PRACTICAL PAPERS—CHEESE AS FOOD. 
213 
gins to soften and to assume the same salvy and disintegrated 
appearance, and the samecheesy flavor and odor of the former, 
but unaccompanied with its strong animal odor. In the former, 
the process of disintegrating and softening goes on rapidly, 
till the whole becomes liquid and is carried away to serve the 
purposes of life. In the latter it is checked by drying and 
cooling, so that little change will be noticed for a long time. 
We now consider our cheese ready for use. It will be 
seen that all we have done is to carry the digestive process up 
to a certain point, and there to check it. We have digested 
the curd till it is just ready to dissolve, and there we hold it. 
We have the solid elements of the milk in our cheese tub in 
a good state of preservation, and yet so nearly digested as to 
require but little aid from the human stomach to dissolve it, 
and make it ready for the work of assimilation. Is it not plain, 
from the foregoing, that cheese is a fair representative of the 
milk from which it is made, and that it is entitled to the repu¬ 
tation we are in the habit of ascribing to that perfectly whole¬ 
some and nutritious luxury? 
The last objection I shall notice is the one most commonly 
raised, viz: that cheese is a food in a state too concentrated for 
the human stomach. I shall not dispute this point, for I be¬ 
lieve the human stomach was not made to hold food that con¬ 
tained nothing but pure nutriment, like cheese and meat. It 
is too large for such a purpose. Our food must have bulk 
enough to distend the stomach and bowels, so as to afford a 
sufficient substance for them to act upon. Cheese will not do 
this when taken alone, and hence such people would have u,-? 
reject it altogether. But the same objection lies against beef, 
and pork, and mutton, and all sim.lar food. Shall we reject 
them also i We do not, and should not, object to meat because 
of its being too concentrated to eat alone. We remedy its defect¬ 
ive bulk by using with it some less nutritious food, as bread, 
potatoes or roots; and the remedy is perfectly efficacious. We 
should do the same with cheese, and the objection would lose 
all its force. And this we do instinctively. We use it in con¬ 
nection with farina and fruit, with bread, pastry and the like, 
and we do so with the happiest effects. The practice which 
I 
