7. After an animal has been fed for a long period on one kind of aliment,
which, if continued, will not support life, allowing it the former
customary food will not save it: he will eat eagerly, but will die as soon
as if he had continued to be restricted to the article of food which was
first given him.
Dr. Paris is of opinion that all that these experiments tend to prove is,
that animals cannot exist upon highly-concentrated aliment. Horses fed on
concentrated aliment are liable to various disorders, originating from
diseased action of the stomach and liver, broken wind, staggers,
blindness, &c.
Professor Muller has given an excellent definition of indigestion. "It is
a state of the digestive organs in which either they do not secrete the
fluid destined for the solution of the aliment, or they are in such a
condition of irritability or atony, that by the mechanical irritation of
the food, painful sensations and irregular motions are exerted."
But the most curious experiments made on the changes which the food
undergoes in the stomach, according to the greater or lesser facility with
which it is digested, were those of Dr. Beaumont. This physiologist had
the rare opportunity of investigating this subject in a patient of the
name of St. Martin, who came under his care in consequence of a gun-shot
wound, which left a considerable opening in the stomach, which, when
empty, could be explored to the depth of five or six inches by artificial
distention. The food and the drink could in this manner be seen to enter
it. This enabled him to keep an interesting journal and table, showing the
time required for the digestion of different kinds of food, which were
taken with bread or vegetables, or both. The following are some of his
interesting observations:
_Experiment 33._ At 1 o'clock St. Martin dined on roast beef, bread, and
potatoes--in half an hour examined the contents of the stomach, found what
he had eaten reduced to a mass resembling thick porridge. At 2 o'clock,
nearly all chymified--a few distinct particles of food still to be seen.
At half-past four, chymification complete. At 6 o'clock nothing in the
stomach but a little gastric juice tinged with bile.
_Ex. 42._ At 8 a.m., breakfast of three hard-boiled eggs, pancakes, and
coffee. At half-past eight, found a heterogenous mixture of the articles
slightly digested. At a quarter-past ten, no part of breakfast could be
seen.
_Ex. 43._ At 2 o'clock same day, dined on roast pig and vegetables. At 3
they were chymified; and at half-past four nothing remained but a little
gastric juice.
_Ex. 18_, in a third series. At half-past eight a.m., two drams of fresh
fried sausage, in a fine muslin bag, were suspended in the stomach of St.
Martin, who immediately afterwards breakfasted on the same kind of
sausage, and a piece of broiled mutton, wheaten bread, and a pint of
coffee. At half-past eleven, stomach half empty, contents of bag about
half diminished. At 2 o'clock p.m., stomach empty and clean, contents of
bag all gone with the exception of fifteen grains, consisting of small
pieces of cartilaginous and membranous fibres, and the spices of the
sausage, which last weighed six grains.
As I have elsewhere observed, various are the theories that have been
entertained in regard to digestion, but the experiments of Dr. Beaumont
seem to have proved beyond a doubt, that this operation is due to the
action of the gastric juice, with which he was enabled to produce
artificial digestion. Having obtained one ounce of this solvent from the
stomach of his patient, he put into it a solid piece of recently-boiled
beef, weighing three drams, and placed the vessel that contained it in a
water bath heated to 100 deg. In forty minutes digestion had commenced on
the surface of the meat; in fifty minutes, the fluid was quite opake and
cloudy, the external texture began to separate and become loose; in sixty
minutes, chyme began to form. At 1 p.m. (two hours after the commencement
of the experiment), the cellular substance was destroyed, the muscular
fibres loose and floating about in fine small threads very tender and
soft. In six hours they were nearly all digested--a few fibres only
remaining. After the lapse of ten hours, every part of the meat was
completely digested. The artificial digestion by these experiments appears
to be but little slower than the natural process--they also demonstrate
the influence of the temperature, and the quantity of the solvent
secretion. Having obtained from St. Martin two ounces of gastric juice, he
divided this quantity into two equal portions, and laid in each an equal
quantity of masticated roast beef. One he placed in a water bath at the
temperature of 99 deg. Farh.--and left the other exposed to the open air
at the temperature of 34 deg.; a third similar portion of meat he kept in a
