I was told by one who always saved the outside skin of codfish, after soaking it for fish balls, for clearing her coffee, that, "it gives a kind of _bright_ taste to it; takes off the flatness-like, don't you know ?" We raise more vegetables and in greater variety than any other people; have better and cheaper fruits than can be procured in any other market upon the globe; our waters teem with fish (unsalted) that may be had for the catching.

Yet our national _cuisine_--take it from East to West and from North to South--is the narrowest as to range, the worst as to preparation, and the least wholesome of any country that claims an enlightened civilization.
Properly fried food once in a while is not to be condemned, as the grease does not have a chance to "soak in." But when crullers or potatoes or fritters are dropped into warm (not hot) lard, and allowed to remain there until they are oily and soggy to the core, we may with accuracy count on at least fifteen minutes of heartburn to each half-inch of the fried abominations.
Perhaps there is nothing in which we slight the demands of Nature more than in _what and how we eat_.

Chewing stimulates the salivary glands to give out secretions to aid in disposing of what we eat.

We swallow half-chewed food, thus throwing undue labor on the stomach.

It is impossible for the work of disgestion to be carried on in the stomach at a temperature of less than one hundred degrees.