x PREFACE. 
to ourselves,—the ivy-leaved toad-flax, (linaria cymbalaria), 
or “mother of thousands,’—growing commonly on old 
garden walls, and now esteemed as harmless, though bitter 
and astringent. Again, our English King John, of disrepu- 
table memory, is recorded to have shut up Maud Fitzwalter 
the Fair, in the dingiest and chilliest den of the Tower; 
and, when neither cold, nor hunger, nor solitude broke her 
strength, while she still disdained his shameful suit, he foisted 
on her a poisoned egg, of which she ate and died. 
The leading motive of the present work is, then, to instruct 
readers, whether medical or lay, how to choose meats and 
drinks, which can afford precisely the same remedial elements 
for effecting cures as medicinal drugs have hitherto been 
relied on to bring about: and which, plus their vital force, 
are of supreme advantage, because energetically derived 
straight from the fresh animal and vegetable sources. So 
that a culinary “Materia Medica” will stand thus com- 
petently and agreeably provided, on which dependence can be 
placed, even with greater trust than on prescribed drugs. 
Tn previous publications we have discussed at some length 
the groundwork of Vegetable, Animal, and combined Alimen- 
tary Physic. That our Herbal Simples fairly met a public 
requirement in this direction, was proved by the speedy 
demand for two editions of the said Manual, insomuch that 
it has been for the last three years out of print, the publishers 
repeatedly urging a third edition; and therefore the main 
portions of Herbal Simples are reproduced in the present 
Meals Medicinal (particularly as regards their curative edible 
belongings). But of our Animal Simples, and Kitchen Physic, 
searcely any of the same literary substance finds place again 
here, except in brief allusion, and plainly stated as such; 
furthermore some few of the pleasantries are repeated, for 
