coo 



coo 



CONU9, in natural history, t genus of 

 Yermes Testacea : animal a limax ; shell 

 univalve, convolute, turbinate ; aperture 

 effuse, longitudinal, linear, without teeth, 

 entire at the base; pillar smooth. This 

 genus is divided into five distinct families, 

 viz. A. spire or turban nearly truncate. B. 

 pyriform with a rounded base : the cylin- 

 der half as long again as the spire. C. 

 elongated and rounded :it the base ; the 

 cylinder as long again as the spire. D. 

 ventricose in the middle, and contracted 

 at each end. E. thin, ventricose, and 

 making a tinkling sound when thrown on 

 its back upon a table or board. There are 

 upwards of 70 species enumerated. Many 

 of the conus tribe are beautiful shells, and 

 bear a high price on account of their rari- 

 ty. There is no species of this genus upon 

 die English coast. Some very curious 

 kinds have been discovered in a fossil state 

 in England, chiefly in the chalk clifl's of 

 Hampshire. 



CONYZA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Syngenesia Polygamia Superflua class and 

 order. Natural order of Composite Dis- 

 coidese. Corymbiferx, Jussieu. Essential 

 character : calyx imbricate, roundish ; co- 

 rolla of the ray three-cleft ; down simple ; 

 receptacle naked. There are forty -three 

 species. The Conyzas or Fleabanes are 

 either herbaceous or shrubby ; in a few of 

 them the leaves are decurrent ; the flowers 

 are of the compound kind without any ray, 

 in corymbs or panicles at the top of the 

 stem and branches. 



COOKIyE, in botany, a genus of the 

 Decandria Monogynia class and order. 

 Calyx five-cleft, inferior; corolla five-pe- 

 talled, equal inferior ; pome five-celled ; 

 the cells one seeded. One species found 

 in China. 



COOKERY, or cooking, the exercise of 

 art in the preparation of food for human 

 sustenance. It consists not only in the ap- 

 plication of heat under various modifica- 

 tions and circumstances, but also in the 

 due intermixture of condiments, calculat- 

 ed as well to please the palate, as to pro- 

 mote nutrition. The exercise of this art 

 is peculiar to man, and it has been deem- 

 ed by naturalists one of his peculiar cha- 

 racteristics, that he is " a cooking animal." 

 Dr. Cullen says, that the cooking of ve- 

 getables by boiling renders them more 

 soluble in the stomach, notwithstanding 

 the degree of coagulation which their 

 juices undergo. In the second place, the 

 application of a boiling heat dissipates the 

 volatile parts of vegetable substances, 

 which are seldom of a nutritious nature, 

 hut, in many cases, have a tendency to 



prove noxious. In the third place, boiling 

 helps to extricate a considerable quantity 

 of air, that, in the natural state of vegeta- 

 bles, is always fixed in their substance ; 

 and it is probably in this way, especially, 

 that heat contributes to the dividing and 

 loosening the cohesion of their smaller 

 parts. Thus they are rendered less liable 

 to ferment, and to produce that flatulence 

 which is so troublesome to weak sto- 

 machs. 



In the cookery of animal substances, 

 some practices, previous to the application 

 of heat, are to be considered as affecting 

 their solubility in the stomach ; particular- 

 ly salting and pickling. These processes 

 are spoken of under the article COKDI- 

 MEICTS. 



The cookery of animal substances is ot 

 two kinds ; as it is applied in a humid form, 

 in boiling and stewing ; or in a dry form, 

 in roasting, broiling, and baking. By the 

 joint application of heat and moisture to 

 meat in boiling, the texture is certainly 

 rendered more tender and more soluble in 

 the stomach ; and it is only in this way 

 that the firmer parts, as the tendinous, 

 ligamentous, and membranous parts, can 

 be duly softened, and their gelatinous 

 substance rendered subservient to nutri- 

 tion. Yet these effects are different ac- 

 cording to the degree of boiling. A mode- 

 rate boiling may render their texture more 

 tender, without much diminution of their 

 nutritious quality ; but if the boiling isex- 

 tended to extract every thing soluble, the 

 substance remaining is certainly less solu- 

 ble in the stomach, and at the same time 

 much less nutritious. Cut as boiling ex- 

 tracts, in the first place, the more soluble, 

 and therefore the saline parts ; so what re- 

 mains is, in proportion, less alkalescent, 

 and less heating to the system. 



Boiling in digesters, or vessels accurate- 

 ly closed, produces effects very different 

 from boiling in open vessels. From meat 

 cooked in the latter, there is no exhalation 

 of volatile parts ; the solution is made 

 with great success, and if not carried very 

 far, the meat may be rendered very ten- 

 der, while it still retains its most sapid 

 parts ; and this is esteemed always the 

 must desirable state of boiled meat. If a 

 small quantity of water only is applied, 

 and the heat continued long in a moderate 

 degree, the process is called stewing, 

 which has the effect of rendering the tex- 

 ture of meat more tender, without extract- 

 ing much of the soluble parts. This, there- 

 fore, leaves the meat more sapid, and in a 

 state perhaps the most nourishing of any 

 form of cookery ; as we learn from the ad- 



