Of Food. 403 



rience that this hard and stale bread answers for our 

 purpose much better than any other ; for it renders mas- 

 tication necessary, and mastication seems very power- 

 fully to assist in promoting digestion. It likewise 

 prolongs the duration of the enjoyment of eating, a 

 matter of very great importance indeed, and which 

 has not hitherto been sufficiently attended to. 



The quantity of this soup furnished to each person 

 at each meal, or one portion of it (the cuttings of bread 

 included), is just one Bavarian pound in weight ; and, as 

 the Bavarian pound is to the pound avoirdupois as 

 1.123842 to i, it is equal to about nineteen ounces and 

 nine tenths avoirdupois. Now to those who know 

 that a full pint of soup weighs no more than about six- 

 teen ounces avoirdupois, it will not perhaps, at the first 

 view, appear very extraordinary that a portion weighing 

 near twenty ounces, and consequently making near one 

 pint and a quarter of this rich, strong, savoury soup, 

 should be found sufficient to satisfy the hunger of a 

 grown person ; but when the matter is examined nar- 

 rowly and properly analyzed, and it is found that the 

 whole quantity of solid food which enters into the com- 

 position of one of these portions of soup does not 

 amount to quite six ounces, it will then appear to be 

 almost impossible that this allowance should be suf- 

 ficient. 



That it is quite sufficient, however, to make a good 

 meal for a strong, healthy person, has been abundantly 

 proved by long experience. I have even found that a 

 soup composed of nearly the same ingredients, except 

 the potatoes, but in different proportions, was suf- 

 ficiently nutritive and very palatable, in which only 

 about four ounces and three quarters of solid food en- 



