising for the parents, putting a premium on deception and creating a sense of injustice. so unsatisfactory, indeed, has this system of investigation into income proved to be that there is a general consensus of opinion among adherents of the most opposing schools of thought that it must be given up. "as a guardian of the poor and a member of the charity organisation society, and in many other ways," says the late canon barnett, "i have come to see that no enquiry is adequate. i would not trust myself to enquire into any one's condition and be just. enquiry is never satisfactory and is always irritating.... _i believe it is enquiry and investigation and suspicion which undermine parental responsibility._"[ ] even so firm a supporter of charity organisation society principles as the rev. henry iselin would, we gather, prefer to the present inadequate system of investigation the provision of a meal for all children who like to come, without enquiry, though he would, of course, make the conditions of the meal in some way deterrent.[ ] in discussing what is the best method to be adopted we must, therefore, rule out any plan which involves an enquiry into the family income. footnote : report of select committee on education (provision of meals) bills (england and scotland), , qs. , . (the italics are mine.) footnote : see post, p. . (i) we may consider first the proposal that the selection should be made by the school doctor, school meals being ordered for all children whom he finds to be suffering from mal-nutrition. this method, which is strongly recommended by the chief medical officer of the board of education, has been adopted in a few towns, but only to a very limited extent and always in subordination to the system of selection based on the "poverty test." the selection by the "physical test" would obviate all the disadvantages arising from the demoralising enquiry into the parents' circumstances. on the other hand, the practical difficulties would be very great. at present a child is normally examined by the doctor only two or three times during the whole of its school career. under the system proposed frequent examinations would be necessary, which would entail an enormous increase in the school medical staff. but, however frequent the examinations, the discovery of all underfed children would not be assured. it is not always possible for the doctor to determine the cause of malnutrition in any particular case; hence many children would be included who get plenty of food at home, but yet, from some other cause, do not thrive. more important, numbers of children would be excluded who fail to get sufficient food but who yet appear healthy. as a school medical officer points out, "temporary lack of food does not stamp the child in such a way that it is possible to detect past privations by ordinary inspection."[ ] the underfeeding might be prolonged for a considerable time before its effects were apparent. but it is essential that underfeeding should be discovered before the child shows definite signs of malnutrition, since the object to be aimed at is to prevent its ever getting into this state. the physical test, therefore, forms too narrow a basis to be satisfactorily employed, at any rate as the sole test, in the selection of children to be provided for. footnote : report of school medical officer for leicester for , p. . (ii) we will consider next the plan to which we have already alluded, the provision of meals, free and without enquiry, for all children who like to come, it being understood that the meals are intended only for "necessitous" children, _i.e._, those children who through poverty are unable to obtain an adequate supply of food at home. those who aim at making this provision in some way deterrent suggest a breakfast of porridge, the time of the meal and the nature of the food providing a test of need. "as the man inside the workhouse must not have better, but a decidedly worse, treatment than the man outside, so if the food be nourishing but not too palatable it may chance that only the truly necessitous may apply."[ ] children who can obtain food at home will prefer to do so. but it is found in practice that it is not only the children who can get sufficient food at home who are deterred by such a device, but that the "truly necessitous" also refuse to come. such a system, in fact, defeats its own ends. it is futile to provide meals for all underfed children and at the same time to make that provision so deterrent that those for whom it is intended decline to avail themselves of it. even if there is no intention of making the provision deterrent, the idea that the meals are meant only for necessitous children will, in fact, make it so; many parents will prefer to feed their children at home on a totally inadequate diet rather than disclose their poverty by sending them to the school meals. the "poverty test" in fact, in whatever form it may be applied, will exclude numbers of children whom it is desirable to provide for. footnote : "a new poor law for children," by rev. henry iselin, in _charity organisation review_, march, , p. . (iii) the two methods that we have described would each leave a large class of children without provision. the first would fail to discover numbers of children who are underfed, but who do not show obvious signs of malnutrition. the second would not touch those cases where the children cannot get sufficient food at home, but where the parents are too proud to accept school meals for them. a combination of the two methods would remove both these objections. the provision of meals, free and without enquiry, for all necessitous children, would secure the feeding of the majority of those who are underfed, while the school doctor would generally discover those cases where the parents try to conceal the fact that they cannot give their children sufficient food at home. for these children the doctor would, of course, order school meals. this method would not obviate the necessity of a great increase in the school medical service. moreover, by any of the methods discussed, provision would be made only for underfed children. there would remain the hosts who are unsuitably fed; the worst of these cases would, of course, be discovered by the doctor, but only the worst cases. and, again, no provision would be made for the children whose mothers are at work all day and consequently unable to provide a midday meal, and for whom the school dinner would be a great convenience, for which the parents would, in many cases, be willing to pay. (iv) there remains the only logical conclusion, the provision of a meal for all school children, as part of the school curriculum. such a provision need not necessarily be compulsory, though it should be so in all cases where the school doctor recommends it. from every point of view, the psychological, the medical and the educational, the advantages to be gained from such a course would be enormous. general provision for all would do away with all pauperising discrimination between the necessitous and the non-necessitous. on the medical side it would be difficult to over-estimate the benefits to be secured. on this point the chief medical officer of the board of education has recently pronounced in no measured terms. "from a purely scientific point of view," he declared, "if there was one thing he was allowed to do for the six million children, if he wanted to rear an imperial race, it would be to feed them.... the great, urgent, pressing need was nutrition. with that they could get better brains and a better race."[ ] the beneficial results already observed in the case of children who have received a regular course of school meals would be extended to all. then, again, the common meal would serve as an opportunity for the exercise of many little acts of consideration for one another. the teachers would be brought into more intimate relations with the children, for they get to know the children better at meal time than in any other way. the school meal would serve as an object lesson; taken in conjunction with the teaching of housewifery and cookery in the schools, it would speedily raise the standard in the homes. there would be another advantage. adequate rest after the meal could be insisted on, followed by healthy play in the open air in the playground instead of in stuffy rooms and backyards. in the rural districts, as we have already shown, it is imperative that dinner should be provided for all who want to stay. numbers of children are unable to return home, and it is almost impossible for the parents to provide suitable cold food for them to take with them; even when they can go home to dinner they frequently have a long walk, with the consequence that the meal must be eaten hastily and the children hurry back to school immediately afterwards. footnote : report of proceedings of university extension oxford summer meeting, , p. . if general provision is made, ought the parents to be required to pay or should the meal be free to all? the first plan has much to recommend it and has been advocated in many quarters. at the recent conference at the guildhall on school feeding, for instance, there appeared to be a general agreement in favour of this course. the experience of the special schools for defective children, and some of the rural schools, where a midday meal or hot cocoa is provided, shows that numbers of parents are able to pay, and there does not appear to be much difficulty in collecting the payment.[ ] and in the ordinary elementary schools, where little provision is made for paying cases, it would appear that there does exist a certain demand for such provision.[ ] on the other hand, it must be admitted that it is a question whether any large number of parents would voluntarily pay for their children's meals when it was known that provision was made for all and that other children were receiving the meal free. the payment would have to be left to the parent's conscience, for any attempt to try to decide in which cases payment should be insisted on and in which it should be remitted would introduce again the evils of the present system, with its demoralising enquiry into the parents' circumstances--though in a somewhat mitigated form, since no distinction would be made between the paying and the non-paying children, and the latter would not be marked off as a separate class as at present. another difficulty, though a minor one, would arise in the fixing of the price to be charged. in the more prosperous districts the dinner might be self-supporting, but in the poorest localities it would hardly be possible to charge an amount sufficient to cover the cost of the food. footnote : see ante, pp. , - , - . footnote : in the ordinary elementary schools in some of the scottish towns, large numbers of children pay for the dinners. (see appendix ii., pp. , , .) the provision of a free meal for all would obviate these difficulties. it will be objected at once that such a plan will undermine parental responsibility, but, as we have shown in the previous chapter, communal provision of other services has not had this result. and against this lightening of parental burdens must be set the continual increase of duties which are being placed upon them. a more serious objection lies in the expense. taking the cost of a school dinner at - / d. per head,[ ] the provision of one meal a day for five days a week during term time for all the six million school children in england, wales and scotland would cost about £ , , . this is, of course, an outside estimate, for it would probably be found that a considerable number of parents would prefer to have their children at home to dinner rather than send them to the school meal; and the provision might be confined to schools in poor districts. to the actual cost of supplying the meals there must be added the initial outlay incurred in providing dining-rooms and appliances.[ ] on the other hand, there would be a great saving of time and energy which is now consumed in making enquiries. and the provision of school meals would tend to diminish the amount which will otherwise have to be spent in the near future on medical treatment. food, as sir george newman has pointed out, is of more importance than drugs and surgical treatment, and if regular meals were provided there would be much less need for school clinics.[ ] the expenditure on the provision of school meals would, indeed, be nationally a most profitable investment; it would be amply justified by the improved physique of the rising generation and by the consequent increase in their efficiency. it would be far more productive, in fact, than much of the money which is now spent on education, than the outlay, for instance, on the erection of huge school buildings, an outlay the necessity of which is becoming more and more questionable in the light of the proved superiority of open-air education. footnote : the cost depends, of course, on the kind of food provided. at bradford, where a two-course dinner is given, the total cost per meal, for administrative charges (the upkeep of the cooking depot, the rent of the dining-rooms, the wages of the staff, payment for supervision, the carriage of the food, sinking fund, etc.), amounted in - to · d., and for food to · d., making a total of · d. about one-third of the meals supplied were breakfasts, which are usually rather cheaper than dinners, so that the cost per dinner would be slightly more. (bradford education committee, return as to the working of the education (provision of meals) act for the year ending march , ). at edinburgh, where a one-course dinner is given, the cost is · d. for food and d. for administrative charges. (report of the edinburgh school board for - , p. .) footnote : we must add one other item of expenditure, which will be necessary whatever course be adopted with regard to the provision of meals, namely, the appointment of salaried organisers for each group of schools, to supervise the work of medical treatment, after-care, and all other activities directed to the physical well-being of the child. footnote : report of proceedings of university extension oxford summer meeting, , p. . unfortunately the general provision of a school dinner will not be a complete solution of the problem. there will remain the children for whom one meal a day will not be sufficient, while the discontinuance of the meals during the holidays will cause them serious suffering. experience has amply shown the necessity of the meals being continued during the holidays and power must be given to the local education authorities to make this provision when it is required. they must also be allowed to provide an additional meal for those children for whom dinner alone is not sufficient. any proposal to limit the provision to one meal could not, indeed, be seriously entertained, for numbers of local authorities are already supplying this extra food and would resist any curtailment of their powers in this respect. but when we come to consider for what children this additional provision shall be made, we are face to face with all the old difficulties of selection. obviously it cannot be made for all. perhaps the best method would be to provide for all children who liked to come, whilst attendance should be obligatory on those for whom the school doctor ordered extra nourishment. such a prospect would be viewed with alarm by many, but the numbers to be provided for would probably not be excessive, if it was understood that this extra provision was intended only for necessitous or delicate children. it is found that the attendance drops off considerably during the holidays, and that it is always less for a breakfast than for a dinner; it requires more exertion to come in time for breakfast, while the fare provided is not so popular. probably the danger would be rather on the side of too few children being provided for than too many. no plan that can be proposed is free from disadvantages. and this brings us back to the point at which we started in this chapter. from the nature of the case, no attempt to deal with effects only, while causes remain untouched, can be wholly satisfactory. provision must be made for the present generation of school children; their necessities must be relieved and future inefficiency due to underfeeding in childhood must be prevented. but at the same time, and above all, a determined attack must be made on the evils which lie at the root of the children's malnutrition. industrial conditions must be so organised that it is possible for every man himself to provide for his children at least the requisite minimum of food, clothing and other necessaries. _summary of conclusions_ . that, so long as economic conditions remain as they are, the provision of school meals is a necessity. . that no method of selection of the children who are to receive the meals can be satisfactory, and that all attempts at picking and choosing should, therefore, be abandoned. the meal should be provided for all children who like to come, without any enquiry into their parents' circumstances. attendance should be compulsory if recommended by the school medical officer. . that the meal should be regarded as part of the school curriculum and should be educational. it should be served, as far as practicable, on the school premises, in rooms which are not used as class-rooms; the plan of sending the children to eating-houses or to large centres should be discontinued. some of the teachers should be present to supervise the children, who should be taught to set the tables and to wait on one another. the meal should be served as attractively as possible. . the dietary should be drawn up in consultation with the school medical officer, with a view to the physiological requirements of the children, special attention being paid to the infants. . the preparation of the food should not be entrusted to caterers, but should be undertaken by the local education authority. . the meals should be continued throughout the school year, and, if necessary, during the holidays. appendix i examples of menus ( ) bradford spring dietary, dinners to be repeated every four weeks st week: monday. brown vegetable soup. rice pudding. tuesday. cottage pie; green peas. stewed fruit. wednesday. potato and onion soup. plum cake (cocoanut cake alternate months). thursday. meat and potato hash; beans. rice pudding. friday. fish and potato pie; parsley sauce; peas. ground rice. nd week: monday. potato and onion soup. rice pudding. tuesday. shepherd's pie. stewed fruit. wednesday. yorkshire pudding; gravy; peas. sago pudding. thursday. scotch barley broth. currant pastry. friday. fish and potato pie; parsley sauce; peas. rice and sultanas. rd week: monday. brown vegetable soup. rice pudding. tuesday. meat and potato hash; beans. stewed fruit. wednesday. potato and onion soup. ginger pudding and sweet sauce. thursday. stewed beef and gravy; mashed potatoes. baked jam roll. friday. fish and potato pie; parsley sauce; peas. semolina pudding. th week: monday. potato and onion soup. wholemeal cake. tuesday. hashed beef and savoury balls. rice pudding. wednesday. yorkshire cheese pudding; peas and gravy. stewed fruit. thursday. shepherd's pie; green peas. sago pudding. friday. fish and potato pie; parsley sauce. rice and sultanas. ( ) leeds winter dietary repeated week after week. monday. pea soup; brown and white bread. parkin. tuesday. shepherd's pie; brown and white bread. buns or cake. wednesday (except during advent and lent)--irish stew; brown and white bread. parkin. wednesday (during advent and lent)--lentil and tomato soup (alternately with fish pie); brown and white bread. parkin. thursday. crust pie; brown or white bread. buns or cake. friday. lentil and tomato soup (alternately with fish pie); brown and white bread. parkin. (some other kind of cake or bun is now sometimes substituted for parkin.) summer dietary monday. rice pudding; stewed fruit. currant cake. tuesday. shepherd's pie; brown and white bread. seed cake. wednesday. crust pie; brown and white bread. currant cake. thursday. potted meat sandwiches. rice pudding. friday. lentil and tomato soup; white and brown bread. buns. ( ) west ham. winter dietary. monday. irish stew. brown bread and jam. tuesday. lentil soup. baked currant pudding. wednesday. roast mutton; potatoes; haricot beans; bread. thursday. mince. suet pudding; jam or stewed fruit. friday. soup. rice with jam or treacle. (during summer lighter food is substituted.) ( ) acton. monday. soup and bread. currant roll. tuesday. stewed meat; cabbage; potatoes. wednesday. soup and bread. plain suet pudding with syrup. thursday. irish stew and potatoes. plain pudding. friday. soup and bread. rice pudding. saturday. stewed meat and two vegetables. this menu is theoretically repeated week after week throughout the year, but in practice it is not always strictly adhered to. ( ) london. _dinners which may be supplied by the alexandra trust._ (_see minutes of the l.c.c., dec. , , ._) winter menu. . haricot bean soup; bread. treacle pudding. . fish and potato pie; bread. baked raisin pudding. . pea soup; bread baked in dripping. fig pudding. . stewed beef or mutton; dumplings; steamed potatoes; bread. . beef stewed with peas; dumplings; potatoes; bread. . mutton stewed with haricot beans; steamed potatoes; bread. suet pudding. . meat and potato pie; bread. . meat pudding. . toad-in-the-hole; potatoes; bread. . rice pudding; two slices of bread and butter. summer menu. . rice pudding; two slices of bread and butter. . toad-in-the-hole; potatoes; bread. . meat pies; potatoes; bread. . meat pudding; potatoes; bread. . cold meat pie; fruit roll. . meat sandwich; piece of cake. . (for infants) hot milk and bread; fruit roll. dinners for infants liquid part of winter dinner menus, nos. , , . rice, tapioca, macaroni or barley pudding, with two slices of sultana bread and butter. stew--very fine mince. baked custard, with bread and butter. savory custard, with bread and butter. ( ) grassington (yorkshire) sample menus[ ] footnote : there appears to be no fixed dietary, the dinners being varied each week. monday. haricot bean soup; bread. steamed suet pudding and treacle. tuesday. meat and potato pies with crusts on. rice pudding. wednesday. onion soup; bread. steamed ginger pudding; sweet sauce. thursday. meat and potato pie with crusts on. sago pudding. friday. yorkshire pudding; gravy; mashed potato. marmalade pudding; sweet sauce. monday. potato soup; bread. steamed ginger pudding; sweet sauce. tuesday. meat and potato pies with crusts on. cornflour pudding. wednesday. pea soup. plain plum puddings; sweet sauce. thursday. meat and potato pies with crusts on. rice pudding. friday. shepherd's pie (minced meat, mashed potato). sago pudding. appendix ii the provision of meals in scotland the provision of meals act of applied only to england and wales. as we have seen, the attempt of the house of commons to extend its operations to scotland was defeated in the house of lords, and it was not till that the scottish school boards were granted power to utilise the rates for the provision of food.[ ] by the education (scotland) act passed in that year it was enacted that a school board might, either by itself or in combination with other school boards, provide accommodation, apparatus and service for the preparation and supply of meals.[ ] where it appeared that a child was unable by lack of food or clothing to take full advantage of the education provided, the school board should, after due warning, summon the parent or guardian to appear and give an explanation of the child's condition. if the explanation was not forthcoming or was insufficient or unsatisfactory, and the condition of the child was due to neglect, the procurator fiscal should prosecute the parents under the prevention of cruelty act.[ ] if, however, it appeared that the parent or guardian, through poverty or ill-health, was unable to supply sufficient food or clothing, the school board, if satisfied that the necessities of the case would not be met by voluntary agency, should make "such provision for the child ... as they deem necessary" out of the school fund.[ ] temporary provision might be made by the school board pending completion of procedure against the parents, and the cost of such provision might be recovered.[ ] the powers conferred upon scottish school boards thus differed in several respects from those conferred on english local authorities by the act of . the school boards were granted power not only to provide food but also clothing, and no limitation was placed upon the amount which might be spent out of the rates on the provision of these necessaries. moreover, the act was not permissive. in england, when in any area school children are suffering from lack of food, and voluntary funds are not forthcoming to meet their needs, the local education authority _may_ provide food out of the rates; in scotland the school board _shall_ make such provision. footnote : see ante, p. . footnote : edward vii., c. , sec. ( ). footnote : _ibid._, sec. ( ). footnote : _ibid._, sec. ( ). footnote : _ibid._ no report has yet been published by the scottish education department as to the action taken either by the school boards or by voluntary agencies in the work of the provision of meals. as far as we can gather from the reports of the chief inspectors, though several boards co-operate with voluntary agencies and provide apparatus and service, in only some half-dozen towns, _e.g._, edinburgh, glasgow, govan, leith, perth, has the system of providing food out of the rates been adopted to any extent.[ ] the increase in expenditure on the provision of meals, etc., for necessitous children under the act of is shown by the following table:--[ ] footnote : during the coal strike in the spring of , some boards in the fife district took action under section and provided free meals. (report of the chief inspector for the southern division for , p. .) footnote : report of the committee of council on education in scotland, - , p. . providing food, clothing or total. accomodation other expenditure for meals, (for necessitous sec. ( ) children) sec. - (part of £ £ £ year only.) - , - , , , - , , , in edinburgh, the necessity for feeding underfed school children was recognized[ ] very soon after the passing of the education act of . the association for improving the condition of the poor early undertook to deal with cases reported by the attendance officers. in miss flora stevenson started a scheme for feeding and clothing destitute children, on condition that children so assisted must attend school.[ ] towards the close of the nineteenth century numerous other voluntary organisations appear to have been established.[ ] as in other towns the provision by these voluntary agencies proved inadequate and unsatisfactory. meals were supplied only for about ten weeks in the year. they were served in eating-houses, where the food was poor and the arrangements of the roughest description. the children were selected by the teachers and attendance officers, and there was no adequate investigation into the cases. in the autumn of the lord provost summoned a conference to discuss the question, and a scheme of co-operation between the school board and the two chief voluntary agencies, the flora stevenson committee and the courant fund, was drawn up, by which the voluntary funds were pooled, and cases were decided by a committee consisting of representatives of the three bodies concerned. in the following year the school board undertook the entire responsibility for the provision of meals, though it still relied on voluntary contributions. it decided to establish a cooking centre of its own instead of entrusting the supply of the meals to caterers. care committees of voluntary workers were to be appointed for each group of schools to investigate all cases of destitution, and to "keep in continuous and sympathetic touch" with the families. cases were to be recommended by the medical officer, school nurses, teachers and attendance officers, in addition to applications made by the parents; the care committee was also itself to take the initiative in searching out cases of destitution. to secure uniformity of treatment a central care committee, composed of representatives of the school board and the voluntary agencies, was appointed to give the final decision on all cases; this central committee was also to supervise the collection of the necessary funds, and to rouse general interest in the problem of school feeding.[ ] the courant fund declined to act with the board under this scheme, but the flora stevenson committee co-operated cordially. footnote : for the following account i am mainly indebted to the kindness of mrs. leslie mackenzie and mr. i. h. cunningham. footnote : report of select committee on education (provision of meals) bills (england and scotland), , q. ; report of royal commission on physical training (scotland) , vol. ii., q. . footnote : report of special sub-committee on meals for school children, in minutes of london school board, july , , vol. , p. . footnote : edinburgh school board, memorandum on the feeding of school children, , pp. - . the cooking centre was opened in january, , and by the end of the year the system of care committees was in working order. voluntary subscriptions rapidly decreased, however, and in may, , the board resolved that recourse must be had to the rates. the central care committee thereupon ceased to exist, its duties being transferred to the attendance committee. the local care committees, of which eight had been appointed, were continued for a time, but at the beginning of the duty of investigation was entrusted to the attendance officers,[ ] and the local committees also were given up. the system had not worked entirely without friction. the method of investigation was cumbersome and slow, and the local committees were not in sufficiently close touch with the central committee. the committees were too large; from one to nine schools were allocated to each, and the membership usually numbered about twenty-five. but it is to be regretted that the system has been entirely abandoned. apart from the work of investigation, which, as we have shown elsewhere, is not a task which can suitably be entrusted to voluntary workers, there are many matters connected with the welfare of the school child in which the volunteer's services can be of the greatest value. footnote : two special officers have been appointed to make enquiries. the meal given is always dinner, though in one of the poorest districts breakfasts have recently been started; for these a halfpenny is charged, except to those children who are on the free list. till lately two courses were supplied at dinner, but now usually only one is given. the meals are served ordinarily in the schools, but in one or two places in halls hired for the purpose. from reports that we have received the arrangements seem to compare very favourably with those obtaining in most english dining-centres. the teachers frequently take a great interest in the question and supervise the meals. some of the elder boys and girls help to serve the food and wait on the children. the infants are served at a separate table or, perhaps, in a separate room. attention is paid to cleanliness and tidiness, and the children's manners are very good. provision is made not only for necessitous[ ] children, but for those who can pay part or the whole of the cost. non-necessitous children may obtain a dinner on payment of d., while the "semi-necessitous" may pay d. it is noteworthy that the number of free dinners is decreasing, while the number of penny dinners is on the increase. of the , meals supplied during - , nearly per cent. were supplied to "semi-necessitous" children on payment of d.; about per cent. were given free, the remaining per cent. being supplied to children whose parents were receiving relief from the parish council, children in higher grade and special schools, and the elder girls who helped in serving the meals.[ ] the work of investigation has been greatly reduced by the introduction of the penny dinner, and it has been suggested that the provision of a halfpenny dinner would still further diminish the need for free dinners, and consequently the need for investigation. footnote : there is no fixed scale in determining which children are necessitous, but free meals are usually granted if the gross income of the household is less than s. a head. footnote : for the week ending december , , the number of children fed was:-- necessitous paying children , parish council children for many years before the school board undertook the responsibility for providing for its underfed children, the parish council was supplying meals to the children of mothers who were receiving parish relief. the report of the royal commission on physical training in had drawn attention to the question of underfeeding among children, and the parish council determined to provide meals for the children for whose relief it was responsible, in order to ensure that no complaint might be brought against it.[ ] hot dinners were provided every day except sunday.[ ] they were intended chiefly for children whose mothers were at work all day, but tickets were also given in cases where an increase of relief would not have benefited the children, or where the children had a consumptive tendency.[ ] the dinners were served in eating-houses where "the conditions as to the serving of the meals, and the manners of the children--entirely without supervision--" were "anything but civilising."[ ] when the school board took over the general arrangements for feeding, it seemed at first as if the parish council would still continue its own methods, but the superiority of the board's scheme was soon apparent, and the parish council made an arrangement with it by which children whose mothers were receiving relief would have meals at school, the council paying - / d. per meal to the school board.[ ] footnote : evidence before the royal commission on the poor laws, , vol. vi., qs. - . footnote : _ibid._, q. ( ). footnote : _ibid._, q. ( ). footnote : report of the royal commission on the poor laws, , vo edition, vol. iii., p. . footnote : "administrative problems arising out of child feeding," by j. a. young, in _proceedings of the national conference on the prevention of destitution_, , pp. - . in glasgow, as in edinburgh, the provision of meals was very early undertaken by voluntary societies. as far back as the glasgow poor children's dinner table society was founded,[ ] and in another philanthropic society established day refuges, which were intended chiefly for children of widows or widowers who were at work all day, and at which three meals were supplied daily.[ ] the poor children's dinner table society continued to be the chief agency for supplying meals till , when voluntary contributions proved inadequate and the school board took over the provision of the meals. a central cooking centre, with modern labour-saving appliances, was built, the food being distributed to the different centres by motor waggon. the meals are served either in the schools or in halls hired for the purpose. the supervision is usually undertaken by the attendants; at some centres assistance is given by members of the old dinner societies, but the numbers are falling off. only necessitous children are fed. each case is decided on its merits, but dinners are not usually granted if the family income exceeds s. per head.[ ] the children are selected by the school doctors, nurses, attendance officers or teachers, and enquiries are made by the attendance officers, immediate provision being made in urgent cases. boots and clothing, which up to were supplied by the poor children's clothing scheme, are now provided by the school board.[ ] in the special schools for the physically defective, dinner is provided for practically all the children, and the parents pay. the food is good in quality and served in an attractive manner, tablecloths of some kind and flowers being provided. the supervision is undertaken by the nurses and teachers. footnote : report of select committee on education (provision of meals) bills (england and scotland), , qs. - . footnote : evidence before the royal commission on the poor laws, , vol. vi., q. ( ); report of london school board on underfed children attending school, , p. . footnote : see dundee school board, report on the feeding of school children, , p. . footnote : report of glasgow school board for - , p. . perth was one of the earliest school boards to use its powers under the act of and to provide food and clothing out of the rates, the system being begun in . a care committee was appointed in to assist the school board in looking after the welfare of the children and to take part in the distribution of the meals; the members visit the homes, but apparently have no voice in the selection of the children.