Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1879 — The Doctor in the Kitchen. [ARTICLE]

The Doctor in the Kitchen.

An English physician is writing a series of papers to prove that doctors might serve their patrons in the kitchen as well as in the sick chamber. The idea is eminently sensible, for the old saw about an ounce of .prevention being worth a pound of cure exactly expresses the situation. People become sick because they have violated some physical law, and nine times out of ten it will be found that the malady began at the stomach. One of the most valuable acquisitions—one which cannot always be had, even for money—is a good cook; but when she or he is obtained, what happens? Nothing, except that the family meals are more palatable than previously thev were, and that there is less to grumble about in matters of variety and seasoning. It is possible to offer a dinner, even in eight courses, which will not next morning color one’s recollections with sad and somber, tints, but accomplished cooks do not always know how to prepare such a one. Their standard of excellence is a pleased palate; nature’s standard is an unperturbed digestion; and as nature is a sort of a shadowy being anyhow, while the average solidity of cooks is remarkable, the cuisiniere has the advantage of the older and, nominally, more respected autocrat, and she uses it to the delight of her patrons and the permanent benefit of the medical profession. In the greater number of families the situation is still worse. If most good cooks enrage the stomach, what is to be said of the oad ones—the servants who are expected to prepare three meals a day, though they never had any instruction in the culinary art? Further, what do the men and women who order dinnersknow of things fit to eat? It is not only a possibility, but a lamentably frequent occurrence, that a meal of which the essentials are good in themselves is ruined for practical purposes by combinations of dishes that can never agree upon transformation into blood, bone and muscle. The condiments, seasoning, etc,, which are supposed to make dishes palatable torment many a good liver to the very verge of Hjprthlessness; while hard meats whose only virtue Is in their flavor, fish smothered in irritating sauces, and desserts richer than Croesus would have dared to be, are through the stomach stupefythe brains of numerous men worthy of at least nobler means of self-destruc-tion. Most of these annoyances and misfortunes the doctor might avert were he sent for at the proper time and shown into the proper department of the household. There is only, one serious fault about the proposed new system—if doctors properly inspect kitchens and give advice to servants and householders, what hope is there that they themselves can earn respectable livelihoods?— N. Y. Herald.