Health; a handbook for households and schools

Front matter

ar.

^CIENC^

BY

Contents

OHAP. rAQB

Introductory 1

I. Solid Foods : —

Chapter I. Solid Foods

Foods arc not eaten indiscriminately, but carefully selected according to their qualities, so that some are popularly known to be stronger than others, and to have a special fitness for certain seasons or kinds of work. This knowledge may be very general, but it is not the less real ; and the duty of science is to render it more precise by careful researches, and to explain the reasons for the course which experience has dictated. This has led to a division of foods according to their action or chemical composition, and we are now taught that they act in two ways, viz., by warming and sustaining the body. But all foods do not effect both objects, BO that some are said to produce heat and others to repair waste. Thus sugar, fat, and starch make heat only, whilst nearly all other foods both produce heat and repair waste. We will shortly describe the principal foods of both classes.

SUGAB.

Sugar is found in nearly all foods, but particularly in fruits, and is collected in large quantities from the juices of many plants, as the sugar-cane, sugar-maple, and beetroot. It is obtained in crystals, mixed with a little treacle in moist

HEALTH.

sugar, but pure and made white by purification in loaf sugar. The larger the crystals and the less the treacle, the purer is the moist sugar, whilst the whiter and harder the loaf sugar the better is the quality.

That part of the juice in the sugar-cane which does not form crystals but remains a thick fluid, is called treacle, and, although very sweet, is less pure than sugar. When sugar is being purified so as to make loaf sugar, the treacle runs out of it and is called golden syrup, and is purer, although perhaps less sweet, than treacle from the cane juice.

There is also much sugar in milk, which is obtained in crystals, but it is more costly, and does not sweeten so well, as cane-sugar.

There are, therefore, three kinds of separated sugar in actual use,- — viz., cane sugar, fruit sugar, and milk sugar, but the fii'st is much more abundant than both the others.

Sugar is a valuable and universal food, and one by which other foods are made more palatable, and their nutritious qualities increased, but it is possible to eat it in excess. Thus, when it is added in a large quantity to milk for infants, it lessens the proportion of that part which repairs the body, and thereby tends to make the child unduly fat, whilst at the same time it destroys the relish for foods which are not so sweet. It is not taken alone, as a necessary food, but as a luxury, and is very liable to cause indigestion and bilious attacks. Hence, although so agreeable and useful, it should be eaten with foods in moderation, and the quantity may be reduced to a very low point without serious consequences. It is eaten in much larger proportion by the young than the old, and in hot than in cold countries, but usually from two to four ounces are eaten daily in our foods.

It is interesting to know the quantity which is usually found in foods, and it is shown in the following table.

HONEY.

Number of pounds of sugar which arc found in Wd pounds of the following foods : * —

lbs.

Rice and Indian meal ... . 0'4

Peas 2-0

Turnipa 2-1

Cream 2'8

Rye meal 3-7

Wheat flour 4-2

Barley meal 4*9

Oatmeal and Skim Milk 5'4

Butter Milk 6-4

Beer and Porter 8'7

Treacle 77*0

Moist Sugar 95-0

The chief food-ingredient in honey is sugar, which corresponds in character with fruit sugar. It is collected from flowers, where it is already formed, and is not produced by the bees. It has a peculiar flavour, which is also derived from flowers, and in some instances has been poisonous ; but, speaking generally, it is a very agreeable and useful food. The collection of honey may be eflfected at a very small cost and greatly to the advantage of the cottager, so that it is a matter of great sui-prise that much more is not obtained. One swarm of bees, which may be

• The quantities are arranged, in these tables, in pounds and decimals, or tenths of a pound, and not in pounds and ounces. They may, however, be readily understood, for decimal 5 (or -5) means half of ten, and therefore half of a pound, as each pound is divided into ten parts, and so on with the other quantities.