[ ] the dinners are mostly served in a church hall and are supervised by the care committee and members of the school board. most of the dinners are supplied free, only a small proportion being paid for.[ ] in the matter of boots, if a child is found improperly shod, a notice is sent by the board to the parents. if they do not provide boots themselves, the board supplies them and calls upon the parents to pay[ ]; about two-thirds of the money thus spent is recovered from the parents.[ ] footnote : report of chief inspector for southern division for , pp. - . footnote : perth school board, officers' report on the supplying of meals and boots to school children, - , pp. - . footnote : report of chief inspector for southern division for , p. . footnote : perth school board, officers' report, - , p. . in most towns, as we have said, the cost of the food is still borne out of voluntary funds, whether the school board itself undertakes the provision of meals, or whether this is done by a voluntary society. in dundee provision has been made by "the free and assisted dinner fund" since the winter of - .[ ] the meals are given usually in the schools, but sometimes in coffee houses. the prevailing menu appears to be soup. in view of the large number of married women who are industrially employed at dundee, the school meal is a great convenience. a large proportion of the children, something like two-thirds in fact, make some payment towards the meal.[ ] but the price charged is very low; a single bowl of soup costs a halfpenny, while the payment of a penny a week secures a bowl daily.[ ] at paisley also a large proportion of the children pay. soup and bread, or, if the children prefer, cocoa and bread, etc., is provided for the sum of one halfpenny, the poorest children receiving it free. the balance of expenditure on food is met from voluntary funds; the school board pays all expenses of administration.[ ] in aberdeen the work of providing meals, which had formerly been undertaken by the aberdeen educational trust, was transferred in to the school board, together with the income which the trust had devoted to this purpose.[ ] at greenock the school board have raised a voluntary fund for the provision of books, boots or food for necessitous children, but it has not been found necessary to supply any meals within the last two years. in inverness provision is made by a voluntary organisation, the children being sent to local eating-houses. footnote : dundee school board, report on the feeding of school children, , p. . footnote : _ibid._, p. . footnote : _ibid._, pp. - . footnote : in the special schools for defective children at paisley a two-course dinner is provided at a charge of d. a week. footnote : report of chief inspector for the northern division for , p. . turning now to the rural districts, we may mention an early experiment somewhat similar to that at rousdon, to which we have already referred. in the minister of the small country parish of farnell came to the conclusion that the attendance at school would be more regular, and the children would derive more profit from the education given if a hot midday meal were provided. accordingly a soup kitchen was instituted at the school, the plant being provided by voluntary contributions. a charge was made of a halfpenny per meal or d. per family, where there were more than two children. practically all the children availed themselves of the provision. the effects were soon visible, not only in improved attendance--the grant earned rose from £ in to £ in --but in greater immunity from epidemics and illness than in neighbouring schools, and in the greater buoyancy of spirits of the children.[ ] footnote : "can a sufficient mid-day meal be given to poor school children ... for ... less than one penny?" by sir henry peek, , p. . in this matter of providing a midday meal for the children attending rural schools, scotland would appear to be, on the whole, in advance of england, though the extent of the provision made varies considerably in different districts. thus, in the border counties, very few schools make any arrangements,[ ] while in fifeshire, where the inspector "has consistently pressed upon managers" the necessity for providing dinners, the attitude of most of the rural boards is one of "stolid apathy."[ ] in aberdeenshire, on the other hand, a cup of cocoa or a plate of soup is provided in most of the country schools,[ ] and in the county of inverness almost all the schools provide some sort of hot liquid.[ ] in kincardineshire it was reported in that the soup kitchen was a "universal institution."[ ] the meals may be paid for by the children, these payments being supplemented by voluntary contributions in money or in kind. footnote : report of chief inspector for the southern division for , p. . footnote : _ibid._, pp. - . footnote : first report on medical inspection of school children in scotland, by dr. leslie mackenzie, , p. . footnote : "the diet of country elementary school children," by dr. gordon a. lang, in _rearing an imperial race_, edited by c. e. hecht, , p. . footnote : report of chief inspector for northern division for . but even where it is the rule to find cocoa or soup supplied, it is inadequate for the wants of many of the children, who require a more substantial and nourishing midday meal. moreover, the provision appears as a rule to be confined to the winter months, a limitation patently absurd, since the _raison d'être_ of the meals is not so much the poverty of the parents, a condition which may fluctuate according to the seasons, but the fact that the distances are, in many cases, too great to allow the children time to return home at midday--which condition is, of course, constant the whole year round. appendix iii the provision of meals abroad we have not been able to make any original enquiry into the systems of school feeding existing in other countries. the following history of the "cantines scolaires" in paris and brief notes as to the provision made in other foreign towns may, however, be useful for purposes of reference, and as showing how widespread has been the movement for the feeding of school children. the information as to foreign towns other than paris is derived mainly from _prize essays on feeding school children_, ; _report of london school board on underfed children attending school_, , appendix ix., pp. - ; _feeding of school children in continental and american cities_ (cd. ), ; _the free feeding of school children_, a reprint of the reports by the special sanitary commissioner of the _lancet_, nd edition, ; while fuller and more recent information is to be found in _school feeding, its practice at home and abroad_, by louise s. bryant, . (a) france (i) the cantines scolaires in paris paris has long offered to other cities an inspiring example of an efficient and uniform system for feeding poor school children. she was the first to make systematic provision on a large scale. she had a basis of organisation ready to her hand in the _caisses des ecoles_. these bodies correspond in some degree to the english care committees, though with a far wider sphere of action. the original object of these school funds was to encourage school attendance by rewards to industrious pupils and help to the needy. the first _caisse_ was established in by the national guard in the second _arrondissement_, and gradually the system spread. in a law was passed encouraging the formation of _caisses_ in every _commune_, and directing that their revenues were to consist of voluntary subscriptions and subventions by the commune, department or state.[ ] this law was merely permissive, but in , by the compulsory education law, the establishment of these organisations was made obligatory.[ ] a _caisse_ was accordingly set up in each of the twenty _arrondissements_ of paris. attendance at school being now compulsory, and it being therefore no longer so necessary to provide incentives to attendance, the _caisses_, though they still continued to grant prizes, turned their attention more and more to the physical needs of the children, boots, clothing, food, country holidays and, later, crèches, savings banks, skilled apprenticeship and medical treatment. the _caisse_ was a voluntary body, but was officially recognised by the municipality. the general committee was composed of the mayor, the members of the municipal council, and the school inspector for the district, together with from twenty to twenty-four persons elected by the subscribers.[ ] footnote : "the free feeding of school children," a reprint of the reports by the special sanitary commissioner of the _lancet_, nd edition, , p. . footnote : _ibid._, p. . footnote : _ibid._, p. . as in other towns, the early attempts at feeding poor school children were due to private initiative; meals were provided by the _caisses des ecoles_ or other voluntary associations or by philanthropic individuals. these attempts were unco-ordinated and inadequate to deal with the evil of underfeeding. in the municipal council made an enquiry into the whole question. as a result a scheme was drawn up to place the work on a more satisfactory and uniform basis under public control. the provision of meals was entrusted in each _arrondissement_ to the _caisses des ecoles_, and a grant of , francs was voted by the municipal council to aid them in this work.[ ] footnote : "the cantines scolaires of paris," by sir charles a. elliott, in the _nineteenth century_, may, , pp. - . it is interesting to note that it was seriously considered whether the meals should not be supplied free for all children attending the schools. the council, however, came to the conclusion that, "in freeing the parents of all responsibility with regard to their children, and in accustoming them to evade their duties, they would be running the risk of weakening the family spirit, to the great detriment of the morality both of the children and of the parents."[ ] it was, therefore, decided that free provision should be limited to necessitous children. at the same time it would be difficult to exclude children who were willing to pay for their meals, hence provision should be made for these too. footnote : "organisation des cantines scolaires à paris," a manifold manuscript report issued by the direction de l'enseignement primaire, me bureau, . the voluntary subscriptions which had supported the work before continued in theory to be the chief resource of the new _cantines scolaires_. these voluntary subscriptions rapidly decreased, being either withdrawn altogether or diverted to the other objects of the _caisses_. at the same time both the number of meals provided and the proportion of free meals increased no less markedly. in , the first year in which meals were provided under the new system, only per cent. of the meals were supplied free (the remainder being paid for by the parents); in this proportion had nearly doubled, being per cent. the municipal subsidy rose correspondingly, and in amounted to , , francs. the council took fright and appointed a commission to consider the question, with the result that the grant was restricted to , , francs.[ ] this limit has been fairly strictly adhered to, for the grant amounts now to only , , francs, though the proportion of free meals has continued slowly to increase.[ ] footnote : "the cantines scolaires of paris," by sir charles elliott, in the _nineteenth century_, may, , pp. - . footnote : according to the latest figures per cent. of the children for whom meals are provided receive them free. each _caisse_ is allowed a free hand in the actual details of administration, hence the arrangements vary in the different _arrondissements_. the want of uniformity has obvious disadvantages, and a proposal was recently made that the system should be centralised, but this would have necessitated the appointment of a large and expensive staff, and it was felt desirable to leave the initiative and responsibility to voluntary workers.[ ] everywhere the meal is served on the school premises, a kitchen being established for each school or group of schools. the meal is cooked by the _cantinières_, and is sometimes provided by them at a fixed price per head; more often the _caisse_ prefers to purchase the materials itself, a more economical method, and one which ensures a better quality of food.[ ] the dinner may consist of one, two or three courses. the food is plentiful and good, well-cooked and well-served, and the menu sufficiently varied. the meals are made as attractive as possible to encourage the better-class parents to make use of them. the price charged varies from d. to d.; in almost all the _arrondissements_ the charge appears to be below the cost price. no difference is made between the children who pay and those who are on the free list. the teachers do not assist in serving the food, as in england, but are always present to supervise the children, and, in some schools at any rate, they eat their dinner with them. at first the supervision was undertaken voluntarily, but since the teachers have received an extra remuneration of · francs a day for this duty.[ ] this sharing in a common meal by all classes alike, together with the presence of the teacher, has had a marked influence on the children's manners. besides the mid-day meal, which is given by all the _caisses_, breakfasts of soup are sometimes supplied to the children who are receiving free dinners, while in some _arrondissements_, _e.g._, the eighteenth, a small meal is also given at four o'clock to these children if they remain at school for the "classe de garde."[ ] a further extension has recently been made in the seventeenth _arrondissement_, where it was decided in to try the experiment of a "classe de garde" till eight o'clock in the evening, with a supper, for children of widows or widowers who were at work till late, or for other especially poor children, or children with bad homes, the object being both to secure them adequate nourishment and to remove them from the temptations of the streets. for this purpose the municipal council voted a sum of , francs.[ ] weakly children have codliver oil given to them in winter and syrup of iodide of iron or phosphate of lime in the summer. footnote : "organisation des cantines scolaires à paris," report by direction de l'enseignement primaire, me bureau, . footnote : _ibid._ footnote : _ibid._ footnote : "caisse des écoles du e arrondissement," exercice de l'année , p. . footnote : proposition tendant à l'ouverture d'un crédit de , francs en vue de permettre à la caisse des ecoles du xviie arrondissement d'organiser, à titre d'essai, une classe de garde prolongée jusqu'à huit heures et une cantine du soir, déposée par m. frédéric brunet, conseiller municipal, septembre , . the methods of enquiry vary in the different _arrondissements_. usually the enquiries are made by a paid investigator, but the numbers of children on the free list are so large that the investigation is as a rule very superficial. the necessity of keeping secret the fact that a child is receiving the meals free also militates against any effective enquiry into the parents' circumstances. the meals are granted for a school year, hence it frequently happens that a child continues to receive them long after the need has passed away.[ ] the enquiries are, as might be expected, the least satisfactory part of the paris system. in granting the meals the _caisses_ usually take a generous view; it is held, for instance, that a man earning up to s. a week cannot adequately feed and clothe more than three children, and if his family is larger than this the _caisses_ are prepared to assist him; while widows' children are invariably fed if application is made.[ ] footnote : "organisation des cantines scolaires à paris," report issued by direction de l'enseignement primaire, me bureau, ; "necessitous children in paris and london," by george rainey, in _school hygiene_, november, , vol. iii., p. . footnote : _ibid._, p. . an interesting feature of the paris system is the provision of clothes. the municipality insists that the children shall come to school properly clothed; it is ready to provide the requisite garments, but it insists that they shall be kept clean and tidy. frequent inspections are made for this purpose. the result is a notable raising of the level of cleanliness and tidiness in the schools, both the parents and the children themselves learning to take a pride in their appearance.[ ] so far, indeed, from the work of the _caisses_ having undermined parental responsibility, it would appear that the reverse is the case, the parents responding to the higher standard demanded of them. footnote : _ibid._, pp. , . what strikes one in comparing the paris system with that obtaining in english towns is the thoroughness with which the problem is tackled in paris and the widespread interest taken by the citizens generally in the work of the _caisses_. no half measures content them. from the first the work has been educational, the primary object of the _caisses_ being to encourage school attendance rather than to relieve distress. the educational progress of the children, the improvement in their physique, the raising of the standard of manners and cleanliness, all show that the results have amply justified the expenditure.[ ] footnote : for the above description, see, besides the references already quoted, report of london school board on underfed children attending school, , appendix ix., pp. - ; "the cantines scolaires of paris," by marcel kleine, in _report of proceedings of the international congress for the welfare and protection of children_, , pp. - ; "feeding school children: the experience of france," in the _manchester guardian_, february , ; "children's care committees in paris," in the _morning post_, march , ; "school canteens in paris," by miss m. m. boldero, in the _school child_, july, ; _school feeding, its history and practice at home and abroad_, by louise stevens bryant, , pp. - ; conseil municipal de paris, procès verbal, june , , december , , march , . (ii) provision in other french towns. paris was not the first municipality in france to interest itself in the provision of school meals. the pioneer town in this respect seems to have been angers, where as early as the société de fourneau des ecoles laïques was founded with the support of the municipality, to provide hot dinners, either free or at a cost of centimes, during the winter.[ ] towards the close of the nineteenth century many municipalities were providing meals, either directly or indirectly through voluntary organisations. footnote : _school feeding_, by louise s. bryant, , pp. - . thus at havre, in , the municipality was making a grant of £ to a voluntary society; meals were provided for centimes, or were given free in cases of poverty; about five-eighths of the children who attended paid for the meals.[ ] footnote : london school board, report on underfed children attending school, , p. . at marseilles cantines scolaires were organised by the municipality in . prior to this date meals had been provided in some three or four schools, but only in a haphazard manner by voluntary agencies. by the bye-law of a committee of twenty-two was to be appointed by the mayor, and presided over by him or his representative; this committee was to investigate the demands made for free meals. in about per cent. of the children in the communal schools were dining at school, about half this number paying for the meal; in the infant schools the proportion fed was much greater, viz., per cent., while only about one-sixth of the parents paid. as in paris, no distinction was made between the paying and the non-paying children. dinner tickets could be bought at all the police stations; if the parents wished to receive the meals free, they had to make application personally or by letter to the education department; if on investigation they proved to be unable to pay, the municipality provided them with tickets.[ ] footnote : _lancet_ reports, , pp. - . at nice also cantines scolaires were established by the municipality about . here the object was not so much to feed starving children as to provide a suitable meal for children who came such distances that they were unable to return home at mid-day. the municipality built kitchens, provided all the necessary apparatus, and paid the salaries of the cooks. a penny was charged for a dinner of soup, the meal being given free to those who could not afford to pay. any deficit was supplied by voluntary subscriptions. in the infant schools, on the other hand, the municipality assumed the entire responsibility, and a hot meal was provided for all the children without payment.[ ] footnote : _ibid._, pp. - . by cantines scolaires of one kind or another had been very generally established. it appeared that at this date something like three-fifths were supported entirely by public funds, the remainder being so supported indirectly and partially. in many towns where regular cantines had not been instituted, the teachers or janitors served warm soup to the children at a nominal sum. in country districts or smaller towns, the children would bring the raw material for soup and the teacher would prepare it; the children would also bring their own bread, and sometimes wine and cake. whether any organised provision was made or not, the great majority of the schools everywhere had a stove on which the children could warm any food they brought with them.[ ] footnote : _school feeding_ by louise s. bryant, , pp. , - . (b) switzerland switzerland was one of the first countries in which provision for necessitous school children became the subject of national legislation. the question early attracted attention. the long distances which many of the children had to walk to school rendered the provision of a mid-day meal of the greatest importance, while clothing and especially boots were little less necessary. after the system of providing food and clothing was greatly extended. the provision was everywhere made by voluntary societies, but assistance was given from the cantonal and communal funds. the cantonal contribution was derived chiefly from the alcohol monopoly profits and was devoted to this provision for the children's wants on the theory that their misery was in most cases the direct result of parental insobriety![ ] this method of administration by voluntary societies, subsidised but not controlled by the municipal authorities, proved most extravagant, and led to much abuse, while it aroused sectarian jealousies. the municipalities began, consequently, to take over the direct management of the school meals.[ ] in the federal government issued an order making it _obligatory_ for cantons to supply food and clothing to necessitous children in the public elementary schools. three years later it authorised the use of state funds for this purpose, on the understanding that in no case should the cantonal or city support be lessened because of this federal support.[ ] footnote : report of london school board on underfed children attending school, , pp. - . footnote : _the bitter cry of the children_, by john spargo, , p. . footnote : _school feeding_, by louise s. bryant, , p. . (c) italy as in other countries, the early attempts at school feeding in italy were made by voluntary agencies. in many towns, towards the close of the nineteenth century, committees of assistance and benevolent funds were instituted to assist poor pupils in the elementary schools, chiefly in the matter of books and clothing, but in several communes of lombardy and romagna meals were also given. a small grant, which in was raised to , francs (£ , ), was made by the department of public instruction to the school authorities in the large cities, and especially rome, who provided a mid-day meal for their children.[ ] footnote : report of london school board on underfed children attending school, , p. . the first town in which the municipality undertook the provision of meals was san remo, in . this policy was inaugurated by the socialist council. it was temporarily abandoned in , when a conservative council was appointed who preferred the subsidising of voluntary agencies to direct municipal action, but was re-introduced on the return of the socialists to power some four years later.[ ] footnote : _lancet_ reports, , pp. , . in milan an agitation for the provision of meals was set on foot in the last decade of the nineteenth century. the municipal authority declined to undertake the work themselves, but advocated the formation of charitable committees to raise subscriptions for the purpose, offering to supplement these voluntary funds with a municipal subvention. this grant amounted in to about £ .[ ] it was soon found that this system did not work satisfactorily, and the municipality was obliged, though somewhat reluctantly, to assume the responsibility.[ ] footnote : minutes of london school board, may , , vol. , p. . footnote : _lancet_ reports, , p. . but it is in the small rural town of vercelli that we find the most remarkable experiment.[ ] here for some years a charitable committee had been providing meals for children who lived too far from school to go home at mid-day, and the municipality had granted a small subsidy, but it was felt that this provision was entirely inadequate. in it was decided to provide a meal for all the children attending the elementary schools. the object was not the relief of distress but education in its fullest sense, as distinct from mere instruction. it was argued that the mid-day recess furnished an opportunity for moral education which could not be imparted in the class-room. the teachers would be brought into more intimate relation with the children, while the joining of richer and poorer alike in the common meal and in recreation afterwards would instil sentiments of brotherhood. the meal was to be free to all and attendance compulsory, for rich and poor were to be treated exactly alike. with the same object of preventing class distinctions, clothes were supplied for the poorer children, the municipality providing the material which was worked into garments by the sewing classes. the teachers were to have the same food, though they were allowed a double quantity, and were to eat it with the children. for this extra duty of supervising both the meals and recreation they only received an additional £ a year. since the moral rather than the physical welfare of the child was the primary consideration, too little attention was paid to the actual food that was given. the parents, it was argued, could in the great majority of cases amply feed their children at home, hence all that was needed was to supply sufficient food to compensate for the waste of energy during the two and a half hours of morning school. a cold meal of bread and sausage or cheese was given. this did not satisfy the more prosperous children, who would have preferred to pay for a hot meal, and some per cent. of the children, chiefly the richer ones, obtained a medical certificate exempting them from attendance. nor was the meal sufficient for the poorest children who were suffering from lack of food. to provide a really adequate meal free for all would have been too expensive an undertaking. accordingly, after some six years, the general free provision was abandoned. instead, hot soup was provided, which was given free to the poorest children, any others who wished being allowed to receive it on payment of · lire a month.[ ] footnote : [footnote : for the following account, see _lancet_ reports, pp. - . it is interesting to note that this scheme for making universal provision was introduced by the conservative party.] footnote : _school feeding_, by louise s. bryant, , p. ; il patronato scolastico umberto ° in vercelli e la sua opera al dicembre, , pp. , . the "school restaurant" seems to have been established in italy to a greater extent than in any other country. a very large proportion of the children attend, and a great number of these pay for the meals. in - it was found that in forty-three cities the average attendance amounted to per cent. of the total school population; while in several towns the attendance rose to over per cent.[ ] footnote : [footnote : _ibid._, p. .] (d) germany in germany little attention appears to have been paid to the question of feeding school children, apart from their parents, till the closing years of the nineteenth century.[ ] in some of the large towns, at any rate, the arrangements that were made were quite inadequate. in berlin, for instance, there was in no society whose chief object was the provision of school meals. a society which provided food for the poor generally had a branch which devoted special attention to the needs of school children, and gave a small sum, generally only s. or s. a year, to the committee of each parish school, to be used at the headmaster's discretion. generally milk and bread were given in the headmaster's house.[ ] about the subject began to attract more attention, especially in connection with the vacation colonies for school children; it was found that the children who were sent to these colonies, on returning to their homes, lost the benefit they had gained, owing to lack of food. on an attempt being made to continue the work of the colonies by feeding some of the children, it was found that thousands of others were also underfed.[ ] in a bill was introduced in the reichstag by the social democrats to make provision for school meals in the cities. the bill was defeated on the ground that it would increase the migration to the cities from the rural districts.[ ] some ten years later the agitation for national legislation was renewed, as a result of the discovery that from to per cent. of the conscripts for the imperial army were rejected on account of physical unfitness.[ ] footnote : "prize essays on feeding school children," , pp. , - . footnote : _ibid._, p. . footnote : _school feeding_, by louise s. bryant, , pp. - , . footnote : _ibid._, pp. , . footnote : _ibid._, pp. , . in it was found that out of cities from which information was obtained, in meals were being provided by voluntary societies, without any subsidy from, or control by, the municipal authorities, though these latter usually co-operated in the supervision and service, and often supplied rooms, gas and cooking free; in cities, meals were provided by voluntary organisations, but the city governments subsidised, and usually exercised some control over, their work; while in cities the provision of meals was undertaken entirely by the municipality.[ ] footnote : _ibid._, pp. - . (e) austria in austria school meals are provided in most of the large towns. in vienna the central association for feeding necessitous school children was founded in , with the help and approval of the municipality, the mayor acting as president and the municipal council being represented on its administrative council. meals were given from november to april, occasionally at the schools, but more often in restaurants. all the meals were supplied free. the children were selected by the school managers and the headmaster, and enquiry was made by local committees with the help of voluntary workers. the teachers supervised the meals.[ ] in - , the municipal council made a grant to this society towards the provision of food;[ ] by this municipal subsidy amounted to , frs. (£ , ), while , frs. were granted for the supply of clothing.[ ] in the food subsidy had risen to £ , .[ ] the provision made was, however, inadequate. meals were only given during the winter, and were not obtained by all the children who needed them. it was felt that the city ought to assume direct control. in kitchens and dining-rooms were built in four new public schools.[ ] footnote : "prize essays on feeding school children," , pp. - , - , - . footnote : _ibid._, pp. , . footnote : london school board, report on underfed children attending school, , pp. , - . footnote : _feeding of school children in continental and american cities_, , p. . footnote : _school feeding_, by louise s. bryant, , p. . (f) belgium in most of the belgian towns in the last decade of the nineteenth century voluntary organisations were to be found whose object was to provide food and clothing for poor school children. this provision was made to enable them to attend school instead of begging in the streets, since education was not compulsory.[ ] in brussels the chief society was "le progrès" club, which in commenced the provision of soup dinners in the schools. the town council assisted by providing tables and undertaking the carriage of the food to the different centres, and in by granting a subsidy of , frs. an application was very soon made for an increase of this subsidy, whereupon the municipality undertook a detailed enquiry into the whole question of the food, clothing, lodging, cleanliness and health of the children in the communal schools. it was found as a result that · per cent. were badly shod, · per cent. badly clothed, and · per cent. insufficiently fed.[ ] the work of medical inspection and treatment was very early undertaken by the local authority. at the date of this report ( ), a doctor and dentist were attached to each school; frequent inspections were made by the doctor, and preventive medicine, _e.g._, codliver oil, was provided from public funds.[ ] the provision of meals continued to be undertaken by voluntary organisations, aided by a municipal subsidy. in - , this subsidy amounted to , frs. for the communal schools, and , frs. for the clerical schools. in addition large quantities of clothing were supplied from public funds.[ ] footnote : london school board, report on underfed children attending school, , p. . footnote : _ibid._, p. ; board of education, reports on educational subjects, vol. ii., , p. . footnote : london school board, report on underfed children attending school, , p. . footnote : _lancet_ reports, , pp. - . at liège, as early as , the municipality organised the provision of soup for all children in the kindergartens who wished to receive it.[ ] the dinner was only given on condition that the children were clean and tidy. each child was expected to have clean linen twice a week and also to have a pocket handkerchief. a teacher was present to supervise the children, and share the meal with them. each child brought a basket of bread and fruit to supplement the food provided, and at the end any bread that remained was packed in the baskets by the children, to prevent waste and to inculcate habits of thrift.[ ] the whole cost was borne out of municipal funds. in a voluntary committee was formed for providing soup in the communal primary schools. this committee placed at the disposal of the municipality a sum of , frs., in order that general provision might be made for the first year's scholars in the primary schools, on the same lines as in the kindergartens. in other classes in the primary schools soup was given only to necessitous children, or to those whose parents were at work all day; this provision was at first limited to three months during the winter, but in the municipality voted a grant of , frs. in order that it might be extended to six months.[ ] footnote : _feeding of school children in continental and american cities_, , p. ; london school board, report on underfed children attending school, , pp. , - . footnote : "prize essays on feeding school children," , pp. - . footnote : _feeding of school children in continental and american cities_, , pp. , , . (g) holland holland was the first country to enact national legislation for the provision of school meals. the law of enforcing compulsory education authorised municipal authorities to provide food and clothing for all school children, whether in public or private schools, who, owing to lack of these necessaries, were unable to attend school regularly. this provision might be undertaken directly by the municipality, or by means of subsidies to voluntary organisations.[ ] footnote : _school feeding_, by louise s. bryant, , p. . (h) denmark in some of the cities of denmark meals were provided by voluntary agencies in the 'seventies. in a law was passed allowing municipal authorities to subsidise these organisations. this system, however, proved unsatisfactory and, in , a campaign was set on foot for compulsory national legislation.