131 



COOKING APPARATUS. 



COOKING APPARATUS. 



183 



will be induced, of which convulsions, always of a tonic character, are 

 a constant result. Whether, then, the balance of the circulation be 

 disturbed by deficiency or excess in the quantity of the circulating 

 blood, or deficiency or excess in the motion of it, it will prove 

 alike an exciting cause of convulsions. 2. Precisely the same results are 

 produced if there circulate through the blood-vessels blood vitiated in 

 quality, blood too much venalised, or too much arterialised, or impreg- 

 nated with poison. The character of the convulsions induced by ex- 

 citing causes of this class vary essentially according to the nature and 

 extent of the vitiation of the blood and the kind of poison with which 

 it may be imbued. 3. Extravasation of blood upon the surface or 

 into the substance of the spinal cord and brain, by the rupture of the 

 blood-vessels ; or the effusion of the serous portion of the blood, occa- 

 sioning direct pressure on the nervous matter. 4. Organic changes in 

 the constitution of the nervous substance, as a preternatural softening 

 or a preternatural hardening of it. 5. Morbid growths within the 

 nervous substance, forming tumours of various natures and sizes. 

 6. Mechanical injury of the nervous substance, from the irritation 

 occasioned by the deposition of bony matter on the investing mem- 

 branes of the nervous substance, or from spiculae of bone growing out 

 from the inner table of the osseous cases that inclose it. 7. Mechanical 

 violence directly applied to the nervous substance, aa from a blow or 

 fall, by which a shock, exhaustive of its vitality, may be communicated 

 to it, or its substance injured, or its circulation disturbed. Such are the 

 more powerful exciting causes which act directly on the animal 

 portion of the nervous system. 



But convulsions may be equally induced by the action of an irritating 

 cause on the organic portion of the nervous system. The irritation 

 excited in the organic nerves is transmitted to the communicating 

 branches of the spinal and cerebral nerves, and is by these communi- 

 cating branches conveyed to the spinal cord or brain. It is in this 

 manner that irritating substances in the stomach or in the intestines 

 induce convulsions, as indigestible or acrid substances taken as food, 

 or acrid matters generated or evolved during the digestive process, or 

 retained by long-continued constipation [CONSTIPATION] in some part 

 of the alimentary canal ; or the accumulation of acid, or the presence 

 of worms, &c. Many other noxious agents which act upon one or 

 other of these nervous circles, or upon both conjointly, might be 

 enumerated aa the exciting causes of convulsions ; but those which 

 have been stated may suffice to indicate the kind of noxious agents 

 which induce this affection, by disturbing the functions of the nervous 

 ystem. 



The treatment in every case of convulsion must be directed to the 

 subduing of the paroxysm and to the prevention of its return. There 

 are certain things proper to be done the instant a person is seized with 

 a fit of convulsions, with a knowledge of which it is desirable that 

 every one should be familiar. The patient should be immediately sur- 

 rounded as completely as possible with fresh cool air. If he be seized 

 in a small heated and crowded room, circumstances of themselves 

 sufficient to produce a paroxysm in a person strongly predisposed to 

 it, he should be removed into a spacious apartment, the windows of 

 which should be thrown open, and every one whose assistance is not 

 absolutely required_should be excluded from the room. In the male, 

 the neckcloth should be immediately untied, and the face, neck, and 

 bosom freely exposed to the air ; in the female, the stays should be 

 unlaced, and every thing tight about the body should be removed. 

 If the skin be cool, and the face pallid and sunk, the patient should 

 be placed in the horizontal posture ; if the skin be hot and the face 

 flushed, he should be sustained in the sitting or the erect posture, in 

 order, in the former case, to favour the flow of blood to the spinal 

 cord and brain ; and in the latter to retard it. 



The remedies employed to put an end to the fit must of course 

 depend on the nature of the exciting cause, and on the pathological 

 condition of the nervous system. 



COOKING APPARATUS. If cookery be raised to the dignity of 

 a chemical art (and there is no good reason why it should not), we 

 ought to regard cooking vessels as chemical apparatus. It is, however, 

 chiefly in the mode of applying and economising heat, that such appa- 

 ratus calls forth the exercise of ingenuity. 



Of the ordinary cooking vessels we need say nothing ; their sim- 

 plicity has rendered them familiar to all ; but of the modern cooking 

 stoves and apparatus, many examples evince skilful arrangement. 



In the so-called " bachelor's kettles," of which Spiller's is one spe- 

 cimen, the problem seems to be to determine in how short a space of 

 time, and with how little trouble, can a frugal meal for one person 

 be prepared. Spillefs apparatus consists of a kind of saucepan, with 

 a small opening on one side to admit air, and a Sue fixed in the oppo- 

 site side to let off smoke. A very shallow tea-kettle forms the cover 

 to this saucepan. In the middle of the saucepan is a small iron 

 grating, and on this grating it placed one of those small net-work 

 arrangements of sticks which constitute " patent firewood," and which 

 are now sold so cheaply at one farthing each. This wood being 

 kindled, and the kettle placed over it, the heat is so confined as to 

 make the water in the kettle boil by the time the wood is consumed. 

 With some of these contrivances a kind of small frying-pan is sold ; 

 and by using a larger piece of patent firewood, time is allowed for a 

 small dish of savoury cookery after the water has boiled : the kettle 

 being quickly replaced by the pan. There is a certain amount of 



usefulness in the contrivance which makes it available for others 

 besides the " bachelors " whom the patentee seems to have had in his 

 thoughts. 



