Tea, Mutton, Veal, and Chicken Broths are the principal drinks of this description, and usually are prepared for invalids.
5. Emulsive, or Milky Drinks.
Animal milk is the principal drink of this class, and as this is the aliment of a large portion of young children, the necessity of guarding against abuses connected with the supplies furnished should be generally known.
A great portion of the milk furnished in New York and other large cities, is obtained from cows fed on distillery slops, and crowded in filthy pens, without regard to ventilation or cleanliness. Thus deprived of pure air and exercise, and fed with unhealthy food, their milk becomes diseased, and is the cause of extensive mortality among young children. Many cows, also, are fed on decayed vegetables, and the sour and putrid offals of kitchens, and these, also, become thus diseased.
A work on this subject, by R. M. Hartly, Esq., of New York, has been published, which contains these facts. Of five hundred dairies near New York and Brooklyn, all, except five or six, feed their cows on distillery slops. And the reason is, that it yields more milk at a cheaper rate than any other food. But it soon destroys the health of the animals, and after most of their fluids are, by this process, changed to unhealthy milk, and the cows become diseased, they are sent to a cattle market and a new supply obtained.
The physicians in New York, in a body, have testified to the unhealthiness of this practice, but as yet no inspectors have been secured to preserve the public from this danger, while the great mass of the people are ignorant or negligent on the subject. Chemists have analyzed this unhealthful milk, and find that, while pure milk is alkaline, slop milk is acid, and also contains less than half the nourishment contained in pure milk. Scarcely any cream rises on slop milk, and what does collect can never be turned into butter; but, by churning, only changes to froth. We have inspectors of flour, meat, fish, and most other food, and every town and city supplied by milk carts ought to have inspectors of milk; and where this is not done, every mistress of a family should narrowly watch her supplies of milk, and ascertain the mode in which the cows are fed.
In cases where children, or adults, find that milk troubles the stomach, it is often owing to its richness, and water should then be mixed with it. Infants generally require diluted milk, a little sweetened, as cow’s milk is, when good, considerably richer than mother’s milk. The fact that oil is placed among the articles most difficult to digest, shows the mistake of many, who give diluted cream instead of milk, supposing it to be better for infants. In all ordinary cases, where an infant is deprived of the mother’s nourishment, the milk of a new milch cow, diluted with one-third, or one-fourth water, and sweetened a little with white sugar, is the safest substitute. Sometimes oat-meal gruel, or arrowroot, are found to agree better with the child’s peculiar constitution.
6. Alcoholic Drinks.
Beer, Wine, Cider, and Distilled Liquors, are the chief of the alcoholic drinks.
“To persons in health,” says Dr. Pereira, in his “Elements of Materia Medica,” “the dietical employment of wine is either useless or pernicious.“ Dr. Beaumont, in his celebrated experiments on St. Martin,1 found that wines, as well as distilled spirits, invariably interfered with the regularity and completeness of digestion, and always produced morbid changes in the mucous membrane of the stomach. And this, too, was the case when neither unpleasant feelings nor diminished appetite indicated such an effect.
1 This case of St. Martin’s referred to, was that of a soldier, who by a gun shot, had an opening made into his stomach, which healed up, leaving so large an orifice, that all the process of digestion could be examined, after he was restored to perfect health.
Dr. Bell, of Philadelphia, remarks thus: “The recorded experience of men in all situations and climates, under all kinds of labor and exposure, prove that abstinence from alcoholic drinks gives increased ability to go through the labors of the farm and the workshop, to resist heat and cold, to encounter hardships on sea and land, beyond what has ever been done under the unnatural excitement of alcohol, followed, as it is, by depression and debility, if not by fever and disease. The observation and testimony of naval and military surgeons and commanders are adverse to the issue of alcoholic drinks to men in the army and navy.”
The reports from all our chief state prisons also prove that intemperate men can be instantly deprived of all alcoholic drinks, not only without danger, but with an immediate improvement of the health.
Wine is often useful as a medicine, under the direction of a physician, but its stimulating, alcoholic principle, makes it an improper agent to be drank in health. The same is true of cider and strong beer. Some wine, beer, and cider drinkers do, by the force of a good constitution, live to a good old age, and so do some persons, also, who live in districts infected by a malaria, which destroys the health and life of thousands. But these exceptions do not prove that either wine, or malaria are favorable to health, or long life. They are only exceptions to a general rule.
Meantime, the general rule is established by an incredible amount of experience and testimony, that alcoholic drinks, in no cases, are needed by those in health, and that the indulgence in drinking them awakens a gnawing thirst and longing for them, that leads the vast majority of those who use them, to disease, debility, poverty, folly, crime, and death.
In this detail of the various drinks that may be used by man, we find that pure water is always satisfying, safe, and sufficient. We find that acid and effervescing drinks, so acceptable in hot weather, are also demanded by the system, and are safe and healthful. We find that milk and broths are also healthful and nourishing.
Black tea, also, when taken weak and not above blood heat, is a perfectly safe and agreeable warm drink.
Chocolate and cocoa are nourishing and safe to persons who can bear the oil they contain; and shells are perfectly healthful and safe to all.
In the vast variety of drinks provided for man, we find very few that are not safe and healthful. Green tea and coffee, as ordinarily used, are very injurious to very many constitutions. They contain but very little nourishment, except what is added by the milk and sugar, and training a family of children to love them (for no child loves them till trained to do it) is making it probable that all of them will be less healthful and comfortable, and certain that some will be great sufferers. Training children to drink tea and coffee is as unreasonable and unchristian, as training them to drink foxglove and opium would be—the only difference is, that in one case it is customary, and the other it is not; and custom makes a practice appear less foolish and sinful.
There is no need, at this period of the world, to point out the wickedness and folly of training children to love alcoholic drinks.
In regard to the use of green tea and coffee, one suggestion will be offered. These are drinks which contain very little nourishment, and their effect is to stimulate the nervous system without nourishing it. They are, also, usually drank hot, and heat also is a stimulant to the nerves of the mouth, teeth, throat, and stomach, inducing consequent reacting debility. For it is the unvarying law of the nervous system, that the reacting debility is always in exact proportion to the degree of stimulation.
It is in vain to expect that the great multitudes, who have been accustomed, from childhood, to drink hot tea and coffee, once, twice, and sometimes thrice a day, will give up such a favorite practice. But it is hoped that some may be induced to modify their course, by reducing the strength and the heat of their daily potations. It will be found by housekeepers that, if once a month the daily quantity of tea, or coffee is slightly reduced, the taste will imperceptibly accommodate; and that,