[ ] footnote : _school feeding_, by louise s. bryant, , p. . in copenhagen the municipality from made a grant of , kr. (about £ , ) to the "society for providing meals to free school children," the voluntary contributions to which were rapidly diminishing. this society, though a voluntary organisation, was directly connected with the municipality, its executive board consisting of the seven municipal school inspectors and four private gentlemen, while the municipal school director was _ex officio_ president. more than half the total expenditure was met out of the municipal subsidy, the balance being made up by voluntary contributions. dinners were given three days a week to all the children in the free schools who wished to attend. no charge was made and no question raised as to the economic circumstances of the parents. about per cent. of the total number of free school children availed themselves of this provision.[ ] footnote : _the feeding of school children in continental and american cities_, , pp. , , . (i) norway christiania was the first town in norway to make municipal provision for underfed school children. the system was started in . a proposal was made to distribute food free to all elementary school children, but this was, at the time, rejected. in the winter of - , applications were made on behalf of . per cent. of the pupils in the school, the great majority of the meals being given free.[ ] the children made such marked progress as a result of this experiment that the system was extended and in christiania and several other towns a good dinner was provided by the school authorities for all school children who cared to attend, the entire cost of the system being met by taxation.[ ] it was soon found that the advantages of this free provision outweighed the expense. at trondhjem, when the proposal was first made by the socialists, it was bitterly opposed, but by the system was unanimously supported by all sections.[ ] footnote : london school board, report on underfed children attending school, , p. ; _school feeding_, by louise s. bryant, , p. . footnote : _the bitter cry of the children_, by john spargo, , pp. - , . footnote : _ibid._, p. . (j) sweden in many towns in sweden schemes for feeding poor school children were started in the 'eighties, these voluntary schemes being later subsidised by the local authorities.[ ] footnote : _school feeding_, by louise s. bryant, , pp. - . in stockholm several voluntary organisations were formed for supplying meals, the provision being usually limited to necessitous children. in order to preserve the self-respect of the children and parents, some of these societies adopted the plan of allowing the children to contribute to the expense of the dinner by performing some manual work, the making of baskets (which were sold), the mending of clothes, the sweeping out of the rooms, etc.[ ] towards the close of the nineteenth century the school boards of the several parishes resolved to build kitchens at the schools. the kitchens generally contained several fireplaces, at each of which dinners for a certain number of children were prepared by the elder girls.[ ] each child only received a dinner three times a week. footnote : "prize essays on feeding school children," , pp. - . footnote : london school board, report on underfed children attending school, , pp. - . at jönköping the free distribution of meals dates from . the funds, which were derived from voluntary contributions and proceeds of concerts, were administered by the board school inspector, and the distribution of the food was supervised by the school board. the children were usually sent for dinner to the houses of private ladies who undertook the catering.[ ] the poorest children were fed twice a week, those who were rather less poor only once. footnote : _ibid._, p. . at gothenburg, besides the provision made by voluntary agencies, the board of education distributed bread to certain children who were selected by the school board.[ ] footnote : _ibid._, p. . (k) united states of america in america[ ] the movement for the feeding of school children is of comparatively recent date. it is true that in the numerous day industrial schools which were instituted in the nineteenth century by voluntary organisations, _e.g._, by the children's aid society, meals were always given,[ ] but it was not till , when mr. robert hunter in his "poverty" stated that probably , or , children in new york city often arrived at school hungry and unfitted to do their school work well,[ ] that public attention was seriously directed to the question of under-feeding among school children. footnote : see for a full description of the provision made in america, _school feeding_, by louise s. bryant, . footnote : "prize essays on feeding school children," , pp. - . footnote : _poverty_, by robert hunter, , p. . in new york in a school lunch committee of physicians and social workers was formed with the object of ascertaining if a three cent lunch could be made self-supporting. this idea of making the meals self-supporting seems to be characteristic of the provision made in most of the american cities. two schools were at first chosen, and the experiment proved so successful that two years later the board of education gave permission for lunches to be supplied in other schools. the board provided rooms, equipment and gas; the cost of the food and service had to be met by the sale of tickets. the meals are served sometimes in the basement in the schools, and there does not appear to be always adequate accommodation. the meal itself is well cooked and served, the elder children helping the staff. a physician draws up the dietaries. these include one main dish such as soup, stew, rice pudding, etc., costing the child about four cents. there are besides "extras," such as dessert, cakes or other delicacies, which may be bought for one cent, but only by children who have had the main dish. the meals are not quite self-supporting, as a small number are given free.[ ] footnote : _school feeding_, by louise s. bryant, , pp. - . in philadelphia the starr center association undertook school feeding in some schools over fifteen years ago, but it is now managed by the home and school league. several of the schools provide a meal, some at . a.m., others a fuller meal at midday. the cost is one cent for lunch and three to five cents for dinner. there is one hot dish of soup or rice pudding, etc., and the children may spend another cent on the "extra" dainty. the meals are self-supporting. the teachers co-operate enthusiastically, and sometimes eat with the children. the food is served on japanned trays in enamel bowls and a paper napkin is provided. the washing up is done by the children under supervision, and everything is carefully sterilised. both the superintendent, who is responsible for planning the meals and purchasing the food materials, and the home visitor are trained dietists.[ ] footnote : _ibid._, pp. - . in boston the hygiene committee of the home and school association began to organise school dinners in , at a school with a kitchen attached. by meals were being supplied at twenty-two schools. equipment was given in the first place, and the meals are now self-supporting. in schools where there is a kitchen, the cooking classes prepare and serve the meals; here one cent amply covers the cost of the food. in other schools outside help is hired, and an extra cent per meal ticket meets this expense.[ ] footnote : _ibid._, pp. - . throughout the rest of the states the system is gaining ground. by some thirty cities had organised the provision of school meals, while in at least twenty others the question was under consideration. everywhere this provision was made by voluntary organisations.[ ] public funds could not be utilised, but there was growing anxiety that the question should be made a national concern. the nearest approach to legislative action was taken by massachusetts, where in the committee on education of the lower house reported favourably a bill to allow school boards to spend part of the school funds on the provision of meals.[ ] footnote : _ibid._, p. . footnote : _ibid._, pp. , - . index aberdeen, ; county of, acton, , , , , after-care, , , , _n_ alexandra trust, , angers, anglesey, - arkle, dr., , - aston manor, _n_ attendance, effect of meals on, , , , - , - , audit by local government board, , , , - austria, - badger, dr., , , barnett, canon, barnsley, _n_, , _n_ bedfordshire, _n_ belgium, - berlin, bermondsey, _n_, bethnal green, _n_, - birkenhead, _n_, _n_, , _n_, , _n_, , , - , , birmingham, _n_, _n_, _n_, _n_, _n_, _n_, _n_, _n_, , , , , - , , _n_, _n_, _n_, _n_, birrell, mr., blackburn, , blake, dr. sophia jex-, board of education, xvi, , , , , , . see also _newman, sir george_ board school children's free dinner fund, , _n_ bolton, _n_ bootle, , , , , - , , - , _n_, , , , , _n_ boots, provision of, , , , . see also _clothing_ boston, bournemouth, , , - bowley, professor a. l., bradford, xvi, _n_, - , _n_, , , _n_, , , , , , , , - , , _n_, _n_, , , , , , , - , , , - , - , , , , , _n_, _n_, , , - _n_, _n_, - breakfasts, versus dinners, - , ; dietary at, ; attendance at, , , ; a test, - , , , . see also _meals_ brighton, - , , , _n_, , bristol, _n_ browne, dr. crichton, brussels, - brynconin, _n_ burgwin, mrs., , _n_, _n_, burns, mr. john, , , bury st. edmunds, , , buxton, mr. sydney, _caisses des ecoles_, - camberwell, canteen committees, , - , , , , . see also _children's care committees_. _cantines scolaires_, - , , care committees. see _children's care committees_ carlisle, _n_ casual employment, , , , caterers, supply of meals by, , , , . see also _alexandra trust_ and _restaurants_ centres, service of meals in, - , - , ; inspection of, charity organisation society, , , , , , , , , chate, dr., chelsea, chesterfield, _n_ children, numbers fed, , , _n_, ; underfed, numbers of, , , - , _n_, , ; underfed, effect of education on, xiii, , , - , - , ; numbers attending school, , ; neglected, , , , _n_, , , - , , , - , ; necessitous, report on home circumstances of, - ; physique of, at liverpool, - ; industrial employment of, , ; effect of meals on, physically, xiii, - _n_, - , - , _n_, , , , - , , , - ; mentally, - , , , - , ; in point of manners, , _n_, , , ; in matter of taste, , - ; morally, , . see also _attendance_, _day industrial schools_, _infants_, _malnutrition_, _meals_, _selection_, _special schools_ children act ( ), , _n_ children's aid association, , , , . see also _canteen committees_. children's care (central) sub-committee, _n_, , children's care committees, in provinces, - ; in london, , , , , - , , ; in scotland, , , - ; constitution of, ; membership of, ; functions of, , , , , ; secretaries of, - , - , _n_; organisers of, , , - ; advantages of, - ; disadvantages of, - ; diverse policies of, - ; overlapping of work of, - ; local associations of, , , , . see also _canteen committees_, _relief committees_, _voluntary workers_ children's country holidays fund, chorlton, _n_ christiania, - civic guild, _n_, _n_ cleanliness, relation of, to nutrition, clothing, provision of, ; in scotland, , , ; abroad, , , , , , , . see also _boots_ cocoa rooms. see _restaurants_ cod liver oil, provision of, , , , , ; effects of, - collie, dr., xii, , conference, on state maintenance, ; on school feeding, congleton, cookery centres, preparation and service of meals at, , _n_, , , , - , , , , , copenhagen, council for promoting self-supporting penny dinners, , _n_ council of social welfare, _n_, - crewe, , _n_ cripple schools, _n_, - , - _n_. see also _special schools_ crowley, dr. ralph, , - , , cumberland, _n_ darlington, _n_, "day feeding school," at manchester, _n_ day industrial schools, _n_, , - ; provision of meals at, _n_, , , - , - ; in america, defective children. see _special schools_ denmark, - derby, _n_ derbyshire, destitute children's dinner society, - dewsbury, diet, at home, unsuitable, , , , , , _n_, , ; effect of school meals on, , ; of working classes in glasgow, - ; minimum amount necessary, , _n_ dietary (at school), xv, xvi, , , , - , - , , ; at bradford, , , ; planning of, , - , , ; for infants, , , ; at restaurants, - , , , , ; at day industrial schools, ; sample menus, - . see also _cod liver oil_, _milk_, _porridge_ dinners. see _meals_ disfranchisement, _n_, _n_, , distress committee, , divisional superintendent, _n_ dukes, dr. clement, _n_ dundee, eastbourne, east ham, , _n_, eating houses. see _restaurants_ ecclesall bierlow, _n_ ede, canon moore, _n_ edinburgh, , _n_, , - education, compulsory, , , - , ; effect of, on underfed children, xiii, , , - , - , ; provision of meals a corollary of, - , , education act ( ), , , ; ( ), ; ( ), , education (administrative provisions) act ( ), education (administrative provisions) bills, , _n_ education (provision of meals) act, xii, xiv, xvi, , , , , , , , ; debates on, - ; provisions of, - ; adoption of, xiv, , - ; should be compulsory, xv, education (provision of meals) act amendment bills, _n_, _n_ education (scotland) act ( ), , , - eichholz, dr., xiii, , , elementary education act ( ), _n_, _n_ elementary education (defective and epileptic children) act ( ), _n_ elementary education (feeding of children) bill ( ), _n_ enquiry, - , ; by whom made, , - , , , _n_, , , , , ; inadequacy of, , - , ; from employer, - , ; not suited to voluntary worker, , ; deterrent, - , ; proposed abandonment of, - , , erith, fabian society, , farnell, farquharson, dr. robert, _n_ feeble-minded children. see _special schools_ fenton, finch, dr. george, _n_, , finchley, _n_ fifeshire, _n_, foreign countries, provision of meals in, , - foster, captain, - france, _n_, - frere, miss margaret, _n_ fulham, _n_, gateshead, _n_, _n_ germany, - giffen, sir robert, - glasgow, , , - , , , - gorst, sir john, , _n_ gothenburg, govan, grassington, - , greenock, greenwood, mr. arthur, xii, xiii, , _n_ grimthorpe, lord, guardians. see _poor law guardians_ guernsey, - _n_ guest, dr. l. haden, - , guild of help, , _n_. see also _civic guild_ halifax, _n_ hall, dr. william, hammersmith, hampstead, _n_, - hartlepool, _n_ hastings, _n_ havre, hay, mr. claude, , , _n_, _n_ henderson, mr. arthur, heston and isleworth, holidays, provision of meals during, xiv, , , - , - ; loss of weight during, - , ; necessity for meals during, , , - , holland, home, provision of food at, _n_, - , _n_ hookham, mr. george, _n_, _n_, _n_ horn, miss, hornsey, housing, , ; relation of nutrition to, - huddersfield, hugo, victor, _n_ hull, _n_, , hunter, mr. robert, hutchison, dr. robert, industrial schools, _n_. see also _day industrial schools_ infants, special provision for, , , , , - , , , , , , , ; provision for, abroad, , , inverness, ; county of, iselin, rev. henry, _n_, _n_, , _n_ italy, - joint committee on underfed children, , - , jönköping, jowett, mr. f. w., , _n_ juvenile employment. see _after-care_ kensington, kerr, dr., , kettering, _n_ kidderminster, kincardineshire, labour party, , , , _n_, lambeth, , - , _n_ lancaster, larkins, dr., leeds, , , , _n_, , , , , - , _n_, , , , _n_, - , - leicester, xiv, - , _n_, , , , , , - , - , - , , leith, liège, - liverpool, _n_, , _n_, , _n_, - , , , , - , _n_, - , , , , , , - , - , local education authorities, power of, to provide meals, , - , , , , , , - , - ; adoption of provision of meals act by, - ; numbers making provision, ; different policies of, ; co-operation and overlapping of, with guardians, , , - , - , , - ; provision of meals by, abroad, - . see also _school boards_, _state_, _voluntary agencies (co-operation of, with local authorities)_ local government board, xiv, , , , , , , , , london, xvi, - , , - , _n_, - , , , , , , _n_, _n_, _n_, - , - _n_, , , - , , , _n_, - london county council, xvi, , , , - , - , , , , , - , london school board, _n_, _n_; committees of, on underfed children, - , , london schools dinner association, - , _n_ london vegetarian association, - lough, mr., mackenzie, dr. leslie, xiii, , macmillan, miss margaret, macnamara, dr., malnutrition, extent of, , - ; causes of, , - , ; signs of, , ; effects of, on physique, xii-xiii, - ; effects of, on mental capacity, , - , ; relation of, to family income, - . see also _children_ manchester, _n_, , _n_, _n_, _n_, , _n_, , , , _n_, , , marseilles, massachusetts, meals, school, motives for provision of, , , , , ; public provision of, , , - , - , - , - ; a corollary of compulsory education, - , , ; cost of, _n_, _n_, _n_, _n_, - ; price of, , , _n_, , , , , , , , ; expenditure on, - ; time of, - , , , ; number of, per day, - , , , ; number of, per week, , , , , , , , ; continuance of, throughout the year, , , , , , , , , , , , - , , ; preparation and distribution of, - , , , , , ; service of, xv, xvi, - , - , , - , , , , - , - , , , , ; in day industrial schools, - ; in special schools, , _n_, - , ; service of, by poor law authorities, , ; provision of, at home, _n_, - , _n_; a form of relief, , , , , ; a preventive measure, ; provision of, deterrent, , ; provision of, not universally known, ; reasons for granting, , - ; necessity for, , , , , , ; provision of, for all necessitous children, , , , ; general provision of, without enquiry, , - , - , , , , - , , , - . see also _centres_, _children_, _cookery centres_, _dietary_, _holidays_, _local education authorities_, _parents_, _payment_, _poor law guardians_, _rates_, _restaurants_, _school_, _supervision_, _voluntary agencies_, _wages_ medical inspection, , , , , ; in brussels, ; and feeding, inter-departmental committee on, - , , _n_, _n_, _n_ medical officer of health, medical treatment, _n_, , , , , mental capacity, relation of, to nutrition, , - , mentally defective. see _special schools_ meyer, lady, middlesex, - milan, milk, provision of, , , , ; effects of, - monitors, , , , , , - , , , , morten, miss honnor, mundella, rt. hon. a. j., _n_, , , , municipality. see _local education authorities_ and _state_ mutual registration, , , national food supply association, national society for the prevention of cruelty to children, , , national union of teachers, nether alderley, newcastle-on-tyne, newman, sir george, xii, , , _n_, , , , , , , , newport, new york, - nice, - niven, dr., xiii, northampton, , - norway, - norwich, _n_, _n_ nottingham, _n_, _n_, open air schools, - , , - , outdoor relief. see _poor law guardians_ over-pressure, - . see also _education_ paisley, parents, application for meals by, xv, - , - , , , ; withdrawal of children from meals by, , - ; dislike of, to accept meals, - , , , ; co-operation of, , , ; effect on responsibility of, , - , , , , , , - , , - ; abuse of provision of meals by, , ; obligations of, increased, - , , ; neglect of children by, , , , _n_, , - , , , - , - , . see also _payment_ and _recovery_ paris, , - parish council, provision of meals by, in edinburgh, - payment, by parents for school meals, - , , , , , , , - , , , - , , , , - , , , - ; for children at day industrial schools, ; for children at special schools, , , , , , , , , _n_; in rural districts, , , , , , , ; in scotland, , , , ; abroad, , , , , , , - , . see also _penny dinners_ peek, sir henry, , , , "penny dinners," , , , . see also _payment_ perth, , - philadelphia, physical deterioration, , , , , , ; inter-departmental committee on, xi, , - , , physical test. see _selection_ physical training (scotland), royal commission on, xi, - , , poor law, report of royal commission on ( ), , poor law guardians, inaction of, - ; inadequacy of relief given by, , - _n_, - , - , , , ; the authority for the provision of meals, xvi, _n_, _n_, , , _n_, ; service of meals by, ; no co-operation between voluntary agencies and, , ; prosecution by, - , ; overlapping of, with education authorities, , - , - , , - ; representation of, on canteen committees, , _n_; payment for school meals by, _n_, - , , , ; payment for children in day industrial schools by, _n_; provision of meals by, at manchester, _n_. see also _parish council_, _poor rate_, and _relief (school children) order_ poor laws, royal commission on ( ), , , _n_ poor rate, provision of meals from, , . see also _poor law guardians_ poplar, porridge, , , ; effects of, , ; as test, , portsmouth, _n_, , , , potteries, poverty test. see _selection_ prevention of cruelty to children act, prices, changes in, - ragged school union, ragged schools, , , rates, expenditure on provision of meals from, , , , , , - , , , - , ; in scotland, , - ; limitation of amount to be spent from, xiv, , , , ; provision of meals during holidays from, , , - . see also _education (provision of meals) act (adoption of)_ and _poor rate_ reading, recovery of cost, , , , , , - , , referee fund, - , , _n_ reformatory and industrial schools, departmental committee on, relief, deterrent policy of, , - , , relief committees, , , , _n_. see also _children's care committees_ relief (school children) order, xi, - relieving officer, , , restaurants, service of meals at, _n_, _n_, - , - _n_, , , , , , ; dietary at, - , , , ricardo, rome, rousdon, - , , _n_, - , rowntree, mr. seebohm, , rural districts, - ; provision of midday meal in, - , , , - , ; in scotland, - ; abroad, ; need for provision in, - , , , - , , - st. george's-in-the-east, _n_, _n_, , , , _n_, st. giles'-in-the-fields, _n_ st. pancras, _n_, salford, _n_, _n_, , san remo, scale of income. see _selection_ scarborough, school, service of meals in, - , _n_, , - , - , , , , , ; fees, abolition of, school attendance officers, _n_, , , , ; selection of children by, , , , ; enquiry by, , , , , , ; supervision of meals by, , school attendance officers' association, _n_ school boards, powers of, in scotland, , - ; co-operation of, with voluntary agencies, , , , . see also _local education authorities_ school medical officers, proposed responsibility of, for putting provision of meals act in force, - ; part taken by, in provision of meals, , , ; _ex-officio_ members of canteen committee, ; selection of children by, - , , - , , - , , , , , ; milk and cod liver oil recommended by, - , ; planning of dietary by, , , , , ; testimony of, as to effect of meals on children, - school nurse, _n_, , _n_, , school restaurants, - , , , . see also _payment_ and _cantines scolaires_ scotland, , _n_, - secondary schools, , _n_ selection of children, xv, - , - ; under voluntary agencies, - , , ; by physical test, - , - , , - ; by poverty test, - , - , - , , , - , , , - ; based on scale of income, - , , - , _n_, ; final decision in, ; revision of cases, - ; want of uniformity in, , - , , - ; disadvantages of present system, - , ; suggested schemes of, - , . see also _school attendance officers_, _school medical officers_, _school nurse_ and _teachers_ senior, mr. nassau, sheffield, _n_, , _n_, siddington, _n_, sims, mr. g. r., slack, sir bamford, _n_, sleep, want of, , smith, mr. s., - social democratic federation, south african war, xi, - , southampton, southend-on-sea, _n_ southwark, - special schools for defective children, _n_; provision of meals at, - , , , - , , _n_, , , - , , , , , _n_. see also _cripple schools_ and _open air schools_ spectacles, state, provision of meals by, , , - , - , - ; abroad, - . see also _local education authorities_ stevenson, miss flora, , stockholm, stoke-on-trent, _n_, , _n_, _n_, , , , , _n_, sub-committee on underfed children, xvi, , sunderland, _n_ supervision of meals, , , , , , - , , , , , ; at restaurants, , , , . see also _school attendance officers_, _teachers_ and _voluntary workers_ supper, provision of, in paris, surcharge. see _audit_ surrey, sussex, east, - _n_, sweden, - switzerland, - tate, dr., teachers, provision of meals by, , , _n_, _n_; selection of children by, , , , , , - , , - , , , - , , , ; urgency tickets given by, , - , ; enquiry by, , , ; members of canteen and care committees, , , , ; supervision of meals by, , , - , , , - , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ; testimony of, as to effect of meals on children, , - , , - teachers, national union of, teeth, defective, malnutrition due to, toxteth, trondhjem, underfeeding. see _malnutrition_ unemployment, , , , united states, - urgency tickets, , - , utensils, insufficient supply of, , - , vercelli, - vienna, - visiting of homes, , , , - , - , - , . see also _enquiry_ voluntary agencies, provision of meals by, xiv, , - , , , - , , , - , - , - , , , , - , - , - , - , , , - ; the best agency for provision of meals, , ; disadvantages of provision by, - , , - , , , - , - , ; number of, ; expenditure of, - ; organisation of, - , , , - ; discontinuance of, ; co-operation of, with local authorities, xii, , , - , , , , - , , , - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - , ; co-operation of, with guardians, , , voluntary contributions, amount of, - , , - , ; provision of meals during holidays from, , , - voluntary workers, utilisation of services of, - , , ; organisation of, ; canteen committees composed of, - , ; supervision of meals by, , , , , , , . see also _children's care committees_ wages, effect of provision of meals on, , - ; low, - , , wandsworth, _n_ ward, mrs. humphry, - _n_ waugh, mr. benjamin, west derby, west ham, _n_, , , , _n_, , , - , , , - , - , whitechapel, , winder, miss phyllis d., - wilson, mr. w. t., _n_ wolverhampton, , women, married, employment of, - , , , , , workington, wyatt, mr. c. h., _n_, _n_ york, , , , , - , , _n_ * * * * * * transcriber's note: missing or obscured punctuation was corrected. typographical errors were silently corrected. spelling and hyphenation were made consistent when a predominant form was found in this book; otherwise it was not changed. one unpaired double quotation mark could not be corrected with confidence. one unpaired curved bracket could not be corrected with confidence. tables have been reformatted to a manageable width where necessary. the chemistry of food and nutrition by a. w. duncan, f.c.s. analytical chemist. manchester the vegetarian society ____________________________________________________________ | | | the food route | | | | is the safest way to sturdy health. | | | | many people are kept ill because they do not | | know _how to select food_ that their own particular | | bodies will take up and build upon. | | | | what will answer for one _will not do for another_. | | | | if one is ailing it is safe to _change food_ entirely | | and go on a plain simple diet, say, for breakfast:-- | | | | cooked fruit, | | dish of grape-nuts and cream or hot or | | cold milk, two lightly boiled eggs, | | one cup of our postum food coffee, | | slice of toast. no more. | | | | our word! but a diet like that _makes one feel | | good_ after a few days' use. | | | | the most perfectly made food for human use is | | | | grape-nuts | | | | there's a reason. | | | | grape-nuts co., ltd., shoe lane, london, e.c. | |____________________________________________________________| ____________________________________________________________ | | | the vegetatian society, | | | | _operations national and international,_ | | | | deansgate, manchester. | | | | the vegetarian society is a philanthropic organisation, | | and is supported entirely by the voluntary | | contributions of those who sympathise with its aims. | | gifts and donations from any who are in sympathy with | | the society's work will be gratefully acknowledged by | | the secretary. send penny stamp for recipes and | | explanatory literature. | |____________________________________________________________| ____________________________________________________________ | | | _at the same address,_ | | | | food store department | | | | _for the supply of_ | | | | vegetarian specialities & literature. | | | | _send for price list._ | |____________________________________________________________| ____________________________________________________________ | | | useful literature for beginners. | | | | vegetarianism and manual labour. / d. | | | | the liver: its influence on health. dr. kellogg. one | | in praise of simpler life. eustace h. miles penny | | forty vegetarian dinners. recipes each. | | | | chemistry of food. by a.w. duncan, f.c.s. | | paper copies d; cloth d. | | | | the first step. tolstoy. d. | | | | science in the daily meal. d. | | fruits, nuts, and vegetables: their uses as food each. | | and medicine | | | | _postage extra._ | | | | from the vegetarian society, deansgate, manchester. | |____________________________________________________________| preface. the first edition of contained but pages of type; the second of , pages. only by conciseness has it been possible to give even a summary of the principles of dietetics within the limit or this pamphlet. should there appear in places an abruptness or incompleteness of treatment, these limitations must be my excuse. those who wish to thoroughly study the science of food are referred to the standard work, "food and dietetics," by dr. r. hutchison (e. arnold, s.). the effects of purin bodies in producing illness has been patiently and thoroughly worked out by dr. alexander haig. students are referred to his "uric acid, an epitome of the subject" (j. & a. churchhill, , s. d.), or to his larger work on "uric acid." an able scientific summary of investigations on purins, their chemical and pathological properties, and the quantities in foods will be found in "the purin bodies of food stuffs," by dr. i. walker hall (sherratt & hughes, manchester, , s. d.). the u.s. department of agriculture has made a large number of elaborate researches on food and nutrition. my thanks are due to mr. albert broadbent, the secretary of the vegetarian society, for placing some of their bulletins in my hands, and for suggestions and help. he has also written several useful popular booklets on food of a very practical character, at from a penny to threepence each. popular literature abounds in unsound statements on food. it is unfortunate that many ardent workers in the cause of health are lacking in scientific knowledge, especially of physiology and chemistry. by their immature and sweeping statements from the platform and press, they often bring discredit on a good cause. matters of health must be primarily based on experience and we must bear in mind that each person can at the most have full knowledge of himself alone, and to a less degree of his family and intimates. the general rules of health are applicable to all alike, but not in their details. owing to individual imperfections of constitution, difference of temperament and environment, there is danger when one man attempts to measure others by his own standard. for the opinions here expressed i only must be held responsible, and not the society publishing the pamphlet. vegetarians, generally, place the humane as the highest reason for their practice, though the determining cause of the change from a flesh diet has been in most cases bad health. a vegetarian may be defined as one who abstains from all animals as food. the term animal is used in its proper scientific sense (comprising insects, molluscs, crustaceans, fish, etc.). animal products are not excluded, though they are not considered really necessary. they are looked upon as a great convenience, whilst free from nearly all the objections appertaining to flesh food. a.w.d. the chemistry of food and nutrition by a.w. duncan, f.c.s. we may define a food to be any substance which will repair the functional waste of the body, increase its growth, or maintain the heat, muscular, and nervous energy. in its most comprehensive sense, the oxygen of the air is a food; as although it is admitted by the lungs, it passes into the blood, and there re-acts upon the other food which has passed through the stomach. it is usual, however, to restrict the term food to such nutriment as enters the body by the intestinal canal. water is often spoken of as being distinct from food, but for this there is no sufficient reason. many popular writers have divided foods into flesh-formers, heat-givers, and bone-formers. although attractive from its simplicity, this classification will not bear criticism. flesh-formers are also heat-givers. only a portion of the mineral matter goes to form bone. class i.--inorganic compounds. sub-class . water. . mineral matter or salts. class ii--organic compounds. . non-nitrogeneous or ternary compounds. _a_ carbohydrates. _b_ oils. _c_ organic acids. . nitrogenous compounds. _a_ proteids. _b_ osseids. class iii.