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FONTANA (Felix), a distinguished Italian physiologist and philosopher, was born 15th of April 1730, at Pomarolo, in the Tyrol.

He began his education at Roveredo, and pursued it in the schools of Verona and Parma; whence he was afterwards removed to the universities of Padua and Bologna. He then visited Rome, and Florence, where he obtained from the emperor Francis I., then grand duke of Tuscany, the appointment of professor of philosophy at Pisa; but the grand duke Peter Leopold (also afterwards emperor) invited him to settle at Florence, and gave him an establishment as fisico or naturalist, and director of the cabinet of natural history to his household. In 1757 Fontana engaged in an investigation, tending to confirm the doctrines of Haller respecting the irritability of the muscles, considered as a distinct inherent quality of those organs, and Haller published several of his letters as a part of his own Memoires upon that subject, Florence, 1775. One of the most important of Fontana's works is his Ricerche fisiche sopra 'l veneno della vipera, Lucca, 1767; containing a great variety of experiments, calculated to show that the poison of the viper acts by mixing with the blood, and destroying the irritability of the muscles to which it is conveyed. In 1766 our author published an essay entitled Nuove Osservazioni sopra i Globetti rossi del Sangue, confuting the assertions which had lately been advanced by Della Torre, respecting the complicated structure and changes of form of the globules of the blood. In the next year Osservazioni sopra la Ruggine del Grano, describing an animalcule like an eel, to which he attributes the rust of coin. There is also a Lettre sur l'ergot. Journ. Phys. VII. p. 42. The Lettera sopra le Idatidi e le Tenie, Opuscoli Scelti. VI. p. 108, Milan, 1783, contains an account of the hydatids which produce the symptoms of vertigo in sheep. Fontana entered also minutely, but not very accurately, into the chemical discoveries which occupied so much attention throughout Europe in the latter half of the last century, and seems to have had the merit of first applying the discoveries of Priestley respecting nitric oxide to the examination of the qualities of the atmosphere, by means of the eudiometer. This is the subject of his Descrizione e usï di alcuni stromenti per misurar la salubrità dell' aria, 8vo. Flor. 1774, 4to. 1775; and it is further illustrated in his Recherches Physiques sur la Nature de l'Air Dephlogistiqué et de l'Air Nitreux, 8vo. Par. 1776. The Philosophical Transactions for 1779, p. 187, contain his Experiments and Observations on the Inflammable Air breathed by various Animals, consisting of a repetition of Scheele's attempt to breathe hydrogen gas. To the Memoirs of the Italian Society Fontana also contributed several short essays.

In 1790 our author remarks that his chemical pursuits had, of late, been interrupted by the attention required for the completion of his wax models of anatomical subjects, and by the duplicates which he was preparing for the cabinet of Vienna at the request of the emperor. At a later period, a series of copies of these models was ordered by Buonaparte to be sent to Paris; VOL. IX-PART 2.

but, it being there found inferior to the preparations already existing in the Ecole de Medicine, it was sent to Montpelier. Fontana was latterly engaged in the preparation of a colossal model of a man, built up anatomically of all his component parts, represented in wood; but this design he never completed. Wearing the habit of an ecclesiastic (though he never, we believe, took orders), Fontana was called abbé, and treated with great respect by the French generals on their irruptions into Tuscany in 1799; a circumstance which gave rise to a jealousy on the part of his Imperial patrons, and he was for a short time imprisoned, on the re-establishment of the Austrian authorities. His last illness arose from a fall from his horse, in January 1806: he died the 9th of March of that year, and was buried near the tomb of Galileo, in the church of the Holy Cross, Florence.

FONTANA (George), a distinguished Italian mathematician, brother of the preceding, was born in 1735, and educated at Roveredo and Rome, where he entered the order of the Pia Schola. He early formed an intimacy with the marquis Julio Fagnani, who inspired him with a taste for the mathematics. In 1763 count de Firmian appointed him professor of logic and metaphysics, and director of the library, at Pavia. Five years after, he succeeded Boscovitch in the chair of mathematics, and filled it with the greatest reputation during nearly thirty years. In 1796 he was appointed a member of the legislative body of the Cisalpine republic. After the battle of Marengo, having become professor emeritus of the university, he removed to Milan. On the new organization of the republic of Italy, he became a member of the electoral college De' Dotti; but, in the midst of his literary and political labors, was seized by a violent fever, which caused his death, August the 24th, 1803.