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purchased for a few shillings, will produce others eveiy year ; and there is not the least diflSculty in every cottager in the country pajdng a large part of his rent from this source alone — a source which scarcely gives him any trouble, and is tolerably sure. Our working classes have not realised the advantages which they might gain from it, as well as from the keeping of fowls, to which we shall hereafter refer, and by so doing they lose several pounds yearly. Let every householder keep hives, and increase the number with every swarm of bees.

Honey was formerly much used in this country in the production of a kind of wine called mead, as well as to sweeten food, before sugar had been introduced ; but now it is more profitably sold as a luxury to those who wish to eat sweets with their bread and butter, at tea or breakfast. It is a very good kind of sugar, but too luscious to be eaten in large quantities without disordering the stomach.

It is always desirable to bear in mind that it may have poisonous qualities if flowers of a certain kind abound in the neighbourhood ; and should it produce unusual effects, as sickness and giddiness, when taken in moderate quantities, it should be discontinued. The best honey is obtained where there is a great variety of flowers, including, particularly, clover and heather.

Fat and oil are similar substances, but the first remains solid, except in very hot, and the latter, fluid, except in very cold weather.

The fat of flesh is enclosed in little bags or cells (Figs. 1 to 3), so that it is usual to cut lumps into small pieces, to allow the fat to run out more readily when it is made hot. The hardest is called suet (Fig. 3). There is also fat in many vegetables, and particularly in nuts, and this

Fat Cells in Man.

Showing the cell or bag a, and the contained semi-solid &t 6.

also is found in little bags or cells. A very large quantity is made from the nut of the palm-tree, the cocoa-nut and the

Fat Cells.

Fat Cells.

These represent a number of cells or Showing solid fat in a crystalline form bugs tilled with fut.

in the cells.

butter-nut, and much is now made from decayed vegetables in peat (Fig. 4).

Oil is found in nearly every part of an animal, but particu-

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larly about the skin and feet, as whale oil, seal oil, and neat'sfoot oil ; in the liver of fishes, as cod-liver oil ; in the milk of animals, as the butter in cow's milk (Fig. 5) ; in the seeds of all plants, as linseed, rapeseed, mustard-seed, and cottonseed oil ; in the fruit of many trees, as the olive oil from the berry of the olive-tree ; in certain stones called shales ;

Kg. 4.

F.4T Cells of thr Cocoa Nut.

These cells are Bi-x-sided — not romid, as in the preceding fibres — and are iilled with many small masses of Bolid furt.

Fig. 5.

Globules oi- Oil.

This cut represents the cream in milk before it is Rcparated and made into butter. It consists of globules of all sizes, and each one is said to hare an exceedingly tine covering.

and it is collected in great quantities in cracks or openings in the earth underground, as petroleum or rock oil.

Some of these cannot be used as food in this country because they are not of an agreeable flavour; but as the taste of people varies, and particularly in different parts of the world, the inhabitants of cold countries eat whale oil and even tallow, whilst in this country we like the fresh fat of the flesh of animals, butter from mOk, and the dripping from roasted meat, and in hot countries they prefer oil to fat.

Some people cannot eat every kind of fat of animals, but

FAT. II

only one, as butter or the fat of bacon, -whilst others can eat every kind in ordinary use. Some eat very little fat, and even greatly dislike fats generally, whilst others are very fond of them ; but probably nobody exists who does not eat some quantity. It is not a sign of good health to refuse to eat fat generally, for fat is necessary, and we should eat probably from one to three ounces of it daily.

But few persons know how much fat they eat in the different foods which do not appear to contain fat, as well as in flesh, and the following table may be useful to them.

Table showing the number of pounds of fat in 100 pounds of the following foods : —

lbs.

Potatoes, Carrots . . . . .0-2

Butter Milk and Eice 0-7

Skim Milk 1-8

Wheat Flour and Rye Meal . . . .2-0

Peas 2-1

Barley Meal 2-i

White Fish 2-9

Parsley 3-8

Ox Liver 4*1

Lean Mutton 4-9

Salmon 5-6

Skim Milk Cheese 6-3

Indian Meal 8-1

Eels 13-8

Veal 15-8

Tripe 16-4

Cream 26-7

Fat Beef 29-8

Yolk of Egg 30-7

Cheddar Cheese and Fat Mutton . . .31-1 Fat Pork 48-9

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lbs.

