Curiosities of Medical Experience Part 10

THE FOOD OF MANKIND. ITS USE AND ABUSE.

Destined by Providence to wander over the globe, and to live in various climes, man is essentially an omnivorous animal. According to the country he inhabits, its productions and the nature of his pursuits, his mode of living differs. The inhabitant of cold and sterile regions on the borders of the ocean becomes ichthyophagous; and fish, fresh, dried, smoked, or salted, is his princ.i.p.al nourishment. The bold huntsman lives upon the game he pursues; while the nomadian shepherd, who tends his herd over boundless steeps, supports himself on the milk of his flock. In warm countries fruits and vegetables const.i.tute the chief support of life; and there the disciples of Pythagoras can luxuriate on the rich produce of a bountiful soil, solely debarring themselves from beans, which, like all flesh, they consider to have been created by putrefaction. What would these good people have done among the Scythians and the Getae, who, according to Sidonius Apollinaris, mingled blood and milk for food--

------------------Solitosque cruentum Lac potare Getas, ac pocula tingere venis;

or the stunted natives of the arctic regions, who feed upon whales and seals, drink deep potations of train-oil, and consider the warm blood of the seal an exquisite beverage, dried herrings moistened with blubber a dainty, and the flesh of the seal half frozen in snow during winter, or half corrupted in the earth in summer, the most delicious morsel. The semi-barbarous Russians, who during the late wars enjoyed the abundant bills of fare of France and Italy, accustom themselves easily to this disgusting diet on their return; and their troops, who live amongst the Samoiedes, thrive uncommonly well on raw flesh and rein-deer blood. It is in temperate regions that man displays his omnivorous propensities: there, animal food can be abundantly procured; and every description of grain, roots, and fruit, is easily cultivated. It is as we pa.s.s from these middle climes towards the poles, that animal substances are more exclusively consumed; and towards the equator that we enjoy refres.h.i.+ng fruits, and nouris.h.i.+ng roots and vegetables. So scarce is food in some desolate tracts of the globe, that we find the wandering Indian satisfying his cravings with earth and clay: and Humboldt informs us that the Ottomaques, on the banks of the Mata and Oronoco, feed on a fat unctuous earth, in the choice of which they display great epicurean skill, and which they knead into b.a.l.l.s of four or six inches in diameter, and bake slowly over the fire. When about to be used, these clods are soaked in water, and each individual consumes about a pound of them in the day; the only addition which they occasionally make to this strange fare consists in small fish, lizards, and fern-roots.

The art of cookery has improved, no doubt, with the progressive advance and development of our other inst.i.tutions; and it seems to prove that the employment of all kinds of food is as natural to man, as a stationary uniformity and restriction of one species of aliment is to animals. A most erroneous idea has prevailed regarding the use of animal food, which has been considered as the best calculated to render mankind robust and courageous. This is disproved by observation. The miserable and timid inhabitants of Northern Europe and Asia are remarkable for their moral and physical debility, although they chiefly live on fish or raw flesh; whereas the athletic Scotch and Irish are certainly not weaker than their English neighbours, though consuming but little meat. The strength and agility of the negroes is well known, and the South Sea islanders can vie in bodily exercises with our stoutest seamen. We have reason to believe, that, at the most glorious periods of Grecian and Roman power, their armies were princ.i.p.ally subsisted upon bread, vegetables, and fruits.

Man by his natural structure was created omnivorous, and there is no doubt but that a judicious mixed alimentation is the best calculated to ensure health and vigour, and enable the ambitious or the industrious wanderer to spend his winters near the poles, colonize beneath the equator, or inhabit regions where the hardiest of animals must starve and die. The teeth, the jaws, all the digestive organs fit him for this mode of existence. There is a curious pa.s.sage in one of Dr. Franklin's letters in regard to wine: he pleasantly observes, that the only animals created to drink water are those who from their conformation are able to lap it on the surface of the earth, whereas all those who can carry their hands to their mouth were destined to enjoy the juice of the grape.