phial, with an ounce of cold water. An hour after the commencement of the
experiment, St. Martin had finished his breakfast, which consisted of the
same meat with biscuit, butter, and coffee. Two hours after the meat had
been put into the phial, the portion in the warm gastric juice was as far
advanced in chymification as the food in the stomach; the meat in the cold
gastric juice was less acted on, and that in the cold water only slightly
macerated. In two hours and forty-five minutes from the time that the
experiment was begun, the food in the stomach was completely digested, the
stomach empty, while even at the end of six hours the meat in the gastric
juice was only half digested. Dr. Beaumont, therefore, having procured 12
drams of fresh gastric juice, added now a portion to each of the phials
containing meat and gastric juice, and to a portion of the half-digested
food which he had withdrawn from the stomach two hours after the
commencement of the experiment, and which had not advanced towards
solution. After eight hours' maceration, the portions of meat in the cold
gastric juice, and in the cold water, were little changed, but, from the
time of the addition of the fresh gastric juice, digestion went on rapidly
in the other phials, which were kept at the proper heat, and at the end of
24 hours, the meat which had been withdrawn from the stomach after
digestion had commenced, were, with the exception of a piece of meat that
had not been masticated, converted into a thickish pulpy mass of a
reddish-brown colour: the meat in the warm gastric juice was also
digested, though less perfectly, while that in the cold gastric juice was
scarcely more acted on than the meat in the water, which was merely
macerated. Dr. Beaumont now exposed these two phials containing the meat
in cold gastric juice, and meat in water, to the heat of the water bath
for 24 hours, and the gastric juice, which when cold had no power on the
meat, now digested it; while the meat in the water underwent no change,
except that towards the end of the experiment, putrefaction had commenced.
The antiseptic properties of the gastric juice were fully demonstrated in
several other experiments.
Various philosophers, in idle disquisitions, have endeavoured by the most
absurd hypotheses to determine what is the natural food of man, and to
show that he is not created omnivorous. The comparison between our species
and animals confutes these vain theories. The masticatory and digestive
organization of man assigns to him an intermediate rank between
carnivorous and herbivorous creatures. The teeth may be said by their
figure and construction to bear a relation with our natural food. The
teeth of flesh-eating animals rise in sharp prominences to seize and
lacerate their prey, and those of the lower jaw shut within those of the
superior one. The herbivorous animals are not armed with these formidable
weapons, but have broad flat surfaces with intermixed plates of enamel,
that they should wear less rapidly in the constant labour of grinding and
triturating. In the carnivorous, the jaws can only move backward and
forward; in the herbivorous their motion is lateral, as observed in the
cow when chewing her cud. Beasts of prey tear and swallow their food in
masses, while in others it undergoes a careful communition before it is
transmitted to the stomach. The teeth of man only resemble those of
carnivorous animals by their enamel being confined to their external
surface, while in the freedom of the motion of the jaws from side to side
they partake of the conformation of the herbivorous. The teeth and jaws of
man are in all respects more similar to those of monkeys than any other
animals; only in some of the simiae the canine teeth are much longer and
stronger, and denote a carnivorous propensity.
It is to the abuse of this omnivorous faculty that Providence has bestowed
upon mankind, that we owe many of the diseases under which our species
labours. "Multos morbos, multa fercula fecerunt," sayeth Seneca; yet we
are far more temperate in the present age than the ancients during the
period of their boasted high civilization and prosperity. Their excesses
must have been of the most disgusting nature, since, to indulge more
easily in their gluttonous propensities, they had recourse to emetics both
before and after their meals. "Vomunt ut edant, edunt ut vomunt, et epulas
quas toto orbe conquirunt nec concoquere dignantur," was the reproach of
the above-quoted philosopher. Suetonius and Dion Cassius give Vitellius
the credit of having introduced this revolting custom into fashion; and
splendid vessels for the purpose were introduced in their feasts. Martial
alludes to it in the following lines:
Nec coenat prius, aut recumbit, ante
Quam septem vomuit meri deunces.
