it, is such, that it seems more
like a nervous expansion of the brain, than a mere receptacle for
food."--Dr. WATERHOUSE'S _Lecture on Health_, p. 4.

[17-*] I wish most heartily that the restorative process was performed
by us poor mortals in as easy and simple a manner as it is in "_the
cooking animals in the moon_," who "lose no time at their meals; but
open their left side, and place the whole quantity at once in their
stomachs, then shut it, till the same day in the next month, for they
never indulge themselves with food more than twelve times in a
year."--_See_ BARON MUNCHAUSEN'S _Travels_, p. 188.

Pleasing the palate is the main end in most books of cookery, but _it is
my aim to blend the toothsome with the wholesome_; but, after all,
however the hale gourmand may at first differ from me in opinion, the
latter is the chief concern; since if he be even so entirely devoted to
the pleasure of eating as to think of no other, still the care of his
health becomes part of that; if he is sick he cannot relish his food.

"The term _gourmand_, or EPICURE, has been strangely perverted; it has
been conceived synonymous with a glutton, '_ne pour la digestion_,' who
will eat as long as he can sit, and drink longer than he can stand, nor
leave his cup while he can lift it; or like the great eater of Kent whom
FULLER places among his worthies, and tells us that he did eat with ease
_thirty dozens of pigeons_ at one meal; at another, _fourscore rabbits_
and _eighteen yards of black pudding_, London measure!--or a fastidious
appetite, only to be excited by fantastic dainties, as the brains of
_peacocks_ or _parrots_, the tongues of _thrushes_ or _nightingales_, or
the teats of a lactiferous _sow_.

"In the acceptation which I give to the term EPICURE, it means only the
person who has good sense and good taste enough to wish to have his food
cooked according to scientific principles; that is to say, so prepared
that the palate be not offended--that it be rendered easy of solution in
the stomach, and ultimately contribute to health; exciting him as an
animal to the vigorous enjoyment of those recreations and duties,
physical and intellectual, which constitute the happiness and dignity of
his nature." For this illustration I am indebted to my scientific friend
_Apicius Caelius, Jun._, with whose erudite observations several pages of
this work are enriched, to which I have affixed the signature _A. C.,
Jun._

[18-*] "Although A