FONTANES (M. de), a political writer and member of the French Institute, was born of a noble family at Mort in 1761. He edited in the commencement of the French revolution a journal, entitled The Moderator, and after the fall of Robespierre joined La Harpe and others in Le Memorial, which was, together with about forty more of the same description, suppressed by the National Convention on the 6th of September, 1797, the proprietors, editors, &c., being all included in a common sentence of banishment. M. de Fontanes now came to England, where he contracted an intimacy with M. de Chateaubriand, in company with whom he returned to his native country, and joined Messrs. Ronald and La Harpe in conducting the Mercure de France. Shortly after he obtained a seat in the corps legislatif, of which body he became the president. In 1808 he was appointed grand-master of the university of Paris; and, in 1814, possessing the dignity of a senator, he made a decided speech in favor of the restoration of the Bourbons. He was placed on the committee for drawing up the constitutional charter; and, on the re-establishment of that body, raised to the peerage. M. de Fontaines died at Paris, March 17th, 1821.

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FONTENELLE (Bernard de), a celebrated French author, born in 1657. He discharged

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the office of perpetual secretary to the Academy of Sciences above forty years with universal applause; and his History of that Academy throws great light upon their memoirs. In his poetical performances, and his Dialogues of the Dead, the spirit of Voiture was discernible, though more extended and more philosophical. His Plurality of Worlds is a singular work, the design of which was to present that part of philosophy to view in a pleasing dress. advanced years, he published comedies, which were little fitted to the stage; and An Apology for Des Cartes's Vortices. Voltaire, who declares him to have been the most universal genius the age of Louis XIV. produced, says, 'We must excuse his comedies, on account of his age, and his Cartesian opinions, as they were those of his youth.' He died in 1756, nearly 100 years old.

FONTENOY, a village of France, in the department of Yonne, and ci-devant duchy of Burgundy, remarkable for a bloody battle, in 841, between the Germans and the French, in which the Germans were defeated, and above 100,000 men killed. It lies twenty miles south-east of Auxerre.

FONTEVRAULD, a town of France, in the department of Maine and Loire, and late province of Anjou; famous for its abbey, in the church of which several kings and queens of England lie interred. It is six miles south-east of Saumur, and 160 south-west of Paris.

FONTEVRAULD, or FRONTEVAUX, ORDER OF, in ecclesiastical history, a religious order instituted by Robert d'Arbrissel, about the end of the eleventh century; taken under the protection of the holy see, by pope Pascal II. in 1106; confirmed by a bull in 1113, and invested by his successors with extraordinary privileges. The chief of this order is a female, who is appointed to inspect both the monks and the nuns. divided into four provinces, which are those of France, Aquitaine, Auvergne, and Bretagne, in each of which they have several priories.

It is

FONTICULUS, or FONTANELLA, in surgery, an issue, seton, or small ulcer, made to eliminate the latent corruption of the body.

FONTINALIA, or FONTANALIA, in antiquity, a religious feast held among the Romans in honor of the deities who presided over fountains or springs. Varro says, it was the custom to visit the wells on those days, and to cast crowns into fountains. Scaliger, in his conjectures on Varro, takes this not to be a feast of fountains in general, as Festus insinuates, but of the fountain which had a temple at Rome, near the Porta Capena, called also Porta Fontinalis; and that of this fountain Cicero speaks in his second book De Legibus. The fontinalia were held on the 13th of October.

FONTINALIS, water moss, in botany, a genus of the natural order of musci, belonging to the cryptogamia class. The anthera is hooded; the calyptra, or covering of the anthera, sessile, enclosed in a perichætium or empalement of leaflets different from those of the rest of the plant. There are four species, all natives of Britain. They grow on the banks of rivulets, and on the trunks of trees. The most remarkable is the

F. antipyretica, with purple stalks. The Scandinavians line the insides of their chimneys with this moss, to defend them against the fire; for, contrary to the nature of other mosses, it is difficult of combustion. FOOD, n. s. Gr. BOTE; Low German, FOODFUL, adj. fode, or foder; Sax. Fæban; FOOD'Y, adj. Dutch, veeden, to feed; Scot. feed. The general term for what is eaten: regimen and diet are specific; both are particular modes of living: the latter respects the quality of food; the former the quantity, as well as quality. Food specifies no circumstances, and is applicable to all living creatures. See Crabbe. Food, then, is victuals; provision for the mouth; any thing that nourishes: the adjectives signify full of food; plenteous: eatable; fit for food.

