The sustentation of the body, and the repairing of its waste by
an adequate supply of wholesome and nutritious daily food, is a
subject of general importance, and necessarily occupies a large share
of attention. But all nations have not the advantages of skilful
cattle-breeders, slaughter-houses, well-supplied meat and poultry
markets, and butchers’ shops graced with all the tempting joints of
beef, mutton, and pork, which gladden the eyes of an Englishman, and
keep up his stamina for labour. The traveller, the settler, and the
savage, must be content to put up with what they can most readily
obtain, and to avail themselves of many an unusual article of food,
which would be rejected under more favourable circumstances, and with a
greater choice for selection.
The subject of Food, in a physiological point of view, has been often
discussed. Popular and learned treatises on all the art and mysteries
of Cookery have been sold by thousands. We have had pleasant details
furnished us too on the Food and the Commissariat of London.--But
with respect to the animal substances, eaten by other people in
foreign countries, we have known little--except from mere scraps of
information.
The basis of the present volume is a lecture on the Curiosities of
Food, which I delivered at several of the metropolitan literary
institutions. Having been favourably received,--from the novelty of the
subject, and the singularity of the specimens from my private museum
by which it was illustrated,--I have been led to believe that it might
prove generally interesting in a more amplified shape.
In order, however, to bring the details within a convenient compass, I
have limited myself to a description of the Curiosities of Animal Food;
but should the work be well received, I may follow it up hereafter by a
companion volume, on the Curiosities of Vegetable Food.
In the arrangement of the materials for this work, one of two modes
of description was open to me, either to dress up the details in
characteristic pictures of the food-customs and viands in use in
different quarters, and by different people; or to group the whole
scientifically under natural history divisions. As the subject is
curious and striking enough in its simplicity without the aid of
fiction or embellishment, I have preferred adopting the latter
arrangement, and have followed it as closely as the miscellaneous
character of the selections and quotations would permit.
Many of the articles of food named are so outrageously repulsive, and
the consideration of the subject, in a collected form, is altogether so
new, that I have preferred citing authorities in all instances, so as
to relieve myself from the charge of exaggeration, or the imputation
of untenable assertions. For this reason, and from the varied and very
extended nature of the field of enquiry, I can claim no merit for
original writing in this work. I have merely desired to present the
public with a readable volume; and I think its perusal will show that
in this, as in other cases, truth is often stranger than fiction.
After a perusal of these pages, it can scarcely be said that, ‘there is
nothing new under the sun,’ for many of the articles of food which I
have described as being served up in different parts of the world, will
be certainly new to many. Probably, some of the hints thrown out will
make the fortune of any restaurateur in the city or at the west-end,
who chooses to dish up one or more of the reputed delicacies, under a
proper disguise, and with a high-sounding name.