Evils of early indigestion thus, and otherwise caused.

But it is necessary to say here, and I desire to say it emphatically, that this question of food need not, even with the views just enunciated, be treated in an ascetic spirit. The selection of food is to be considered in relation to a principle, in which we may certainly believe, namely, that aliments most adapted to develop the individual, sound in body and mind, shall not only be acceptable to the palate, but that they may be selected and prepared so as to afford scope for the exercise of a refined taste, and produce a fair degree of an innocent pleasure naturally associated with the act of eating, and derived from a study of the table. For it is certain that most of the results of culinary taste met with in English society until late years, has often been the result of faith without knowledge; and no more a source of gratification to the eater's gustatory sense than of digestible sustenance to his body. The subject of this little work will therefore take the following form in regard of the matter, and the method of considering it. Food must first be regarded in relation to its value as material to be used for building up and sustaining the activity of that composite structure, the human body, under the varied conditions in which it may be placed. Secondly, the selection of food, and the best modes of preparing it, resulting in the production of "the dish," a subject of great "Taste "in food to be cultivated.

An interesting subject thus studied.

1. Uses of food to the body.

2. Modes of preparing " a dish."

Uses of Food. The Proteids. 21 extent and importance, must be dealt with so far as the limits of my design will permit.

Lastly, the exercise of taste in relation to the serving of food and drink, or the art of combining dishes to form " a meal," must also be considered in relation to various purposes.

We have to consider, first, what constitutes food for man. Its objects are threefold - to repair the daily waste of the body itself, a necessary consequence of life and its activity; to maintain the natural heat of the body, always in our climate a temperature many degrees above that of the surrounding media, whether earth, air, or water; lastly, to provide the means of supplying energy to support an active existence.

For this purpose, fresh elements similar to those of which the body is composed, must be furnished to it in such form and proportions as to repair the loss. Additional elements must be supplied, by the oxidation of which more heat and energy are produced in proportion to the existing demand. All these are only to be obtained through digestion, and must be acquired in response to the instinctive demands of hunger and thirst.

These elements are regarded as divisible into four distinct classes, as follows: 1. The Proteids. - This group contains an essential element for renewing the tissues of the body, named "protein," without which life is impossible, since starvation must take placeunless a sufficient quantity is supplied by food. It is a definite compound of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen with nitrogen, but often associated with a little sulphur and phosphorus also. "Proteids" are found in all animals used as food by man; and also in many productions of the vegetable kingdom - from which two sources the body can alone be supplied. We find the proteid element abundantly in lean meat, the muscle of animals, where it is known as "myosin," also in the blood and other parts as "fibrin." There are, moreover, two modifications of nitrogenous compounds allied to, but not identical with, true proteids, viz. "gelatin" and "chondrin," in bones and cartilage respectively. Proteids are largely present in eggs, forming "albumen," or what is familiarly known as the " white of eggs;" and in milk" as "casein," the nitrogenous constituent of cheese. Again, in wheat, and existing therefore in bread, in smaller proportion, as "gluten;" and in the leguminous seeds (peas and beans) abundantly, as "legumin," which is almost identical with "casein."

3. Art of combining dishes for "a meal."