694 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
meal; whether the contents were fish, fowl, vegetable, meat, 
or fruit, he ate that, and nothing more, and he still lives to tell 
the tale. But he was actively engaged all the time, both 
physically, and mentally, except when asleep ; and he breathed 
fresh air in the open for the twenty-four hours of every day, 
and night.”” In New York, U.S., hundreds of millions of canned 
foods are consumed annually, but there has never been an 
authenticated case of poisoning by any one of the cans that 
could not be traced, and attributed to the carelessness of the 
consumer. At the present day no solder is used inside a tin, 
but the can is strictly a tin envelope with the contents in vacuo, 
as shown by the ends of each can being sucked inwards ; if these 
ends are springy, or bulge outwards, then the vacuum does not 
exist, and the contents, being spoilt, must be thrown away. 
The Epicure (December, 1903) tells a true story of an old lady 
who had a pious horror of tinned foods. ‘‘ Once she supped at 
a friend’s house, partaking of an entrée which specially com- 
mended itself to her taste, insomuch that she resolved to ask 
for its recipe. But a fortnight elapsed before she could see her 
friend, and urge the request; then an explanation ensued ;— 
the admired dainty was a tinned abomination! Incontinently 
the old lady went home, and took to her bed with a severe gastric 
attack, which shattered her strength, and more than ever 
confirmed her prejudices.”” Not improbably other such instances 
occur, where the imagination has more to answer for in illness 
from canned produce than the comestible itself. 
TOBACCO. 
Iy no sense can Tobacco be considered a medicinal food, yet 
as a most useful subsidiary agent it merits our passing notice 
in these pages. Detailed particulars regarding its qualities 
(good, and bad) are given at some length in Kitchen Physic. 
** Divine, rare, super-excellent Tobacco,” wrote Burton (in his 
Anatomy of Melancholy, 1676), “is a virtuous herb when 
medicinally used ; but as taken in smoke, hellish, devilish, and 
damned.” “This herb goes far beyond all their panaceas, 
potable gold, and philosopher’s stones; a sovereign remedy 
to all diseases ; a good vomit, I confesse ; a vertuous herb if it 
be well qualified, opportunely taken, and medicinally used ; 
but as it is commonly abused by most men, which take it as 
