DIVISION SEVENTH. 



How to Cook Food to make it Healthful, Palatable 

 and Digestible, thus Distinguishing from Cook- 

 books, that give receipts destructive 

 to Digestion, Health and Life. 



Food is a subject of great interest to the healthy and the sick, 

 which concerns not merely gratification of taste, or satisfaction of 

 the appetite, but also the maintenance of life. In health, diet may 

 be left very much to the inclination of the individual, both with 

 respect to quality and quantity; since unless appetite be per- 

 verted and depraved by rich sauces and high seasonings, it is on the 

 whole the best guide. Judgment must, however, be exercised in 

 respect to eating and drinking, or man soon degenerates into a mere 

 animal. In disease, on the other hand, the appetite fails to guide, 

 and intelligent judgment is more required in the selection of differ- 

 ent articles of diet, because regulation of quantity and quality is of 

 greater importance than in health. The taste of an invalid is in 

 most cases so perverted that he may reject the most suitable article, 

 and desire the most injurious. His appetite is too capricious to be 

 trusfed to regulate quantity. Hence the severity of the disease 

 might be increased and the life of the patient imperiled, if taste 

 and appetite were permitted to govern the selection of food, instead 

 of intelligent knowledge of the properties of different foods, and 

 judicious experience in their administration. There should be no 

 exception to this rule except by way of experiment, when observa- 

 tion may be carefully made of the effects of food craved by the 

 patient, given in cautious quantities, when the results may be taken 

 for guidance. 



In not a few disorders an acquaintance with dietetics is as es- 

 sential to the proper treatment of the patient as a knowledge of 

 drugs, for the action of medicine may be counteracted by unsuitable 

 diet. It is of great importance to know what variations in food are 

 permissible, for an invalid soon tires of the same food. Tea and 

 toast may be palatable for a time, but " What else may I eat?" i8 

 soon the inquiry he ruefully puts. Experience shows too that there 

 is considerable ignorance of the best methods of preparing food 

 suitable for the patient. In the present day it is deemed desirable 

 to lay down for the guidance of mistresses and servants the princi- 

 ples of cooking and to give public lessons in cookery. But these 

 are for the food of the table, not for that of the sick-room. Th 



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