Worldely fode and sustenaunce I desire none;
Soche living as I finde, soch wol I take,
Rotes that growen on the craggy stone

Shal me suffise with water of the lake.

Chaucer. Lament of Mary Magdeleine, On my knees I beg,

That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food. Shakspeare.

Give me some musick; musick, moody food
Of us that trade in love. Id. Antony and Cleopatra.
O dear son Edgar,

The food of thy abused father's wrath,
Might I but live to see thee in my touch,
I'd say I had eyes again. Id. King Lear.

To vessels, wine she drew;
And into well-sewed sacks poured foody meal.
Chapman.

Under my lowly roof thou hast vouchsafed
To enter, and these earthly fruits to taste;
Food not of angels, yet accepted so,
As that more willingly thou could'st not seem
At heaven's high feasts t' have fed. Milton.
They give us food, which may with nectar vie,
And wax that does the absent sun supply. Waller.
There Tityus was to see, who took his birth
From heaven, his nursing from the foodful earth.
Dryden.

FOOD. Although in the article ALIMENT we have presented the reader with extensive Tables of human food, and in that of MEDICINE and STOMACH purpose to treat more fully of the modern theories of digestion, we feel disposed here to offer for the benefit of our unprofessional readers some general observations on the subject of diet, in the course of which we shall be largely indebted to the late valuable work of Dr. Paris on this subject.

The most remarkable distinction of foods, in a medical view, is into those which are already assimilated into the animal nature, and such as are not. Of the first kind are animal substances in general; which, if not entirely similar, are nearly so, to our nature. The second comprehends vegetables, which are much more difficultly assimilated. But as the nourishinent of all animals, even those which live on other animals, can be traced originally to the vegetable kingdom, it is plain, that the principle of all nourishment is in vegetables. Though there is perhaps no vegetable which does not afford nourishment to some species of animal or other; yet, with regard to mankind, a very considerable distinction is to be made. Those vegetables which are of a mild,

BODLEIAN

9 FEB 1971

FOOD.

bland, agreeable taste, yield proper nourishment;
while those of an acrid, bitter, and nauseous
taste are generally improper. We use, indeed,
several acrid substances as food; but the mild,
the bland, and palatable, are in the largest pro-
portion in almost every vegetable. Such as are
very acrid, and at the same time of an aromatic
nature, are not used as food, but as spices or
condiments which answer the purposes of medi-
cine rather than any thing else. Sometimes, in-
deed, acrid and bitter vegetables seem to be ad-
mitted as food. Thus celery and endive are used
in common food, though both are substances of
considerable acrimony; but they are previously
blanched, which almost totally destroys their
acrimony. Or, if we employ other acrid sub-
stances, we generally, in a great measure, de-
prive them of their acrimony by boiling. In
different countries the same plants grow with
different degrees of acrimony. Thus, garlic sel-
dom enters our food; but in the southern coun-
tries, where the plants grow more mild, they are
frequently used for that purpose. The plant
which furnishes cassada, being very acrimonious,
and even poisonous in its recent state, affords an
instance of the necessity of preparing acrid sub-
stances even in the hot countries; and there are
other plants, such as arum roots, which are so ex-
ceedingly acrimonious in their natural state, that
they cannot be swallowed with safety; yet,
when deprived of that acrimony, afford good
nourishment.

Animal food, although it gives strength, yet
loads the body; and Hippocrates long ago ob-
served, that the athletic habit, by a small increase,
was exposed to the greatest hazards. In the
first stage of life animal food is seldom necessary
to give strength; in manhood, when we are ex-
posed to active scenes, it is more proper; and in
the decline of life a considerable proportion of
it is necessary to keep the body in vigor. There
are some diseases, says Dr Cullen, which come
on in the decay of life, that are at least aggravated
by it: among these he ranks the gout as the
most remarkable. But the late Dr. Brown, from
repeated experience, found that the gout was
highly aggravated by vegetable food, and that
animal food was the most proper regimen in that
disease, and all others arising from debility. It
is allowed, however, on all hands, by the friends
of both the old and new systems of medicine, that
animal food, although it gives strength, is yet of
some hazard to the constitution, which, by the
frequent repetition of this stimulus, is sooner ex-
hausted than by a diet chiefly vegetable. There
fore it is to be questioned, whether we should
desire this high degree of bodily strength, with
all the inconveniences and dangers attending it.
Those who are chiefly employed in mental re-
searches, and not exposed to much bodily labor,
should avoid an excess of animal food. But in
nervous disorders, hysterical and hypochondriacal
cases, and in general all diseases arising from
weakness, fresh animal food, given frequently,
and not in too great quantities, either in the form
of soup, or that of a steak, will be found a much
more speedy and effectual restorative.

