108 
into the stomach as food, hut also the matter 
which is taken into the lungs in the act of re- 
spiration, as likewise air, water, and other 
substances that may be applied naturally or 
artificially to the outer skin. To enquire into 
the grounds upon which this doctrine is esta- 
blished, that the lungs, the stomach, and the 
surface of the body, each affords instruments 
in common of actual nutrition, does not fall 
within the province of the present article. 
See Physiology. It will be proper here to 
confine ourselves to the general consideration 
cl what is usually denominated animal and 
vegetable diet. 
OF ANIMAL FOOD. 
That man is designed by nature for a mix- 
ture of animal and vegetable food, is obvious 
fr®m the structure of his organs, both of mas- 
tication and digestion. That the flesh of ani- 
mals contains more nutritive matter, and that 
it stimulates the absorbent and secerning ves- 
sels more powerfully, than vegetable aliment, 
is demonstrated by the superior warmth and 
strength which in a state of health we expe- 
rience after a meal of flesh than of vegetables: 
of the former (animal flesh), that, in general, 
which is of the darkest colour, contains more 
nutritive matter, and stimulates our vessels 
with more energy, than the white kinds : in- 
deed the tlesh of those animals which are 
carnivorous, or which live entirely on animal 
food, seldom enters into the diet of Euro- 
pean, or civilized nations. The greater sti- 
mulating virtue of this kind of food has been 
attributed to the greater quantity which it has 
been suppo ed to contain of volatile alkali. 
Dr. Darwin, however, properly questions 
whether it is not rather the elements only of 
this principle that are contained even in the 
strongest dark-coloured animal flesh. 
Next in strength to the flesh of carnivorous 
animals ought to rank that of those animals 
when killed after full grow th, the young of 
which afford a softer, whiter, more digestible, 
but less nutritious, food, such as the sheep, 
the bullock, the hog, and likewise several of 
the shell-fish, as lobsters, crabs, muscles, &c. 
in which class may likewise be enumerated 
several fish that are destitute of scales or 
shells, as eel, barbolt, tench, smelt, turtle, 
turbot. Of the fowl kind the bustard, wood- 
pecker, starling, sparrow, goose, duck, and 
lapwing, ought to be arranged in this second 
class. These, with a due mixture of veget- 
able aliment, constitute the best kinds of food 
for healthy and athletic individuals, whose di- 
gestion is powerful, and who have a firm 
fibre. 
The flesh of young animals, as of lamb, 
veal, and sucking pigs, afford a less stimulating 
and nutritious, but more digestible food : 
these meats are consequently most congenial 
to persons of less muscular energy, who have 
more feeble powers of digestion, and who ac- 
custom themselves to but little exercise: 
they are adapted to the hypochondriac, and 
should be principally used as aliment by indi- 
viduals who are disposed to those kind of af- 
fections which have received the vulgar and 
indiscriminate appellation of scorbutic. 
A still milder, but, in the same proportion, 
less nutritive food, is furnished by the white 
meats, such as the domestic fowl, partridge, 
pheasant, and their eggs, with oysters and 
young lobsters. These, from their bland 
and unacrimonious nature, are generally al- 
MATERTA MEDICA. 
lowed to convalescents from acute diseases : 
they are peculiarly suitable to very weak sto- 
machs, and ought in general to form the first 
articles in the diet of females after childbirth 
The major part of the river fish which hav< 
scales, a^ pike, perch, and gudgeon, are pos- 
sessed of very inferior nutritive faculty. 
OF MILK AND ITS PRODUCTS. 
Milk partakes of the properties of both 
animal and vegetable aliment : it may be se- 
parated by rest or by agitation into cream, 
buttermilk, whey, and curd. The cream is 
easier of digestion by the adult stomach, on 
account of its containing less of the caseous, 
or cheesy part ; it is likewise on this account 
mere nutritive. Butter contains still more 
nutriment, and is likewise, if not taken to ex- 
cess, exceedingly easy of digestion, and is by 
no means calculated to generate unpleasant 
humours in the body. If given without any 
separation of its principles by artificial prepara- 
tion, it might be admitted into the diet of in- 
fancy with much greater propriety than other 
articles which are employed with less appre- 
hension of injury. Buttermilk is agreeable, 
bland, and gently nutritive. Whey is the 
least nutritious, and most easy of digestion. 
It is on this account ordered with the utmost 
propriety to those invalids whose constitu- 
tions have been rendered too irritable to bear 
the stimulus of more solid and nutritive ali- 
ment. Cheese is of various kinds, arising 
principally from the greater or less quantity 
of cream that it contains. Those cheeses 
which are broken to pieces in the mouth with 
most readiness are, for the most part, most 
easy of digestion, and most nutritive. Many 
kinds of cheeses are a considerable time in 
undergoing chemical change in the stomach; 
and on this account, although difficult of di- 
f estion, do not disagree with weak stomachs. 