And Juvenal tells us that the bath was polluted by this incredible act of
bestiality,--
Et crudum pavonem in balnea portas.
The sums expended by the ancients on their table exceed all belief.
Vitellius expended for that purpose upwards of 3200_l._ daily, and some of
his repasts cost 40,000_l._ At one of them, according to Suetonius, 7000
birds and 2000 fishes were served up. Aelius Verus laid out 600,000
sestertii on one meal; and some of the dishes of Heliogabalus cost about
4000_l._ of our money. The excesses of this monster were such, that
Herodianus affirms that he wanted to ascertain, not only the flavour of
human flesh, but of the most disgusting and nameless substances. The
freaks related of this emperor are scarcely credible; but his gastronomic
profusion may be easily conceived when we find that his very mats were
made with the down of hares or soft feathers found under the wings of
partridges! When such ideas of _enjoyment_ prevailed, can we wonder that
Philoxenus should have wished that he had the throat of a crane, that he
might prolong the delights of eating!
Our early ancestors were remarkable for their frugality, and it is
supposed that luxurious, or, at least, full living was introduced by the
Danes: it has been even asserted that the verb _gormandize_ was derived
from _Gormond_, a Danish king, who was persuaded by Alfred to be baptized.
Erasmus observed that the English were particularly fond of good fare.
William the Conqueror, and Rufus, were in the habit of giving most
splendid entertainments; and the former monarch was such an irascible
epicure, that, upon one occasion, an underdone crane having been served up
by the _master of the cury_, he would have knocked him down but for the
timely interference of his _dapifer_, or purveyor of the mouth. This
office of _dapifer_, with that of _lardrenius_, _magnus coquus_, _coquorum
prepositus_, and _coquus regius_, were high dignitaries in those days.
Cardinal Otto, the pope's legate, being at Oxford in 1238, his brother was
his _magister coquorum_; and the reasons assigned for his holding that
office were his brother's suspicious fears "_ne procuraretur aliquid
venenosum, quod valde timebat legatus_." These officers were not
unfrequently clergymen, who were elevated to the bench for their valuable
services.
Whatever barbarity the ancients may have shown in preparing their dainty
dishes, none could have surpassed in refinement of cruelty. Their method
of roasting and eating a goose alive, is thus directed: "Take a goose or a
duck, or some such _lively creature_, (but the goose is best of all for
the purpose,) pull off all her feathers, only the head and neck must be
spared; then make a fire round about her, not too close to her, that the
smoke do not choke her, and that the fire may not burn her too soon, nor
too far off, that she may not escape the fire; within the circle of the
fire, let there be small cups and pots full of water, wherein salt and
honey are mingled, and let there be set also chargers full of sodden
apples, cut into small pieces in the dish. The goose must be all larded
and basted over with butter, to make her the more fit to be eaten, and may
roast the better. Put the fire about her but do not make too much haste,
when as you see her begin to roast; for by walking about, and flying here
and there, being cooped in by the fire that stops her way out, the
unscared goose is kept in; she will fall to drink the water to quench her
thirst and cool her heart, and all her body, and the apple sauce will
cleanse and empty her, and when she wasteth, and consumes inwardly, always
wet her head and heart with a wet sponge, and when you see her giddy with
running and begin to stumble, her heart wants moisture, and she is roasted
enough. Take her up and set her before your guest, and she will cry as you
cut off any part from her, and will be almost eaten up before she is dead.
_It is mighty pleasant_ to behold."
Our forefathers were most ingenious in these diabolical fancies, we find
in Portar's Magick the way how to persuade a goose to roast _herself_ if
you have a lack of cooks.
