The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1868-07-26
MORNING STAR AND CATHOLIC MESSENGER.
NEW ORLEANS, SUNDAY. JULY &c, 1865
HOUSEKEEPING DEPARTMENT.

WHAT TO EAT.-Dr. Bellows, III Ills
"Philosophy of Eating" gives some inter
esting particulars respecting the various
articles Which compose the aliment Of
man, 1t will be seen that two articles,
butter and sugar, which enter SO largely
into our diet, are not only unnecessary,
while very expensive, but are absolutely
injurious to the system in our climate. This
is a deep seated habit, not easily eradicated
But reasonable people should yield to COM
pctent, scientific authority: We subjoin a
few paragraphs from this interesting work:
In Boston, and probably in nll American
cities, large part of the expenses of the
table are for butter, superfnc flour, and
sugar, neither of which contains enough of
the muscle or brain-feeding element to
sustain life for fifty days, as has been
sugar would not sustain life single
month without other food. AS far as we
have articles of food deficient in car
Donates, we can use, without loss, butter
or sugar to supply the deficiency; but most
of our national food, both animal and vege-
table, contains due proportion, and If
with them we use butter and sugar, they
cannot be appropriated by the system, and
are therefore lost. All meats, fat and lean
together, all grain and milk contain all the
to furnish heat in moderate weather. All
the butter or sugar, therefore, that is added
to either articles of food as tx "re used,
in making cakes, custards, pies, etc., are
not lost, but by adding too much fuel, in
crease the tendency to inftammations, em-
barrass the stomach and induce dyspepsia,
congestions, distractions, etc.
With beefsteak, or any other lean meats,
or fish, or potatoes, or any green vegetables,
or fried beans, or peas, some oily substance
seems to be needed, as all these articles are
deficient i'll carbon, and in common use we
have the choice between lard, sweet oil, or
butter, or perhaps fat pork, all of which are
precisely alike in chemical construction, and
that one is most wholesome which is best
relished.
Sugar is needed with the acid fruits and
berries, and especially with apples, which
in New England, are the most valuable of
all fruits, either with or without cooking,
and which, with sugar, furnish excellent
food, especially in winter and spring, when
other fruit cannot be had.
But to find Il good use fer superfine flour,
out of which has been taken nine -tenths of
it's food for muscle or brains, is exceedingly
difficult, indeed, impossible in health; and
it can only be useful in disease when the
irritability of the stomach or bowels forbids
the use of their natural stimulant, just as
Inflammation OF the eye makes 1T necessary
to exclude the light.
The doctors recipe for making natural
bread is as follows: 60 Bread, light, sweet,
delicious, and cminently wholesome, may
be made mixing good unbolted wheat meal
with cold water, ormifk if prepared, making
i, paste of proper cOnsistence, which can
only be determined by experiment, pouring
Tor dropping it quickly in n hot pan, and
placing it quickly in Il hot oven and
baking it as soon rs possible without burn
ing. The heat of the oven and pan sud
denly coagulates the gluten of the outside,
which retains the steam formed within, and
each particle of water being interspersed
with Il particle flour, and expanded into
steam, separates the particles into cells, and
being retained by the gluten, which is
abundant in this natural flour, till it is
cooked, the mass remains porous and di-
gestiblc, and containing no carbonic acid
gas, is wholesome when eaten Immediately,
and, of course, equally so on becomingcold.
TREATMENT OF CHorr.-This terrible
disease. which annually occasions so much
mortality among children, make all adj
ditional information with regard to its sue
cessfuttreatmcnt an equal desideratum with
parents as well as physicians. We accord
ingly copy from the British Medical Journal,
an account Of three cases of cronp success
fully treated by Or. Henry T., Norris, by
what he cal 5 s. general fomcntation.' His
method is to wrap the child i'll Il small
blanket wrung out i'll hot water, and to
-coyer.this with larger dry blanket. In the
first case described, this treatment was fol-
lowed by eNpcctorants; i'll the second no
other medications were cmployed and in
the third (the patient being apparently in
- drticulO mortis) three grains of carbonate of
ammonia were given in chloroform julep
every three hours. DIR. Norris does not
state whether the pseudo membrane had
actually formed, and there may therefore
be some doubt if the cases were true Group,
but the treatment suggested is worthy of
trial.
To Boil New PorAToEs.-These are
never good unless freshly dug. Take them
of equal size and rub Off the skins with n
brush or n very coarse cloth: wash them
clean, and put them, without salt, into boil
ing, or at least quite hot water; boil softly,
and WHOM they are tender- enough to serve.