The diversity of substances which we find in the catalogue of articles of food is as great as the variety with which the art or the science of cookery prepares them: the notions of the ancients on this most important subject are worthy of remark. Their taste regarding meat was various. Beef they considered the most substantial food; hence it const.i.tuted the chief nourishment of their athletae. Camels' and dromedaries' flesh was much esteemed, their heels most especially. Donkey-flesh was in high repute; Maecenas, according to Pliny, delighted in it; and the wild a.s.s, brought from Africa, was compared to venison. In more modern times we find Chancellor Dupret having a.s.ses fattened for his table. The hog and the wild boar appear to have been held in great estimation; and a hog was called "animal propter convivia natum;" but the cla.s.sical portion of the sow was somewhat singular--"v.u.l.v.a nil dulcius ampla." Their mode of killing swine was as refined in barbarity as in epicurism. Plutarch tells us that the gravid sow was actually trampled to death, to form a delicious ma.s.s fit for the G.o.ds. At other times, pigs were slaughtered with red-hot spits, that the blood might not be lost; stuffing a pig with asafoetida and various small animals, was a luxury called "porcus Troja.n.u.s;"

alluding, no doubt, to the warriors who were concealed in the Trojan horse. Young bears, dogs, and foxes, (the latter more esteemed when fed upon grapes,) were also much admired by the Romans; who were also so fond of various birds, that some consular families a.s.sumed the names of those they most esteemed. Catius tells us how to drown fowls in Falernian wine, to render them more luscious and tender. Pheasants were brought over from Colchis, and deemed at one time such a rarity, that one of the Ptolemies bitterly lamented his having never tasted any. Peac.o.c.ks were carefully reared in the island of Samos, and sold at such a high price, that Varro informs us they fetched yearly upwards of 2000_l._ of our money. The guinea-fowl was considered delicious; but, wretched people! the Romans knew not the turkey, a gift which we moderns owe to the Jesuits. Who could vilify the disciples of Loyola after this information! The ostrich was much relished; Heliogabalus delighted in their brains, and Apicius especially commends them. But, of all birds, the flamingo was not only esteemed as a _bonne-bouche_, but was most valuable after dinner; for, when the gluttonous sensualists had eaten too much, they introduced one of its long scarlet feathers down their throats, to disgorge their dinner.

The modern gastronome is perhaps not aware that it is to the ancients he owes his delicious fattened duck and goose livers,--the inestimable _foies gras_ of France. Thus Horace:

Pinguibus et ficis pastum jecur anseris albi.

The swan was also fattened by the Romans, who first deprived it of sight; and cranes were by no means despised by people of taste. In later days the swan seems to have been in great estimation in our own country. We find in the Northumberland household book that in one year twenty of these birds were consumed at the earl's table.

While the feathered creation was doomed to form part of ancient delights, the waters yielded their share of enjoyments, and several fishes were immortalized. The _muraena Helena_ was educated in their ponds, and rendered so tame that he came to be killed at the tinkling of his master's bell or the sound of his voice.

Natat ad magistrum delicta muraena,

says Martial. Hirtius ceded six thousand of these fish to Caesar as a great favour, and Vitellius delighted in their roe. The fame of the lamprey, _mustela_ of Ausonius and Pliny, is generally known; and the sturgeon, the _acipenser sturio_, was brought to table with triumphant pomp: but the turbot, one of which was brought to Domitian from Ancona, was considered such a present from the G.o.ds, that this emperor a.s.sembled the senate to admire it. Soles were also so delectable that punning on the word _solea_, they were called the _soles_ of the G.o.ds: the dorad, _sparus auratus_, was consecrated to Venus; the _labrus scarus_ was called the brain of Jupiter, and Apuleius and Epicharmus maintain that its very entrails would be relished in Olympus.

To these dainties may be added the _Alphestae_, a fish always caught in pairs from their eagerness to be eaten. The _Amia_ so very delicious that the Athenians defied the worst cook to spoil them. The _Gnaphius_ that imparted to the water that had had the honour to boil them, the facility of taking out all stains. The _Pompilus_ which sprang with Venus from the blood of the sky. The fish called _fox_ by the Rhodians, and _dog_ by the Boeotians, was considered such a dainty that Archestratus recommended epicures to steal them if they could not procure them by honest means; adding, that all calamities should be considered immaterial after a man had once feasted on such a luscious morsel, too divine to be gazed upon by vulgar eyes, and which ought to be procured by the wealthy, if they did not wish to incur the wrath of the G.o.ds, for not appreciating at its true value the flower of their nectar. Eels were also highly esteemed by the ancients. The preference being given to the _Copaic_, which the Boeotians offered to the G.o.ds crowned with flowers, giving them the same rank among fish that Helen held amongst women.

