NATURE 



217 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 1896. 



FOOD AND ITS FUNCTIONS. 

 Food and its Functions : a Text-book for Students of 

 Cookery. By James Knight, M.A., B.Sc, F.C.S., 

 F.G.S., &c. Pp. viii + 282. (London : Blackie and 

 Son, Ltd., 1895.) 



AS a scientific work bearing upon the culinary art, 

 " Food and its Functions," from the pen of Mr. 

 James Knight, of (ilasgow, must form a welcome addition 

 to that branch of literature. The work is described as 

 " a text-book for students of cookery," and the author 

 further explains in his preface that it is an expansion of 

 a course of lectures on dietetics, which he was privileged 

 to deliver to the students in training at the Glasgow 

 Schools of Cookery, and that it aims at supplying such 

 students with a complete manual of the theoretical part 

 of their curriculum. Of the scientific soundness and 

 great value of this book to a considerable section of the 

 educated classes there can be no question, but when we 

 consider its merits as a text-book for students of cookery, 

 we are forced to inquire what sort of students? If for 

 such as desire to become teachers of practical cooking, 

 and have therefore to acquire a certain amount of know- 

 ledge of the chemistry of the art and the values of foods 

 from a scientific standpoint, then much of Mr. Knight's 

 information and careful reasoning will certainly be useful. 

 Still more valuable should the book be to the nursing 

 sisterhood of the United Kingdom ; and to many 

 medical practitioners also, who have to prescribe food as 

 well as medicine for the sick, and might perhaps be a 

 little more closely acquainted with that part of their 

 responsibilities. But to the ordinary learner of the 

 business of a cook, who wants to practise rather than to 

 preach or advise, we much fear that " Food and its 

 Functions " cannot but be tod abstruse and overladen 

 with dry scientific details. The theoretical instruction 

 of cookery classes, the students of which are merely 

 seeking to become proficient workwomen, cannot, we 

 think, speaking from experience, be too carefully pruned 

 down, and put into words that can easily be "under- 

 standed of the people." A few simple chemical facts in 

 regard to the different culinary processes, a few touching 

 food-stuffs, with a judiciously condensed explanation of 

 the dietary value of the latter, are very desirable, and 

 may be inculcated with some degree of hopefulness. 

 But if the rubicon of moderation be crossed, the teacher's 

 effort is but lost labour. Not one in fifty can really 

 follow or remember it, and the lesson falls verily upon 

 stony ground. For this cause we are constrained to 

 hold in question the advisability of over-instructing the 

 instructors. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, as 

 we all know, and it is, moreover, a fruitful source of 

 vanity. When the holder of a brand-new diploma- 

 crammed with fine words— proceeds to teach, what a 

 temptation there must be to let some of them loose, 

 especially before an audience unable to detect in- 

 accuracies ! But when he or she, veneered with a little 

 anatomical smattering by the aid of Mr. Knight's text- 

 book, proceeds to chalk out on the blackboard diagrams 

 of the alimentary canal, the stomach, the contents of the 

 chest and abdomen, the thoracic duct and lymphatic 

 NO. 1367, VOL. 53] 



vessels, with a few words concerning " Bernard's theory 

 of Glycogenesis," and Pavy's view of the same, how 

 learned the board-school-girls, or evening continuation 

 class (who, between ourselves, want to know how to make 

 "toad-in-the-hole") will think her, and how frightened 

 they will be at her awful disclosures as to the secrets of 

 their interior economies ! But to be serious, while grant- 

 ing to the full the undoubted importance of Mr. Knight's 

 section on the physiology of digestion to the purely 

 theoretical student, and its value in the hands of the 

 trained nurse, who ought, be it added, to be equally well 

 trained in sick cookery, we cannot admit that it is 

 necessary, or indeed advisable, for ordinary cookery 

 classes ; neither can we agree with him when he says 

 that " it is impossible to secure the rational treatment of 

 food without at least a slight acquaintance with " its 

 " subsequent course within the body itself." 



Having thus endeavoured to indicate the classes of 

 readers who ought to benefit by Mr. Knight's three 

 scientific sections, and the class for whom we consider 

 them inapplicable, save in so far as a few simple facts to 

 be found in the first two are concerned, we return with 

 no little satisfaction to "parts iv. and v.," in which a 

 goodly store of information is to be found, which ought 

 to be appreciated not only by mere students of cookery, 

 but by every one interested in the question of diet in 

 relation to health, and the still more difficult one of foods 

 best adapted to persons suffering from various forms of 

 illness. In the former section, " Foods in detail," we 

 find explanatory notes as to the chemical properties and 

 dietetic value of dairy produce, eggs, animal food, fish, 

 cereals, legumes, root-vegetables, green-stuff, fungi, fruits, 

 accessories and condiments, beverages, alcoholic drinks, 

 wines, ale and cider, with aerated and mineral waters. 

 The culinary methods which are best suited to many of 

 these, in view to their preparation for food, are adverted 

 to, and the important question of the digestibility of each 

 not lost sight of. The first three lessons in part v.,. 

 "Dietetics," are of general interest, and ought to be 

 studied by every housewife, for in them will be found 

 the advice, already alluded to, touching dietary scales, 

 diet in relation to infancy, adolescence and age, and 

 referring to food in times of sickness, with special models 

 to meet the cases of standard complaints. 



In his last lesson regarding cookery methods, the 

 author certainly betrays a want of practical knowledge. 

 But this, in consideration of the excellence of his scientific 

 instruction, may perhaps be excused. He treats of roast- 

 ing and boiling with accuracy, but he is hardly correct 

 in advocating broiling by gas below the flame in super- 

 session of the time-honoured practice over glowing coals. 

 " The value of the grill," says Sir Henry Thompson in 

 allusion to that method, " is nowhere better understood' 

 than in England," and we certainly doubt whether any 

 other way of treating a chop or steak will be accepted 

 in the City of London, so celebrated for its grill-rooms. 

 We do not mean to say that meat may not be done in 

 the manner indicated by Mr. Knight, but we maintain 

 that it can never "taste of the fire," to borrow a well- 

 known phrase, as a chop does when well broiled over a 

 clear fire. Nor do we concur with him, Count Rumford's 

 dictum notwithstanding, regarding oven-roasting. Even 

 if every trace of the oven taint be absent, no piece of 



