A FEW WORDS ABOUT EATABLES. 687 



C. I gather from what you Lave said that you would prefer, as 

 food for invalids, milk enriched with cream or some other fatty mat- 

 ter, or the yolks of eggs, or something like the bouillon of the French 

 pot-au-feu, to highly nitrogenous preparations from which the fat has 

 been carefully skimmed off, such as Brand's essence, or Liebig's 

 extraction carnis, or ordinary beef -tea. 



31. That I certainly do ; lean meat more or less fluidified and its 

 juices are not the sine qua non in food if what I have said be true. 

 On the contrary, I am disposed to think that in very many cases foods 

 of this sort are really unsuitable, if only by calling upon the liver to 

 do work which this organ is unequal to at the time. 



C. You approve, then, of the old-fashioned milk diet rather than 

 of the meat preparations which are now so much in vogue ? 



31. I am quite a believer in the virtue of unskimmed milk as a 

 most suitable food for invalids of all ages in almost all cases ; and I 

 think that, in very many cases where this fluid does not agree, this 

 difficulty will be got over by the addition of cream or some fatty 

 matter. I can imagine that many mothers who can not feed their 

 infants in the proper way, or get fresh cow's milk or cream, will have 

 reason to be glad when they can procure preparations of condensed 

 or inspissated milk enriched with various quantities of cream or some 

 fatty matter. I can imagine that preparations more or less similar to 

 those, which, for the reason I have just hinted at, might properly be 

 called brain-food or nerve-food, might make cod-liver oil almost super- 

 fluous as medicine, and be of infinite service to countless myriads of 

 persons in whom brain-power or nerve-power is lacking. I can imagine 

 that in many cases it will be difficult to find a food for invalids which 

 is to be preferred to lightly boiled yolk of egg, or to ordinary egg- 

 flip. And in the cases where it is expedient to use flesh meat in one 

 form or another -I am sure it will be a great change for the better 

 when, instead of having recourse to beef-tea, or Brand's essence, or 

 Liebig's extraction carnis, the thoughts are turned to something like 

 the bouillon of the French pot-au-feu, or rather to the very thing it- 

 self. 



C. In what respect is this bouillon better than broth or stock ? 



31. It is much more pleasant to the taste. It is the outcome of 

 ages of experience in the people who have a special genius for cookery. 

 The animal and vegetable ingredients are so blended that the flavor 

 of no one article is predominant. The bouillon contains all, or almost 

 all, the soluble portions of those ingredients which are necessary for 

 tissue-forming or plastic purposes, and for force-production, and, when 

 taken along with bread, it provides a meal for an invalid which is 

 most palatable, most digestible, and most restorative. It is the basis 

 of all good gravies and soups, becoming, for example, excellent pur'ee 

 or pea-soup when a proper portion of pea-flour is added to it. 



C. What about the bouilli which remains behind in the pot when 