--non-nutritives, food adjuncts and drugs. essential oils, alkaloids, extractives, alcohol, &c. these last are not strictly foods, if we keep to the definition already given; but they are consumed with the true foods or nutrients, comprised in the other two classes, and cannot well be excluded from consideration. water forms an essential part of all the tissues of the body. it is the solvent and carrier of other substances. mineral matter or salts, is left as an ash when food is thoroughly burnt. the most important salts are calcium phosphate, carbonate and fluoride, sodium chloride, potassium phosphate and chloride, and compounds of magnesium, iron and silicon. mineral matter is quite as necessary for plant as for animal life, and is therefore present in all food, except in the case of some highly-prepared ones, such as sugar, starch and oil. children require a good proportion of calcium phosphate for the growth of their bones, whilst adults require less. the outer part of the grain of cereals is the richest in mineral constituents, white flour and rice are deficient. wheatmeal and oatmeal are especially recommended for the quantity of phosphates and other salts contained in them. mineral matter is necessary not only for the bones but for every tissue of the body. when haricots are cooked, the liquid is often thrown away, and the beans served nearly dry, or with parsley or other sauce. not only is the food less tasty but important saline constituents are lost. the author has made the following experiments:--german whole lentils, egyptian split red lentils and medium haricot beans were soaked all night ( hours) in just sufficient cold water to keep them covered. the water was poured off and evaporated, the residue heated in the steam-oven to perfect dryness and weighed. after pouring off the water, the haricots were boiled in more water until thoroughly cooked, the liquid being kept as low as possible. the liquid was poured off as clear as possible, from the haricots, evaporated and dried. the ash was taken in each case, and the alkalinity of the water-soluble ash was calculated as potash (k_{ }o). the quantity of water which could be poured off was with the german lentils, half as much more than the original weight of the pulse; not quite as much could be poured off the others. g. lentils. e. lentils. haricots. cooked h. proportion of liquid . . . -- soluble dry matter . . . . per cent. ash . . . . " " alkalinity as k_{ }o . . . . " " the loss on soaking in cold water, unless the water is preserved, is seen to be considerable. the split lentils, having had the protecting skin removed, lose most. in every case the ash contained a good deal of phosphate and lime. potatoes are rich in important potash salts; by boiling a large quantity is lost, by steaming less and by baking in the skins, scarcely any. the flavour is also much better after baking. the usual addition of common salt (sodium-chloride) to boiled potatoes is no proper substitute for the loss of their natural saline constituents. natural and properly cooked foods are so rich in sodium chloride and other salts that the addition of common salt is unnecessary. an excess of the latter excites thirst and spoils the natural flavour of the food. it is the custom, especially in restaurants, to add a large quantity of salt to pulse, savoury food, potatoes and soups. bakers' brown bread is usually very salt, and sometimes white is also. in some persons much salt causes irritation of the skin, and the writer has knowledge of the salt food of vegetarian restaurants causing or increasing dandruff. as a rule, fondness for salt is an acquired taste, and after its discontinuance for a time, food thus flavoured becomes unpalatable. organic compounds are formed by living organisms (a few can also be produced by chemical means). they are entirely decomposed by combustion. the non-nitrogenous organic compounds are commonly called carbon compounds or heat-producers, but these terms are also descriptive of the nitrogenous compounds. these contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen only, and furnish by their oxidation or combustion in the body the necessary heat, muscular and nervous energy. the final product of their combustion is water and carbon dioxide (carbonic acid gas). the carbohydrates comprise starch, sugar, gum, mucilage, pectose, glycogen, &c.; cellulose and woody fibre are carbohydrates, but are little capable of digestion. they contain hydrogen and oxygen in the proportion to form water, the carbon alone being available to produce heat by combustion. starch is the most widely distributed food. it is insoluble in water, but when cooked is readily digested and absorbed by the body. starch is readily converted into sugar, whether in plants or animals, during digestion. there are many kinds of sugar, such as grape, cane and milk sugars. the oils and fats consist of the same elements as the carbohydrates, but the hydrogen is in larger quantity than is necessary to form water, and this surplus is available for the production of energy. during their combustion in the body they produce nearly two-and-a-quarter times ( : . = . ) as much heat as the carbohydrates; but if eaten in more than small quantities, they are not easily digested, a portion passing away by the intestines. the fat in the body is not solely dependent upon the quantity consumed as food, as an animal may become quite fat on food containing none. a moderate quantity favours digestion and the bodily health. in cold weather more should be taken. in the arctic regions the esquimaux consume enormous quantities. nuts are generally rich in oil. oatmeal contains more than any of the other cereals ( analyses gave from to . per cent.) the most esteemed and dearest oil is almond. what is called peach-kernel oil (oleum amygdalæ persicæ), but which in commerce includes the oil obtained from plum and apricot stones, is almost as tasteless and useful, whilst it is considerably cheaper. it is a very agreeable and useful food. it is often added to, as an adulterant, or substituted for the true almond oil. the best qualities of olive oil are much esteemed, though they are not as agreeable to english taste as the oil previously mentioned. the best qualities are termed virgin, extra sublime and sublime. any that has been exposed for more than a short time to the light and heat of a shop window should be rejected, as the flavour is affected. it should be kept in a cool place. not only does it vary much in freedom from acid and rancidity, but is frequently adulterated. two other cheaper oils deserve mention. the "cold-drawn" arachis oil (pea-nut or earth-nut oil) has a pleasant flavour, resembling that of kidney beans. the "cold-drawn" sesamé oil has an agreeable taste, and is considered equal to olive oil for edible purposes. the best qualities are rather difficult to obtain; those usually sold being much inferior to peach-kernel and olive oils. cotton-seed oil is the cheapest of the edible ones. salad oil, not sold under any descriptive name, is usually refined cotton-seed oil, with perhaps a little olive oil to impart a richer flavour. the solid fats sold as butter and lard substitutes, consist of deodorised cocoanut oil, and they are excellent for cooking purposes. it is claimed that biscuits, &c., made from them may be kept for a much longer period, without showing any trace of rancidity, than if butter or lard had been used. they are also to be had agreeably flavoured by admixture with almond, walnut, &c., "cream." the better quality oils are quite as wholesome as the best fresh butter, and better than most butter as sold. bread can be dipped into the oil, or a little solid vegetable fat spread on it. the author prefers to pour a little peach-kernel oil upon some ground walnut kernels (or other ground nuts in themselves rich in oil), mix with a knife to a suitable consistency and spread upon the bread. pine-kernels are very oily, and can be used in pastry in the place of butter or lard. whenever oils are mentioned, without a prefix, the fixed or fatty oils are always understood. the volatile or essential oils are a distinct class. occasionally, the fixed oils are called hydrocarbons, but hydrocarbon oils are quite different and consist of carbon and hydrogen alone. of these, petroleum is incapable of digestion, whilst others are poisonous. vegetable acids are composed of the same three elements and undergo combustion into the same compounds as the carbohydrates. they rouse the appetite, stimulate digestion, and finally form carbonates in combination with the alkalies, thus increasing the alkalinity of the blood. the chief vegetable acids are: malic acid, in the apple, pear, cherry, &c.; citric acid, in the lemon, lime, orange, gooseberry, cranberry, strawberry, raspberry, &c.; tartaric acid, in the grape, pineapple, &c. some place these under class iii. or food adjuncts. oxalic acid (except when in the insoluble state of calcium oxalate), and several other acids are poisonous. proteids or albuminoids are frequently termed flesh-formers. they are composed of nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and a small quantity of sulphur, and are extremely complex bodies. their chief function is to form flesh in the body; but without previously forming it, they may be transformed into fat or merely give rise to heat. they form the essential part of every living cell. proteids are excreted from the body as water, carbon dioxide, urea, uric acid, sulphates, &c. the principal proteids of animal origin have their corresponding proteids in the vegetable kingdom. some kinds, whether of animal or vegetable origin, are more easily digested than others. they have the same physiological value from whichever kingdom they are derived. the osseids comprise ossein, gelatin, cartilage, &c., from bone, skin, and connective issue. they approach the proteids in composition, but unlike them they cannot form flesh or fulfil the same purpose in nutrition. some food chemists wish to call the osseids, albuminoids; what were formerly termed albuminoids to be always spoken of as proteids only. jellies are of little use as food; not only is this because of the low nutritive value of gelatin, but also on account of the small quantity which is mixed with a large proportion of water. the vegetable kingdom is the prime source of all organic food; water, and to a slight extent salts, form the only food that animals can derive directly from the inorganic kingdom. when man consumes animal food--a sheep for example--he is only consuming a portion of the food which that sheep obtained from grass, clover, turnips, &c. all the proteids of the flesh once existed as proteids in the vegetables; some in exactly the same chemical form. flesh contains no starch or sugar, but a small quantity of glycogen. the fat in an animal is derived from the carbohydrates, the fats and the proteids of the vegetables consumed. the soil that produced the herbage, grain and roots consumed by cattle, in most cases could have produced food capable of direct utilisation by man. by passing the product of the soil through animals there is an enormous economic loss, as the greater part of that food is dissipated in maintaining the life and growth; little remains as flesh when the animal is delivered into the hands of the butcher. some imagine that flesh food is more easily converted into flesh and blood in our bodies and is consequently more valuable than similar constituents in vegetables, but such is not the case. fat, whether from flesh or from vegetables is digested in the same manner. the proteids of flesh, like those of vegetables, are converted into peptone by the digestive juices--taking the form of a perfectly diffusible liquid--otherwise they could not be absorbed and utilised by the body. thus the products of digestion of both animal and vegetable proteids and fats are the same. formerly, proteid matter was looked upon as the most valuable part of the food, and a large proportion was thought necessary for hard work. it was thought to be required, not only for the construction of the muscle substance, but to be utilised in proportion to muscular exertion. these views are now known to be wrong. a comparatively small quantity of proteid matter, such as is easily obtained from vegetable food, is ample for the general needs of the body. increased muscular exertion requires but a slight increase of this food constituent. it is the carbohydrates, or carbohydrates and fats that should be eaten in larger quantity, as these are the main source of muscular energy. the fact that animals, capable of the most prolonged and powerful exertion, thrive on vegetables of comparatively low proteid value, and that millions of the strongest races have subsisted on what most englishmen would consider a meagre vegetarian diet, should have been sufficient evidence against the earlier view. a comparison of flesh and vegetable food, shows in flesh an excessive quantity of proteid matter, a very small quantity of glycogen (the animal equivalent of starch and sugar) and a variable quantity of fat. vegetable food differs much, but as a rule it contains a much smaller quantity of proteid matter, a large proportion of starch and sugar and a small quantity of fat. some vegetable foods, particularly nuts, contain much fat. investigation of the digestive processes has shown that the carbohydrates and fats entail little strain on the system; their ultimate products are water and carbon dioxide, which are easily disposed of. the changes which the proteids undergo in the body are very complicated. there is ample provision in the body for their digestion, metabolism, and final rejection, when taken in moderate quantity, as is the case in a dietary of vegetables. the proteids in the human body, after fulfilling their purpose, are in part expelled in the same way as the carbohydrates; but the principal part, including all the nitrogen, is expelled by the kidneys in the form of urea (a very soluble substance), and a small quantity of uric acid in the form of quadurates. there is reciprocity between the teeth and digestive organs of animals and their natural food. the grasses, leaves, &c., which are consumed by the herbivora, contain a large proportion of cellulose and woody tissue. consequently, the food is bulky; it is but slowly disintegrated and the nutritious matter liberated and digested. the cellulose appears but slightly acted upon by the digestive juices. the herbivora possess capacious stomachs and the intestines are very long. the carnivora have simpler digestive organs and short intestines. even they consume substances which leave much indigestible residue, such as skin, ligaments and bones, but civilised man, when living on a flesh dietary removes as much of such things as possible. the monkeys, apes, and man (comprised in the order _primates_) have a digestive canal intermediate in complexity and in length to the herbivora and carnivora. a certain quantity of indigestible matter is necessary for exciting peristaltic action of the bowels. the carnivora with their short intestinal canal need the least, the frugivora more, and the herbivora a much larger quantity. the consumption by man of what is commonly called concentrated food is the cause of the constipation to which flesh-eating nations are subject. most of the pills and other nostrums which are used in enormous quantities contain aloes or other drugs which stimulate the action of the intestines. highly manufactured foods, from which as much as possible of the non-nutritious matter has been removed is often advocated, generally by those interested in its sale. such food would be advantageous only if it were possible to remove or modify a great part of our digestive canal (we are omitting from consideration certain diseased conditions, when such foods may be useful). the eminent physiologist and bacteriologist, elie metchnikoff, has given it as his opinion that much of man's digestive organs is not only useless but often productive of derangement and disease. in several cases where it has been necessary, in consequence of serious disease, to remove the entire stomach or a large part of the intestines, the digestive functions have been perfectly performed. it is not that our organs are at fault, but our habits of life differ from that of our progenitors. in past times, when a simple dietary in which flesh food formed little or no part, and to-day, in those countries where one wholly or nearly all derived from vegetable sources and simply prepared is the rule, diseases of the digestive organs are rare. the englishman going to a tropical country and partaking largely of flesh and alcohol, suffers from disease of the liver and other organs, to which the natives and the few of his own countrymen, living in accordance with natural laws are strangers. indigestible matter--food is never entirely digested. as a reason against confining ourselves solely to vegetable food, it has been stated that such is less perfectly digested than animal food and that it therefore throws more work on the digestive organs. it is also urged that on this account a greater quantity of vegetable food is required. we have shown elsewhere that, on the contrary, vegetarians are satisfied with a smaller amount of food. man requires a small quantity of woody fibre or cellulose in his food to stimulate intestinal action and prevent constipation. it is difficult to determine how much of a food is unassimilated in the body. this is for the reason of the intestinal refuse consisting not only of undigested food, but also of residues of the digestive juices, mucus and epithelial debris. these latter have been shown to amount to from one-third to one-half of the whole of the fæces, which is much more than had previously been supposed. john goodfellow has shown that of very coarse wholemeal bread quite per cent. was undigested, whilst bread made from ordinary grade wholemeal showed . per cent. such a method of analysis was adopted as it was believed would exclude other than the food waste. the experiments were made on a person who was eating nothing but the bread. it seems probable that a smaller proportion would have remained unassimilated had the bread not formed the sole food. it is advisable that wheatmeal he ground as finely as possible, the coarse is not only to a less extent assimilated but apt to irritate the bowels. notwithstanding that fine white bread gave only . per cent. and a coarse white bread . per cent. of waste, a fine wheatmeal bread is more economical as the same quantity of wheat produces a greater weight of flour richer in proteid and mineral matter. from a large number of experiments with man, it has been calculated that of proteids there is digested when animal food is eaten per cent., from cereals and sugars per cent., from vegetables and fruits per cent. the difference between the proportions digested of the other food constituents was much less. although there is here a theoretical advantage in favour of animal food, there are other considerations of far more importance than a little undigestible waste. the main question is one of health. in some dietary experiments of a girl aged , living upon a fruit diet, of whom we have given some particulars elsewhere, professor jaffa gives the following particulars. during the ten days trial the percentages absorbed were proteids . , fat . , nitrogen free extract , crude fibre , ash . , heat of combustion in calories . . he says, "generally speaking, the food was quite thoroughly assimilated, the coefficients of digestibility being about the same as are found in an ordinary mixed diet. it is interesting to note that per cent. of the crude fibre appeared to be digested. the results of a number of foreign experiments on the digestibility of crude fibre by man are from to . per cent., the former value being from mixed wheat and rye, and the latter in a diet made of rice, vegetables and meat." table of analysis of food key: p = proteins. cb = carbohydrates. c = cellulose. r = refuse. w = water. ca = calories. nt'nt p. fat. cb. ash. c r w ca ratio wholemeal, g. . . . . . ... . . fine flour, g. . . . . . ... . . medium flour, g. . . . . . ... . . bread, wholemeal, g. . . . . . ... . . bread, white, g. . . . . ... ... . . macaroni, u. . . . . ... ... . . oatmeal, d. . . . . . ... . . maize, american, s. . . . . . ... . . rice, husked, u. . . . . ... ... . . rye flour, u. . . . . . ... . . barley, pearl, c. . . . . . ... . . buckwheat flour, u. . . . . ... ... . . soy bean, c. . . . . . ... . . pea-nut, c. . . . . . ... . . lentils, u. . . . . ... ... . . peas, dried, u. . . . . . ... . . peas, green, e.u. . . . . . ... . . haricots, c. . . . . . ... . . walnuts, fresh k., c. . . . . . ... . . walnut kernels . . . . . ... . . filberts, fresh ker., c. . . . . . ... . . tomatoes, u. . . . . . ... . . grapes, u. . . . . . . . apples, e.u. . . . . . ( ) . . raisins, e u. . . . . ... ( ) . . dates, e.u. . . . . ... ( ) . . banana, c.d. . ... . . . ... . . banana flour, p. . . . . . ... . . potatoes, k. . . . . . ... . . turnips, e. . . . . . ( ) . . onions, e.u. . . . . . ( ) . . cabbage, e u. . . . . . ( ) . . asparagus, u. . . . . . ... . . celery, e.u. . . . . ... ( ) . . mushrooms, u. . . . . ... ... . . tapioca, u. . . . . ... ... . sugar ... ... ... ... ... ... ... oil ... ... ... ... ... ... ... milk . . . . ... ... . . butter, fresh . . . . ... ... . cheese, u. . . . . ... ... . . hen's eggs, u. . . ... . ... . . . beef, loin, u. . . ... . ... . . . beef, loin, edible p., u. . . ... . ... ... . . mutton, shoulder, u. . . ... . ... . . . pork, ham, u. . . ... . ... . . . bacon, smoked, u. . . ... . ... . . . fowl, u. . . ... . ... . . . goose, u. . . ... . ... . . . cod, dressed, u. . . ... . ... . . . mackerel, whole, u. . . ... . ... . . . oysters, l. . . . . ... ... . . notes on the table of analysis.--under calories are shown kilo-calories per pound of food. in the analysis marked u the crude fibre or cellulose is included with the carbo-hydrate, the figures being those given in atwater's table. he has found that from to per cent. of the crude fibre was digested, according to the kind of food. the term fibre or cellulose in analytical tables is not a very definite one. it depends upon the details of the method of analysis. in the analyses other than u, the cellulose is excluded in calculating the calories. nutrient ratio is the proportion of the sum of the carbo-hydrate and fat, compared with the proteid as . the fat has first been multiplied by . to bring it to the same nutrient value as the carbo-hydrate. u indicates that the analyses are taken from the united states department of agriculture experimental station, bulletin , the tests being chiefly made by dr. w.o. atwater, or under his direction. they are average analyses of several samples. the refuse consists of such parts as are rejected in preparing the food; the outer leaves, skin, stalk, seeds, &c., of vegetables; the shell of eggs; the bone, &c., of meat. e, indicates that the edible portion only of the food has been analysed, and under refuse, in brackets, is shown the quantity rejected before the analysis was made. there is considerable variation in the same kind of food, according to the variety of seed and conditions of growth &c., especially is this the case with wheat and flour; whenever it has been possible the average of the analyses of many samples have been given. the method of analysis has not always been uniform, frequently the cellulose is included with the carbo-hydrates, and the proteid sometimes includes a very appreciable quantity of non-proteid nitrogenous matter. this is the case in the analysis of the mushrooms. g.--analyses are by john goodfellow; it will be noticed that the wheatmeal bread is not made from the same flour as the whole-meal. d.--b. dyer, average of fine and coarse oatmeals. s, from u.s. cons. reports, . c.--a.h. church. the walnut kernels are in the dried condition as purchased; originally of the same composition as shewn in the fresh kernels. c.d.--cavendish or figi variety of banana, analysis by d.w.m. doherty, n.s. wales. p.--a. petermann, u.s. cons. banana flour, _musca paradisiaca_ variety. this is widely used in central america. the flour is from the unripe fruit, and contains starch . per cent.; on ripening the starch is converted into sugar. k.--konig, mean of analysis. milk:--average of many thousand analyses of the pure. butter.--made without salt. l, from the "lancet," , i, p. . oysters at / per dozen. the . per cent. includes . glycogen (animal starch). the shell was of course excluded, also the liquid in the shell. apples.--the refuse includes seeds, skin, &c., and such edible portion as is wasted in cutting them away; the analysis was made on the rest. cookery.--flesh is easier to digest raw. a few, on the advice of their doctors, eat minced raw flesh, raw beef juice and even fresh warm blood. such practice is abhorrent to every person of refinement. cooking lessens the offensive appearance and qualities of flesh and changes the flavour; thorough cooking also destroys any parasites that may be present. raw flesh is more stimulating to the animal passions, and excites ferocity in both man and animals. if the old argument was valid, that as flesh is much nearer in composition and quality to our own flesh and tissues, it is therefore our best food, we do wrong in coagulating the albuminoids, hardening the muscle substance and scorching it by cooking. fruits when ripe and in good condition are best eaten raw; cooking spoils the flavour. food requiring mastication and encouraging insalivation is the best. food is frequently made too sloppy or liquid, and is eaten too hot, thus favouring indigestion and decay of the teeth. the cereals and pulses can only with difficulty be eaten raw. when cooked in water the starch granules swell and break up, the plant cells are ruptured, the fibres are separated and the nutritious matter rendered easy of digestion. the flavour is greatly improved. cooking increases our range and variety of food. the civilised races use it to excess and over-season their dishes, favouring over-eating. if baking powders are used they should only be of the best makes. they should be composed of sodium bicarbonate and tartaric acid, in such correct proportions that upon the addition of water only sodium tartrate and carbon dioxide (carbonic acid) should result. some powders contain an excess of sodium bicarbonate. self-raising flours should be avoided. they are commonly composed of--in addition to sodium bicarbonate--acid calcium phosphate, calcium superphosphate and calcium sulphate. common baking powders often consist of the same ingredients, and sometimes also of magnesia and alum. these are often made and sold by ignorant men, whose sole object is to make money. calcium superphosphate and acid calcium phosphate very frequently contain arsenic, and as the cheap commercial qualities are often used there is danger in this direction. a good formula for baking powder is, tartaric acid ozs., sodium bicarbonate ozs., rice flour to ozs. the last is added to baking powders to improve the keeping quality and to add bulk. the ingredients must be first carefully dried, the sodium bicarbonate at not too high a temperature or it decomposes, and then thoroughly mixed; this must be preserved in well closed and dry bottles. another formula, which is slow rising and well adapted for pastry, is sodium bicarbonate ozs., cream of tartar ozs., rice flour about ozs. custard powders consist of starch, colouring and flavouring. egg powders are similar to baking powders but contain yellow colouring. little objection can be taken to them if they are coloured with saffron; turmeric would do if it were not that it gives a slightly unpleasant taste. artificial colouring matters or coal tar derivatives are much used, several of these are distinctly poisonous. drinks.--it is better not to drink during eating, or insalivation may be interfered with; a drink is better taken at the end of a meal. the practice of washing down food with hot tea is bad. the refreshing nature of a cup of hot tea, coffee, or cocoa is to a very great extent due to the warmth of the water. the benefit is felt at once, before the alkaloid can enter the blood stream and stimulate the nerve centres. hot water, not too hot to cause congestion of the mucous membrane, is one of the best drinks. when the purity of the water supply is doubtful, there is advantage in first bringing it to the boil, as pathogenic bacteria are destroyed. some find it beneficial to drink a cup of hot water the first thing in the morning; this cleanses the stomach from any accumulation of mucus. if fruit, succulent vegetables, or cooked food, containing much water be freely used, and there be little perspiration, it is possible to do without drinking; but there is danger of taking insufficient water to hold freely in solution the waste products excreted by the body. aerated drinks, except a very few of the best, and non-alcoholic beers and wines, are generally unwholesome, from their containing preservatives, foaming powders, artificial flavourings, &c. stimulants.--tea and coffee contain an alkaloid theine, besides volatile oils, tannin, &c. cocoa contains the milder alkaloid, theobromine. they stimulate the heart and nervous systems; tea and coffee have also a diuretic effect. formerly they were erroneously thought to lessen tissue waste. these alkaloids, being purins, are open to the general objections named elsewhere. stimulants do not impart energy or force of any kind, but only call forth reserve strength by exciting the heart, nervous system, &c., to increased activity. this is followed by a depression which is as great, generally greater, than the previous stimulation. except, perhaps, as an occasional medicine, stimulants, should be avoided. analysis of cocoa shows a good proportion of proteids and a very large quantity of fat. the claim that it is a valuable and nutritious food would only be true if it could be eaten in such quantities as are other foods (bread, fruits, &c.). were this attempted, poisoning would result from the large quantity of alkaloid. the food value of half a spoonful or thereabouts of cocoa is insignificant. certain much advertised cocoa mixtures are ridiculous in their pretentions, unscientific in preparation, and often injurious. cereals.--the most valuable is wheat, from its proteid being chiefly in the form known as gluten. from its tenacity, gluten enables a much better loaf to be produced from wheat than from any other cereal. the outer part of the grain is the richest in mineral matter and proteid. wheatmeal bread shows a considerably higher proteid value than white. a large proportion of the proteid in the outer coats of the wheat berry is, however, not digested, and in some experiments the waste has been enough to quite nullify its seeming advantage over white bread. coarsely ground, sharp branny particles in bread irritate the intestines, and cause excessive waste of nutriment; but finely ground wheatmeal is free from this objection, and is beneficial in preventing constipation. the comparative value of white and brown bread has been much discussed; it depends both on the quality of the bread and the condition of the digestive organs. experiments on the digestion of bread and other things, have often been made on persons unaccustomed to such foods, or the foods have been given in excessive quantity. to those accustomed to it good wheatmeal bread is much pleasanter, more satisfying, and better flavoured than white; indeed, the latter is described as insipid. most bakers' bread is of unsatisfactory quality. flour and bread contain very little fat, the absence of which is considered a defect. this is remedied by the addition of butter, fat or oil, or by nuts, &c., which are rich in oil. these may be mixed with the flour prior to cooking, or used afterwards. oats contain a substance called avenin, apparently an alkaloid, which has an irritating action; the quantity is variable. it is to this that the so-called heating effect of oatmeal on some persons is due. prepared cereals or breakfast foods.--analyses were made of of these cereal preparations by weems and ellis (iowa state college agricultural bulletin, ). they report that the foods possess no nutritive value in excess of ordinary food materials; that the claim made for many pre-digested foods are valueless, and no reliance can be placed on the statement that they are remedies for any disease. oatmeal and other cereals are sold in packets as being partially cooked. we do not doubt that they have been subjected to a dry heat, but this has scarcely any effect on their starch and other constituents. the difference is a mechanical one. in rolled oats the grains are so cracked and broken, that on boiling with water, the water readily penetrates and more quickly cooks them throughout. there are other prepared cereal foods, but we doubt whether they are thoroughly cooked after the short boiling directed on the labels. they are a great convenience where it is difficult to get the time necessary for cooking the ordinary cereals. coarsely ground wheat is too irritating when made into porridge, but there are some granulated wheats sold in packets, which are quite suitable. the ralston breakfast food is excellent. they are rich in the phosphates and salts, found in the outer part of the grain. one cereal preparation called grape nuts, has had its starch converted into maltose and dextrin (maltose being a sugar), by a scientific application of the diastase of the grain. it is consequently easier of digestion and requires no cooking. it is beneficial for some forms of indigestion. there are several competing foods of less merit, the starch being less perfectly changed; one at least of which is objectionably salt. properly cooked starch is readily digested by healthy persons, and for them malted food is of no special value. pulse, or legumes, includes haricots and other beans, peas and lentils. the proteid contained is that variety known as legumin, which is either the same, or is closely allied, to the casein of milk and cheese. pulse is very rich in proteid, the dried kinds in general use, contain or per cent. the richest is the soy-bean, which is used in china and japan, it contains per cent., besides per cent. of fat. pulse requires thorough cooking, haricots taking the longest time. split lentils are cooked sooner, and are better digested; this is chiefly due to the removal of the skins. the haricots, bought from small grocers who have a slow sale, are often old, and will not cook tender. pulse is best adapted to the labouring classes; the sedentary should eat it sparingly, it is liable to cause flatulence or accumulation of gas in the intestines, and constipation. haricots are easier to digest when mashed and mixed with other food. pulse was formerly stated to leave much undigested residue. recent experiments have shown that it is satisfactorily digested under favourable conditions. strümpell found beans in their skins to leave a large proportion of proteid matter unabsorbed. lentil meal mixed with other food was digested in a perfectly satisfactory manner. another experimenter (rubner) found that when even the very large quantity of - / pound of dried split peas per day were eaten, only per cent. of proteid matter was unabsorbed, which compares very well with the per cent. of proteid left from a macaroni diet, with which the same man was fed at another time. had a reasonable quantity of peas been eaten per day, the quantity undigested would probably have differed little from that of other foods. nuts are, as a rule, very rich in oil and contain a fair proportion of proteid; when well masticated they are a very valuable food. walnuts are one of the best, and the kernels can be purchased shelled, thus avoiding much trouble. they can be finely ground in a nut-mill and used for several purposes, mixed in the proportion of about two ounces to the pound of wheatmeal they produce a rich flavoured bread. they can also he used in sweet cakes and in rich puddings to increase their food value, lightness and taste. pine kernels being very oily, can be used with flour in the place of lard or butter. fruits are generally looked upon as luxuries, rather than as food capable of supplying a meal or a substantial part of one. they are usually eaten only when the appetite has been appeased by what is considered more substantial fare. fresh fruits contain a larger proportion of water than nearly all other raw foods, and consequently the proportion of nourishment is small; but we must not despise them on this account. milk contains as much or more water. certain foods which in the raw state contain very little water, such as the pulses and cereals when cooked absorb a very large quantity; this is particularly the case in making porridge. cabbage, cauliflower, spanish onions and turnips, after cooking contain even per cent. of water. roast beef contains on an average per cent., and cooked round steak with fat removed per cent. of water. it is customary at meal times to drink water, tea, coffee, beer, wine, &c. when a meal contains any considerable quantity of fresh fruits there need be no desire to drink. notwithstanding that fruits contain so much water, a dietary consisting of fruits with nuts, to which may be added bread and vegetables, will contain less water than the total quantity usually consumed by a person taking the more customary highly cooked and seasoned foods. an advantage is that the water in fruits is in a wholesome condition, free from the pollution often met with in the water used for drinking purposes. raw fruits favour mastication, with its consequent advantages, whilst cooked and soft food discourages it. plums and what are termed stone fruits, if eaten in more than very small quantities, are apt to disagree. persons with good digestions can take fruit with bread, biscuits and with uncooked foods without any inconvenience. fruit is more likely to disagree when taken in conjunction with elaborately cooked foods. many cannot take fruit, especially if it be acid, at the same time as cereal or starchy substances, and the difficulty is said to be greater at the morning's meal. if the indigestion produced is due to the acid of the fruit preventing the saliva acting on the starch, scientific principles would direct that the fruit be eaten quite towards the end of the meal. the same consideration condemns the use of mint sauce, cucumber and vinegar, or pickles, with potatoes and bread, or even mint sauce with green peas. bananas are an exception, as not interfering with the digestion of starch. bananas are generally eaten in an unripe condition, white and somewhat mealy; they should be kept until the starch has been converted into sugar, when they are both more pleasant and wholesome. nuts and fruit go well together. for a portable meal, stoned raisins or other dried fruit and walnut kernels or other nuts are excellent. what has been called a defect in most fruits, is the fact that the proteid is small in proportion to the other constituents. this has been too much dwelt upon, owing to the prevailing exaggerated idea of the quantity of proteid required. the tomato contains a large proportion, though the water is very high. bananas, grapes and strawberries contain to each part of proteid from to parts of other solid nutritive constituents (any oil being calculated into starch equivalents); this is termed the nutritive ratio. although this may seem a small proportion of proteid, there are reasons for believing that it is sufficient. taking the average of analyses of american apples, a nutritive ratio of was obtained. if it were suggested that life should be sustained on apples alone, this small quantity of proteid would be an insurmountable difficulty. as the addition of nuts or other nutritious food sufficiently increases the proteid, no objection can with justice be made against the use of fruit. a study of our teeth, digestive organs and general structure, and of comparative anatomy, points to fruits, nuts and succulent vegetables as our original diet. the potash and other salts of the organic acids in fruits tend to keep the blood properly alkaline. where there is a tendency to the deposition of uric acid in the body, they hinder its formation. citric, tartaric, malic and other organic acids exist in fruits in combination with potash and other bases, as well as in the free state. the free acids in fruits, when eaten, combine with the alkalies in the intestinal tract, and are absorbed by the body and pass into the blood, not as acids, but as neutral salts. here they are converted into potassium carbonate or some other carbonate. fruit acids never make the blood acid but the reverse. fruit salts and acids are antiscorbutic. fruits have often proved of the greatest benefit in illness. what is known as the grape cure has been productive of much good. lemons and oranges have also been of great benefit. strawberries have been craved for and have proved of the greatest advantage in some extreme cases of illness when more concentrated food could not be endured. fruit is coming into greater use, especially owing to its better distribution and lessened cost. fruit is not as cheap as it should be, as it can be produced in great abundance at little cost, and with comparatively little labour. the price paid by the public greatly exceeds the real cost of production. a very large proportion, often the greater part of the cost to the consumer, goes in railway and other rates and in middle-men's profits. it is commonly cheaper to bring fruit from over the sea, including land carriage on either side, than it is to transport english produce from one part of our country to another. english homegrown fruit would be cheaper were it not for the difficulty of buying suitable land at a reasonable price, and the cost of transit. for the production of prime fruit there is a lack of sufficient intelligence, of scientific culture and co-operation. vegetables--using the name in its popular sense--contain valuable saline constituents or salts. by the usual method of cooking a large proportion of the salts is lost. it is better to steam than to boil them. the fibrous portion of vegetables is not all digested, but it is useful in stimulating the peristaltic action of the bowels and lessening any tendency to constipation. vegetables are more especially useful to non-vegetarians to correct the defects of their other food. the potato belongs to a poisonous order--the _solanacæ_. there is a little alkaloid in the skin, but this is lost in the cooking. the eyes and sprouting portions contain the most and should be cut out. fungi.