MEALS MEDICINAL. 
convinced,” said he, “‘ digestion is the great secret of life ; and that 
character, talents, virtues, and qualities are powerfully affected 
by beef, mutton, pie-crust, and rich soups. I have often thought 
T could feed, or starve men into many virtues, and vices, and 
affect them more powerfully with my instruments of cookery than 
Timotheus could do formerly with his lyre. Frequently is it 
that those persons whom God hath joined together in matrimony, 
ill-cooked joints and badly-boiled potatoes have put asunder.” 
“ There is” (to quote the Lancet, December, 1901) “a striking 
point of view from which the cook may be brought to the aid 
of the practical physician. Tf, for example, it were clearly 
shown that drugs such as are now used only in formally-prescribed 
mixtures, or pills, are capable of being introduced into the more 
welcome productions of the domestic kitchen, how grateful an 
assistance we should obtain! It is often difficult, where a 
medicine has to be taken frequently, and over long periods of 
time, to be sure that the patient does not grow careless, or 
forgetful. If, however, instead of taking his draught before, 
or his pill after his daily meals, the said draught, or the requisite 
pill, were (without altering the taste of the dish then served, 
and without losing its own efficacy) combined with the patient’s 
dinner, instead of preceding it, or following it, we can imagine 
a far more certain acceptance thereof on his part; and the 
physician’s orders would be more consistently carried out by 
connivance on the side of the cook than they ate with the 
co-operation of the chemist. Such a relegation of the dispenser’s 
duties to the hands of the chef can only be achieved by familiarity 
in the mind of the medical man with the work of both his sub- 
ordinates. As to that of the druggist, he is perhaps fairly 
cognizant ; with that of the cook it is to be strongly recommended 
that he shall become more intimately acquainted.” 
And, indeed, if only on historical grounds, medical men should 
specially interest themselves in foodstuffs, and their preparation. 
From early times, when the functions of priest, and physician, 
were united in the same man, and when votive offerings, and 
therapeutic agents were alike prescribed, and dispensed by his 
hands, the association of the culinary, and healing arts has 
been always a close one. There is a fund of useful lore, and 
information, in the old accounts of the various properties, and 
powers with which writers from the earliest times invested 
different articles of diet. Thus Pliny tells it as the opinion of 
