r. Good
bread is the lightest thing I know, and the fittest food for young
children. Cows' milk is also simple and light, and very good for them;
but it is often injudiciously prepared. It should never be boiled; for
boiling alters the taste and properties of it, destroys its sweetness,
and makes it thicker, heavier, and less fit to mix and assimilate with
the blood."

* * * * *

It is hardly necessary for me to repeat, that in these general views of
Dr. C., with a few exceptions, I entirely concur; indeed some of them
have already been presented. But I have expressed my doubts of the
soundness of his conclusion in regard to sugar. Used with food, in very
small quantity, by persons whose stomachs are already in a good
condition, both sugar and molasses, especially the former, appear to me
not only harmless, but wholesome and useful.

On the subject of simplicity in children's food, I should be glad to
enlarge. There is nothing more important in diet than simplicity, and
yet I think there is nothing more rare. To suit the fashion, everything
must be mixed and varied. I have no objection to variety at different
meals, both for children and adults; indeed I am disposed to recommend
it, as will be seen hereafter. But I am utterly opposed to any
considerable variety at the same meal; and above all, in a single dish.
The simpler a dish can be, the better.

But let us look, for a moment, at the dishes of food which are often
presented, even at what are called plain tables.

Meats cannot be eaten--so many persons think--without being covered
with mustard, or pepper, or gravy--or soaked in vinegar; and not a few
regard them as insipid, unless several of these are combined. Few people
think a piece of plain boiled or broiled muscle (lean flesh) with
nothing on it but a little salt, is fit to be eaten. Everything, it is
thought, must be rendered more stimulating, or acrid; or must be
swimming in gravy, or melted fat or butter.

Bread, though proverbially the staff of life, can scarcely be eaten in
its simple state. It must be buttered, or honied, or toasted, or soaked
in milk, or dipped in gravy. Puddings must have cherries or fruits of
some sort, or spices in them, and must be sweetened largely. Or
perhaps--more ridiculous still--they must have suet in them. And after
all this is done, who can eat them without the addition of sauce, or
butter, or molasses, or cream? Potatoes, boiled, steamed