Third Essay

Introduction.

CHAP. I.
Great Importance of the Subject under Consideration. --Probability that Water acts a much more important Part in Nutrition than has hitherto been generally imagined.--Surprisingly small Quantity of solid Food necessary, when properly prepared, for all the Purposes of Nutrition.--Great Importance of the Art of Cookery.--Barley remarkably nutritive when properly prepared.--The Importance of culinary Processes for preparing Food shown from the known Utility of a Practice common in some Parts of Germany of cooking for Cattle.--Difficulty of introducing a Charge of Cookery into common Use.--Means that may be employed for that Purpose.

CHAP. II.
Of the Pleasure of Eating, and of the Means that may be employed for increasing it.

CHAP. III.
Of the different Kinds of Food furnished to the Poor in the House of Industry at Munich, with an Account of the Cost of them.--Of the Expense of providing the same Kinds of Food in Great Britain, as well at the present high Prices of Provisions, as at the ordinary Prices of them.-- Of the various Improvements of which these different Kinds of cheap Food are capable.

CHAP. IV.
Of the Small Expense at which the Bavarian Soldiers are fed.--Details of their Housekeeping, founded on actual Experiment.--An Account of the Fuel expended by them in Cooking.

CHAP. V.
Of the great Importance of making Soldiers eat together in regular Messes.--The Influence of such economical Arrangements extends even to the moral Character of those who are the Objects of them.--Of the Expence of feeding Soldiers in Messes.--Of the surprising Smallness of the Expence of feeding the Poor at Munich.--Specific Proposals respecting the feeding of the Poor in Great Britain, with Calculations of the Expense, at the present Prices of Provisions.

CHAP. VI.
Of INDIAN CORN.--It affords the cheapest and most nourishing Food known.--Proofs that it is more nourishing than Rice.--Different Ways of preparing or cooking it.--Computation of the Expense of feeding a Person with it, founded on Experiment. --Approved Receipt for making an INDIAN PUDDING.

CHAP. VII.
Receipts for preparing various Kinds of cheap Food. --Of MACCARONI.--Of POTATOES.-- Approved Receipts for boiling Potatoes.--Of Potatoe Puddings. --Of Potatoe Dumplings.--Of boiled Potatoes with a Sauce.--Of Potatoe Salad.--Of BARLEY--Is much more nutritious than Wheat.-- Barley Meal, a good Substitute for Pearl Barley, for making Soups.--General Directions for preparing cheap Soups.-- Receipt for the cheapest Soup that can be made.--Of SAMP--Method of preparing it--Is an excellent Substitute for Bread.-- Of brown Soup.--Of RYE BREAD.

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It is a common saying, that necessity is the mother of invention; and nothing is more strictly or more generally true. It may even be shown, that most of the successive improvements in the affairs of men in a state of civil society, of which we have any authentic records, have been made under the pressure of necessity; and it is no small consolation, in times of general alarm, to reflect upon the probability that, upon such occasions, useful discoveries will result from the united exertions of those who, either from motives of fear, or sentiments of benevolence, labour to avert the impending evil.

The alarm in this country at the present period¹, on account of the high price of corn, and the danger of a scarcity, has turned the attention of the Public to a very important subject, the investigation of the science of nutrition;--a subject so curious in itself, and so highly interesting to mankind, that it seems truly astonishing it should have been so long neglected:--but in the manner in which it is now taken up, both by the House of Commons, and the Board of Agriculture, there is great reason to hope that it will