Another question, Dr. Cullen observes, has been much agitated, viz. What are the effects of

387

variety in food? Is it necessary and allowable,
or universally hurtful? Variety of a certain
kind seems necessary; as vegetable and animal
foods have their mutual advantages, tending to
correct each other. Another variety, which is
very proper, is that of liquid and solid food,
which should be so managed as to temper each
other; for liquid food, especially of the vegetable
kind, is too ready to pass off before it is properly
assimilated, while solid food makes a long stay.
But this does not properly belong to the question,
whether variety of the same kind is necessary or
proper, as in animal foods, beef, fish, fowl, &c.
It does not appear that there is any inconveni-
ence arising from this mixture or difficulty of as-
similation, provided a moderate quantity be
taken. When any inconvenience does arise, it
probably proceeds from this, that one of the par-
ticular substances in the mixture, when taken by
itself, would produce the same effects; and in-
deed it would appear, that this effect is not
heightened by the mixture, but properly obviated
by it. There are few exceptions to this, if any,
e. g. taking a large proportion of acescent sub-
stances with milk. The coldness, &c., acidity,
flatulency, &c., may appear; and it is possible
that the coagulum, from the acescency of the
vegetables being somewhat stronger induced,
may give occasion to too long retention in the
stomach, and to acidity in too great degree.
Again, the mixture of fish and milk often occa-
sions inconvenience. The theory of this is dif-
ficult, though, from universal consent, it must
certainly be just. Can we suppose that fish
Be-
gives occasion to such a coagulum as runnet?
If it does so, it may produce bad effects.
sides, fishes approach somewhat to vegetables, in
giving little stimulus; and are accused of the
same bad effects as these, viz. bringing on the
cold fit of fever. Thus much may be said for
variety.

But it has also its disadvantages,
provoking to gluttony; this and the art of cook-
ery making men take in more than they properly
can digest; and hence, perhaps very justly,
physicians have almost universally recommended
simplicity of diet; for, in spite of rules, man's
eating will only be measured by his appetite, and
satiety is sooner produced by one than by many
substances. But this is so far from being an
argument against variety, that it is one for it; as
the best way of avoiding a full meal of animal
food, and its bad effects, is by introducing a
quantity of vegetables. Another means of pre-
venting the bad effects of animal food is to take
a large proportion of liquid; and hence the bad
effects of animal food are less felt in Scotland
on account of their drinking much with it,
and using broths, which are at once excellent
correctors of animal food and preventives of
gluttony.

Dr. Paris thus compares the relative advan'As every description of tages of an animal and vegetable diet, particularly in this country. food,' says he, 'whether derived from the animal or vegetable kingdom, is converted into blood, it may be inferred that the ultimate effect of all aliments must be virtually the same; and that the several species can only differ from each 2 Č 2 other in the quantity of nutriment they afford,

in the comparative degree of stimulus they impart to the organs through which they pass, and in the proportion of vital energy they require for their assimilation. Were the degree of excitement which attends the digestion of a meal commensurate with the labor imposed upon the organs which perform it, less irritation and heat would attend the digestion of animal than of vegetable food; for, in the one case, the aliment already possesses a composition analogous to that of the structure which it is designed to supply, and requires little more than division and depuration; whereas, in the other, a complicated SPries of decompositions and recompositions must be effected before the matter can be animalised, or assimilated to the body. But the digestive fever, if we may be allowed the use of that expression, And the complexity of the alimentary changes, would appear, in every case, to bear an inverse relation to each other. This must depend upon the fact of animal food affording a more highly animalised chyle, or a greater proportion of that principle which is essentially nutritive, as well as upon the immediate stimulus which the alimentary nerves receive from its contact. In hot countries therefore, or during the heats of summner, we are instinctively led to prefer vegetable food; and we accordingly find that the inhabitants of tropical climates select a diet of this description: the Brahmins in India, and the people of the Canary Islands, Brasils, &c., live almost entirely on herbage, grains, and roots, while those of the north use little besides animal food. On account of the superior nutritive power of animal matter, it is equally evident that the degree of bodily exertion, or exercise, sustained by an individual should not be overlooked in an attempt to adjust the proportion in which animal and vegetable food should be mixed. Persons of sedentary habits are oppressed, and ultimately become diseased, from the excess of nutriment which a full diet of animal food will occasion; such a condition, by some process not understood, is best corrected by acescent vegetables. It is well known that artizans and laborers, in the confined manufactories of large towns, suffer prodigiously in their health whenever a failure occurs in the crops of common fruits; this fact was remarkably striking in the years 1804 and 1805. Young children and growing youths generally thrive upon a generous diet of animal food; the excess of nutritive matter is consumed in the development of the body, and, if properly digested, imparts strength without repletion. Adults and old persons comparatively require but a small proportion of aliment, unless the nutritive movement be accelerated by violent exercise and hard labor.

