action of fire, to render them more palatable and nutritious. From the multiplicity of circumstances to be attended to in this art, the whole of which is founded upon the principles of chemistry, we may easily see that it must be a very precarious one; and, there is reason to believe, that among the variety of circumstances which produce diseases, the improper modes of cooking food, are often the primary cause. Will it be believed, that in the cookery books which form the prevailing oracles of the kitchens in this part of the island, there are express injunctions to “_boil greens with halfpence, or verdigrise_, in order to improve their _colour_!”[1] That our puddings are frequently seasoned with laurel leaves, and our sweatmeats almost uniformly prepared in copper vessels?[2] Why are we thus compelled to swallow a supererogatory quantity of poison which may so easily be avoided? And why are we constantly made to run the risk of our lives by participating in custards, trifles, and blancmanges, seasoned by a most deadly poison extracted from the _prunus lourocerasus_?[3] Verily, where such detestable systems of cookery are practised, we may exclaim with the sacred historian, that there is “Death in the Pot.” [1] The Ladies Library, vol. ii. p. 203; and also Modern Cookery, 2nd Edition, p. 94. [2] Literary Chronicle, No. xxii. p. 348, 1819. [3] Philosophical Magazine, No. cclviii. vol. 54, p. 317. Food badly cooked is wasted to no purpose. It seems to have been a complaint familiar in the mouth of our ancestors, and which we have too often seen reason to re-echo in the present day--“_That God sends good meat, but the devil sends cooks_.” OBSERVATIONS ON THE FOOD OF MAN. No animal eats such variety of food as man; he claims, more justly than any other creature, the title of _omnivorous!_ for since he is distinguished beyond all animals, but the capability of living in the most distant parts of the globe, under every variety of climate which the earth affords, his food could not be confined exclusively to either the vegetable or animal kingdom, because he inhabits regions that afford aliments widely different from each other. Cattle content themselves with green vegetables; rapacious animals live on the flesh of other creatures. Those of the Linnæan order, _glires_,[4] live on grain and fruits; each order of birds, keeps, in the same manner, to one sort of food, animal or vegetable. Fishes, reptiles, and insects, also have each their peculiar and exclusive bill of fare, beyond which even hunger will scarcely force them to wander. But however various each class, and order, and species of animated nature may be in the choice of food, man--all-devouring man, will embrace the whole range of the creation, “scarce a berry or a mushroom can escape him.” [4] The hare, rabbit, guinea-pig, &c.