Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/535

 this country, of common—too common—occurrence, viz., the public dinner, which is essentially a British institution, and can not be passed by in silence.

The late dinner should never include children. It is a meal which is in every way unsuited to them, and they are quite unfitted to take part in its functions; besides, the four-meal system is better adapted to their requirements of growth and digestion in early life. A family dinner may usually consist of a soup, fish, entrée, roast, and sweet; the entrée may even be omitted; on the other hand, if the meal is required to be more substantial, a joint may be served in addition after the fish; but this should be very rarely necessary. A dish of vegetables may be advantageously placed before or after the roast, according to circumstances; and supplementary vegetables should be always at hand.

The rationale of the initial soup has often been discussed: some regard it as calculated to diminish digestive power, on the theory that so much fluid taken at first dilutes the gastric juices. But there appears to be no foundation for this belief; a clear soup, or the fluid constituents of a purée, disappear almost immediately after entering the stomach, being absorbed by the proper vessels, and in no way interfere with the gastric juice which is stored in its appropriate cells ready for action. The habit of commencing dinner with soup has without doubt its origin in the fact that aliment in this fluid form—in fact, ready digested—soon enters the blood and rapidly refreshes the hungry man, who, after a considerable fast and much activity, sits down with a sense of exhaustion to commence his principal meal. In two or three minutes after taking a plate of good warm consommé, the feeling of exhaustion disappears, and irritability gives way to the gradually rising sense of good-fellowship with the circle. Some persons have the custom of allaying exhaustion with a glass of sherry before food—a gastronomic no less than a physiological blunder, injuring the stomach and depraving the palate. The soup introduces at once into the system a small installment of ready-digested food, and saves the short period of time which must be spent by the stomach in deriving some portion of nutriment from solid aliment, as well as indirectly strengthening the organ of digestion itself for its forthcoming duties. Few will be found to dispute the second place in order to fish, although this arrangement is in some quarters an open question: its discussion, however, can scarcely be regarded as within the limit of our space. The third dish should consist of the chief meat, the joint, if desired; if not, one of the smaller dishes of meat, such as fricandeau, cutlets, filet, or sweetbread, before spoken of, well garnished, will be appropriate, and to many preferable. Next the well-roasted bird—of game or poultry—accompanied or followed by salad, and a dish of choice vegetables. Then one light simple sweet, for those who take it, and a slight savory biscuit or morsel of