A Course of Lectures on the Principles of Domestic Economy and Cookery

but they will get it in a form that by and by will make serious trouble for them; because, while under certain conditions the entire mucous membrane or lining of the digestive tract, warm water may be desirable, still the excessive use of it is very apt in time to produces a serious congestion. Now, the fact once admitted that we must have a certain amount of liquid supplied to the system every day, then the question comes of giving it in a form that will be the least injurious to the system. I think I have shown you one or two good reasons why soup supplies it well. On the score of economy there is no food which can be as cheaply prepared as soup--that is, no palatable, enjoyable, nutritious food. It is possible to make this soup, this thick soup which I am making now, in New York, and here also, I suppose, for less than ten cents a gallon, buying the materials at retail; and I am sure a gallon of this soup will go very far towards satisfying one's hunger. I presume, from what I have seen of the market reports in the papers, that it can be made here quite as cheaply as it can in New York. _Question._ Does that make very strong soup--does it give a very good rich flavor of the meat, with one cupful of meat to a gallon of water? MISS CORSON. That gives a perfectly nutritious soup. It gives as much nutriment from the meat as is needed by the system. _Question._ Wouldn't a bone or two thrown in be a good thing? MISS CORSON. You can put in bones if you want to. But I am giving you a recipe for a perfectly nutritious soup, made upon the most economical principles. The proportion of meat which I use here is all that is required by the system in connection with the other ingredients. We Americans have, as a rule, the idea that there is no nutritious food except meat. We think that we get all our nourishment from