Pickled Bacon 66-8

Dried Bacon . ... . . . 78'S

Butter, Dripping, and similar fata . . . 83-0

Children who dislike fat cause much anxiety to parents, for they are almost always thin, and if not diseased, are not healthy. If care be not taken, they fall into a scrofulous condition, in which diseased joints, enlarged glands, sore eyes, and even consumption occur, and every effort should be made to overcome this dislike.

If attention be given to the foregoing remarks, there need be no anxiety about the possibility of increasing the quantity consumed, whilst with neglect, the dislike will probably increase until disease is produced. The chief period of growth — ^viz., from seven to sixteen years of age — is the most important in this respect, for a store of fat in the body is then essential.

Those who are inclined to be fat usually like fat in food, and then it may be desirable to limit its use. But to this we shall again refer.

Some who cannot eat it when hot like it when cold, and all should select that kind which they prefer. Those living in Russia and Lapland devour very large quantities, as seven pounds daily, and eat it even raw, whilst those dwelling in hot countries use very little. It produces more heat than any other kind of food.

STABCH.

Every one knows starch as it is used in stiffening Unen, but does not know that he eats a great quantity of it every day. It is found largely in all kinds of grain, as wheat and rice, whilst sago, arrowroot, and tapioca are made almost entirely of it and water. It is in bags or cells, which can be seen only by the

STARCH.

microscope, and as the cells of each kind diflfer from every other in size and form, or in their markings, one can say

Fig. 6.

Stakch Cells [magnijied).

•*, wheat; 6, WKgo\ c, rice; rf, potato; e, tous les moia ;■/, Cell wall ruptured by dry heat ; y, cells of the rhubarb containing: starch granules.

whether a starch cell is from rice, or wheat, &c., as in Fig. 6. When, however, the starch has been removed from the bag, it is no longer possible to say from what plant it was obtained, for it is the same from every kind of food.

It is not at all difficult to separate the starch from other substances associated with it, for if fine flour be well washed in water the starch falls to the bottom, and may be removed and dried. It is thus that starch is made in this country, and in preparing arrowroot and sago in other countries.

This is the greatest proportion of our solid food from vegetables, and we eat from four ounces to one pound of it daily.

Number of poirnds of starch which are found in 100 pounds of the following foods : —

lbs.

Turnips 6'1

Carrots . 8*4

Potatoes 18-8

Wheaten Bread ...... 47'4

Peas 65-4

Oatmeal 68-4

Indian Meal 64-7

Wheat Flour 66-3

Barley Meal, Rye Meal 69'4

Rice 79-1

Arrowroot 82-0

When starch has been eaten it becomes sugar or fat in the body, or it may be entirely consumed.

FLOUB.

Flour is made by grinding seeds, as wheat, when it is commonly called floiir; and oats, barley, and rye, when it is called meal.

Wheat flour is preferred to every other for its flavour, and it is practically the most nourishing of all grains.

Oatmeal is a very strong and good food, but is not much eaten in this country. This is not owing to want of nutritive value, but to its higher price as compared with wheatflour, and to a rougher flavour, so that children, as they grow up, prefer wheat flour to it. It is, however, stiU eaten as a daily food in the colder parts of our country, as in the Highlands or Islands of Scotland, and the Peak of Derby-

FLOUR. 15 shire, as well as in certain very poor districts, as parts of South Wales and Ireland ; but it will never again come into general use.

Barley meal is eaten in some parts of Wales either alone or with wheat flour, but is a much poorer food than wheat flour.

Eye meal is eaten in some parts of Yorkshire and the northern counties of England, and is almost always mixed with wheat flour, but in many parts of Europe the poorer people eat it alone.