Many varieties of gas cooking-stoves have been introduced, in which 

 gas jets are made to yield heat sufficient for the processes of boiling, 

 stewing, roasting, baking, frying, &c. Among others is Defries' 

 " Economic Gas Cooking-stove," which is made to suit either large or 

 small culinary wants. Mr. Boggett's gas stoves, for which a patent 

 was taken out in 1850, comprise many varieties, differing from each 

 other chiefly in the mode of making the heat practically available. 

 There is one form called the Liverpool gas-stove, in which separate 

 departments are provided for roasting, baking, broiling, frying, boiling, 

 stewing, and steaming. For many of these purposes the gas is supplied 

 in a ring of jets. On a festive occasion at Exeter, the late M. Soyer 

 cooked a monster joint of meat by means of this apparatus ; the meat 

 weighed 565 Ibs , and was cooked in a gas oven in five hours, with an 

 expenditure of about five shillings' worth of gas. 



The kitchen ranges and other stoves and grates in which coal or coke 

 is burned, are for the most part contrived both for warming apartments 

 and for cooking ; but some are designed especially for cooking. The 

 "cottager's stove," manufactured by Messrs. Bailey, of Holborn, consists 

 of a square iron case supported on four legs. Inside this case, and 

 near one end, is a fire-pot, the top of which opens into a flue to carry 

 off the smoke ; the rest of the vacant space constitutes an oven ; 

 while the top, being flat, is available for many cooking processes. lu 

 some of these stoves a boiler is attached to that end which is nearest 

 to the fire. It has been shown that, in one of these stoves, 100 Ibs. 

 of meat and 115 Ibs. of vegetables, can be cooked with an expenditure 

 of 20 Ibs. of coal. 



The cooking apparatus of Messrs. Burbidge and Healy is founded 

 on the plans of heating developed by Mr. Sylvester. There are, as in 

 many other similar kinds of apparatus, a large range, an oven, a boiler, 

 a hot-plate, and various subsidiary parts ; but its chief features consist 

 in the economising of fuel, and in lessening the amount of radiation 

 sent into the middle of the room. This radiation is an annoyance to 

 the persons present, and involves a loss of some of the heat produced ; 

 and it is unquestionably an improvement, other things being equal, if 

 nearly the whole of the heat produced can be applied to the purposes 

 for which it i.i primarily intended. 



Among the many forms of cooking apparatus, that of Mr. Brown is 

 distinguished by having the whole kitchen range, with its oven, boiler, 

 hot-plate, &c., set in a framework which may be placed in any sized 

 fire-place, however large, without setting. The throat, or opening to 

 the flue, is formed in the iron-work of the range itself, so as to be at 

 once determinate in shape and size. With this range is used an auto 

 maton roasting jack, arranged in a singular way. In front of the 

 range is placed a sort of semi cylindrical oven, with the usual hooks 

 and dripping-pans for roasting. A hollow tube projects from the 

 lower part of the oven ; and when the oven and range are arranged for 

 cooking, this tube is thrust into an opening beneath the fire-place of 

 the range. While the contents of the oven are exposed to the action 

 of the fire, a current of air is continually drawn through the tube into 

 the oven ; and this current sets in rotation a vane- wheel to which the 

 suspended hooks are attached. 



Remington's roasting apparatus is, as the name imports, adapted to 

 roasting only. The meat is suspended from or below a jack. There 

 are concave reflectors above and below, which reflect the heat so as to 

 act on the upper and lower surfaces of the meat. The centre of both 

 reflectors is hollowed ; the fat which drips from the meat passes 

 through the hollow in the lower reflector into a sort of cup beneath, 

 and is from time to time poured into another vessel, which is perforated 

 and placed over the hole in the upper reflector. The inventor hence 

 calls his apparatus not only a roaster, but a " self-acting baster." 



M. Soyer devised a pretty and scientific cooking stove, in which spirit 

 of wine is the fuel used. A lamp is so placed as, by its heat, to boil 

 spirit placed in a vessel above ; the steam or vapour of this boiling 

 spirit has no outlet, except through a tube which gradually becomes 

 so narrow as to resemble a blow-pipe ; this blow-pipe is placed opposite 

 to a second spirit-flame, and the blowpipe wafts such a constant stream 

 of spirit-vapour into this flame as to heat it greatly, and to make it act 

 rapidly on small cooking vessels placed above it. There is a good deal 

 of chemical ingenuity shown in thus feeding one spirit-flame by vapour 

 derived from another ; but the apparatus is somewhat costly. 



Mr. Norman has devised a mode of using steam as well aa interior 

 radiated heat, in a cooking apparatus. There are two vessels, one 

 within the other, having a space of about three-quarters of an inch 

 between them at top and bottom : this space is partly filled with water. 

 There is a tray for meat, and another tray, perforated, for vegetables, 

 4c. When the vessel is heated, the staam from the water is received 

 by two small pipes, and projected upon the contents of the lower 

 tray ; after which, the steam ascends through the perforations to the 

 upper tray. 



A lecture delivered at the Royal Institution in 18E7, by Captain 

 Grant, of the Royal Artillery, gave much useful infoi mation on the 

 important subject of cooking in the British army a subject to which 

 that officer has devoted considerable attention. Captain Grant draws 

 attention to the much neglected fact, that all stoves or grates im- 

 bedded in a mass of brick- or stone-work, occasion great waste of iuel 