The _garum_, or celebrated fish-sauce of the Romans, was princ.i.p.ally made out of the _sciaena umbra_, and the mackerel; the entrails and blood being macerated in brine until they became putrid.

Expirantis adhuc s...o...b..i, de sanguine primo Accipe fastosum munera cara garum:--

thus says Martial: and Galen affirms that this disgusting preparation was so precious, that a measure of about three or four pints fetched two thousand silver pieces. So delightful was the effluvium of the garum considered, that Martial informs us it was carried about in onyx smelling-bottles. But our luxurious civic chiefs are not aware that the red mullet--for such I believe was the _mullus_--was held in such a distinguished category among genteel fishes, that three of them, although of small size, were known to fetch upwards of 200_l._ They were more appreciated when brought alive, and gradually allowed to die, immersed in the delicious garum; when the Romans feasted their eyes in the antic.i.p.ated delight of eating them, by gazing on the dying creature as he changed colour like an expiring dolphin. Seneca reproaches them with this refinement of cruelty--"Oculis quoque gulosi sunt;" and the most renowned of Apicius's culinary discoveries was the _alec_, a compound of their livers.

Snails were also a great dainty. Fulvius Herpinus was immortalized for the discovery of the art of fattening them on bran and other articles; and Horace informs us they were served up, broiled upon silver gridirons, to give a relish to wine. Oysters were brought from our coasts to Rome, and frozen oysters were much extolled. Gra.s.shoppers, locusts, and various insects, were equally acceptable to our first gastronomic legislators.

Acorns, similar to those now eaten in Spain, formed part of a Roman dessert; the best were brought from Naples and Tarentum. It does not appear that the ancients had a great variety in their vegetable diet; condiments to stimulate the sluggish appet.i.te seemed to be their princ.i.p.al research: amongst these the asafoetida, which is to this day highly relished in the East, was an indispensable ingredient; this has been doubted by various naturalists, but it appears certain, since Pliny informs us that it was frequently adulterated by _sagapenum_, which bears the strongest resemblance to it. This substance was called _laser_, and by many tasteless persons, such as Aristophanes and Apuleius, considered offensive and disgusting; hence the latter, "lasere infectas carnes," and "laseratum porcellum." According to Theophrastus, asafoetida was collected and preserved, as it is at present, in skins; and, despite its estimation as a culinary ingredient, it was not unfrequently named _stercus diaboli_. In addition to this gum, they seasoned their food with various other strong articles, such as coriander and c.u.mmin seeds, sumac, saffron, cinnamon, thyme; with divers peppers, salt, and sal-ammoniac.

Instead of bread, which was only introduced in Rome 580, A. D. they used a heavy kind of unleavened paste, similar to the present _polenta_. This nourishment occasioned frequent indigestion, hence the use of warm water after meals, and the necessity of emetics. Warm water was sold about the streets in their thermopolia, and Seneca observed the paleness and debility that arose from its use and abuse; a practice recorded by Martial:

Et potet calidam, qui mihi livet, aquam.

While water was thus freely drunk, wine was not disregarded; but the various articles with which it was adulterated, must have rendered it any thing but a delectable potation according to our received ideas. Thus we see the Greeks putting salt and sea-water in theirs; at other times dissolving mastic and myrrha, or infusing wormwood, in their choicest Falernian. Like modern tasters, however, they knew the method of developing the _bouquet_ by warmth; and, to appreciate the flavour, they frequently added hot water. That wines of a resinous taste were esteemed, appears from Martial:

Resinata bibis vina, Falerna fugis.

But we may conclude that, according to our modern taste, their boasted wines did not equal ours either in flavour or in delicacy.

The ancients however were very careful in the preparation of their bread, justly called the "staff of life," as const.i.tuting one of the most wholesome and nutritious parts of our food. The Athenian bakers bore the palm in the confection of this article. Archestratus recommended the wheaten bread of Athens and the barley meal of Lesbos, which their poets a.s.serted was supplied to the G.o.ds. The Grecian millet bread was also in great repute, while delicious bread was also made with the _Zea_, the _Tritic.u.m Spella_ of Linnaeus and the _Far_ of the Romans. A species of wheat called _Tiphe_ was also much esteemed. Brown bread was made of a grain called _Olyra_, and it was with loaves of this description that Homer's heroes fed their horses.