Those who advocate the exclusive value of animal food, and deny the utility of its admixture with vegetable matter, adduce in proof of their system the rude health and Herculean strength of our hardy ancestors. The British aborigines, when first visited by the Romans, certainly do not appear to have been conversant with the cultivation of the ground, and according to the early writers, Casar, Strabo, Diodorus, Siculus, and others, their principal subsistence was on

flesh and milk; but, before any valid conclusion can be deduced from this circumstance, the habits of the people must be compared with those of their descendants. The history of later times with furaish us with a satisfactory answer to those who deny the necessity of vegetable aliment. We learn from the London bills, that scurvy ragad to shanex in the seventeenth century as to have occasioned a very great mortality: at this period the art of gardening had not long been introduced. It appears that the most common articles of the kitchen garden, such as cableres, were not cultivated in England until the reign of Catharine of Arragon; indeed, we are told that this queen could not procure a salad until a gardener was sent for from the Netherlands to raise it. Since the change flers happily introduced into our diet, the ravages of the scurvy are unknown. It follows, then, that in our clima e a diet of animal food cannot, with safety, be exclusively employed. It is too highly stimulant; the springs of life are urged on to fast; and disease necessarily follows, There may, nevertheless, exist certain states of the system which require such a preternatural stimulus; and the physician may, therefore, contine hus patient to an ammal regimen with as muca propriety as he would prescribe opium, or any other remedy. By a parity of reasoning, the exclusive use of vegetable food may be shown to be inconsistent with the acknowledged principles of dietetics, and to be incapable of conveying a nourishment sufficiently stimulating for the active exertions which belong to our present civilised condition. At the same time it must be allowed, that an adherence to vegetable diet is usually productive of far less evil than that which follows the use of an exclusively animal regimen.”

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Dr. Paris quotes some curious experiments made by M. Majendie to ascertain the relative quantities of azote (nitrogen) yielded by animal and vegetable food. He took a small dog of three years old, fat, and in good health, and put it to feed upon sugar alone, and gave it distilled water to drink it had as much as it chose of both. It appeared very well in this way of living for the first seven or eight days; it was brisk, active, ate eagerly, and drank in its usuril manner. It began to get thin in the second week, although its appetite continued good, and it took about six or eight ounces of sugar in twenty-tour hours. Its alvine excretions were neit er fr.quent nor copions; that of the urine was very abundant In the third week its leanness increased, it strength diminished, the animal lost its liveliness, and its appetite declined. At this period there was developed upon one eye, an i then on the other, a small ulceration on the cei tre of the transparent cornea; it increased very quickly, and in a few days it was more than a line in diameter; its deptà increased in the same proportion; the cornea was very soon entirely perforated, and the humors of the eye ran out. This singular phenomenon was accompanied with an abundant secretion of the glands of the eyelids. It, however, bec ume weaker and weaker, aid lost it: strength; and, though the animal ate from three to four ounces of sugar per day, i. became so weak that it could neither chew nor

swallow; for the same reason every other motion was impossible. It expired the thirty-second day of the experiment. M. Majendie opened the animal with every suitable precaution. He found a total want of fat; the muscles were reduced more than five-sixths of their ordinary size; the stomach and intestines were also much diminished in volume, and strongly contracted. The gall and urinary bladders were distended by their proper fluids, which M. Chevreul was called upon to examine. That distinguished chemist found in them nearly all the characters which belong to the urine and bile of herbivorous animals; that is, that the urine, instead of being acid, as it is in carnivorous animals, was sensibly alkaline, and did not present any trace of uric acid, nor of phosphate. The bile contained a considerable portion of picromel; a character considered as peculiar to the bile of the ox, and, in general, to that of herbivorous animals. The excrements were also examined by M. Chevreul, and were found to contain very little azote, whereas they usually furnish a considerable quantity.

