rally prescribed to the sick, in preference to most other meats. It is better than lamb; but the difference between them is less marked than between veal and beef.

BEEF. This is the most nutritious of all kinds of animal food, and is supposed to impart a peculiar degree of vigour, and firmness of muscle. Hence, those who are engaged in the brutal conflicts of prize-fights, which disgrace our age, and those who undertake the performance of other feats of strength or speed, are usually prepared for their tasks by training; which consists in the employment of regular exercise, and of a diet of which beef forms the chief part.

VEAL has a large portion of gelatine in proportion to the fibrin, and very little osmasome. Perhaps a part of these peculiarities in veal may arise from the mode of treatment which the animals undergo before they are slaughtered, and also from the mode in which they are killed. They are fed on nothing but milk, and are frequently blooded; and when killed, the death is slow, and the largest possible quantity of blood is withdrawn hence the meat assumes a sickly, bloodless hue. It has lost much of its fibrin, and it becomes sour sooner than any other kind of meat.

PORK is a highly nutritious food; and is, in general, not unwholesome, if the animal be healthy. It is particularly convenient, on the ground of economy; as, in the poorest families, there is a certain quantity of offal from their tables, which might furnish food for the pig, though it would otherwise be wasted. The flesh of the hog appears to be highly esteemed by the inhabitants of the South Seas. Hogs abound in those parts. It is, however, a description of food in some degree new to the natives, as the animal is not indigenous

PORK.- -COOKING: ROASTING, BROILING, BAKING. 79

there; but the breed is the offspring of such as have been turned loose into their forests by our navigators. That prince of circumnavigators, Captain Cook, enriched many of the islands which he visited, by presenting them with this species.

Hogs are of great importance to those who settle in new countries; as, for example, in the back-woods of the United States, or of the Canadas; not only on account of the facility with which the animal is propagated and supported, but from its flesh being peculiarly adapted to preservation by salting and drying.

Next in importance to the choice of the kinds of meat, is that of the mode of cOOKING. This point involves many considerations, regarding health, economy, and convenience. () Generally speaking, the most wholesome form of cooking is ROASTING; by which process a crust is formed on the surface, which preserves the internal part from too sudden or violent a degree of heat, and also prevents the draining away of its juices. The internal part of the joint is best for invalids; as it is not only more juicy, but is lighter, and of simpler and more delicate flavour, and consequently of more easy digestion. The surface, which consists chiefly of burnt fat, is apt to disagree with weak or delicate stomachs. BROILING is only roasting on a small scale; and has this advantage, that as the heat is continued for a short time, it does not render the outside of the lean so dry and parched, or the outside of the fat so rancid, as it is liable to become by roasting. Hence it is less prone to produce that kind of inconvenience which you will all understand by the word "rising." BAKING is an operation somewhat similar to roasting and broiling, but intermediate between them and boiling, yet not so good as either. The degree of heat is

sufficient to produce an offensive odour—what is called empyreuma; and the closeness of the oven preventing escape, it unavoidably contaminates the meat.

its

BOILING, in which the temperature is effectually limited, is free from this evil. It has, however, this disadvantage, viz. that it dissolves much of the gelatine, and washes out the gravy charged with osmasome, but it does not remove fibrin.

STEWING.-There is much economy in this mode of cooking; but the meat itself may be stewed until but little nutriment remains in it. The fibrin may be too completely separated from the other principles, and the gravy or juices spoilt by too long-continued heat.

In FRYING, you have combined all the bad effects of baking and boiling; as the fat part is burnt or parched, and the flesh soddened. Meats so dressed are highly offensive to some stomachs.

Broths and soups are perhaps the most economical kinds of food; but they are certainly not the most wholesome, as the stomach has much to do to get rid of the watery part. They should be used in moderation; and ought not to have their watery part increased by the addition of drink.

Stews, in some respects, resemble soups: but whilst, on the one hand, they have the advantage of presenting the extracted juices of the meat in a more concentrated state than that in which they exist in soup, they are, on the other hand, often made more injuriously complicated and stimulating by various admixtures. In different countries there often prevails a characteristic difference in the mode of cooking in common use. Thus it has been common to contrast French cookery with the English; a predominance of stews being ascribed to the former, and a prevalence of roast joints to the

latter. A gentleman who had not only had the opportunity of trying the fare of both countries, but who, from being long in South America, and mixing with the native inhabitants, had experienced the invigorating effects of the simplest form of roast and broiled flesh, on which some tribes almost wholly subsist, once made the following remark:-"The English cooking is the cooking of the savage, perfected. The French cooking is the cooking of corrupted man."-The long peace which has happily subsisted between the two countries, and has done so much to exchange the animosity and jealousy, which once prevailed, for mutual respect and reciprocal benefits, has effected a change in the cooking also. Excellent roast and broiled are well prepared and patronized by our neighbours; whilst our love of change appears to have led us in some degree to increase our taste for stews and complicated dishes.

SALTING is another mode of preparing meat, which, though only the forerunner to cooking, must not be unnoticed. It should be borne in mind, that the more, or the longer, meat is salted, the more it loses of its capability of affording nourishment; as both meat and salt are altered in their properties. The health of our sailors, without doubt, depends very much on the suitable nature and good condition of their food. Formerly, long voyages were very fatal to the crews of the vessels engaged in them; as was lamentably seen to be the case in Lord Anson's voyage; in which such great numbers were swept off by disease, that some of the vessels were necessarily abandoned. At the present day, the meat used in the navy and merchant-service is better salted and prepared, and suitable antidotes are supplied to the men; in consequence of which precautions, in

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addition to greater attention to cleanliness, the seascurvy, as it was called, once so formidable, is now but little heard of. The quality of meat is much influenced by the length of time which is allowed to pass between the killing of the animal and the consumption of its flesh as food. Meat is not only more readily subjected to mechanical division, but appears to be more easily digested when it has been allowed to hang a few days. There is, however, a limit to this: for though, by habit, man may be brought to like meat that is somewhat tainted or high, yet there is evidently an instinctive dislike to such food, which, if far gone, would inevitably excite nausea and sickness. It has been supposed, that if meat were to be always eaten in a putrid state, it would produce fever and delirium; but this is not universally true. We know that game is generally eaten in an advanced state of decomposition. Some NorthAmerican Indians eat putrid flesh, and appear to prefer it in that state. The state of the animal at the time of its death has a very sensible influence on the quality of the meat. It is one of the most notorious facts connected with the subject of eating, that the flesh of an animal well-fed and in high condition is superior to that of a lean and spare one. Fatted calves, fatted oxen, and the like, are amongst the articles most anciently enumerated in the dainties of a feast. This superiority is not dependent on the larger quantity of food which such an animal supplies, nor entirely on the desirableness of a large quantity of fat, but because even the muscular flesh of a well-fed, plump, and necessarily healthy animal is of a quality greatly superior to that of an animal in the opposite state. Positivelydiseased animals may easily be supposed to yield bad and unwholesome meat. During the plague in London,