The spirit of cookery

book on cookery.’ He might have added with emphasis that women can cook very well, and ought to do so, and actually do so all over the world, but that the greatest amount of practice is not capable by itself to produce the truly philosophical qualifications which are essential to effectual authorship. A collection of recipes, even such as that of Cato of Utica, has no philosophical character, however meritorious it may be as a means of conservation, and however useful it may be in the limited circles to which it appeals. In the chapter on the historical literature of cookery will be found the names of two ladies who were authoresses of renowned treatises on cooking, one being Anna Wecker, née Keller, the accomplished wife of the physician Wecker at Bale (1596) ; the other Maria Sophia Schellhammer, née Conring (about 1700). These distinguished examples prove the general proposition, for while these authoresses were original in the collection of the materials, they wisely accepted the guidance of their husbands in those parts which tended towards an inception of a philosophical treatment of the subject. Physicians as Authors on Cookery. A great number of treatises on cookery, and amongst them the best, have been written physicians. Thus, the Italian Baptist Fiera published in 1490, therefore shortly before the discovery of America, the treatise quoted below, ‘ On Dinner and Diet.’ His forerunner (1471) Baptista Massa was a physician at Ferrara. In a number of treatises we easily distinguish the medical author, whether he be described as such or not. Sir Kenelm Digbywrote ‘The Closet of Cookery,’ London, 1669.; Sir Theodore Sir Kenelm Digby, Knight, of Gothurst, Bucks, 1603-65, wrote also ‘ MedicinaExperirnentalis : Select Philosophical Secrets and Chyrnical E.x;- periments,’ 1672 ; ‘ Receipts in Physic and Surgery,’ etc. (ex Graesse, ‘Hist, of Literature,’ vi., 365, 366). Mayerne* a treatise entitled ‘Archimagirus,’ which is now very rare.f Professor Richard Bradleyl was also an author on culinary subjects ; Dr. John Hill has, as we have already stated above, been credited with having been the author of ‘Mrs. Glasse’s’ ‘Cookery.’ Towards the end of the eighteenth century we have yet Dr. Pegge’s republication of the ancient (1390) treatise entitled ‘ Forme of Cury ’ (London, 1780) j while early in our century Dr. Hunter ‘ edited,’ as he called it, a work by an author disguised as ‘Ignotus,’ entitled ‘ Gulina Famulatrix Medicinse.’ Later authors have ascribed this work to Dr. Hunter himself ; the medical observations appended to many receipts are calculated to support this conjecture. In 1833 was published the last culinary work by a medical author. Dr. Kitchiner’s ‘ Cook’s Oracle and Housekeeper’s Manual,’ one of the most learned, philosophical, and practical treatises on cookery ever composed. We cannot tarry here to sum up the merits of physicians of all times about the selection of a proper diet for the healthy as well as the sick, as this would become a chapter of dietetics, to which branch of science a work on cookery is only as a forerunner, though an essential basis. Many physicians since the time of the school of Salerno discoursed learnedly on cookery ; thus the Dutch Professor Boerhaave, who was particularly qualified by his chemical