M. Majendie considered that such results required to be verified by new experiments: he accordingly repeated them on other dogs, but always with the same conclusions. He therefore considered it proved, that sugar, by itself, is incapable of supporting dogs. This want of the nutritive quality, however, might possibly be peculiar to sugar: he therefore proceeded to enquire, whether other substances, non-azotised, but generally considered as nutritive, would be attended with the same consequences. He fed two dogs with olive oil and distilled water, upon which they appeared to live well for about fifteen days but they afterwards underwent the same series of accidents, and died on the thirty-sixth day of the experiment. In these cases, however, the ulceration of the cornea did not occur.'

The result of these experiments, in M. Majendie's opinion, was, that the azote of the organs is produced by the food, and consequently that no substance which does not contain this principle can support life. Dr. Paris distributes what he calls the Nutrientia, into the following classes.

Class I. Fibrinous Aliments.-Comprehending the flesh and blood of various animals, especially such as have arrived at puberty: venison, beef, mutton, hare.

Class II. Albuminous.-Eggs; certain animal

matter.

Class III. Gelatinous Aliments. The flesh of young animals: veal, chickens, calf's foot, certain fishes.

Class IV. Fatty and Oily Aliments.—Animal fats, oils, and butter; cocoa, &c.; ducks, pork, geese, eels, &c.

Class V. Caseous Aliments.-The different kinds of milk, cheese, &c.

Class VI. Farinaceous Aliments. Wheat, barley, oats, rice, rye, potatoe; sago, arrowroot, &c.

Class VII. Mucilaginous Aliments.-Carrots, turnips, asparagus, cabbage, &c.

Class VIII. Sweet Aliments-The different kinds of sugar, figs, dates, &c.; carrots.

Class IX. Acidulous Aliments.-Oranges, apples, and other acescent fruits.

To these we may add condiments; such as salt, the varieties of pepper, mustard, horseradish, vinegar, &c.

In classing the different species of potations, we may, in like manner, be governed by the chemical composition which distinguishes them. They may be arranged under four divisions, viz. Class I. Water-Spring, river, well water, &c. Class II. The Juices and Infusions of Vegetables and Animals.-Whey, tea, coffee, &c. Class III. Fermented Liquors.-Wine, beer, &c.

Class IV. The Alcoholic Liquors, or Spirits.— Alcohol, brandy, rum, &c.

By cookery,' he says, 'alimentary substances undergo a twofold change; their principles are chemically modified, and their textures mechanically changed. The extent and nature, however, of these changes, will greatly depend upon the manner in which heat has been applied to them; and if we enquire into the culinary history of different countries, we shall trace its connexion with the fuel most accessible to them.

This fact readily explains the prevalence of the peculiar species of cookery which distinguishes the French table, and which has no reference, as some have imagined, to the dietetic theory, or superior refinement, of the inhabitants.'

By boiling, according to this author, 'the principles not properly soluble are rendered softer, more pulpy, and, consequently, easier of digestion; but the meat, at the same time, is deprived of some of its nutritive properties by the removal of a portion of its soluble constituents: the albumen and gelatin are also acted upon; the former being solidified, and the latter converted into a gelatinous substance. If, therefore, our meat be boiled too long or too fast, we shall obtain, where the albumen predominates, as in beef, a hard and indigestible mass, like an overboiled egg; or, where the gelatin predominates, as in young meats, such as veal, a gelatinous substance equally injurious to the digestive organs. Young and viscid food, therefore, as veal, chickens, &c., are more wholesome when roasted than when boiled, and are easier digested. Dr. Prout has very justly remarked, that the boiling temperature is too high for a great many of the processes of cooking, and that a lower temperature and a greater time, or a species of infusion, are better adapted for most of them. This is notorious with substances intended to be stewed, which, even in cookery books, are directed to be boiled slowly (that is, not at all), and for a considerable time. The ignorance and prejudice existing on these points is very great, and combated with difficulty; yet, when we take into account their importance, and how intimately they are connected with health, they will be found to deserve no small share of our attention. The loss occasioned by boiling partly depends upon the melting of the fat, but chiefly from the solution of the gelatine and osmazone: mutton generally loses about cne-fifth, and beef about one-fourth, of its original weight. Boiling is particularly applicable to vegetables, rendering them more soluble in the stomach, and

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