It appears that great attention was paid to the kneeding and the boulting: unboulted meal was called _Syncomista_, and when finely boulted in a woollen cloth, _Semidalis_. The most approved method of baking was in the _Criba.n.u.s_ or _Cliba.n.u.s_, an earthen or iron vessel, which they surrounded with charcoal. Bread according to its superior or inferior quality was consecrated to various divinities. Thus the G.o.ddesses used the _h.o.m.oros_, and Hecate was served with the _Hemiantium_, but we are unacquainted with the preparation of these varieties. The flour of barley was used by the _Canephorae_, or virgins that bore the sacred baskets in the festivals of Ceres, to sprinkle themselves. Bread according to its particular kind was served up in various ways; wheaten bread was brought to table upon fresh leaves; barley bread upon a layer of reeds. At the feasts of Ceres and Proserpine, a large loaf was kneeded and baked by the ladies of Delos, called _Achanas_ which gave the name to the festival, inst.i.tuted most probably in Achaia, to commemorate the invention of bread, which Ceres taught to Eumelus, a citizen of Patrae.

Barley for the preparation of bread was used long before wheat or any other sort of corn, and hence Artemidorus calls it _Antiquissimum in cibis_. It was also given to the athletae who were thence called _Hordearii_. In latter times it was chiefly given to cattle, although used by the poorer cla.s.ses. Barley bread was also issued to soldiers as a punishment, the loss of wheaten bread being considered a great privation.

Vegetius tells us that soldiers who had been guilty of any offence were thus punished--"_hordeum pro frumentuo cogebantur accipere_." In the second Punic war we find Marcellus sentencing the cohorts that had lost their standards to this infliction. Suetonius also informs us that Augustus only allowed barley to the troops that had misbehaved in action.

_Cohortes, si quae cep.i.s.sent, loco, decimatas hordeo pavit._ But there is reason to believe that under the head of bread were included various kinds of cakes, many of which were prepared with honey, some of them were called _Placentae omnigenae_, and were prepared by bakers who bore the name of _pistores dulciarii_. This honied bread or cake it appears, was frequently resorted to, as in the present day, to quiet troublesome children as well as to please the taste of fastidious patients. Thus Martial:

Leniat ut fauces medicus, quas aspera vexat a.s.sidue tussis, Parthenopae tibi Mella dari, nucleosque jubet dulcesque placentas.

Est quidquid pueros non sinit esse truces, At tu non cessas totis tussire diebus Non est haec tussis, Parthenopae gula est.

The bread made of spring wheat was called _Collabus_, and the Athenians considered a toasted _Collabus_ eaten with a slice of a pig's belly, the very best cure for a surfeit occasioned by an excess in anchovies, especially the Phalerian ones, which were deemed fit for the G.o.ds.

Fragments of bread it appears were used instead of napkins to wipe the fingers on. These were called _Apomygdaliae_, with which Aristophanes fed his sausage-makers. These dainty bits were usually thrown to dogs.

The cooks of the ancients appear to have been much more consummate in their art than our modern pract.i.tioners. Athenaeus records various descriptions of their incomparable science. A new dish immortalized its inventor, and transmitted his name to posterity. Apicius's cakes were called Apicians; and Aristoxenes had attained such perfection in curing hams, that the glorious appellation of Aristoxenians was bestowed upon them. Philosophers and poets gloried in their culinary science; the pleasures of the table were the subject of their writings and their conversation. Archestratus tells us with delight, that, although various delicacies can only be enjoyed in their proper season, yet we can talk about them with watering mouths all the year round.

One of these ill.u.s.trious ministers of luxury attained such a degree of enviable perfection, that he could serve up a pig boiled on one side and roasted on the other, and moreover stuffed with all possible delicacies, without the incision through which these dainties were introduced being perceived. Supplicated to explain this wonderful secret, he swore solemnly by the manes of all the heroes who fell at Marathon, or conquered at Salamis, that he would not reveal this sacred mystery for one year. When the happy day arrived and he was no longer bound by his vows, he condescended to inform his anxious hearers, that the animal had been bled to death by a wound under the shoulder, through which the entrails were extracted; and afterwards hanging up the victim by the legs, the stuffing was crammed down his throat. One half of the pig was then covered with a thick paste, seasoned with wine and oil, put into a bra.s.s oven, and gently and tenderly roasted: when the skin was brown and crisp, our hero proceeded to boil the other moiety; the paste was then removed, and the boiled and roasted grunter triumphantly served up.

