FOODS. 289 
imposing an excess of work upon them. By way of a rest, an 
occasional fast, of varying duration according to the individual 
powers, is a most excellent thing. Human nature is, moreover, 
made up of both sentiment, and hunger, so that Thomas Hood 
was truthful in his epicurean reminiscences when he said :— 
*“ T’was at Christmas, I think, when I met with Miss Chase, 
Yes! for Morris had asked me to dine ; 
And I thought I had never beheld such a face, 
Or so noble a turkey, and chine.” 
As soon as man began to pass from a vegetable to an animal diet 
** O fortunatos nimium sua, si bona norint, 
Agricolas!” Virgil’s Georgic. ii. 458. 
and to feed on flesh, fowl, and fish, then condiments became 
necessary, both to render such foods more palatable, and 
savoury, and also to preserve from intestinal corruption those 
parts which were not immediately used up. Probably salt 
was the first seasoning discovered for such a purpose; 
we read of this in the Book of Leviticus ii. 13, “ Every 
meat-offering shalt thou season with salt.” “Certain dyspep- 
tics,’ as Dr. King Chambers teaches, “ get into a bad habit of 
striking out from their bill of fare henceforward everything that 
has once seemed to disagree, the result of which policy is an 
unwholesome monotony of wrongly-chosen victuals, and a 
despairing resignation to a needless abstinence. Let them, on 
the other hand, take the more hopeful course of adding to their 
dietary everything that they have once found to agree, and they 
will acquire a choice nearly as extensive as their robust brethren 
could wish. If one cook cannot make a coveted article digestible, 
let them try another.’ It is noteworthy that several of the large 
leading West End Hotels in London now think it worth while 
to make a special feature of invalid diet. The truth is, most 
persons suffer nowadays from some one or other ailment, gout 
it may be, or rheumatism, bloodlessness, skin trouble, influenza, 
neuralgia, diabetes, kidney disorder, or what not, for which 
persons the regulation meals are quite unsuitable. Perhaps 
milk only is desired, or prepared cocoa, plain bread, boiled 
chicken, fish free from grease, and delicate, simple, sugarless, 
butterless, or acidless puddings. At present everything of such 
sort which an invalid may want is happily provided at these 
several Hotels. 2 
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