--there are about a hundred edible species in this country, but many of the fungi are poisonous, some intensely so. it can scarcely be expected that these lowly organised plants, differing so much in their manner of growth from the green or chlorophyll bearing plants, can be particularly nourishing. it is only the fructifying part, which appears above the ground, that is generally eaten. it is of very rapid growth. of edible fungi of species, obtained in the belgrade market, the average amount of water was . per cent., leaving only . per cent. of solid matter; the average of fat was . per cent. the food value of fungi has been greatly over-rated. in most of the analyses given in text-books and elsewhere, the total nitrogen has been multiplied by . and the result expressed as proteid. the amount of nitrogen in a form useless for the purpose of nutrition is about a third of the whole. of the remainder or proteid nitrogen, it is said much is not assimilated, sometimes quite half, owing to the somewhat indigestible character of the fungi. an analysis of the common mushroom gave proteids . per cent., amides (useless nitrogenous compounds) . per cent., and water . per cent. the fungi are of inferior nutritive value to many fresh vegetables and are much more expensive. their chief value is as a flavouring. milk and eggs are permissible in a vegetarian dietary, and as a rule, vegetarians use them. eggs, with the exception of such as are unfertile, are of course alive; but they have no conscious existence, and cannot be said to suffer any pain on being killed and eaten. an objection to their use as food is, that on an egg and poultry farm, the superfluous male birds are killed, and as the hens become unprofitable layers they are also killed. a similar humane objection applies to the use of cow's milk by man. the calves are deprived of part of their natural food, the deficiency being perhaps made up by unnatural farinaceous milk substitutes. many of the calves, especially the bull calves, are killed, thus leaving all the milk for human use. when cows cease to yield sufficient milk they too are slaughtered. milch cows are commonly kept in unhealthy houses, deprived of exercise and pure air, crowded together, with filthy evil smelling floors reeking with their excrements, tended by uncleanly people. with no exercise and a rich stimulating diet they produce more milk; but it is no matter for surprise that tuberculosis is common amongst them. when the lesions of tubercle (consumption) are localised and not excessive, the rest of the carcase is passed by veterinary surgeons as fit for food; were it otherwise, enormous quantities of meat would be destroyed. as butcher's meat is seldom officially inspected, but a very small part is judged by the butchers as too bad for food. in mitigation it may be said that poultry lead a happy existence and their death is, or should be, quickly produced with but little pain, probably less pain than if left to die from natural causes. the same cannot be said of cattle and sheep when the time arrives for their transport to the slaughter man's. it is argued by vegetarians who take milk and animal products that they are not responsible for the death of the animals, as they do not eat their flesh. as vegetarians profit by conditions in which the slaughtering of the animals is a part, they cannot be altogether exonerated. cow's milk is prone to absorb bad odours, and it forms a most suitable breeding or nutrient medium for most species of bacteria which may accidentally get therein. by means of milk many epidemics have been spread, of scarlet fever, diphtheria, cholera, and typhoid. occasionally milk contains tubercle bacilli from the cows themselves. by boiling, all bacteria, except a few which may be left out of consideration, are destroyed. such a temperature, however, renders the milk less digestible and wholesome for infants. by heating to ° f. or ° f. for a few minutes, such pathogenic germs as are at all likely to be in milk (tubercle, typhoid, diphtheria, &c.) are killed, and the value of the milk is but little affected: this is called pasteurising. it was until quite recently a common practice to add boric acid, formaldehyde and other preservatives; this has injured the vitality and caused the death of many infants. they have not yet gone quite out of use. for infants the only satisfactory food is that of a healthy mother. on account of physical defects in the mother, or often for merely selfish reasons, the infant is deprived of its natural food. many attempts have been made to bring cow's milk to approximately the same composition as human milk. it can be done by adding water, milk sugar and cream of known composition, in certain proportions. great difficulties are met with when this is put into practice. the simplest method is that of professor soxhlet. the proper quantity of milk sugar is added, but instead of adding the right quantity of cream or fat--a very difficult thing to do--the equivalent quantity of extra milk sugar is used. although not theoretically satisfactory, in practice it answers very well. we have found it to agree very well with infants. to cow's milk of pure average quality, add half its volume of water containing . per cent. of milk sugar; or, what amounts to the same thing, to a pint of cow's milk add one and a quarter ounce of milk sugar and half-a-pint of water. it is preferable to pasteurise by placing the bottle of milk in a vessel of water. this water is to be heated until the milk shows a temperature of about ° c. or ° f., but must not exceed ° c. or a change in the albumen of the milk takes place which affects its digestibility. keep at this temperature for about ten minutes. if not required at once, a plug of cotton wool should be placed in the neck of the bottle, and it should be kept in a cold place until required. professor soxhlet does not advise the addition of lime water. the proteids are not of the same composition as in human milk (the calf being a ruminating animal)--and it is a common plan to add water or barley water to milk until it is so watered down that it cannot curdle into tough curds. an infant has thus either to distend its stomach with a large quantity of watery nourishment, or else to get insufficient food. sometimes it is necessary to peptonise the milk a little. at the leipzig infants hospital, and also the hygienic institute, they give to infants, up to months old, prof. soxhlet's mixture, except that an equal volume of water is added to the milk. milk, cheese, and especially hen's eggs contain a very large proportion of proteid. when added to food poor in proteid they improve its nutritive quality. it has often been said, and with truth, that some vegetarians by the profuse use of animal products, consume as much, or even more proteid of animal origin than the average person who includes flesh food in his dietary. an excess of proteid from these sources is less injurious as eggs contain no purins, and milk but a very small quantity. in support of the use of animal products, it may be said that we have become so fond of animal foods and stimulating drinks, that the use of milk, butter, cheese and eggs renders the transition to a dietary derived from the vegetable kingdom much easier. by means of these, cooked dishes can be produced which approach and sometimes can scarcely be distinguished from those of cooked flesh. in the present state of society, when really good vegetarian fare is difficult to procure away from home, eggs, cheese, and milk are a great convenience. digestion.--the digestive juices contain certain unorganised ferments, which produce chemical changes in the food. if the food is solid, it has to be liquefied. even if already liquid it has generally to undergo a chemical change before being fitted for absorption into the body. the alimentary canal is a tubular passage which is first expanded into the mouth, and later into the stomach. as the food passes down, it is acted upon by several digestive juices, and in the small intestine the nutritive matter is absorbed, whilst the residue passes away. the saliva is the first digestive juice. it is alkaline and contains a ferment called ptyalin. this acts energetically on the cooked and gelatinous starch, and slowly on the raw starch. starch is quite insoluble in water, but the first product of salivary digestion is a less complex substance called soluble-starch. when time is allowed for the action to be completed, the starch is converted into one of the sugars called maltose. in infants this property of acting on starch does not appear in effective degree until the sixth or seventh month, and starch should not be given before that time. only a small quantity should be provided before the twelfth month, when it may be gradually increased. dr. sims wallace has suggested that the eruption of the lower incisors from the seventh to the eighth month, was for the purpose of enabling the infant--in the pre-cooking stage of man's existence--to pierce the outer covering of fruits so as to permit his extracting the soluble contents by suction; and accordingly when these teeth are cut we may allow the child to bite at such vegetable substances as apples, oranges, and sugar cane. dr. harry campbell says that starch should be given to the young, "not as is the custom, as liquid or pap, but in a form compelling vigorous mastication, for it is certain that early man, from the time he emerged from the ape till he discovered how to cook his vegetable food, obtained practically all his starch in such a form. if it is given as liquid or pap it will pass down as starch into the stomach, to setup disturbance in that organ; while if it is administered in a form which obliges the child to chew it properly, not only will the jaws, the teeth, and the gums obtain the exercise which they crave, and without which they cannot develop normally, but the starch will be thoroughly insalivated that much of it will be converted within the mouth into maltose. hard well baked crusts constitute a convenient form in which to administer starch to children. a piece of crust may be put in the oven and rebaked, and spread with butter. later, we may give hard plain biscuits." dr. campbell continues, that he does not say that starch in the pappy form, or as porridge, should find no place whatever in man's dietary at the present day, but we should arrange that a large proportion of our food is in a form inviting mastication. the teeth perform the very important function of breaking down our food and enabling it to be intimately incorporated with the saliva and afterwards with the digestive juices. the anglo-saxon race shows a greater tendency to degeneracy in the teeth than do other races; the teeth of the present generation are less perfect than those of previous generations. a dentist writes (_lancet_, - , p. ) "i have had the opportunity of examining the teeth of many natives in their more or less uncivilised state, from the red indians of north america, the negroes of africa, to the more civilised chinese, japanese, and indians of the east, and i have usually found them possessed of sound teeth, but so soon as they come under the influence of civilised life in washington, montreal, london, paris and other cities, their teeth begin to degenerate, though their general health may remain good." in a long article on mastication in the _lancet_ ( - , p. ) from which we have already quoted, dr. harry campbell gives as the effect of thorough and efficient mastication, that it increases the amount of alkaline saliva passing into the stomach, and prolongs the period of starch digestion within that organ. that it influences the stomach reflexly by promoting the flow of gastric juice. that the frequent use of the jaws and the tongue, during the period of growth, cause the jaws to expand. if the jaws are not adequately exercised during this period, owing to the use of soft food, they do not reach their normal size, the teeth are overcrowded, do not develop fully, and are prone to decay. the effect of vigorous mastication is to stimulate the circulation in the tooth pulp, which promotes nutrition and maintains a firm dental setting. dr. campbell writes: "i am perfectly at one with dr. wallace, in believing that the removal of the fibrous portion of food is the main cause of the prevalence of caries among moderns." when the food reaches the stomach, gastric juice is secreted. this juice contains a ferment called pepsin and hydrochloric acid. pepsin is only active in an acid media. starch digestion proceeds in the stomach to such a time--stated as from to minutes--when the acid gastric juice has been poured out in sufficient quantity to neutralise the alkalinity of the saliva. the gastric juice acts upon the proteids only. after a time the liquefied contents of the stomach are passed into the first portion of the small intestine, called the duodenum. here it meets with the pancreatic juice, which like the gastric juice attacks proteids, but even more energetically, and only in an alkaline media. the proteolitic ferment is called trypsin. the pancreatic, the most important of the digestive fluids, contains other ferments; one called amylopsin, takes up the digestion of any remaining or imperfectly converted starch left from the salivary digestion. amylopsin is much more powerful and rapid than the ptyalin of the saliva, especially on uncooked starch. its absence from the pancreatic juice of infants is an indication that starch should not be given them. another ferment, stearopsin, emulsifies fats. the bile is alkaline and assists the pancreatic juice in neutralising the acid mixture that leaves the stomach; it also assists the absorption of fats. the digestion of proteids is not completed in the stomach. there are some who look upon the stomach as chiefly of use as a receptacle for the large mass of food, which is too quickly eaten to be passed at once into the intestines; the food being gradually expelled from the stomach, in such quantities as the duodenal digestion can adequately treat. a frequently used table, showing the time required for the digestion of various foods in the stomach, is of little practical value. there is ample provision for the digestion of food, there is a duplication of ferments for the proteids and starch. in health, the ferments are not only very active, but are secreted in ample quantities. the digestive or unorganised ferments must not be confused with the organised ferments such as yeast. the latter are living vegetable cells, capable of indefinite multiplication. the former are soluble bodies, and though capable of transforming or digesting some thousands of times their mass of food, their power in this direction is restricted within definite limits. another and preferable name for them is enzymes. the action of saliva on starch is powerfully retarded by tea, this is due to the tannin. coffee and cocoa are without effect. tea infused for two minutes only, was not found to have sensibly less restraining effect than when infused for thirty minutes. on peptic digestion both tea and coffee had a powerful retarding effect. when of equal strength cocoa was nearly as bad, but as it is usually taken much weaker, its inhibitory effect is of little consequence. bacteria are minute vegetable organisms, which exist in the dust of the air, in water and almost everywhere on or near the surface of the earth. they are consequently taken in with our food. they exist in the mouth; those in carious teeth are often sufficient to injuriously affect digestion and health. the healthy gastric juice is to a great degree antiseptic, but few bacteria being able to endure its acidity. when the residue of the food reaches the large intestine, bacteria are found in very great numbers. the warmth of the body is highly favourable to their growth. they cause the food and intestinal _debris_ to assume its fæcal character. should the mass be retained, the bacterial poisons accumutate and being absorbed into the body produce headaches, exhaustion, neurasthenia and other complaints. proteid matter, the products of its decomposition and nitrogenous matter generally, are especially the food of bacteria; this is shown in the offensiveness of the fæces of the carnivora, notwithstanding their short intestines, compared with that of the herbivora. also in the difference of the fæces of the dog when fed on flesh and on a nearly vegetable diet. on a rich proteid diet, especially if it consists largely of flesh, the bacterial products in the intestines are greater than on a vegetable diet. on the latter such a disease as appendicitis is rare. professor elie metchnikoff, of the pasteur institute, thinks that man's voluminous and highly developed large intestine fulfils no useful purpose, and on account of its breeding a very copious and varied bacterial flora, could with advantage be dispensed with. he also has said that man, who could support himself on food easily digestible, has a small intestine which is disproportionately fully developed. instead of having between and feet of small intestine, man might do with one-third of that length. according to him, there is a disharmony of our food and our digestive system. referring to such views, and the desire of some surgeons to remove the vermiform appendix and portions of the intestines upon too little provocation, sir w. macewin, m.d., f.r.s. (_b. medical jrn._, , p. ) says:--"is this human body of ours so badly constructed that it contains so many useless parts and requires so much tinkering? possibly i may be out of fashion with the times, as i cannot find such imperfections in the normal human body as are alleged. on the contrary, the more one looks into the human body and sees it work, the better one understands it and the more one is struck with the wondrous utility, beauty, and harmony of all its parts." our food we can change, but not our organs-except by a dangerous surgical operations. our teeth with our complex and very long intestines are adapted for fibrous, bulky and solid food. on such food mankind has lived for an immense period of time. it is true that there are several theoretical advantages in cooked vegetable foods; but unfortunately there is a want of conformity with our digestive organs. if a flesh diet is taken, the incongruity is greater. concentrated food causes constipation. an active man, leading an out-of-door life, can take unsuitable food with little or no apparent inconvenience, the movements of his body favouring intestinal action; whilst the same food to a sedentary person will prove distinctly injurious. some persons have such a vigorous digestion that they can consume almost any food, even that which is obviously unsuitable; not only bad in kind but excessive in quantity. other persons have to be very careful. many have boasted that they can take of what they call the good things of life to their full, without bad effect. we know of such men who have been much esteemed for their joviality and good nature, but who have broken down in what should have been a hearty and useful middle life. there are others who were poorly equipped for the battle of life, with indifferent constitutions, never having had the buoyancy and overflowing of animal spirits; but who, by conserving such strength as they had, have outlived all their more healthy but less careful comrades. the errors of the parents are often most evident in the children or grandchildren. there are many persons who cannot eat of some particular food, although it may be quite wholesome to others. sometimes it is a psychological rather than a physiological disability, which may he overcome by an effort of the will. at other times it seems to have no connection with the imagination, although it is not always possible to give a sound reason for it. in the main, of course, there are principles of dietetics applicable to all alike, but in regard to details, everyone should make rules for himself, according to his experience. when there appears no real reason for an idiosyncrasy, a little humouring of our taste and digestion will often overcome it, to our advantage. it is generally those of delicate constitution who are most sensitive. some cannot eat oatmeal except in small quantity. olive and other vegetable oils, even when of good quality cannot be taken by many people, whilst others find them quite as wholesome, or even better than butter. vegetarians can generally detect lard in pastry both by its taste and its after effects, although those accustomed to this fat do not object to it. it is also surprising how some individual's tastes and habits will vary at different periods of their lives. one form of dyspepsia is due to undigested starch remaining in the stomach and causing an excessive secretion of hydrochloric acid. as long as proteid food is present, the pepsin and acid expend themselves on it, and are removed together. the undigested starch continues to stimulate gastric secretion, and the acid residuum causes pain, heartburn and flatulence. if there be also any butyric acid, or some other fatty acid, derived from milk, butter, cheese, &c., there will be acid eructations. for this form of indigestion there are several methods of treatment. first; the very thorough cooking of all starchy food, and it is an advantage to take a little good extract of malt, either at the time of eating or directly afterwards. the diastase of the malt has the same action on starch as the ptyalin in the saliva. it is better, scientifically, to have the farinaceous food at about ° f. (as hot as the mouth can bear will do), and then to add malt extract. on keeping the mixture warm, from a few minutes to half an hour or more, the starch is digested and rendered soluble. such food is not very pleasant to take. the food known as grape nuts has been treated in a similar manner. the use of malt extract, however, seems a clumsy substitute for salivary digestion. second; the eating of starch in the form of hard and dry biscuits, crusts and other hard food, which demand thorough mastication and insalivation, and the keeping in the mouth for a long while, during which the saliva has time to act. this is the best plan. third; the taking of sodium bicarbonate towards the end of the period of digestion, in order to neutralise the acid in the stomach. this gives relief, but does not cure, as the dose has to be repeated after each meal; in course of time the quantity of soda has sometimes to be increased to an alarming extent. fourth; the abstention from starchy foods and the substitution of an exclusive flesh dietary. in the "salisbury" treatment, raw minced beef is given. this method often gives immediate relief, but its ultimate effect on the kidneys and other organs is very bad. no hard and fast rule can be laid down as to the number of meals into which the daily amount of food required should be divided. the stomach appears to work to the best advantage when it is full, or nearly so, and the appetite is appeased. three approximately equal meals seems to be a convenient division. dr. dewey and his followers advise only two meals a day, and it seems incontestable that many persons find the plan advantageous. these are generally adults with weak digestions, or elderly persons who, on account of their age and the sluggish action of their assimilative functions, require comparatively little food. children, on account of their vigorous vitality, rapid growth and hearty appetites, ought not to be restricted to this number. persons who have got into the pernicious habit of greatly over-eating, and whose stomachs have become distended and unusually large, sometimes find it easier to restrict their daily food to a healthy quantity by taking only two meals. the general objections against two meals are that either two little food is taken, or the ingestion of such a large quantity is bad for the stomach and causes it to press on the adjacent viscera. the large quantity of blood and nerve force drawn to the over-distended stomach, depletes the brain and nervous system, causing drowsiness and incapacity for mental and physical work. the carnivora, whose opportunity for obtaining food--unlike the herbivora--is irregular and often at long intervals, gorge themselves upon opportunity and are in the habit of sleeping after a meal. the frugivora and herbivora, however, are alert and ready to fly from their enemies should such appear. the conveying of so much nourishment to the liver and blood stream at one time, is probably a greater tax on them. a light lunch between the usual full meals has nothing to recommend it. the stomach is burdened to little purpose, often before it has finished with one meal another is imposed upon it, no time being left for recuperation. dietaries.--the best proportions of proteids, carbo-hydrates and fats required for the nourishment of the body has not yet been conclusively decided. the common plan is to average the dietary of large bodies of persons, particualrly of soldiers and prisoners. these dietaries have been adjusted empirically (the earlier ones at least), and are generally considered as satisfactory. they are chiefly of english and german origin. another method is to laboriously analyse the injesta or food consumed and compare it with the dejecta or excretions, until a quantity and kind of food is found which is just sufficient to keep the body in equilibrium. this latter plan is the best, but to be quite satisfactory must be tried on a large number of suitable persons under varying conditions, both of quantity and kind of food. nearly all the experiments have been made on persons accustomed to a stimulating dietary: their usual food has included a considerable quantity of flesh and alcoholic drinks. sufficient attention has not been paid to the dietaries of the more abstemious races who partake of little if any flesh food. the standard daily dietary for a man of average weight, doing a moderate amount of work, is variously stated by the best authorities as proteids from to grammes, fat to grammes, and carbo-hydrates to grammes. there is a surprising difference of opinion on the amount of fat, but those who give least fat give the largest quantity of carbo-hydrate and _vice-versa_. dr. r. hutchison in "food and dietetics," sums up the quantities given by the highest authorities as follows:--- proteid g. ( . oz.) x . = cal. = g. n, c carbo-hydrate g. ( . oz.) . fat g. ( . oz.) . ----------------- ---- -------- ----- g.( . ) total g. n, c the nutrient ratio is : . . for scientific purposes, metrical weights and measures are used, instead of the inconvenient english grains, ounces, pounds, &c. ( gramme = . grains; ounce avoirdupois = . grains = . grammes). a calorie is a measure of the power of a food in generating heat and muscular energy (these two being convertible). the calories used in food tables are kilo-calories, representing the amount of heat which would raise a kilogramme ( grammes) of water ° centigrade. this is the same as raising pound weight ° fahrenheit. according to the table given, grammes of dry proteid are required per day; this contains grammes of nitrogen and of carbon. when thoroughly consumed or utilised in the body, the heat or its equivalent in muscular work equals kilo-calories. proteids have, of course, an additional value as tissue formers. the factors used here, of . and . , are those commonly employed; but the latest and most reliable research, taking account only of that part of the food which is actually available in the body, gives for proteid and carbo-hydrate calories, and for fat . calories. fat has a higher food value than the carbo-hydrates, as . : . = . or . : = . , according to whether the old or new factors are used. in the table of analyses . was used. the standard dietary for a woman, or of a boy to years of age, is given as equivalent to eight-tenths that of a man; a child of to six-tenths; of to four-tenths. a man doing hard work requires one-tenth more. the following table gives three standard dietaries, and a few actual ones, in grammes per day. the food of persons in easy circumstances, and of working men in the receipt of good wages, approximate to the standard dietaries, except that the fat is higher and the carbo-hydrates proportionately less. this is due to an abundance of animal food. it was thought unnecessary to give them in detail:-- pr't. fat. c'rb. cal. n.r. hutchison: man, moderate muscular work . atwater: " " " " ... ... . voit: " " " " . atwater: woman, light to moderate muscular work, or man without muscular exercise ... ... . football teams, connecticut and california, u.s. . russian peasants . negro families--alabama and virginia . labourers-lombardy (diet, mostly vegetable) . japanese, on vegetable diet (_a_) . trappist monk, in cloisters-vegetable diet . java village--columbia exposition, . sewing girl-london ( / per week) . german vegetarians . german labourers' family (poor circumstances) . dr. t.r.a.--wheatmeal bread and water only (_b_) . . man-- years' exclusively vegetable diet (_c_) . thomas wood, the miller of billericay (_d_) . . dr. alexander haig considers that grammes of proteid is required by a man leading a decidedly active life. notes.--(_a_) the japanese are of small stature and weight. (_b_) one of a series of experiments by a.w. blyth, . - / lbs. of wheatmeal per day was required for equilibrium; sedentary occupation, with a daily walk of six miles. (_c_) see "a text book of physiology," by m. foster, th edition, part ii., p. ; the diet was bread, fruit and oil. the man was in apparently good health and stationary weight; only per cent. of the proteids were digested, leaving the small quantity of grammes available for real use. in commenting upon this, professor foster writes:--"we cannot authoritatively say that such a reduction is necessarily an evil; for our knowledge will not at present permit us to make an authoritative exact statement as to the extent to which the proteid may be reduced without disadvantage to the body, when accompanied by adequate provision of the other elements of food; and this statement holds good whether the body be undertaking a small or large amount of labour." (_d_) the miller of billericay's case is quoted by dr. carpenter, and also by dr. pavy. it was reported to the college of physicians in by sir george baker. a remarkable degree of vigour is said to have been sustained for upwards of eighteen years on no other nutriment than oz. of flour, made into a pudding with water, no other liquid of any kind being taken. a striking instance of abstemiousness is that of cornaro, a venetian nobleman, who died in the year at the age of . up to the age of he spent a life of indulgence, eating and drinking to excess. at this time, having been endowed with a feeble constitution, he was suffering from dyspepsia, gout, and an almost continual slow fever, with an intolerable thirst continually hanging upon him. the skill of the best physicians of italy was unavailing. at length he completely changed his habits of diet, and made a complete recovery. at the age of he wrote a treatise on a "sure and certain method of attaining a long and healthful life." he says, what with bread, meat, the yolk of an egg and soup, i ate as much as weighed ozs., neither more nor less. i drank oz. of wine. when he was persuaded to increase his food by the addition of oz. per day, and this nearly proved fatal. he writes that, instead of old age being one of weakness, infirmity and misery, i find myself to be in the most pleasant and delightful stage of life. at i am always merry, maintaining a happy peace in my own mind. a sober life has preserved me in that sprightliness of thought and gaiety of humour. my teeth are all as sound as in my youth. he was able to take moderate exercise in riding and walking at that age. he was very passionate and hasty in his youth. he wrote other treatises up to the age of . kumagara, lapicque and breis-acher, have, as the result of their experiments, reduced the quantity of proteid required per hours to grammes. t. hirschfeld states, as the conclusion of his research, that it is possible for a healthy man (in one case for days and in another for days) to maintain nitrogenous balance on from to grammes of proteid per day. labbé and morchoisne (comptes rendus, th may, , p. ) made a dieting experiment during days, upon one of themselves. the proteid was derived exclusively from vegetable food. the food consisted of bread, lentils, haricots, potatoes, carrots, chestnuts, endives, apples, oranges, preserves, sugar, starch, butter, chocolate and wine. at the commencement, the day's food contained . grammes of nitrogen = . proteid, which was gradually diminished. on the th day . g. n. = . g. proteid was reached; during this time less n. was eliminated, indicating that the proteid food was in excess of that required for the wear and tear of the body. as the quantity of nitrogenous food was diminished almost daily, the n. eliminated was found to diminish also. this latter was in slight excess of that absorbed; but when a day or two's time was allowed, without further reduction in the food, the body tended to adjust itself to the dimished supply, and there was an approximation of income and expenditure. the smallest quantity of food was reached on the nd day with . n. = . proteid, which was obviously too little, as . n. = . proteid was eliminated. on the st day . n. = proteid was injested, and . n. was eliminated. the inference drawn from the research is that about grammes of proteid per day was sufficient. the weight of the body remained practically constant throughout, and the subject did not suffer inconvenience. of course the full amount of calories was kept up; as each succeeding quantity of the proteid was left off, it was replaced by a proper quantity of non-nitrogenous food. these experiments were carried out in the usual approved scientific manner. it may, however, be urged against any generalised and positive conclusions as to the minimum quantity of proteid required for the body, being drawn from such experiments, that the period covered by them was much too short. a prolonged trial might have revealed some obscure physiological derangement. we are quite justified in concluding that the usual, so-called "standard dietaries" contain an unnecessarily large proportion of proteid. in some practical dietaries, grammes and under have seemed enough; but for the ordinary adult man, who has been accustomed to an abundance of proteid, and whose ancestors have also, it is probably advisable not to take less than or grammes per day ( - / to ounces). if it is desired to try less, the diminution should be very gradual, and a watch should be kept for any lessening of strength. some comments may now be made upon the table of dietaries. that of the london sewing girl contained grammes of proteid, which should have been ample, according to some of the authorities we have given; yet she was badly nourished. the food was doubtless of bad quality, and it appears deficient in carbo-hydrates; this latter is shown by the low number of calories. the long hours and unhealthy conditions of work, and not a deficiency of food constituents, is probably the cause of the bad health of such persons. there is no reason to think the proteid insufficient, although some persons have said as much. we have no particulars of the german vegetarians, but the calories appear satisfactory. in the poor german labourer's family the calories are too low. in dr. t.r. allinson's experiment on a wheatmeal dietary, it will not do to assume