Beef and Mutton seem to give less trouble to the Editor's Stomach than any kind of Poultry. The following is copied from Dr. Scudamore on Gout, 2d Edition, p. 509, being some of the Experiments related by Mr. Astley Cooper in his lecture delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1814, which have only been published in Dr. S.'s book, who informs us, they were performed upon Dogs, with a view to ascertain the comparative solvent power of the gastric juice upon different articles of food. "_Experiment 5._ Food. Form. Quantity. Animal killed. Loss by Digestion. Cheese. Square. 100 pints. 4 hours. 76. Mutton. ----- ----- ----- 65. Pork. ----- ----- ----- 36. Veal. ----- ----- ----- 15. Beef. ----- ----- ----- 11. "_Experiment 6._ Food. Form. Quantity. Animal killed. Loss by Digestion. Beef. Long & Nar. 100 pints. 2 hours. 0. Rabbit. ----- ----- ----- 0. Cod Fish. ----- ----- ----- 74. "_Experiment 9._ Roast Veal Do. 100 pints. 2 hours. 7. Boiled do. Do. ----- ----- 30. [78] "Those who have _weak stomachs_, will be better able to digest their food, if they take their meals at _regular hours_; because they have both the stimulus of the aliment they take, and the periodical habit to assist digestion."--DARWIN'S _Zoonomia_, vol. i. p. 454. "We often tease and disorder our Stomachs by fasting for too long a period, and when we have thus brought on what I may call a discontented state of the organ, unfitting it for its office, we set to a meal, and fill it to its utmost, regardless of its powers or its feelings."--ABERNETHY'S _Surg. Obs._ p. 70. [79] "A Philosopher being asked what was _the best time to dine_, answered,--For a Rich man, when he could get a Stomach;--for a Poor man, when he could get Meat." [80] "When four hours be past, after Breakfast, a man may safely taste his Dinner,--the most convenient time for dinner, is about _eleven of the clocke_ before noone,--in 1570, this was the usual time of serving it in the University of Oxford,--elsewhere about noone,--it commonly consisted of boyled biefe, with pottage, bread and beere, and no more,--the quantity of _biefe_ was in value an _halfe-penny_ for each mouth,--they supped at five of the clocke in the Afternoon."--_Vide_ COGAN'S _Haven of Health_, 1584, p. 187. _Early_ hours were as _Genteel_ in Dr. Cogan's time, as _late_ ones are now, 1821. "Perhaps none of our Old English customs have undergone so thorough a change, as the hours of rising,--taking refreshment--the number of meals per day--and the time of retiring to rest.