INTRODUCTION. 9 
of the problem of life can be expressed in terms of food, whilst 
much of the indisposition, and many of the minor ailments of 
everyday life, are directly the outcome of a neglect of hygienic 
practice in the kitchen. Ifthe illnesses met with in ‘ high life’ 
are to be effectually dealt with, the ignorance, and neglect often 
made manifest in ‘low life’ must not be forgotten. We hope 
the author of Kitchen Physic (1901) will see fit to supplement 
his discourse by a work dealing with Kitchen Hygiene.” 
Accordingly, such a compendium of explanatory dietetics 
is now undertaken, with the conjoint purposes of enlightening 
the cook, of treating diseases by effective medicinal constituents 
given at table, and of helping the doctor with points of 
reference ready at hand concerning the meals which he may 
best advise for each case as it comes before him. Moreover, 
he will thus become further furnished with a serviceable 
stock of culinary suggestions, suitably adapted for such 
patients as seek his help by correspondence: in which way, 
when economy of time for immediate study, and research, 
is an object (the attention being, moreover, of necessity otherwise 
occupied), important questions concerning appropriate forms 
of sustenance can be expeditiously solved by a ready reference 
to our Manual. 
** But now the Cook must pass through all degrees, 
And by his art discordant tempers please, 
And minister to health and to disease. 
Homer, less modern, if we search his books 
Will show us that his Heroes all were Cooks : 
How loy’d Patroclus with Achilles joins 
To quarter out the ox, and spit the loins.” 
In the earlier ages of the world, no palled appetites are recorded, 
but such as proceeded from the decays of nature by reason of 
an advanced old age. On the contrary, we are told of a hungry 
stomach even upon a deathbed, as with patriarchal Isaac. Nor 
were there other sicknesses but the first, and the last. For two 
thousand years, and upwards, there were no physicians to 
prescribe for ailing persons, nor any apothecaries to compound 
distasteful medicines. Food and physic were then one and the 
same thing. Primeval mankind, gaunt, brown, and savage, 
in a state of nature, fed upon roots, fruits, vegetables, and 
wild animals, all without culture, or cooking. By-and-by, 
through the transference of the digestive work—in part to the 
sun as a cooking power, and partly to fire in a like capacity— 