that less than grammes of proteid would have been insufficient. it is probable that a smaller quantity of proteid would have been enough if the fat and carbohydrates had been increased. the calories are below the usual standard. in the succeeding example the calories are considerably higher, being not far from the usual standard, yet grammes of proteid sufficed. it is a common error to place an undue value on the proteids to the extent of overlooking the other constituents. dr. alexander haig in "diet and food," p. , cites the case of a boy aged , fed on - / pints of milk per day. the boy lost weight, and dr. haig is of opinion that the quantity of milk was very deficient in proteid; more than twice as much being required. - / pints of milk contain about grammes of proteid, whereas, according to the usual figures ( x / ) a boy of this age requires g. this quantity of g. is however, higher, allowing for the boy's age, than that in several of the dietaries we have given in our table. a little consideration will show that dr. haig has overlooked the serious deficiency of the milk in the other constituents, which accounts for the boy's loss of weight. the quantity of milk contains only about g. of total solid matter, whilst g. is the necessary quantity. milk is too rich in proteid matter to form, with advantage, the sole food of a human being. human milk contains much less in proportion to the other constituents. the old doctrine enunciated by justus von liebig was that proteid matter is the principal source of muscular energy or strength. he afterwards discovered and acknowledged his error, and the subject has since been thoroughly investigated. the makers of meat extracts and other foods, either from their own ignorance of modern research or their wish to take advantage of the lack of knowledge and prejudice of the public, call proteid matter alone nourishment. the carbo-hydrates and fats are equally entitled to be called nourishment. our reason for devoting so much space to the consideration of the quantity of proteid matter required, is that in the opinion of many eminent writers it is the crux of vegetarianism. they have stated that it is impossible to obtain sufficient from vegetable foods alone, without consuming an excessive quantity of carbo-hydrates. we will summarise the argument as given in kirke's physiology, as edited by morrant baker, a standard work, and which is repeated in furneaux's "animal physiology," a book which is much used in elementary science schools: "the daily waste from the system amounts to, carbon , grains (or grammes), and nitrogen, grains (or grammes). now let us suppose a person to feed on bread only. in order to obtain the necessary quantity of nitrogen to repair this waste he would have to eat nearly - / lbs. daily.... he would be compelled to take about double the quantity of carbon required in order to obtain the necessary weight of nitrogen.... next, let us suppose that he feeds on lean meat only. then, in order to obtain the necessary quantity of carbon, he must eat no less than - / lbs. daily.... in this case we notice a similar waste of nitrogen, the removal of which would give an undue amount of work to the organs concerned.... but it is possible to take such a mixed diet of bread and meat as will supply all the requirements of the system, and at the same time yield but little waste material." (these extracts are from furneaux, the next is from kirke. the figures and argument is the same in each, but we have chosen those sentences for quotation which are the briefest and most suitable; certain calculations being omitted.) "a combination of bread and meat would supply much more economically what was necessary ... so that / lbs. of meat, and less than lbs. of bread would supply all the needful carbon and nitrogen with but little waste. from these facts it will be plain that a mixed diet is the best and most economical food for man; and the result of experience entirely coincides with what might have been anticipated on theoretical grounds only." professor huxley, in his "elementary physiology" uses almost the same figures and argument. the adoption of this high proteid or nitrogen figure would lead to some ridiculous conclusions. one writer states that eggs would contain sufficient flesh forming substance for a day's ration, but a very much larger quantity would be required to supply enough carbon. on the other hand, professor church says that, no less than lbs. of pears would have to be eaten per day, to supply the necessary quantity of nitrogen; although the carbon would be in excess. the curious may calculate the proper quantity of each that would make a theoretically perfect dietary. people are apt to assume that what they themselves eat, or what their class, race, or nation eat, is the proper and necessary diet; at least as far as the elementary constituents and quantities are concerned. the error is in attempting to make a vegetarian diet, however contrary to common sense and the experience of the greater part of the earth's inhabitants, agree in composition with the ordinary lavish flesh dietary of the well-to-do european. it is significant that john bull is caricatured with a large abdomen and a coarse, ruddy, if not inflamed face, indicative of his hearty dining on flesh, coarse food and alcoholic drinks. an unhealthy short lived individual. even if we accept a high proportion of proteid, it is possible to combine purely vegetable foods so as to give the required quantity of the various constituents, without a superfluity of the carbo-hydrates. in "food grains of india," professor a.h. church shows by elaborate analyses and dietary tables, how this can be accomplished by various combinations of cereals, pulses, etc. he takes forster and voit's standard of grains of nitrogen and , grains of carbon, with a suitable deduction for the smaller weight of the indians. in his examples of daily rations he gives from to ounces of various beans, balanced by the addition of the proper quantity of rice-- to ounces, and a little oil. such a large quantity of pulse appears to us excessive, and would cause discomfort to most persons. we much doubt whether those indians who are strict vegetarians could consume such quantities. some valuable investigations were made on the diet of a family of fruitarians, at the californian agricultural experimental station, july, , by professor m.e. jaffa (bulletin ). the proportion of food, both proteid and carbo-hydrate used was surprisingly small. the research is particularly important, as the diet was not an experimental one, tried during a short period only; but that to which the family were accustomed. the family consisted of two women and three children; they had all been fruitarians for five to seven years, and made no change in their dietary during the experiment. they only had two meals a day, the food being eaten uncooked. the quantities of all the foods and other particulars are detailed in the bulletin. the first meal was at - a.m., and always consisted of nuts followed by fruits. the other meal was about p.m., when they usually ate no nuts, substituting olive oil and honey. the nuts used were almonds, brazil, pine, pignolias and walnuts; the fresh fruits were apples, apricots, bananas, figs, grapes, oranges, peaches and pears. other foods were dates, raisins, pickled olives, olive oil and honey. one person (_b_) ate a little celery and tomatoes, and another (_c_) a little cereal food. in the following table are given the average daily quantities of the food constituents in grammes:--proteids, fat, carbo-hydrate, crude fibre, value in calories and nutrient ratio. the crude fibre is classed as a carbo-hydrate and included in the calorie value, and also in calculating the nutrient ratio. pro. fat. c'r'b. fibre. cal. n. r. woman, age , weight lbs. (_a_) . woman " " " (_b_) . girl " " - / " (_c_) . boy " " " (_d_) . girl " " - / " (_e_) . girl " " " (_ee_) . the last research extended over ten days; the period during which each of the other subjects was under observation was from to days. (_a_) the tentative standard for a woman at light work calls for grammes of proteids and , calories; it is thus seen that the quantity of food eaten was far below that usually stated as being necessary. the subject, however, was a very small woman, feet in height, taking almost no physical exercise. she believed, as do fruitarians generally, that people need far less raw than cooked food. (_b_) the food eaten was even less in quantity than in the previous dietary. one reason for this was the fact that the subject was, for part of the time at least, under great mental strain, and did not have her usual appetite. even this small amount of food, judging by her appearance and manner, seemed sufficient for her needs, enabling her to do her customary housework and take care of her two nieces and nephew, the subjects of the other experiments. (_c_) this girl was given cereals and vegetables when she craved them, but her aunt says she never looks nor feels so well when she has much starchy food, and returns to her next meal of uncooked food with an increased appreciation of its superiority. the commonly accepted dietary standard for a child years old and of average activity, is not far from grammes of proteids and , calories, yet the girl had all the appearance of being well fed and in excellent health and spirits. (_d_) during the days of experiment, there was an increase in weight of pounds, due to the fact that the family had been in straitened circumstances, and the food provided was more abundant during the study. (_e_) the subject had been very delicate as a baby. she was very small for her age, being pounds under the average weight, and inches less than the average height. it is interesting to note that her only gain in weight during the past year was made during this dietary and the one immediately following. this was due to her being urged to eat all she wanted, of what she most preferred, as the food was provided by those making the study. the proteid is less than the tentative standard for a child of to years old, but the subject appeared perfectly well and was exceedingly active. she impressed one as being a healthy child, but looked younger than her age. (_ee_) the subject is the same as in the previous experiment (_e_), but after an interval of months, her seventh birthday occurred during the time. professor jaffa, who made the investigation, says:--"it would appear that all the subjects were decidedly under-nourished, even making allowance for their light weight. but when we consider that the two adults have lived upon this diet for seven years, and think they are in better health and capable of more work than they ever were before, we hesitate to pronounce judgment. the three children had the appearance of health and strength. they ran and jumped and played all day like ordinary healthy children, and were said to be unusually free from colds and other complaints common to childhood. the youngest child, and the only one who has lived as a fruitarian almost from infancy was certainly undeveloped. she looked fully two years younger than she was. still, there are so many children who are below the average in development, whose dietaries conform to the ordinary standards, that it would be unfair to draw any conclusions until many more such investigations are made." the research shows that not only is there need of a revision of the "standard" quantity of proteids, but also of the carbo-hydrates and fats. it is generally said by those who have no practical experience amongst vegetarians, that the latter require a much larger quantity of food than do those who include flesh. the truth is that vegetarians eat less, often much less. it is a common experience that vegetable food has a more staying power, and a much longer period can be allowed between meals, without the inconvenience that a flesh-eater, especially a flesh and alcohol consumer, suffers. this is due, in part at least, to its less stimulating character and its slower digestion. this fact has been shown by the success of vegetarians in feats of strength and endurance, and especially in the comparatively fresh condition in which they have finished long walking, cycling, tennis, and other matches. those who attempt to prolong their powers of endurance by flesh extracts and stimulating foods and drinks, usually finish in a very exhausted condition. the superior endurance and recovery from wounds, when compared with our english soldiers, of simple feeding men, such as the zulus, turks and japanese, has often been remarked. it is often said that vegetable food, as it contains more fibre and is slower of digestion, taxes the bodily organs more. if we attempted to eat uncooked, the more fibrous vegetables, the grains, and unripe fruit, it would be quite true, but it is not so of the ordinary food of vegetarians. a slowness of digestion does not necessarily imply a greater strain on the system. as vegetables, in particular, are for the longest period of time in the intestines, and undergo the greater part of their digestion there, a gentle and slow process of digestion in that organ may be more thorough. it may also entail less expenditure of nervous energy than if the food had been of such a stimulating character, as to be hurried along the digestive tract. digestion is for the most part a chemical process. if the food is of right kind and quantity, thoroughly masticated, assisted if necessary by cookery, and the digestive ferments are normal, digestion proceeds without any sensible expenditure or energy or consciousness of its accomplishment. there is nothing improbable in a flesh-eater requiring more food than a simple living vegetarian. his food contains more proteid, and excrementitious matter or extractives; these stimulate the digestive organs and overtax the excretory ones. generally, he is fond of condiments, salt, and elaborate cooking, often also of alcohol; if a man, probably of tobacco. he lives, as it were, at high pressure. there are on record certain experiments which appear to indicate the necessity of a large proportion of proteid, especially when the diet has been of vegetable origin. these experiments are inconclusive, because the subject has been accustomed to an ordinary flesh diet, perhaps also to alcoholic drinks. the change to a comparatively non-stimulating diet cannot be made, and the digestive organs expected to adapt themselves in a few days. perhaps not even a month or a year would suffice, for some people, and yet that same diet would suit others. in some experiments the food has not been appetising, the subject has even taken it with reluctance or even loathing; an excess of some food has been eaten which no vegetarian or anybody else would think of using in a practical dietary. sometimes persons on changing from an ordinary flesh dietary, lose weight and strength. generally, it is found that they have done little more than discontinue the flesh, without substituting suitable foods. authorities think it is from a deficiency of proteid, and recommend an addition of such foods as pulse, wheatmeal, oatmeal, eggs, milk, cheese, and such as a reference to the table of analyses, show a low nutrient ratio figure. this may also be due to an insufficiency of food eaten, owing to the comparatively insipid character of the food and want of appetite. in making a change to a vegetarian diet, such foods had better be taken that are rather rich in proteid, and that approximate somewhat in their flavour and manner of cooking to that used previously. a further change to a simpler diet can afterwards gradually be made, according to conviction, tastes and bodily adaptability. it must not be expected that a change, even an ultimately very advantageous one, will always meet with an immediate and proper response from digestive and assimilative organs which have been accustomed for many years, perhaps by inheritance for generations, to another manner of living. there are several preparations produced from centrifugalised milk--that is milk from which the butter fat has been removed, which consist chiefly of proteid. these have a value in increasing the proteid contents of foods which may be thought deficient. the addition of these manufactured products appear unnecessary, as most of our food contains an abundance of proteid, and we can easily limit the quantity or avoid altogether those that are thought defective. the later apologists for a flesh diet have had to admit that it is not a physiological necessity; but they have attempted to justify its use by a theory somewhat as follows. it is admitted, that any excess of proteid over that necessary for its special province of producing tissue, is utilised as a force-producer, in a similar manner to the carbo-hydrates. when the molecule is split up, and the carbon utilised, the nitrogen passes off in the form of urea by the kidneys. the theory propounded is that at the moment the nitrogen portion is liberated, it in some manner stimulates the living protoplasm of the nerve cells in its immediate neighbourhood to a higher state of activity. these views are given by dr. hutchison in his book on "food," but there are no substantial grounds for them. it is only prompted by a wish to excuse a cherished habit. sir william roberts, m.d., in "dietetics and dyspepsia," p. says that "high feeding consists mainly in a liberal allowance of meat, and in the systematic use of alcoholic beverages, and that low-feeding consists in a diet which is mainly vegetarian and non-alcoholic," and he proceeds to say that the high-fed classes and races display, on the whole, a richer vitality and a greater brain-power than their low-fed brethren. that "it is remarkable how often we hear of eminent men being troubled with gout, and gout is usually produced either by personal or ancestral high-feeding." we can only spare room for a few remarks on this subject. intellectual and business ability brings wealth, wealth frequently leads to the pleasures of the table, but such habits are detrimental to sustained effort and clearness of mind. the children and grandchildren of such high livers are usually common-place, intellectually, and of deteriorated physique. the aristocracy who are generally high livers, notwithstanding their great advantages of education, travel and leisure, are not as a rule famed for their intellectual gifts. in the recent war the frugal living japanese soldier has proved himself the most enduring and bravest in history; whilst the japanese officers are more resourceful and tactful than the wealthier, high-fed russian officers, with their aristocratic lineage. what is called high-feeding, is of the greatest benefit to the doctors and the proprietors of remedies for digestive and nervous disorders. food adjuncts and drugs.--in addition to the nutrients and the small quantity of indigestible fibre of which we have already written, food generally contains small quantities of substances which are difficult to classify, and whose action on the body is but imperfectly understood. many of these possess pungent or strong odours and flavours. to them, various fruits, meats, etc., owe much of their characteristic differences of taste. when pure the proteids and starches are devoid of taste. such oils and fats as are generally eaten have also but little flavour, providing they are free from rancidity and of good quality. the sugars differ from the other nutrients in possessing a more or less decided taste. the free vegetable acids also strongly affect the sense of taste, but they are only consumed in small quantities. a drug may be defined as a substance which modifies the functions of the body or of some organ without sensibly imparting nourishment. this action may be one of stimulation or of depression. a drug is taken for its medicinal action, a food adjunct for its modifying action on food. it is impossible to give a quite satisfactory definition, or to draw sharp distinctions. for example, tea, coffee, alcohol and tobacco are sometimes placed in one group, and sometimes in another, according to opinion of their action and the definition of the terms food adjuncts, drugs and poisons. the difference of grouping often depends upon intensity rather than of kind of action. if taken frequently and not in quantity sufficient to have a markedly medicinal action, such things are generally called food adjuncts or supplementary foods, although much may be said in favour of a different view. the volatile oils of mustard, caraway, cloves, etc., are used in medicine; also the alkaloids of coffee and cocoa. even honey is used as a mild laxative for infants; that is, as a drug. the difference between a drug and a poison is one only of degree. some of the most esteemed drugs have to be administered in very small quantities, or they cause death; e.g., strychnine and morphine. classifications are necessary for methodical study, and for assisting the memory in grasping large numbers of things which can be grouped together. classifications, however, are artificial, not due to natural lines of demarkation, but according to man's knowledge and convenience; hence a group is apt to approach and finally merge into another group, although on first consideration they appeared quite distinct. the disregard of this often leads to confusion and useless discussions. plants, like animals, as the result of tissue change, have certain used-up or waste matters to get out of the way. animals have special excretory organs for the purpose; waste matter remains in the flesh and blood of dead animals. in plants are found a large number of powerful volatile oils, alkaloids, bitter resins, etc. many of these are, in all probability, excretory products of no assimilative value to the plant. certain volatile oils may attract insects, and in obtaining nectar from flowers insects assist fertilisation. agreeable volatile oils and flavouring substances in fruits attract birds and animals. the eating of the fruits cause the seeds, which are uninjured by passing through the digestive system, to be disseminated over wide areas to the advantage of the plant species. on the other hand, nauseous and poisonous alkaloids, oils, resins, etc., serve as a protection against the attacks of browsing animals, birds, caterpillars, snails, etc. these nauseous substances are most abundant in the bark, husk, skin and outer parts. it is commonly supposed that the food on which each animal, including man, subsists, is especially produced by nature for the purpose. this is an error, for each species of plant and animal lives for itself alone, and protects itself, with more or less success, against destruction by its competitors and enemies. each species of animal selects from its surroundings such food as is most suitable. such food may not be theoretically perfect; that is, it may not contain the maximum of nourishment free from innutritious matter; but during the long period of evolution, each species of animal has become possessed of organs suited to its environment. if to such animals be given food containing less indigestible matter, or food which is more readily digested by laboratory tests made independently of the living animal, their digestive system will be thrown out of gear, become clogged up or refuse to work properly, just as the furnace of a steam boiler, made to burn coal, will act badly with wood or petroleum. many scientific men have overlooked this fact, and have endeavoured to produce food substances for general consumption, in the most concentrated and soluble form, thinking such food would be more easily assimilated. the volatile and essential oils are contained in minute quantity in a very large number of animal and vegetable foods. they contribute in part to the flavour of fruits. they are the cause of the pungency and aroma of mustard, horse-radish, cloves, nutmegs, cinnamon, caraway seeds, mint, sage and other spices. onions contain a notable quantity. when extracted the essential oils become powerful drugs. in moderate quantities they are stomachic and carminative, in larger quantities irritant and emetic. condiments and spices not only add flavour to food, but stimulate the secretion of gastric juice and peristaltic movement. the alkaloids most used are those of tea, coffee, kola-nut, cocoa, coca, tobacco and opium. although the two last are generally smoked, they must be classed amongst the food adjuncts. it is of little consequence whether their active principles enter the body by the mouth and saliva or the lungs; their action on the blood and nervous system is the same. the extractives, as they are called, comprise a number of bodies of varying nature. they especially exist in flesh and flesh extracts. amongst these are the purins. they will be treated at greater length hereafter. alcohol is to some extent a true food, but its stimulant and other action quite overshadows any food value it may possess. there are other bodies such as the resins and bitters. the active principle of indian hemp is a resin. there is a great difference of opinion as to the extent to which stimulants may advantageously be used. it is remarkable that amongst nearly all nations, either alcohol in some form or one of the stronger alkaloids is in common use. from this fact it is sometimes argued that stimulants must supply a physiological need. the same method of reasoning will apply with greater force to the use of condiments. such conclusions appear to us to be scarcely warranted. if the extensive or even universal practice of a thing proves its necessity, then has there been justification, either now or in the past, for war, lying, avarice and other vices. it is strange that drugs differing so greatly in their immediate and obvious effects as, for example, alcohol and opium, or coffee and tobacco should be used. should it he said that only some of the much used stimulants are useful, there is an end to the argument based on their universal use. there is no doubt that the use of stimulants in more than very small quantities is distinctly injurious, and it is difficult to see what physiological advantage there can be in their habitual use, to what is vaguely called a moderate extent. sometimes they are taken for a supposed medical necessity, and where taste attracts, little evidence satisfies. those in the habit of taking them, if honest, must confess that it is chiefly on account of the apparent enjoyment. the ill-nourished and the depressed in body and mind crave most for stimulants. a food creates energy in the body, including the nervous system, and this is the only legitimate form of stimulation. a mere stimulant does not create but draws on the reserve forces. what was latent energy--to become in the natural course gradually available--under stimulation is rapidly set free; there is consequently, subsequent depletion of energy. there may occasionally be times when a particular organ needs a temporary stimulus to increased action, notwithstanding it may suffer an after depression; but such cases are so rare that they may be left out of our present argument, and stimulants should only be used, like other powerful drugs, under medical advice. in the last years the use of alcohol by the medical profession has steadily diminished, its poisonous properties having become more evident. there is a general similarity in the effects of stimulants on the digestive and nervous systems. the most largely used stimulant is ethyl alcohol, and as its action is best known, it may be useful to name the principal effects. alcohol in the form of wine and spirits, in small quantities, first stimulates the digestive organs. large quantities inflame the stomach and stop digestion. (beer, however, retards digestion, altogether out of proportion to the alcohol it contains.) alcohol increases the action of the heart, increases the blood pressure, and causes the vessels of the whole body to dilate, especially those of the skin; hence there is a feeling of warmth. it the person previously felt cold he now feels warm. the result of the increased circulation through the various organs is that they work with greater vigour, hence the mental faculties are brightened for a time, and the muscular strength seems increased. the person usually feels the better for it, though this is not always the case; some have a headache or feel very sleepy. it has been repeatedly proved that these good results are but transitory. the heart, although at first stimulated, is more exhausted after the action of the alcohol has passed away than it was at first. this is true of all the organs of the body which were stimulated. in consequence of the dilatation of the blood vessels of the skin, an unusual quantity of heat is lost and the body is cooled. after taking alcohol persons are less able to stand cold. when overtaken by snowstorms or subjected to excessive or prolonged cold, it has often happened that those who resorted to spirit drinking have succumbed, whilst the others have survived. insurance statistics have conclusively shown that teetotallers are longer livers than the so-called moderate drinkers. the terrible effects on both body and mind of the excessive drinking of alcohol, or the use of other strong stimulants or narcotics, are too obvious to need allusion to here; we are only concerned with what is vaguely called their moderate use. the stimulation produced by tea and coffee is in some respects like that of alcohol. the heart is stimulated and the blood pressure rises. the kidneys are strongly affected in those unaccustomed to the drug, but this ceases after a week or more of use. their chief effect is on the brain and nervous system. many have boasted that they can take of what they call the good things of life to their full, without any bad effect, and looking over a few years, or even many years, it seems a fact. some of us have known of such men, who have been esteemed for their joviality and good nature, who have suddenly broken down at what should have been a hearty middle life. on the other hand there are men who were badly equipped for the battle of life, with indifferent constitutions, who never had the buoyancy and overflow of animal spirits, but who with care have long outlived all their formerly more robust but careless companions. simple versus highly-flavoured foods.--it is very difficult to decide to what extent condiments and flavourings should be used. these have stimulating properties, although differing from the more complex properties of alcohol and the alkaloids. the great differences in the dietetic practices of nations does not appear to be in conformity with any general rule. it varies with opportunity, climate and national temperament; though doubtless the national temperament is often due in part to the dietetic habits. some races are content with the simplest foods, large numbers subsist chiefly on rice, others on the richer cereals, wheat, oatmeal, etc., and fruit. on the other hand there are races who enjoy stronger flavoured food, including such things as garlic, curry, pickles, pepper, strong cheese, meat extracts, rancid fats, dried and smoked fish, high game or still more decomposed flesh, offal and various disgusting things. the greenlanders will eat with the keenest appetite, the half-frozen, half-putrid head and fins of the seal, after it has been preserved under the grass of summer. in burmah and sumatra a mess is made by pounding together prawns, shrimps, or any cheap fish; this is frequently allowed to become partially putrid. it is largely used as a condiment for mixing with their rice. numerous examples of this sort could be given. there is scarcely anything that it is possible to eat, but has been consumed with relish by some tribe or other. the strongest flavoured, and to our minds most disgusting foods are eaten by the least intelligent and most brutal races. it is hunger that compels the poor african bushman to eat anything he can get, and the hottentot not only the flesh, but the entrails of cattle which die naturally, and this last he has come to think exquisite when boiled in beast-blood. all this shows a wonderful range of adaptability in the human body, but it would not be right to say that all such food is equally wholesome. the most advanced and civilised races, especially the more delicately organised of them are the most fastidious, whilst it is the most brutal, that take the most rank and strongly flavoured foods. even amongst the civilised there are great differences. the assimilative and nervous systems can be trained to tolerate injurious influences to a remarkable degree. a striking example is seen in the nausea commonly produced by the first pipe of tobacco, and the way the body may in time be persuaded, not only to tolerate many times such a quantity without manifesting any unpleasant feelings, but to receive pleasure from the drug. opium or laudanum may be taken in gradually increasing quantities, until such a dose is taken as would at first have produced death, yet now without causing any immediate or very apparent harm. nearly all drugs loose much of their first effect on continued use. not only is this so, but a sudden discontinuance of a drug may cause distress, as the body, when free from the artificial stimulation to which it has become habituated, falls into a sluggish or torpid condition. for the enjoyment of food two things are equally necessary, a healthy and keen appetite and suitable food; without the first no food, however good and skilfully prepared, will give satisfaction. the sense of taste resides in certain of the papilloe of the tongue, and to a much less degree in the palate. tastes may be classified into sweet, bitter, acid and saline. sweet tastes are best appreciated by the tip, acid by the side, and bitter by the back of the tongue. hot or pungent substances produce sensations of general feeling, which obscure any strictly gustatory sensations which may be present at the same time. to affect the taste the food must enter into solution. like the other senses, taste may be rendered more delicate by cultivation. flavours are really odours, and the word smell would be more appropriate. for example, what we call the taste of an onion, the flavour of fruit, etc. (independent of the sweetness or sourness of the fruit) is due to the nose. much has been written on the necessity of making food tasty, so as to stimulate the appetite and digestion. it is urged that unless this is done food will not be eaten in sufficient quantity. innumerable receipts (some very elaborate) have been published for this purpose. all this is supposed to increase the enjoyment of food. the anglo-saxon race--the race whose dietary is the most elaborate--is especially subject to digestive derangements, and without good digestion and the consequent healthy appetite, no food will give full gustatory pleasure. the most wholesome food, and that which can be eaten most frequently without weariness, is mildly flavoured and simply prepared. plain bread is an example; whereas sweet bread, currant bread, etc., though agreeable in small quantity, or as an occasional delicacy, soon palls on the appetite. rice is the poorest and mildest flavoured of the cereals, it is therefore often, perhaps generally, made more tasty by the addition of fish, curry, etc. the bulk of the chinese live on rice, with the exception of only or ounces of fish per day, and they are a fine, big and strong race. the japanese labourer lives on similar food. in india rice is the food most in use, though many other cereals are eaten there. other races live chiefly on fruits. it appears that the digestive organs will perform their functions perfectly with the mildest flavoured food. there is nothing surprising in this. the strongest, most intelligent, and largest animals are those which feed on grass, herbs and fruits. even the african lion is no match for the gorilla. the lion and tiger are capable of great strength, but they cannot put it forth for long periods as can the herbivora. our most useful animal, the horse, can exert much more muscular energy, weight for weight, than any of the carnivora. the cost of feeding one of the herbivora is much less than that of one of the carnivora of the same weight. this is so whether we take the cost of purchasing the food; or the expenditure of time, labour and energy on the part of man or of natural forces in the production of the food. herbs, roots, corn and fruit are produced much more abundantly and freely than the corresponding quantity of sheep, deer, etc., on which the carnivora feed. the restlessness, craving for novelty, and love of excitement, so characteristic of the anglo-saxon, and to a less extent of some other european races, has its correspondence in the food of these races. highly-seasoned and nitrogenous foods