OTHER LIQUID ALIMENTS, OR DRINKS.
The other drinks in most common use are arranged thus,—
1. The Mucilaginous, Farinaceous, or Saccharine drinks.
These are water chiefly, with substances slightly nutritive, softening, and soothing. Toast water, Sugar water, Rice water, Barley water, and the various Gruels, are of this kind.
2. The Aromatic and Astringent drinks.
These include Tea, Coffee, Chicory, Chocolate, and Cocoa.
The following remarks on these drinks are taken from the work of Dr. Pereira.
“The peculiar flavor of tea depends upon the volatile oil, which has the taste and smell of tea. Alone, it acts as a narcotic, but when combined (as in tea) with tannin, it acts as a diuretic and diaphoretic (i. e. to promote the flow of urine and perspiration). Its astringency, proved by its chemical properties, depends upon the presence of tannin. Of this quality we may beneficially avail ourselves in some cases of poisoning, as by poisonous mushrooms, by opium, or laudanum.”
“The peculiar influence of tea, especially the green variety, over the nervous system, depends upon the vegetable oil referred to. The influence is analogous to that of foxglove; for both green tea and foxglove occasion watchfulness, and act as sedatives on the heart and bloodvessels. Strong green tea produces, on some constitutions, usually those popularly known as nervous, very severe effects. It gives rise to tremor, anxiety, sleeplessness, and most distressing feelings.”
“As a diluent and sedative, tea is well adapted to febrile and inflammatory disorders. To its sedative influence should be ascribed the relief of headache sometimes experienced.”
On this subject, Dr. Lee remarks, “Green tea undoubtedly possesses very active medicinal properties; for a very strong decoction of it, or the extract, speedily destroys life in the inferior animals, even when given in very small doses. The strongly marked effects of tea upon persons of a highly nervous temperament, in causing wakefulness, tremors, palpitations, and other distressing feelings, prove, also, that it is an agent of considerable power. It not unfrequently occasions vertigo, and sick headache, together with a sinking sensation at the pit of the stomach, shortly after eating. It is also opposed to active nutrition, and should, therefore, be used with great moderation by those who are thin in flesh. From its astringent properties it often is useful in a relaxed state of bowels.”
“We are satisfied that green tea does not, in any case, form a salubrious beverage to people in health, and should give place to milk, milk and water, black tea, milk and sugar, which, when taken tepid, form very agreeable and healthy drinks.”
Coffee. “The infusion, or decoction of coffee, forms a well known favorite beverage. Like tea, it diminishes the disposition to sleep, and hence it is often resorted to by those who desire nocturnal study. It may also be used to counteract the stupor induced by opium, alcoholic drinks, and other narcotics. In some constitutions it acts as a mild laxative, yet it is usually described as producing constipation. The immoderate use of coffee produces various nervous diseases, such as anxiety, tremor, disordered vision, palpitation, and feverishness.”
Chicory, or Succory. This is the roasted root of the Wild Endive, or Wild Succory. It is prepared like coffee, and some prefer its flavor to that of coffee.
Chocolate. This is prepared by roasting the seeds of the Cacoa, or Cocoa, then grinding them and forming them into cakes. “Chocolate, though devoid of the disagreeable qualities of tea and coffee, which disturb the nervous functions, yet is difficult of digestion, on account of the large quantity of oil which it contains, and is, therefore, very apt to disturb the stomach of dyspeptics.”
Cocoa. This is made of the nuts and husks of the cocoa, roasted and ground, and is somewhat less oily than chocolate, and being rather astringent, is adapted to looseness of the bowels. The shells alone are often used to make a drink, which is less rich than the Cocoa, and especially adapted to weak digestive powers.
The seeds of the vegetable called Ochra, roasted and prepared like coffee, are said to equal it in flavor.
3. Acidulous Drinks.
“The employment of vegetable acid, as an aliment, is necessary to health. It seems pretty clearly established, that complete and prolonged abstinence from succulent vegetables, or fruits, or their preserved juices, as articles of food, is a cause of scurvy.”