The heroic conduct of French cooks has been recorded in history, and
compared with the noble devotion of the ancients. Vatel, maitre d'hotel of
Louis XIV., put an end to his wretched existence in consequence of fish
not having arrived in time for dinner. On this sad event being reported to
his sovereign, he both praised and blamed his courage; and, to use the
words of Madame de Sevigne, he perished "a force d'avoir de l'honneur a sa
maniere; on loua fort et l'on blama son courage." It is strange that
Napoleon should have used the very same expressions when speaking of one
of his most distinguished generals. In more modern times we have heard of
persons who expected that clerical functions should be combined with
various lay duties, as appears by the following curious advertisement in a
late paper:
"Wanted, for a family who have bad health, a sober, steady person, in the
capacity of doctor, surgeon, apothecary, and man-midwife. He must
occasionally act as butler, and dress hair and wigs. He will be required
sometimes to read prayers, and to preach a sermon every Sunday. A good
salary will be given." This was certainly an economical speculation for
the use of soul and body.
Cooks have sometimes been obliged to resort to pious frauds; and it is
related of our Richard Coeur de Lion, that, being very ill during the
holy wars, he took a strange fancy for a bit of pork, but, as no pig could
be procured, a plump Saracen child was roasted as a substitute; and it was
remarked that Richard was ever after partial to pork.
There is little doubt but that our forefathers were harder livers than the
present generation: even within the memory of man, drinking to excess is a
vice seldom observed, excepting in some individuals belonging to the old
school. The hours of refection have been singularly altered; and while our
fashionable circles seldom sit down to table before eight o'clock in the
evening, we find in olden chronicles that even royalty was used to dine at
nine in the morning, more especially upon the Continent. In the Heptaemeron
of the Queen of Navarre we find an account of the manner of spending the
day:
"As soon as the morning rose, they went to the chamber of Madame Oysille,
whom they found already at her prayers; and when they had heard during a
good hour her lecture, and then the mass, they went to dine at ten
o'clock, and afterwards each privately retired to his room, but did not
fail at noon to meet in the meadow. Vespers heard, they went to supper;
and after having played a thousand sports in the meadow they retired to
bed."
During the reign of Charles V. of France, the court dined at ten, supped
at seven, and retired to rest at nine. Holinshed gives the following
curious description of our early diet: "Our tables are oftentimes more
plentifully garnished than those of other nations, and this trade has
continued with us since the very beginning; for, before the Romans found
out and knew the way into our country, our predecessors fed largely upon
flesh and milk, whereof there was great abundance in this isle, because
they applied their chief studies unto pasturage and feeding.
"In Scotland, likewise, they have given themselves unto very ample and
large diet, wherein as for some respect nature doth make them equal with
us, so otherwise they far exceed us in over much and distemperate
gormandize, and so engross their bodies, that divers of them do oft become
unapt to any other purpose than to spend their time in large tabling and
belly cheer. In old times these North Britons did give themselves
universally to great abstinence; and in time of war their soldiers would
often feed but once, or twice at the most, in two or three days,
especially if they held themselves in secret, or could have no issue out
of their bogs and morasses, through the presence of an enemy; and in this
distress they used to eat a certain kind of confection, whereof so much as
a bean would qualify their hunger above common expectation. In those days,
also, it was taken for a great offence over all to eat either goose, hare,
or hen, because of a certain superstitious opinion which they had
conceived of these three creatures. Amongst other things, baked meats,
dishes never before this man's (James I.) days seen in Scotland, were
generally so provided for by virtue of this act, that it was not lawful
for any to eat of the same under the degree of a gentleman, and those only
but on high and festival days. In number of dishes and changes of meat,
the nobility of England (whose cooks are for the most part musical-headed
Frenchmen and strangers) do most exceed; sith there is no day in manner
that passeth over their heads, wherein they have not only beef, mutton,
veal, lamb, kid, pork, cony, capon, pig, or so many of these as the season
yieldeth, but also some portion of the red and fallow deer, beside great
variety of fish and wild fowl, and thereto sundry other delicates, wherein
the sweet hand of the seafaring Portingale is not wanting; so that for a
man to dine with one of them, and to taste of every dish that standeth
before him, is rather to yield unto a conspiracy, with a great deal of
meat for the speedy suppression of natural health, than the use of a
necessary mean to satisfy himself with a competent repast, to sustain his
body withal. The chief part, likewise, of their daily provision is brought
in before them commonly in silver vessels, if they be of the degree of
barons, bishops, and upwards, and placed upon their tables; whereof when
they have taken what it pleaseth them, the rest is reserved, and
afterwards sent down to their serving-men and waiters.
