174 



FOOD AND COOKERY 



No doubt gradually, after a few generations, a whole 

 people may become healthily habituated to a diet which 

 would have been positively injurious to their forebears, 

 and no doubt individuals may be led by fortitude or by 

 necessity in time (perhaps weeks, perhaps years) to 

 acquire a tolerance, or even enjoyment, of food at first 

 repulsive, and therefore injurious. The difficulty in the 

 matter is not that of correctly determining what is 

 physiologically sufficient for the human animal, nor even 

 what would be a healthy diet for a community when once, 

 after a transition period of distress and injury, habituated 

 or " attuned " to that diet. The difficulty is to arrive at 

 a conclusion as to what is really the suitable and reason- 

 able diet for an individual yourself or one like yourself 

 having regard to the lifelong habits of the individual, 

 and the consequent nervous reactions established in him 

 or her in relation to the taste, quality, and mode of pre- 

 sentation of food. Robust people, so long as they get 

 what suits their own uncultivated taste, are apt to make 

 very light of what they call " fancies " about food, and 

 to overlook their real importance. 



Feeding on the part of civilised man is not the simple 

 procedure which it is with animals, although many animals 

 are particular as to their food and what is called " dainty." 

 The necessity for civilised man of cheerful company at his 

 meal, and for the absence of mental anxiety, is universally 

 recognised, as well as the importance of an inviting appeal 

 to the appetite through the sense of smell and of sight, 

 whilst the injurious effect of the reverse conditions, which 

 may lead to nausea, and even vomiting, is admitted. 

 Even the ceremonial features of the dinner table, the 

 change of clothes before sitting down to the repast, the 

 leisurely yet precise succession of approved and expected 

 dishes, accompanied by pleasant talk and light-hearted 

 companionship, are shown by strict scientific examination 



