VENTEROLOGY. 667 



rator of the story, was the conviction, at that time, that the nutriment 

 of children formed a part of their education. 



If we can put any faith in Swift, with respect to the satire which 

 he has so lavishly betowed on all professions in his Gulliver's Travels, 

 it must have been the prevalent doctrine of the medical men of his 

 time that the mind was in a great degree subject to the influence 

 which the food had upon the body. The hero of the story, in his 

 visit to the academy at Lagado, mentions that one of the professors 

 shewed him a large paper of instructions for discovering plots and 

 conspiracies against the government. He advised great statesmen to 

 examine into the diet of all suspected persons ; their time of eating j 

 upon which side they lay in bed; and many other points which it is 

 not necessary to mention. The height to which the doctrine might 

 have been carried, may perhaps stand as an apology for the severity 

 of the satire ; but no one can doubt that ill-concocted viands not only 

 produce commotions in the human bowels, but, it may be, " convul- 

 sions and heats in the bowels of Europe ;" for it is an axiom, sanc- 

 tioned by the highest authority, that well-digested opinions are the 

 product of well-digested viands, and vice versa. In truth, it has been 

 satisfactorily proved, that in every stage of human life health and 

 disease pleasure and pain and even life and death, are dependent 

 on the functions of the stomach. Let those therefore who would 

 enjoy an easy and agreeable state of mind be careful in the choice of 

 their viands and their cook ; and may it be their lot to exclaim 



" Que je puisse toujours, apres avoir dine, 

 Benir le cuisinier que le ciel m'a donne! " 



What Sir Andrew Ague-cheek suspected to be the cause of his 

 d ulness, is in fact the prevailing error among Englishmen of the pre- 

 sent day : we are cf great eaters of beef." This (< toujours perdrix" 

 system, this animal diet, cannot fail to make us the silent and sedate 

 creatures we are. The Frenchman, on the contrary, makes his repast 

 off a variety of aliments, which, by cookery, are rendered inviting to 

 the palate, and easy of digestion to the stomach : as a consequence, 

 his conversation is light and agreeable, never tiresome from its same- 

 ness, but various and pleasing. It is even asserted that our personal 

 beauty depends upon eating and drinking ; and that the ugliness of 

 the Calm ucks is solely owing to their feasting on raw flesh; an 

 alarming piece of news to all eaters of half-dressed beef, and a con- 

 vincing proof of the importance of cookery. 



