The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-24 00:00:00

COOKERY FOR THE SICK,

and Medical Timesd Gazette says:—The
culinary art formerly occupied more of the attention
of physicians than at present. Not long after the
revival of medical learning in England, we find
erudite Doctors of both the Universities publishing
treatises
the c
oh eg mysteriesan ,s, tin of Health,"
,oafv kitchen Haven
eaanldlr der
Such books and
Mouffet's " Health's Improvement ; or Rules Com-
prising and Discovering the Nature, Method, and
Manner of Preparing all Sorts of Food Used in
this Nation,' are chiefly curious to the antiquary
for the insight they afford into the domestic
manners of the Elizabethan period, but they
also forcibly illustrate the importance which the
physicians of those days attributed to a study of the
art of dining. In these modern times cookery books
no longer quote from Galen, and Soyer's Treatises
have replaced the Schatz Saturn: It is a question,
however, whether a little more attention on the
part of the profession to lade subject
evoefnnow,
thescienhteifiare
preparation of food w
on
good fruit. But, be this as it may, an incalculable
advantage which the rich patient has over the
poor, is the benefit he derives from a careful adap-
wchhoeasupniteit wealthy of recovery fee-p a y e r .
tation of his bill of fare. In our large towns purely
medicinal treatment of the best kind lies equally
the wantithint of diet,hereac which mainly
hofboth, Iti
in
slthe
thedi eaet, orse
redooisvpeernysasroy out-patient reduces of rather
thehis
chance
much below that of the
We are
w
has been done to meet the exigenciesa are that o
f something
the
case,
by the establishment of industrial kitchens in
various districts of the metropolis. In Grosvenor-
mews, for instance, in
the district of St. George,
Hanover-square, there i
of this kind where girls are an
trained excellent
ia institutionthet e
ar
cookery under an experienced artiste. We have also
received an annual report of a charity known vs the
" Invalids' Dinner Table," which is carried on in
Duke street, Lisson-grove. The establishment dur-
ing the past year has supplied 3,415 dinners to 540
convalescents and invalids at the cost of something
under £l5O. It is not our wish for a moment to criti-
cise the details of so admirable an undertaking, or we
might suggest to the management that live ounces
of cooked meat is hardly sufficient animal
food for the principal meal of an adult re-
covering from acute disease. Six members of
the medical profession have undertaken the inspec-
tion of the invalid's dinner table, and visit it in
monthly rotation. The report clearly shows thtit
t. is a
the main motive which has influenced the founders
of this charity has been a religious one: I.
patent fact that, the present development
toil relibious
and more of feeding
benevolence is becoming daily more rac cal.
feeding
and through
hear less of the purely assthctic,
the hungry and clothing the naked. Since the sup-
pression of monasteries there have been no efforts
at all comparable to those now making to
bodilyamelio-
mtheedium
of
ni conditionatcr ja, ofoh theari t
yp otoor, ,
arrive at and
influence their psychical nature. The principle is
the medium
a true one,—founded not less on a sound
than on an enlightened interpretation of the
•teachinga of Christianity.