Every seed has a skin and kernel, and when it is ground the flour is a mixture of both ; but nearly all the skin can bo removed by sifting, and in proportion as it is removed the flour becomes whiter. Fine flour means that from which all or nearly all the skin has been sifted out ; seconds, or household, that which has more of the skin ; thirds have more still, and batch, or brown flour, has all, or nearly all, the skin left in it. The skin is divided into several parts, which are sold as bran or sharps, for the food of animals, but there are always small pieces of the kernel with them. The bran, when it is eaten by man, is liable to purge, and is better left out of the flour.

There is none of these foods so good and cheap as good seconds wheat flour, except where wheat does not grow, and is costly to buy.

Flour consists chiefly of starch, with some sugar and gluten, or bird-lime, besides various salts.

The flour of wheat and oatmeal is made into puddings, and that of wheat, rye, and barley into bread. When flour is boiled in water the starch cells (Fig. 6) burst and the starch escapes and thickens the water ; but oatmeal rcquii'es to be boiled longer than wheat flour because its starch cells do not burst so readily. Both kinds, however, should be well i6

HEALTH.

boiled. When yeast is added (Fig. 7) the flour ferments and becomes light and spongy. Yeast dumplings are made with this dough boiled in water, but they should not be boiled too long, or they will become less light and not so digestible.

Flour mixed with fat, baking-powder, or egg-powder, is rolled into thin layers and made into piecrust, but it is not easily digested if too much fat be used. When mixed with suet chopped into small portions it may be boiled or baked as suet pudding, or made into the crust of boiled meat or fruit pics, or it may bo rolled into layers and wrapped up with treacle or preserves in roley-poley puddings. The pieces of suet should not be too large, nor so small that when cooked they cannot be seen.

Pastry made with butter or fat may be eaten when both hot and cold, but when with suet it should bo

Kg. 7.

Yeast Cells.

They .-iir? little baps which are eaten hot. mied with granules, and mul- tit, • a • pl t i . . ■,

tipiy by division as in i-., each VVueaten IJour IS otton adulterated

IJerfcctTeSf"^ "''''"■''''■ '■^'^ with cheaper foods, as rice flour, or

with stronger foods, as pea-meal, or

with useless sulistances, as Paris plaster ; but more commonly

an inferior kind of wheat flour, as that of wheat which has

sprouted, is added to it, when it is said to be unsound.

DRIED PEAS, BEANS, AND LENTILS.

These are said to be the strongest of all vegetable foods, because they contain the greatest proportion of that substance (nitrogen) which repairs the body, and in this respect they are very like skimmed milk cheese in animal foods. They are, no doubt, very nourishing and sustaining, but the flavour is somewhat harsh and strong; and children, particularly, do not like them so well as potatoes or bread. Those who are very poor should use them in proportion to their cheapness on account of the nourishment which they give.

A few observations should be borne in mind when they are cooked and eaten.

1. The shells should be taken out, since they are not digestible, and will be very likely to disturb the bowels.

2. They should be well boiled, but not to a perfect pulp, lest when they are strained their form cannot bo distinguished.

3. They should be cooked or eaten with fat or bacon liquor, since they are very deficient in fat.

4. They should be properly seasoned, and if onions, turnips, or similar fresh vegetables, be cooked and eaten with them, their flavour will be disguised.

5. Do not eat food made of peas too frequently. Pease-pudding is a very good food when eaten with fat.

Broad beans are not eaten when they are dried, but a small kind like the kidney-bean (haricots) are much used in other countries, and have a more agreeable flavour than peas.

When fresh vegetables are scarce, as in the winter, this kind of food is more generally eaten. The German soldiers, in their late war with France, were fed chiefly on sausages made of peas, bacon, and dried meat.

Lentils, or pulse, are much eaten in other countries, and are equally good food with peas and beans.

BREAD.

