should be prepared in a light and digestible form. For
example, in preparing porridge, it is much more easily
digested if the oatmeal be put into cold water or milk and
boiled two or three hours j but if it is being prepared for
people engaged in outdoor work, it is best put into boiling
water and boiled ten minutes.
Liquid foods give the least trouble to the digestive organs ;
they are useful in cases of illness, or when the body is very
tired ; but as a rule, in health it is better to give the digestion
its proper work to do. The evening meal should always be
a very simple one ; but however carefully and wisely we may
select our food, good cooking, a good digestion, and fresh
air are absolutely indispensable to health and comfort.
Professor Blott says if one has mental labour, fish every
second day at least is requisite. Soup sets all the glands at
work, and prepares the stomach for the most important
function of digestion, and therefore should be taken at dinner
every day. Beef-broth is to old age what milk is to the
young. Cookery properly attended to keeps man in health,
and when the stomach is out of order, the brain is affected.
We should eat more fruits, vegetables, soups, and fish.
Air is so closely connected with food that a few remarks
upon it may not be out of place here. We breathe it into
the lungs, and it then meets the food changed into blood,
and purifies it ; and so through the changes effected by the
oxygen in the air and by various other organs of the body,
the food we swallow is gradually made fit to replace all the
wasted and worn-out tissues, &c.
Air consists chiefly of two gases, nitrogen and oxygen,
about twenty-one parts oxygen and seventy-nine nitrogen.
There is more oxygen in the air in cold than in hot weather.
The oxygen is the useful active principle; the nitrogen
12
INTRODUCTION.
merely acts by diluting the oxygen, which by itself would
be too strong. No fire or light could possibly burn without
this oxygen ; gas and fire breathe the same sort of air as
we do, and like us cannot live without it.
There is a double process going on in the lungs. The
air taken in has a good supply of fresh oxygen in it, but
the air breathed out from the lungs is foul with carbonic
acid ; and the blood reaches the lungs laden with carbonic
acid, and departs with a cargo of pure health-giving oxygen.
The oxygen is breathed into the lungs and unites there
with the used-up carbon in the blood, and forms carbonic
acid gas. The result of this union is that there is a
constant fire kept up there to warm the body, and the blood
is purified of its worn-out carbon, and restored to its bright-
red colour. This carbonic acid is a heavy poisonous gas,
and when cold sinks to the bottom of a room : thus we see
the great importance of having our windows open at the
bott077i as well as at the top ; so that the pure air may come
in, and the bad poisonous air escape. It is a sad fact that
too many people neglect this important duty of ventilation.
One of the first requisites under all circumstances is to see
that you get plenty of fresh air into your house. Much more
might be said on this interesting and important subject, as
well as on the different stages of digestion which the food
passes through before it enters the blood and becomes part
of the body ; but I have endeavoured to show, very briefly,
how we may take care of
Page 10
Presented as published in 1890. 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
should be prepared in a light and digestible form. For example, in preparing porridge, it is much more easily digested if the oatmeal be put into cold water or milk and boiled two or three hours j but if it is being prepared for people engaged in outdoor work, it is best put into boiling water and boiled ten minutes.
Liquid foods give the least trouble to the digestive organs ; they are useful in cases of illness, or when the body is very tired ; but as a rule, in health it is better to give the digestion its proper work to do. The evening meal should always be a very simple one ; but however carefully and wisely we may select our food, good cooking, a good digestion, and fresh air are absolutely indispensable to health and comfort.
Professor Blott says if one has mental labour, fish every second day at least is requisite. Soup sets all the glands at work, and prepares the stomach for the most important function of digestion, and therefore should be taken at dinner every day. Beef-broth is to old age what milk is to the young. Cookery properly attended to keeps man in health, and when the stomach is out of order, the brain is affected. We should eat more fruits, vegetables, soups, and fish.
Air is so closely connected with food that a few remarks upon it may not be out of place here. We breathe it into the lungs, and it then meets the food changed into blood, and purifies it ; and so through the changes effected by the oxygen in the air and by various other organs of the body, the food we swallow is gradually made fit to replace all the wasted and worn-out tissues, &c.
Air consists chiefly of two gases, nitrogen and oxygen, about twenty-one parts oxygen and seventy-nine nitrogen. There is more oxygen in the air in cold than in hot weather. The oxygen is the useful active principle; the nitrogen
merely acts by diluting the oxygen, which by itself would be too strong. No fire or light could possibly burn without this oxygen ; gas and fire breathe the same sort of air as we do, and like us cannot live without it.
There is a double process going on in the lungs. The air taken in has a good supply of fresh oxygen in it, but the air breathed out from the lungs is foul with carbonic acid ; and the blood reaches the lungs laden with carbonic acid, and departs with a cargo of pure health-giving oxygen.
The oxygen is breathed into the lungs and unites there with the used-up carbon in the blood, and forms carbonic acid gas. The result of this union is that there is a constant fire kept up there to warm the body, and the blood is purified of its worn-out carbon, and restored to its brightred colour. This carbonic acid is a heavy poisonous gas, and when cold sinks to the bottom of a room : thus we see the great importance of having our windows open at the bottom as well as at the top ; so that the pure air may come in, and the bad poisonous air escape. It is a sad fact that too many people neglect this important duty of ventilation. One of the first requisites under all circumstances is to see that you get plenty of fresh air into your house. Much more might be said on this interesting and important subject, as well as on the different stages of digestion which the food passes through before it enters the blood and becomes part of the body ; but I have endeavoured to show, very briefly, how we may take care of