Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 8, ELE-FOR

F O O
-tood. \vhich are moft fubje£l to putrefa£liofi,
■— ' MY, and Gastric Juice.
But folution alfo depends on other circumftances, and
hence requires a more particular regard.
1. There is a difference of folubility with refpeft to
the manducation of animal food, for which bread is ex¬
tremely neceffary, in order to keep the more ilippery
parts in the mouth till they be properly comminuted.
From want of proper manducation perfons are fubjeft
to eruflations; and this more frequently from the
firm vegetable foods, as apples, almonds, &c. than from
the animal, though, indeed, even from animal food,
very tendinous, or fvvallowed in unbroken maffes, fuch
fometimes occur. Manducation is fo much connefted
with folution, that fome, from imperfedlly performing
that, are obliged to belch up their food, remanducate
it, and fwallow it again before the ftomach can dif-
folve it, or proper nourifhment be extracted. Another
'proof of our regard to folubility, is our reje&ing the
firmer parts of animal food, as bull beef, and generally
carnivorous animals.
2. Its effects with regard to folubility feem alfo to
be the foundation of our choice between fat and lean,
young and old meats. In the lean although perhaps
a fingle fibre might be fufficiently tender, yet thefe,
when collefted in fafciculi, are very firm and compaft,
and of difficult folution j whereas in the fat there is a
greater number of veffels, a greater quantity of juice,
more interpofition of cellular fubftance, and confe-
quently more folubility. Again, in young animals,
there is probably the fame number of fibres as in the
older, but thefe more connefled : whereas, in the old¬
er, the growth depending on the feparation of thefe,
and the increafe of veffels and cellular fubftance, the
texture is lefs firm and more foluble ; which qualities,
' with regard to the ftomach, are at that time too increaf-
ed, by the inereafed alkalefcency of the animal. To
this alfo may be referred our choice of caftrated ani¬
mals, viz. on account of their difpofition to fatten af¬
ter the operation.
3. It is with a view to the folubility, that we make
a choice between meats recently killed, and thofe
which have been kept for fome time. As foon as
meat is killed, the putrefaflive procefs begins 5 which
commonly we allow to proceed for a little, as that
procefs is the moft effeflual breaker down of animal
matters, and a great affiftance to folution. The length
of time during which meat ought to be kept, is pro¬
portioned to the, meat’s tendency to undergo the pu¬
trid fermentation, and the degree of thofe circum¬
ftances which favour it : Thus, in the torrid zone,
where meat cannot be kept above four or five hours,
it is ufed much more recent than in thefe northern cli¬
mates.
4. Boiled or roafled meats create a difference of fo¬
lution. By boiling w^e extract the juices interpofed
between the fibres, approximate them more to each
other, and render them of more difficult folubility $
which is increafed too by the extraflion of the juices,
which are much more alkalefcent than the fibres : but
when we want to avoid the ftimulus of alkalefcent
food, and the quick folution, as in fome cafes of dif-
eafe, the roafted is not to be chofen. Of roafted meats
it may be alked, which are more proper, thofe which
are moft or leaft roafted i1 That which is leaft done is
t 792 ] F O O
bee AnaTo- certainly the moft foluble : even raw meats are more
foluble than dreffed, as Dr Cullen was informed by a
perfon who from neceffity was obliged, for fome time,
to eat fuch. But at the fame time that meats little
done are very foluble, they are very alkalefcent j fo
that, wherever we want to avoid alkalefcency in the
primee vice, the moft roafted meats ftrould be chofen.
Thofe who throw away the broths of boiled meat do
Very improperly ; for, befides their fupplying a fluid,
from their greater alkalefcency they increafe the folu¬
bility of the meat. Here we (hall obferve, that pure
blood has been thought infoluble. Undoubtedly it is
very nutritious j and though out of the body, like the
White of eggs, it feems very infoluble, yet, like that
too, in the body it is commonly ealily digefted. Mo-
fes very properly forbade it the Ifraelites, as in warm
countries it is highly alkalefcent; and even here,
when it was ufed in great quantity, the fcurvy was
more frequent: but to a moderate ufe of it, in thefe
climates, no fuch obje&ion takes place.
_ 5- Solubility is varied from another fource, viz. vif-
cidity of the juice of aliment. Young animals, then,
appear more foluble than old, not only on account of
the companion and firmnefs of texture in the latter,
but alfo their greater vifcidity of juice. And nothing
is more common, than to be longer oppreffed from a
full meal of veal, than from the fame quantity of beef,
&c. Upon account, too, of their greater vifcidity of
juice, are the tendinous and ligamentous parts of ani¬
mals longer retained than the purely mufcular, as well
as on account of their firmnefs of ttixture. Even fifties,
whofe mufcular parts are exceedingly tender, are, on
account of their gluey vifcofity, longer of folution in
the ftomach. And eggs, tooj which are exceedingly
nourilhing, have the fame eftedt, and cannot be taken
in great quantity : For the ftomach is peculiarly fen-
fible to gelatinous fubftances 5 and by this means has
nature perhaps taught us, as it were by a fort of in-
ftindt, to limit ourfelves in the quantity of fuch nutri¬
tive fubftances.
6. With regard to folution, we muft take in the oils
of animal food ; which, when tolerably pure, are the
leaft putrefcent part of it, and, by diminiftiing the co-
hefion of the fibres, render them more foluble. On
this laft account is the lean of fat meat more eafily dif-
folved than other lean. But ivhen the meat is expo-
fed to much heat, this oil is feparated, leaving the fo-
lid parts lefs eafily foluble, and becoming itfelf empy-
reumatic, rancefcent, and of difficult mixture in the fto¬
mach. Fried meats, from the reafons now given, and
baked meats, for the fame, as well as for the tenacity
of the pafte, are preparations which diminifh the folu¬
bility of the food. From what has been laid, the pre¬
paration of food by fattening it, and keeping it for
fome tirhe after being killed, although it may adminifter
to gluttohy, will yet, it muft be confeffcd, increafe the
folution of the food. *
II. The fecond difference of animal food is with re¬
gard to Aiacalescency.
Of this we have taken a little notice already under
the head of Solubility.
1. From their too great alkalefcency we commonly
avoid the carnivorous animals, and the ferce ; and
choofe rather the granivorous. Some birds, indeed,
which live on infers, are admitted into our food 5 but
on
Food;