Sec. 22".] 



THE FOOD QUESTION. 



357 



endure work to good habits of eating, constant attention to the laws of sleep, 

 physical exercise, and general cheerfulness. , 



"There is one thing more to be said in this connection. It is not a matter 

 of epicureanism that a man should be dainty concerning t!ie fond he eats. 

 On the contrary, I hold thixt a civilized man ought to be civilizetl in his 

 cookeiy. I suppose one of the infallible signs of the inillenniuni will be a 

 better regulated kitchen — a kitchen that sends out food that will help to 

 promote health and increase Christianity." 



378. Tlie Food and Clolliins: a Man may fonsumc in a Lifptirar.— Alex. 

 Soyer's " Modern Housewife" gives tlie folbjwing caleidalion as the probable 

 amount of food that an epicure of seventy years might have consumed. 

 "Supposing his gastronomic performances to commence at ten years, he will 

 make 65,700 breaktasts, dinners, and suppers, to say nothing of luncheons 

 and extra feastings. To sujiidy the epicure's table for sixty years, Soycr cal- 

 culates he -will require 30 oxen, 200 sheep, 100 calves, 20() himbs, Tiil pigs; 

 in jioultr}', 1,200 fowls, 300 turkeys, loO geese, 400 ducklings, 203 i)igeons; 

 1,400 partridges, pheasants, and grouse; 600 woodcocks and snipes; 600 

 wild ducks, widgeon, anil teal; -i^iO jilovers, ruffs, and reeves; sun rpiails, 

 ortolans, and dotterels, and a few guillemots'and other foreign birds; also 

 500 hares and rabbits, 40 deer, 120 Guinea-fowl, 10 peacocks, and' 360 wild- 

 fowls. In the way of fish, 120 turbot, 140 salmon, 120 cod, 200 trout, 400 

 mackerel, 300 whitings, 800 soles and sli])S, 400 flounders, 4tH.) red mullet, 

 200 eels, 150 haddocks, 400 herrings, 5,000 smelts, and some hundred thou- 

 sand of those delicious, silvery whitebait, besides a few hundred species of 

 fresh-water lishes. In shell-fish, 20 turtle, 30,000 oysters, 1,500 lobsters or 

 crabs, 300,000 prawns, shrimps, sardines, and anchovies. In the way of 

 fruit, about 500 lbs. of grapes, 300 lbs. of pineapples, 600 jicachcs, 1,400 

 apj-icots, 240 melons, and some hundred thousand i>lums, greou-gages, ap- 

 ples, pears, and some millions of cherries, strawberries, raspberries, currants, 

 mulberries, and an abundance of other small fruit, viz., walnuts, chestnuts, 

 drv figs, and jdums. In vegetables of all kinds, 5,475 lb.s. weiglit, and 

 about"2,4343 lbs. of butter, 084 lbs. of cheese, 21,0(10 eggs, SOO tongues. Of 

 bread, 4i tons, half a ton of salt and pepper, near 2 J tons of sugar. His 

 drink during the same period may be set down as follows: 49 liogsheads of 

 wine, 13,683 gallons of beer, 584 gallons of spirits, .'i42 gallons of li.jueur, 

 2,394 J gallons of colfee, cocoa, tea, etc., and 304 gallons of milk, 2,730 gal- 

 lons of water. This mass of food in sixty years amounts to no K«s than 

 33J tons weight of meat, farinaceoius food and vegetables, etc., <«ut of wliieii 

 I have nameil in detail theprobable delicacies that would bo selected by an 

 epicure tiirough life. But observe that I did not count the first ten years 

 of his life, at the beginning of which ho lived upon j.np, bread and milk, 

 etc., also a little meat, the expen.se of which I add to the age from llieii to 

 twenty, as no one can really bo called an epicure before that nge ; it will 

 thus make the expenses moro equal as regards the calculation. The follow- 

 ing is the list of what I consider his daily meals : 



