The code of health and longevity, or a general view of the rules and principles calculated for the preservation of health, and the attainment of long life / by Sir John Sinclair.

  • Sinclair, John, Sir, 1754-1835.
Date:
1816
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The code of health and longevity, or a general view of the rules and principles calculated for the preservation of health, and the attainment of long life / by Sir John Sinclair. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    tion lias begun to take place in the meat, out of the body, it will doubtless sooner be digested in it. Such meat, therefore, may be well calculated for weak stomachs; but what it acquires in tenderness, it loses in its nutritive qua- lity. Hence, meat long kept, is not so nourishing as that which is fresh killed. The French, it is well known, do not relish animal food, unless it partake strongly of the fumette; but they eat a considerable proportion of bread with it, and that, with their small wines, corrects the putrescency*. Meat apt to putrefy, like the pigeon, is sooner digested than the duck, which is of a firmer texture, but in large quantities such meat cannot be recommended. Some parts of animals are more tender than others, and more easily digested, as the head, the tongue, the udder, &c.; others are more difficult of solution, as the external muscles, the stomach, and liver. These last articles, how- ever, are the most proper foods for persons of strong sto- machs and quick digestion. The essential oils of vegetables, are often agreeable to the stomach, and stimulate it, so as to forward digestion; but animal oils, though agreeable to the taste, are not equally digestible. Hence pork, geese, ducks, salmon, &c. containing much of this oil, may be acceptable to strong stomachs; but if eaten in too great quantities, or if the sto- mach be weak, they will disagree with it. Animal fat, however, ought not to be totally rejected. For, though oily matters, in large quantities, may oppress the stomach by their tenacity or viscidity, yet, as oil constitutes a very considerable part of our foods, both animal and vegetable, and as a large quantity of oil is deposited in various parts of the body, chiefly in the form of fat, it can hardly be conceived, that an article which is so predominant in our bodies, should be inimical to healthf. The digestibility of meat, depends much upon the nature of its fibres, and their being mingled with fat or otherwise. Hence beef is more difficult of digestion than mutton, the fibres of the one being grosser than the other. Animal food also, whose fibres have little fluid between them, that is dry meat, is more indigestible than moist. Thus, lean animals are harder of digestion than fat ones, and the lean part of fat meat, is easier of digestion than the lean part of * Adair’s Medical Cautious, p. 202. + Ibid. p. 283.