In the "_Art of Thriving_," 1697, p. 8, are directions for preparing Fourscore Noble and Wholesome Dishes, upon most of which _a Man may live excellent well for Twopence a_ _day_: the author's _Obs._ on _Water Gruel_ is, that "ESSENCE OF OATMEAL" makes "_a noble and exhilarating meal_!" Dr. FRANKLIN'S favourite Breakfast was a good basin of warm Gruel, in which there was a small slice of Butter with Toasted Bread and Nutmeg--the expense of this, he reckoned at three half-pence. "Mastication is a very necessary Preparation of solid Aliment, without which there can be no good Digestion."--The above are the first lines in ARBUTHNOT'S _Essay on Aliment_. This first act of the important process of Digestion, is most perfectly performed, when the flavour, &c. of our Food is agreeable to our Taste;--we naturally detain upon our Palate those things which please it,--and the Meat we relish most, is consequently most broken down by chewing, and most intimately incorporated with the Saliva--this is the reason why what we desire most, we digest best. Here, is a sufficient answer, to the Folios which have sprung from the Pens of cynical and senseless Scribblers--on whom Nature not having bestowed a Palate, they have proscribed those pleasures they had not Sense[113] to taste, or comprehend the wise purposes for which they were given to us, and "Compound for Sins they are inclin'd to, By damning those they have no mind to." How large a share of the business of Digestion is managed by Mastication, has been shown by the experiments of _Spallanzani_[114]. To Chew long, and leisurely, is the only way to extract the essence of our food--to enjoy the taste of it, and to render it easily convertible into laudable Chyle, by the facility it gives to the gastric juices to dissolve it without trouble. The pleasure of the _Palate_, and the health of the _Stomach_, are equally promoted by this salutary habit, which all should be taught to acquire in their infancy. The more tender meat is, the more we may eat of it.--That which is most difficult to Chew, is of course most difficult to Digest. From 30 to 40 (according to the tenderness of the meat) has been calculated as the mean number of Munches, that solid meat requires, to prepare it for its journey down _the Red Lane_; less will be sufficient for tender, delicate, and easily digestible white meats. The sagacious _Gourmand_, will calculate this precisely,--and not waste his precious moments in useless Jaw-work, or invite an Indigestion by neglecting _Mastication_. I cannot give any positive rules for this, it depends on the state of the Teeth[115]; every one, especially _the Dyspeptic_, ought to ascertain the condition of these useful working tools; and to use them with proportionate diligence, is an indispensable exercise which every rational Epicure will most cheerfully perform, who has any regard for the welfare of his Stomach[116].