act as a stimulant and favour spasmodic, and for a time perhaps, great intellectual and physical exertion, with a succeeding period of exhaustion. simpler food favours long, sustained, uniform muscular strength, clearness of intellect, and contentment. let no one misunderstand us; we do not assert that all who live on simple food have either clear intellects or are contented, because there are other factors besides food, but that such qualities are more easily retained or obtained under that condition. it is well known that the over-fed and badly fed are the most irritable and discontented those living on a stimulating dietary consisting largely of flesh have their chief successes in feats of short duration. simple and abstemious living individuals or races excel in laborious work requiring endurance over long periods, such as long walking, cycling, and other athletic feats and long military campaigns. the digestive and assimilative organs need the food constituents of which we have written, in proper proportion and quantity, and in a fairly digestible condition. within these very wide and comprehensive limits, the organs can be trained. very much of the great difference in food is due to the non-essential flavouring and stimulating part, rather than to that part which is essential and nourishing. what is the best, interests but few; whilst what is at present the pleasantest, influences the many. the ego, the superphysical conscious and reasoning entity should rule its material body, its temporary vehicle. the body, being the servant of the ego, just as a horse, dog, or other of the lower animals recognises its master, becomes a docile subject. the body can be led into good habits nearly as easily as into bad ones; often more easily, as bad habits are sometimes painfully acquired. the body being once habituated to certain movements, conditions, foods or drinks, within reasonable limits, derives pleasure therefrom and resists change. it is only when the food, etc., transgresses certain elementary principles, that the result is more or less painful. we may on scientific principles condemn flesh-foods, stimulants and elaborately prepared foods; but after ruling all this out, there is still left a very great variety of foods and methods of preparing them: hereon each individual must form his own opinion. of the foods thus left, the same kind is not equally suitable to everyone, nor even to the same person at different periods. a delicately balanced, fine-grained, high-toned mind and body responds to every tender influence, and is painfully jarred by that which is coarse. to such, fruits and delicately flavoured and easily digested foods are doubtless best and conducive to purity and clearness of thought. a coarse-grained, badly poised, roughly working body and spirit, is non-responsive except to loud or coarse impulses; and such a one's appetite is gratified, not by simple but by coarsely seasoned foods. a person who is accustomed to a stimulating dietary of flesh-foods, especially if well-seasoned, finds a simple diet unsatisfying. should such persons dine off simple vegetarian food, there is a tendency to over-eating. the less stimulating food fails to rouse the digestive organs and to appease the appetite; although an ample supply of nourishment be consumed. this is the reason why so many imagine that it is necessary to eat a larger quantity of food if it be vegetable. should a distressing fulness and flatulence result from their over-feeding, they lay the blame to the vegetarian dietary instead of to themselves. most persons, on changing to a vegetarian dietary, commence by imitating flesh dishes in appearance and flavour and even in the names. there is the additional inducement that the food may be attractive and palatable to friends who lack sympathy with the aesthetic and humane principles of the diet. after a while many of them incline to simpler flavoured foods. they revert to the unperverted taste of childhood, for children love sweets, fruits, and mild-flavoured foods rather than savouries. one who loves savouries, as a rule, cares much less for fruits. by compounding and cooking, a very great variety of foods can be prepared, but the differences in taste are much less than is usually, supposed. the effect of seasoning instead of increasing the range, diminishes it, by dulling the finer perception of flavours. the predominating seasoning also obscures everything else. the mixture of foods produces a conglomeration of tastes in which any particular or distinct flavours are obscured, resulting in a general sameness. it is often stated that as an ordinary flesh-eater has the choice of a greater range of foods and flavours than a vegetarian, he can obtain more enjoyment, and that the latter is disagreeably restricted. certainly he has the choice, but does he avail himself of it to any considerable extent? no one cares to take all the different kinds of food, whether of animal or vegetable that are possible. of edible animals but a very few kinds are eaten. a person who particularly relishes and partakes largely of flesh-foods will reject as insipid and unsatisfying many mild-flavoured foods at one end of the scale. the vegetarian may abstain from foods at the opposite end of the scale, not always from humane reasons, but because they are unpleasant. thus there may be little to choose between the mere range of flavours that give enjoyment to each class of persons. the sense of taste is in its character and range lower than the sense of sight and hearing. the cultivation of the taste for savouries seems to blunt the taste for fruits and the delicate foods. the grass and herbs on which the herbivora subsist, seems to our imagination of little flavour and monotonous; but they eat with every sign of enjoyment, deliberately munching their food as though to get its full flavour. in all probability they find a considerable range of flavours in the great varieties of grasses commonly found together in a pasture. our elaborate cooking customs entail a vast amount of labour. they necessitate the cost, trouble and dirt from having fires in great excess of that required for warmth: the extra time in preparing, mixing and attending to food which has to be cooked: and the large number of greasy and soiled utensils which have to be cleaned. cooked savoury food is generally much nicer eaten hot, and this necessitates fires and attention just previous to the meal. we have already said that soft cooked food discourages mastication and leads to defective teeth. our elaborate cookery is mainly due to our custom of eating so largely of flesh, whilst the eating of flesh would receive a great impetus on the discovery of the art of cooking. flesh can only be eaten with relish and with safety when cooked. such a large proportion of it is infected with parasites, or is otherwise diseased, that it would he dangerous to eat it raw, even were it palatable in such a state. in those countries where man eats flesh in a raw or semi-cooked form, parasitic diseases are common. there is not the least doubt that our habit of eating so much cooked food is responsible for much over-eating, hasty eating, dyspepsia and illness. in regard to the making of bread, porridge, and many other comparatively simple prepared foods, the advantages of cooking seem overwhelmingly great. with our present imperfect knowledge and conflicting opinions, it is impossible to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion, and the whole question requires careful and impartial investigation. experiments have been made with animals, chiefly pigs, with cooked and uncooked clover, hay, corn, meal, etc. (u.s. department of agriculture). it was found that the food was more or less diminished in digestibility by cooking. at least separate series of experiments with pigs in different part of the country have been reported. in of these trials there has been a positive loss from cooking the food. the amount of food required to produce in the animal a pound gain in weight was larger when the food had been cooked than when it was given raw. in some cases, the increased quantity of food required after cooking was considerable. those who live on uncooked food contend that a smaller quantity of nourishment is required. as uncooked food requires more mastication and is eaten more slowly, there is a better flow of saliva and time is given for the digestive organs to be gradually brought into complete action, and finally for the appeasing of the appetite. in the case of the members of the fruitarian family, whose food was uncooked, and of whom we have previously written, the quantity of nutriment taken was much less than that thought necessary, even after making full allowance for their small stature and weight. meat extracts.--justus von liebig, the great german chemist, was the first to attempt to make these on the commercial scale. he described a method in , and this not proving satisfactory, another one in . he stated that the only practicable plan on a manufacturing scale, was to treat the chopped flesh with eight to ten times its weight of water, which was to be raised to ° f. in another passage he says it is to be boiled for half-an-hour. after straining from all the undissolved meat fibre, etc., and carefully cleansing from all fat, the decoction is to be evaporated to a soft extract; such a preparation is practically free from albumin, gelatin and fat; all the nutritive principles except the saline matter having been extracted. liebig states that pounds of meat are required to produce pound of extract. in , he wrote "neither tea nor extract of meat are nutritive in the ordinary sense," and he went on to speak of their medicinal properties. druit, in , in describing the effect of a liquid preparation of meat, states that it exerted a rapid and stimulating action on the brain, and he proposed it as an auxiliary and partial substitute for brandy, in all case of great exhaustion or weakness attended with cerebral depression or despondency. in like manner, a feast of animal food in savages, whose customary diet was almost exclusively vegetable, has been described by travellers as producing great excitement and stimulation similar to that of intoxicating spirits. similar effects have been observed from a copious employment of liebig's extract. voit asserts, from the results of his experiments, that extract of meat is practically useless as a food, and other authorities are quite of the same opinion, although they may value it as a stimulant and drug. _the extra pharmacopæia_, , states that "liebig's extract or lemco consists of creatin, creatinin, globulin and urea, with organic potash and other salts. it has been much over-estimated as a food either for invalids or healthy persons; still it is often valuable as a flavouring to add to soups, beef-tea, etc., and it is a nerve food allied to tea." meat extracts stimulate the action of the heart and the digestive processes, but as in the case of other stimulants there is a succeeding period of depression. the _british medical journal_ says that the widespread belief in the universal suitability of concentrated beef-tea is frequently responsible for increasing the patient's discomfort, and is even capable in conditions of kidney inefficiency, of producing positive harm. some of the meat bases, the leucomaines, have been found to possess marked poisonous effects on the body. the manfacturers of meat extracts continue to mislead the public by absurdly false statements of the value of their products. they assert that their extracts contain the nutritive matter of , or times their weight of fresh meat, or that one or two meat-lozenges are sufficient for a meal. one company, asserts by direct statement, or imply by pictorial advertisement, that the nutritive matter in an ox can be concentrated into the bulk of a bottle of extract; and another company that a tea-cup full is equivalent in food value to an ox. professor halliburton writes: "instead of an ox in a tea-cup, the ox's urine in a tea-cup would be much nearer the fact, for the meat extract consists largely of products on the way to urea, which more nearly resemble in constitution the urine than they do the flesh of the ox." professor robert bartholow has also stated that the chemical composition of beef-tea closely resembles urine, and is more an excrementitious substance than a food. those whose business it is to make a pure meat-broth, for the purpose of preparing therefrom a nutrient for experimenting with bacteria, cannot fail to recognise its similarity both in odour and colour to urine. little consideration is needful to show the untruthfulness and the absurdity of the statements made by manufacturers as to the food value of these extracts. fresh lean beef contains about per cent. of solid nutriment and per cent. of water. if lean beef be desiccated, one pound will be reduced to four ounces of perfectly dry substance; this will consist of about per cent. of proteid matter and nearly per cent. of fat including a little saline matter and the extractives. this is as far as it is possible to concentrate the beef. if it were possible to remove, without interfering with the nutritious constituents, the membraneous matter, the creatin, creatinine and purin bodies, we should reduce it to a little less than four ounces. it is very remarkable that the most nutritious matter of the beef, the muscle substance or proteid and the fat, are rejected in making liebig's extract, whilst the effete or waste products are retained. in bovril and some other preparations, some meat fibre has been added with the object of imparting a definite food value. hence in some advertisements, now withdrawn, it was alleged that the preparations were immensely superior in nutritive value to ordinary meat extracts. the bovril company extensively circulated the following:--"it is hard for ladies to realise that the beef tea they make at home from the choicest fresh beef contains absolutely no nourishment and is nothing more than a slight stimulant. it is so, however, and many a patient has been starved on beef tea, whether made from fresh beef or from the meat extracts that are sold to the public. from these bovril differs so much that one ounce of its nutritious constituents contains more real and direct nourishment than fifty ounces of ordinary meat extract." if analyses of meat extracts are referred to, it will be seen that the principal part of bovril is the meat bases and other things common to all such extracts, and which the company in their circular so emphatically condemn. if the meat fibre, which is the principal, if not the sole difference, is the only nourishing constituent, it is difficult to see the advantage over ordinary beef, which can be procured at a very small proportionate cost. concerning this added meat fibre, c.a. mitchell, in "flesh foods," writes: "as this amounts to at most some or per cent., it is obvious that a large quantity of the substance would be required to obtain as much unaltered proteid as is contained in an egg. on the other hand, it has been pointed out that there is nothing to show that flesh powder suspended in meat extract is more digestible than ordinary flesh in the same fine state of division, whilst the amount of flesh bases, the principal stimulating agents, is correspondingly reduced." concerning added albumin and meat fibre, a.h. allen, in "commercial organic analysis," vol. iv., writes: "the amount of these constituents present in such a quantity of meat extract as is usually, or could be, taken at a time, is too insignificant to give it any appreciable value as nutriment." notwithstanding such statements by analysts and others, bovril is advertised to contain "the entire nourishment of prime ox-beef." the great extent of the extract of meat trade is shown by a circular issued by the lemco and oxo company. they give the number of their cattle killed since as , , ; stock of cattle , ; employees in works, farms and branches, , . this is only one out of many such companies. it is a sad thing that myriads of animals should be slaughtered with all the horrible and brutalising surroundings of the slaughter-house to such a purpose--the nutritious matter being nearly all wasted. reliance on these extracts is responsible for much sickness and death. instead of their preventing colds, influenza, and other complaints as is professed, they predispose to them by overloading the body with waste products, taxing the excretory organs and reducing the vitality. the following analyses of meat extracts are by otto hehner:-- gela- albu- meat water. fat. tin. min. fibre. liebig co.'s extractum carnis . . . -- . armour's extract of meat . . . -- -- brand & co.'s extractum carnis . . . -- . brand & co.'s meat juice . . . . -- brand & co.'s essence of beef . . . -- -- valentine's meat juice . . . . -- bovril company's fluid beef . . . -- . bovril for invalids . . . -- . albu- pep- meat moses. tones. bases. ash. liebig co.'s extractum carnis . . . . armour's extract of meat . . . . brand & co.'s extractum carnis . . . . brand & co.'s meat juice . . . . brand & co.'s essence of beef . . . . valentine's meat juice . . . . bovril company's fluid beef . . . . bovril for invalids . . . . some of the "liebig's extract of meat" so called, contains yeast extract; some even, is almost entirely, if not altogether made from yeast. the latter can be manufactured at a very low cost from brewers' and distillers' waste products, and there is a strong incentive for unscrupulous dealers to substitute it secretly. artificial meat extracts prepared from yeast have the appearance and taste of meat extracts, but some, at least, have a considerably sharper flavour. in one method of manufacture common salt is added, and this renders it unfit for use in more than very small quantities as a flavouring. j. graff has made analyses of ten yeast extracts, and contrasted them with meat extracts (see _analyst_ , page ), and says, "it will be seen that the chemical composition of yeast extract does not greatly differ from that of meat extract." yeast extracts contain purin bodies, and are probably equally as injurious as meat extracts. such strong and rank flavours (the odour is suggestive to us of putrefaction) should be discouraged by those who would cultivate a refined taste in food. flesh bases and waste products.--as the result of destructive metamorphosis or the wearing out of the body, there remain certain waste products which have to be expelled as soon as is possible. their retention and accumulation would soon produce death. a part is expelled by the lungs as carbon-dioxide, or as it is generally though less correctly termed, carbonic acid. upon the breaking down of the complex proteid and other nitrogenous matter, the nitrogen is left in comparatively simple combinations. these effete nitrogen compounds are commonly termed flesh bases or nitrogenous extractives. they exist in small quantity in flesh meat, but are concentrated and conserved in the making of beef-tea or beef-extract. the spleen, lymphatic and other glands, and especially the liver, break these down into still simpler compounds, so that the kidneys may readily separate them from the blood, that they may pass out of the body. by far the largest part of this waste nitrogen is expelled from the bodies of men and many other mammals in the form of urea. pure urea is an odourless transparent crystalline substance, of cooling saline taste like nitre. it is soluble in an equal volume of water, and is expelled from the body with great ease. in the herbivora the nitrogenous waste takes the form of another body called hippuric acid. the nearly solid light-coloured urinary excretion of birds and serpents consists of urates; this is uric acid in combination with alkalies. in man, in addition to the urea excreted, there is also a little hippuric and uric acid or compounds of these. uric acid is a transparent colourless crystalline body almost insoluble in water but soluble as urates in the presence of alkalies. as deposited from urine it is of a dull red sand-like appearance, as it has a great affinity for any colouring matter that is present. it is only possible to make a brief reference to the chief organic bases. the xanthine bases are closely related to uric acid. some of these occur in small quantity in the urine and animal tissues, others, such as caffeine, occur in plants. creatine is a constant constituent of muscle substance. in fowl's flesh there is said to be . per cent., in cod-fish . per cent., and in beef . per cent. creatinine is produced from creatine with great facility; it exists in urine. both creatine and creatinine are readily soluble in water. a series of bases, closely allied to creatinine have been isolated from the flesh of large animals by a. gautier; they are known as gautier's flesh bases. when administered to animals, these act more or less powerfully on the nerve centres, inducing sleep and in some cases causing vomiting and purging in a manner similar to the alkaloids of snake venom, but less powerfully than the ptomaines. these bases are formed during life as a result of normal vital processes and are termed leucomaines. another class of bases of an alkaloidal nature, are termed ptomaines; these differ from the leucomaines, being produced by putrefactive or bacterial agency from dead flesh. the poisoning which has occasionally resulted from the eating of sausages, pork-pies, tinned meats, etc., is due to their having contained ptomaines. such quantities of waste products as are produced in the healthy body are excreted with ease, but it is otherwise in certain diseases. either specially noxious substances are produced, or the usual substances are in excessive quantity and not eliminated with sufficient rapidity; in consequence the body is poisoned. those who eat largely of flesh, introduce into their system the excretory matter contained therein, which super-added to the excretory matter resulting from the vital processes of the body puts an unusual and unnatural strain upon the liver and kidneys. it has been observed, that the eating of the flesh of some trapped animals has produced severe symptoms of poisoning. the pain and horror of having a limb bleeding and mangled in a most cruel steel trap, the struggles which only add to the misery, slowly being done to death during hours or even days of torture, has produced in their bodies virulent poisons. leucomaine poisons have also been produced by the violent and prolonged exertions of an animal, fleeing from its pursuers, until its strength was completely spent. cases are also known, where a mother nursing her infant, has given way to violent anger or other emotion, and the child at the breast has been made violently ill. we must not expect the flesh of any hunted or terrified animals to be wholesome. animals brought in cattle ships across the atlantic, suffer acutely. after rough weather they will often arrive in a maimed condition, some being dead. to this is added the terror and cruelty to which they are subjected whilst driven by callous drovers, often through a crowded city, to the slaughter house to which they have an instinctive dread. it is only to be expected that the dead flesh from such animals, should contain an unusually large quantity of the more poisonous flesh bases. purin bodies.--the term purin has been applied to all bodies containing the nucleus c_{ }n_{ }. it comprises the xanthine group and the uric acid group of bodies. the principal purins are hypoxanthin, xanthin, uric acid, guanin, adenin, caffeine and theobromine. purins in the body may either result from the wear and tear of certain cell contents, when they are called endogenous purins; or they are introduced in the food, when they are distinguished as exogenous purins. these purins are waste products and are readily converted into uric acid. the production of some uric acid by tissue change is, of course, unavoidable; but that resulting from the purins in food is under control. an excess of uric acid is commonly associated with gout and similar diseases. the morbid phenomena of gout are chiefly manifested in the joints and surrounding tissues. the articular cartilages become swollen, with ensuing great pain. there is an accumulation of mortar like matter about the joints. this is calcium urate (not sodium urate as is generally stated). these nodular concretions are called tophi or chalkstones. very many are the hypotheses which have been propounded on the cause of gout and the part played by uric acid; many have had to be discarded or greatly modified. though much light has recently been thrown on the subject, there remains much that is obscure. the subject is one which is surrounded with great difficulties, and would not be suitable for discussion here, were it not for the following reason: certain views on uric acid as the cause of gout and several other diseases, are at the present time being pushed to the extreme in some health journals and pamphlets. unfortunately many of the writers have very little knowledge, either of chemistry or physiology, and treat the question as though it were a simple one that had been quite settled. our purpose is to clear the ground to some extent, for a better understanding of its fundamentals, and to warn against dogmatism. our remarks, however, must be brief. it is undeniable that great eaters of meat, especially if they also take liberally of alcoholic drinks, are prone to diseases of the liver and kidneys, about or soon after the time of middle life. flesh meat contains relatively large quantities of purins. purins are metabolised in the body to uric acid, about half of the uric acid produced in the body disappears as such, being disintegrated, whilst the other half remains to be excreted by the kidneys. one view is that whilst the organs of the body can readily dispose of its endogenous uric acid, or that produced by its own tissue change, together with the small amount of uric acid derived from most foods, the organs are strained by the larger quantity introduced in flesh-food or any other food rich in purins: that there is an accumulation in the system of some of this uric acid. vegetable foods tend to keep the blood alkaline, flesh possesses less of this property; alkalinity of the blood is thought to be favourable to the elimination of uric acid, whilst anything of an acid nature acts contrarily. dr. alexander haig writes "i consider that every man who eats what is called ordinary diet with butcher's meat twice a day, and also drinks acid wine or beer, will, by the time he is , have accumulated to grains of uric acid in his tissues, and possibly much more; and about this time, owing to the large amount of uric acid in his body, he will probably be subject to attacks of some form of gout or chronic rheumatism." dr. haig ascribes to the presence of uric acid in the system, not only gout and rheumatism, but epilepsy, hysteria, mental and bodily depression, diseases of the liver, kidneys, brain, etc. the opinion of the majority of eminent medical men, during recent years, is that uric acid is not a cause, but a symptom of gout, that uric acid is not an irritant to the tissues, and that it is readily excreted in the healthy subject. some of the reasons for this latter and against the previously stated hypothesis, are as follows:--birds very rarely suffer from gout--the nodular concretions, sometimes found about their joints and which have been ascribed to gout, are of tuberculous origin--yet their blood contains more uric acid than that of man, and the solid matter of their excretion is mainly urates. if uric acid caused gout we should expect the disease to be common in birds. it is a remarkable fact that the waste nitrogen should be excreted in the form of uric acid or urates from such widely differing classes of animals as birds and serpents. birds have a higher body temperature than man, they are very rapid in their movements and consume a large amount of food proportionate to their weight. they live, as it were, at high pressure. serpents, on the other hand, have a low body temperature, they are lethargic and can live a long while without food. there is no obvious reason why some animals excrete urea and others uric acid. as uric acid is a satisfactory and unirritating form in which waste nitrogen is expelled from the body of the active alert bird, as well as from the slow moving reptile, it is surprising if a very much smaller quantity acts as a poison in man. many physicians are convinced that uric acid is absolutely unirritating. uratic deposits may occur to an enormous extent in gouty persons without the occurrence of any pain or paroxysms. urates have been injected in large amounts into the bodies of animals as well as administered in their food with no toxic result whatever, or more than purely local irritation. the most careful investigations upon the excretions of persons suffering from gouty complaints, have failed to show uric acid in the excretions in excess of that in normal individuals, except during the later stage of an acute attack. there is an excess of uric acid in the blood of gouty subjects; some eminent medical men say it is in the highest degree probable, that this excess is not due to over production or deficient destruction, but to defective excretion by the kidneys. the excess may arise from failure of the uric acid to enter into combination with a suitable substance in the blood, which assists its passage through the kidneys. under the head of gout are classed a number of unrelated disturbances in the gastro-intestinal tract and nutritive organs, whose sole bond of union is that they are accompanied by an excess of urates, and in well developed cases by deposits in the tissues. this is why there are so many different causes, curative treatments, theories, contradictions and vagaries in gout. there are good reasons for believing that uric acid is not in the free state in the body. in the urine it is in combination with alkalies as urates, perhaps also with some organic body. it has been shown that the blood of the gouty is not saturated with uric acid, but can take up more, and that the alkalinity of the blood is not diminished. the excess over the normal is in many cases small; it is said to be absent in some persons, and rarely, if ever reaches the quantity found in leukaemia. leukaemia is a disease marked by an excessive and permanent increase in the white blood corpuscles and consequent progressive anæmia. neither does the uric acid of gout reach the quantity produced in persons whilst being fed with thymus gland (sweetbread), for medical purposes. in neither of these cases are any of the symptoms of gout present. in the urine of children, it is not unusual to find a copious precipitate of urates, yet without any observed effect on them. the symptoms of gout point to the presence of a toxin in the blood, and it is this which produces the lesions; the deposition of urates in the joints being secondary. this poison is probably of bacterial origin, derived from decomposing fæcal matter in the large intestine. this is due to faulty digestion and insufficient or defective intestinal secretions and constipation. this explains why excessive feeding, especially of proteid food, is so bad. the imperfectly digested residue of such food, when left to stagnate and become a mass of bacteria and putrefaction, gives off poisons which are absorbed in part, into the system. this bacterial poison produces headache, migraine, gouty or other symptoms. because of the general failure of gouty persons to absorb the proper amount of nutriment from their food, they require to eat a larger quantity; this gives a further increase of fæcal decomposition and thus aggravates matters. the voluminous bowel or colon of man is a legacy from remote pre-human ancestors, whose food consisted of bulky, fibrous and slowly digested vegetable matters. it was more useful then, than now that most of our food is highly cooked. about a third part of the fæcal matter consists of bacteria of numerous species, though chiefly of the species known as the _bacillus coli communis_, one of the less harmful kind which is a constant inhabitant of the intestinal tract in man and animals. this species is even thought to be useful in breaking down the cellulose, which forms a part of the food of the herbivora. flesh meat leaves a residue in which the bacteria of putrefaction find a congenial home. poisons such as ptomaines, fatty acids and even true toxins are produced. it is believed that there exists in the colons of gouty persons, either conditions more favourable to the growth of the bacteria of putrefaction, or that they are less able to resist the effect of the poisons produced. it has generally been found that milk is a very good food for gouty patients. this seems due to its being little liable to putrefaction, the bacterial fermentation to which it is liable producing lactic acid--the souring of milk. the growth of most bacteria, particularly the putrefactive kinds are hindered or entirely stopped by acids slightly alkaline media are most favourable. this explains how it is that milk will often stop diarrhoea. dr. haig condemns pulse and some other vegetable foods, because, he says, they contain uric acid. pulse, he states, contains twice as much as most butcher's meat. vegetable foods, however, contain no uric acid and meat but a very small quantity. the proper term to use is purins or nucleins. dr. haig has used a method of analysis which is quite incapable of giving correct results. many vegetarians have accepted these figures and his deductions therefrom, and have given up the use of valuable foods in consequence. we therefore give some of the analyses of dr. i. walker hall, from "the purin bodies in food stuffs." the determination of the purins has proved a very difficult process. dr. hall has devoted much time to investigating and improving the methods of others, and his figures may be accepted with confidence. the first column of figures indicates purin bodies in parts per , , the second column purin bodies in grains per pound:-- sweet bread . . liver . . beef steak . . beef sirloin . . ham . . chicken . . rabbit . . pork loin . . veal loin . . mutton . . salmon . . cod . . lentils and haricots . . oatmeal . . peameal . . asparagus (cooked) . . onions . . potatoes . . the following showed no traces of purins: white bread, rice, cabbage, lettuce, cauliflower and eggs. milk showed a very small quantity, and cheese consequently must contain still less. the researches of dr. hall show that the purins of food are metabolised or broken down by gouty patients, almost as well as by normal individuals, any slight retention being due to increased capillary pressure. a portion of the purins remain undigested, the quantity depending upon the particular purin and the vigour of the digestive organs. two rabbits had the purin hypoxanthin given to them daily, in quantities which if given to a man in proportion to his weight, would have been and grains respectively. these rabbits showed malnutrition, and after death degenerative changes were visible in their liver and kidneys. dr. hall has made a large number of personal experiments, and says that when he has taken large doses of purin bodies--such as grains of hypoxanthin, to grains of guanin or to grains of uric acid, apparently associated symptoms of general malaise and irritability have frequently appeared. in gouty subjects such moderate or small quantities of purins which are without effect on the healthy subject, may prove a source of irritation to the already weakened liver and kidneys. professor carl von noorden says of gout, "with regard to treatment we are all agreed that food containing an excess of purin bodies should be avoided, and those words embody almost all there is to be said as to dietetics. alcohol is very injurious in gout. salicylic acid is a dangerous remedy. alkalies in every form are utterly useless." dr. j. woods-hutchinson says, "the one element which has been found to be of the most overwhelming importance and value in the treatment of gout and lith¾mia, water, would act most admirably upon a toxic condition from any source; first, by sweeping out both the alimentary canal primarily, and the liver, kidneys and skin secondarily; and secondly, by supplying to the body cells that abundant salt-water bath in which alone they can live and discharge their functions." dr. woods-hutchinson proceeds to state, that the one active agent in all the much vaunted mineral waters is nothing more or less than the water. "their alleged solvent effects are now known to be pure moonshine." the value consists in "plain water, plus suggestion--not to say humbug--aided, of course, by the pure air of the springs and the excellent hygienic rules." it is a common experience amongst rheumatic patients, that they cannot take lentils, haricots and some other foods; sometimes, even eggs and milk are inadmissible. this is not for the alleged reason that they contain purins, or as some misname it, uric acid; but because the digestive organs are unequal to the task. it will be seen, that although dr. haig's hypothesis of uric acid as a cause of gout and some other diseases is disputed by many eminent physicians, his treatment by excluding flesh and other foods which contain purins, and also pulse, which is difficult of digestion by the weakly, is a wise one. it has proved of the greatest value in very many cases. digestion and nutrition is a complex process, and it may be faulty at various stages and in several ways; there may be either deficient or excessive secretions or inaction. thus there are exceptions, where gouty symptoms, including an excessive quantity of urates in the urine, have only been relieved by the giving up of milk foods or starch foods (see _lancet_, , i., p. , and , i., p. ). those particularly interested in the subject of the purins and gout are referred to the lecture on "the meaning of uric acid and the urates," by dr. woods-hutchinson, in the _lancet_, , i., p. , and the discussion on "the chemical pathology of gout" before the british medical association at oxford (see _british medical journal_, , ii., p. ). dr. george s. keith, in "fads of an old physician," has a chapter on rheumatic fever; he says that the disease is much more common than it was fifty years ago. he has never met with it in the young or old except when the diet had consisted largely of beef and mutton, and this although he has been on the outlook for at least forty years for a case of the disease in a child or youth who had not been fed on red meat. he speaks of it as being exceedingly common in buenos ayres and rosario in the argentine republic, amongst the young; and that it leads to most of the heart disease there. the amount of meat, especially of beef, consumed by old and young is enormous. the main evils there, were anæmia in children and neuralgia both in old and young. dr. haig relates how he suffered from migraine all his life, until the time of his discontinuing butchers' meat. as meat contains a comparatively large quantity of purins and other bodies called extractives, it is probable that such quantities have an injurious effect, quite apart from the question of uric acid production. that an excessive meat diet lessens the vitality of the body and pre-disposes to disease is undoubted, but opinions differ as to how the injury is brought about. on thorough mastication.