Loudon free press. (Loudon, Tenn.) 1852-1855, 1854-08-02
NO. 81.
What to Eat, Drink. and Avoid

offering at this season a few remarks upon Diet.
| Sydenham, an accomplished and observant phy.
sician, writing of sporadic cholera two hundred
years ago. says it comes periodically in the sum-
mer and autumn, as regularly as the swallow
and cuckoo. He ascribes its presence to some
predsposing atmospheric influence, and the
immediate exciting cause, to some ndiscretion
in diet or drink, such as eating spoiled or un. Z
wholesome food, unripe fruit, or fruit that has Z.
begun to decay, taking ice water or cold drinks )
when the body is oyerheated or abrupt trans
itions from high. to a low temperature. It
may be opportune at this momentto make few
remarks espeeiay to those classes who are least !.
! likely to attend to rules of diet. Everybody
that is in the habit of attending market knows,
that the poor purchase meats and decaying veg
etables, at reduced price, and that these prove
fruitful causes of bowel complaint.
! So important is this felt to be- by the New
York Board of Health, that in paper issued ~
by them, and dated 9th July, they say, that the Z
Commissioners of Health are convinced, that =
almost all the cases of cholera that have occur
red this season, can be directly traced to ex--
cesses or Irregularities in eating and drinking.
We are inclined to occur with them, to join in
the solemn and earnest request they make to
the people to be CAREFUL and to abstain from
such exeesses; but we are also inclined to 60
step further, and pray our Municipal authori-
ties who are so actively alive TO all that effects
the public health, to institute, through the
Market Inspectors careful and repeated exam
nations of that which is offered for public food Z
| and to take care that the food which is con-
demned as unfit, snail be destroyed. se.. ts. -
We say destroyed, because it is not sufficient
that it is cast aside. Not many days since, we
passed through the market and saw two pieces
Of meat, which had been properly put aside on
stall as unfit for consumption. A poor, and
! perhaps, penniless woman who passed by, stood
cycling them as they lay in the sun covered with
flies. We guessed her thoughts, and offering
little money, begged her to pass on. The incl
dent brought vividly to our recollection, a case
which occurred in London during the prevail
ence of cholera in 1882. A woman was seized
with vomiting, diarrhea and cramps and came
under treatment at one of the London Dispen-
saries. When the matter vomited came to be
examined, it was found TO contain living mag.
gots; and their presence in the stomach could
only be explained, by her stating, that she had
some days before purchased cheap meat, in the
market, which had become tainted and Ay-
! blown. = .a +lt ri
| The Inspector of Billingsgate Market is al
ways careful to see destroyed, that which he
condemns as unfit for human consumption
Scrupulous care should be taken that fish, meat
and vegetables, arer fresh before being purchas-
ed for food. Fish decomposes rapidly in hot
weather, and is invariably unwholesome at the
spawning season. We have seen mackerel at
the spawning season produce disease in those
eating it like scarlet fever. Perhaps the poor,
as general principle, would find salted fish
safer to eat than fresh fish, for the reason that
but little time elapses between the catching and
sailing of fish, whereas a considerable lapse of
time may occur between the catching. bringing
to market, selling and cooking of fresh fish.
In the summer, fish becomes absolutely unf.
for food twenty four hours after it is caught-p
Oysters should never be eaten at this season:
they are always unwholesome in the months of
tMay June, July and August, and in many cit--
les the municipalities will not suffer them to be
brought to market during these months. Clans.
crabs, and Holsters are at all times indigesti-
bic, and should be avoided. Salads, eucumbers,
and radishes are highly Objectionable as are all
uncooked vegetables. Cabbage produces fatu-
lence; the turnip, parsnip, carrot and pumpkin
contain much water and little nourishmeut; the
bean, pea, and lentil, contain large portion Of
nutrimeDt, but are not so easy of digestion.
The dandelion leaves, or the cultivated chick
ory, exercise upon the kidneys specific and
healthy action, as does the tomato or love apple
on the liver but the vegetables, the nonpareil of
Tubers, is the pomme-de-terre, the apple of the
earth-the wholesome. palatable, mealy potatoe,
discovered, as the chroniclers say by Sir Walter
Raleigh in Amerca, and which now covers a
greater breadth of land, and is more generally
used throughout the world as article of diet,
than any other esculent. Ripe fruits are not
unwholesome, but green fruits, and fruits that
have begun to ferment and decay are SO.
All fruits are safer 10 be eaten, after they have
been cooked. Rice, cornmeal, farina, and -four
all make good wholesome puddings. To recap
itIlate, we recommend among poultry young
chickens; in meats fresh beefs, lamb or young,
mutton, salted fish; pure unadulterated wheaton
bread, rice and potatoes.
Water is unquestionably the best, as it is the
cheapest drink, and the best kind of water is
pure sweet rain water Montreal Pilot
A SELL.-PrevIous to one of the recent bal
lotings for Senator in the Legislature, well
known borer and agent for Wells approached a
member and intimated tn him that a 800 bill