“Water, sharpened with vegetable acids, oftentimes proves a most refreshing beverage, allaying thirst, and moderating excessive heat. Various acids form cooling, refreshing, and antiscorbutic drinks, and are well adapted for hot seasons, and for febrile and inflammatory cases.”
These drinks are prepared by dissolving vegetable acids or acidulous salts in water, sweetening and flavoring it. Also, by decoctions of acid fruits, which promote secretions in the alimentary canal, and act as laxatives.
The carbonated or effervescing drinks belong to this class. They owe their sparkling briskness to carbonic acid gas confined in the liquid.
4. Drinks containing Gelatine and Osmazome.
Gelatine is that part of animal and vegetable matter that forms jelly.
Osmazome is that principle in meats which impart their flavor.
Beef Tea, Mutton, Veal, and Chicken Broths are the principal drinks of this description, and usually are prepared for invalids.
5. Emulsive, or Milky Drinks.
Animal milk is the principal drink of this class, and as this is the aliment of a large portion of young children, the necessity of guarding against abuses connected with the supplies furnished should be generally known.
A great portion of the milk furnished in New York and other large cities, is obtained from cows fed on distillery slops, and crowded in filthy pens, without regard to ventilation or cleanliness. Thus deprived of pure air and exercise, and fed with unhealthy food, their milk becomes diseased, and is the cause of extensive mortality among young children. Many cows, also, are fed on decayed vegetables, and the sour and putrid offals of kitchens, and these, also, become thus diseased.
A work on this subject, by R. M. Hartly, Esq., of New York, has been published, which contains these facts. Of five hundred dairies near New York and Brooklyn, all, except five or six, feed their cows on distillery slops. And the reason is, that it yields more milk at a cheaper rate than any other food. But it soon destroys the health of the animals, and after most of their fluids are, by this process, changed to unhealthy milk, and the cows become diseased, they are sent to a cattle market and a new supply obtained.
The physicians in New York, in a body, have testified to the unhealthiness of this practice, but as yet no inspectors have been secured to preserve the public from this danger, while the great mass of the people are ignorant or negligent on the subject. Chemists have analyzed this unhealthful milk, and find that, while pure milk is alkaline, slop milk is acid, and also contains less than half the nourishment contained in pure milk. Scarcely any cream rises on slop milk, and what does collect can never be turned into butter; but, by churning, only changes to froth. We have inspectors of flour, meat, fish, and most other food, and every town and city supplied by milk carts ought to have inspectors of milk; and where this is not done, every mistress of a family should narrowly watch her supplies of milk, and ascertain the mode in which the cows are fed.
In cases where children, or adults, find that milk troubles the stomach, it is often owing to its richness, and water should then be mixed with it. Infants generally require diluted milk, a little sweetened, as cow’s milk is, when good, considerably richer than mother’s milk. The fact that oil is placed among the articles most difficult to digest, shows the mistake of many, who give diluted cream instead of milk, supposing it to be better for infants. In all ordinary cases, where an infant is deprived of the mother’s nourishment, the milk of a new milch cow, diluted with one-third, or one-fourth water, and sweetened a little with white sugar, is the safest substitute. Sometimes oat-meal gruel, or arrowroot, are found to agree better with the child’s peculiar constitution.
6. Alcoholic Drinks.
Beer, Wine, Cider, and Distilled Liquors, are the chief of the alcoholic drinks.
“To persons in health,” says Dr. Pereira, in his “Elements of Materia Medica,” “the dietical employment of wine is either useless or pernicious.“ Dr. Beaumont, in his celebrated experiments on St. Martin,[1] found that wines, as well as distilled spirits, invariably interfered with the regularity and completeness of digestion, and always produced morbid changes in the mucous membrane of the stomach. And this, too, was the case when neither unpleasant feelings nor diminished appetite indicated such an effect.
[1] This case of St. Martin’s referred to, was that of a soldier, who by a gun shot, had an opening made into his stomach, which healed up, leaving so large an orifice, that all the process of digestion could be examined, after he was restored to perfect health.