--we have written at some length on the quantity and constituents of food required per day and have criticised the usually accepted standards. we have since read a valuable contribution to the subject by mr. horace fletcher in his book, "the a.b.-z. of our own nutrition" (f.a. stokes & co., new york). ten years previous to the writing of the book, when of the age of , he was fast becoming a physical wreck, although he was trained as an athlete in his youth and had lived an active and most agreeable life. he had contracted a degree of physical disorder that made him ineligible as an insurance risk. this unexpected disability and warning was so much a shock, that it led to his making a strong personal effort to save himself. he concluded that he took too much food and too much needless worry. his practice and advice is, be sure that you are really hungry and are not pampering false appetite. if true appetite that will relish plain bread alone is not present, wait for it, if you have to wait till noon. then chew, masticate, munch, bite, taste everything you take in your mouth; until it is not only thoroughly liquefied and made neutral or alkaline by saliva, but until the reduced substance all settles back in the folds at the back of the mouth and excites the swallowing impulse into a strong inclination to swallow. then swallow what has collected and has excited the impulse, and continue to chew at the remainder, liquid though it be, until the last morsel disappears in response to the swallowing impulse. in a very short time this will become an agreeable and profitable fixed habit. mr. fletcher has been under the observation of several eminent scientific men. professor r.h. chittenden, of yale university, in his report refers to the experiments of kumagawa, sivén, and other physiologists; who have shown that men may live and thrive, for a time at least, on amounts of proteid per day equal to only one-half and one-quarter the amount called for in the voit standard (see p. ), even without unduly increasing the total calories of the food intake. such investigations, however, have always called forth critical comment from writers reluctant to depart from the current standards, as extending over too short periods of time. dr. chittenden writes that he has had in his laboratory, for several months past, a gentleman (h.f.) who for some five years, practised a certain degree of abstinence in the taking of food and attained important economy with, as he believes, great gain, in bodily and mental vigour and with marked improvement in his general health. the gentleman in question fully satisfies his appetite, but no longer desires the amount of food consumed by most individuals. for a period of thirteen days, in january, he was under observation in professor chittenden's laboratory. the daily amount of proteid metabolised was . grammes, the body-weight ( pounds) remaining practically constant. analysis of the excretions showed an output of an equivalent quantity of nitrogen. in february a more thorough series of observations was made. the diet was quite simple, and consisted merely of a prepared cereal food, milk and maple sugar. this diet was taken twice a day for seven days, and was selected by the subject as giving sufficient variety for his needs and quite in accord with his taste. no attempt was made to conform to any given standard of quantity, but the subject took each day such amounts of the above foods as his appetite craved. the daily average in grammes was, proteid . ( . ounces), fats . , carbohydrates . , calories , . the total intake of nitrogen per day was . , while the output was . . it may be asked, says professor chittenden, was this diet at all adequate for the needs of the body--sufficient for a man weighing pounds? in reply, it may be said that the appetite was satisfied and that the subject had full freedom to take more food if he so desired. the body-weight remained practically constant and the nitrogen of the intake and output were not far apart. an important point is, can a man on such food be fit for physical work? mr. fletcher was placed under the guidance of dr. w.g. anderson, the director of the gymnasium of yale university. dr. anderson reports that on the four last days of the experiment, in february, , mr. fletcher was given the same kind of exercises as are given to the 'varsity crew. they are drastic and fatiguing and cannot be done by beginners without soreness and pain resulting. they are of a character to tax the heart and lungs as well as to try the muscles of the limbs and trunk. "my conclusion, given in condensed form, is this: mr. fletcher performs this work with greater ease and with fewer noticeable bad results than any man of his age and condition i have ever worked with." "to appreciate the full significance of this report, it must be remembered," writes professor chittenden, "that mr. fletcher had for several months past taken practically no exercise other than that involved in daily walks about town." sir michael forster had mr. fletcher and others under observation in his cambridge laboratories, and in his report he remarks on the waste products of the bowel being not only greatly reduced in amount, as might be expected; but that they are also markedly changed in character, becoming odourless and inoffensive, and assuming a condition which suggests that the intestine is in a healthier and more aseptic condition than is the case under ordinary circumstances. if we can obtain sufficient nourishment, as mr. fletcher does, on half the usual quantity of food, we diminish by half the expenditure of energy required for digestion. by thorough mastication the succeeding digestive processes are more easily and completely performed. what is also of great importance is that there is not the danger of the blocking up of the lower intestines with a mass of incompletely digested and decomposing residue, to poison the whole body. even where there is daily defæcation, there is often still this slowly shifting mass; the end portion only, being expelled at a time, one or more days after its proper period. all this improved condition of the digestive tract, leaves more vitality for use in other directions, a greater capacity for work and clearness of brain. professor r.h. chittenden, in "physiological economy in nutrition," writes:--"our results, obtained with a great variety of subjects, justify the conviction that the minimum proteid requirements of the healthy man, under ordinary conditions of life, are far below the generally accepted dietary standards, and far below the amounts called for by the acquired taste of the generality of mankind. body weight, health, strength, mental and physical vigour and endurance can be maintained with at least one-half of the proteid food ordinarily consumed." from these and other considerations, we see that it is not only unnecessary, but inadvisable to diet ourselves according to any of the old standards, such as that of voit, or even to any other standard, until they have been very thoroughly revised. we shall probably find that as the body becomes accustomed to simpler food, a smaller quantity of the food is necessary. the proportion of proteids to other constituents in all the ordinary, not over manfactured vegetable foods, such as are generally eaten, may be taken as sufficient. several cookery books have been compiled in conformity with certain proteid standards and also with some more or less fanciful requirements; these give the quantities and kinds of food which it is imagined should be eaten each day. theoretically, this should be calculated to accord with the weight, temperament, age and sex of the eater and the work he or she has to perform. the dietaries that we have seen have their proteid ratio placed unnecessarily high. this high proteid ratio can be got by the use of the pulses, but except in small quantities they are not generally admissible, and in some of the dietaries they are ruled out. the difficulty is got over by the liberal use of eggs, cheese and milk. to admit a necessity for these animal products is to show a weakness and want of confidence in the sufficiency of vegetable foods. some of these cookery books are of use in sickness, especially as replacing those of the beef-tea, chicken-broth, jelly and arrowroot order. they provide a half-way stage between flesh and vegetable food, such as is palatable to those who have not quite overcome a yearning for flesh and stimulating foods. the liberal use of animal products is less likely to excite the prejudice of the ordinary medical practitioner or nurse. possibly, also, a higher quantity of proteid may be required on first giving up flesh foods. the use of salt.--one of the most remarkable habits of these times is the extensive use of common salt or sodium chloride. it is in all ordinary shop bread, in large quantity in a special and much advertised cereal food, even in a largely sold wheat flour, and often in pastry. it is added to nearly all savoury vegetable food, and many persons, not content, add still more at the time of eating. no dinner table is considered complete without one or more salt-cellars. some take even threequarters of an ounce, or an ounce per day. the question is not, of course, whether salt is necessary or not, but whether there is a sufficient quantity already existing in our foods. some allege that there is an essential difference between added salt and that natural to raw foods. that the former is inorganic, non-assimilable and even poisonous; whilst the latter is organised or in organic combination and nutritive. the writer is far from being convinced that there is a difference in food value. some herbivorous animals are attracted by salt, but not the carnivora. this has been explained by the fact that potassium salts are characteristic of plants, whilst sodium chloride is the principal saline constituents of blood and of flesh. in their food, the herbivora take three or four times as much potash salts as the carnivora. of course, the sodium chloride in the flesh of the herbivora and frugivora is obtained from the vegetable matter forming their food, and very few of them have the opportunity of obtaining it from salt-licks and mineral sources. they must have the power of storing up the sodium chloride from plants in sufficient quantity, whilst the potash salts pass away. there is no justification for saying that they are worse off by being deprived of salt. if the ape tribe can thrive without added salt why should not man? bunge considers that a restriction to vegetable food causes a great desire for salt. opposed to this, is the fact that certain tribes of negroes who cannot obtain salt, add to their vegetable food wood ashes or a preparation of wood ashes; this is chiefly potash. one preparation used in british central africa was found to contain about per cent. of potassium chloride to only . per cent. of sodium chloride. it has been said that vegetarians consume more salt than those who take flesh food. we doubt this; we know of many vegetarians who have a strong objection to added salt, and have abstained from it for years. some find that it predisposes to colds, causes skin irritation and other symptoms. at many vegetarian restaurants the food is exceedingly salty; the writer on this account cannot partake of their savoury dishes, except with displeasure. nearly all who patronise these restaurants are accustomed to flesh foods, and it is their taste which has to be catered for. flesh, and particularly blood, which of course, is in flesh, contains a considerable quantity of sodium chloride; and most flesh eaters are also in the habit of using the salt cellar. these people are accustomed to a stimulating diet, and have not a proper appreciation of the mildly flavoured unseasoned vegetable foods. only those who have, for a time, discontinued the use of added salt, and lost any craving for it, can know how pleasant vegetables can be; even those vegetables which before were thought to be nearly tasteless, unless seasoned, are found to have very distinct flavours. it is then perceived, that there is a much greater variety in such foods than was previously imagined. it is commonly urged that salt and other condiments are necessary to make food palatable and to stimulate the digestive functions. we, on the contrary, say that condiments are the cause of much over-eating; and that if food cannot be eaten without them, it is a sign of disorganisation of the digestive system, and it is better to abstain from food until the appearance of a natural and healthy appetite. an excess of salt creates thirst and means more work for the kidneys in separating it from the blood prior to its expulsion. even should it be admitted, that certain vegetables contain too little sodium salts, a very little salt added to such food would be sufficient; there is no excuse for the general use of it, and in such a great variety of foods. it is thought that some cases of inflammation of the kidneys originate in excessive salt eating; certain it is that patients suffering from the disease very soon improve, on being placed on a dietary free from added salt and also poor in naturally contained sodium and potassium salts. it is also possible to cause the swelling of the legs (oedema), to which such invalids are subject, to disappear and reappear at will, by withdrawing and afterwards resuming salt-containing foods. the quantity of one-third of an ounce, added to the usual diet, has after a continuation of several days, produced oedema. in one patient, on a diet of nearly two pounds of potatoes, with flesh, but without added salt, the oedemia disappeared and the albumin in the urine diminished. as potatoes are particularly rich in potash salts, this case is significant, as showing contrary to expectations, that such quantity as they contained had not the irritating effect of added common salt. salt and other chlorides have been shown by several observers, to be injurious, not only in diseases of the kidneys, but also of the liver and heart. in these diseases the excess of salt is retained in the tissues, it causes a flow of fluid into them, and so produces oedema and favours the increase of dropsy. the good effect of milk in such diseases has long been known; it is probably due to its relative poverty in sodium and potassium chlorides. even in the case of three healthy men, by an abrupt change from a diet extremely rich in chlorides to one deficient, they were able to reduce the body-weight by as much as two kilos. ( lbs. oz.); this was by the loss of an excess of water from their connective tissues. sodium chloride diminishes the solvent action of water on uric acid and the urates; but potassium salts, on the contrary, do not, they may even increase the action. although nearly all the medical experience recorded has to do with diseased persons, such cases are instructive; it is only reasonable to suppose, that more than a very small quantity of salt in excess of that natural to the food, is a source of irritation in the body, even of the ordinarily healthy individual. summary.--enjoyment of food is dependent upon appetite quite as much as upon the nature of the food. better a simple repast with good appetite than sumptuous fare with bad digestion. there is indeed a causal relationship between simplicity and health. the savage likes the noise of the tom-tom or the clatter of wooden instruments: what a contrast this is to the trained ear of the musician. uncivilised man has little enjoyment of scenery or of animal life, except as in respect to their power of providing him with food, clothing or other physical gratification. what an enormous advance has taken place. in the case of the painter, his eye and mind can appreciate a wide range and delicacy of colour. man has improved on the crab-apple and the wild strawberry. from a wild grass he has produced the large-grained nutritious wheat. vegetables of all kinds have been greatly improved by long continued cultivation. in tropical and sub-tropical climates, where wild fruits are more plentiful, high cultivation is of less importance than in temperate regions. in sparsely inhabited or wild, temperate and cold regions, in times past, when deer and other animals were plentiful, and edible fruits few, flesh could be obtained at less labour; or such intelligence and industry as is required for the cultivation of fruits, cereals, and other foods scarcely existed. flesh almost requires to be cooked to be palatable, certainly this much improves its flavour. the eating of flesh tends to produce a distaste for mild vegetable foods, especially if uncooked. in process of time, not only flesh but vegetable foods, were more and more subjected to cooking and seasoning, or mixed with the flesh, blood or viscera of the animals killed. next, food was manufactured to produce a still greater variety, to increase the flavour, or less frequently to produce an imagined greater digestibility or nutritiveness. man has taken that which seemed most agreeable, rarely has he been intentionally guided by scientific principles, by that which is really best. only of late years can it be said that there is such a thing as a science of dietetics; although cookery books innumerable have abounded. of recent years many diseases have enormously increased, some even seem to be new. digestive disturbances, dental caries, appendicitis, gout, rheumatism, diabetes, nervous complaints, heart disease, baldness and a host of other diseases are due, in a great measure, to abuse of food. one of the most learned and original of scientific men, professor elie metchnikoff, in his remarkable book on "the nature of man," referring to the variety of food and its complexity of preparation says that it "militates against physiological old age and that the simpler food of the uncivilised races is better.... most of the complicated dishes provided in the homes, hotels and restaurants of the rich, stimulate the organs of digestion and secretion in a harmful way. it would be true progress to abandon modern cuisine and to go back to the simpler dishes of our ancestors." a few have lived to a hundred years, and physiologists, including metchnikoff, see no inherent reason why all men, apart from accident, should not do so. most men are old at , some even at ; if we could add or years to our lives, what an immense gain it would be. instead of a man being in his prime, a useful member of the community, from about to or perhaps to ; he would have the same physical and mental vigour to or or even longer. this later period would be the most valuable part of his life, as he would be using and adding to the accumulated experience and knowledge of the earlier period. some, perceiving the mischief wrought by luxurious habits, urge us to go back to nature, to eat natural food. this is ambiguous. to speak of animals as being in a state of nature, conveys the distinct idea of their living according to their own instinct and reason, uninterfered with, in any way, by man. the phrase, applied to man, is either meaningless, or has a meaning varying with the views of each speaker. if it has any definite meaning, it must surely be the giving way to the animal impulses and instincts; to cast off all the artifices of civilisation, to give up all that the arts and sciences have done for man, all that he has acquired with enormous labour, through countless failures and successes, during hundreds of thousands of years, and to fall back to the lowest savagery--even the savages known to us use art in fashioning their arms, clothing and shelter, to the time when man was a mere animal. civilised man is not only an animal, but an intellectual and spiritual being, and it is as natural for him to clothe himself as for a cow to eat grass. our intellect has been made to wait on our animal nature, whilst our spiritual has lagged far behind. animal food and all else of a stimulating character, stimulates the lower nature of man, his selfish propensities; whilst mild food makes it easier to lead a pure life. in the treatment of habitual drunkards in retreats, it has been found that a permanent cure is rare upon the usual abundant flesh dietary. only by the use of vegetable food, particularly farinaceous, can a permanent cure be assured. the editor of the clarion, mr. r. blatchford, or "nunquam," has lately adopted a vegetarian diet. he remarks with surprise, that although he has been a heavy smoker for more than years, using not less than eight ounces of tobacco a week, often two ounces in a day, he has found his passion for tobacco nearly gone. he has had to get milder tobacco, and is now not smoking half-an-ounce a day. he says "it does not taste the same; i am not nearly so fond of it." he finds, with regard to wine, that he now cannot drink it, "it tastes like physic." he writes: "these things have come upon me as a revelation. i begin to see that the great cure for the evil of national intemperance is not teetotal propaganda, but vegetarianism." we have given reasons of a scientific character, for abstaining from flesh as food, but higher than these are those relating to ethics. everything relating to the slaughter-house is revolting to a refined and humane person. in the great slaughter-houses of chicago; in those huge hideous box-shaped buildings, five or six storeys high, about ten millions of animals are killed every year. they are treated as if they were bales of merchandise and as destitute of feeling. bullocks are struck on the head with a mallet and let fall into the basement of the building. they are whilst stunned or half-stunned, at once strung up by their hind legs to some machinery, which moves them along, their heads hanging downwards. regardless of their agony, men run after them to cut their throats, followed by others with great pails to catch the blood. much of the warm blood is spilt over the men or on the floors; but this is of no consequence, if but a small fraction of a minute is economised. in a short time, whether the animal has bled long enough or not, it reaches the lowest and darkest and worst ventilated portion of the gloomy building, where it is disembowelled. the walls and floors are caked with blood, the place is filthy, there is no proper lavatory accommodation, everything both to eyes and nose is detestable. even if the windows were kept clean, light could not penetrate into the centre of the buildings. consequently a large part of the work is done by artificial light. tuberculosis is prevalent amongst the workpeople living under such unsanitary conditions. serious crime is much more common amongst them than amongst any other class. we english-speaking people, who pride ourselves on our civilisation and religion; who call ourselves the followers of the gentle jesus, the prince of peace; yet hunt, shoot, trap and torture animals for food sport and science. our main reason for eating flesh is that of personal gratification. we are loath to admit that the lower animals have any rights. those eastern peoples who are adherents to the teachings of the gentle buddha hold life sacred. mr. h. fielding, who lived many years amongst the simple-minded burmese, says that though there is now no law against the sale of beef, yet no respectable burman will even now, kill cattle or sell beef. no life at all may be taken by him who keeps to buddhistic teaching, and this is a commandment wonderfully well kept. "he believes that all that is beautiful in life is founded on compassion and kindness and sympathy--that nothing of great value can exist without them. do you think that a burmese boy would be allowed to birds'-nest or worry rats with a terrier, or go ferreting? not so. these would be crimes. that this kindess and compassion for animals has very far-reaching results, no one can doubt. if you are kind to animals, you will be kind, too, to your fellow-men." by participating in any form of cruelty or injustice, not only to our fellow-men, but also to the lower animals, we retard our progress towards the higher life, the subtler forces in man cannot find their full expression and we are less responsive to spiritual influences. printed by hurst bros., shaw heath, stockport. ______________________________________________________________________ | | | the standard nut meat. | | | | protose | | | | made from choice grains and nuts so combined as to produce | | a food resembling beef-steak in appearance, taste, and nutriment, | | but free from all the tissue wastes found in animal foods. | | | | protose constitutes a perfect substitute for all flesh foods, | | to which it is much to be preferred. | | | | it tastes good, promotes health and vigour, and imparts | | great staying power. | | | | the success of protose is based upon merit, and the best | | advertisement of protose is--protose. | | | | literature more fully descriptive of protose and of our other | | health foods may be had upon request. | | | | the | | | | international health association, ltd., | | | | legge street, birmingham. | |______________________________________________________________________| ______________________________________________________________________ | | | the food reform restaurant | | | | (opposite the | | prudential furnival street, | | assurance holborn, london, e.c. | | buildings) | | | | _ minutes walk from city temple or law courts._ | | | | the daintiest and most up-to-date vegetarian restaurant in london. | | | | central yet quiet situation, every convenience. | | | | rooms to let for evening meetings. | | | | open a.m. to p.m. | | (saturdays, p.m. in winter, p.m. in summer). | | | | special nut and other proteid | f.r. co's. shilling ordinary | | foods always on the menus. | three courses, cheese & coffee. | | | | | conservative cooking, | six varieties of | | great variety of dishes. | sixpenny teas. | | | | _fruits, salads, and dishes à la carte, in great variety._ | | | | proprietors--the food reform company, ltd. | |______________________________________________________________________| ______________________________________________________________________ | | | _will you try_ | | _a cup_ [illustration] | | _of tea_ | | | | that instead of injuring your nerves and toughening your food, is | | absolutely safe and delightful. | | | | the universal digestive tea, | | / , / , / per lb. | | | | is ordinary tea treated with oxygen, which neutralises the injurious | | tannin. every pound of ordinary tea contains about two ounces of | | tannin. tannin is a powerful astringent substance to tan skins into | | leather. the tannin in ordinary teas tans, or hardens, the lining of | | the digestive organs, also the food eaten. this prevents the | | healthful nourishment of the body and undoubtedly eventuates in | | nervous disorders. on receipt of a postcard, the universal | | digestive tea co., ltd., colonial warehouse, kendal, will send a | | sample of this tea and name of nearest agent, also a descriptive | | pamphlet compiled by albert broadbent, author of "science in the | | daily meal," etc. agents wanted. | | | | sold by the vegetarian society, deansgate, manchester. | |______________________________________________________________________| ______________________________________________________________________ | | | 'it is nature's soap'--_dr. kirk_ (edinburgh) | | | | m'clinton's colleen and tyr-owen toilet soaps are made from the | | natural salts of plants and vegetable oils only. they have therefore | | a mildness that no other soap possesses. the use of this soap | | prevents heat irritation insummer, and keeps the hands from chapping | | in cold weather. | | | | m'clinton's shaving soap is also made from vegetable oils and the | | ash of plants, and is the only shaving soap so made. | | | | m'clinton's tooth soap is free from the nauseous taste of caustic | | soda. it contains no animal or mineral matter. an ideal dentifrice. | | | | we guarantee these statements, and will return the money to anyone | | dissatisfied with the result of a trial. for / we will send, post | | paid, a large assorted box, say with shaving soap (cake or stick), | | or tooth soap as required. also a pretty enamelled matchholder, | | representing a cottage fireside in this irish village. | | | | _(dept. s.)_ d. brown & son, donaghmore, tyrone, ireland. | |______________________________________________________________________| ______________________________________________________________________ | | | trade mark they have stood the test | | _______________________________ | | [illustration] | | f.r. nut meat vejola | | meatose grain granules | | nut cream rolls nut caramels | | nut butter nutmeatose | | _______________________________ | | | | and found to be best | | | | samples of either of the above will be forwarded post free for six | | stamps. | | | | solely manufactured by the london nut food co., health food | | specialists and manufacturing confectioners, | | battersea park road, london, s. w. | |______________________________________________________________________| ______________________________________________________________________ | | | empire linen mesh underwear. | | | | a contrast. | | | | _empire linen mesh underwear_ _woollen underwear_ | | | | is a clean vegetable product is an animal product and cannot | | be properly cleansed | | preserves the natural heat of the creates unnatural heat | | body | | is porous and open, allowing the becomes felted and chokes the | | skin to breathe pores | | absorbs moisture very rapidly absorbs moisture very slowly | | dries very rapidly dries very slowly | | radiates away all moisture from retains the moisture of the body | | the pores | | can be easily cleansed cannot be boiled without | | destroying the fabric | | hardens and strengthens the enervates and enfeebles the | | system system | | does not shrink in washing or wear always shrinks | | prevents chills and colds encourages chills and colds | | prevents and relieves rheumatism promotes rheumatism and similar | | diseases | | does not irritate the most causes rash and other skin | | sensitive skin troubles | | cures and prevents prickly heat irritates all skin diseases | | _________ _________ | | | | "they shall be clothed with linen "and no wool shall come upon | | garments."--ezekiel . them."--ezekiel . | | "but flax, that cleanest and best "for wool the excretion of a | | production of the field, is used sluggish body taken from | | not only for the inner and outer sheep." &c.--apuleius | | clothing,"--apuleius "i go woolward for penance." | | "they'll find linen enough." --shakespeare | | --shakespeare | | | | _booklets telling all about this underwear, together with patterns | | of materials can be had free._ | | the irish linen mesh co., cathedral buildings, belfast. | |______________________________________________________________________| ______________________________________________________________________ | | | mapleton's | | nut foods | | stand the test alike of time, experience and chemical | | analysis. they are daily used by all classes in the community, and | | have been awarded after full analysis the certificate of the | | institute of hygiene, devonshire st., harley st., london, w. | | | | _these foods were largely used at the vegetarian society's summer | | school at st. andrews._ | | | | send for full descriptive price list from the manufacturer, | | hugh mapleton, and dolphin st., ardwick, manchester, | | also at bristol and hamburg. | |______________________________________________________________________| ______________________________________________________________________ | | | the broadbent health booklets. | | | | one penny each. | | | | . how to keep warm | | . bread: its influence on health | | . constipation prevented by diet | | . dyspepsia prevented by diet | | . dangers in food (for sufferers from rheumatisms) | | . rheumatism and gout prevented by diet | | . children: their health and food | | . complexions made beautiful | | . nervousness prevented by diet | | . the secrets of longevity | | | | _london:_ r.j. james. london house yard, e.c. | | _philadelphia:_ the broadbent press. foulkrod st., frankford. | | _price cents. special quotations from the author for quantities--_ | | _albert broadbent, f.s.s., deansgate, manchester._ | |______________________________________________________________________| ______________________________________________________________________ | | | plasmon | | | | arrowroot. | | [illustration] | | infants, invalids, &c. | | | | provides the greatest nourishment; | | _is absolutely non-irritating_, | | easily digested, and particularly | | useful in extreme exhaustion | | and _wasting diseases_. | | | | tins d. & d. all chemists. | |______________________________________________________________________| ______________________________________________________________________ | | | the broadbent health books. | | | | by albert broadbent, f.s.s., f.r.h.s. | | | | ______ | | fortieth dietetic | | thousand. "science in the treatment for | | fourpence daily meal." gout, | | post free. rheumatism. | | | | "fruits, nuts, and vegetables," | | | | seventieth thousand. their uses as food and medicine. | | - / d. post free. | | | | "a book about salads." - / d. post free. | | | | _all these books contain invaluable recipes._ | | | | from deansgate, manchester. | |______________________________________________________________________| ______________highest in quality._______________ | | | the "lancet" says, | | "cadburys cocoa undergoes | | no method of treatment by which | | foreign substances are | | introduced." | | | | /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ | | | | cadbury's | | | | the nicest cocoa | | ____ | |[illustration] [illustration] | | "the standard of highest | | purity."--_the lancet._ | | | | \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ | | | | cadbury's cocoa is an exceedingly | | nourishing article of food | | containing every ingredient | | necessary for the sustenance of | | the body. it is the best and | | safest stimulant for brain workers | | and those who undergo great | | bodily exertion. | | | |_________________lowest in price__________________|