will embrace the study of beverages, namely, natural and artificial mineral waters, soda waters, soft drinks, coffee, tea, cocoa, wines, cider, beer and other fermented beverages, distilled beverages of all kinds, and mixtures or compounds thereof.
In connection with the description of the origin of foods and their general characteristics will be given a statement of their chemical composition, especially in relation to nutritive properties. The principal adulterations or sophistications to which the food products are obnoxious will be briefly described, and where simple methods of detecting adulterations are known, of a character to be applied without special chemical knowledge or skill, they will be given.
An attempt is thus made to lay before those interested, in as compact a form as possible, the chief points connected with the production of food, its manipulation, and its use for the nourishment of the body.
It is not the intention of this manual to enter at all into the subject of cooking or the physiology of foods and nutrition. That is a distinct and separate part of this problem and has already been treated in many manuals. In this connection, however, attention may be called to the great importance of proper cooking in the use of food. Raw materials of the best character, prepared and transported in the most approved manner, may be so injured in the kitchen in the process of cooking as to be rendered both unpalatable and difficult of digestion. On the contrary, food materials of an inferior quality, provided they contain no injurious substances, may be so treated by the skilled cook as to be both palatable and nutritious. The desirability of the dissemination of correct principles of cooking is no less than that of giving information respecting the materials on which the art of cookery is exercised. It may be added that the art of cookery at the present time should not be confined to the mere technical manipulation, the application of heat and of condimental substances, but should also have some reference to the actual process of nutrition.
Foods should be prepared in the kitchen, not only of a palatable character and properly spiced but also selected in such a manner as to safeguard one of the chief purposes of food, namely, the proper nutrition of the body and the avoidance of any injury to digestion.
It is commonly admitted that many, perhaps most, of the diseases of the digestive tract to which the American people are so subject arise from the consumption of rations improperly balanced, poorly prepared, or used in great excess. To the intelligent and scientific cook the information contained in this manual will especially appeal.
A PROPER RATION.
The study of the science of nutrition has revealed the character of nourishment necessary to build the tissues and restore their waste. The term "food"