Dr. Bell, of Philadelphia, remarks thus: “The recorded experience of men in all situations and climates, under all kinds of labor and exposure, prove that abstinence from alcoholic drinks gives increased ability to go through the labors of the farm and the workshop, to resist heat and cold, to encounter hardships on sea and land, beyond what has ever been done under the unnatural excitement of alcohol, followed, as it is, by depression and debility, if not by fever and disease. The observation and testimony of naval and military surgeons and commanders are adverse to the issue of alcoholic drinks to men in the army and navy.”
The reports from all our chief state prisons also prove that intemperate men can be instantly deprived of all alcoholic drinks, not only without danger, but with an immediate improvement of the health.
Wine is often useful as a medicine, under the direction of a physician, but its stimulating, alcoholic principle, makes it an improper agent to be drank in health. The same is true of cider and strong beer. Some wine, beer, and cider drinkers do, by the force of a good constitution, live to a good old age, and so do some persons, also, who live in districts infected by a malaria, which destroys the health and life of thousands. But these exceptions do not prove that either wine, or malaria are favorable to health, or long life. They are only exceptions to a general rule.
Meantime, the general rule is established by an incredible amount of experience and testimony, that alcoholic drinks, in no cases, are needed by those in health, and that the indulgence in drinking them awakens a gnawing thirst and longing for them, that leads the vast majority of those who use them, to disease, debility, poverty, folly, crime, and death.
In this detail of the various drinks that may be used by man, we find that pure water is always satisfying, safe, and sufficient. We find that acid and effervescing drinks, so acceptable in hot weather, are also demanded by the system, and are safe and healthful. We find that milk and broths are also healthful and nourishing.
Black tea, also, when taken weak and not above blood heat, is a perfectly safe and agreeable warm drink.
Chocolate and cocoa are nourishing and safe to persons who can bear the oil they contain; and shells are perfectly healthful and safe to all.
In the vast variety of drinks provided for man, we find very few that are not safe and healthful. Green tea and coffee, as ordinarily used, are very injurious to very many constitutions. They contain but very little nourishment, except what is added by the milk and sugar, and training a family of children to love them (for no child loves them till trained to do it) is making it probable that all of them will be less healthful and comfortable, and certain that some will be great sufferers. Training children to drink tea and coffee is as unreasonable and unchristian, as training them to drink foxglove and opium would be—the only difference is, that in one case it is customary, and the other it is not; and custom makes a practice appear less foolish and sinful.
There is no need, at this period of the world, to point out the wickedness and folly of training children to love alcoholic drinks.
In regard to the use of green tea and coffee, one suggestion will be offered. These are drinks which contain very little nourishment, and their effect is to stimulate the nervous system without nourishing it. They are, also, usually drank hot, and heat also is a stimulant to the nerves of the mouth, teeth, throat, and stomach, inducing consequent reacting debility. For it is the unvarying law of the nervous system, that the reacting debility is always in exact proportion to the degree of stimulation.
It is in vain to expect that the great multitudes, who have been accustomed, from childhood, to drink hot tea and coffee, once, twice, and sometimes thrice a day, will give up such a favorite practice. But it is hoped that some may be induced to modify their course, by reducing the strength and the heat of their daily potations. It will be found by housekeepers that, if once a month the daily quantity of tea, or coffee is slightly reduced, the taste will imperceptibly accommodate; and that, in the course of six or eight months, the habits of a family, by these slight monthly variations, may be changed so as that, eventually, they will love weak tea and coffee as much as they once loved the strong.
Young housekeepers, who are just beginning to rear a family of children, will perhaps permit one plea for the young beings, whose fate in life so much depends on their physical training. It is the weak and delicate children who are the sufferers, where the habits of a family lead them to love stimulating drinks. The strong and healthy children may escape unharmed, the whole evil falls on those, who are least able to bear it. Oh mother, save the weak lambs of your fold! Save them from those untold agonies that result from rasped and debilitated nerves, worn out by unhealthful stimulus! And set before your household the Divine injunction—“We, then, that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.”
