The housewife's directory: being the most complete system of domestic economy ever submitted to public notice ... With copious marketing and other tables / by John Edward Watson.

  • Watson, John Edward.
Date:
[1825]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The housewife's directory: being the most complete system of domestic economy ever submitted to public notice ... With copious marketing and other tables / by John Edward Watson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    ARTICLES OF DIET. It is beyond a doubt, that animal food, as well as vegetables, are intended by Providence for the subsistence of the human species; and a mixture of the two, where neither of them disagrees with the constitution, is certainly the most proper. Animal food in general is more nourishing than vegetables; and when it is not salted, nor hardened by smoking, it is likewise more easy of digestion. On this account, it generally agrees best with delicate and weak constitutions. But a mixture of many kinds of meat at 4 a meal is undoubtedly iiyurious to the health; both as variety of dishes may tempt to excess, and as a number of meats, very dif- ferent in their nature, cannot be equally well digested in the same space of time. To eat of one dish only, seems most conformable to nature, and is doubtless the means of producing the most healthy fluids. The mode of dressing meat has likewise an effect upon its utility and vrholesomeness. Flesh that is boiled, is deprived of its nou- rishing juice, as the gelatinous substance of the meat is extracted into the broth. The latter indeed contains the most nourishing part of it. In the mode of dressing meat by roasting, its juices are less wasted, and as a crust is soon formed on its surface, the nutritive particles are prevented from evaporating. Hence, roast- ed meat seems likely to yield more nourishment than the same quantity of boiled meat. Stewing is still better calculated to pre- serve the more substantial parts of the animal food; for, being performed in a close vessel, the juices are neither extracted by water, nor made to evaporate by the heat. Though appetite for food be the most certain indication that nature requires a supply, yet when irregular, it ought never to be indulged beyond a moderate extent. By slow eating, the stomach suffers a very gradual distention, and the food has sufficient time to be duly prepared by mastication, or chewing in the mouth; and he who observes this simple rule will feel himself satisfied, only after he has received a due proportion of aliment; whilst he who swallows his food too quickly, and before it is perfectly chewed, will be apt to imagine he has eaten enough, when the unmasticated provisions merely press on the sides of the stomach; the consequence is that hunger will soon return. Those who take more exercise in winter than in summer, can also digest more food. But as individuals, leading a sedentary life, usually suffer in winter from a bad state of digestion, owing to want of exercise, they ought in that season to be more sparing of aliment. Too little aliment weakens the body, and hastens the consump- tion of the living principle. After long fasting, the breath is foetid ; and the body becomes disposed to putrid fevers. When a person has suffered much from extreme hunger, much food ought not to be given him at once; for the stomach being contracted and feeble, cannot digest it. He must be supported with liquid nou- rishment; ia small quantities, and be treated in the manner of a