ven away, and the land
once used to raise food for man has been converted to grass lands
for the feeding of sheep and cattle. It is obvious also, that if
these facts were generally known in our country, much of the
dissatisfaction of the less favoured and poorer classes of the com-
munity (who look with murmuring, from their own means of
subsistence to the resources of the higher classes, in their abun-
dant provision of flesh as food) would at once be extinguished ;
because it would be readily seen, that Providence has been much
more benevolent in securing the true necessaries of life, than
men, in their want of knowledge, have supposed. It is an in-
teresting feature of the study of these facts, to observe, that as
INTRODUCTION.
13
the great essentials of existence are placed within the reach of
man— air, water, light— so also are all the primary and essential
properties of food kept within the means of the dilferent classes
of mankind. The higher classes may revel in luxury, as the
result of factitious tastes and vicious customs ; but, after all, in
reality they owe their existence to the simple proximate prin-
ciples of vegetable food, alike within the reach of the honest
labourer who “ earns his bread by the sweat of his brow.”
We pass now to another important argument in connection
with the system under notice, the truths of which have been
opposed by a long line of practical teaching from the medical
profession. It has been stated from time immemorial that the
flesh of animals is more digestible than food derived from the
vegetable kingdom. We are happy in bringing to bear indis-
putable facts in our treatment of this question, and facts derived
from the most emphatic source of truthful declaration upon the
subject of the digestion of food hitherto known to have occurred
in the world. We allude to the case of Alexis St. Martin, a
healthful young man, who, about thirty years ago, received a
gun-shot wound in his side, which perforated his stomach. Dr.
Beaumont, of the United States, ministered carefully to the
necessities of this case ; and, aided by the originally strong and
healthful constitution of his patient, he was enabled to restore
him to complete health and vigour, but with one singular
circumstance in connection with the case, that the perforation
in the stomach never entirely healed up, but was merely closed
by an extension of the coats or inner lining. Here then was
precisely the case so interesting to the practical physiologist in
his research as to the digestibility of food ; and Dr. Beaumont
submitted this young man to numerous experiments, during a
series of years, in testing the different degrees of digestibility
of the various foods in ordinary consumption ; the opening to
the stomach being such as to enable him to inspect, at plcasvu-e,
the actual process of digestion in each instance, by merely care-
fully pushing aside the protrusion of the inner membrane above
alluded to. Dr. Beaumont, in his work on digestion, has
published the results of these researches in several very com-
prehensive tables, in which are included all kinds of preparations
14
INTROUUCTION.
Page 9
Presented as published in 1891. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
ven away, and the land once used to raise food for man has been converted to grass lands for the feeding of sheep and cattle. It is obvious also, that if these facts were generally known in our country, much of the dissatisfaction of the less favoured and poorer classes of the community (who look with murmuring, from their own means of subsistence to the resources of the higher classes, in their abundant provision of flesh as food) would at once be extinguished ; because it would be readily seen, that Providence has been much more benevolent in securing the true necessaries of life, than men, in their want of knowledge, have supposed. It is an interesting feature of the study of these facts, to observe, that as
the great essentials of existence are placed within the reach of man— air, water, light— so also are all the primary and essential properties of food kept within the means of the dilferent classes of mankind. The higher classes may revel in luxury, as the result of factitious tastes and vicious customs ; but, after all, in reality they owe their existence to the simple proximate principles of vegetable food, alike within the reach of the honest labourer who “ earns his bread by the sweat of his brow.”
We pass now to another important argument in connection with the system under notice, the truths of which have been opposed by a long line of practical teaching from the medical profession. It has been stated from time immemorial that the flesh of animals is more digestible than food derived from the vegetable kingdom. We are happy in bringing to bear indisputable facts in our treatment of this question, and facts derived from the most emphatic source of truthful declaration upon the subject of the digestion of food hitherto known to have occurred in the world. We allude to the case of Alexis St. Martin, a healthful young man, who, about thirty years ago, received a gun-shot wound in his side, which perforated his stomach. Dr. Beaumont, of the United States, ministered carefully to the necessities of this case ; and, aided by the originally strong and healthful constitution of his patient, he was enabled to restore him to complete health and vigour, but with one singular circumstance in connection with the case, that the perforation in the stomach never entirely healed up, but was merely closed by an extension of the coats or inner lining. Here then was precisely the case so interesting to the practical physiologist in his research as to the digestibility of food ; and Dr. Beaumont submitted this young man to numerous experiments, during a series of years, in testing the different degrees of digestibility of the various foods in ordinary consumption ; the opening to the stomach being such as to enable him to inspect, at pleasure, the actual process of digestion in each instance, by merely carefully pushing aside the protrusion of the inner membrane above alluded to. Dr. Beaumont, in his work on digestion, has published the results of these researches in several very comprehensive tables, in which are included all kinds of preparations