Bread is generally made into loaves or cakes of some inches in thickness, as in ordinary wheaten, rye, and barley brea,d ;

but oatmeal can be made into tbin cakes only. It is prepared by adding water, yeast (Fig. 7), and salt, to flour, and when the dough begins to rise it is put into the oven and baked. Sometimes baking-powder is used instead of yeast, and makes the bread light; but it is not so good. The yeast may be either fluid, as brewer's barm ; or almost dry, as German yeast ; and both, if good, cause fermentation equally well.

When bread is to be made, the flour is thrown into a vessel, and well mixed with a proper quantit}' of salt. A space is then made in the middle, in which warm water and yeast are placed, and the flour is gradually mixed with them until the whole is made into dough, when it is well kneaded, and placed before the fire until it begins to rise. It should be lightly covered, and not made too hot, and it should not be allowed to rise too much. When it is ready, it is taken out and quickly made into cakes, or placed in tins, and is ready for the oven.

The heat of the oven should not be too little, or the bread will bo close and sodden, nor too great, or it will be too much dried, or even burnt ; and when the cake will ring on being struck with the knuckles, it is sufficiently baked.

About two ounces of salt and three pints of water are required for each fourteen pounds of flour.

The water makes the starch cells swell, and perhaps burst. The yeast, or baking-powder, mixes air or a gas with the dough, and by separating it, makes the dough light and spongy, but in doing so, the yeast (not the baking-powder) wastes some of the flour. The heat in the baking helps to burst the starch cells, and drives off so much of the water as to make the bread agi-eeably dry. If too much water is left the bread is too moist, and is disagreeable ; and ■if too little, the bread is dry and hard, and has lost much of its flavour, and some of its nutriment. The more water is left the heavier is the bread made from a stone of flour, and the less water the lighter is the weight of bread. 14 lb. of flour should make 19 lb. to 20 lb. of bread. When bread is bought it should not be too moist, as it becomes drier by keeping. It should be a day old, but when home made, it may be kept several days with advantage.

When it is baked or bought it should be kept in a dry place where the air is fresh and good, for it absorbs air and might become unwholesome.

Bread made from good seconds wheat flour gives the most nourishment for the money expended, but in many places rye-flour or barley-meal costs much less and is added to it. There is less nourishment in such a mixture than in wheat flour alone, but it is often very agreeable as a change of food, and rye keeps the broad moist.

Brown bread, rye bread, or barley bread do not agree so well with children as white wheaten bread.

Bread is very frequently adulterated with alum to make it take up more water, and by green copperas to make it whiter. The alum is easily shown by dipping a slice of bread into a weak watery solution of logwood, when it becomes of a purplish tint. The logwood infusion is made by putting a few pieces of logwood into boiling water, and allowing it to stand for three or four hours by the fire. The colour of the infusion must not be deep.

Oatmeal is not made into loaves because the starch cells do not easily burst, and it is not possible to cook it well in a thick mass ; but it is made into thin cakes from a quarter to half an inch thick. The oatmeal is mixed with water, yeast, and salt, as in making loaves of bread, and the dough is then spread out into a thin layer and baked on a hot iron plate or stone. If the water has not well soaked into the

HEALTH.

meal the cakes will be hard, gritty, and dry, and if too much water be left the cakes will become sour. When properly made they may be kept good for months.

When neither yeast nor baking-powder is added to the flour or meal the bread or cake is unleavened, and must be made thin and baked so as to be crisp. This kind of cake is eaten by the Jews at the period of the Passover.

Pearl barley and Scotch barley are creed by being soaked in water, and are then boiled in milk or made into puddings.

Wheat which has been steeped in water and then boiled in milk, and spiced, is called frumenty or frumity, and was in use a thousand years ago.

It may interest the young reader to know how it was made in 1350, and to read the English words of that time —

" Nym (inlce) clene, wete and bray (bruise) it in a morter wel, that the holys (hulls or shells) gon al of, and seethe (soak or simmer) yt til it breste (burst), and nym yt up and lat it kele (cool), and nym fayre fresh broth and swete mylk of almandys (almonds) or swete mylk of kyne (cons), and temper (yiiix) it al, and nym the yolkys of eyryn (er/r/s) ; boyle it a lityl, and set yt ad on and messe yt forthe wyth fat venyson and fresh moton (multon)."

