724 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



munity from the effects of vicious diet ; and it seems that there is a 

 peptic stimulus in mountain air and the climate of a high latitude." 



The kitchen-reformers of England and North America seem united 

 on the question of alcohol only, but contradict each other and some- 

 times themselves in their food-theories and general toxicology. The 

 hygienic system of Dio Lewis embraces the vegetarian, total abstinence, 

 and hydropathic dogmas, but in consistent logic and ingenuity is far 

 surpassed by that of Schrodt, the Swiss dietist. 



In his " Natur-Heilkunde," Schrodt distinguishes between natural, 

 artificially adapted, and unnatural or wholly injurious articles of food. 

 " Our natural food," he says (like Pythagoras), " are such vegetable and 

 semi-animal products as either are or can he eaten and relished raw, 

 and without the preliminaries of cooMng and spicing. Such are milk, 

 honey, eggs, nuts, cereals, a few roots, legumina, and gums, and the 

 countless variety of fruit, which are man-food /)«r excellence. Our vari- 

 ous kinds of bread, though artificially prepared, as well as other farina- 

 ceous dishes, are derived from an edible grain which is neither repulsive 

 nor indigestible in its original state. 



" To the second or adapted edibles belong different vegetables which 

 are rendered palatable only by the process of cooking, as cabbage, 

 beans, peas and lentils, and various roots and leaves. Flesh, also, I 

 will add to this list, though some would place it in the third class. In- 

 jurious, without a redeeming quality, are all narcotic and alcoholic 

 drinks, and all ardent spices, such as pepper, mustard, and acid fluids ; 

 also those partly decayed and acid substances whose properties are 

 more stimulating than nourishing : strong cheese, sauerkraut, and 

 pickles." 



This system is based on the idea that an unvitiated taste is a suffi- 

 cient criterion of healthfulness in food, and that to the palate of a child 

 all wholesome substances are agreeable, all injurious ones repulsive. 

 "A taste for the so-called articles of diet embraced in my third class," 

 says Herr Schrodt, "is always artificially and painfully acquired. No 

 man of veracity or memory will tell me that he liked cheese or brandy 

 at first." In accounting for the prevalence of stimulation and intem- 

 perance among seemingly healthy nations, he too falls back on vicari- 

 ous atonement by otherwise salutary habits. 



Viewed in the light of Dr. Boerhaave's theory, the gastronomic ex- 

 ploits of ancient and modern savages may gain an additional interest. 

 How desirable it would be to know by which vicarious virtue his Ma- 

 jesty the Emperor Vitellius could atone for the often-repeated sin of de- 

 vouring three brace of peacocks at a sitting, which Suetonius assures us 

 did not prevent him from appearing in the palestra an hour afterward 

 and joining in the games which were prolonged by torchlight toward 

 the morning hour ! Vendome, the champion of France and the one 

 strategic peer ever opposed to Marlborough, was as formidable at the 

 mess-table as on the battle-field. He would gorge himself till his joints 



