Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt Book. Catharine Esther Beecher

Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt Book - Catharine Esther  Beecher


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There are an abundance of other modes of preparing food, without resorting to one which involves danger, especially to children and invalids, whose powers of digestion are feeble.

      The most common modes of preparing unhealthful food, is by frying food, and by furnishing bread that is heavy, or sour, or so newly baked, as to become clammy and indigestible when chewed. Though there are many stomachs that can for a long time take such food without trouble, it always is injurious to weak stomachs, and often renders a healthful stomach a weak one. A housekeeper that will always keep a supply of sweet, light bread on her table, and avoid oily dishes, oily cooking, and condiments, will double the chances of good health for her family.

      Minuteness of division is a great aid to easy digestion. For this reason food should be well chewed before swallowing, not only to divide it minutely, but to mix it with the saliva, which aids in digestion.

      The cooking of food, in most cases, does not alter its nature; it only renders it more tender, and thus more easily divided and digested.

      When a person is feverish and loathes food, it should never be given, as the stomach has not sufficient gastric juice to secure its digestion. The practice of tempting the sick by favorite articles, should therefore be avoided.

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      “Water” says Dr. Pereira, “is probably the natural drink of all adults. It serves several important purposes in the animal economy:—firstly, it repairs the loss of the aqueous part of the blood, caused by evaporation, and the action of the secreting and exhaling organs; secondly, it is a solvent of various alimentary substances, and, therefore, assists the stomach in digestion, though, if taken in very large quantities, it may have an opposite effect, by diluting the gastric juice; thirdly, it is a nutritive agent, that is, it assists in the formation of the solid parts of the body.”

      The health of communities and of individuals is often affected by the nature of the water used for drink, and it is therefore important to know how to secure pure and good water.

      Rain water is the purest of all water, purer than the best spring water. Of course every person who fears that the water used is the cause of any evil, can obtain that which is known to be pure and good. The cheapest mode of obtaining good rain water, is to have a large cistern dug in the vicinity of some large building, with conducting spouts. This can be lined with water lime, and the water thus obtained, when cooled with ice, is as pure as any that can be found.

      A distinguished medical writer, Dr. Cheyne, remarking on the effects of foreign substances in water, states these facts:—

      “At the Nottingham Assizes, July, 1836, it was proved on trial, at which I was a witness, that dysentery, in an aggravated form, was caused in cattle by the use of water contaminated with putrescent vegetable matter, produced by the refuse of a starch manufactory. The fish were destroyed, and all the animals that drank of this water became seriously ill, and many died. It was shown, also, that the mortality was in proportion to the quantity of starch made at different times, and that when the putrescent matter (of the manufactory) was not allowed to pass to the brook, the fish and frogs returned, and the mortality ceased among the cattle.”

      Dr. Barry, an English physician, states, that when the troops at Cork were supplied with water from the river Lee, which, in passing through the city, is rendered unfit for drinking by the influx from sewers, Mr. Bell suspected that a dysentery, prevailing at the time, arose from this cause. Upon assuming the care of the troops, he had a number of water carts to bring water from a spring, and did not allow the use of river water, and very shortly the dysentery disappeared.

      Sir James McGregor states, that, at one time in the Spanish war, when during three months 20,000 dead bodies were interred at Ciudad Rodrigo, all those exposed to emanations from the soil, and who were obliged to use water from sunken wells, were affected by low malignant fevers, or dysenteries.

      This shows that burying in large towns affects the health of the inhabitants, first by emanations from the soil, and secondly by poisoning the water percolating through that soil.

      Many such facts as these, show the importance of keeping wells and cisterns from the drainings of sinks, barn-yards, and from decayed dead animals. And it is probable that much sickness in families and communities has been caused by neglecting to preserve the water pure, that is used for drink and cooking.

      Water is sometimes rendered unhealthful by being conducted through lead pipes, or kept in lead reservoirs, or vessels. It is found that the purer the water, the more easily it is affected by the lead through which it passes. When the water has certain neutral salts in it, they are deposited on the surface of the lead, and thus protect from its poisonous influence. Immersing a very bright piece of lead for some hours in water, will show whether it is safe to use lead in conducting the water. If the lead is tarnished, it proves that the water exerts a solvent power, and that it is unsafe to employ lead in carrying the water.

      The continued use of water containing lead, gives rise to the lead cholic, or painter’s cholic, and if the water is still drank, palsy succeeds. One indication of this disease is a narrow leaden blue line on the edge of the gums of the front teeth.

      The following are methods to be employed in purifying water:—

      The most thorough and effectual way of obtaining perfectly pure water, from that which is noxious, is, to distill it, collecting only the steam.

      In cases where water is injured by the presence of animal or vegetable matter, boiling sometimes removes much of the evil.

      Two grains of powdered alum to every quart of water, will often serve to remove many impurities.

      Filtering through fine sand and powdered charcoal, removes all animal and vegetable substances which are not held in chemical solution.

      Sea water serves both as a cathartic and emetic, and the only mode of obtaining pure water from it is by distillation.

      The impure water used often at sea, is owing wholly to the casks in which it is carried. When new, the water imbibes vegetable ingredients from the cask, which become putrid. Water, if carried to sea in iron casks, if good and pure, always continues so. Cistern water is often impure, when held in new wooden cisterns, owing to vegetable matter absorbed by the water.

      Dr. Lee remarks, “We are satisfied that impure water is more frequently the cause of disease than is generally supposed. It has been thought that decaying vegetable matter, received into the stomach, was innoxious, owing to the antiseptic properties of the gastric juice. But this opinion is evidently erroneous. An immense number of facts could be adduced, to show that this is the frequent cause of disease. The British army ‘Medical Reports,’ and our own Medical Journals, contain many facts of a similar kind. The fever which carried off so many of the United States Dragoons, on a visit to the Pawnees, was occasioned chiefly by drinking stagnant water, filled with animal and vegetable matter. We know that calculus diseases are most frequent in countries that abound in lime water.”

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      The other drinks in most common use are arranged thus—

      1. The Mucilaginous, Farinaceous, or Saccharine drinks.

      These are water chiefly, with substances slightly nutritive, softening, and soothing. Toast water, Sugar water, Rice water, Barley water, and the various Gruels, are of this kind.

      2. The Aromatic and Astringent drinks.

      These include Tea, Coffee, Chicory, Chocolate, and Cocoa.

      The following remarks on these drinks are taken


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