"The gentlemen and merchants keep much about one rate, and each of them
contenteth himself with four, five, or six dishes, when they have but
small resort; or, peradventure, with one or two, or three at the most,
when they have no strangers. And yet their servants have their ordinary
diet assigned, besides such as is left at their masters' boards, and not
appointed to be brought thither the second time, which, nevertheless, is
often seen, generally in venison, lamb, or some especial dish whereon the
merchantman himself liketh to feed when it is cold.
"At such times as the merchants do make their ordinary or voluntary
feasts, it is a world to see what great provision is made of all manner of
delicate meats from every quarter of the country, wherein, beside that
they are often comparable herein to the nobility of the land, they will
seldom regard any thing that the butcher usually killeth, but reject the
same as not worthy to come in place. In such cases, also, _geliffes_ of
all colours, mixed with a variety in the representation of sundry flowers,
herbs, trees, forms of beasts, fish, fowls, and fruits; and thereunto
_marchpane_ wrought with no small curiosity, tarts of divers hues and
sundry denominations; conserves of old fruits, foreign and home-bred;
suckets, codiniacs, marmalades, sugar-bread, ginger-bread, florentines,
wild-fowl, venison of all sorts, and sundry outlandish confections,
altogether seasoned with sugar, (which Pliny calls _mel ex arundinibus_, a
device not common nor greatly used in old times at the table, but only in
medicine, although it grew in Arabia, India, and Sicilia,) do generally
bear the sway, besides infinite devices of our own not possible for me to
remember. Of the potato, and such _venerous_ roots as are brought out of
Spain, Portingale, and the Indies, to furnish our banquets, I speak not,
wherein our _Mures_, of no less force, and to be had about Crosby
Ravenswath, do now begin to have place.
"And as all estates do exceed in strangeness and number of costly dishes,
so these forget not to use the like excess in wine, insomuch as there is
no kind to be had (neither any where more store of all sorts than in
England, although we have none growing with us; but yearly the proportion
of twenty or thirty thousand tun and upwards, notwithstanding the daily
restraints on the same brought over to us) whereof at great meetings there
is not some store to be had. Neither do I mean this of small wines only,
such as claret, white, red, French, &c. which amount to about fifty-six
sorts, according to the number of regions from whence they come; but also
of the thirty kinds of Italian, Grecian, Spanish, Canarian, &c., whereof
_Vernage_, _Cate-pument_, _Raspis_, _Muscadell_, _Romnie_, _Bastard Fire_,
_Osey_, _Caprike_, claret, and malmsey, are not least of all accounted of,
because of their strength and value. For as I have said of meat, so, the
stronger the wine is, the more it is desired, by means thereof in old
times, the best was called _Theologicum_ because it was had from the
clergy and religious men, unto whose houses many of the laity would often
send for bottles filled with the same, being sure that they would neither
drink nor be served of the worst, or such as was any ways mingled or
brewed by the vintner; nay, the merchant would have thought that his soul
should have gone straightways to the devil, if he should have served him
with any other than the best. Furthermore, when they have had their course
which nature yieldeth, sundry sorts of artificial stuff, as _ypocras_ and
wormwood wine, must in like manner succeed in turns, besides stale ale and
strong beer, which nevertheless bears the greatest brunt in drinking, and
are of so many sorts and ages as it pleaseth the brewer to make.
"In feasting, the artisans do exceed after their manner, especially at
bridals, purifications of women, and such like odd meetings, where it is
incredible to tell what meat is consumed and spent; each one bringing such
a dish, or so many as his wife and he do consult upon, but always with
this consideration, that the _leefer_ (the more liberal) friend shall have
the best entertainment. This is also commonly seen at these banquets, that
the good man of the house is not charged with any thing, saving bread,
drink, house-room, and fire.