So refined was the taste of the ancient _bons vivans_, that Monta.n.u.s, according to Juvenal, would proclaim, at the first bite, whether an oyster was of English produce or not. Sandwich is believed to have been the favoured spot whence Rome imported her oysters and other sh.e.l.l-fish.

Shrimps and prawns must have been in great estimation, since we find Apicius quitting his residence at Minturnae, upon hearing that the shrimps of Africa were finer than those he could procure in Campania. He instantly set sail for the happy coast, despite a gale of wind: after encountering a desperate storm, he reached the wished-for land of promise; but alas!--the fishermen displayed the largest prawns they could collect, and to his cruel disappointment, they could not vie, either in delicacy or beauty, with those of Minturnae. He immediately ordered his pilot to steer a homeward course, and left Africa's sh.o.r.e with ineffable contempt.

These ingenious gluttons had recourse to every experiment that could add to their enjoyment. Philoxenus, and many others, used to accustom themselves to swallow hot water, that they might be able to attack scalding dishes before less fireproof guests would dare to taste them.

Sinon maintained that cookery was the basis of all arts and sciences: natural philosophy taught us the seasoning of dishes; architecture directed the construction of stoves and chimneys; the fine arts, the beautiful symmetry of each dish; and the principles of war were applied to the drilling and marshalling of cooks, confectioners, and scullions, posting proper sentries to watch the fires, and videttes to keep off idle intruders. That man is a "cooking animal" is considered one of his proudest attributes, and a proper bill of fare may be considered as the _ne plus ultra_ of human genius!

It may be easily imagined that when good living became a science, _sponging_ upon the wealthy _Amphitryons_ became an art amongst the needy _bons vivants_, and parasites, as in the present day, were ever seen fawning and cringing for their dinner. These sycophants stuck so close to their patrons, that they were called shadows. Thus Horace:

----Quos Moecenas adduxerat umbras.

They were also called flies, [Greek: gyias], by the Greeks, and _Muscae_ by the Romans; no doubt from their constant buzzing about the object of their devotion. Plautus calls an entertainment free from these despicable guests, _Hospitium sine muscis_. Horus Apollo tells us that in Egypt a fly was the symbol of an impudent fellow; because, although driven away, it will constantly return. We have, however, reason to believe that the term _parasite_ was originally applied to the followers of princes, Patroclus was the parasite of Achilles, and Memnon of Idomeneus; it was only in later times that the appellation was given to despicable characters and "_trencher friends_."

Our Shakspeare had adopted the term of the ancients, as appears in the following pa.s.sages:

In such as you, That creep like _shadows_ by him, and do sigh At each his needless heavings.

And again--

Feast-won, fast-lost, one cloud of winter showers.

These _flies_ are couched.

While climate points out the most suitable articles of food, it exercises a singular influence over their qualities and properties, more especially in vegetable substances. We find plants which are poisonous in some countries, edible and wholesome in others. Next to climate, culture and soil modify plants to a singular degree: flowers which yield a powerful perfume in some lat.i.tudes, are inodorous in others; and, according to climate, their aroma is pleasant or distressing. A striking proof of this fact can be adduced from the well-known effects of perfumes in Rome; where the inhabitants, especially females, cannot support the scent even of the rose, which has been known to produce syncope, ill.u.s.trating the poet's line to

Die of a rose in aromatic pain.

This variety in the action of vegetable substances is more particularly observable in such as are considered medicinal. Opium, narcotics, and various drugs, are more powerful in warm climates than in northern regions. The Italian physicians express astonishment at the comparatively large doses prescribed by our pract.i.tioners.

Cultivation brings forth singular intermediate productions; and by its magic power we have seen the coriaceous and bitter almond transformed into the luscious peach, the sloe converted into the delicious plum, and the common crab transformed into the golden pippin. The same facts are observed in vegetables; the celery sprung from the nauseous and bitter _apium graveolens_, and the colewort, is metamorphosed into the cabbage and the cauliflower. All cruciform plants degenerate within the tropics, but acquire increased energies in cold countries.

Recent experiments in Germany have demonstrated that in times of scarcity, the wood of several trees may be converted into a nutritious substance.