In regard to the selection of food, a housekeeper can have small excuse for ever risking the health of her family by providing unhealthy food, or cooking it in an unhealthful manner. Innumerable dishes, and enough to furnish a new variety for every day of the year, can be made of food that is safe and healthful, and cooked in a healthful manner.
Avoid condiments, fats, and food cooked in fats, and always provide light and sweet yeast bread, is the rule which shuts out almost everything that is pernicious to health, and leaves an immense variety from which to select what is both healthful and grateful to the palate.
There are some directions in regard to times and manner of taking food, that are given more at large, with the reasons for them, in the “Domestic Economy,” but which will briefly be referred to, because so important.
Eating too fast is unhealthful, because the food is not properly masticated, or mixed with the saliva, nor has the stomach sufficient time to perform its office on the last portion swallowed before another enters.
Eating too often is unhealthful, because it is weakening and injurious to mix fresh food with that which is partly digested, and because the stomach needs rest after the labor of digesting a meal. In grown persons four or five hours should intervene between each meal. Children, who are growing fast, need a luncheon of simple bread between meals.
Eating too much is unhealthful, because the stomach can properly digest only that amount which is needed to nourish the system. The rest is thrown off undigested, or crowded into parts of the system where it is injurious.
Eating food when too hot is injurious, as weakening the nerves of the teeth and stomach by the stimulus of heat.
Eating highly seasoned food is unhealthful, because it stimulates too much, provokes the appetite too much, and often is indigestible.
Badly cooked food is unhealthful, because it is indigestible, and in other ways injurious.
Excessive fatigue weakens the power of digestion, and in such cases, a meal should be delayed till a little rest is gained.
Bathing should never follow a meal, as it withdraws the blood and nervous vigor demanded for digestion, from the stomach to the skin.
Violent exercise should not follow a full meal, as that also withdraws the blood and nervous energies from the stomach to the muscles.
Water, and other drinks, should never be taken in large quantities, either with, or immediately after a meal, as they dilute the gastric juice, and tend to prevent perfect digestion. But it is proper to drink a moderate quantity of liquid while eating.
Where there is a strong constitution and much exercise in the open air, children and adults may sometimes violate these and all other laws of health, and yet remain strong and well.
But all, and especially those, who have delicate constitutions, and are deprived of fresh air and exercise, will have health and strength increased and prolonged by attending to these rules.
[CHAPTER II.]
MARKETING—CARE AND USES OF MEATS.
Beef.
Fig. 1.
1. Cheek. 2. Neck. 3. Chuck Rib, or Shoulder having four Ribs. 4. Front of the Shoulder, or Shoulder Clod, sometimes called Brisket. 5. Back of the Shoulder. 6. Fore Shin, or Leg. 7,7. Plate pieces; the front one is the Brisket, and the back one is the Flank, and is divided again into the Thick Flank, or Upper Sirloin, and the Lower Flank. 8. Standing Ribs, divided into First, Second, and Third Cuts. The First Cut is next to the Sirloin, and is the best. 9. Sirloin. 10. Sirloin Steak. 11. Rump, or Etch Bone. 12. Round, or Buttock. 13. Leg, or Hind Shank.
Veal.
Fig. 2.
1. Head and Pluck. 2. Rack and Neck. 3. Shoulder. 4. Fore Shank, or Knuckle. 5. Breast. 6. Loin. 7. Fillet, or Leg. 8. Hind Shank, or Knuckle.
Mutton.
Fig. 3.
1. Shoulder. 2, 2. Neck, or Rack. 3. Loin. 4. Leg. 5. Breast.
A Chine is two Loins.
A Saddle of Mutton is two Legs and two Loins.
Pork.
Fig. 4.
1. Leg. 2. Hind Loin. 3. Fore Loin. 4. Spare Rib. 5. Hand. 6. Spring.
A Lamb is divided into two fore quarters and two hind quarters.
Venison. In this country nothing is used but the hind quarter. Two legs and two loins are called a Saddle.