"Heretofore there hath been much more time spent in eating and drinking
than commonly is in these days; for whereas of old we had breakfasts in
the forenoon, _beverages_ or _nuntions_ after dinner, and thereto _rere
suppers_, generally when it was time to go to rest (a toy brought in by
Hard Canutus), now these odd repasts, thanked be God! are very well left,
and each one in manner (except here and there some young hungry stomach
that cannot fast till dinner-time contenteth himself with dinner and
supper only). The Normans, disliking the gormandize of Canutus, ordained,
after their arrival, that no table should be covered above once in the
day; which Huntingdon imputeth to their avarice: but, in the end, either
waxing weary of their own frugality, or suffering the cockle of old custom
to overgrow the good corn of their new constitution, they fell to such
liberty, that in often feeding they surmounted Canutus surnamed the Hardy;
for whereas he covered his table but three or four times in the day, they
spread their cloths five or six times, and in such wise as I before
rehearsed. They brought in also the custom of long and stately sitting at
meat, which is not yet left, although it be a great expense of time, and
worthy reprehension; for the nobility and gentlemen, and merchantmen,
especially at great meetings, do sit commonly till two or three of the
clock at afternoon, so that with many it is an hard matter to rise from
the table to go to evening prayer, and return from thence to come time
enough to supper."
The early prevalence of drinking in England seems to have been derived
from our foreign intercourse. In the reign of Elizabeth and James I. we
find various statutes against ebriety.
Tom Nash, in his "Pierce Pennilesse" says, "Superfluity in drink is a sin
that ever since we have mixed ourselves with the Low Countries is counted
honourable; but, before we knew their lingering wars, was held in that
highest degree of hatred that might be. Then, if we had seen a man go
wallowing in the streets, or lain sleeping under the board, we should have
spit at him, and warned all our friends out of his company."
According to our laws intoxication is looked upon as an aggravation of any
offence. Sir Edward Coke calls a drunkard _voluntarius daemon_. The Romans
thought differently: with them intoxication was often deemed an
extenuation of guilt, "Per vinum delapsis capitalis poena remittitur."
The Greeks, more severe, had a law of Pittacus that enacted the infliction
of a double punishment on those who committed a crime when drunk.
That hard drinking was introduced from Flanders and Holland, and other
northern countries, seems probable from the derivation of many of the
expressions used in carousing. The phrase of being "half-seas over," as
applied to a state of drunkenness, originated from _op zee_, which in
Dutch meant _over sea_; and Gifford informs us that it was a name given
to a stupifying beer introduced in England from the Low Countries, and
called _op zea_; thus Jonson in the Alchemist:
I do not like the dulness of your eye;
It hath a heavy cast, 'tis _up see Dutch_.
An inebriating draught was also called an _up see freeze_, from the strong
_Friesland_ beer. The word "carouse," according to Gifford and Blount, is
derived from the name of a large glass, called by the Danes _ruuse_, or
from the German words _gar_, _all_, and _ausz out_: hence drink _all out_.
Nash, in the work above quoted, says, "Now he is nobody that cannot drink
_super nagulum_, carouse the hunters' _hoope_, quaff _upsee freze crosse_,
with healths, gloves, mumpes, frolickes, and a thousand such domineering
inventions." The origin of these slang terms is not quite evident.
Drinking _super nagulum_, or on the nail, was a northern custom which
consisted in only leaving one drop in the cup, which was poured upon the
thumb-nail, to prove that justice had been done to the potation or toast;
and that, to use the language of modern drinkers, the glass was _cleared_.
This custom is alluded to by Bishop Hall in his "Mundus alter et idem," in
which the Duke of Tenderbelly exclaims, "'Let never this goodly-formed
goblet of wine go jovially through me:' and then he set it to his mouth,
stole it off every drop, save a little remainder, which he was by custom
to set upon his thumb's nail and lick it off." In Fletcher we find the
phrase