Good Mock Turtle, see (No. 246, or 247*,) will agree with weak stomachs surprisingly well; so will that made by Birch in Cornhill, and by Kay at Albion House, Aldersgate Street.—This excellent Soup, is frequently ordered for Dyspeptic patients, by the senior Physician to one of the largest hospitals in this Metropolis: as a man of science and talent, certainly in as high estimation as any of his cotemporaries.
Ox-tail Soup (No. 240,) Giblet Soup (No. 244,) and (No. 87,) and (No. 89,) (No. 489,) and (No. 503,) are very agreeable extempore Restoratives,—so easy of digestion, that they are a sinecure to the Stomach, and give very little trouble to the chylopoietic organs—those whose Teeth are defective—and those whose Circulation is below par,—will find them acceptable Foods. “Experto crede,”—the reader will remember Baglivi’s chapter “de Idolis Medicorum,” wherein he tells us, that “Physicians always prescribe to others, what they like themselves.” The learned Mandeville has favoured us with five pages on the incomparably invigorating virtues of Stock Fish!! a kind of Cod which is dried without being salted. See pages 316, &c. of his Treatise on Hypochondriasis.
The best Answers, to all inquiries about The Wholesomes, are the following Questions;—“Do you like it?” “Does it agree with you?”—“then eat in moderation, and you cannot do very wrong.”
Those who have long lived luxuriously, to be sufficiently nourished, must be regularly supplied with Food that is nutritive, and Drink that is stimulating[91],—Spice and Wine, are as needful to the “Bon Vivant” of a certain Age—as its Mother’s Milk, is to a New-born Babe.
The decrease of the energy of Life arises from the decrease of the action of the organs of the Body—especially those of Digestion,—which in early life is so intense and perfect, that a Child, after its common unexcitant meal of Bread and Milk, is as hilarious and frolicsome as an Adult person is after a certain quantity of Roast Beef and Port.
The infirm stomachs of Invalids, require a little indulgence[92]—like other bad instruments, they often want oiling, and screwing, and winding up and adjusting with the utmost care, to keep them in tolerable order;—and will receive the most salutary Stimulus, from now and then making a full meal of a favourite dish. This is not a singular notion of my own, though it may not exactly agree with the fastidious fancy of Dr. Sangrado’s disciples,—that Starvation and Phlebotomy, are Sovereign Remedies for all Disorders.
Those philanthropic Physicians, Dr. Diet,—Dr. Quiet,—and Dr. Merryman,—hold the same doctrine as the Magnus Coquus—i. e. the Author of “the Cook’s Oracle,” to whose culinary skill we have been so repeatedly indebted in the composition of this work.
As excessive Eating and Drinking is certainly the most frequent cause of the disorders of the Rich,—so privation is the common source of complaints among the Poor;—the cause of the one, is the cure of the other—but where one of the latter dies of Want, how many thousands of the former are destroyed by Indigestion!
If strong Spices and savoury Herbs excite appetite—they (in an increased ratio,) accelerate the action of the Bowels—and hurry the food through the alimentary canal, too rapidly to allow the Absorbents to do their work properly.
Salt is the most salubrious and easily obtainable relish which Nature has given us to give sapidity to other substances; and has this advantage over all other Sauces, that if taken to excess—it carries its remedy with it in its Aperient quality.