They are very good and agreeable foods.

KICE, SAGO, AEROWBOOT, AND TAPIOCA.

These foods are not grown in England, and ore therefore brought here in a dry state, and are almost exclusively used in making puddings.

Kice (Fig. 6) grows and is thrashed and winnowed as we grow and prepare wheat, and is eaten, instaad of wheat, by hundreds of millions of people in hot countries, where wheat is

RICE, SAGO, ARROWROOT, AND TAPIOCA. 21

but little known. It is not so good a food as wheat, because it has very little gluten (or bird-lime), and is almost entii-ely composed of starch. When it is ground the flour does not stick together, so that it could not be made into loaves, but as it is sometimes cheaper than wheat and is whiter, it is added to wheaten flour to adulterate it. This is wrong, because it is not so good a food as ordinary flour, and by making the flour whiter the purchaser is led to think that it is finer and better than ordinary flour. When it is oaten instead of bread it is not ground, but the whole rice is boiled in water until it is soft, and it is then eaten alone, or with meat or fat. It should not bo so much boiled as to fall to pieces, or much of the starch will be lost in the water and thrown away, whilst the rice would not be so agreeable to the taste ; but it should be cooked enough to be softened throughout, and not to taste hard or gritty.

Difl'erent kinds of rice vary more in this respect than in the nutriment which they give, so that some, as the Carolina rice, swell, thicken, and improve in flavour, whilst others, as the Patna rice, swell but little, and are apt to have a dry taste.

When rice is made into puddings with milk, sugar, and spice, it is more agreeable and nourishing. It should be well cooked, but if too much so, there will be waste of the milk, and the sugar will not be so sweet.

Eico is not so cheap as flour when bought retail, having regard to its power to nourish, and should not be largely used by the poor.

Sago, arrowroot, and tapioca (Fig. 6) are not grains like rice or wheat. Bago is obtained by beating the stem of a palm-tree, and arrowroot by beating the root of a tree, and in both cases the matter thrashed out is washed and dried.

The preparation of arrowroot is interesting, inasmuch as

HKALTH.

the juice of the root is so highly iDJurious to life that the Indians dip arrows into it in order to make them poisonous. The following description of the process is quoted from my work on botany : —

" In a dense forest of Guiana the Indian chief has stretched his sleeping-mat between two high stems of the magnolia. He rests indolently smoking beneath the shade of the broadleaved banana, gazing at the doings of his family around. His wife pounds the gathered mandioc-roots with a wooden club, in the hollow-trunk of a tree, and wraps the thick pulp in a compact net made from the tough leaves of the great lily plants. The long bundle is hung upon a stick which rests on two forks, and a heavy stone is fastened to the bottom, the weight of which causes the juice to be pressed out. This runs into a shell of the calabash gourd placed beneath. Close by, squats a little boy, and dips his father's arrows in the deadly milk, while the wife lights a fire to dry the pressed roots, and by heat to drive off more completely the volatile poisonous matter.

" Next, it is powdered between two stones, and the casava meal is ready. Meanwhile the boy has completed his evil task; the sap after standing some considerable time has deposited a delicate white starch, from which the poisonous fluid is poured off. The meal is then well washed with water, and is the fine tapioca, resembling in every respect arrowroot."

When you next eat a tapioca or arrowroot pudding remember how closely life and death are associated.

These substances contain scarcely anything but starch and water, and are not therefore so nourishing as rice, much less as wheat. They are not made into bread or pastry, but only into puddings, either with water alone, when they are very poor food, or with milk and spice, when they are a very agreeable food, particularly for cWldren. They should be well cooked. Arrowroot is very dear, and not at all equal to flour in nutriment, yet it is very foolishly given in the belief that it is very nourishing, and thereby many young children ai-e ill-fed. It is much used by the sick when prepared with milk or wine.