The Portland daily press., 1870-11-08
rHT PRESS.
Tuesday Morning, November 8, 1870.


In the new book published by Dr. Dio
Lewis to which we have referred on the hrst
page, there are some suggestions on Tue sup-
ject of cheap food, which we beileVe Will De
of great value to thousands. Nor are DR..
Leyis's notions of interest solely to the poor
or classes who feel the necessity Of economic
ing, for it should be remarked to begin with
that the main purpose he las in view in pro-
mitigating them is not TO encourage economy,
but to disclose the secret of good health. The
cheapness of healthul food is merely collat-
eral circumstance, but certainly a very i'm
portant and gratifying one to people in hum
BILE circumstances, who are looking forward
despondently to the coming wiuter.
Ii should be further promised that The au-
thor is no "crazy vegetarian" and does not
believe in living on what the advocates OF
"generous Diet are pleased to call "slops."
After this preface We think there are not
many persons who would not share In our
surprise at his declaration that he would I'M
dertake to give family of ten persons the
highest health and strength upon diet that
will cost in B1ston, the dearest market in the
United States, not more than two dollars
week in the aggregate for the ten persons.
Ii the experiment were to be transferred 10
Iowa, where his principal articles OF diet are
Oh ,appr, the cost would be such riGiculously
small sum that it would be laughed at. Fur
thermore he will engage that his family shall
b. pumper, stronger, healthier, happier, with
clearer skins, brighter eyes, sweeter breaths,
whittier teeth, and in addition that they shall
live logger than the eaters Of great belmont
cos dinners. Finally they shall enjoy their
meals vastly more than the Delmonico diners
The readers curiosity is greatly excited by
what appears to be a claim to the ,ssession
OF the miraculous power Of feeding thousands
with lew loaves and fishes. But the power
Is OF altogether another character and one
that every man OF average intelligence pos
sesses, for we get hint at the method DR..
Lewis would pursue in his hypothetical case
from his account OF a real experiment he
tried upon himself The entire cost of bis
food Tor week was fifty-four and quarter
cents, viz: Sunday, six cents; Monday, six
cents; Tuesday, five and half cents;
Wednesday, when he INDUCED in a meat stew,
and "the very genus Of waste took possession
of him." and when he "closed the gluttonous
scene by devouring cents worth OF hominy
puddine"-eight and a quarter cents; Thurs
day, alter "the gross excess of Wednesday,"
seven end half cents; Friday, when
Wednesdays recklessness was repeated, eight
and quarter cents, and Saturday, when he
sunk all moral restraints" and gave up the
reins to Appetite" the tremendous total of
twelve and three quarters cents. DR.. Lewis
says he could have lived on half the money
just as well though be did a very large amount
of hard muscular labor in the time, besides
writing forty pages of his book. Meanwhile,
though it was one of the intensely hot weeks
Of last summer and his exercise was uncom-
m My violent, he CAMEL half a pound in
" light!
The secret Of DR.. Lewis's cheap fare is that
he lived chiefly on the following articles -
beef, fish, milk, oatmeal, beans, coarse bread,
hominy, cracked wheat and hulled con.-
But it will be at once inferred that with steak
at thirty-fve or forty cents pound he could
not indulge his taste for beef to any consider
able extent; but it is just here that very i'm
rortant suggestion is made. DR.. Lewis doesn't
buy steak. He says that of the 800 pounds of
b lei in an average OK The parts that cost only
three, four, five and six cents pound are as
good, when appropriately cooked, as the 60
pounds for VIII oh there is such an insane and
irrational competition among both rich and
poor that The butcher puts up bis price to for
ty cents pound. The cheap meats are not.
ofcourse, to be roasted or boiled, but when
stewed they constitute the best parts of the
animal. AS for the other food mentioned
there is much to be said in its favor. Nearly
all the varieties are rich in nitrates and phos-
plates which feed the muscles and tile brain.
as well as in carbon which produces fat. One
p und OF oatmeal has as much nutriment as
six pounds of white -four, and one pound of
cracked or whole wheat, when properly cook
ed, as much as eight pounds Iof common ba-
ker's bread. Hulled corn DR.. Lewis believes
t be the best food that laborng man can
t.
gut let us not go to extremes. Neither DR..
A-' Va any Ouc ClSc Purposes ludI ucA
Shall live exclusively on oatmeal porrid.e and
bean SOUP That perhaps would be an error
comparable with that committed in the oppo-
ste direction by Heliosabalus Or Vittelius
(known to Mr.. Boffn as "Vitte-ns'') who eat
thirty million dollars worth of food in seven
months. The Arcadlan who lived exclusively
on acoins was no doubt as far out OF the way
as the New Workers whose dinner at Del
monico's costs them thirty dollars plate
But there is a valuable mean which we be-
lieve is rendered easier of attainment by the
publication of these facts. There is preju-
dee against the coarser kinds of food, arising
flom the mistaken notion that they are a
'poor mans dish," that will be removed when
1t is known that hasty-pudding is habitually
placed TN the rich mans table, dish, by the
way, thai the well known S. S. Foster OF VOL
cester commeLds as enabling him to do the
hardest da, s work on his farm.