The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1866-05-01

BY T. s. LAMBERT, NJ. D.

By T. s. LAMBERT, NJ. D.
The ordinary food Of our tables is composed of
the elements required for producing heat, re-
aewing muscles, supplying secretions, and main
| tanning the ordinary repairs of the brain. The
man, however, who is exposed to extreme cold
weather, finds his appetite demands large guam
titles of fat, or food similar in ts powers of pro-
ducing heat; so the who is freely perspiring
has often a return of thirst; aud the man who
exercises vigorously his muscles can not endure
without corresponding hearty food. The same
| idea must be and is true of the man who is ex-
ercisng his brain actively for hours together; he
| must either eat enormously of the kind of food
that contains but little of the kind he requires,
| which is injudcious which is more proper,
he must select for bis those kinds of food in
which the material best adapted to its use
abounds
| What kinds are they Is the very question
with which we started upon our inquiry.
| We know that from the contents of an egg
| shell all the parts Of chicken are constructed.
| The shell, therefore, con aims the elements Of
| brain properly conditioned 20 be readily wrought
into it. The experience of ages testifes that in
cases of nervous debility ga raw egg before
breakfast" is particularly Strengthening. 1t
may be thought to be, because taken as medi-
cine But n fact, it is easily digested bran
ial food Indeed, at almost any price per dozen,
eggs used in reasonable numbers, if properly
cooked, are not only the best, but the cheapest
kind of meat food that can be used. Eggs, how
ever, afford "a particularly good example Of the
different valves of articles called by the same
name. Those with light-colored yolks are not
so rich for cakes nor so good for man as those
with deep-colored yolks. Ducks eggs are par
ticuiary rich. The eggs of hens, fed upon bugs,
worms, and grass-hoppers, and upon hsh, are
deeper colored and richer than those of fowls
fed upon corn, ETC. This leads to the remark,
that many literary man has found delicious re-
freshment 10 a dish of oysters, sardines or other
fish, particularly those that abound in phospho-
resent qualities; such give great content to a
stomach goaded to appetite by an exhausted
brain. Now as PHOSPHORUS has been found to
more abound 10 the brain than in any other
poreal organ, is it not plainly shown that there
is relation between the kinds OF food mention
ed and the brain; and when this faithful servant
asks for bread shall we offer it stone?
Every one who has had ought to do with a
horse knows that he becomes more nervopsy
active animal if fed upon oats, than if fed upon
grass or upon corn, and that "wheat will also
put the life into him" Whoever also has had
Scotch master, scholar companion, knows
that great nervous activity and endurance will
be necessary to keep pace with the Scotch mind
Has this fact relation to the oatmeal cakes
that are byword from the land whence be
came? All preparations of oatmeal will make
Scotch metaphysics easy to take, and no other
pbysic necessary
Again, Graham, with his sscratch the ali
mentary caral" idea, brought into vogue the
fashion Of eating unbolted wheat, overvaluipg
the bran that he thought was pregnant with vir-
tues Had he bolted out the bran, the bread
would have been improved, since its virtues are
latent in the brown part, between the bran and
the white flower. The brown contains the chief
part of the phosphates of the wheat, aud is, for
branal purposes, WORTH ten times much per
pound as the white -four. Indeed the brown,
or mddlings, or kernel, grudgeons Of the
wheat, is the cheapest grain food that the mar
ket supplies. Unbolted wheat -four comes next
in order, cracked wheat being in the same cate
CORY. Wheat entire, boiled, or brought almost
to boiling for several hours furnishes very de-
| licious and wholesome food, either eaten plain
as mush or used as basis for many delicious
articles.
| The Arabs find beans excellent food for
horses, and like peas, if sufficiently cooked, SO
as to render them easily digested, make excel
lent food for the brain
I One other article may be mentioned, that it
| seems would so readily be recognized as adapted
to braria nutrition, that no mention of it would
be necessary. But it is as true strange, that
nine tents of the American people do not max e
| any of the brains of animals, casting them
aside as if unfit for food-which is distinctly to
| say they do not make full use of their own
Brains are, in fact, the most valuable per pound
of any part of a creature; easily digested; and
can in various ways be cooked so to be deli
ciously palatable. 1t is certainly an ad captain
/ dun argument that the brains of animals must
form a leeful kind of food to the who is
called upon for extraordinary branal activity
The old proverb that each part strengthens
part would certainly apply in. this case. The
decisions Of science aud the ad captandum is
worthy Of entire confidence.
| Science, experience, and reasoning from an
alogy and from the nature of the case, arrive at
the same conclusions in respect to the character
of certain kinds of food, and the relations they
sustain to the brain; and while we are shown
what should use for the best effect, it is
highly gratifying to learn that those kinds of
food that are the best for the brain are also the
cheapest in price, and may be prepared without
detriment to their value in several ways so as to
be most delicious to the palate.
THE NORTHERN DEBTs OF SOUTHERN MER-
cHANTs.-At a meeting Of the New York
Chamber of Commerce, last Thursday, the COM
mittee recently appointed to petition the Presi
dent to exact from the Southern States payment
+ of debts contracted at the North before the war