Do we not see some of our own time who, in eating a partridge, can tell by its flavour which leg it has slept upon? And have we not amongst us connoisseurs who can tell under what latitude a wine has ripened, with as great a certainty as a disciple of Biot or Arago can predict an eclipse?

That we must

What, then, is the inference? render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, by proclaiming man the epicure of nature; and that we must not wonder that, like Homer, the worthy Doctor Gall sometimes nods:

Method

of the author.

aliquando bonus dormitat Homerus.

Up to the present point we have been investigating the sense of taste only with reference to its physical constitution, and, unless in giving some anatomical details which few readers will object to, have kept to the level of strict science. But the task imposed on us does not end here, since it is from its history in a moral point of view that this restoring sense derives its importance and its glory. We have therefore arranged in logical order the body of theories and facts of which that history is composed, with the view of being instructive without being tiresome.

Thus, in the chapters about to follow, we shall show how, by dint of repetition and reflection, the

sensations of taste have perfected their organ, and extended the sphere of its powers; how the desire for food, at first a mere instinct, has become a prevailing passion which has a marked influence on all that relates to our social life. We shall trace the operations of chemistry up to the moment when, entering our laboratories underground, she throws light upon our food-preparation, lays down principles, devises methods, and unveils the causes of what formerly lay hid in mystery.

In short, we shall see how, by the combined influence of time and experience, there has appeared all at once a new science, which nourishes, restores, and preserves man, advises and consoles him, and, not satisfied with strewing flowers along his path with an ample hand, also increases powerfully the might and prosperity of empires.

If, in the midst of such weighty disquisitions, a pointed or humorous story, a pleasant recollection, or some adventure from a life of many ups and downs should be on the tip of the pen, we shall let it drop, in order to relieve for a moment the attention of our readers. For their number does not alarm us we are fond, on the contrary, of having a chat with them; being certain that, if they are men, they are as indulgent as they are well-informed, and if ladies, that they cannot help being charming.

Origin

sciences.

III.

ON GASTRONOMY.

UNLIKE Minerva, who issued from the brain of Jupiter in full armour, the sciences are of the the daughters of Time, being matured imperceptibly; at first, by an accumulation of methods which experience has pointed out, and afterwards by the discovery of the laws derived from the combination of those methods.

Thus, the first old men who, on account of their discretion, were sent for to visit invalids, or whom pity urged to bind up wounds, were also the first physicians.

The Egyptian shepherds, who observed that after a period of time certain stars were to be found in a certain part of the heavens, were the first astronomers. He who first expressed by symbols the simple proposition, "two and two make four," created mathematics, that science of such power that it has actually raised men to the throne of the universe.

During the course of the last sixty years, several new sciences have taken rank amongst the various

branches of knowledge; for example, stereotomy,* descriptive geometry, and the chemistry of gaseous bodies. All the sciences, being developed through countless generations, will improve more and more with the greater certainty that, by the art of printing, they are for ever freed from the danger of retrograding. Thus, to mention only one instance, who can tell if, by a chemical knowledge of gaseous bodies, man may not obtain the mastery over those elements, now so refractory, and, by mixing and combining them in ways and proportions hitherto unattempted, obtain substances and results which will greatly extend the limits of his powers?

nomy.

Amongst the sciences, Gastronomy presented herself in her turn, and all her sisters came Origin of near to show respect. What, indeed, could gastrobe refused to the science which sustains us from the cradle to the grave, which enhances the pleasure of love and the intimacy of friendship, which disarms hatred, makes business easier, and affords us, during the short voyage of our lives, the only enjoyments that both relieve us from all fatigue and themselves entail none?

There is no doubt that, so long as cookery was

* In the older French mathematical books, the term "stereometry" corresponds to our solid geometry; and thus "stereotomy" relates to the sections of solids, including, of course, the conic sections.

trusted exclusively to hired servants, the mysteries of the craft confined to the lower regions, and nothing but books of directions written on the subject, the results were those of a mere art. At last, however, though perhaps too late, men of science no longer kept aloof. They examined, analysed, and classified the alimentary substances, and reduced them to their simpler constituents. They fathomed the mysteries of assimilation, and tracing inert matter through its changes of form, saw how it became endowed with life. They have studied food in its effects, whether momentary or permanent, for days, for months, or even for a whole lifetime. They have estimated even its influence upon the faculty of thought, whether the soul receives impressions from the senses, or can perceive without the concurrence of those organs. Finally, as the result of all these labours, they have formed a grand generalization, embracing all mankind, and all matter that is capable of assimilation.

Whilst the men of science were thus employed in the study, the man of fashion began to exclaim that the science by which we are kept in life must surely be worth more than that which teaches men to kill each other. Poets began to sing the pleasures of the table; and books on good cheer displayed greater insight and more comprehensive truths.