GOOSE. 347 
Two French epicures, not being satisfied with the flavour given 
to the turkey by its stuffing of Truffles for the table, determined 
to try whether this Truffle favour might not be imparted to the 
bird by a suitable system of diet. They selected a fat young 
turkey, and fed it for two months with the most exquisite 
Truffles that the South of France could produce ; and the turkey 
seemed to enjoy the experiment. At the end of two months 
the bird was killed, roasted with delicate care, and brought upon 
the table. Each of the experimenters eagerly took a wing, and 
found to his disappointment that the turkey had absolutely no 
Truffle flavour whatever. It was thus proved that a diet of 
volatile fragrance does not impart its special flavours to an animal 
kept living on such diet for a length of time. Evelyn, in his 
Diary (September 30th, 1644), wrote about “a dish of Trufles, 
which is a certaine earth-nut found out by an hogg train’d to it, 
and for which these animals are sold at a greate price.” Samuel 
Boyse (whose poem on the Deity is quoted with high praise by 
Feilding) was an improvident writer always in want of money. 
Dr. Johnson generously exerted himself to collect by sixpences 
a sufficient sum for getting Boyse’s clothes out of pawn. But 
two days afterwards Boyse had spent this money in some self- 
indulgence, and was found in bed, covered only with a blanket, 
through two holes in which blanket he passed his arms so as 
to write. It appears that when thus impoverished he would 
lay out his last hali-guinea to buy Truffles, and mushrooms, 
for eating with his scrap-end of beef. 
Mahometans, and Jews who abjure the use of lard, find in 
countries where butter is scarce a substitute for it in Goose-fat, 
clarified, and made excellent of taste. Goose oil has long been 
a popular remedy of sovereign use externally for croup, or a 
swollen throat. The whimsical version of “ Old Father William,” 
by Alice, to the Caterpillar, in Wonderland, runs thus :— 
“ * You are old,’ said the youth, ‘ and your jaws are too weak 
For anything tougher than suet ; 
Yet you fini the goose, with the bones, and the beak ; 
Pray, how did you manage to do it ?’ 
«In my youth,’ said his father, ‘I took to the law, 
And argued each case with my wife ; : ra 
And the muscular strength which it gave to my jaw, 
Has lasted the rest of my life.’ ” 
To prevent indigestion from the richness of a Goose, after a. 
