The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-09-01 00:00:00

I.‘ For the due preservation and enjoyment of health,
much judgment and discrimination are necessary in the
choice of the different kinds of food, as to their nutrivenezzs
and digestibility.
2. It may be taken as a general rule, that the flesh of the
full grown animal is much more digestible and nutritive than
that of its young ; and for this reason, that the flesh of young
animals is of a much more viscid and mucilaginous nature
than that of the full-grown animal.
3. Of all meat, tender wedder or wether mutton (which is
the flesh of the castrated animal) is by far the most nutriti-
ous and digestible. Fork and bacon are difficult of diges-
tion.

4. Fish is less nutritive, but less stimulant than the flesh
of animals, and on that account, if fresh, and not allowed to
have died a lingering death, is best adapted to weak and de-
licate habits. Turbot, cod, sole, whiting, haddock, and
flounder, are the most nutritive and the easiest of tligestion ;
the salmon and the mackerel, the most indigestible. The
whiting and haddock best adapted for weak stomachs. The
flakeness of fish, and its opaque appearance, with a layer of
white curdy matter, resembling coagulated albumen, inter-
posed between its flakes, are indicia, or indications of its
goodness.
5. Shell-fish are nutritive. Oysters should be eaten in a
raw state with a slight addition of vinegar and pepper as a
stimulant, and then they are balsamic food, if properly mas-
ticated before they are swallowed ; but when stewed they
are highly indigestible. Lobsters and crabs, as found in the
London market, are highly indigestible, as they are generally
underboiled, with a view to their better and longer keeping.
Muscles are of a vicid nature, and on that account often
seriously disorder the bowels ; but the danger does not lie,
as is erroneously supposed, in tliat dark spot, which by good
housewifes, is so carefully extracted, as the seat of poison ;
that dreaded spot being merely the heart, and perfectly
innoxious. It may not be unseasonable, also, to observe
here, that the injurious effects which sometimes attend the-
eating of oysters, do not arise from, the green colour which
they assume, but from their indigestibility (a quality arising
from their cold nature, and not being properly masticated);
for that colour is not occasioned, as is erroneously supposed,
by their having lain in coppery beds, but is produced by
placing them in situations where great deposits are made from
the sea, of the vegetable germs of the marine confervte and
fuel.

6. Game and poultry of all kinds are wholesome, and their
flesh more digestible than that of animals : but they contain
very little nutriment in proportion to their bulk. The lean
part of venison is the most digestible artieb of diet, a quality
which may also he predicated of the wild rabbit. The flesh
of the leveret, when roasted, is nutritive, and easily digested ;
that of the tame rabbit and the fowl is of a similar quality.

7. Raw and boiled fresh eggs are_ salutary, nutritive, and
gently laxative ; but when boiled hard they are indigestible,
and produce costiveness.

8.---The best corrector of animal food is stale bread ; it is
of incalculable use in the process of digestion.
9—Of vegetables, the most nutritious is the potato; when
but little bread is made use of, it should be used to modify
the effects of the consumption of animal food. All varieties
of the cabbage and spinach kind are wholesome and aperient;
as also young peas and scarlet beans. Carrots and radishes
are difficult of digestion. The parsnip anti turnip are nutri-
tive and laxative. The onion, leek, horse radish, mustard and
cress. and water-cress, are nutritive and highly friendly to
digestion.

10—Of fruits, the strawberry, rasberry, currant, and mul-
berry, are the most conducive to health ; a property which
may be predicated of all the small-seeded sorts of fruit. Next
to these, the peach apple, and pear are to be preferred, though
the last-mentioned is the most indigestible, on account of the
quantity of its woody tibre. Stone-fruits are liable to irritate
the intestines, especially if eaten in an unripe state. The
plum and cherry are of an indigestible nature. Grapes and
raisins are nourishing and wholesome. The orange is very
friendly to health. Figs are wholesome and laxative, both
crude and in a preserved state. Walnuts, when eaten fresh
and in moderation, are palatable and nutritious ; but nuts.
filberts, and chesnuts, on account of their viscid and gluti-
nous quality, turning rancid and acrid on the stomach, and
thereby producing the most distressing heartburn and bowel
complaints, should be used cautiously, if not wholly abstained
from. When eaten, they should be accompanied with salt,
and chesnuts should be roasted.

11. Condiments and seasonings of all kinds (especially
salt), while used in moderation, assist by digestion, and cor-
rect many injurious and noxious properties of the food
ingested into the stomach ; they afford a stimulus to the
stomach, by exciting a more energetic performance of its
functions, and by exerting a corrective influence over the
various kinds of aliment during the process of digestion. To
the aged they are particularly friendly, as they stimulate the
whole of the alimentary canal.

12. Though water is unquestionably the natural beverage
of man, and is the best solvent of food, never impairing or
destroying the sensibility of the palate as vinous and spiri-
tuous liquors do, yet the temperate use of good home-brewed
malt liquors, and sound unadulterated wines, is friendly to
health. Spirituous liquors, when taken on proper occa-
sions, in moderate quantities, and properly incorporated or
combined with water, strengthen the stomach and assist
digestion.