METHODS OF PREPARING FOOD. 357 



childhood, have never used meat, or even butter, and yet their sys- 

 tems are well developed, and they are robust, muscular men. 



Some medical writers condemn the use of meat as unnec- 

 essary and injurious. But most people of our country have eaten 

 meat, and their parents for many generations before them have done 

 the same, so that their digestive systems are accustomed and accom- 

 modated to the use of it, and therefore it is not every one who can 

 leave off eating meat and continue to enjoy good health. 



Some physicians claim that they have been compelled to rec- 

 ommend the use of meat to their patients and that its use resulted 

 in a salutary effect. But there is no doubt that many will find them- 

 selves better in body and clearer in mind if they will use less meat 

 than they do. 



There is hardly a question that the human family would be 

 better off to-day, in the aggregate, had they never used meat at all 

 than they are wnile using it in that excessive degree which is now 

 common. But, in its use, we would doubtless do better to abstain 

 from eating the flesh of those animals which the Jews were prohib- 

 ited from eating. 



It is stated by Medical Authorities that people who are rugged 

 and healthy and are engaged in outdoor pursuits, and who relish 

 pork, may eat it with impunity. The Hindoos are a healthy 

 people, yet they live to a great extent on rice and are capable of 

 enduring strong, muscular exertions, while the flesh-eating 

 foreigner suffers more or less with diseases of the liver and 

 digestive organs. The native races of Sierra Leone subsist on 

 fruits and boiled rice and are long lived and healthy. 



METHODS OF PREPARING FOOD. 



The preparation of food by cooking subserves several very 

 important purposes. It removes some things that might prove 

 injurious, destroying any parasitic germs that may exist. It ren- 

 ders food more pleasing to the sight, more fragrant to the smell, 

 more agreeable to the taste and more digestible by the stomach. 

 Flavor is developed and the cohesion of tissues is lessened so that the 

 digestive juices can act more freely upon them. Previous beating 

 and bruising of flesh facilitates the loosening process and makes the 

 meat more tender; hence the custom of beating chops and steaks. 

 Warmth also aids digestion. 



Cleanliness is the very first principle of cooking; tact in arrang- 

 ing and setting off the food is no mean accomplishment. In the 

 preparation of food for the sick, greater care, if possible, should be 

 exercised than in similar operations for the healthy. The slightest 

 error in cooking may cause the loss of appetite at the very time 

 when it is most needed. The fastidious taste and weakened stomach 



