Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-07-12
what Shall We Eat?

we eat just WnaL appeUlLe anu lncHnatlOu
prompts us to-, Statisticians have prepared
tables showing the nutrition contained in
certain articles OF food, and the time re-
quired to digest them In healthy stomachs.
The tables are useful as information, but
as guides to health they are useless. When
q man orders his-dinner he does not consult
the state Of his system, nor examine the
tables TO see what would suit his condition,
but he asks his palate, and that decides the
momentous question. Suppose man, with
o sick headache, for instance, to require
nourishfnent His ailment proceeds from
a disordered stomach, therefore he must
humor land take light diet. Rice natural
ly occurs to him; so he takes out his work
and looks for the article ''rice.p Rice, says
the statisticiau, digests in one hour when
boiled, and is, therefore, wholesome and
nutritious, But possibly the invalid dis
likes rice. He would much prefer NUT
ton chop, but is deferred from fear of the
statistician, who tells him that mutton re-
quires three hours to digest, and is, there
fore, needless tax upon his system. But
elsewhere In the statisticians book the in
valid has read that bulk has some part in
this matterSof digestion, and that a large
amount of easily -digested food may be re-
quired to satisfy the cravings of appetite,
while an .ihfnitessimal part Of the more
concentrated is quite wholesome. More,
in point offact, for the appetite is satisfied
by the food the stomach calls for, so that it
is easily appeased, and does its work good
humoredly, SO to speak, even though it be
harder. - -
The philosopher may lay down laws afor
the guidanee Of the human stomach, obut
that independent and rebellious organ dis
dainsthe1n. The skies above are not more
tickle thanit. To-day the clouds overcast
"a io
The stomach that was quite tractable yes
terday is insurgent to-day. A breath of
anger ruffles it as the wind does the land
scape and no man can set bounds to it.
The best modern writers on physiology
tacitly concede points adverted to in, this
article, and except where the demand is
glaringly inconsistent, permit ipyalids TO
eat the food they crave. The day of siop
tea and dishwatef soup has vanished from
the hospitals good, wholesome, nourish-
ing broth, the spirit of beef, is given; por-
ter and ale are administered, eggs, farina-
ceous fOed, and also mutton chops beef
steaks and chicken, are served to patients
in lieu ofthe low diet with which it was
formerly Thought proper to drench sick
people DFhe result is seen ina much low
or percentage of mortality and ina more
rapid convalescence than with the erron=
eous ideas of old.
A student of Salamanca was enjOined by
his careful parent to economic in his ex-
penditures, and ab0veg all TO retrench in
his commissary dal llartment. Stimulated
by this advice he repaired to the market
and put this query to the dealer:
'What is the pFiceof cows~ "A Il
"Twenty-five dollars"
"What is the price OF partridges!"
''Twenty-five cents" ..QI
SAhl very well; partridges are much |
cheaper than COWS; / will take two"
1t is perhaps not precisely from these |
premises that we would argue, but the an |
ecdote is illustrative of the fact that peo-
pie will eat justswhat they choose, regard
less OF economy, so long as they please.
DIR. Hall, in his Journal Of Health, relates
that five poundso ofcorn meal made into bread
'Elasted" family one week, butsupsequent |
Investigation revealed the fact that soda 4
crackers were surreptitiously substituted
for the unpalatable corn bread, and that
under similar circumstances the loaf might
have held out like the widows cruise of
Oil. g1tHt4M L
There is no sacrifice more difficult for
society than depriving itself of necessaries,
or even luxuries, because they are dear.
Thus we see one writer, confessedly with
out taste, .decrying beef and declaring Tor
beans because they are cheaper; still an
other declaims against dress, but spends
double on his table, and it is Onlywhen the
article desired cannot be had that men re-
hnquish itsuse.
What one man can eat with impunity
poisons another. The stomach may be
trained to endure abuse, or digest forbidden
foJd, SO to speak, with impunity. The
most emaciated dyspeptic. may, by practice,
bring his stomach to- digest buckwheat
cakes. while o soda cracker lies fiatulent
and heavy. 1t is from this very peculiarly
that diseases Of the organ in question are
80 difficult to cure when they become
chronic or seated asin DYSPEPSIA. The medi-
cine that cures in one case has no efficacy
In another, ami the most powerful stimu1
lants fail where mild tonics restore the lost.
vitality. What, we shall eat Is a matter not
laid dsd6wn in the text books. The English
labOref eats bread and cheese, because 1t Is
coniparatively cheap, and not because the
tables say it digests easily. When he comes
to this country he takes care to have plenty
of beef in addition to the bread and cheese,
Hishealth is doubtless quite as good in one
case. as in the other. Ten members Of D.
family may require ten different medicines,
and taste Is not, as too many suppose, a
thing to be disregarded and crushed. tis.
the fnstinct Of the stomach, telegraphed to
theDaiate, and from thence communicated
20 theAwlll, so that through the exercise Of
An instinct man orders what he likes for his,
dinnef ana keeps his body healthy-O'sso
Farmer.