THE NEW EARTH 



regions of the country, to find people who have 

 the very best of raw material on which to 

 work, but who cook their foods so wretchedly, 

 — I had almost said so diabolically, — that it is 

 almost worse than not to have been cooked at 

 all. The investigations which have been under 

 way in the general subject of foods have not 

 ignored the all -important question of the cook- 

 ing of the food itself. The heat changes the 

 mechanical condition of food so that it may 

 the more easily be acted upon, and in the 

 cooking the actual character of the food is so 

 changed that it can be more easily chewed and 

 digested. Unquestionably, the appearance of 

 the food upon the table, and the general ap- 

 pearance of the table itself and its accessories, 

 have a marked influence upon digestion. If 

 the stomach blushes at the sight of food, it is 

 a pretty sure sign that the food is what it 

 ought to be, at least as far as outward appear- 

 ance goes ; and it is precisely this which hap- 

 pens when the food is appetizing and nu- 

 tritious, — the blood rushes pleasantly to the 

 stomach to assist in the digestion, while under 

 untoward conditions it remains longer away. 

 All through the country, the educational in- 



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