Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1898-09-15
A REVOLUTION " fOOD.


! right or not who contend that all
Tie higher elements which characterize
the noblest of mankind are derived from
q purely material basis, it is plain that
the simplest material actions Of life do
influence manners and morals to an in
calculable degree. According to such
writers as Marx, even poetry, art, religion
are determined by the methods of ma
terial production which are in vogue, so
that chattel slavery breeds Paganism
and modern industry gives birth TO
Professionalism. We need not say that we
are very far from holding that view, I'M
portant as are some of the issues 1t sug-
gests. But it is impossible TO study such
subject as the history of human foods
without seeing how great an influence
they have exerted on man, how wide and
far-reaching have been their ramiflca-
tons. Speaking generally, it may be said
that all the great races of mankind have
adopted meat diet and have drunk wine
as soon as they could afford to do so.
Rome, it is true, according to Giebon,
made many conquests on meagre diet
and on cold water, but she readily
adopted generous agriculture from
Carthage, and the fruits and wines of the
East, and she throve upon them. As cat
ing and drinking became a fine art, and
as the subjects of food were more nu
merous, life became more refined, man
ners more attractive. The early and So
called heroic ages in every nation appear
to have been, as one might suppose, ages
of very simple food. The epic poet, pro-
duct of the earlier age, should. said q
Greek writer, drink water; the lyric poet,
offspring of later and softer age, must
drink wine. The evolution of mankind
may perhaps be determined as certainly
by the criterion of food as by any other.
The savage eats the same coarse and
monotonous fare for centuries, while
civilized man is perpetually discovering
and adopting new animal or vegetable
products. AT every fruit-shop one is re-
minded today Of the fact that bananas
and tomatoes are new foods which we
have very wisely adopted, and which have
become as familiar and necessary to us as
pears or pluihs, which we have had for
centuries. AS with fruits, so with the
articles we see in, large grocery store.
Half of these were almost unknown even
generation ago. The dinner of today
is as different from that of the time, say,
of DR.. johnson as that was from the
cuisine of the Conquest. If life was rude
kind of food eaten, and the way of eat
ing it, made it even more SO. How could
one gorge on oxen roasted whole, cary
ing 1t up with rude weapons, or even,
like Falstaff, on fat capons and an in
tolerable deal of sack, without being
heavy, earthly, and probably, from our
point of view, noisy and ill-bred2 The
fine manners of Elizabethan Court are
problematical; they certainly would moi
pass muster now. In short, food is both
an index of the civilization attained and
factor in the attainment. A singular
instance of both is afforded by the rapid
growth of manners in Russia. Less thar
two centuries ago Peter the Great gnawe6
meat like wild beast and drank brandy
like q savage; today the elegant method
of dining a la Russo has spread over thu
civilized world.
We now learn from Vienna of dis
coveIy which may-we very much doub
whether il will-produce great chang
in our methods of living, and con
sequently, in the way of fashioning gu
lives, possibly even in our morals, usin!
that word in its widest sense. This dis
covery is the invention, by DIR. Lilien
field, of artificial aibumen. This is tn
essential element in heterogeneous food:
and is best and most simply seen in TIL
white Of eggs. We cannot live withou
albumen; but hitherto, while chemists il
their laboratories have been able to detec
and detach various other elements in foot
stuffs, and manufacture them artifcially
they have not been able to do the lik
with albumen. Now it is claimed tina
this has been successfully done. Tn
synthesis, il is said, "shows quite col
rectly all the reactions and the pei
centages of composition of nature
pepton, as this is formed in the stomac
and intestines in the digestion c
albuminous substances" We are re
minded that it is not yet proved that thi
artificial albumen will have the sam
effect in the human system as the natur,
product; that, in short, we may have
real albumen which vet is not food. Still
if this new product should be proved I
be edible, and If the cost (as is highl
proboble, after time) can be greatly d,
creased, new era in the history OF fooc
would seem to open-an era when I'll
supply of food would be placed on til
same mechanical, routine basis az Il
supply of nearly every Product of niudef
civilization already is. Mechanism an
artifice would take the place of natul
and of what may be called natur
human energies. We are quite aware
the fact that there is no absolute gu
separating the most highly skilled man,
facture from the rude start The loo
in great cotton mill is merely mo
highly developed example of the simr
contrivance to be found in one of Il
''ten thousand green villages" of Chin
But, while this is true, for all practic
purposes We can speak of model
mechanism as contrasted with ancie
art in the making of clothes, the forgiI
of metals, and the construction of Il
means of locomotion. What the ne
discovery would mean, if it turned o
to be practical, and if the food ma,
were adapted to man and easily pr
durable by him everywhere, would
that the production of food had definite
passed into the modern mechanical cat
CORY.
Suppose, for one moment, that this ar
fetal food became generally used, and tn
its use superseded the older methods
eating with which we are familiar. Cou
agreater revolution be wrought in societ
That "tocsin of the soul, the dinner bell
would cease to exert its charm. V
should purchase our tabloids of album
nous material, favored or combined wi
other elements as desired, as we now b.
saccharin, or, if we are equity, lithia,
those familiar little bottles. Living wou
be immensely simplified. the cook won
y join the turnspit of old as forgot
and needless functuary, the restaura
and kitchen would cease TO be the il
portant institutions they are, and ma
weary housewife would have re
Rrillnt. Saua rim tunuld h.oa,,a aa N -