put in a few parsnips, carrots, or turnips, cut small, or a few sliced potatoes and cabbages; thicken it with oatmeal, and season with salt and pepper. II. Two ib. beef, mutton, or pork, cut into small pieces, a quart of peas, 16 turnips sliced, two dozen potatoes cut very small, 8 onions, to all of which put 14 quarts of water; let the whole boil gently over a slow fire two hours and a half; thicken it with 1 lb. of oatmeal; after it is put in, boil it a quarter of an hour longer, stirring it all the time, and season it with pepper and salt. III. Four lb. beef, 6 to 8 onions, 20 turnips, 1 lb. rice, a couple of handfuls parsley, thyme, and savory, some pepper and salt, 16 quarts of water; the beef to be cut in slices, and when it has boiled some time, cut it still smaller; let the whole boil moderately for two hours, or it may be stewed in an oven and warmed up as wanted; oatmeal and potatoes may be added to thicken it. To make Ox Cheek Soup.-To one cheek put two pecks of potatoes, a quarter of a peck of onions, an ounce of black pepper, half a pound of salt, boiled altogether in 45 quarts of water till reduced to 30, and to which may be added any kind of vegetables; a pint of this soup with a bit of the meat warmed up, is a dinner for a grown person. For Supper.-Potatoes two or three times a week, which may be varied in dressing, so as to make them more palatable. Mashed potatoes from lb. to 14lb. for grown persons, and 8 to 10 oz. for children, will prove an excellent substitute for bread and cheese in dear times. It has been ascertained, by returns made to Parliament, that the paupers in counties where potatoes are in general use are fewer in proportion than where they are not: and the great increase in the population of Ireland, which is more than four times what it was 110 years ago, where they live principally on that root, is a proof of its nutritive quality. Broth or stew left at dinner might be occasionally allowed: also bread and cheese, with or without onions, and sometimes part of a red herring to each. Rice is most excellent food, and furnishes subsistence to perhaps more human beings than all other grains put together: it sits easy on the stomach, and is fit for invalids. N. B. The sick to have fresh meat, broth, &c. as may be thought necessary by the medical attendant. Bread may be made much cheaper, I am informed, than is generally done, and equally nutritious, by taking out of the flour only the coarse flake bran; of which take 10lb., or any proportionate quantity, which boil in eight gallons of water: when smooth it will produce 7 gallons of clear bran water: with it knead 112lb. flour, putting to it salt and yeast, as is usual: divide it into loaves, and bake it. By this method there will be one-fifth more of bread than usual, because this quantity of flour will take six quarts more NO. XVI. VOL. VIII. Pam. 2D of bran water than of plain. This bread is said to be preferable for weak stomachs: but that made of wheat and rye mixed is the best for the generality. Wheat alone, being of a starchy nature, is apt to occasion constipation: and all rye is too slippery for the bowels. I refer farther to Edlin's treatise on bread, making one volume octavo, 1805, in which are receipts for making peas bread, &c. for the labouring poor. The following bill of fare is taken from the Isle of Wight workhouse, to which I have referred in the former part of this work. The refuse of flax, which is called backings of tow, would make comfortable clothing of the fustian or cotton kind, which I should think might be purchased at a quarter of the expense of wool. Women and children might spin it, weavers make it, and then have it dyed. All the poor should have some mark of distinction to detect them when out of the house, if found begging, or guilty of any other fault. Drink. I have not made any remark on what is proper drink: that I should rather leave to the judgment of the managers, or to that of medical men. The use of liquid food is, I understand, intended to dilute the solid, and to preserve the blood in a proper state of fluidity. It is thought that if 13 lb. of solid food is taken in 24 hours, then it is proper to take 3 lb. of liquid, which is about three pints. What the quality should be, I do not mean to determine. I have known old people take a good draught of water the last thing going to bed, and first in the morning, who found great comfort from it. Indeed, I can speak experimentally of its good effect on weak stomachs; and I also remember having heard it said that a gentleman was advised to try a chalybeate spring, which he did; and after he left it he drank from his own pump every morning a rummer of cold water, and found equal benefit, which induced him to put on his pump the following distich: "O! steel, thou art a cheat, It's the water does the feat." After this remark, it may be as well to give the opinion of Hoffman, who was a most respectable medical author; he says, "Water is the fittest drink for all persons of all ages and temperaments; of all the productions of nature or art it comes the nearest to that universal remedy so much searched after by mankind, but never discovered. By its fluidity and mildness, it promotes a free and equable circulation of the blood and humours through all the vessels of the body, upon which the due performance of every animal function depends; and hence water drinkers are not only the most active and nimble, but also the most cheerful and sprightly of all people. "In sanguine complexions, water, by diluting the blood, renders the circulation easy and uniform. In the choleric, the coolness of the water restrains the quick motion and intense heat of the humours. It attenuates the glutinous viscidity of the juices of the phlegmatic, and the gross earthiness which prevails in melancholic temperaments. And as to different ages, water is good for children to make their tenacious milky diet thin and easy to digest; for youth and middle-aged, to sweeten and dissolve any scorbutic acrimony or sharpness that may be in the humours, by which means pains and obstructions are prevented; and for old people, to moisten and mollify their rigid fibres, and to promote a less difficult circulation through their hard and shrivelled vessels." All animals except man reject every liquor but water. If what is spent in purchasing strong liquors was appropriated to buying nourishing food, and other necessaries of life, mankind would live longer, be more healthy, stronger, and happier, than they now are. This doctrine cannot be too strongly nor too frequently mentioned and enforced. The following method I beg to recommend for keeping the weekly account, to show each week's consumption of provisions, and the number of persons in the house. |