[December, 
7 12 Dietetic Reforms . 
We go back to the dietary scale proposed by the medical 
man who recommends a vegetable breakfast. For dinner 
he allows “ Plain meat, with bread and one vegetable. No 
dessert and no drink.” For supper, “ Bread and butter, 
with a little fruit.” Elsewhere he writes : — “ The vital 
question of food, of plain food, plainly cooked and eaten in 
moderate quantities, they dare not mention unless to ridicule 
it.” And again : — “ One of the great table errors is excess 
in quantity. And this comes in part from too great 
variety.” 
There is in these passages much that cannot be allowed 
to pass unchallenged. Experience has taught us to dislike 
the word “ plain,” and those who use it in a laudatory 
sense. A “plain man” is generally one who turns up his 
nose at truth and beauty, and thinks that all human duty is 
summed up in money-getting. “ Plain cookery ” we have 
always found to consist essentially in taking good materials 
and converting them into at once the most costly, the most 
indigestible, and the most unsavoury dishes. 
“ Excess in quantity ” cannot in these days be a general 
table error. If we look at the rates of wages and salaries, 
and even of profits in the smaller businesses, and compare 
them with the current prices of the most necessary articles 
of food, we shall see that for the many the sin of gluttony 
is rendered physically impossible. In England, at least, we 
must strangle — metaphorically at least— the hordes of sales- 
men, middlemen, and rings which have forced themselves in 
between the producer and the consumer, before the work- 
man, the clerk, the small tradesman, and the less prosperous 
professional man will be in serious danger of over-feeding. 
And is excess in quantity likely to spring from variety ? 
Surely not. Savoury food, not affedted with “ plainness,” is 
eaten slowly and thoroughly masticated, so as to enjoy its 
flavour, and is thus thoroughly insalivated and readily 
digested. “ Plain,” monotonous food is bolted in lumps, by 
way of despatching an uninteresting business. The unfor- 
tunate eater, as in the case of cold meat, is apt to “ cut and 
come again” in the vain hope of meeting with some approach 
to a flavour. Or possibly he flies to pungent irritating con- 
diments, salt in unreasonable excess, pepper and mustard, 
and red-hot pickles. An unnatural thirst is thus created, 
which is allayed, if possible, by floods of stout and bitter. 
So, for a thorough dietetic reform, we must begin by pro- 
claiming war against plainness and monotony, fiery condi- 
ments, and bolting, — all cardinal sins of the English cuisine, 
and of the habits which it has induced. 
