Evening star., 1899-03-11
Sundry Foods Which Promise Health
and Long Life.
USUALLY SHORT LIVED THEMSELVES
Some Queer Theories Which Have
Had Many Followers
ON A SCIENTIFIC BASIS

and schools OF cooking come and 60 fndi-
vidual fruits and vegetables rise and fan in
popularity and diet reforms are born, wax
great. and disappear. How many recall the
craze for Vienna bread and Vienna coffee
in 1S76-TS? Who remembers the English
mutton chop and stewed trfpe of the six
ties? Yet the former played havoc for a
spell with the old-fashioned coffee pot
trade, and the latter brought numerous
chop houses into being. which ran their
brief career and passed away.
Diet reforms are longer lived than culi-
nary fashions. The graham movement,
now nearly half century old. has not yet
lost its hold upon goodly army. although
many of the views of the founder have
been discarded by his followers The aver
age sample OF graham -four no longer con-
tains the irritating. lignose- bearing husk,
which in former days supplied the dinner
wit with basis for jokes on sawdust and
pulverized cigar boxes. Graham bread is
nevertheless in general demand. and most
hotels and restaurants supply graham
gems, puffs and biscuits.
The "fresh-blood Diet which drew
crowds Of men and women to the abattoirs
twenty years ago, has lost all power Of at
traction. The practice came TO an end
when the German microscopists announced
that the fluid was an admirable vehicle for
disease germs, and that many cases of con-
tagious and infectious diseases could be
traced directly to its use.
On Reasonable Basis.
Nearly all the new diet-reform theories
have a more or less scientific basis. One
of these is the meat-extract system. which
comes from Paris. The meat. which may
be any form or flesh or fowl, is cooked by
either roasting or boiling TO a point at
which all germ life dies. 1t is then COM
minuted in chopping bowl or meat-cutting
machine and squeezed in a powerful press.
The high pressure brings out all the nat
urai juices and two-thirds of the carnin,
albumen and animal jel!ies. 1t forms a red
fluid of moderate viscosity and a very rich
SAVIOR of the mess from which 1t is extract
ed. 1t digests even more rapidly than beef
extract, but less 50 than the peptones and
sarcopeptones in the market.
A variation Of this system consists in the
substitution of raw for cooked meat. The
extract is darker and heavier. which, ac-
cording to its advocates, makes il more
nourishing. On the other hand, the flavor
is not so agreeable is IL as safe from
baciIli and other minute life forms as the
extract Of the cooked tissues.
Another Theory.
The very opposite of this theory is the
cornerstone of the Salisbury system. which
enjoys certain vogue in this country and
Great Britain. The meat, preferably beef,
lS TtNuCtu 10 d STRUCTURE. WdSneu
in water. compressed into convenient-sized
cakes. and broiled. roasted, steamed.
Chemically the dish is pure fbrin, in the
best possible form for the stomach to act
upon. The flavor is not unpleasant, but it
does not possess enough character or in
tensity to be called attractive.
This principle of slicing tissues into
threads has become very popular of late
years. and may be regarded as a fad
Wheat is treated in this manner. and also
orr cell has arfFG-
ly replaced macaroni, and the cord rib
bon noodle has driven out the larger and
thicker varieties in the German kitchens.
The difference, as shown by the cooking
laboratories, is very much IN favor of the
new practice. Half ounce of boiled
macaroni requires nearly two hours to dis
solve when digeSted artificially while the
same weight cut into threads or thin waters
requires only forty-five minutes
OF the new fads the one which has
aroused the greatest interest is what is
jocularly known the Simian diet school,
monkey-feeding and arboreal-banqueting.
While the credit of the theory is ascrfbed
to two American doctors in London. and
also to a fashionable sanitarium in Michi-
gan. ii really belongs to a group of English
biologists of whom the late Frank Buck
land was the leading member 1t is prac-
tical corolary Of Darwinism. Though the
genus homo has become differentiated from
his apish ancestor, yet the differentiation
has not been as great as is commonly be-
lieved. The teeth which throw the best
cate that man has natural tendency to
about the same class of food articles as his
quadrumanous forbears.
Simian schools.
Up to this point there is no difference
among what may be called the Siman
schools. They all agree that a model diet
should consist OF fruits, berries. nuts, dried
fruits. eggs. small birds and small fishes.
They. also agree in discountenancing the ex-
or ''esculents which grow in the dark"
Here the unanimity ends and Dame Dis
cord has full sway. The London school
recommends all the articles mentioned and
also lizards turtles, snakes. barks and
many vegetable shoots which are not used
by civilized society. One of their stock ar
guments is that if a monkey escapes in a
market he will go. not to banana stand
but to the fish counter, and seize any smax
fish he can lay his paws upon.
In the tropics the monkey. they empha-
size. will leave anything and everything to
catch and eat live lizard, and will go to
almost any lengths to steal a fish from an
aquarium globe. This little animal takeI
delight in robbing birds nests and sucks
eggs with even more skill and grace than
expert country boy. The English school
has a restaurant in London just off Lud-
gate Hill. On the bill of fare may be found
such delicacies broled sardines with
walnut bread, whitehall with almond flour
biscuit, Barcelona nut salad with caviare
and pigeons egg omelet, and puts, raisins,
milk and cheese of every sort.
Use Raw Flesh.
The third school started in Berlin, and Is
marked by using the raw flesh of fish and
of small birds. In the former detail they
follow the example of the Japanese. who
use faxed fish meat in numerous forms.
This school has already exercised some in
fuence upon the average bill of fare, mark
ed chiefly by larger use of nut prepara-
tions. Among the new dishes of the last
year which may be placed In this category
are walnut and hickorynut cakes, chopped
walnut and celery salad. which WAS first
produced by the New York Association Of
Teachers of Cookery. The list is extended
with grated brazil nuts for the bass OF
curries, mixtures of boiled chestnuts. rail-
sins fruits and spices for stufng poultry,
whipped almond cream and roasted and
crushed peanuts to add to consomme-
The fruit cure, which some claim started
in Germany while 1t Is held by Others that
II originated in Dansville, n. Y, still holds
its sway but not to so large an extent as
1t has broken UP at many points
into subschools, such as the grape cure, the
apple cure the peach cure, the orange cure,
The banana cure, and, funniest of all, the
o,.ra Vy-l74le tfha