We suspect that most mischief is done by the immoderate and constant use of the Common Condiments.—We have seen some puritanical folks, who are for ever boasting that They never touch Made Dishes, &c. (one would suppose they had the Tongue of Pityllus[93],) so be-devil every morsel they put into their Mouth—with Pepper, and Mustard, &c. that they made their common food ten times more piquante—than the burn-gullet Bonne Bouche of an eastern Nabob, or a Broiled Devil, enveloped in “veritable Sauce d’Enfer.”—See (No. 355 and 538).
We do not condemn the moderate use of Spices, but the constant and excessive abuse of them,—by which the papillary nerves of the tongue become so blunted, that in a little time they lose all relish for useful nourishing food, and the Epicure is punished with all the sufferings of incessant and incurable Indigestion,—perturbed Sleep—and the horrors of the Night-Mare, &c. &c.—However, enough has been written by a thousand cautionists, to convince any rational creature of the advantage resulting to both the Body and the Mind from a simple and frugal fare:—the great secret of Health and Longevity is to keep up the sensibility of the Stomach.
No Regimen[94] can be contrived that will suit every body.
“Try all the bounties of this fertile Globe,
There is not such a salutary Food
As suits with every Stomach.”
Dr. Armstrong’s Art of Preserving Health, book ii. line 120.
“I knew a black servant of Mr. Pitt, an Indian Merchant in America, who was fond of Soup made of Rattle Snakes,—in which the Head, without any regard to the Poison, was boiled along with the rest of the animal.”—Dr. G. Fordyce, on Digestion, &c. 8vo. 1791, p. 119.
No food is so delicious that it pleases all palates,—nothing can be more correct than the old adage, “one man’s meat is another man’s poison.”
It would be as difficult for a Laplander, or an earth-eating Ottomaque, to convince our good citizens that Train Oil, and gutter-mud, is a more elegant relish than their favourite Turtle—as for the former to fancy that Kay or Birch’s Soup can be as agreeable as the Grease and Garbage which custom has taught them to think delicious.
Celsus[95] very sensibly says, that “a healthy man, under his own government, ought not to tie himself up by strict rules,—nor to abstain from any sort of food; that he ought sometimes to fast, and sometimes to feast.” Sanis, sunt omnia Sana.
When the Stomach sends forth eructant signals of distress, for help against Indigestion, the Peristaltic Persuaders (see the [end of this Essay]) are as agreeable and effectual assistance as can be offered; and for delicate Constitutions, and those that are impaired by Age or Intemperance, are a valuable Panacea.