College of Physicians of Philadelphia: Robert Pryor Richardson notes on the lectures of John Syng Dorsey, 1817 (10a-198)

Continued

The tenderness of animal flesh is influenced by sex, age et&c. The female is more tender than the male. The male being more dense and castrated animals are better than the male that can propogate his species. We have evidence of this in our beef et&c. Age also influences the flesh of animals: it becomes more dense & tough as the animal grows older. But lamb or veal is more difficult of digestion than beef or mutton. D^r Fardyce says that veal is very indigestable. Pork also should be eaten in small quantities. We should use vegatable diet almost entirely for our patients in this country. We may lay it down as a general rule that fat animals are more easily digested than trim ones. more gluten in one than the other. Some harts of beef more difficult of digestion than others you all know how this applies to beef steak. The blood, glands, ligaments, cartilages, tendons, et&c you know are not to be digested, but after long boiling, then they become a wholesome

Mutton et al

article of diet. By being made into a jelly by balinese digester they are are excellent aliment. These animal substances are good for the quantity & quality of nourishment contained in them. The flesh of the cow is composed of gluten and fat but less than pork. you know how much the flesh is altered by castration, that the bullock is tender & the bull tough. The capon differs from the cock. Veal when just killed is difficult of digestion, but when kept two or three days it loses that stringy quality which you find at table.

Mutton should not be killed before 6 or 7 years at this age it comes to perfection. They say that our mutton in this country is not so good as in some parts of Europe, but we do not attend to the perfecting it, or it would be equal to the English or Welsh. Pork has its fat diffused more completely throughout

Wild Meats, Birds et al

the cellular substance, than any other meat & is improper as food for the sedentary, but fresh pork with many vegatables constitutes a good aliment for the healthy & labouring class.

The wild meats of our country are very good. our venison is perhaps the best in the world and easy of digestion both when fresh & when long kept. It is not very nutritious.

Birds supply us with some of the many luxurious articles of the table. Their flesh differs from quadrapeds, and those that feed upon flesh are not so good. The duck tho, it sometimes eats flesh is very good. The turkey stands as the head of them and in this country is very large We have it weighing 25 lbs. The common fowl differs little from the turkey the soup made of them is one of the best things for the sick. An old Cock or hen is one of the toughest things we can find & should be boiled several hours.

Domestic fowls

An old fowl contains much gluten, the hen is more tender than the cock and the capon is better than either. In america the capon is almost unknown while in Europe & India they are very common. The goose & duck are more difficult of digestion than those which have been mentioned. It would consume too much of our time to enter into much discussion on this subject, for further information read Cullen. D^r C has said that the blood rendered the animal more alkalescent and has accounted for it in this way, for the duck et&c being so good. of all these the black duck is the best and D^r Bartan said it was because it lived on vegetable matter. As a general rule fowls of white meat such as the turkey, chicken &c are more digestable & less stimulating than those of black flesh as the goose, duck, et&c. The turkey should be nearly

Eggs

grown before it is killed, & kept a few days before it is cooked, which renders it more tender. The young chicken not so nutritious as the chicken cock or hen.

5th Lecture. At our last lecture we commenced the consideration of the subject of animal food. Among these may be mentioned Eggs, they are the most nourishing & least stimulating of all animal food and as easy of digestion. This assertion is very old & was expressed by Harvey Aristotle said that that which would nourish the chick must be good for men, and we think a soft boiled egg is along with oysters &c the best food for convalescents, and hard boiled eggs the worst. The white of a hard boiled egg when dry will scratch glass. The only eggs we use are those of the hen & occasionally the ducks.

Eggs are much used in countries where religion interdicts the use of flesh. The different ways of cooking eggs as omelets et&c are all less healthy