OF FOOD; AND PARTICULARLY OF 

 FEEDING THE POOR. 



INTRODUCTION. 



IT is a common saying that Necessity is the mother 

 of Invention ; and nothing is more strictly or more 

 generally true. It may even be shown that most of the 

 successive improvements in the affairs of men in a state 

 of civil society, of which we have any authentic records, 

 have been made under the pressure of necessity ; and 

 it is no small consolation, in times of general alarm, to 

 reflect upon the probability that upon such occasions 

 useful discoveries will result from the united exertions 

 of those who, either from motives of fear, or sentiments 

 of benevolence, labour to avert the impending evil. 



The alarm in this country at the present period,* on 

 account of the high price of corn, and the danger of a 

 scarcity, has turned the attention of the public to a very 

 important subject, the investigation of the science of 

 nutrition^ — a subject so curious in itself, and so highly 

 interesting to mankind, that it seems truly astonishing 

 it should have been so long neglected ; but in the man- 

 ner in which it is now taken up, both by the House of 

 Commons and the Board of Agriculture, there is great 



* November, 1795. 



