ARTICLES OF FOOD. 35 



sustenance for the army, attracted the attention of scientific 

 men of France, and a most exaggerated opinion prevailed 

 regarding soups made from bones. The reports, of scientific 

 men went so far as to assert that iveight for iveig-ki, a soup from 

 bones, possessed a greater nutritive quality than if made from 

 meat. A French cook book will, give receipts for a hundred or 

 more kinds of soups; a large part of the mock kind, where a 

 skilful use of condiments, and an artful combination of cheap 

 vegetables so disguises the compound that, although you may 

 guess what it tastes like, you cannot possibly tell what it is 

 composed of. It is, however, safe to assume that a large part 

 of these artfully disguised, savory messes, are as free from 

 meat as the cheap broth with which the miser was wont to feed 

 his servant, being the water, slightly salted, in which his own 

 egg had been boiled. It is true, we are somewhat wasteful, and 

 might use greater economy ; but we claim for our old-fashioned 

 dishes this advantage, that we know what we are eating ; and 

 that if we are unskilled in condiments, sauces, and artificial 

 relishes, a wholesome diet leaves to us hunger — a sauce for 

 which no art can find a substitute or equal. 



Of all animal food, beef holds the first rank. Yet its use is 

 forbidden by the Budhist religion ; and by the Chinese, even 

 the wealthy classes, it is seldom eaten. And they have no 

 milk, butter, or cheese. This, like almost every thing which 

 concerns that people, is remarkable, as agriculture is, in China, 

 in an advanced state — and the beef cattle of any locality are 

 generally regarded as one of the surest tests of the condition of 

 agriculture. 



Mutton holds a place next to beef, in the opinion of those 

 who have made dietetics a study. But mutton is by no means 

 in universal favor as food. There is, perhaps, no kind of food 

 regarding which, individual tastes are so much at variance. In 

 this country, sheep culture has been pursued principally for 

 clothing. A strong ijrejudice prevails among many against its 

 use as food, the carcasses having been thrown away, heretofore, 

 in large numbers. Its culture for food is, however, on the 

 increase in many parts of our country. 



But swine have been the occasion of the most violent national 

 prejudice. Wherever pork has been eaten at all, its use has 

 been extensive. In the early ages of civilization, it has gen- 