)r. Darwin observes that he has seen toasted 
cheese vomited up a whole day after it was 
eaten, without having become perceptibly al- 
tered, or given any uneasiness to the pa- 
tient. 
New cow’s-milk is the food of infants, and 
is by far the best substitute for the milk of 
the mother, if this last be not afforded in suf- 
ficient quantity or quality by the parent, 
which, however, is seldom the case. The 
stomachs of children abound with acidity; 
and miik, which is always curdled before it 
is assimilated, is consequently digested with 
more facility in the earlier than in the more 
advanced periods of life. It is on this ac- 
count likewise that certain vegetable sub- 
stances, which have a great tendency to aci- 
dity, are exceedingly injurious to the infantile 
stomach. See the article Infancy. 
of vegetable food. 
The seeds, roots, leaves, and fruits, of 
plants, particularly the two former, constitute 
a very material part of the food of mankind. 
According to the opinion of Dr. Cullen, and 
other physiologists, the quantity of actual 
nourishment that these contain, is in propor- 
tion to the quantity of sugar that they can 
be made to produce ; it is imagined that the 
mucilage which the farinaceous seeds con- 
tain, is changed in the granary to starch ; 
and that this starch, in the processes to which 
the seeds are afterwards subjected, or by di- 
gestion in the stomach, is at length converted 
into saccharine principle. See Physiology. 
The farinaceous seeds are wheat, barley, oats, 
rye, millet, maize er Indian corn, &c. The 
roots of this class are the sugar-root, the 
common carrot, beet, and polypody. Those 
with less of the saccharine principle, and 
which afford a tender farina, are the turnip- 
rooted cabbage, the parsnip, parsley root, as- 
paragus, turnips, potatoes, &c. ; all of which, 
if less nutritive, are better suited to weakly 
organs of digestion than those in which the 
sugar is more abundant. 
Other vegetables contain oil, sugar, muci- 
lage, or acid, in various proportions, diluted 
with much water: these are but slightly nu- 
trimental ; and are, for the most part, inju- 
rious to delicate stomachs especially, unless 
taken with moderation ; these are the apple, 
pear, plum, apricot, nectarine, peach, straw- 
berry, grape, orange, melon, cucumber, 
dried figs, raisins, and a great variety of other 
roots, seeds, leaves, and fruits. Of these it 
may be observed generally, that those which 
are cold, watery, and sweet, are most calcu- 
lated to prove indigestible, and consequently 
injurious. 
DIFFERENT METHODS OF DRESSING 
VICTUALS. 
Various modes of preparing and dressing 
both animal and vegetable articles of food 
have been contrived, in order to render them 
more palatable, and better adapted to the 
stomach. By boiling, animal tlesh is, in some 
measure, deprived of its nourishing juice> 
which is with more or less facility given out 
to, and incorporated with, the broth: this 
last then contains the most nutritious part of 
the meat; but unless stronger than is ordina- 
rily used, it is too diluted to admit of a:i 
easy digestion. Broths likewise have a re- 
markable tendency to acidity, particularly 
when made from the flesh of young animals, 
as of lamb and veal ; and on this account 
also are much less congenial to weak sto- 
machs than is generally imagined. The va- 
k rious jellies, which contain the gelatinous and 
nutritive, to the exclusion of the fibrous part 
of animal flesh, are in general much more 
suitable to the invalid and the convalescent 
than either broths or soups. Perhaps the 
most eligible mode of preparing animal food 
is by the process called stewing ; for by this 
process its nutritious and substantive parts 
are concentrated and preserved. It is scarcely 
necessary to observe that the gravy of boiled 
meat contains its nutritive parts in a state of 
concentration ; it is digested with facility ;; 
and gravy is therefore the best mode of giving 
animal food to very young infants. 
Boasting preserves the nutritive part of 
flesh from dissipation in a greater degree 
than boiling: and it has been asserted by aiv 
observant author (Dr. Willich) that “ one 
pound of roast meat is, in real nourishment, 
equal to two or three pounds of boiled meat.’* 
It ought however to be noticed, that the fat 
of meat treated in this way has undergone 
some degree of chemical decomposition from 
its exposure to heat, and is in consequence 
more oppressive to delicate stomachs, and 
generally less salutary, than that of boiled, 
tlesh. Both baking and frying are upon si- 
milar principles improper methods of prepar- 
ing animal food. Smoked meats, as prepared 
hams, are hard of digestion. They should only 
be taken in small quantities, and ratlier as 
condiment than food. 
